Black Coffee: Everyone Out of the Pool!

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 …

Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish.

— Ovid

Credits and Debits

Debit: Did you see this? Rite Aid, once one of America’s biggest pharmacy chains, shuttered its remaining 89 stores this week after filing for bankruptcy in May for the second time in less than two years. The chain was founded way back in 1962. Now, Rite Aid is only a memory, cast into the dustbin of other failed drug stores. Oh, and speaking of failures…

Debit: On a related note, a total of 249,152 individual Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings were made in the first nine months of this year in the United States, which is 15% more compared to the same period last year. Unlike a Chapter 13 bankruptcy which permits companies to stay in business while working out their debt trouble, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy involves a court-appointed trustee selling off an individual’s nonexempt assets to pay off creditors. Then again, it appears as if even the creditors are once again struggling to survive…

Debit: Of course, one can be forgiven for assuming the number of individuals filing for liquidation bankruptcies is related to ongoing housing affordability woes. Yes; housing affordability in America is now the best it’s been in more than two and a half years – the trouble is the monthly principal and interest (P&I) payment on an average-priced home has fallen to $2148, or 30% of the median US household income, which is still more than five percentage points above the long-run average. In other words: For first time buyers, buying a home is still unaffordable. Never mind the electricity bills…

Credit: With that in mind, Maxwell House coffee is temporarily lowering its price for one year and rebranding itself as “Maxwell Apartment” to keep coffee lovers stocked up with a full year’s worth of coffee. No, really. For $39.99, fans can snag four 27.5-ounce canisters of Maxwell Apartment coffee on Amazon. Before the marketing gimmick, those four canisters would cost about $52. The deal is designed to save coffee lovers more than $1000 annually, compared to daily cafe runs, which can add up to more than $90 per month. Unfortunately, that gesture probably won’t be enough to get everybody back into the pool…

Credit: In other news, shipping costs from Shanghai to Los Angeles dropped to $2311 – that’s the lowest rate since December 2023. In the meantime, US import volumes are expected to continue declining with January 2026 projected to be 19% lower year-over-year (YoY). The price decline is being driven by weaker global demand, price wars, and excess shipping capacity, some economists are warning that it’s dangerous to assume that a global recession is underway solely from shipping costs alone. Good point. After all, the economy’s health is a mosaic of indicators, which is why it’s so easy to be misled when we fail to see the entire picture. Oh, wait…

Debit: Over on Wall Street the stock market took it on the chin Friday, after President Trump promised to increase tariffs on China. At the closing bell the Dow lost 1.9%, the S&P 500 fell roughly 2.7% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 3.6%. It was the major indices’ worst trading day since April and it capped a red week for all three of them, with the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq shedding 2.7%, 2.4% and 2.5% over the last five days of trading, respectively.

Debit: Meanwhile, global debt has surged more than tenfold since 1990, from $21 trillion to an estimated $250 trillion. As a result, this unprecedented mountain of IOUs has become a ticking time bomb that will ultimately bring an end to the global debt-based fiat monetary system. In fact, it’s already becoming a problem for the US, which is now running annual deficits of nearly $2 trillion.

Debit: Here in the US, those massive annual deficits is the reason why the National debt is now just $200 billion away from topping $38 trillion – a level that will probably be reached by the end of this month. Just don’t expect any changes to this current rotting corrupt debt-based monetary system until it completely collapses because it’s wildly profitable for both the politicians and the bankers. And if you don’t believe me, just ask this guy:

Credit: Speaking of the National Debt, silver is so cheap that the ratio of silver to US federal debt is near an all time low. In fact, macro analyst Jesse Columbo points out that, comparing the silver price to federal deficit spending “is an important metric because it shows whether the price of silver has kept pace with the growth of the National Debt – and the answer is clearly ‘no.’ At its 1980 peak, the debt-to-silver price ratio was 1377, but only 33 today.” Then again, don’t forget that gold has its ratios to watch too…

Credit: By the way, Mr. Columbo also points out that silver is also ridiculously cheap when the price is compared to the US money supply (M2). For example, although silver is currently hovering around the same nominal price of $50, its real-world price is much lower than it was in 1980 and 2011 – in 1980 the ratio was 1038, in 2011 it was 176, and today it’s just 66. Imagine that.

Credit: As for the yellow metal, it’s now up approximately 50% on the year – its best annual performance since 1979. Despite this, 40% of fund managers still own zero gold. At some point, you’d think they’d understand that gold is sending a warning about our fraudulent debt-based fiat monetary system, and the threat it poses to their client’s portfolios that was slowly built over many years with the hard-earned cash from a lifetime of work. Thankfully, most people still control and make the decision for their own long-term savings. Hopefully, you’re one of them. Got gold?

By the Numbers

A new study analyzed the prices of 26 common grocery items in 100 of the largest cities. The analysts then added those costs together and compared them to each city’s respective median household income in order to determine the ten cities where people are currently spending the greatest percentage of their income on groceries:

2.87% Memphis, TN

2.89% Milwaukee, WI

2.90% Cincinnati, OH

2.98% Buffalo, NY

3.00% Hialeah, FL

3.09% Toledo, OH

3.16% Newark, NJ

3.28% Birmingham, AL

3.77% Cleveland, OH

3.78% Detroit, MI

Source: WalletHub

The Question of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Result

• I’m an introvert   57%
• I’m an ambivert   23%
• I’m an extrovert   20%

More than 1700 Len Penzo dot Com readers answered last week’s question and it turns out that, slightly more than 1 in 5 of you are ambiverts, which is a person who is able to adjust their personalty to either an introvert or extrovert as the situation requires. Psychology experts claim that almost 2 in 3 people are ambiverts.

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: Friendly Skies

The airline had a policy that required the first officer to stand at the door while the passengers exited, smile, and give them the obligatory ‘Thanks for flying XYZ airline!’ send-off.

An airline pilot on this particular flight hammered his plane into the runway extremely hard.

In light of his bad landing, the first officer had difficulty looking the passengers in the eye as they deplaned because he was constantly worried that a passenger would have a smart comment. However, once most of the passengers were off the plane it became apparent — to the relief of the pilot — that they were all too shell-shocked to say anything.

Finally, everyone had gotten off the plane except for one little old lady who was walking with a cane. “Sonny,” she said, “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

The pilot said, “Why no, ma’am. What is it?”

The little old lady said, “Did you land this plane — or were we shot down?”

(h/t: Susan)

Squirrel Cam

Squirrel gets a nut and then…

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Buy me a coffee? Thank you so much!

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More Useless News

Here are the top — and bottom — five states in terms of the average number of pages viewed per visit here at Len Penzo dot Com over the past 30 days:

1. Georgia (2.28 pages/visit)
2. Kentucky (2.20)
3. South Carolina (2.09)
4. Florida (2.06)
5. Missouri (2.05)

46. New Mexico (1.50)
47. Mississippi (1.39)
48. Rhode Island (1.17)
49. Montana (1.13)
50. Hawaii (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 out to me at: Len@LenPenzo.com

Taddy left this comment after reading his personal finance horoscope, which warned him to stay away from Hamburger Helper. (I know… If you’re really curious, check it out.)

Oh no! Scorpio here. I’ve been eating cheeseburger helper for most of a month.

Okay. But please vary your diet by occasionally eating something from the other three bachelor food groups too: ramen, beer and mac & cheese.

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.

Photo Credit: stock photo