Part 3/14:

Business owners like Richard Walls of Heidelberg Restaurant in Columbia, Missouri, shed light on the true state of the economy. Walls reports that despite the narrative of a resilient economy—marked by low unemployment, rising wages, and consumer spending—the reality for small businesses is challenging. Supply chain disruptions post-COVID, coupled with the war in Ukraine, have sent food and fuel prices soaring unpredictably. Walls emphasizes the difficulty in forecasting costs, with some goods suddenly tripling in price from month to month, creating uncertainty for business planning.