Hello everyone, thanks for coming back for this next civic issues blog post! But guess what? It is not only the last civic issues post but the last blog post I will be writing for the whole school year! This academic year went by way quicker than I had expected and honestly was not at all prepared for it. They always said college is over before you know it and now I see what they are saying and will do my best going forward to care more about each individual day. This week’s blog post is going to be somewhat similar to last weeks where we took a look at the economic affects of the Russia Ukraine conflict and supply chain issues. We will be taking a deeper look into inflation in our country right now and surrounding happenings. Inflation in a basic sense is how much the dollar is worth today vs yesterday. For example, something that would cost $100 dollars in 2022 would be worth $166 today. Inflation is signaled and showed in the consumer price index (cpi) that measures the increase in the costs of all goods. At the current moment, the Federal Reserve just released that CPI is 8.5%, the highest surge and CPI since the 1980’s which shows that there are clear issues in our economy. Our dollar is depreciated at a rate that is way to high making it harder for people to see wage raises that can combat current inflation rates. In an attempt to decrease inflation, the Federal Reserve has decided to increase interest rates to decrease demand in the market and slow the flow of cash in the economy. The Fed in 2022 decided to hike the rates every two months with the most recent one being a 50 basis point (0.5%) increase. These increase in rates have adverse affects on the markets that it does for inflation and consumers. Financing becomes much more expensive and difficult which poses separate and other concerns. Inflation began to really skyrocket as the tensions in Russia and Ukraine began messing with the global supply chain. The problem with CPI is that if the Fed or the government decided to help inflation earlier we would see much more workable inflation and CPI rates. They came late to help with the problem that now has escalated out of their control. Hopefully we can see CPI drop back down to a range of 1-3% in the next year with the fed’s increased rates for the year. Thank you again for tuning in to all of my blog posts and hope you all have great lives!