A story went viral several months ago, whereby a man complained about a $78 meal at Newark Airport. He posted a picture of a not-great looking burger, and tried to make a bigger economic point about this being why Americans think the economy isn’t good. What he failed to disclose is that nearly 80% of…
Continue reading: Billionaire Outraged By $85 Room Service, Blames Biden
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Why do people bring politics into everything? Inflation isn't caused by one president. It occurs over years and no president has full control over it. It wouldn't matter who is president when it comes to things like this, or inflation after stimulus and a pandemic. Economics really needs to be a required high school course.
These prices seem consistent with those during the prior incumbent's administration. How long has this guy been traveling?
This comment is correct. The recent spat of inflation was the result of COVID stimulus packages (which occurred during the prior incumbent's administration). With the passage of these packages, this inflation was anticipated and was considered the lesser of two evils -- the other being a depression. Civics also needs to be a required subject . . . but, it's been eliminated in most school districts.
What? Room service at 5 star hotels is expensive? Really? What an idiot. Did this guy inherit his money? He clearly has zero understading of how inflation works.
whether a restaurant calls orange juice and a diet coke "bar" items or not doesn't change that they are standard breakfast items - with the diet coke being normally coffee or tea but carbonated, caffeinated beverages are common as well.
second, the total bill is not out of line w/ room service if you choose to do those things. His point was undoubtedly more political than economic but that is the world we live in and he has just as much (or little) of a right to do it or not.
and third, inflation has soared under the current administration and it is directly attributable to the continuation of discretionary spending past the stimulus that most developed countries used to keep their economies from crashing during the pandemic. There are large parts of most country's budgets that are fixed - such as for social security in the US - but there is alot of discretionary spending that can be controlled and that is where most of the fights in the US political scene exist today. Inflation is directly tied to the budget the CEO of the country proposes tied to the actions of the fed which should remain non-political.
Partly his own fault for tipping 17.5% when a gratuity was already in the price. As for the rest it is a fine for being lazy.
This guy made a good point about inflation but he didn’t use the best example as price will be commensurate with the hotel caliber. It’s the drink costs which really are doing the damage and not the food. I assume the $14 orange juice is for freshly squeezed. That’s the only thing that stood out as abnormally high. With room service the cost is lower when averaged out per person if eating with multiple people.
Biden’s inflation really did sting regular people. Wage raises don’t mean as much when the price of food has gone up 30% in a few years. The stock market has done well and people with 401Ks benefit but the general economic conditions for most people is less than ideal due to Biden’s policies.
Just a side comment about Diet Coke for breakfast. My go to drink at home is a fifty fifty drink of Diet Coke and chocolate milk. I find milk alone too thick.
Please do not criticize cola with breakfast.
I will acknowledge this drink is hard to duplicate travelling, lol.
Right wing westerners are the biggest snowflakes on Earth. They spend their time looking for things to whine about and acting surprised that they find them. They’re all losers.
Poor Kyle Bass, figuratively of course.
A billionaire.
Runs a hedge fund.
Bet against subprime, aka real estate.
Sleeps at a hotel not a private residence in NYC?
The question everyone should be asking is who is he sleeping with in NYC.
Joe Biden?
If the auto-gratuity is not imposed on the cover charge, the 10.20 is 17.0000000% of the remaining $61
Biden deserves the blame. He kept Powell as Fed Chairman. He brought in Yellin as Treasury Secretary. Stocks are doing good now but they only recently surpassed the price they were at the end of 2021. Regular people have been ignored but 600 billion a year is spent on illegals and their families in the form of housing, schooling, medical costs, phones, and etc.
One could argue the stimulus for covid was necessary due to an unprecedented global shutdown but all the increased spending under Biden over the last 3 years contributed to inflation.
lol another whiny attention-seeker; seems to be all that's left on Xitter these days
I would give him the benefit of doubt.
He could have been generous.
