There's understandably a lot of concern about inflation — and consumers want to know who to blame for it. U.S. companies are showing that they've got pricing power and know how to use it in this environment. That makes them an easy target for consumers — and politicians' — ire.

The surge in mortgage rates we've seen this year is making an already dysfunctional housing market even more uncertain. Higher lending costs will make housing less affordable, which should cool demand and at least slow price increases.

Cars have been a big part of the U.S. inflation picture over the past year. Since a computer chip shortage slowed production and drove up prices for new and used vehicles, fixing those supply chain problems in 2022 was supposed to normalize the market again, helping cool inflation more broadly.

News that the U.S. population barely grew this year, together with ever-falling birthrates and the decline in immigration, raises the possibility that the nation will be shrinking in the not-so-distant future. So fewer people should make housing more affordable for those looking for it, right? Well, don't get your hopes up.

Inflation debates have been dominated by fallout from the pandemic and economic reopening, most of which has been viewed as transitory: lumber and used car prices in the first half of the year, the cost of ocean freight more recently.

When we talk about workers going back to their offices, the goal for most people is to return to the normal routines of life. But there's at least one group of former office-dwellers who are viewing the return as uncharted territory: parents who had their first child during the past 18 months.

The U.S. remains in a deep employment hole, with 6.7 million fewer jobs in June than there were in February 2020. But that overstates the weakness in the economy, with last week's second-quarter gross domestic product report showing American output is back at an all-time high.

A paradox of this economic crisis is that while U.S. unemployment remains high, the net worth of American households may be at a record, thanks to the soaring prices of stocks and homes.

Underappreciated is the improvement in the pandemic situation in southern states that were hot spots just a month ago.

Already, apartment rents are plunging in cities such as San Francisco, Seattle and New York. But a significant constraint is going to be how much out-of-the-way communities are willing or able to grow.

We're seeing that there are meaningful differences between the last downturn and this one.