Price pressures weigh on vets and others

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CNN Business reports on how the current decades-high inflation that has weighed heavily this year has, in recent months, settled more deeply into businesses that offer services such as pet care. Teri Byrd opened her 4 Paws Veterinary Clinic in Vashon, Washington, four years ago, and although her business was helped by federal aid and by plenty of new pet adoptions amid Covid disruption, ensuing supply chain upheaval, labor shortages and surging price inflation have forced her to raise prices. Medical supplies had gone up by about 25% to 30%, and many staffers departed, meaning that on some days she had to shut down the clinic because she had no employees available. Byrd raised her wages by $10 an hour for technicians and $5 an hour for assistants, and cut her personal salary from $150,000 to $65,000. “I finally [raised prices] last week. I never did before, and I really didn’t want to,” Byrd told CNN Business in November. “I could see the writing on the wall. I would have had to close the clinic.” The Federal Reserve is attempting to manage stubbornly high inflation, observes Christopher S. Rupkey, chief economist for economic and market research firm FwdBonds. “The Fed is going to need a bigger hose if it wants to put out the inflation fire, because once price increases spread to services, the battle is hard for a central bank to win without jacking up interest rates high enough to produce the demand destruction normally seen only in severe recessions,” Rupkey told CNN Business.

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