We are today experiencing the most prolonged period of rapid inflation in the history of the United States. While we have had short periods where inflation rates have been more intense, a decade of high inflation rates is without precedent in the history of the Republic. As an index of how severe price increases have been for the last decade, the consumer price index, which measures the price of a market basket of goods and services purchased by the American consumer, is up 66 percent; the wholesale price index, which measures the price of raw materials used in the production process, is up 75 percent from a decade ago. Not only have we experienced a decade of high inflation rates, but in the last year the rate of price increase has quickened. The consumer price index is up 12 percent from a year ago and the wholesale price index is up 20 percent.