The economy is humming, inflation is cooling, Americans are well-employed but people are still not over how much higher prices are today than in 2020, The Wall Street Journal reports.
People find it unsettling that price tags don’t look like they did before inflation took off during the pandemic, surging to the highest level in four decades. Even though the growth in prices has cooled, prices themselves aren’t getting lower.
While economists and Federal Reserve policy makers consider the economy to be in good shape, consumers are not in as high spirits as they face painfully high and sometimes rising prices for big-ticket items, including housing, cars, child care and insurance.
Many are also struggling to keep pace with price hikes or have been forced to make painful adjustments to keep up. In a fresh sign of strain, a Fed report Wednesday noted some signs of Americans shifting toward cheaper purchases.
