Fuel costs spur Japan price rise

Gold and Silver at up dramatically in the last year. Food prices are up dramatically. The World Bank Development Prospects Group shows food price changes Q1 2010 to Q1 2011

US consumer prices jumped by 2.7% last year on the back of rising petrol costs, but a flat December should ease fears about inflation

Natural gas figures prominently in President Obama's second-term energy blueprint, released this morning. He hopes to convert more commercial trucks to the fuel and support "research into the safe and responsible use of natural gas," to the tune of $40 million.

Whenever anyone raises the prospect of anything that would raise producers’ costs, the specter of the costs being “passed on” to consumers comes up. So, for example, the American Petroleum Institute’s Jack Gerard is pretending to favor the idea of a “carbon fee” rather than cap-and-trade because he seems to think this would be easier to attack:

WASHINGTON — A spike in gas prices drove a measure of U.S. consumer costs up in February by the most in more than three years. But outside the gain in fuel costs, inflation was mostly modest. The consumer price index increased a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent last month from January, the Labor Department said Friday. It was the biggest monthly rise since June 2009. Still, three-fourths of the increase in the index reflected a 9.1 percent surge in gas prices. That was also the largest monthly gain since June 2009. Gas prices had fallen in the previous four months.

WASHINGTON — A spike in gas prices drove a measure of U.S. consumer costs up in February by the most in more than three years. But outside the gain in fuel costs, inflation was mostly modest. The consumer price index increased a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent last month from January, the Labor Department said Friday. It was the biggest monthly rise since June 2009. Still, three-fourths of the increase in the index reflected a 9.1 percent surge in gas prices. That was also the largest monthly gain since June 2009. Gas prices had fallen in the previous four months.