He might believe forced gratuity goes to the owner not the employee.
He did give a rounded up 20%, so he might actually be paying attention.
Still doesn't change the price of breakfast items.
And so this is why the previous President is trying to take the credit for the current stock market highs and the fact that the US has done the best out of all the industrialized nations at curbing inflation?
I don't care about the personal political leanings of the blogger or anyone else. These prices are ridiculous, regardless of the star category of the hotel or if they are similar to other room service prices.
Furthermore, just because someone happens to be a billionaire doesn't mean that they have to be blind to what's going on around them or that they must abandon a value system.
If you’re going to be simplistic about the causes of inflation, stock market changes, gas prices, etc, then you shouldn’t cherry pick when to assign blame or give credit when those factors go up or down.
But of course we assume you make all these criticisms in good faith…uh sure.
Future billionaire here. Why not go across the street for a bagel and coffee ? You’re in NYC
Kyle Bass is pretty well respected. He beat us to a good trade, but this is just weak.
There are things that presidents can't control. There are things that they can.
But most importantly, it happened on which president's watch.
That's why Biden takes the blame on a lot of things.
With what we're seeing in primaries, two very old person who should have retired long ago will be in charge until at least 2029.
Totally agree about the discretionary spending contribution. I also think the CARES small business employee retention relief was abused and that abuse continued well beyond Trump's admin.
Correct on the COVID stimulus placing some responsibility on the prior admin. But the current admin also put gas on the fire with the spring 2021 expansion and later inflation 'reduction' act.
People literally blame Biden for everything. He is a hedge fund manager, who should probably be grateful of how Biden has managed to keep the economy afloat for him and his cronies who are all doing well. I live a few blocks away from that hotel. It is literally some of the most expensive prices in the world it’s prime Manhattan. That hotel room service bill would’ve been the same three years ago. It’s actually not that bad, I know it’s sad but it’s Room Service in a five star, New York hotel what on earth was he expecting? It’s just propaganda to blame Biden for everything.
You can blame lots on Biden but not this hotel bill. Here's the truth to this clueless billionaire. Top of the line hotels charge outrageous prices to people that have no shortage of financial resources and for which $85 isn't even an after thought. Maybe next time stay at the Hamilton Inn near Herald Square. You can get a free breakfast with your stay. Pretty good use of money to me.
Lucky i would be very careful bringing up anything related to Kyle Bass. He is probable the most vocal anti Xi Jinping and anti-China Communist Party investor in the world. You dont want to get on their bad side as much as you travel around the world.
His "value system" booked him into a hotel likely costing more than $1,000 a night.
I wonder how much a room service breakfast would cost at one of Trump’s shithole hotels?
>and third, inflation has soared under the current administration
Have you actually looked at any data, at all? Biden's admin did better than any other advanced economy recovering from the pandemic and global economic shocks of the Ukraine war (grain and gas shortages). Our economy is growing faster, our unemployment is lower, earnings for the bottom 50% income brackets in the US have been increasing faster than inflation (translating to real improvements in livelihood for those people) and despite that our inflation is lower than most other advanced economies.
All in all, the US economy is doing great. Our main issue is housing costs, which right now is a local government and state government issue rather than a national one.
This must be the first time he has ever checked room service receipt! It's a prime Manhattan property. Count your blessings and be grateful.
This is absurd. First, I don't know his travel level but assuming he is often on the move, which is probable, how he does not have elite consideration for special amenities? At the worst case scenario how does he not have a booking agent getting him free breakfast and credits? For someone so attuned to spending you would think he might have a bit of astuteness as to travel.
Either he is completely trolling the public or he is a billionaire who has no clue how to be recognized at top properties with status or profile recognition. As such he comes across as a complete idiot.
I’m the furthest thing from an Elon fanboy but damn do I love community notes like these. The “investor” from Miami posting the multi-million dollar house “he just closed on” getting busted as fake the other day was *chefs kiss*
What in the world would this have to do with anything? If the OP is posting about his idiocy, which has been mocked all over the inter webs, how does this endanger them, lol. This makes no sense.
