How much damage has the Iran war done to the US economy? | CNN Business

America’s economy feels like it’s in trouble. The Iran war has pushed oil and gas prices to four-year highs. That reignited inflation, wiping out Americans’ pay raises for the past year. Consumer sentiment is at an all-time low. But the US economy is a massive, $31 trillion beast. Despite growing affordability concerns that have turned America’s consumers from moody to angry, the Iran war hasn’t meaningfully dented their spending habits or job prospects. You really need to squint to find any damage to America’s traditional and broadest economic measures. Still, we’re by no means out of the woods. The Strait of Hormuz shows no signs of reopening, and some Americans could soon reach their breaking point. Let’s start with the broadest measure of the economy: gross domestic product, which is growing solidly. The problem is it’s backward-looking. The latest figure is for the first quarter of the year, which included just one full month of the Iran war. Jobs grew steadily in the first two months of the war, and the unemployment rate remained low. Actually, March’s job growth was the highest in two years, defying economists’ expectations. Economists have noted the jo