Rick Newman, senior columnist for Yahoo Finance, has good news. He wrote, "Gas prices aren’t really at a record high."

"That doesn’t make $4.19 gas easy to deal with. Gasoline accounts for 3.4% of household spending and higher pump prices are the equivalent of a tax that leaves consumers less money to spend on other things. Some people with long commutes or a lot of kids to shuttle around feel the pain more acutely. Most people can’t do much, at least in the short term, to ease the burden of gas costs."

Over at Market Watch, Rex Nutting just happened to make the same argument.

He wrote, "Once you adjust for the purchasing power of a dollar and the increased gas mileage of the cars and trucks on the road, you’ll recognize that — even with the huge price increases in just the past few weeks — gasoline prices aren’t so high that they’ll crush the economy."

And it just so happened that Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times also had the same thought. It is almost as if someone whispered in their ear on Tuesday what to write for today.

Hiltzik wrote, "When accounting for inflation, however, today’s prices are still about 20% below the 2008 peak on the national level and 7% below the California record that year."

Wow. What a relief. Just adjust prices for inflation and inflation goes away.

Suddenly a new Bentley convertible no longer costs $222,085 to $239,600. Adjusted for inflation, the price is only $22,208.50 to $23,960. I should run this by my darling and treasured wife.

Adjusted for inflation, that ice cream cone is 10 cents and a pair of shoes cost a dollar. 

Newman really doesn't want to hear your complaints. He wrote earlier, "Wanna help Ukraine? Stop whining about gas prices."

So on March 1, gas prices were going up but on March 9 they are not because we have to adjust for inflation. And if we adjust all prices for inflation, there is no inflation.

But I am not whining about gasoline prices. We have two cars. I filled up one in January. It will need a refill in April. The Mustang is half-filled from a month ago when prices were $3 a gallon, or just 30 cents a gallon when adjusted for inflation, according to Rick Newman and all these other financial experts.

Meanwhile, in the real world, inflation hit 7% last year, the highest in 40 years. It was 8.9% in 1981. 

But the real year to compare 2021 with is 1973 because we are entering a period of inflation like 1973, and not leaving it like in 1981.

In 1973 inflation was 8.7% thanks to the OPEC oil embargo. A year later, President Nixon -- who had carried 49 states in 1972 -- was out of office as inflation hit 12.3%. It receded a bit but came back with a vengeance, hitting 13.3% in 1979 and 12.5% in 1980.

This is where we are headed.

But don't worry. The media will say we don't have inflation if you adjust prices for inflation.