Gas near $4.50, diesel over $6.50, mortgages above 7%: the Iran war's bill lands at the kitchen table

NBC News laid out the before and after in five charts, and it comes down to arithmetic. The day before the U.S. and Israel struck Iran in late February, gas averaged just under $3 a gallon. Now it's about $4.50. Diesel went from about $3.75 to a record above $6.50, and diesel moves every truck, tractor and combine, so it ends up in grocery prices. The consumer price index was 2.4% in February and is 3.4% now. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed from about 3.96% to nearly 5%, pulling the average 30-year mortgage from under 6% to over 7%. Last week the Fed raised rates for the first time since 2023. In fairness, the report also notes that median household income hit a record in 2025 and unemployment is low. But by my own math, not NBC's, a 20-gallon fill-up costs about $30 more than it did in February. A good jobs report doesn't pay the diesel bill.