Kerby Anderson

Americans say they hate inflation. But many really like inflation, or at least like the impact inflation has on their home values and other assets.

We shouldn’t be surprised at this ambivalence. When house prices rise, homeowners are encouraged and will even pat themselves on the back for making such a good investment. Rising home prices make them feel richer (even if the increase is due more to the money printing of the federal government).

At the same time, rising home prices make it even less likely that younger Americans planning to be first-time home buyers will get into a home. If they do get a home, it will be smaller and more expensive than the one their parent’s owned.

American homeowners may like rising house prices, but they don’t like rising prices for gasoline or food at the grocery store. The people hurt the most are middle income and lower income Americans. A greater percentage of their income goes to food, energy, and shelter. The latest CPI (Consumer Price Index) doesn’t come close to measuring some of the costs that American families must pay each month.

That’s why inflation has become such a big issue in the 2022 midterm elections. I try to explain to the younger people in my radio audience what inflation was like in the 1970s. But you don’t have to explain that to Joe Biden who was elected to the Senate before Jimmy Carter was elected president.

Jimmy Carter didn’t cause inflation, but he inherited it and lost the next election. Joe Biden could argue that he didn’t cause inflation but inherited it. That would be partially true, but he and Congress have been in a spending spree this year.

That’s why I predict that American voters will begin to express their frustration at the ballot box over rising prices.