{"id":2579404,"date":"2026-03-13T08:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T12:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-im-not-panican-over-oil-markets\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T08:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T12:46:12","slug":"why-im-not-panican-over-oil-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-im-not-panican-over-oil-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I&#8217;m not &#8216;Panican&#8217; over oil markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-im-not-panican-over-oil-markets%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2579404&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The piece argues that fears about oil markets amid the Iran conflict are overblown and driven by sensational reporting rather than solid fundamentals. It notes that oil prices briefly spiked to around $120 a barrel after Iran appeared to gain control of strategic chokepoints, but later dipped back below $100, suggesting the scare did not translate into lasting volatility.the author contends that the inflation of 2022 was largely due to domestic policy choices (the Biden governance\u2019s relief package) rather than russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Key points include: the United States became a net oil exporter during Trump\u2019s presidency, reducing vulnerability to global shocks; the market was temporarily buoyed by talk of releasing strategic stocks and potential policy moves (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/secy-of-state-blinken-speaks-out-on-u-s-preparedness-to-defend-nato-member-nations\/\" title=\"Secy. of State Blinken speaks out on U.S. preparedness to defend NATO member nations\">including export controls<\/a> and relaxation of the Jones Act); and Iran\u2019s current military capabilities have been degraded by U.S.and allied actions, though Iran\u2019s tactics (like mining the Strait) remain a risk. The article argues for a long-run perspective, emphasizing that short-term panic is unwarranted and that the health of oil markets will depend on basic factors rather than media-driven hysteria. It concludes by urging readers not to be a \u201cPanican,\u201d focusing rather on longer-term indicators such as the 10-year Treasury yield. The piece is attributed to Tiana lowe Doescher of the Washington Examiner.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Why I&rsquo;m not &lsquo;Panican&rsquo; over oil markets<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2529503\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Not quite a fortnight into <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/4489227\/intelligence-report-iranian-regime-not-risk-of-collapse\/\">Operation Epic Fury<\/a> against <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4486610\/trump-betting-on-himself-cell-phone-control-epic-fury-narrative\/\">Iran<\/a>, and markets still haven&rsquo;t decided whether President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"4\">Donald Trump<\/a> has launched us into World War III. But that hasn&rsquo;t stopped liberals and their media stenographers from praying that oil markets collapse amid the U.S.-Israel strikes against the Shia Islamic theocracy and its fledgling nuclear program.<\/p>\n<p>A week-plus into the military efforts, overnight March 8-9, premarket trading mass hysteria spurred Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate, a domestic American benchmark, both to nearly $120 per barrel. That was an Iranian regime boast after it consolidated control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil shipments traverse.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/business\/4488056\/small-business-administration-war-on-fraud\/\">SBA launches new $50 billion &#8216;war on fraud&#8217; program<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/business\/4486940\/brendan-carr-overseas-call-centers-security-issue-fcc-proposal\/\">Carr says overseas call centers pose &#8216;security issue&#8217; as part of FCC proposal list<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4484138\/national-symphony-director-kennedy-center-trump\/\">National Symphony director joins Kennedy Center exodus following Trump moves<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Incapable of concealing its glee, CNN reported at the time the Trump White House was &ldquo;trapped between the specter of a global economic recession and a naval catastrophe&rdquo; if the United States wanted to take back the Persian Gulf-to-Indian Ocean waterway.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Infographic with a map of the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz showing attacks on commercial vessels between February 28 and March 11. (Graphic by AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It turns out that histrionics were a tad unwarranted. Oil prices crashed back below $100 per barrel by the March 9 opening bell. And despite volatility across markets, oil prices don&rsquo;t seem to be creeping back toward catastrophic levels. They probably won&rsquo;t, even for an extended time period.<\/p>\n<p>In this one domain, keep calm. And don&rsquo;t be a &ldquo;Panican,&rdquo; a Trump-coined phrase from April 2025 to describe Americans he considered &ldquo;weak and stupid&rdquo; for panicking about the global tariff regime imposed during his second term.<\/p>\n<p>Much of the March 8-9 scare over oil was an inadvertent byproduct of the media&rsquo;s intentional propaganda campaign to blame 2022&rsquo;s near-double-digit inflation on Russia&rsquo;s invasion of Ukraine.  Instead of on the culprit actually responsible, President Joe Biden&rsquo;s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which included enhanced unemployment benefits, $350 billion for state and local governments, and child tax credit expansions.