Commentary To listen to The Narrative emanating from the White House, you might think that inflation was Vladimir Putin’s fault. He invaded Ukraine, didn’t he, and gas prices spiked? “Make no mistake,” President Joe Biden said in mid-March. “The current spike in gas prices is largely the fault of Vladimir Putin.” Ah, Putin. Is there anything he cannot do? The problem with this feeble effort at scapegoating is that inflation was surging long before Putin invaded Ukraine. Russian troops began lumbering over the Ukrainian border on Feb. 24. But already in December, quoting President Ronald Reagan, I wrote here about “Inflation, the Mugger.” “Inflation,” quoth The Gipper, reflecting on the Misery Index with which President Jimmy Carter had saddled the country, “is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber, and as deadly as a hitman.” Indeed. By mid-December, the price of just about everything had skyrocketed. …