Uh Oh...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...nflation_N.htm

Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said during a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board. "We're seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate."
Along with steep increases in raw material costs, John Long, a retail strategist at Kurt Salmon, says labor costs in China and fuel costs for transportation are weighing heavily on retailers. He predicts prices will start increasing at all retailers in June.
I'm not an economist, so mostly talking by the seat of my pants. My thought is with the recession, prices on things were kept artificially low to avoid closing doors due to lack of sales. You can only do that so long.

If you have some purchases to make, sounds like now is a good time to do it. I also was told something interesting from one of our business leaders - during periods of inflation, cash is actually pretty valuable. More valuable than stocks. Stocks apparently do not increase in value with inflation (which I thought they did). But cash, in the bank, can actually earn you some good interest. Not sure if it's true, but food for thought.