It’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe …
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance.
Sometime over the weekend I will unveil my new blog theme. I know. I’m really excited too.
I think Andrea at Nuts and Bolts Media did an excellent job updating the blog’s look and feel while staying true to my requirement for maintaining Len Penzo dot Com’s basic no-frills design.
Anyway, I’d really appreciate it if you could please give my site a bit of a test run and let me know what you think!
One of the most important features of my new blog design is its ability to work on any platform, from the largest computer monitor to a tiny smartphone — so I’d really appreciate it if some of you could do a quick beta test for me and let me know if we succeeded.
There may be a few bugs and nits to work out in the early going. If you find any while browsing around the site, please drop me a note at len@lenpenzo.com so I can get them fixed as soon as possible.
Thank you so much!
Okay, off we go …
Credits and Debits
Credit: The US created 288,000 new jobs in April, bringing the unemployment rate down to 6.3%. Hey … that’s the lowest level since President Obama has been in office. Hooray!
Debit: Unfortunately, that unemployment number — like the economy we’re living in — is illusory. Consider that the labor participation rate is currently at a 35-year low — or that no one works in 20% of all American families today. That’s right. No one.
Debit: It gets worse: 41% of all working age Americans today don’t have a job. Forty-one percent. If you don’t think the implications of that are worth worrying about, then you probably enjoy paying income taxes — or you’re one of the 43% who don’t pay them at all.
Debit: Here’s the problem: Our economy is rotting from within — and the pace is rapidly accelerating. That’s because an increasing number of Americans are rejecting personal responsibility and self-reliance in favor of a massive central government that promises to provide for them from womb to tomb.
Debit: I can only assume Big Government Americans believe that they can’t effectively run their personal lives without “help” from faraway bureaucrats in Washington, DC. Liberty shmiberty. If this was 1770, King George III would be proud of them.
Debit: Of course, as the government behemoth continues to grow with each passing day, the US economy continues to wither. As a result, fewer taxpayers are available to support the nanny-state. Maybe that’s why the White House just did the unthinkable: opening the door for tolls on US Interstate highways.
Debit: The economic rot can’t — and won’t — continue indefinitely. If you don’t believe me, just ask any Venezuelan. Their collapsing socialist economy is in such a state of disarray that a major noodle maker there shut down last week because they can no longer acquire wheat.
Debit: Even the strongest plow horse will eventually collapse if it’s continually forced to pull a bigger load than it can bear. The plow horse that is the US economy may not be collapsing, but it’s seizing up; GDP growth last quarter was just 0.1%.
Credit: Despite the stagnant growth, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the week up 0.9%, including its first record close in 2014 on Wednesday — although by Friday it was off 0.4% from that all-time high. In the old days, markets would have tanked on that kind of news.
Credit: The S&P 500 and NASDAQ also finished the week on a positive note, up 1.0% and 1.2%, respectively. I guess there’s no need to worry when the Fed is providing the markets with hundreds of billions in fresh cash every year.
Debit: Meanwhile, the uber-wealthy are now more willing than ever to pay incredible sums for real estate. A mansion in East Hampton, New York recently fetched $145 million, and an unfurnished London apartment — yes, apartment — just sold for $247 million.
Credit: And it’s not just real estate. Rich people all over the world are increasingly willing to spend outlandish money on art too — like the anonymous bidder who paid a record $58 million last November for a sculpture by artist Jeff Koons entitled Balloon Dog (Orange).
Debit: Folks who can’t see the forest for trees will blithely dismiss those jaw-dropping sale prices for tangible assets as nothing more than the product of over-heated markets. In fact, it’s another early sign that the dollar is on its deathbed, and rapidly losing value.
Credit: More to the point, those high prices are also a reminder that waning confidence in the US dollar — and the rest of the world’s fiat currencies, which today are backed only by blind faith — ultimately affects the wealthy too.
By the Numbers
A few facts for those of you who may be thinking of making an offer on that $58 million orange balloon dog sculpture by Jeff Koons:
60 Parts that were welded together to form the sculpture.
10 Height, in feet, of the sculpture. (So it won’t fit in most living rooms.)
12 Length, in feet.
7 Years required to design and build the final product.
5 Unique Balloon Dog versions in existence. (Blue, Magenta, Orange, Red, Yellow.)
Source and Photo Credit: Christies
The Question of the Week
[poll id="5"]
Last Week’s Poll Results
At what point would gasoline prices cause you to begin limiting your driving miles?
