What's happening with the economy? A result of the pandemic? Or corporate greed?

"The lingering economic effects of COVID: More deadly than the disease?" How many people will become homeless, for example, because of rising rents? The price of everything is going up: restaurants, gas, groceries, prescription costs, etc. How many on fixed incomes won't survive?

NPR recently did a story on rising rents. Redfin's Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather says rents are rising more than usual just about everywhere.
"The root cause of the problem is a lack of supply," Fairweather says. "We have not built enough homes to meet demand."
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/14/1080145270/its-not-just-home-prices-rents-rise-sharply-across-the-u-s#:~:text=But%20she%20says%20rents%20are,enough%20homes%20to%20meet%20demand.%22

The New York Times suggests that the pandemic did cause an increase in house prices because of people moving to new locations or for more space. "Several other factors have contributed to the surge, including that many would-be home buyers — often young adults eager for more space during the pandemic — found themselves on the sidelines as housing prices rose steeply during the pandemic. This kept more people in the rental market, leading to increased desire for rental apartments, homes and condominiums.
At the same time, supply chain issues and labor shortages continued to curtail the number of new houses and apartment buildings available, exacerbating the mismatch between housing supply and demand."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/business/housing-rent-inflation.html

Food prices are also rising. The Wall Street Journal found there are several factors: Higher costs for labor, freight and ingredients are reflected in rising prices, food industry executives said, so nearly all food is affected. The prices of meat, fish and eggs have risen the most, increasing 12.2% over the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/inflation-food-prices-what-to-know-11645057714#:~:text=Higher%20costs%20for%20labor%2C%20freight,the%20Bureau%20of%20Labor%20Statistics.

The NY Times proposes several other reasons. Food prices have skyrocketed globally because of disruptions in the global supply chain, adverse weather and rising energy prices, increases that are imposing a heavy burden on poorer people around the world and threatening to stoke social unrest.

They found that the pandemic changed food consumption habits. The pandemic also caused labor shortages in agriculture, processing, and distribution. Two years later, global demand for food remains strong, but higher fuel prices and shipping costs, along with other supply chain bottlenecks like a shortage of truck drivers and shipping containers, continue to push up prices, said Christian Bogmans, an economist at the International Monetary Fund.
Drought and bad weather in major agricultural producing countries like Brazil, Argentina, the United States, Russia and Ukraine have worsened the situation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/business/economy/food-prices-inflation-world.html

See the photo above for gas price info, and the war in Ukraine is driving prices up furthur.

What can be done? Will housing prices ever come down? Can incomes be increased to meet the increase in living expenses?

And why is Joe Biden being blamed for inflation?