Welcome to the Eric Erickson Show podcast, Our 2.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome.

It is Eric Erickson here across the United States of America.

The phone number is 877-973-7-425, should you wish to be on this

year program. Very glad to have you. There is some breaking news, which is forcing me to pivot

a little bit on the show right now to be able to cover it.

So let's get to it.

This is not the breaking news, but it ties perfectly to the breaking news.

A better than expected inflation report, according to ABC News last week,

bolstered hopes of a prolonged bout of severe price hikes has come to an end.

Consumer prices rose 3% last month compared to a year ago, marking a significant slowdown from a peak last summer of more than 9%.

The after effects of pandemic-induced supply chain blockages in the Russia-Ukraine war, however,

have kept price hikes elevated for some

crucial goods such as bread and frozen vegetables. The price of bread jumped 11.5% in June

compared to a year prior, marking a cost increase nearly four times higher than overall inflation.

The cost of cookies jumped 8.8% over the period.

The price of beer went up 5.4%.

Taken together these sharp price hikes stem in large part from grain supply shortages

imposed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine,

the world's fifth largest exporter of wheat.

It begins with the war in Ukraine, Mark Hamrick, a Washington bureau chief and senior economist at bankrate.com,

told ABC News, and there have been ripple effects from that.

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