Why $3 Gasoline Won’t Last

This month, Trump has been boasting about gasoline being under $3 per gallon in most states throughout the country. But his bragging will backfire as multiple forces conspire to push prices higher. Along with precious metals, oil and gas prices are surging as inflation rips.

They’re screaming in unison that CPI and Treasury yields are going to rip higher as well, leading to a higher cost of borrowing for already debt-addled Americans who are struggling to stay afloat.

Get ready for an energy shock as oil and gas prices surge. This week’s huge spike in natural gas, today’s jump in crude, and across-the-board dollar weakness suggest much higher prices are coming. All of this will push already rising CPI and Treasury yields to much higher levels.

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) January 23, 2026

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has declared victory on rising prices as it devises new interventions to expand the money supply in novel ways, blowing up the bubble with even more state intervention and an explicit push for dovish monetary policy. The real winners in money printing and debt schemes to make things “affordable” again are the banks and politicians who are closest to the proverbial money printer. Average Americans get straddled with higher prices and lifelong debt servitude while the hollow promise of affordability blows up.

Crude Oil, January 2026

Metals continue to stun, with silver still prices solidly over $100 per ounce while its yellow cousin remains above $5000, even after yesterday’s correction. They’re telling the story that Trump and Powell refuse to: Neither the administration nor the central bank is under control of rising prices, and their attempts to keep prices down with policy intervention will always, inevitably, become self-sabotaging.

Inflation-sensitive commodities are soaring. Oil is up 2.7% today, trading near $65 per barrel. That’s up over 20% from last month’s low, its highest price since Sept. Copper is up 6.5%, trading at a record high over $6.30, up 17% this month. Will the Fed hike as inflation soars?

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) January 29, 2026

A dollar crisis gets closer each day as US assets become increasingly toxic, and other countries around the world continue distancing themselves from the dollar. Commodities like gas, oil, and precious metals are going to keep rising as cracks continue to appear in the global economy, from a troubled yen in Japan and a debt crisis in China to an American public that’s using credit to pay for basic life and essentials. 

December saw a 15-year high in auto loan delinquencies, and household personal savings are running on fumes after the COVID “stimulus” injected America with freshly-printed cash. 

Trump knows that Americans can barely afford life anymore. He thinks that boasting about cheap gas prices will appeal to a population that is one car breakdown or missed payment expense away from homelessness. If the price of gas gets too high, everything else falls apart.

But since $3 gas won’t last, cash-strapped and overdebted Americans will blame Republicans when those promises go up in smoke. No matter who gets elected, promises of easy money and perpetually too-low interest rates from the Fed represent a ruling class that thinks it outsmart inflation with market mastery and magic wands.