Food and gasoline probably will cost more, and the supply chain issues that have bedeviled the economy for the past two years likely will persist or even intensify.
But could the Russia-Ukraine conflict somehow tip the U.S. economy into recession? It seems unlikely at this point, though anything is possible.
“What we’ve seen is oil prices have gone up, and equity prices at least initially retreated on all of this. Together, that’s a mild – stress mild – stagflationary hit to the economy,” Wells Fargo Chief Economist Jay Bryson said. “It’s going to push inflation higher than it is, and it’s probably going to slow growth. But it’s probably not enough to push the economy into recession.”
That view is in line with most Wall Street economists.
Nevertheless, at a time when inflation is running at its highest level since the early 1980s, the last thing consumers need is more price pressure.
Click here to get the full story from Jeff Cox at CNBC.