A carton of eggs is up 33 percent over the last year, while tomatoes haven't changed at all. Airline flights are through the roof, but the cabin we rented on our last vacation was several hundred dollars less than in previous years. Our electric bill is soaring, but her personal care products and my son's new sneakers were about the same (or less) than what she had previously paid.

It's clear that prices are a complicated business, and not just because value is subjective. The cost of producing and distributing goods in an economy is incredibly complex, something no single person can possibly understand, let alone calculate.

While the basic economics of inflation tend to be simple—increase the money supply and, all else equal, money becomes less valuable—the specifics of inflation can be complex and difficult to understand, because economies are complex and difficult to understand.

We see this not just in the fact that some products and services are impacted by inflation more than others. We also see it by the fact that inflation is rising in some places more than others.