Inflation here? gas/grocery prices just continue to climb

Well you're a dunce no more. What added to that was the "waves" of pandemic. Started in China where much of our products come from. So that throttled production. Then our wave which throttled consumption. Which affected production because demand was way down. Then, we exited the pandemic, and everyone wanted to consume, but production and logistics haven't caught up.

That, coupled with the creation of money by Fed, has us where we are.

Things will begin to tighten up in 2nd quarter next year when Fed starts .25 rate increases.

The pandemic isn't over and our suppliers overseas have us by the short hairs. There is no other source for so much of our consumption that the sellers can get what they want. Shipping problems, logistic problems, real scarcity and a heated up economy fueled by cheap money and pent up demand and here we are.