Since mid - April, oil prices are up nearly 25 percent per barrel, hitting eighteen month highs.
The recent heat wave in the Midwest from Minnesota to Oklahoma has caused a flash drought in the Farm Belt, sending corn prices up.
Taken together, this leads to higher prices at the supermarkets in the next few months, as well as at the gas pump. Consumers, already feeling the pinch from sequestration, are likely to pull back even further if gas and food prices climb overly much. So far this quarter, only durable goods have been hurt by thigh tightened wallets, but should consumers start cutting into the service sector, the cyclic wheel of recession will pick up more speed.
The housing market, still on shaky ground at best since 2008, has taken it on the chin this summer as we.
