Prices are expected to keep rising this summer, pushed up by bottlenecks for materials and labor, and surging consumer demand, Reuters reports.
Why it matters: The "Memorial Day Weekend price index" showed leisure-related prices up about 4.3% since the pandemic began — more than overall consumer prices, which rose 3.1% over that period.
Our thought bubble: via Axios' Felix Salmon: Inflation fears are overdone.
- Consumer prices aren't the real problem — we don’t even notice when prices on Amazon go up and down. What matters are the big things: housing, healthcare and college.
When people say "inflation," Felix notes, what they often mean is the feeling that a good lifestyle is increasingly unaffordable. That’s not really a function of retail prices.
- And inflation figures reflect genuinely higher living standards for hourly workers, which feels like a tradeoff worth making.
Go deeper: "Don't fear inflation."
