inflation

Food inflation should make consumers eager for discounts. But the couponing tradition isn’t keeping up with changing times.

“I’m taking a very, very big risk opening another retail location,” says Annie Lang Hartman, owner of the Michigan retail brand Wild Lettie.

It’s a bit like the stimulus payments the federal government handed out early in the pandemic. Just don’t call it stimulus.

“It’s a bit like pushing a boulder up a hill,” says London store owner Samantha Wallace.

Prices are up for the little things you set off in your backyard and the big shows your town puts on in the park.

For buyers, the competition is less fierce, but some sellers still have “pie in the sky” hopes.

The public is “at odds with expert opinion and traditional policymaking,” says Eric Plutzer of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy.

That’s good news for inflation, but it might be bad news when it comes to the risk of a recession.

The PCE and CPI measure different things, but the message they send to consumers may influence expectations — that then can affect inflation.

“We have to do this,” says Dr. Scott Anzalone, former president of the local school board in Logan, Ohio.