Ignore consumer prices rising at 4% in the year to March and producer prices rising by more than 6% in the same time; food costs up 4. Ordinary American consumers are being belted by rising energy and food costs, they are losing their homes in the tens of thousands, their jobs in increasing numbers and they can’t see any upside in their lives, despite the rubbish being spoken on Wall Street. And with prices for food and energy continuing to surge, inflation expectations are rising to a level that would frighten our Reserve Bank, and no doubt is worrying the Fed. The slump in housing and the slowly rising tide of job losses (over 230,000 in the first quarter, which is not as steep as in 2001), the ever rising cost of petrol and food, has left the US consumer struggling to keep above water today. Read More