Inflation usually hits America’s poor hardest. Not this time

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IT IS OFTEN seen as an axiomatic truth about the pernicious effect of rising prices: the lowest earners suffer the most. The calculation is straightforward. Those on low incomes must spend a greater share of their earnings on food and rent, so when the prices for those items soar, they have less left over for everything else. The rich and the middle class, by contrast, are better insulated. This pattern has been observed over many decades, in many countries (see left-hand chart). But America’s current bout of inflation may be an exception to the rule: middle-income earners, not the poorest, appear to have borne the brunt of it (see right-hand chart).