<\/p>\n<p>Russia&rsquo;s war did lead to a $ 45-per-barrel increase in oil prices. Yet a later Federal Reserve study found that, of the 8% inflation the U.S. experienced in 2022, Russia&rsquo;s impact on gas prices accounted for one-half of one percentage point.<\/p>\n<p>Why was the impact so muted? Because during Trump&rsquo;s first presidency, the U.S. became a net domestic exporter of oil for the first time since 1949.<\/p>\n<p>This isn&rsquo;t to say that the war can&rsquo;t cause any pain at the gas pump. And whatever remains of Iran&rsquo;s leadership has stated that their goal in trying to block the Strait is to try to punish the rest of the world with higher gas prices. But even if the mullahs have the emotional support of alt-left and alt-right agitators here at home, the rest of the world has no such patience.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Trump&rsquo;s quixotic capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, the nation with more proven oil reserves than any other on the planet is now acting as a de facto client state for the U.S., with puppet leader Delcy Rodriguez authorizing the South American nation&rsquo;s first resumption of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-democrats-beg-joe-biden-to-lower-seven-year-high-gas-prices\/\" title=\"Senate Democrats Beg Joe Biden to Lower Seven-... High Gas Prices\">crude oil exports<\/a> in over a year. Trump says the U.S. is imminently getting a fat 100 million barrels of oil from Venezuela, while Chevron and Shell finalize longer-term production deals.<\/p>\n<p>Under ostensible pressure from the White House, the International Energy Agency has announced member countries will release some 400 million oil barrels from strategic stockpiles, including 172 million from the U.S. Trump is reportedly weighing export controls to prioritize sales to Americans first, waiving federal taxes, and finally relaxing the abominable Jones Act, which artificially jacks up domestic prices by banning foreign ships from transporting oil between two American ports.<\/p>\n<p>But the real limiting principle for Iranian aggression in throttling normal market operations is, well, Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Of the estimated 96 ships that Iran&rsquo;s navy had at the start of the war, America and its allies have destroyed a little more than half. Furthermore, considering that Iran&rsquo;s missile attacks have plummeted by over 90%, experts estimate that we&rsquo;ve destroyed a majority of their launchers and their missile stockpile.<\/p>\n<p>Recall that destroying Iran&rsquo;s navy and missile capabilities were two of the White House&rsquo;s four stated goals of this war. We&rsquo;re over halfway through with those two goals, and crucially, the goals will grant us further air superiority to wrap up this war in weeks, not months.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, Iran is getting desperate, now trying to deploy naval mines in the Strait, which comes with the unfortunate side effect of making it unnavigable not just to the rest of the world, but Iran itself. Considering how dependent the shell of Iran&rsquo;s economy remains on sales from oil exports, a mass deployment of mines in the Strait would be an economic suicide bombing that likely ends with the loss of patronage of the Chinese, who rely on half of its oil imports from the waterway.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4487005\/trump-could-end-iran-war-without-unconditional-surrender\/\"><strong>WHITE HOUSE SAYS TRUMP COULD END IRAN WAR WITHOUT TEHRAN&rsquo;S &lsquo;UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER&rsquo;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Don&rsquo;t mistake short-term panic among America Last investors for the trees here: American gas use has fallen by 4% in the past two decades, while the rest of the economy has grown 42%. We are much more insulated from oil price volatility to the extent that it increases, and the intentional strategy behind this war would indicate that Iran is acting in last-ditch desperation, not a thoughtful, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/inside-the-gop-plan-to-oppose-bidens-iran-deal\/\" title=\"Inside the GOP Plan to Oppose Biden\u2019s Iran Deal\">long-term plan<\/a> to maintain control.<\/p>\n<p>The single most meaningful metric for the White House remains the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield, and Trump should calibrate fiscal policy around it. But oil markets reflect the minutiae of the fog of war. In the long run, don&rsquo;t be a Panican, and consider the short position over the long run instead of the short-term mass hysteria fueled by a media that wishes Iran were more powerful than it actually is.<\/p>\n<p><em>Tiana Lowe Doescher (<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TianaTheFirst\">@TianaTheFirst<\/a>) is an economics columnist for the&nbsp;<\/em>Washington Examiner<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I won&#8217;t panic over oil markets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2693,"featured_media":2579405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2265146810.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[6478,72578,7393,70646],"class_list":["post-2579404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-investing","tag-market-analysis-2","tag-oil","tag-oil-markets"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2265146810.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2693"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2579404"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2579408,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579404\/revisions\/2579408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2579405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2579404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2579404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2579404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}