Mark Zandi

So that's adding to it.

The immigration policy, that's certainly not helping either, right?

I mean, because, you know, many industries, ag and construction and retailing and personal services rely very heavily on immigrant workers and

because of the heavy-handed immigration policy that's tightened up those labor markets and caused some costs to rise in those industries.

So there's a lot of inflationary forces that are pushing inflation up.

So, and this goes, even before what happened in the Middle East, there was, the discussion we were having was around affordability.

The fact that the cost of living was so high that people just felt like they couldn't afford

a reasonable standard of living for everything from groceries to housing, to healthcare, to childcare, to electricity.

And you're just throwing this into the mix and making it even more difficult for folks.

So I think it's consequential.

I mean, I do calculate a statistic that might kind of bring it home.

is that I look at the increase in the monthly bill for buying all the goods and services that the household purchased a year prior because of inflation.

So you take a look at inflation, you say, okay, after a year, how much more do I have to spend to

to afford the same goods and services.

And, you know, right now it's about $300 more a month, right?

Because of what's happened over the past year.

And that's before this bump from the higher energy prices.

So you can imagine, you know, six months from now, I'd be saying we're paying four or 450 bucks.

The average American household is paying four or 450 bucks more a month to afford the same kinds of goods and services they were the year before.

Now,