Is the economy really that bad? Why inflation has the middle class so on edge
At first, it was just a few things in the meat and produce sections that caught Gayle Stafford's eye. But soon she noticed that prices were rising for soup and cereal. And it wasn't just in the supermarket.
With overall inflation now running at a 40-year high of 7.5%, Stafford, a schoolteacher who lives outside Cincinnati, suddenly finds herself worrying about the family's financial future, especially for her two adult kids.
"How are they going to be able to afford anything?" she asks, worried that surging inflation could price them out of the market for a house or other staples of the middle-class American dream.
Stafford and her husband, Gary, who works in tech support for grocers, have secure jobs that pay at or above the national median. Their lives have not been substantially affected by inflation.
Yet like millions of other Americans, including families with at least a modicum of financial security, inflation has
