This graphic says it even better

$5 per gallon now a reality

Self-serve regular gasoline is advertised at one-tenth of one cent less than $5.00 per gallon, with mid-grade and premium well over that mark, at a filling station in Arcadia, Calif., Friday, June 6, 2008. Oil prices shot up more than $11 to a new record above $139 per barrel of crude after Morgan Stanley predicted prices would hit $150 by July 4. (Mark J. Terrill / AP)

I hear a lot of people talking about $5 gas by the end of the year - well, I've got news for you - $5 gas is already here. So let's start revising our estimates for the prices by the end of this year. Do I hear a 6? anyone?

In India, Even Gods Are Going Hungry

Poor Struggle to Donate to Temples as Food Prices Skyrocket

Check out this story from Washington Post today. All's not well around the world. India and China - countries that are often held up as examples of rising standards of living are facing problems. Rampant inflation, specially for energy and food have begun to impact the fragile economies - much of which is reliant on the an abundant supply of cheap labor pool.

Probably the best index of the real impact of gas prices on standard of life

You've gotta read this one -

"The S/W FI is generated by measuring the consumer-cost of a gallon of gasoline against the hourly minimum wage, multiplying that by the fuel efficiency of the average car (expressed as a constant) and expressing the result in miles."

Chris Kelly is no economist but this probably explains things a lot better than the inflation linked indexes that economists come up with that explain away the impact of higher gas prices by using a mix of inflation, increase in wages in dollar terms and so on.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kelly/sw-fi-freedom-index-hi_b_48226.html