Last week, President Biden gave a speech listing everyone and everything allegedly responsible for record high inflation. His list included corporate greed and price gouging, Vladimir Putin, and “ultra-MAGA” Republicans. The president said that his policies, and the nearly $7 trillion in spending he authorized, have nothing to do with inflation.

As concerns about rising inflation are compounded by painful stock and bond market downturns, expect anxiety about savings, investments, and a stable financial future to increase.

The Labor Department announced Thursday to no one’s surprise that over the past 12 months, consumer prices have risen 7.9 percent. And that’s the good news.

In 1935, Ernest Hemingway authored "Notes on the Next War," an article gleaned from his life's experiences. The piece expresses his contempt for the horrors of war and contains unusually prescient observations which are even appropriate to today.

It’s hard to fathom now given the debased nature of the monetary discussion today, but when Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, a standard line in his speeches was that “No nation in history has survived fiat money, money that did not have precious metal backing.” Translated for those who need it, Reagan was calling for a dollar defined in terms of the most stable commodity the world has ever known: gold.

Good news and bad news from the Labor Department this week. The good news: wages last year were up about 4.6%. In normal times, that is a number that would make us cheer.