"A wide array of businesses are using extra fees and fuel surcharges to shift some of their rising energy costs to consumers." So writes Rick Brooks in the May 4 Wall Street Journal. Among companies adding fuel surcharges to customers' bills are the predictable, such as airlines, FedEx, UPS, and other shippers. But exercise equipment-maker Nautilus or fast food joint Papa John's?

The truth is, we are a nation that relies on goods getting shipped here from overseas and all across the country once here. Just about every product in our marketplace and most services have an energy or a fuel-related cost component. And regardless of what "official" measures may show, these costs are inevitably sneaking into higher prices at the consumer level.

Thanks to Daniel Gross for the article pointer.

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