With anticipated tax increases and a minimum wage raise expected for $15/hour, Beaulieu predicted some inflationary pressure for a labor-intensive industry. “As costs go up, there’s only so much efficiency gains to recapture, and therefore there will be upward pressure on prices,” he said, suggesting that bakers will have to, in turn, pass along price increases. That said, those increases will happen during a period when it’s acceptable to do so.

“That’s going to be the big difference,” Beaulieu said. “When we get to that point, you’re not going to see a massive wave of inflation like the early 1980s wave, but you are going to see some inflationary pressure. If it gets to 2% or even 2.5%, the Federal Reserve Board won’t do anything about interest rates, but you’ll have all the cover you need to be able to raise prices.”

The key is incremental increases with key products and with the right timing, and Beaulieu advised bakers to rely on help from their marketing departments to map out a reasonable plan.

Looking further down the road in regard to debt, Beaulieu did observe the US economy to be embarked on a “non-virtuous path” while currently operating under an unofficial modern monetary theory program.

“I cannot see a world in which that line of thinking does not come to harm because sooner or later, the balloon inflates so much that it cannot be covered by just inflation,” he said, noting that simply investing in the currency will ultimately devalue it. Over time interest rates will increase, and that will create more pressure to raise taxes — which furthers the need to borrow more — and so on. “That’s the cycle we seem to be on,” he said.