We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Frank"
saying something like:

There is no recession,

Phew, that's a relief. Had me going for a month or two, there.

it's just people have had enough of being ripped off
so refuse to pay prices shops are inflating all the time.

That's true enough - when money's tight, people think hard about what to
really spend it on and the overpriced shark gets left out.