This won’t be the graph / chart filled analysis that you’ve come to expect here, thanks mostly to Joe. Instead, I want to talk about the visceral reaction I’ve had to prices as we’ve started a couple month road trip.

First and foremost: gas. I mentioned yesterday that prices for gas in Salt Lake went up 30 cents in the span of a couple of hours. Another thing about gas prices: they’re all over the place. In a decent-sized city, you can see a price variance of 30 cents/gallon, when, normally, the gas prices are all the same in a town. Clearly, the gas retailers are having a hard time deciding what to charge for gas. It’s unsettling to say the least.

The rest of the retail world has clearly adjusted to the higher cost of shipping goods, because grocery prices have skyrocketed. I thought it was just my little hometown, because the pricing there has always been high (it’s a long way from the warehouse), but, no, it’s everywhere. One example: the other day, my wife bought what used to be a 1.5 pound bag of Peet’s coffee for $19, and it was like 1 1/3 pound. That would have been $12 or $14 a year ago. (The only reason I know this is that she complained about the price, which she almost never does.)

It goes on and on. I was looking at hotel prices in Boise for a Wednesday night and a Hilton Garden Inn was around $500, and the other “name” hotels downtown were in that range, too. That’s a New York City price. I don’t know what’s going on with the hotel market out West, but I assume part of it is that every little supply they get has gone up.

So, enough complaining about prices. Let’s see what a talented politician can do with Trump’s inflation. I encourage you to watch this video because it’s fun and the production values are decidedly low-tech:

It’s Adul El-Sayed, and he begins with the perfect frame: we’re going to ask Michiganders about what Trump’s tariffs and war in Iran has done to prices in the last year. He then quizzes some volunteers on what the old price was on some common stuff, including Tim Ho’s coffee (which is cheaper than Peets) and Tide Pods. Tide Pods are $7 more this year (and the first contestant nailed it). Frankly, the amount of increase is jaw-dropping on the staples that his staff picked.

A cheaply made video, the candidate and the “contestants” having fun, some cute background music, subtitles so it works for all the socials, and starting and ending by relating it to Trump’s stupidity. Perfect, no notes. So, so much better than the bland “affordability” messaging.

(I pre-wrote this post yesterday because I’m traveling so if the world is on fire, I guess no one can save it but you.)