President Joe Biden’s top advisers detect a growing political challenge from the spike in inflation, even as they see little immediate peril to the economy from price increases that officials expect will last through the rest of the year.
Senior administration aides contend the current jump in prices is being caused by a surge in demand for specific items -- like used cars, air travel and hotels -- that reflects the American economy’s revival from the Covid-19 crisis, along with vaccinated consumers getting more comfortable to move around freely. That’s different from a sustained pick-up in inflation, they argue.
