Have you noticed? Prices keep going up.

I was listening to my wife talk to her brother on the phone. She remarked that "Prices on everything keep going up." That caught my attention, since I had heard her say the same thing to others several times in the last few days.

It's hard to believe that we're told that this is a time of low inflation. So low that Social Security hasn't had a COLA in the last two years.

But it's not only food prices that have gone up. All of the items known as "commodities," e.g. copper, coffee, corn, silver, natural gas, oil, cocoa have risen sharply in price.

We're told that it's all a matter of "supply and demand." China and India are growing economies demanding more oil for their cars, drinking more coffee, etc. This additional demand makes prices rise.

There's only one small problem: When you look at the actual figures--it's those damned "facts" again--they don't support the "supply and demand" argument.

There is a view, however, which is supported by the figures. It involves the wonderful world of Wall St. "casinos" which brought the economy to the brink of collapse just a couple of short years ago.

The argument is that Wall St. has opened some new tables at their "casinos" labeled "oil," "coffee," "copper," etc.

The folks who play at these tables are, for the most part, large investment banks, hedge funds and other large institutional investors such as pension funds. They are known as "speculators."

To understand what's happening, you need just a little background in understanding the commodities markets. (Stop snoring! This stuff is costing us all big money!)

I started to learn about this after the oil "bubble" of 2008. Remember that? That was the previous foray of gas prices into the $4+/gallon range. That turned out to be speculator-driven, and here we are again.

I've spent a couple of years, off and on, looking into this, and my "teacher" gene makes me want to share my newly-found knowledge with others.

This story is too long for a single post, so I'll break it up over a few days. We'll begin tomorrow with a VERY SIMPLE explanation of how the commodities markets work.

Trust me, it won't be boring. Frankly, I find it fascinating to understand how my hard-earned money is being stolen right out from under my nose!