Gas in Europe up to $8.63 per gallon

No inflation? I don't understand what Ben Bernake is talking about in his testimony before Congress. Yes, the CPI you look at Ben is still in the range of 1.75-2% but that excludes food and energy. What kind of inflation indicator excludes food and energy? One that tries to hide the fact that we are seeing rampant inflation from Ben's crazy stimulus policies. This is getting insane. Isn't it a capital offense to lie to Congress? I think someone needs to be consulted about this.

• From Zerohedge:
  "And Americans are complaining at an average gas price in the mid $3 range. In Europe, gasoline has just hit an all time record of $8.632 per gallon! As HLN.be reports: "tomorrow the price of gas will reach an absolute record. Petrol 95 can hit €1.624 per litre. This breaks the 2008 record of €1.61 per liter." Translated into American this means that a gallon of gas in Europe is now an unprecedented $8.632 per gallon, which will certainly result in Europe literally and metaphorically grinding to a halt."

The chart below shows the increases over the last 2 years in Gasoline, Oil, Copper, Cotton, Silver, and the CRB Commodity Index......... I know what I see and I see inflation... Quit printing Ben.

Take a look at commodity prices!!!!

How does this all tie in to the turmoil in the Middle East? In the countries that have recently seen problems...Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, food and energy expenses account for nearly 50% of peoples disposable income. When they see rampant inflation in these expenses it puts a major hurt on their standard of living, driving people below the poverty line and causing them to starve. Of course they are rebelling, it makes perfect sense. Why are these expenses rising so fast? We are printing money. QE I, QE Lite, ZIRP, and QE II are creating speculative bubbles in almost every commodity known to man.... to bad our Federal Reserve President is too blind and egotistical to see his own mistakes.

• From CNN Money:

"Countries that depend on imports and don't grow a lot of their own grains, like many Middle Eastern nations, are also feeling the pain from price pressures. The recent turmoil there, with outbreaks of riots and violent clashes with police and military forces, is partially related to surging food prices.

"What has happened in Tunisia, is happening right now in Egypt, but also riots in Morocco, Algeria and Pakistan, are related not only to high unemployment rates and to income and wealth inequality, but also to this very sharp rise in food and commodity prices," Roubini said.

I'm not sure how this will all turn out.... but I do know one thing, we need to quit printing money. This would send us into an ugly period of deflation with major liquidity concerns arising in the financial sector, but the "too big to fails" need to fail and the financial system needs to take another hit and go through the restructuring process that was intended for 2008 so this country can get back on the right track again.