Letter: Many causes for inflation

There has been no serious attempt in the media to break down the causes of inflation, except “Inflation bad, Democrats bad.” So here goes:

Gas prices increased February 2022 upon Ukraine’s invasion by Russia.

Average tariffs on Chinese goods increased from 3 percent to 22 percent under the previous administration. This administration has not revised that increase, as they want to increase employment in the U.S.

The cost of shipping a container from overseas was about $3,000 before COVID. It reached $16,000 when people started spending again, and is now drifting down.

COVID caused many people to decide to change their lives and jobs. This has resulted in more demand and less supply for workers, resulting in far higher wage bills.

Both administrations opened their checkbooks to get the economy back on path — more successfully than any other country.

None of these items can be addressed now by any tools available to the federal government.

We’ll just have to live with inflation until the law of supply and demand kicks in.