No inflation unless you eat, drink, drive or fly

McDonald's, Hershey and Coca-Cola all announced new price hikes or reiterated previous increases in their latest quarterly earnings reports over the past few days. The reason is obvious. Commodities are running amok.

It's costing restaurants and food makers a lot more money to produce or buy food as the price of cattle, wheat, sugar, corn and just about every other agricultural commodity has surged in the past year.

And even though the Federal Reserve may think that higher commodity costs are "transitory" -- which is the econobabble way of saying "Don't worry about it!" -- companies aren't so sure.

That could be bad news for consumers, who are already coping with soaring gasoline prices.

Along those lines, airlines are also boosting prices to deal with surging energy costs. Delta (DAL, Fortune 500), which reported a quarterly loss Tuesday, was still able to post an increase in sales thanks to "domestic fare increases and international fare surcharges as a means of passing through fuel costs to its customers." More...