Black Coffee: Less Than Nothing

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.

We’re now six weeks into the Greatest Depression and the markets are clearly broken beyond repair, as the events of this week so vividly showed. So let’s get to right the commentary …

When a man has nothing of his own, and owes 50 crowns, it is certain that he has 50 crowns less than nothing, for if any one were to make him a present of 50 crowns to pay his debts, he would still be only at the point of nothing — though really richer than before. Therefore, as positive numbers are incontestably greater than nothing, negative numbers are less than nothing.

— Mark Napier

Every negative quantity standing by itself is a mere creature of the mind, and those which are met with in calculations are only mere algebraic forms, incapable of representing anything real and effective.

— Lazare Carnot

Credits and Debits

Debit: Did you see this? On Monday, the price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed at negative $37.56. In other words, oil producers and speculators had to pay their customers to take the oil off their hands! No, really.

Credit: Of course, aside from being catastrophic for the oil industry, this is another nail in the petrodollar’s coffin. As Bill Holter notes, “The dollar has been supported from oil revenues being reinvested into Treasuries since 1973. Yes, the Fed will step in to replace the demand but this is outright monetization and anyone with half a brain knows where this will end up.” Yep; a monetary conflagration. (See? I do have half a brain.)

Credit: By the way, Holter also notes that, “Negative interest rates and oil prices make no sense whatsoever. For those who believe the Plunge Protection Team can rig all prices all the time, what’s happening shows there are loose ends and unintended consequences not previously thought of. They’ve lost control of the car and have only the gas pedal left as the brakes failed and the steering wheel is unattached.” In other words — kinda like this:

Credit: This week Franklin Sanders opined on negative oil prices too: “Friends, this just doesn’t happen. It’s a glowing sign in the heavens that markets are puking sick and about to projectile-vomit. The world doesn’t work like this. Better duck and run for cover.” Yikes. And I thought the coronavirus was bad.

Debit: Now for the bad news: The collapse isn’t limited to oil — it’s affecting food too. That’s right; everything from green beans, cabbage and tomatoes to hogs and cattle. But as producers plow over their fields and slaughter their livestock for whatever price they can get today, the wholesale destruction will almost certainly lead to higher prices down the road.

Debit: Of course, this unprecedented demand destruction isn’t the fault of the coronavirus. In fact, it’s a problem that’s been building ever since the repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act that prohibited federally-insured banks from using their customers’ hard-earned deposits to invest speculate on stocks and other Wall Street financial products.

Debit: But I guess demand destruction is to be expected when prominent Harvard economist, Kenneth Rogoff, is warning that the current collapse “seems likely to rival or exceed that of any recession in the last 150 years.” Uh huh. If you’re counting at home, that includes the Great Depression. And the Panic of 1907. And 1901. And 1896. And 1893. And 1884. Oh, yeah; and 1873 too. Then again, it could be worse — just ask the poor people who owned these houses …

Debit: For those who believe the Fed’s claims that the bailout money is being equally distributed between Main and Wall Streets, you need to think again. It turns out that when you include the $9 trillion the Fed has given to Wall Street in revolving loans since last September, a total of $13 trillion has gone to Wall Street, versus a relatively paltry $1.7 trillion for Main Street. Huh. Imagine that.

Credit: To be honest, when you look at the following chart from Deutsche Bank, it’s truly a wonder that anybody is still accepting the US dollar in trade for anything of real value.

Debit: Meanwhile, with central banks printing currency with reckless abandon, I guess it should be no surprise that the folly of universal basic income is rearing its ugly head again in multiple nations. After all, if there really are no monetary repercussions to conjuring money out of thin air — I know; but just play along — then why not? Heck … last week, even the Pope called for UBI to save the world. Yes, that Pope.

Debit: Despite inflation running at roughly 10% today, many people are wondering when the inflation fireworks will really start. Well … in the US, inflation has spiked quickly before. For example: In 1915, it took just two years to skyrocket from 1% to 17%; between 1945 and 1947 inflation soared from 2% to 14%; and in 1972 inflation was 3.2% — but it quickly climbed to 11% by 1974. Are you ready? You better be.

Debit: So here we are; precious metals are in short supply at the same time oil producers are paying people to take crude off their hands. At the same time, a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken is now more valuable than an ounce of silver. Frankly, it’s hard to believe that a US Army private in 1964 earned the equivalent annual wage of 77 ounces of silver. Sad. It’s almost as if money has lost its meaning. But you can bet those in charge want to keep it that way.

The Question of the Week

[poll id="318"]

Last Week’s Poll Results

How much is the biggest tip you’ve ever given?

• Less than $100 (80%)
• $100 to $199 (15%)
• $200 or more (6%)

More than 1800 Len Penzo dot Com readers responded to last week’s question and it turns out that slightly more than 1 in 5 have left a $100 tip or greater at least once during their lifetime. Frankly, I thought that number would be slightly higher than that — but, hey … what do I know?

If you have a question you’d like me to ask the readers here, send it to me at Len@LenPenzo.com — and be sure to put “Question of the Week” in the subject line.

By the Numbers

I am confident that the impacts of shutting down the economy for the coronavirus will turn out to be one of the biggest risk assessment failures in human history. Here are the latest stats concerning the effect of the pandemic on the American restaurant industry:

500,000 Number of independent restaurants in the country.

8,000,000 Restaurant industry jobs that have been lost nationwide.

67 Percentage of all US restaurant jobs that have been lost due to the coronavirus shut down.

56 Percentage of independent restaurants that have at least $50,000 in new debt as a result of the pandemic.

70 Percentage of sales lost by American breweries.

73 Percentage of sales lost during the first 10 days in April by the coffee and snack segment.

$30,000,000,000 Revenue lost by the American restaurant industry in March.

$80,000,000,000 Projected lost US restaurant sales by the end of April.

$240,000,000,000 Projected lost US restaurant industry sales by the end of 2020.

Source: The Houston Chronicle

Useless News: Restaurant Recommendation

Two elderly gentlemen were talking, and one said, “Last night my wife and I went out to a new restaurant and it was really great; I recommend it highly.”

The other man said, “What is the name of the restaurant?”

The first man thought a while and finally said, “What’s the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know, the one that’s red and has thorns.”

“Do you mean a rose?”

“Yes, that’s the one,” replied the man. Then he asked his wife, “Rose, what’s the name of that restaurant we went to last night?”

(h/t: RD Blakeslee)

Other Useless News

Here are the top five articles viewed by my 31,052 RSS feed, weekly email subscribers, and other followers over the past 30 days (excluding Black Coffee posts):

1. Are Gas or Charcoal Grills More Cost Effective?
2. Economic Collapse: 10 Way to Prepare for the Unknown
3. What’s the Best Way to Give a Financial Gift?
4. How to Start a Booming Money Lending Business
5. How to Manage Your Finances During a Depression

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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 out to me at: Len@LenPenzo.com

After reading this week’s featured article highlighting My 38 Secrets to Financial Success, long-time Len Penzo dot Com fan Lauren P. shared the following interesting observation:

Great list, Len. To any Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fan, your list reads like a counterpart to the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition!

And many of those 285 rules are actually related to personal finance, Lauren — like #162: ‘Even in the worst of times, someone turns a profit.’

If you enjoyed this, please forward it to your friends and family. I’m Len Penzo and I approved this message.

Photo Credit: public domain