Here’s something no American wants to hear: Prices are surging again, and uncomfortably high inflation could be with us for quite some time.
Inflation has been a thorn in the US economy’s side since 2021, and though price increases have cooled off dramatically in the past few years, the problem never really went away: Inflation still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, and Americans haven’t yet adjusted to higher prices. That’s why the cost of living has remained Issue No. 1 for voters in poll after poll.
This oil price shock almost certainly will not translate into the 9.1% four-decade high inflation that the United States painfully endured in 2022. But key differences between the situation today and four years ago could make this latest war-induced inflation spike very difficult to bear.
The US economy has been remarkably resilient despite everything thrown at it this decade — a pandemic, two wars, a historic inflation crisis, tariffs…. It’s tough to shake a $31 trillion titan. That’s why most economists agree the oil price shock from the Iran war probably won’t end in a recession.
But the economy doesn’t need to be in a recession to grow painful — just ask the millions of low- and middle-income Americans who have struggled to make ends meet over the past several years.
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