Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's call for the Fed to hold off on rate cuts reflects a problem that reaches far beyond Washington: war-driven inflation is keeping the door to cheaper money shut.

Reutersreported that Bessent urged caution because the Iran conflict is lifting fuel costs and complicating the inflation outlook. The Fed's own March minutes told pretty much the same story: officials warned that higher oil prices could lift inflation in the near term, delay the ret