Originally Posted by Bladewire

Inflation's on the rise | MarketWatch

Americans are reluctant to pay higher prices. After all, the 2.9% increase in the CPI over the past year has outstripped the 2.7% gain in hourly pay. Consumers simply can’t afford to pay much more even if they wanted to.

That’s the crux of the matter. Tight labor markets and higher costs of raw materials have often spawned sharply higher inflation in the past. But in a modern world of savvy, price-conscious consumers just a cellphone’s click away from the Internet, it’s not so easy for anyone to raise prices.