This article in the NY Times has several passages that I think illustrate why there are at least two phenomena that could be leading to a delayed impact of the current high oil prices.

First - There is an issue of the latency in large production quantities of both raw materials ...

This one on how the economy woes are tied to what people expect in terms of lifestyle. And for things to get better, people will have to change their lifestyle - not something most Americans want to do - hence, I think the economic problems will last longer.

A new NPR collaboration between All Things Considered and This American Life sounds promising. Their first program looks at the root origins of the subprime mess. Something I wish I had acted on earlier because I was one of the ones in 2004-5 predicting a train wreck (from the sidelines ...

I think it pretty dumb that in one breath the reporting is that there is no inflation, citing "core" inflation figures that exclude energy and food (if those aren't core, what is?), while in the next breath touting that consumer spending is "up" (but not always noting that the ...