Anti China Billionaire makes fool of himself about room service in NYC. Miles and points blogger jumps on the "what an idiot he is" post about his tweet regarding room service. Commenter thinks blogger is in danger now traveling. Huh? a bit of hyperbole?
LOL, billionaires. They're as cute as kittens with their antics.
Although some of them actually do have a bit of class. Bass could learn a thing or two from this woman.
https://apnews.com/article/free-medical-school-tuition-ruth-gottesman-11eec429784776027161bcd1b6ea1905
I'm sure Mr. Bass is pissed about his investment portfolio's value skyrocketing over the last 2 years, too, right?
I'll add. Janet Yellen flies in economy. I am sure she is laughing uncontrollably from seat 16A as this guy tags her from The Carlyle Hotel regarding his $14 orange juice.
"Economics really needs to be a required high school course."
And hedge fund managers should be required to take it. Along with a course in logic.
I'm laughing at his response to this on Twitter.
"I did send this earlier this morning to revolt against the craziness of hotel food pricing in NYC. I ordered without having a menu (while on a call) and was appalled when the bill came. I grew up lower middle class…graduated college dirt poor…and appreciate each meal to this day. The hate here was unexpected. Many of the accounts are Chinese disinformation accounts that smelled blood in the water. One tweet reply sent from my account was a fraud."
Oh yes, the Chinese are all over this. As is, well, pretty much everyone in the world, lol. Finally, something even American folk can agree on with the Chinese, that this guy is a complete idiot.
While your statements are true, American voters don't compare the impact on their pocketbooks to what is happening in other countries. They compare themselves to what they have experienced in the past.
For whatever reasons, inflation is sticky and prices went up. The fact that a billionaire paid $14 for orange juice at a premium hotel in NYC that cost less in the past doesn't change that inflation IN THE US was high for several years and most costs have not come down even if the RATE OF INFLATION HAS SLOWED.
I am sure Bass knew the prices of each item off their menu listings before he placed his order. His outrage is misplaced as he had a conscious choice to order or not to order. Bass just wanted to make a political point and created this scenario to support it, which it doesn't.
Hedge funds are loan sharks and leeches that contribute nothing to the economy. They slash jobs like GE's infamous ex CEO Jack Welch, whose nickname was "chain saw", by buying struggling companies, big and small, laying off staff, and reselling them at huge profits. Welch is the idol to Boeing CEOs who reduce the company to its current economic status and global commercial laughing stock. We still did not pay back the debts accumulated from 2008 recession and Covid and now facing more deficits from the two concurrent global wars. Companies continue to raise prices and reap huge profits that add more pressure to the economic engine. I am not aware of any Republican Presidents since WWII who did not experience recession under his watch. We are in the presidential election year and nearly half the country profess loyalty to Trump for a rosier economy when he is best known as " The King of Debt" with three bankruptcies on record. The US was known as the largest creditor country after WWII to the biggest debtor country today. Not the strongest, wealthiest and most democratic country in the world as everyone peddles. We do not have housing shortage crisis. We have population growth crisis. We need to preserve precious resources for future generations of humans, plants , wildlife and marine animals.
"I have to commend him for at least being very generous with tipping"
Leaving a 17.5% tip that is only $15 from a BILLIONAIRE is not generous.
Dude If I was a billionaire I'd be tipping no less than $100 for anything. It's the equivalent of pennies to them.
The billionaire class is one of the reasons why things are so expensive now...the irony of him complaining about it. Unless he is a conservative and/or Republican and just wanted to take a cheap shot at Biden?
While I don't agree with this guy, I'm not sure I quite agree with @Lucky that the hotel is loosing money on delivering a $14 orange juice and a $8 diet coke to the 7th floor! Uber drivers would kill for that kind of mark up and they're delivering from 7 miles away!
