Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told CBS News in March that he saw "green shoots" of economic recovery beginning to sprout, including in mortgages and business lending.
Now it seems like those "green shoots" that were beginning to appear may have been rooted in inflation.
Thanks to a combination of influences, including increased jitters on the part of investors and the Fed's decision to print large quantities of money, there's more reason than there was a few months ago to worry about a spate of inflation.
The U.S. dollar has fallen 10 percent since reaching a three-year high in March. Gold is up, commodities are up, and crude oil prices have roughly doubled this year. And the possibility of a debt downgrade for Britain, one of the few nations with a triple-A credit rating -- has shown that no currency is invulnerable.
Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, said on Thursday that the United States' own triple-A credit rating will "eventually" be lost as well. "The markets are beginning to anticipate the possibility of" a downgrade, Gross said, according to Bloomberg News.
If this sounds obscure, especially when most of the recent talk has been about deflation, you're not alone. But let's walk through some of the implications: - CBS News Story
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