OIL & GOLD HIT FRESH NEW HIGHS

With the price rise from these commodities people are now talking about the dreaded I word.

Gold hit record highs a second straight day Wednesday and oil soared to fresh 2-1/2 year highs, sparking fears of inflation that could hurt some of the world's most dependable economies.

Price pressures were rising in Asia's emerging economies — which had been the catalyst for the world's recovery from the financial crisis — and were unlikely to subside soon, the Asian Development Bank cautioned.

"High and volatile oil and food prices will, in particular, reverberate through the world economy, and they are likely to stay that way in 2011-2012,'' the ADB said. "They will thus be a significant source of global inflation, especially in developing countries where recovery is firmly under way,'' the Manila-based agency said in a report.

Add this to the fact that even President Obama acknowledges that high gas prices are here to stay.

Pitching the promise of energy independence, President Barack Obama cautioned Wednesday that it's going to be tough to transition from America's oil-dependent economy and acknowledged there's little he can do to lower gas prices over the short term.

"I'm just going to be honest with you. There's not much we can do next week or two weeks from now," the president told workers at a wind turbine plant. It's a theme Obama's struck before as he tries to show voters he's attuned to a top economic concern with gas prices pushing toward $4 a gallon.

Obama said he wants to move toward "a future where America is less dependent on foreign oil, more reliant on clean energy produced by workers like you." That will happen by reducing oil imports, tapping domestic energy sources and shifting the nation to renewable and less polluting sources of energy, such as wind, the president says. He has set a goal of reducing oil imports by one-third by 2025.

But the president said it won't happen overnight and if any politician says it's easy, "they're not telling the truth."

"Gas prices? They're going to still fluctuate until we can start making these broader changes, and that's going to take a couple of years to have serious effect," Obama said.

The article goes on to say that with gas prices now hovering at a nationwide avarage of  $3.70 USD. This is still a full two months before the start of the summer driving season where the prices go up. Does anyone really think people are going to be happy paying $4-5 USD per gallon gas?