Courtesy Hedley & Co. PLLC
By Kevin M. Hedley
Looking back on 2022, for much of the year inflation was a major topic.
Inflation peaked at 9.1 percent in June of 2022 which was the highest rate since 1980. Inflation is measured by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics which calculates CPI inflation by taking an average weighted cost of a basket of goods and dividing it by the same basket of goods from the previous month.
So, a lot of the inflation numbers reported are based in comparison to the previous month and not since the beginning of the year. Some of the root causes of inflation included higher commodity prices due to supply issues which was exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, higher prices due to increased demand of consumers who spent less in the pandemic while saving more and supply struggling to keep up, and tight labor markets leading to increases in employee wages.
In order to combat inflation, the Fed has tightened its monetary policy by continuing to raise interest rates at it’s most aggressive pace since the 1970s. It appears the Fed has made combatting inflation a top priority, understanding the risk of being so aggressive may cool the economy to the point of triggering a recession.
NBT Bank announced that Catherine Raymond has joined the company as talent acquisition manager.
The Wesley Community announced a series of management promotions among its senior leadership team.
Lahoff began her career at Wesley in 2006 as controller before being promoted to director of finance in 2018 and charged with overseeing all business office operations. In her new role as CFO, Lahoff will expand her oversight of business office operations to include admissions to The Wesley Health Care Center.