U.S. forces struck Iranian rocket launchers in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, and by Monday morning oil prices surged nearly 3% — meaning working Americans will foot the bill at the pump while the people who profit from conflict never feel a thing.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, hit $90.61 per barrel early Monday, up 2.9%. The U.S. benchmark jumped 2.7% to $85.66, according to the Associated Press. The strike marks the first U.S. military action in the region in a month — this, just days after the Trump administration claimed it was pivoting to economic pressure instead of open conflict. So much for that.

Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management laid it bare: "The Middle East had finally gone quiet enough for oil traders to start sanding some of the war premium out of crude. Then Sunday arrived, with a reminder that quiet in the Strait of Hormuz is not the same as peace." Translation: the war premium your paycheck has been subsidizing isn't going anywhere.

Markets recoiled. S&P 500 and Dow futures each slipped 0.3%. Asian indexes fell across the board — Tokyo's Nikkei down 0.4%, South Korea's Kospi down 0.5%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.4%.

But the real squeeze on Main Street comes from two directions at once. While a Middle East escalation pumps up gas prices, Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh used a Friday speech at Jackson Hole to double down on rate hikes. The two-year Treasury yield — which tracks Fed expectations — jumped to 4.35% from 4.22% before his remarks. Warsh insisted "short-term interest rates are the predominant tool" to bring inflation to heel, even if it means short-term economic pain.

Here's the wrinkle: Warsh was appointed by President Trump, who has publicly pushed for lower rates. The Fed chief isn't listening. The 10-year yield climbed to 4.72%, the 30-year to 5.21%. Longer-term bond yields have been rising all summer on fears inflation stays sticky.

So the vise tightens. Washington launches strikes that spike oil, and the Fed threatens rate hikes that spike borrowing costs. Defense contractors and bond traders do fine. The small business owner financing inventory and the commuter filling her tank do not.

Both outlets — the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the AP — ran essentially the same wire copy. Neither asked who profits when the Strait of Hormuz heats back up, or why the same administration talking economic pressure pulled the trigger days later. The war premium is back, and nobody in Washington is accounting for what it costs the people who actually pay it.