Consumer Spending Stagnates as Prices Rise - New York Times

Consumer Spending Stagnates as Prices Rise - New York Times
Things do not look well.
Perhaps commodities essential to human life should not be traded freely. Speculation around commodities has done nothing but to make the situation worse. The basic rule of supply & demand even ceased to function due to the tremendous capital that hedge funds hold in their hands.
This whole world has become the backyard of few greedy gamblers. To disrupt this game, we need ground-breaking alternate energy source so that oil and those who hold them can be rendered obsolete.