A reason to be VERY concerned: More to follow!!

Wholesale inflation soars in March, second highest rate in 33 years

By Armando Duke

(AXcess News) Houston - The U.S. Department of Labor reported that wholesale prices soared in March, rising 1.1% encompassing the second largest increase in 33 years.

Core inflation, which excludes energy and food, was more moderate last month, rising just 0.2%, considerably lower than February, when core inflation rose 0.5%.

Economic pundits were expecting wholesale prices to have shown a gain of only 0.4% in March and were surprised to see how high costs had actually gone.

Over the last twelve months, wholesale prices have risen 6.9% while core inflation rose 2.7%, which is the largest year-over-year gain in close to two-years.

Energy prices posted their biggest gain since November, up 2.9% in March, while gasoline prices rose 1.3% and natural gas rose 4.2%. But the hardest hit were homeowners in the Northeast where 80% of the nation's home heating oil is consumed. Heating oil prices shot up 13.1% while the nation's transportation sector saw an even worse inflation rate as wholesale diesel prices rose 15.3% in March.

Sen. McCain said that the government needed to stop supporting economic tariffs for ethanol manufacturing when it was hurting the nation's middle class who were facing soaring food and transportation costs. His comments came while campaigning in Pennsylvania this morning when his staff released the GOP presidential candidate's economic plan. McCain also wants Congress to enact a temporary law that stop taxing gasoline throughout the summer peak driving period, though with Democrats controlling both houses of Congress in an election year, his chances of bipartisan support are thin.