Inflation Origins & the Morality of Money
Though we are certainly not spared ominous montages of American gas pumps throughout our daily digital treks, planted before that flickering screen ourselves, watching the numbers blink higher and higher, still feels jarring. Just the other day while pumping gas I caught myself watching the numbers climb, shifting my feet in the hot afternoon air, meanwhile a pensive expression crawled onto my face.
At $82.42 the familiar clunk snapped me out of my reverie, but that moment stood still for me. It is true we are forever living in the perpetual molt of history, but there are nevertheless snapshot junctures — moments of our present reality that make our breath catch, that halt time for a second, that impress a historical heaviness. You will be remembered, they say. This was one such moment, one surely rippling across state lines.
Those glazed looks at gas pumps multiplying across the country hide disillusionment, confusion, irritation, and worry. Gas prices have a way of effortlessly wending their way into our everyday conversations and acting as a communal bonding element. But nervous chuckles and political laments that drift off into quiet mumbles are but the tip of the iceberg.
There is much that is not said, much that is not understood. Fed officials, pontificating from their academic perches, try their best to slap…
