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.
Here we go …
Credits and Debits
Debit: So … How do we know when a bear market for equities is just around the corner? When we see articles like this one from MarketWatch entitled “Why 100% of Your Investment Portfolio Should Be in Stocks.” Heh.
Debit: Meanwhile, the second US housing bubble in 10 years also looks like it is getting ready to pop — in spite of the government trying to keep it inflated via relatively new but reckless programs that allow low income homebuyers to move in with only 3% down.
Debit: It’s hard to believe the economy is as rosy as Wall Street seems to believe when half of all New Yorkers say that, when it comes to their personal finances, they’re struggling — or worse.
Debit: You can bet people are having a harder time making ends meet these days because of skyrocketing healthcare costs due to Obamacare. Even the ultra-liberal New York Times is now showing how Obamacare’s high deductibles make it “all but useless” for most people. Of course, you know what that means, folks: hell just froze over.
Credit: Speaking of Obamacare, it took another step towards its inevitable demise this week when the nation’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealth, said it “may” drop individual coverage in 2017 due to Obamacare’s “weak enrollment and high medical costs.” May? May? Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Credit: The good news is, many doctors, specialists and physical therapists are bypassing Obamacare’s bureaucracy by transitioning to direct-pay medicine. It’s far less expensive and, as an added bonus, healthcare providers get to spend more time with fewer patients. Imagine that.
Debit: Did you see this? A former US comptroller general is now warning that, when it comes to federal spending, “Americans have lost touch with reality.” Ya think?
Debit: In fact, Dave Walker, who headed the Government Accountability Office under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, says unfunded liabilities make the true National Debt three times more than the nearly $19 trillion figure that the government is currently claiming. What an optimist.
Debit: By the way, the states have their own unfunded liabilities to contend with: America’s 25 largest public pension Ponzi schemes are underfunded by $2 trillion — and growing. No surprise there; last time I checked, the only place you can legitimately retire at age 50 with a full-salary pension and live like a king for 35 years is Utopia.
Debit: The truth is, the world economy is now incapable of growing fast enough to get out from under the massive debt overhang that’s dragging it down; we’re just in too deep. Unfortunately, that means only two realistic exits remain: an intentional reset of the international monetary system — or an inevitable economic collapse. Go ahead; pick your poison.
Credit: Thankfully, there’s a silver lining. Although a lower standard of living for most Americans is unavoidable now, in the long run we’ll all be better off. That’s because most, if not all, of the manufacturing jobs that went overseas — along with the resulting prosperity — will end up coming home.
Debit: Believe it or not, as Alhambra Investment Partners points out, the Fed actually saw the factors that would lead to the eventual end of the dollar-based international monetary system way back in 1979 — the central bankers just refused to heed their own warnings.
Debit: When the US is finally forced to live within its means, we’ll stop seeing stories like the one that recently shined a spotlight on a Defense Department gas station built in the middle of Afghanistan for $43 million — even though the private sector builds similar stations in neighboring Pakistan for $500,000. Sheesh. Talk about fuelish expenditures.
The Question of the Week
[poll id="89"]
Last Week’s Poll Result
Which ability would you rather have?
- Speak all languages fluently (57%)
- Speak with animals (43%)
More than 700 people answered this week’s survey question and the results should settle once and almost three in five readers would rather be able to speak to any human on earth, as opposed to the animals. That puts me in the minority.
Since it is already possible to converse with almost one-third of the world’s inhabitants by knowing only Mandarin, English and Spanish — something that can reasonably be learned with modest effort — I would prefer the ability to talk to animals.
By the Numbers
The world’s ten most spoken languages:
1 Mandarin (1000 million speakers)
2 English (508 million)
3 Hindustani (497 million)
4 Spanish (392 million)
5 Russian (277 million)
6 Arabic (246 million)
7 Bengali (211 million)
8 Portuguese (191 million)
9 Malay-Indonesian (159 million)
10 French (129 million)
Source: Listverse
Other Useless News
Here are the top — and bottom — five Canadian provinces and territories in terms of the average number of pages viewed per visit here at Len Penzo dot Com over the past 30 days:
1. Quebec (2.05 pages/visit)
2. Northwest Territories (2.00)
3. British Columbia (1.52)
4. Prince Edward Island (1.50)
5. Ontario (1.49)
9. Newfoundland and Labrador (1.39)
10. Nova Scotia (1.35)
11. Saskatchewan (1.28)
12. Nunavut (1.25)
13. Yukon Territory (1.00)
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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 me at: Len@LenPenzo.com
I want to thank No Name Please, who sent the following note to the Len Penzo dot Com complaint department this week:
I want to echo the sentiments of last week’s letter writer. You seem oblivious to the fact that you’re more often than not so very wrong on so many things.
Believe me; it’s hard to be oblivious when the public has your email address.
I’m Len Penzo and I approved this message.
Photo Credit: brendan-c
Len,
Got any ideas about what this emergency Fed meeting was called for tomorrow? Maybe it’s possible things are starting to become dire. All economic indices from around the world are going to hell and it seems the metals have been under attack more then ever the last month. Can you lay out any ideas of what you think will be discussed?
Jared
I’ve seen lots of speculation, Jared, but who is to say. You are right about the precious metals. Both silver and gold have been hammered relentlessly (via obvious naked shorting) for the past two weeks after crossing their 200 day moving averages. Makes perfect sense when fiat is being debased at never-before-seen levels, doesn’t it?
I know it is hard to believe, but the Fed is fighting for its life now — and will continue to do so until there is a system reset.
It seems the Fed is dead set on raising rates in December. They want to show confidence in the “recovery.” This move will probably torpedo the fragile economy and send us straight into recession. This will probably also send rates negative in the near future, which is what they really want to do.
The fact that they have been unable to raise rates even a measly 25 basis points over the past seven years just goes to show what a mirage this whole recovery is. If 25 basis points can derail the economic “recovery”, then the economy was never healthy to begin with — which it wasn’t, as we all know it has been built and supported on a mountain of low interest rates and QE.