nflation is present everywhere we look. We find it in the price of our streaming subscriptions, at the grocery store, the gas pump, securities asset prices, building materials, real estate values, the cost of used vehicles, and the cost of university education, just to name a few. The big question for 2021 is, will inflation be a temporary condition, or are we looking at higher prices for the longer term? In its simplest form, inflation is the imbalance of supply and demand for goods and services, resulting in too many dollars chasing too few goods and services.

Let's take a close look at the factors that affect inflation. Higher energy prices translate to higher transportation and variable costs for all goods, and those costs are passed on to the consumer. The U.S. had just achieved energy independence for the first time recently, and we were in a position to sell oil to other countries, as well.