The Netflix film Don’t Look Up is about a group of experts who detect a looming disaster but cannot summon an adequate public response because …
The Netflix film Don’t Look Up is about a group of experts who detect a looming disaster but cannot summon an adequate public response because of the fecklessness of a populist president and the greed of her corporate allies. If we were to change the movie to reflect our current inflation crisis, it would be the experts who told us not to pay any attention to the looming disaster. Which is slightly more frightening, in my view. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday that consumer prices rose seven percent in 2021, the biggest annual gain since 1982. Food prices are up 6.5 percent, household furniture up 7.4 percent, appliances up six percent, tools and hardware up 7.2 percent, clothing up 5.8 percent, and cars up 12 percent. Everywhere you look, prices are up. The time has passed when inflation could be written off as transitory or artificially elevated by shortages in a few items. Inflation is everywhere and it has staying power. So why didn’t the Federal Reserve see this coming? A year ago, the Federal Reserve was forecasting that inflation in 2021 would run at 1.
