I don’t know if you noticed but, in the last couple of years, under President Biden, things have gotten more expensive.
Like, a lot more.
For instance, in 2021, food-at-home prices increased by 3.5 percent and, in 2022, these prices are projected to increase by another 10 percent.
Not to mention that gas prices have soared to a national average of $4.88 per gallon, an increase of more than 100 percent from the $2.39 per gallon when Biden took office.
Also, housing costs have increased with the average cost of a home purchase having jumped by 27 percent and monthly rental by 18 percent.
Note further that working parents have taken a hit as childcare costs have jumped as much as 41 percent.
And healthcare costs increased a modest 3.4 percent in 2021 but we are warned of a 6.5 percent increase next year.
So, given these price increases, a normal person would suspect inflation may becoming a problem and, not surprisingly, Fed Chair Jerome Powell agreed, vowing to continually increase interest rates until it abates.
And Secretary Janet Yellen, after initially dismissing inflation as only a “small risk”, has finally admitted that she “was wrong about the path inflation would take” and that inflation was truly a problem.
Last, but not least, even President Biden, quite belatedly, has now become aware of the situation and changed his approach from “nobody is suggesting that there is unchecked inflation on the way” to reassuring us that “tackling the worst inflation the nation has seen in decades” is his top priority.
And about time too.
Dick Pilling
Port Angeles