Increasing worries about global warming, and its effects on food prices, or about the cold and snowy winter in the northern hemisphere and its effects on heating fuel prices, are contagious stories. They are even connected to the day’s top story, the revolutions in the Middle East, which, according to some accounts, were triggered by popular discontent over high food prices – and which could themselves trigger further increases in oil prices.
不过当今的商品价格上涨则更可能持续下去，因为它身上更多地附着有一个“新时代”故事的光环。对全球变暖及其对食品价格影响的担忧，以及北半球寒冷冬天及其对取暖用油价格影响的恐惧都成为了人们之间流传的故事，甚至与当今的头条新闻——中东革命——联系了起来，因为某些说法认为革命是被大众对高食品价格的不满所激发的——而且还会因此引发油价的进一步上涨。