In the last 12 months, there has been a plethora of factors that have inched up the consumer price index, the key gauge the Federal Reserve uses as a barometer of inflation.
In a 2021 column, we defined inflation as the general increase in cost of products and services, as well as a decline in the purchasing value of money. A simple way to understand the root causes of this phenomenon is that too many dollars end up chasing too few goods.