Rising food prices are real and getting worse, and this is bad news for ordinary Americans while foreign wars keep draining the money that could ease the squeeze.

• Grocery and everyday prices keep climbing, and telling people to just be grateful for it shows contempt rather than a plan to fix it.
• Foreign wars are named as the main driver of the national debt, which feeds inflation and makes basic living costs harder to cover.
• Inflation is framed as man-made policy, not bad luck — decades of consolidating wealth and control that lower incomes while raising expenses.
• Bailouts, weak antitrust enforcement, and monopoly pricing let big banks and corporations grab market share and charge more.
• A warning on the future of money: stablecoins and digital tokens could pull billions of new users into US markets and enable an "automatic third lock" — a social-credit system that lets authorities freeze or tax anyone's money directly.

Outlook: Food and energy prices are expected to keep rising, especially if the Iran conflict drags on, while the push toward digital, controllable money continues.