Letter: Donald Trump benefited from inflation issue that voters misunderstood

Most political analysts are saying the biggest single thing that drove people to vote for Donald Trump was the increased cost of goods and services during the Biden administration.

Yes, things cost more than they did four years ago, but that was not totally the Biden administration's fault. The pandemic caused a global economic crisis; all major developed countries had inflation after the issues cause by the pandemic started to ease up. Demand increased faster than supply and there were still supply-chain issues that made the situation even worse.

The American economy has recovered faster than any of the major developed countries. Inflation is down to 2.6%, unemployment is at record lows, GDP is up.

Yes, prices are still higher now than they were before the pandemic, but government has very little power to actually lower them. Prices are controlled by the companies that supply, make, distribute and sell the goods and services. Many companies are making record profits, so they do not have any incentive to lower them.

Trump mentioned energy during his campaign but the country is currently producing more energy than it is using and gas prices have been dropping for a long time in the St. Louis area.

Trump has said he will lower prices; I am really curious to see how he will do that.

Dale Scott