Black Coffee: Something Borrowed, Something Blue

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.

I hope everybody had an enjoyable week. Without further ado, let’s get right to this week’s commentary …

The ideal marriage is between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

– Michel de Montaigne

Here’s to you and here’s to me, I hope we never disagree. But if, perchance, we ever do, then here’s to me, to hell with you.

– Anonymous

Credits and Debits

Credit: Did you see this?  The average wedding cost now more than $35,000. Obviously, that’s a huge expenditure for most young people who are just starting out. So in an effort to keep wedding costs as low as possible, many couples are jumping on the latest hot trend known as “micro-weddings” – that is, matrimony events with no more than 50 guests. Makes sense. And for those looking to cut costs even further, there is the so-called “minimony” that is usually attended by no more than ten people. Surprised? Well … you really shouldn’t be.

Credit: Not surprisingly, the average number of people that couple’s invite to their wedding has been declining since 2006, when the typical guest list was about 184 people. However, the steady increase in wedding prices over that time is a big reason why ceremonies with 25 to 50 guests now take up about 15% of the market, while weddings with less than 25 guests make up roughly 2% of the market. Just keep in mind that those numbers don’t include dogs …

Debit: Stop us if you heard this before: Housing sales may be slowing down, but the cost of buying a new home just hit another all-time high. In fact, the price of the median US home soared to $397,954 in June – that’s 5% more than the same time last year. It also marks the highest level on record. It also means that, the monthly mortgage payment at that price, when accounting for the 6.86% median interest rate for a 30-year mortgage, is $2749. Ouch.

Debit: Of course, interest rates are prices too. We all know that retail stores already have the highest APRs – and those rates have been climbing steadily – but Macy’s has taken rates to new heights. In fact, they just sent letters to their cardholders announcing the rate on their Macy’s card is jumping to 34.49% – for “money” conjured out of thin air, no less. For a consumer who only makes the minimum payment on a $1000 purchase, it would take almost five years and cost $1047 in interest charges to retire the debt. What a scam. It makes you wonder if, rather than the Big Apple, Macy’s actually started in Nigeria … or Washington DC:

Debit: In other news, we see that our home state – otherwise known as the people’s socialist paradise of California – things have gotten bad that delivery drivers are being accompanied by armed guards while out making deliveries. As Zero Hedge notes, “That means that somewhere, in a board room, it likely made more financial sense to pay for all new security staff than it did to continue to allow drivers to get robbed (and inventory lost).” Crazy isn’t it? Rather than utopia, that sounds more like something from inside the dystopian rabbit hole. As for the drivers, well …

Debit: On a related note, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says that 206,000 new jobs were created in June. The bad news is that only 25% of them were in the private sector; the rest were non-productive government positions. Ironically, the unemployment rate hit its highest level since 2021. Buried in the report is the mix of part-time vs. full-time jobs, which the mainstream media continues to ignore – but we won’t: Part-time workers increased by 50,000, while full-time job holders declined by 28,000. And yet those ubiquitous talking heads continue to “wonder” why most Americans say they’re struggling …

Debit: Now for the punchline on the latest job numbers: The report also showed the previous two months reports were revised sharply lower – May jobs adjusted 54,000 lower, and April jobs reduced by 57,000 positions. In other words: Employment in April and May is 111,000 lower than previously reported. And, as Zero Hedge points out, “when the June data is revised lower next month, the 206K beat will be revised to a sub 190K miss – but by then it will be too late.” Indeed it will. Sadly, the government statisticians responsible for the jobs data seem to be unaware that two wrongs don’t make a right. At least they don’t in the private sector …

Debit: Sadly, the job data subterfuge from officials is off the charts. In all, four of the past five months have seen payrolls revised lower -and this isn’t a short-time issue either. Going further back, 10 of the past 15 jobs reports have been revised lower than the initially announced number – although you’d never know it if you only followed mainstream media outlets. So … is this intentional subterfuge? Maybe we should ask Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Or not …

Credit: Speaking of data anomalies, financial analyst Michael Oliver notes that while the S&P 500 is up 14% year-to-date and near all-time highs – yet again – almost all of the gains are due to just 4% of the companies in the index; in fact, an equal-weighted S&P 500 is up only 3%. Oliver warns that this is eerily reminiscent of the NASDAQ dot Com bubble at the turn of the century. Yes, Michael; but everyone is insisting this time is truly different.

Credit: By the way, the stock market has other doubters out there. For instance, sagacious financial commentator Franklin Sanders says, “the S&P 500 is a hollow shell driven by only seven stocks and the AI mania. When it cracks, the earth will open up and swallow it, without even burping.” The truth is, these markets are stretched to statistically-absurd levels because all of those USDs being conjured out of thin air have to go somewhere. The good news is: Eventually the market will pull its head out of the sand and recognize that our debt-based monetary system — and the dollar-denominated paper wealth propping it up — is a cruel mirage …

Debit: And finally … For all you crypto fans out there wishing upon a star that bitcoin will somehow manage to replace gold as the world’s premier currency and long-term store of value, keep in mind that a new study has found that the average bitcoin transaction consumes a whopping 46 kWh of electric power. That is what the average US household consumes in 36 hours; it’s also equal to the energy expended to process 26,000 credit card transactions. Yikes. Talk about hefty processing fees. Never mind that bitcoin doesn’t “work” when the electricity is out. Needless to say, we’re sticking with the yellow metal.

By the Numbers

Yes; prices are still rising – although, to be fair, not as fast as they have been. When it comes to commodities, some prices have even dropped compared to the same time last year. With that in mind, here are the year-over-year price changes for select commodities:

-18% Lumber

-17% Soybeans

-14% Sugar

-13% Natural Gas

-12% Wheat

+16% Crude oil

+23% Copper

+35% Silver

+44 Coffee

+133 Cocoa

Source: @CharlieBilello

The Question of the Week

[poll id=”544″]

Last Week’s Poll Result

What is your predominant way of donating to the less fortunate?

• physical items (38%)
• my money (37%)
• I don’t donate (18%)
• my time (7%)

More than 1800 Len Penzo dot Com readers answered last week’s question and it turns out that a very slim plurality of you prefer donating food and other physical items over cash. And the fact that just 1 in 14 prefer to donate their time is just more evidence that time truly is more valuable than money.

Last week’s question was submitted by reader Frank. If you have a question you’d like 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.

Useless News: The Rude Parrot

A lady was walking past a pet store when a parrot said, “Hey, lady! You’re really ugly!”

The lady was furious, but continued on her way. On her way home, she passed by the pet store again and the parrot again said, “Hey, lady! You’re really ugly!”

This made her especially mad, so she went into the store and told the owner that she was going to sue the store and kill the bird. But the owner apologized profusely and promised he would make sure the parrot never insulted her again.

The next day, the woman decided to see if the pet shop owner would be true to his word, so she deliberately passed by the store to test the parrot. Sure enough, the bird called out, “Hey, lady!”

“Yes?” she answered.

The parrot replied, “Yoooou know.”

(h/t: Sam I Am)

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More Useless News

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(The Best of) 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 my article discussing tip inflation, Jeff shared this:

In Japan there is NO tipping and the service is excellent — a point of pride, or service. It’s like the server is saying, ‘If I take no money from you, then you know my service was sincere.’ A tip is an insult.

You can bet there are servers in America who often consider some of their tips to be insulting too.

If you enjoyed this edition of Black Coffee and found it to be informative, please forward it to your friends and family. Thank you! 😀

I’m Len Penzo and I approved this message.