Obama Taking Us To Hyperinflation?

"We have the most potentially inflationary policy I have ever observed in a developed country," said Alan Meltzer, a Fed historian and professor of political economy at the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh.

Jimmy Carter on steroids?

Several indicators are already hinting at that possibility.

Gold reaches record prices

The price of gold, often viewed as a hedge against inflation, has set record after record, peaking above $1,200 an ounce earlier this month before retreating to below $1,100. A recent JPMorgan survey of clients found that 61 percent expected U.S. inflation to be "above target" between 2011 and 2014.

Another consumer confidence survey, published by The Conference Board, showed Americans expect prices to climb a troubling 5.1 percent over the next 12 months.

And Google Trends, a Web search database, shows a sharp spike in the number of U.S. users looking up the word "hyperinflation" in late 2008 and early 2009.

"There is a real risk that inflation expectations will rise above a certain threshold that suggests a loss of credibility of the Fed," said Laurence Meyer, a former Fed governor now at Macroeconomic Advisers in Washington, D.C.