The economic picture is starting to look like someone took a Polaroid of a Jackson Pollock painting. It’s still developing, but you can already tell it’s going to be a bit jumbled.

Annual inflation hit 2.9% last month, marking the fastest increase since January. Jobless claims are ticking up, too—the latest sign of a softening labor market. That puts the Fed in a tough spot headed into next week’s meeting, where it’ll decide on an interest rate cut.

Prices were a mixed bag

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported yesterday that the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.4% from July to August. Airfare jumped 5.9% and car repairs spiked 2.4% month over month, while dairy and bakery products only rose 0.1%.

But no one got hit harder than Ron Swanson. Year over year:

• Roasted coffee was up 21.7%.
• Uncooked beef steaks were up 16.6%.
• Eggs were up 10.9%.
• Bacon was up 7.2%.

There was some good news: Hospital services and car insurance rates were flat, and shelter prices are slowing down.

The impact of tariffs. Some major retailers—including Walmart, Best Buy, and Target—have flat-out said they raised prices because of tariffs. Broken down by category, tariffs are having the biggest effect on household furnishings, appliances, recreational goods, and apparel, CNBC reported.

Labor pains: Normally, when the Fed sees higher inflation, it raises interest rates, or holds them steady, to cool down the economy. But since the labor market is also wobbling, the Fed’s decision is more complicated:

• Initial jobless claims hit their highest level in nearly four years.
• The BLS announced earlier this week that the US created 911,000 fewer jobs than originally thought for the year ending in March 2025.

Ball’s in your court, JPow: Even with the conflicting data, the Fed is expected to cut rates a quarter percentage point at next week’s meeting.—BC

Police are still searching for Charlie Kirk’s assassin. The FBI released two images of a person of interest in Wednesday’s fatal shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, an indication that authorities have not yet identified him. Investigators believe the shooter, a “college-age” male wearing dark clothes, shot Kirk from a rooftop with a “high-powered bolt-action rifle,” which was recovered from a wooded area near the campus of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was speaking. According to the New York Times, a preliminary Justice Dept. report that ammunition in the rifle was engraved with statements of “transgender and anti-fascist ideology” didn’t match other summaries of the evidence and may have been misinterpreted. President Trump announced that he will posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Paramount Skydance is reportedly preparing a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. CBS, CNN, Paramount+, and HBO Max could all soon be part of the same company. Paramount Skydance is readying a majority cash bid to buy all of rival entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery, the Wall Street Journal reported, in a move that would upend legacy media. Warner’s $33 billion market capitalization is more than double Paramount’s, but the bid is being backed by the family of new Paramount CEO David Ellison, whose father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, became the richest person in the world this week. WBD announced plans last year to separate its debt-ridden traditional TV business from its streaming and studios, and Paramount may be attempting to get out ahead of a potential bidding war for the latter, per the WSJ.

The FTC is investigating the effects of AI chatbots on children. The Federal Trade Commission is demanding information from OpenAI, Meta, Alphabet, Snap, xAI, and more tech companies about how kids interact with their AI chatbots and what safety measures are in place to protect them. AI companion bots are the subjects of several high-profile lawsuits against companies like OpenAI and Character.AI for allegedly bearing responsibility for children’s suicides. OpenAI and others have announced plans for additional chatbot safety features, including parental controls.—AE

President Trump signed a memo this week that aims to nearly ban direct-to-consumer drug advertisements, which tend to feature more dance choreography than useful information.

It’s a crackdown on an industry injecting billions of ad dollars into TV annually and reverses a 1997 FDA decision that allowed companies to list some, instead of all, drug side effects, as long as viewers were directed to more info elsewhere. That loophole made 30-second ads possible, since listing every side effect would mean longer and more expensive ads.

The ban could make the long-standing pharmaceutical advertising boom go bust:

• Pharma companies spent $10.8 billion on US ads last year, per data from MediaRadar, and are on pace to top that this year. According to eMarketer, ~$5 billion was spent on national TV spots.
• Drug ads are big for broadcast news: They accounted for 24% of ads on evening network and cable news shows in the first five months of 2025, generating a total of $2.7 billion in revenue for CBS, NBC, Fox, and ABC, according to Nieman Lab.

Not fast-acting: Ad executives who spoke to the Wall Street Journal said they expect legal challenges to delay the new regulations, which would also apply to social media, from taking effect. In the past, courts have blocked limitations of drug advertising on First Amendment grounds.—DL

The world’s biggest coffee chain just completed its first trip around the sun under CEO Brian Niccol, the former Chipotle chief executive who got a ~$100 million pay package to join Starbucks one year ago this week. Since pivoting from black and pinto beans to roasted and ground ones, Niccol has been trying to reverse Starbucks’s falling sales by returning to its coffeehouse origins.

What he’s been up to:

• Starbucks’s self-serve condiment bars are back, as are comfy chairs and ceramic mugs in some locations. Plus, refills of drip coffee and tea are free so that people stick around.
• Upcharges for nondairy milk are gone, the menu is more streamlined, and a forthcoming protein cold foam will soon let customers gains-max their beverages.
• Baristas—most of whom already felt overwhelmed—now have to wear a black T-shirt and pants, greet customers, scribble personalized messages on each to-go cup, and ideally hand over drinks within four minutes.

Status report: With same-store US sales in decline for six straight quarters, Starbucks’s stock is down ~9% over the past year, as Wall Street remains uncertain of Niccol’s plan. But there are some optimistic signs—traffic dips and sales declines are slowing, per Restaurant Dive, and Starbucks’s China business is also improving.

On average, analysts who spoke with Business Insider gave Niccol a B for the year.—ML

Colorado sports haven’t been this down bad since Russell Wilson failed to take Broncos Country on a ride. MLB’s Colorado Rockies are on pace to finish the regular season with the worst run differential (the difference between runs scored and runs allowed) in modern baseball history, the Wall Street Journal noted:

• As of yesterday, the team had scored 377 fewer runs than their opponents over the course of the season.
• That’s 28 runs worse than the current record-holder, the 1932 Boston Red Sox, whose shortstop was named Rabbit Warstler.

But it’s not so bad. The Rockies are still likely to finish with a better win-loss record than last year’s Chicago White Sox. In the competition for which team can have the most fans put paper bags over their heads, there can be multiple winners.—AE

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