When you get out if your bubble, and expand your horizon beyond USA, you’ll notice the vast MAJORITY if not the whole world was (many are still) going through high inflation. Now unless Biden is so demented that he can’t complete one sentence and at the same time so smart that he introduced high inflation in whole world, logic would tell a sane person, there must be things beyond one government/country/president’s control which would have caused inflation.
While I don't agree with this guy, I'm not sure I quite agree with Lucky that the hotel is loosing money on delivering a $14 orange juice and a $8 diet coke to the 7th floor! Uber Eats would k!ll for that kind of mark up and they're delivering from 7 miles away!
Price of food hasn't changed much for most Americans. What has changed is the wages that minimum wage workers get. If restaurants are too expensive now, then buy your own food and cook yourself. That's a choice you get to make. The economy is doing very well for bottom half of wage earners, people who previously had to work multiple jobs at $7.25/hour to make ends meet, and that is objectively a good thing. Their earning growth is outpacing inflation. They are making more than they "lost" through inflation.
I'd also argue that most "average" voters are terrible at managing their money (also most people trend towards past=better thought process anyways), and they get fed a nonstop stream of negative economic analysis completely divorced from reality from the mainstream news outlets, not just Fox but also MSNBC, CNN, NYT, all the "traditional" liberal outlets. No surprise people "think" they're worse off when the media screams about record inflation, even though the price of bananas only went up 6 cent.
Sadly @Trey you are a very good example of the sad and broken state of our education system.
UberEATS would be dead even at triple that mark up if your whole business can only sell 7 juices and 7 sodas each morning. It doesn't even cover Uber's fee.
A 5th grader running a lemonade stand could have taught you all that.
It's not 17.5% no matter how you calculate it. But I'm not surprised if most people never looked at what's written on the bill.
hahaha that's hilarious. guy went to a private christian nationalist college! "dirt poor" lolol. Father managed a luxury hotel in Miami beach!
He is probably one of those "Frugal" ones that will take his $ Billions to Grave with him. I am waiting to see his children fighting for the inheritance.
It's a 17% automatic gratuity on the $60 of food purchased. The $9 delivery fee was apparently taxable but not factored into the gratuity.
You can poke fun at him, Ben. But while it's hard to empathize with billionaires, he does have a point about cost increases. And at the end of the day, he's richer than you ever will be, and can drink diet coke whenever he wants to while you can harp on endlessly about your precious air nozzles... Shades of the green-eyed monster?
PUDU I am sure he is left wing as 99.99% of the billionaires are!! They vote and give their $$$ to the DNC!!
When a billionaire still nickel and dime the money he spent on room service, always remember that when he dies, he will not be able to take his money to his grave. What a pity!
Had a bill very similar to this but for two at a five star NYC hotel 24 years ago. Yes these kind of bills are normal and if you don’t like it walk out and get the same for around $5 at a bodega
He should have gone to a Trump hotel could have Hashtagged Trump then. All this gouging has nothing to do with inflation or President. It’s purely, if you pay today a price, they will eventually raise it further, it’s now only at faster pace. The consumer has lost its power as they accept surge pricing, resort fees, fees on paying with credit card, seat and you name it fee. It’s our own mistake that we accept 14 Dollars for a pint of domestic beer in place like Vegas, NYC. It will continue like this until they all have to shut down because people have no money to spend except for housing and food.
Stupid comment. And left wingers have a core principle of grabbing everything they can for free or have the state pay. Idiot.
I remember paying $5 for a glass of orange juice on my first trip to NYC in 1977, so the price he paid doesn’t seem so bad. In-room breakfast prices are ridiculous globally. Given how unhealthy his breakfast was, he may as well enjoy it while he can. He’s not going to match Charlie Munger for longevity eating a breakfast like that.
the bill was $69, then tax and an auto grant of $10. So he really tipped $25 on an $85 bill. Math isn't your strong suit is it?
