Whether it’s increasing or decreasing, our country is always impacted by inflation. When there is a high demand for a certain product or products that causes the price of those items to increase, which causes inflation to rise. In 2020 inflation started to rise due to the high demand for bathroom tissue, sanitizer wipes, sprays, and hand sanitizer. The prices of these very popular and much needed items have all increased in price. Inflation also refers to the broad increase in prices across a sector or industry like the automotive industry and the energy business. Eventually, inflation will effect the whole country’s economy. During the extreme cold weather which brought some snow and ice to many states, milk, bread, and eggs have caused inflation to rise. In many of our grocery stores today, the prices for milk and eggs are on the rise, due to inflation.
Rising Inflation
Rising inflation is always a money maker. In the winter, spring, and summer months, we also notice inflation of fuel prices at the gas pumps. In most cases, fuel costs cause inflation to rise especially when it’s a season in which a lot of people are traveling. The rising cost of movie tickets at the box office also contribute to rising inflation. Over the past year, our much needed stimulus payments have helped inflation to rise, because, we all used some of the funds from our payments to purchase much needed items. With tax season upon us, Americans are expected to do the same with their tax refunds, some will go shopping, some will go on trips, others will pay rent, utilities, or other bills, which is always a part of our country’s inflation.
Dollars and Cents
Even though it makes us all frustrated to think about our dollar losing value, economists consider a small amount of inflation as a sign of a healthy economy. Inflation can also be very damaging for the economy, when it gets out of hand and rises a lot. Inflation that is not checked can bring down the economy of a whole country. In 2020, Americans spent more than any other year. Financial experts also suggest investing in stocks and bonds and saving for a rainy day. Inflation will always be with us, but it’s how we spend our finances that will cause inflation to rise or fall.
Written by: Gary Taylor