The only “insidious” activity with respect to inflation comes ftom the government.
Inflation = too much money chasing too few goods. Simple as that.
WHY is there too much money, and WHY are there too few goods?
Giveaway money was just scattered to the winds, so to speak, with much of it going to individuals and institutions that had no need of it, or who could not use it judiciously.
Too few goods is a little more complex, as there was a combination of effectively taking millions out of the work force, either through shutdown and layoffs, with unemployment compensation set to such a level that it is a disincentive to take any available job. Add the fact that the supply chain was interrupted for a number of factors, not the least of which here was nobody there to process the supplies, nor anybody available to deliver these supplies, all during the lockdown and beyond. Included in this is the re-introduction of regulations that had been lifted, and restrictions put on the search for, extraction, processing and delivery of energy to consumers.
Energy is the lifeblood of orderly commerce. Reduce its availability, and the strangulation of the economy is a certainty.
Artificial scarcities ore the hallmark of command-and-control regimes. Authoritarian regimes, no matter what designation they apply to themselves, are all similar in their response to problems - first the inflation, then finding some excuse to go to war and steal from their neighbors.