EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Why Energy Prices Are Projected to Increase 50% in 2022—After Doubling Last Year.

In its latest Commodity Markets Outlook report, the World Bank projected commodity prices will remain higher for years to come. Perhaps most alarming is that the multilateral bank projects energy prices will soar 50.5 percent this year—after nearly doubling in 2021. The rise in energy prices, the Wall Street Journal reports, has been “the most significant since the early 1970s.”

Food prices, meanwhile, which rose 31 percent last year, are projected to increase 23 percent this year. Needless to say, these price increases come at considerable cost, particularly to the most vulnerable in society.

“The resulting increase in food and energy prices is taking a significant human and economic toll,” said Ayhan Kose, director of the World Bank’s Prospects Group. “It will likely stall progress in reducing poverty…[and] exacerbate already elevated inflationary pressures around the world.”

Anyone born after about 1970 doesn’t really remember the malaise, stagflation, and useless leadership of the Carter years — but they’re about to get a lesson.