The drugs are wearing off:

U.S. economic growth slowed and inflation rose in the three months ending in June, the government reported yesterday, confirming earlier signs that consumers are hunkering down in response to higher energy prices and interest rates. […] All totalled, the gross domestic product, which measures the value of all goods and services produced, rose at a below-average 2.5 per cent annual rate in the second quarter, a sharp drop from the rapid 5.6 per cent pace of the first quarter, the U.S. commerce department said.

Meanwhile, consumer prices shot up at a heated 4.1 per cent annual pace in the quarter according to the department’s inflation measure. That was more than double the rate in the previous quarter, and matched the rate of the third quarter of last year, when energy prices rose after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The inflation rate was much higher than the increase in workers’ wages, salaries and benefits, according to the U.S. labour department’s employment cost index, which was also released yesterday. The index rose 0.9 per cent in the last quarter, up from a 0.6 per cent increase in the first quarter. “It adds up to an economy heading into a fairly significant slowdown,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for Global Insight, a financial analysis firm. (emphasis mine)

High energy prices & interest rates.  Basically the (other) costs of war.  No wonder people are finally coming around to opposition, the wallet effect is too big for even the most ignorant to ignore.

I’d like to point out something that we don’t normally take note of: notice how a slower rate of growth is considered so bad in the corporatist economy?  Because of the extent to which force holds up this entire system, the rate of return sinks into negatives quicker than the statistics would reflect.  The corporate economy cannot survive hanging around a certain spot for more than a second, everything has to grow and FAST otherwise the enablers of this mess lose money.  If you went back and removed the numerous spots where the cost of large-scale business has been folded into government, the actual market order left behind would be just fine with hovering in place on occasion.