Here’s why the pound dropped and what it means for the U.S., U.K.

The British pound plunged to a record low against the soaring dollar on Monday, spurring concerns of even higher inflation and prompting social media users to share defeatist memes about the world’s fifth-largest economy.

The country, already reeling from the death of its longest-ruling monarch and the recent ousting of Boris Johnson as prime minister, is in the throes of an “even more severe cost-of-living crisis” due to the plummeting pound, said Barry Eichengreen, a professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley. “Recovery is not on the horizon” for the foreseeable future, he added.