If you had to guess, how long do you think we'll have gas hikes, inflation, possible recession and other economic issues?

I was emailing a friend who works for the government agency that I used to work for and I mentioned that the contract negotiations for our labor contract are not likely to contain a raise, because the employer is going to say we’re in a bad economic way now (because of the worldwide economic problems). She said that the gas hikes are only supposed to go through the summer and then everything will be fine.

What do you think?