Dive Brief: Labor shortages are emerging throughout the economy despite low employment levels and rising wages, increasing the risk of accelerating inflation, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said at an online gathering held by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Persistent fears of the coronavirus and supplemental unemployment assistance have discouraged many idle workers from rejoining the labor force, compelling some companies to substantially increase wages, he said. “Labor shortage is a pervasive phenomenon and the failure to recognize that, and the failure to begin an adjustment to that reality, puts at risk the kinds of mistakes we have not seen made in the United States for a long time,” Summers said, flagging the risk that accelerating inflation may destabilize financial markets.