A man walks past a billboard featuring the portraits of (right to left) Iran's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on June 15.
Firdous Nazir/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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Firdous Nazir/NurPhoto via Getty Images
As conflicts go, the Iran war, should a loose framework and ceasefire deal hold, was relatively short in duration. But its costs and aftereffects will likely linger for years.
The months-long conflict, which pitted the world's most powerful military against a far weaker, yet strategically adept, adversary cost the lives of 13 U.S. service members and more than 3,300 Iranians, according to state media. Another 3,826 have been killed in Lebanon, nearly 60 in Israel and dozens across Gulf states, according to authorities in those countries.
It also led to higher oil prices and spiked inflation and mortgage rates in the U.S. -- and made the job of incoming Federal Reserve chief Kevin Warsh more complicated. And it roiled global energy markets, paralyzed a key waterway, led to fuel rationing in countries in Asia and Africa, disrupted supply chains of everything from semiconductors to fertilizers, while hitting the economies of key Middle East nations particularly hard.
While the framework provided little in-depth detail, here are some of the key areas where the war's costs are already clear:
Domestic costs
Moody's Analytics estimates the war has cost U.S. consumers and taxpayers about $132 billion so far, and the meter is still running.
The most visible piece of that cost is higher energy prices, resulting from the near shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. Gasoline prices, which averaged just under $3 a gallon when the war began, soared as high as $4.56 a gallon after that vital artery for crude oil was cut off, according to AAA.
Gas prices are displayed at an Exxon Mobil gas station on June 16 in Austin, Texas. Gas prices in the U.S. have fallen as wholesale gasoline and crude oil prices declined following a preliminary agreement between the U.S. and Iran to continue ceasefire negotiations and work toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil exports.
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Brandon Bell/Getty Images
U.S. motorists use between 360 million to 380 million gallons of gasoline every day, according to the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department. So at the peak, Americans were paying more than half a billion dollars a day in higher prices at the pump. While gas prices have cooled in recent weeks, the wartime surcharge is still adding more than $360 million a day in higher gasoline costs.
Similarly, diesel fuel prices jumped from $3.76 a gallon on the eve of the war to a peak of $5.69 in early April, according to AAA. That raises transportation costs for everything that travels by truck or train. The price of airline tickets has also jumped nearly 27% in the last year, largely as a result of higher jet fuel prices.
(Not everyone is a loser when energy prices soar. Oil companies have profited from the higher prices.)
Other commodities that usually travel through the Strait of Hormuz have also seen dramatic price increases. A survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation in April found that fertilizer prices had climbed up to 47%, and about 70% of U.S. farmers said they were unable to afford all the fertilizer they need. That may or may not affect the price that consumers ultimately pay for food, since farmers are often unable to pass along their input costs. But it will certainly add to persistent challenges in the agricultural economy.
The war has also contributed to a jump in mortgage rates, making it more expensive to buy a home. Home sales have been in a slump for the last several years, but forecasters had been hoping for a modest rebound when mortg
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