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Starbucks: The Rise and Fall of the Inflation Café

Starbucks keeps jacking up prices, slashing rewards, and making their loyalty program suck more every year. What used to be a cool spot with solid rewards now just feels like a money trap, where loyal customers are expected to spend more and get way less in return. Their brand? Totally wrecked by greed and bean counters.

by Kerry Lutz
Inflation Café

For years, Starbucks was the go-to spot for coffee lovers who knew they could count on the company to treat their loyalty with respect. They offered a simple rewards program, prices were manageable, and it felt like you were part of something more. Fast forward ten years, and Starbucks has gone from fostering community to fostering corporate greed. It’s not just about coffee anymore—it’s about how much they can squeeze from your wallet while giving you the least in return. If you’re still a loyal customer, brace yourself—Starbucks has been rewarding your loyalty with disloyalty.

The Relentless Price Hikes

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the price increases. Over the past decade, Starbucks has ramped up prices every few years. In 2014, a medium-sized cappuccino set you back about $3.65. Now, in 2024, that same drink costs a whopping $5.25. That’s a 44% increase! Meanwhile, your paycheck probably hasn’t gone up by 44%. But for Starbucks, inflation and operational costs are just part of the excuse. Each price hike is just another way for them to cash in on their loyal customers.

Here’s a quick rundown of how they’ve bumped up prices over the years:

Consumer Inflation Expectations Hit 40-Year High, Pressuring Fed Rate Plans

by Jordan Finneseth
Kitco

(Kitco News) – Interest rates and expectations for interest rate cuts have dominated financial headlines for several months, and while traders are occupied with dot plots and Fed speak, sentiment among U.S. consumers regarding inflation offers a potential warning sign that the Fed may actually be forced to hold or raise the benchmark rate if the cost of living begins to tick higher again.

“US consumers’ inflation expectations for the next 5-10 years skyrocketed to 7.1% in October, the highest in over 40 years,” noted analysts at The Kobeissi Letter. “This metric has DOUBLED in just several months, according to the University of Michigan Consumer Survey.”

Continue Reading at Kitco.com…

Two-Thirds Of Economists Think Inflation Would Be Worse Under Trump Than Harris, Poll Finds

A majority of economists believe former President Donald Trump’s proposed economic policies would lead to higher inflation than those of Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a survey published Monday by the Wall Street Journal, findings which go against a far stronger inflation record under Trump than Joe Biden.

by Derek Saul
Forbes

Key Facts

– Some 68% of economists said inflation would be higher under Trump’s economic proposals than Harris, according to the Journal’s survey of 50 economists conducted Oct. 4-8.

– That compares to 12% who believed Harris inflation would be worse and 20% who didn’t anticipate a noticeable gap.

– It’s a wider gap than was found in a similar poll conducted July 5-9 before President Joe Biden exited the race, when 56% of economists said inflation would be worse under Trump than Biden compared to 16% for the opposite.

Continue Reading at Forbes.com…

Bill Maher Reasons That Anyone Struggling with Inflation Should Be the Biggest Proponents of Abortion

by Olivia Murray
American Thinker

Progressives have a long history of proposing murder to mitigate expenses, whether public or private, and Bill Maher is continuing the tradition; from Ian Hanchett’s new report at Breitbart News:

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s ‘Real Time,’ host Bill Maher stated that male working-class voters who are struggling with inflation ‘should be more pro-abortion than anybody’ because if one of those voters ‘can’t afford his bills, wait until he has a baby he doesn’t want.’

This particular segment was a roundtable-type dialogue between Maher, conservative radio host Buck Sexton, CNN’s Laura Coates, and journalist Tim Alberta; when Sexton argued that the abortion isn’t the top priority for people struggling to make ends meet right now, Maher reasoned that it should be. If inflation and the surge in the cost-of-living is back-breaking now, just wait until there’s another “unwanted” mouth to feed!

Continue Reading at AmericanThinker.com…

Ten Signs That the Economy is a Giant Mess as the Election Approaches

by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog

The health of the economy has been a major determining factor in many past presidential elections, and the health of the economy is certainly going to have an enormous influence on the outcome of the upcoming presidential election. In fact, according to a poll that was just released by Rasmussen the economy is the number one issue by a wide margin for voters in the ultra-important swing state of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately for the Democrats, most Americans are not pleased with how the economy is performing, and it appears that conditions are now taking another turn for the worse. The following are 10 signs that the economy is a giant mess as the election approaches…

#1 The number of Americans filing first time claims for unemployment benefits just hit the highest level in over a year…

Continue Reading at TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com…

Trump Vows to Cut Energy Prices ‘in Half’ Within a Year of Taking Office

by Elizabeth Weibel
Breitbart.com

Former President Donald Trump vowed that if elected president, he would cut energy prices “in half” within a year of taking office.

