For prices to drop, supply needs to increase and supply chains need to be diversified across mulitple providers for security and cost competition.
Oil prices are too high.
Some sectors of our economy are over-consolidated, reducing competition and allowing some providers to have pricing power.
The Federal Government needs to incentivize Yes In My Backyard and punish Not In My Backyard local, county, and state policies that get in the way of lower prices, improved interstate commerce efficiencies and productivity, and increased gross GDP grwoth.
Congress needs to start asking questions:
"Why do healthcare costs rise faster than overall inflation?"
"Why do education costs rise faster than overall inflation?"
There needs to be a Manhattan Project for domestic energy infrastructure. The potential for lower-priced energy is one of the competitive advantages America could have in the Global economy if Government policy wasn't in the way.
A basic economic principle is that scarcity creates value. The counter is to increase supply and the number of suppliers.
American government needs to get out of the way and let Adam Smith competitive free market economics drive efficiencies, productivity, and lower prices. Free market economics is not laissez faire; it is economies free from monopolies, oligopolies, cartels, racketeering, collusion, price fixing, and pricing power to allow for competition to drive down prices set by a free market.
It's still pretty bad. Do you see it getting better? I don't.
