The United States should restrict fuel exports during domestic price spikes

Coverage of the American economy and the policy that shapes it: inflation, employment, tariffs, taxation and the federal budget. Distinct from business news, which follows companies rather than the decisions taken in Congress and at the Federal Reserve.

Household prices for food, housing, energy, healthcare and other everyday necessities, and the economic policies blamed or credited for them. Central to how American voters judge an administration, and argued through inflation, wages, interest rates, tariffs and gasoline prices.

United States policy and political debate over how energy is produced, priced, distributed and regulated, spanning fossil fuels, nuclear power, renewables and the electric grid. Sits where climate policy, industrial strategy and consumer costs collide, which is why it rarely stays technical.

Never before had the national average topped four dollars a gallon on Labor Day, beating the $3.82 record set in 2012 and running about ninety cents above last year. Curbing fuel exports, suspending the federal gas tax and ending the Iran war are the remedies now being argued.