During a town hall event in Oaks, Pennsylvania, on Monday, Trump told the crowd that he would “bring down” the cost of energy by 50 percent during his first year in office.

Trump added that the United States has “so much energy” that is not being used, noting that the U.S. is getting “energy from Venezuela.”

“And, when we get everything else down — houses — everything’s going to come, it’s going to be beautiful. You’re going to have a house,” Trump told the crowd. “Just wait a little while, give me a little while, let me get in. One year from January 20th, we will have your energy prices cut in half all over the country.”

Continue Reading at Breitbart.com…

Tim Walz Fails to Address Rising Grocery Prices Under Harris: Points to ‘Price Gouging’ and ‘False Information’

from Breitbart.com

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, was unable to explain why voters should not blame Harris for the economy and rampant inflation, instead opting to talk about “price gouging” and “false information.”

“Let’s talk about the economy,” ABC News’s Michael Strahan said in an exclusive one-on-one interview with Walz.

[…] “That is the top issue for voters out there — 74 percent of voters said the past year they’ve had to cut back on groceries because of the rising costs, of course, and a lot of those voters, they’re concerned that they cast a vote for Kamala Harris, but she’s responsible for that,” he said, asking, “So how do you reach those voters? What do you say to those voters who may blame her for the economy?”

Continue Reading at Breitbart.com…

Inflating to a Tipping Point

As inflation pressures mount, economic indicators reveal a complex landscape where rising costs clash with official narratives, pushing public awareness toward a critical tipping point.

by Dave Fairtex
Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity

Consumer Economy

Auto/Light Truck Sales (ALTSALES); +3.24% m/m, (prior -3.91% m/m)
Producer Prices (PPIACO); -1.16% m/m, +1.06% y/y
CPI All Urban (CPIAUCSL); +0.18% m/m, +1.93% y/y

Auto/light truck sales have been (mostly) chopping sideways for the past year or so; this month’s increase didn’t cause any sort of breakout from this range. Auto sales are down maybe 10% from the highs set during the Orange Hitler years.

PPI is slowly moving lower – that’s disinflationary – it (mostly) tracks energy prices.

The deliberately understated CPI says “inflation is under control”: +0.18% m/m (2.16% annualized). How are your auto insurance or sickcare costs? Wolf:

Continue Reading at PeakProsperity.com…

What if There’s No Landing at All, but Flight at Higher Speed and Altitude Than Normal, with Higher and Rising Inflation?

by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street

That scenario is re-emerging as a real possibility in recent economic data.

When the Fed cut its policy rates on September 18, it looked at labor market data showing a sudden slowdown of job creation to weak levels, and it looked at decent consumer spending data, so-so income growth, and a very thin and plunging savings rate. And the trends looked lousy.

But starting 11 days after the Fed’s decision, the revisions and new data arrived. And the whole scenario changed.

Continue Reading at WolfStreet.com…

Alasdair MacLeod: Inflation Isn’t Finished but the Dollar Soon May Be

by Chris Powell
GATA.org

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GoldMoney research director Alasdair Macleod, speaking three weeks ago to a conference sponsored by Southbank Investment Research in London, warned that inflation is far from finished and that the decline and fall of the U.S. dollar and the rise of gold will continue as much of the rest of the world looks for new ways of conducting international trade.

His remarks were 18 minutes long and can be viewed at Vimeo here:

Continue Reading at GATA.org…

As Economists Are Today, Milton Friedman Was Incorrect About Inflation

[Ed. Note: We’ll find out soon enough… It seems unlikely that history will remember the name ‘John Tamny’ before it remembers ‘Milton Friedman.’]

by John Tamny
Forbes

In a video that’s gone viral, the late Milton Friedman correctly asserts about inflation that “consumers don’t produce it,” and “producers don’t produce it.” Only for Friedman to go off track with the observation that “too much government spending” does produce inflation.

Ignored by Friedman was that governments aren’t some kind of other capable of extracting spending power from Pluto, rather governments only have the power to spend insofar as they can extract the spending power from the private sector first. All spending, whether by individuals, businesses, or governments, follows production.

Continue Reading at Forbes.com…