Sinomania!

That's how far back you have to go to remember year 'round double digit inflation in the USA. I can still remember my poor mother freaking out as gas climbed toward a dollar a gallon even in South Carolina! And me watching in horror as my beloved Pepsi cola almost doubled in price. It seems a South Carolina senator, Lindsey Graham, wants to bring it all back to us. He denied rumours that he was willing to table a vote on his and Charles Schumer's (D-NY) "Stupid Bipartisanship" (to quote the late great politcal economist Jude Wanniski) bill to impose huge tarifs on imports from China.

Perhaps this is why --per BushCo decree-- the US government will no longer report M3 statistics starting next week. M3 represents the growth of the money supply. Without M3 figures the official inflation rate becomes even more deliberately understated. And maybe this is why the Fed this week asked Wall Street to create NewBank in case there is a financial crisis and the two big banks that clear a trillion plus dollars a day for the Treasury Department can't handle things?

Don't forget the new oil bourse -- quoted in Euros -- set up Iran the other day.