Let me begin by giving you some Friday topics, starting off with today’s producer price index, which rose unexpectedly. Over the past 12 months, these wholesale prices have increased 7.4 percent, with food up 15.5 percent and energy up 16.2 percent.

So let me get this right. The Federal Reserve has been jacking up its target rate by leaps and bounds since the beginning of the year. Interest rates across the board have gone up. Everyone is correctly worried about recession. Yet wholesale inflation continues to roar. What’s up with that?