I really had sticker shock : Will a reopening economy mean surging prices for Americans? Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
Deborah Widger of Queens, New York, normally rents a car to drive to the Philadelphia area to visit her parents several times over the summer.
But she says rental car prices are up 20% to 30% since her last visit and a three-day weekend rental would cost $500.
“I’ll take Amtrak,” says Widger, a retail consultant who lost her clients because of the pandemic and lives on enhanced unemployment benefits.
Consumer prices jumped 4.2% annually in April, the most in 13 years, sparking this question: Is it a blip or a harrowing return to the 1970s?