Rising costs worry businesses in U.S.

(CBS News) 

At Joe's Coffee in New York, owner Jonathan Rubinstein feels inflation brewing:

"Coffee prices have gone through the roof," said Rubinstein.

Consumer prices took a bigger than expected jump in Jan., reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.

"Well's there a little whiff of inflation," said Stuart Hoffman, senior vice president and chief economist for The PNC Financial Services Group. "But it mostly smelled like gasoline."

Gas prices have spiked 22 percent in just the past six months. During the recession, the inflation rate fell to its lowest levels in decades:

"Core inflation remains quite low, but it is beginning to rise," said Dean Maki of Barclays Capital.

With the winter frost damaging crops, food prices had their biggest spike in January in more than two years.

At Katz's deli in New York, manager Jake Dell Says it's cutting into profits.

"Every single one of our costs have gone up at least 2 percent. Some as high as 12 percent. That's a ridiculously high increase," said Jake Dell of Katz's Deli.

Unfortunately, costs may be passed on to customers.

In the wake of the recession, many businesses have been afraid any price increase may scare off customers. But at Joe's, Jonathan Rubenstein can't wait any longer.

"Next week for the first time in two years, we are raising our prices," said Rubinstein.

A cup of drip coffee at Joe's six stores will go up 10 cents or 5 percent. Nationally, Smuckers, owner of Folgers Coffee and Dunkin' Donuts says it will hike prices of coffee products 10 percent. If inflation worsens, it could hold back the economy:

"If we don't see any jobs growth over the next six months or 9 months as gasoline and other prices rise, that would be a double whammy," said Stuart Hoffman, economist at PNC Bank.

But many economists believe the job market and wages will begin to pick up soon, which should offset the impact of inflation.

[Jhihmoac]

Big business always cries "poor"...Would they like to trade places with many of us? "D'OH!"

[ddaryl]

capitalism is dead.

If we do not start re-learning to provide for ourselves we will be slaves to those who can provide for us.

[sjc_1]

Most are already wage slaves to the capitalists, they just want to finish the job once and for all.

[RickChicago1]

Youve got to hand it to ObaMao. Look at just his latest screwups.

He illegally ignores 2 court orders to stop the oil drilling moratorium.

His regime forges signatures onto a report showing his handpicked "experts" all agreed that the drilling moratorium was necessary and prudent. (Except it wasn't and his own experts bailed on him)

He thus cut off some 25% of our own oil production , forcing 100,000 people out of work and we now import millions of barrels of oil more every day.

We continue to use ethanol when EVEN Al Gore says it does nothing and only raises food costs dramatically.

The Regime offers up another budget that ObaMao says "forces Congress to live within its means." Where does this Man-child get his ideas??
We are adding more debt per day than ever in the history of the world and this joker wants to say that instead of a 1.5 Trillion dollar deficit by adapting his Leftist budget plan we will say 40 billion a year!! That means we will "ONLY" have a 1.46 Trillion dollar deficit.

ObaMao continues with Quantitative Easing parts 1 and 2, as even the Socialist Countries in Europe are telling us its going to hurt the world economy.

The Left has totally disgraced itself and added some 6 trillion in NEW DEBT in just the last 4 years. That does not include the 2.4 trillion that ObaMaoCare will add to the deficit. So going back to when Liberals took the House our national debt was some 8.3 trillion dollars. TODAY we are at 14.3 trillion again NOT including ObaMaoCare. The Liberals have doubled the national debt IN FOUR YEARS!!

Yet they still continue to add new debt and new hairbrained ideas (Hi-speed rail and ObaMao just announced he wants to add a 100 million to the budget of the Smithsonian) as a sop for the Leftist unions. Lets defund EVERYTHING the Left has installed thats bleeding America.

[tmittelstaed]

Do you just listen to Palin all day long or do you also wank off to her blathering too?

[btrfly54]

I'd love for someone to finally explain to me WHY we can't atleast get cheap gasoline for all the money we've given to Iraq and other oil countries? Every time our gas prices spike, everything else does and we all suffer! And WHY do we continue to give away billions of dollars in aid when so many of our own people are living in poverty and our deficit is astronomical?

[sjc_1]

We did not get the oil, others did. We spent $1 trillion on an outsourced war that killed 5000 of our soldiers and injured 50,000 more all for oil based on lies. People should be outraged, but they just go back to ESPN.

[discussthis]

Don't worry, obamao is continuing to focus on jobs with laser-like aim, like he has been for the last 25 months. Fear not. Wealth re-distribution is going pretty much according to his plans.

[thanksgreed]

He learned how to focus on jobs from the GOP...

[thanksgreed]

maybe we should sit on the cash for a while longer...