Don’t Blame Iran for High Oil Prices |
Don’t Blame Iran for High Oil Prices
Sure, events in the Middle East play a part. But there are more important factors much closer to home.
John F. Di Leo | March 13, 2026
Yes, crude oil prices are up, spiking at some points over $100 per barrel. This is universally blamed on the war with Iran, and rightly so; that is the immediate cause.
When the mullahs are overthrown, and Iran’s oil returns to the world market again, things will be infinitely better, but yes, for the time being, this long awaited and necessary intervention is causing a temporary price jump.
There are a lot of things that cause spikes in the price of oil. Anytime anything of note happens in the Middle East in particular, crude oil goes up in price, usually just for the duration of the crisis. It is therefore reasonable to assume that when the crisis is over — in this case, when the mullahs are evicted from this world, and a transitional government is put in place — global oil prices will return to normal.
But what is normal, and why does it matter?
As the avian flu (and the government overreaction to it) hurt chicken production during the Biden-Harris years, prices of chicken and eggs skyrocketed. They are only now returning to normal, after several years of huge peaks.
As both federal and state government policy tampered with the cattle industry in recent years, squeezing them out of water rights and grazing rights, and as green energy policy has raised the costs of transportation, processing, warehousing, and refrigeration (beef is naturally incredibly sensitive to all of these), beef prices have gone up while the actual cattlemen’s share of the money has plummeted. This has caused an opposite problem: Unlike the chicken and egg world, which can be quickly hurt and can quickly recover, the beef world, once hurt, takes decades to recover.
When we look at prices and wonder, “Why has inflation been tamed in some areas and not in others?,” we must remember that every commodity is different, so they respond to different measures, even though when we get our grocery cart up to........