Why is this question about the cause(s) of inflation in the US not primarily opinion based?

Question

What is the reason for the high US inflation rate in 2022?

Going over the answers, some of which were given in comments, I can summarize a few hypotheses:

• reduced competition during Covid shutdowns allowed firms to increase prices
• long-term "money printing" (or stimulus policies) since the great recession of 2008
• short[er]-term "money printing" (or stimulus policies) during the pandemic
• the war in Ukraine

Etc. And one can find a more or less expert to cite/quote for all of those. Which seems to me to suggest that this is not an easy question even for economists to answer. Yeah, the majority of academic economists regularly polled by a certain enterprise tend to rule out some of those explanations, while being more uncertain/spread about others, and probably the most uncertain on the policy issues. So why is this question not primarily opinion based?

Answer 1

Q: Why is this question about the cause(s) of inflation in the US not primarily opinion based?

• Because it needs more focus.

In retrospect, had the original post ("US inflation rate is high because of Biden administration?") remained focused on the political question regarding the Biden administration, the answers would likely have been narrow ("Yes" or "No") and more easily supported by mentioning some reasons over which the Biden administration had control or not. Because the post was edited changing it to an economic question regarding inflation, the answers needed to be much longer and more detailed, such as, by listing each reason and why each contributed to inflation.

• Because it need[ed] details or clarity.

The use of "root cause" in the original post was not entirely clear; it lacked context. Did it refer to

1. the root cause of inflation, generally, or

2. the basis (primary reason) for the current high rate in the US, or

3. the basis for the claims against the Biden administration?

An edit seems to have made it all about 2.

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• The title question of the current post is:

What is the reason for the high US inflation rate in 2022?

The problem with that question is there are multiple reasons; each of which may be supported by facts and citations.

• The question in the body is:

Can someone please help me understand the root cause?

The problem with that question is there are two "root" causes (as in 1 above): demand-pull and cost-push. Both of those apply to the situation in the US in 2022 and each may be supported by a list of actions for each root cause.

Overall, the post became too broad, somewhat like a list question ("They are open-ended; there is never one perfect answer to them."); but each answerer could only provide what is, in their opinion, the more important of their reason[s] for inflation in the US in 2022. (Root cause as in 2 above.)

As a close reason, opinion-based is

This question is likely to be answered with opinions rather than facts and citations. It should be updated so it will lead to fact-based answers.

The post is currently lacking focus (too broad) resulting in answers with opinions "supported by facts and citations" as answers. Opinion, to be sure, but that does not meet my understanding of "primarily opinion-based".