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This morning the government reported that wholesale inflation has taken its biggest jump in 6 months. When I have raised the prospect of inflation on this blog, I have mainly thought of it over a much longer term, considering that President Obama is pursuing an expansionary fiscal policy at a time when the Fed has already slashed interest rates to near zero. In remarks at the National Press Club yesterday, Ben Bernanke said, "At this point, with global economic activity weak and commodity prices at low levels, we see little risk of unacceptably high inflation in the near term; indeed, we expect inflation to be quite low for some time." Sure, this morning's numbers are just one data point, but certainly they should make us pause and consider whether we can continue to open up the spigots at a time of already extraordinary deficits without destabilizing the currency.