All the reporting in the US these days is about rising prices. And I get that: A 7 per cent surge in the consumer price index over the past year comes as a shock, especially because so many people, myself included, didn’t see it coming.

But there’s another story that should be getting more attention: America’s extraordinary success in limiting the damage from a horrifying pandemic. In fact, there’s a good chance that in retrospect we’ll view economic management over the past two years as a policy triumph, despite the inflation spike.