it s doing incredibly well. president biden trying to highlight the positive as a complicated picture of the economy emerges. but inflation is affecting people s lives. happy new year! reporter: inflation hitting its highest point since 1982. a surge in consumer demand continues to run headlong into pandemic-driven supply constraints. rising 6.8% in november from the year prior. prices were up 0.8% from october. ticking down slightly but still marking an alarmingly rapid pace. white house officials keenly aware of what was coming and moving to counter the numbers before they were released. that data is, by definition, backward looking and won t capture some recent price movements. particularly in the area of energy. reporter: pointing to an array of positive economic signals from easing shipping bottlenecks to gas prices that have dropped an average of 9 cents from the month prior to