The scariest inflation chart you’ve ever seen

FEE’s Jon Miltimore writes, “Inflation has been in the news a lot lately. The massive money pumping the Federal Reserve began in 2020 has finally got people’s attention, and is no longer a topic for just economists and free market advocates.

CNN last week reported that price increases recently hit a three-decade high and 25 percent of Americans say their standard of living has fallen. Speaking on CNBC’s 'Squawk Box,' Home Depot founder Ken Langone noted that 'inflation is a regressive tax [that] hits poor people hardest.' On CNBC’s sister network, MSNBC, host Joy Reid noted that 'unless you’ve been living under a rock your money isn’t going as far as it used to, with higher prices on gas, food and your energy bills...'

History teaches us something important about inflation: it can spiral out of control just that fast.https://t.co/EbqHyCZP2c

— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) November 24, 2021

Most people understand what inflation is, but in case you don’t, let’s define it. Inflation is essentially an increase in the supply of money. That’s basically it, and this was the standard definition of inflation for centuries, economist Joseph Salerno notes. Economists later added a second definition describing inflation as 'a general and sustained increase in prices.'

Polls show Americans are quite worried about these 'sustained price increases.' As FiveThirtyEight recently observed, some surveys show 87 percent of registered voters are 'very' or 'extremely' concerned about inflation."

Read the entire column.