And yes, he has a point. The fed prints money and prices go up. Biden has forgiven $130B in student loans, how is that fair? Guess who's paying.... yep the 31% who actually pay federal tax. Facts.
I believe that globetrotter has confused hedge funds with private equity. And, sadly, private equity often takes successful companies and destroys them as well. They're equal opportunity arsonists.
No, he didn't read the gratuity was included and gave what I'd call a fair tip for service that consisted of delivering a table. Probably that's what he's really pissed about -- the fact that he tipped twice. And what's sad is that in a big hotel, the server may not get either amount.
You all know who sets the federal budget, right? Congress, not the President. If you think the stimulus caused most of the inflation, then blame congress-- most of it was given out by congress during the trump administration.
If you think the fed is responsible, then Powell and the voting members of the board of governors were hired by a lot of people - mostly not Biden. Also, look at the 70s and 80s. The fed has done an amazing job taming inflation this time.
If you think Janet Yellen is responsible, then you know absolutely nothing about how the government works... unless you think she did this when she was fed chair.
You all need to study government and economics.
He just wants something to complain about. We all know the hotel breakfast is cheaper than room service and it is not like they charged $85 for the food and drink "set." He ordered separately which is more expensive. The real expensive aspects are in the other details. Tax, service fee, additional tip...
This makes me wonder if Ben is having a slow day... Giving this clown any air at all is a waste.
Actually this is a little different from tipping twice.
All room service I've ever seen has included a service charge, but only a portion of this goes to the person delivering your meal. If you want that person to be fairly compensated for their time and effort, you have to tip on top of that, in an amount that you would customarily tip at a standard restaurant.
I don't know if a billionaire is really the most sympathetic person to be complaining about this type of thing, but $14 orange juice? $26 waffles? That is absurd. Just because it is hotel room service in NYC doesn't somehow make it less absurd. $100 when all is said and done for a relatively small breakfast? Come on. Lets not pretend this is remotely acceptable. This is just price gouging by hotels. Then again nothing shocks me any more especially with fancy hotels. I stayed at the four seasons and they charge you for the bottled water in the room. What a joke. Pay all that money for a room and they won't even give you a complimentary bottle of water. Many of these luxury hotels are nothing short of a money pit.
Be honest - everyone here would've agreed with this guy blaming the current administration, if Trump or any non-Democrat figure was the president. Don't lie.
For the record, it is a required high school course - I'd guess in all states.
Umm, no? There would be so many other things intelligent people would be fearful for if Trump were President. Like our Constitution and the Democracy that has made us the great nation that we are? I don’t think the price of room service would be too high on our list of concerns.
The truth is that he's probably pissed at the labor costs imposed on his portfolio by record low unemployment, which is the generally, and especially here, the primary driver of inflation. Of course, if inflation were low because unemployment is high, he'd instead be whining about the high unemployment and quite possibly lackluster market performance. Heads he wins, tails you lose.
These prices have been the standard for years, just look at all the globalists posting their breakfast bills for the world to see!
Not sure what kind you buy, but I can get a perfectly good pair of New Balance (or other common brand) shoes at Kohl's for under $100 anytime.
So often I hear people complaining about inflation, but day after day I see crowded stores and other places filled with people spending money. We live in a society of spenders (mostly over-spenders) who live off credit cards and refuse to cut down on unnecessary indulgences. I work at a hotel as a front-desk clerk and make what could be described as barely a "living wage," Yet, I live comfortably and and can even splurge on travel or other indulgences from time to time. A lot of people cannot distinguish "wants" from "needs." Until people slow down on spending, inflation will continue. It's simple economics. Doesn't matter who's president.
That's why he's a billionaire. A poor person would have been bragging about how they paid $85.00 for breakfast.
Of course, but it has nothing to do with President Biden, Inflation, or Secretary Yellen. Luxury properties have always been expensive.