It’s summertime, and the United States is back to taking vacations following a long period of COVID-enforced quarantines. So we’ll accept that attention spans may be short for any lengthy economic commentary, skip the verse, and go right to the chorus.
Both Wall Street and Main Street have been dusting off B.B. King’s Inflation Blues — ”things are going up…and my check remains the same” — as inflation has surged to its highest level since 1992. Historically, high inflation has been bad not only for consumers, but also for financial markets. Yet, despite higher prices, stocks surged to new highs during the most recent quarter. Does the inflation song not remain the same as in years past?