Yes, and that is demonstrated in businesses’ earnings reports. We are in the midst of the Q1 2022 reporting cycle, and most companies so far are reporting earnings that beat estimates. They brag about how they are passing along their increased costs to their customers. Of course, some companies are passing on more, and then there are all the points of interaction before a product reaches the customer. Everyone wants a little more along the way.

This will continue until it doesn’t. People are still flush with free government money from various pandemic relief programs, and the infrastructure rebuilding is poised to add another trillion or so into circulation. So even though inflation is painful, and for many it is devastating, it will continue until a lot more people simply can’t, or won’t, keep paying more. Sometimes that happens gradually, but it can also occur with a spasm of societal rupture. Our current social polarization makes the latter possibility more plausible, I fear.