5.6% inflation. That’s what we’ve experienced over the past 12 months. The bulk of it has been food and fuel prices. But we are in an officially inflationary economy and it’s the highest rate of inflation seen in the United States since 1991 — which coincidentally was also nearing the end of a Bush Administration.
I might like to hear what the two Presidential candidates have to say about combatting this rising problem, but I frankly doubt either of them have any policies up their sleeves that will actually help. The way to fight inflation is through sensible monetary policy (restricting the money supply and increasing interest rates); fiscal policy really doesn’t do very much one way or the other. So the real answer man here has to be Ben Bernanke.
