As the Fed continues to rely on seasonally-adjusted survey data to validate its belief that the time to hike rates is coming, even as market-implied inflation swap rates are back to 2008 levels, the one thing that continues to happen everywhere but in the US is precisely what the Fed wishes for the US (as we reported yesterday): devaluaing currencies and spiking inflation (and expectations), without any accompanying rise in wages, have lead consumers to a buying frenzy in Russia, and to a far lesser extent Japan. As a result, providers of products and services in these countries have been scrambling to match prices to demand, especially since the demand is purely the result demand brought forward due to plunging currencies, not the result of some magical source of widespread wealth. Case in point, Cartier, the luxury jewelery maker, raised its Russian prices by as much as 50 percent after the ruble plunged to a record low.

According to Bloomberg, the price increases reflects the current ruble rate, citing an employee at Cartier’s store on Moscow’s Petrovka Street. The jeweler closed its outlets in the Russian capital for the first half of today in preparation for price revisions. Cartier’s Trinity ring now sells for 125,000 rubles ($2,040), compared with 78,000 rubles, previously.

And surely once the USDRUB tumbles, Cartier will revert right back to the old prices...

Elsewhere, retailers including Apple Inc. (AAPL), Renault SA (RNSDF) and McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) have been raising prices to offset the drop in the value of their sales in rubles. The ruble sank beyond 80 per dollar yesterday as panic swept across Moscow’s financial markets after a surprise 650 basis-point interest rate increase failed to stem the world’s worst currency rout this year.

It's not just Russia: Suntory Liquors said Monday it will raise prices beginning in April for three of its high-quality whiskeys - Yamazaki, Hakushu and Hibiki - as well as some imported brands.

The price hikes, ranging from 16.7 percent to 25 percent, will affect 39 products in six brands and reflect surges in costs for raw materials such as malt and corn, the Suntory Holdings Ltd. unit said.

This is the first price hike for Suntory whiskey in about seven years.

Now if only consumers had any savings to permit this one-time surge in spending to continue for a little bit longer. As for the other unthinkable alternative, where corporations actually raise employee wages, it is so ludicrous in this day and age, we won't even mention it.