An economist says high diesel prices may put "another squeeze" on the consumer. The first squeeze being gasoline prices. The second being diesel. The third being the realization that everything you own arrived on a truck.
Diesel moves goods. Gasoline moves you to a job you hate. Different fuels, different purposes, same outcome: your wallet gets lighter.
The economist notes the impact is "less evident" to consumers. Translation: you're too stupid to connect the dots between fuel costs and why your cereal costs eight dollars. The truck driver who delivered your breakfast understood this in 2019. You're learning it now because someone with a PhD told you on television.
Retail traders will hear this news and immediately buy calls on energy stocks. They'll lose money. Not because they timed it wrong, but because they're constitutionally incapable of understanding that the thing hurting their bank account is the same thing they're betting on. It's like cheering for the meteor.
Diesel runs eighteen-wheelers, freight trains, delivery vans, and every commercial vehicle designed to transport the garbage you ordered from your phone at two in the morning. When diesel costs more, shipping costs more. When shipping costs more, prices rise. When prices rise, you complain on Twitter instead of budgeting.
The economist is right about the squeeze. He's wrong about it being "another" one. It's the same squeeze. It never stopped. You just weren't paying attention because you thought inflation was something that happened to other people's groceries.
High diesel prices won't change your behavior because you don't control the diesel economy. You're just the one who pays for it, standing at the register wondering why everything costs more while the answer idles outside in the parking lot.
Photo by Richard Bell on Unsplash
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