Theories

A Deadly Cup of Starbucks

New theory of economic woe.

Slate’s Daniel Gross proposes “the Starbucks theory of international economics”: namely, the more Starbucks a country has, the more likely that country “is to have suffered catastrophic financial losses.” Caffeine-happy America, with nearly 200 Starbucks in Manhattan alone, obviously supports the point, particularly as Starbucks strategically opened stores on the ground floors of investment banks, to fuel late-night CDO deals. More casualties: London has 265 stores, South Korea 253, etc., etc. Yet Africa, Central America, and Italy do not have a single Starbucks store and have been insulated from the economic collapse. Gross predicts that Turkey, with 67 stores, will be next on the recession list.