- $4.00/gallon (37%)
- $5.00/gallon (24%)
- $6.00/gallon or more (19%)
- $4.50/gallon (16%)
- $5.50/gallon (4%)
Almost 300 Len Penzo dot Com readers participated in this week’s survey and a strong plurality said they’d start cutting back on their driving after the price of petrol topped $4 per gallon. It’s a good thing they don’t live in California — I’ve been paying $4.29 per gallon for almost two weeks now. While that number has got my attention, to be honest, I don’t think I would start curtailing my driving until that number got closer to $5.50 or $6 per gallon. (But let’s not share that with the gasoline companies.)
Other Useless News
Programming note: Unlike most blogs, I’m always open for the weekend here at Len Penzo dot Com. There’s a fresh new article waiting for you every Saturday afternoon. At least there should be. If not, somebody call 9-1-1.
Hey! If you happen to enjoy what you’re reading — or not — please don’t forget to:
1. Click on that Like button in the sidebar to your right and become a fan of Len Penzo dot Com on Facebook!
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And last, but not least…
3. Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed too! Thank you. 🙂
And Here’s Some Articles You Might Enjoy …
My Alternate Life – If You Can’t Save 5%, You Don’t Deserve to Borrow 95%
Stacking Benjamins – 5 Reasons Not to Fire Your Advisor
Beating Broke – 6 Reasons Why I Love Using Dirty Germy Cash
Our Big Fat Wallet – Things I Refuse to Pay For
Coin Thrill – How to Appreciate Your Coins More
Art of Being Cheap – Wireless Phone Review: Moto G vs. Moto X
Letters, I Get Letters
Every week I feature the most interesting question or comment — assuming I get one, that is. And folks who are lucky enough to have the only question in the mailbag get their letter highlighted here whether it’s interesting or not! You can reach out to me at: Len@LenPenzo.com
I got this note from David C. regarding last week’s post that highlighted the $184 “gourmet” cheese sandwich:
“For $184, it had better be so good that I’ll want a cigarette while I bask in the afterglow …”
Me too, David — and I don’t even smoke.
I’m Len Penzo and I approved this message.
Photo Credit: brendan-c
Thanks for the coin blog love! My new baby’s gotten in the way of me updating it recently 🙂 You ready to conjure up a post yet? Let’s do it!
You’re most welcome, J! As for conjuring up that post … Pretty soon. I’ll contact ya!
Agreed, it’s definitely starting to get frothy out there. When you’re sitting on any large (for you) amount of cash, you can’t help but wonder how much is it going to be worth tomorrow, next year, next decade.
After all, how do you calculate TVM with limited visibility into the macroeconomic mess due to all the manipulated data – inflation, unemployment, money supply / velocity, etc.
When you’re circling the drain does it matter if someone’s flushed or not?
Jack, the Fed has distorted the markets so badly with all of its money printing that price discovery is impossible today. Compound that with the fact that government statistics are continually being manipulated (see: GDP and inflation formulas; the latter multiple times) so it is hard to tell just how bad things are today.
Time value of money may be unknown, but one thing is certain, the dollar will never be more valuable than it is today.
Great comments!
New site looks great Len! Kept with a lot of the same stuff but brought forward in time a bit 🙂
Thanks, Lance. The Honeybee loves it too! My daughter, Nina, told me she likes the previous version better — she’s old school, I guess! LOL
Your new site has a great crisp look. I really like it. I believe that the stat of 20% of families with no one working may be misleading if that includes retired folks. It appears that it does from what I could see in the link to Labor Bureau. As always, you give us much food for thought.
I appreciate the feedback, Steve! If a large percentage of those retired folk are living solely off social security, then it is relevant; I’ll have to go back and look at the BLS stats.
I like your new website look…but miss the dates on your posts. I can see at a glance whether I have read it or not, depending on when I last visited.
Thanks for the mention, being an accountant I love the debits and credits format you used 🙂