Based on 1988 prices, if scholarly journals were:

Gasoline, you'd currently be paying $3.30 a gallon.

A pound of coffee, you'd currently be paying $9.58 (actual price $3.25)

Commodity prices from U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics interactive web site at:
http://data.bls.gov/labjava/outside.jsp?survey=cu

Journal Inflation data from "Monograph and Serial Costs in ARL Libraries, 1986-2002" at
http://www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/graphs/2002/2002t2.html

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What obscene profit margins? (2002 data)

Petroleum and Coal Products - 7.4% profit

Beverages and Tobacco - 10.1% profit

Pharmaceuticals - 16.7% profit

Commercial Scientific Journal Publishers - Greater than 30% profit

Regular printers - 1.7%

"Manufacturing, Mining, and Trade Corporations: Profit and Stockholders' Equity Ratios 2001" Table 746 in Statistical Abstracts of the United States, 2002. http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/02statab/business.pdf

"Scholars Under Siege" at Create Change Web site
http://www.arl.org/create/librarians/issues/silent.html

"Scholars have lost control" at Create Change Web site
http://www.createchange.org/librarians/issues/scholars.html

[Create Change Web site cosponsored by Association of Research Libraries, Association of College and Research Libraries, and SPARC]

Elsevier Press Release:
http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/0303/msg00071.html

Elsevier Press Release at:
http://www.reed-elsevier.com/r-e/media/newsreleases/press2003/2003-02-20/

Orsedl, Lee Van and Kathleen Born. "Big Chill on the Big Deal?" Library Journal.128 (7), 51-56, April 15, 2003.

Gooden, Paul, Matthews Owen, and Sarah Simon. "Scientific Publishing: Knowledge is Power" Morgan Stanley Equity Research Europe Media Industry Report September 30, 2002.
http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/Journals/morganstanley.pdf

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Car prices (MSRP) based on Kia's and Ford Motor Co. web sites at http://ww.kia.com and http://www.ford.com, respectively.

Subscription prices based on review of University at Buffalo University Libraries subscription information and corresponding publishers' price lists available on the Internet.

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Rejection rates at "must publish in" journals at all time highs.

Nature now receives 9,000 manuscripts a year, double 10 years ago.

Nature rejects 95% of papers it receives in the biomedical field.

Development journal now rejects 70% of received manuscripts, compared to 50% in 1990.

Lawrence, Peter A.. "The politics of publication" Nature. 422(6929):259-261, March 20, 2003.

Of the 126 American academic libraries that used to subscribe to the important scholarly journal, Ferroelectrics, 15 years ago, not a single library now has a current subscription. Is it really publishing if no library can afford to purchase it?

Wagner, A. Ben (Sciences Librarian, University at Buffalo), Unpublished analysis of library holdings based on the Worldcat database record for Ferroelectrics, a Taylor and Francis scientific journal.

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Key trends - a losing proposition.

At the typical research library since mid-1980's through 2001:

↑Cost per journal price inflation - More than Tripled

↑ Total Library Journal Budgets - Increased about 2 times

↑ Number of journals published worldwide since mid-1980's - Doubled

End result:

↓Journal titles purchased by academic libraries - 6% decrease

↓Number of books acquired fell by 26%

"Monograph and Serial Costs in ARL Libraries", 1986-2002 at
http://www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/graphs/2002/2002t2.html

"Scholars Under Siege" at
http://www.arl.org/create/librarians/issues/silent.html

Create Change Web site cosponsored by Association of Research Libraries, Association of College and Research Libraries, and SPARC

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From 1988-1999, health care prices, often cited for out-of-control costs, rose 107%. Scholarly journal prices rose an average of 206% in the same time period.

"Scholars Under Siege" at http://www.arl.org/create/librarians/issues/silent.html

Create Change Web site cosponsored by Association of Research Libraries, Association of College and Research Libraries, and SPARC

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Worldwide sales of research-level scholarly books have plummeted from an average of 1,500 copies in the early 1990's to less than 500 copies.

"Coping Strategies" at http://www.createchange.org/librarians/issues/coping.html

Create Change Web site cosponsored by Association of Research Libraries, Association of College and Research Libraries, and SPARC

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Since 1988, scholarly journals have increased at 3 times the rate of general inflation (+64% for CPI vs. 227% for journals)

"Monograph and Serial Costs in ARL Libraries, 1986-2002" at http://www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/graphs/2002/2002t2.html

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High priced commercial publishers now control 68% of the scientific, technical, and medical publishing market.

By 1998, the commercial publishers had consolidated down from dozens of players to 13 major companies. Since then, in just 5 years, merger activity has reduced this down to 7 companies.

Case, Mary M. (Director, Office of Scholarly Communications, Association of Research Libraries) "Saving Science, Saving Lives: Issues in Scholarly Communication" Presentation to the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library, September 8, 2003.

Robertson, Kathleen. "Mergers, Acquisitions, and Access: STM Publishing Today" Library and Information Systems in Astronomy IV US Naval Obsevatory. 30, 1-8, 2003.