That is generally true over here too, most things are roughly half as much again, this winter's greenhouse heater fuel was £11.50 for the same plastic bottle I bought last year for £8, and that's across the board, if I see something that hasn't gone up I buy two
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Dunno, but I partly put that down to Ukraine. They can't possibly have had enough munitions that they are still using their own and they are holding up the Russian army at a time when it isn't at war anywhere else. Someone has to pay for it all even if we are using it to get rid of a lot of old stock and re-equip with more up to date stuff, Ukraine won't be contributing money-wise for a while.
It was particularly the prices of fresh food that surprised her though. My brother in law who is a carpenter made someone a cutting board and was so impressed by the price of good quality wood he filled his suitcase to come home, going out he had two 'Treasure chests' he made for the grand children.
I know very little of American politicians, the only ones I ever met were Udalls from Arizona, they were distant relatives and Mormons and got in touch in the 1950's when I was a little boy, they were Democrats and seemed like very decent people. Generally we only know what we are told about such things though, and as I get older I doubt that as someone's propaganda more and more. We used to say that America had a one sided view because it was so far from everywhere else, but even my horizons have expanded since the web, I watch news programmes from all over the world, it's amazing what gets left out.