Inflation rose over the past year at its fastest pace in more than 40 years in the United States, as costs of food, gasoline, housing and other necessities put pressure on American consumers and wiped out the increases that many people were getting.

According to CNBC, the Labor Department said its consumer price index jumped 8.5% in March from a 12-month period, the largest year-over-year increase since 1981.

Prices have risen due to throttling supply chains, strong consumer demand, global food and food disruptions, and energy markets have worsened due to Russia's war against Ukraine.

During the period from February to March, inflation rose by 1.2 percent, the largest monthly jump since 2005, and gasoline prices led more than half of that increase.

Across the economy, annual price hikes have been widespread, with gasoline prices jumping 48 percent in the past 12 months and used car prices up 35 percent, despite actually dropping in February and March.

For its part, Bank of America warns that high inflation poses a real threat to an economic recovery that began just two years ago, with Michael Hartnett, chief investment analyst at Bank of America writing in a note: “The inflation shock is deepening, the interest rate shock is just beginning, and the recession shock coming,” Hartnett wrote that inflation was “out of control,” adding: “Inflation is causing a recession.”