Inflation is a lot like a mob of angry mosquitoes—it's relentless, scary, and really, really annoying. Even worse, unlike mosquitoes, no spray can can keep inflation from biting you in the keister. Knowledge is humankind's only defense. We're seeing a growing number of searches from frustrated folks who, we can only assume, are tired of getting less for their money.

News of inflation in the United States has been well publicized. Lookups on the term are up 20% this week. According to Yahoo! Finance, "inflation accelerated in June to its fastest rate since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005." The Huffington Post breaks down the price increases. A few examples: Food costs are up 0.7 percent, gasoline jumped 10.1 percent, and airline fares surged 4.5 percent.

All this sounds like bad news, but it could be worse. Consider the current rate of inflation in Zimbabwe. According to Salon.com, the country's official rate of inflation is (wait for it) 2.2 million percent. The country's central bank revealed that the cost of laundry soap is up 70 million percent. Meanwhile, sugar jumped a comparatively modest 36 million percent. Heck, sounds downright reasonable to us.

We have noticed a lot of lookups from folks eager to better understand how this economical force works. Here's a selection of popular queries from searchers...

• inflation calculator
• what is inflation
• current inflation rate
• how does inflation work
• why is inflation feared
• how to beat inflation
• effects of inflation
• food inflation
• inflation converter