A conflict 5,000 kilometers away is quietly reshaping Sweden's energy bills, budget math, and economic outlook — and the comfortable distance may be shorter than it looks. I filled up the car last week at a station on Götgatan and noticed the price per liter had crept back up to levels I hadn't seen since the inflation peak of 2022. The pump total was higher than expected, and I sat in the car for a moment doing the mental math I thought I was done doing. That familiar, low-grade financial anxiety — the kind that lived with all of us through the rate hike years — had returned, wearing a different name tag this time: Iran. The shock. On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran. Tehran responded with missile attacks across the Gulf and, critically, closed the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world's oil and LNG supply passes every day. Brent crude surged past $120 per barrel f...