MINNEAPOLIS — You need look no further than the gas pump or your utility bill to witness a punishing run-up in energy prices.
Motor fuel costs — mirroring a surge in oil prices — are at heights not seen since 2014. Heating bills are bloated. Electricity prices are rising.
Energy prices always are inherently volatile. That's why the federal government breaks them out — along with food prices — when tabulating "core inflation." In January, year-over-year core inflation rose 6%, the biggest jump since 1982.
