Today's Outrage: What's Up With Inflation?

Who's raising prices in this economy?

What a world when gasoline and clothing prices jump by the most in nearly two decades as hundreds of thousands of workers lose their jobs amid an apparently deepening recession.

I long ago realized that gasoline prices fluctuate to the beat of their own (oil) drum. The oil cartels have us over the barrel, if you'll forgive me for applying a bad pun to a worse cliché.

ConocoPhillips(COP Quote), Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote), BP(BP Quote) and other producers of gasoline know how to play the supply and demand game to their own advantage -- which is good for investors and puzzling to consumers. So I'm not going to try to decipher the 8.3% jump in the gasoline index for February.

But clothing prices? The apparel index rose 1.3%, with the biggest increase for menswear and clothing for boys. Where's that coming from?

Last I checked, consumers were buying less and sales were declining at Gap(GPS Quote), Macy's(M Quote) and Target(TGT Quote).Not to mention the losses reported by Liz Claiborne (LIZ Quote)and other clothing makers.