Justin Ho

But Korzenik says many consumers are struggling with debt, especially since housing costs are so high.

Korzenik says he expects consumer spending to slow down over the course of this year, which means economic growth will slow too.

And Korzenik expects that inflation will continue to rise.

I'm Justin Ho for Marketplace.

The kind of oil that's getting cut off by this conflict mostly goes to Asia.

That's Anna Mikulska, head of analytics at CGCN Group.

She says some Middle Eastern crude also heads to refineries in California.

Refineries there can't just switch to the heavier sulfur-rich oil that comes from Western Canada because they aren't set up to handle it.

Hugh Daigle is a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas.

He says even though the U.S.

produces a lot of its own oil around the Gulf of Mexico, California isn't connected to that supply.

There's none, in fact.

Refineries in California and Asia still have oil they can refine in the meantime.

But Mark Broadbent with Wood McKenzie says there is a point when that will start to dry up.

Bradbent says even if the war were to suddenly end and oil started flowing through the Strait of Hormuz again, it could take a while for those refineries to come back online.

He says if they partially shut down, it could be one or two weeks.

Broadbent says refineries would likely want to turn the lights back on as quickly as possible because demand for fuel is still high and so are prices, which means refinery profit margins are up.

Broadbent says energy prices are likely to stay high even if the war ends suddenly.

I'm Justin Ho for Marketplace.

When investors want to pile into the safety of the U.S.