US inflation highest in 40 years, East Texas economy experts warn no letup in sight
TYLER, Texas (KLTV) – From the grocery store, to the gas station, and just about everything in between, Americans are feeling the pinch of inflation.
Earlier this month, the Labor Department said consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with a year earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982.
When measured from December to January, inflation was 0.6%, the same as the previous month and more than economists had expected. Prices rose 0.7% from October to November and 0.9% from September to October.
Shortages of supplies and workers, heavy doses of federal aid, ultra-low interest rates and robust consumer spending combined to send inflation leaping in the past year.
“For most people, for many people, this is the worst inflation they have ever seen,” UT Tyler Professor of Management Harold Doty said. “The federal reserve targets our inflation rate for about 2%. That’s a nice steady rate. The trouble is…
