Raymond Keating, chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council), says small businesses are seeing higher prices for the goods they have to turn around and sell to customers.
"In a competitive environment where the big guys are better able to handle this, they've got to think about how much can they actually increase prices for their customers without losing a lot of business," says Keating. "It's a very difficult time for small businesses."
Keating acknowledges that prices will increase here and there over time, "but when you see everything going up like this in terms of broad inflation, we really haven't seen this since the 1970s and very early 1980s," he adds, reiterating that it is "very challenging" for small businesses.
Small businesses are considered the backbone of America's economy, so when they have problems, the nation has problems.
In Keating's opinion, the Federal Reserve, Congress, and the White House should change their strategy. With supply chain issues, labor shortages, and so on, he wonders why they are trying to raise taxes and increase regulatory burdens instead of figuring out how to actually help get the economy recovering and eventually growing at a robust pace.
