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Len Penzo dot Com

The offbeat personal finance blog for responsible people.

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What Causes a Currency Crisis?

By Sabado Domingo

When a speculative attack occurs in the foreign exchange value of a currency, it results in a sudden sharp depreciation, which is known as a currency crisis. This isn't new information. Economists have known what causes a currency crisis for hundreds ...

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2 Comments May 28, 2025

Hyperinflation Facts: 18 Strange Things You Probably Don’t Know

By Len Penzo

The US National Debt recently surpassed $35 trillion. Not surprisingly, the world is finally losing faith in our currency, as evidenced by the emergence of the BRICS trading bloc and its intention to introduce a new currency based on gold and, ...

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September 2, 2024

Why Cutting Expenses to the Bone Isn’t Always Enough

By Len Penzo

The other day I was fueling up my car at the local gas station. While I was waiting for the tank to fill, I thought it would be a good idea to get rid of the remains of a ridiculously large bug that was splattered on the windshield. Unfortunately, ...

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August 12, 2024

A Comparison of Creditism vs. Capitalism

By Len Penzo

Have you ever heard somebody use the term "creditism"? Well ... the following is from an article I came across by Brian Maher of the Daily Reckoning that explains creditism and really puts our current monetary system in perspective: Author Richard ...

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May 6, 2024

The Fed, the Market, and the Wisdom of Crowds

By Len Penzo

Those of you who have been reading my weekly Black Coffee columns are aware of my repeated lamentations that, thanks to the manipulation of interest rates by the Fed and interventions and bail-outs by our federal government -- which inhibit ...

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April 22, 2024

Why You Should Care About Digital Currencies

By Tex Freitag

Digital money, cybercash, space bucks - whatever you call it, virtual currency is here to disrupt finances for good! While cryptos confuse some and enthuse others, ignorance won't inoculate average folks from emerging econo-realities. As blockchain ...

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April 8, 2024

Why Deflation Benefits Savers

By Len Penzo

Ever since the Great Depression, central bankers have, curiously, striven to avoid deflation at all costs. But benign price deflation caused by increases in productivity -- as opposed to "bad" deflation caused by a reduction in money supply -- leads ...

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March 7, 2024

Why Libertarians Prefer Gold and Silver to Fiat Currency

By Len Penzo

Nowhere in history has liberty ever caused a nation to lose its mind and soul like collectivism has. Never. For proof, all one has to do is look at history: the Jacobins during the French Revolution; in Russia -- Lenin, Stalin and the Bolsheviks; ...

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March 4, 2024

What’s the Difference Between Currency vs. Money?

By Len Penzo

Most people use the terms "currency" and "money" interchangeably. However, there is a very subtle -- but significant -- difference between them. If you're one of the few folks out there who understand the difference between currency and real ...

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February 5, 2024

How Our Perverse Debt-Based Monetary System Works

By Len Penzo

No, you're not going crazy, folks. In today's world, nothing is as it seems anymore. Down is up. Bad is good. Black is white. And the money in your wallet -- as well as the stuff making up your bank and retirement accounts -- is nothing but an empty ...

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September 4, 2023

Dollar Bill Trivia: Fun Facts That Will Help Unravel the True Meaning of a Dollar

By Len Penzo

Have you ever looked really closely at the US one-dollar bill? It may not buy much anymore, but for those interested in dollar-bill trivia, there's a lot of stuff going on with that humble bill -- and some of it is actually kind of creepy. Today ...

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August 14, 2023

Is the $5 Bill the New $1 Bill?

By Charles Hugh Smith

From Charles Hugh Smith's Of Two Minds blog: It's starting to feel like a $5 bill is the new $1 bill. Everything that could be purchased with one or two dollars not that long ago is now $5 or even $10. A few days ago I was enjoying the Butte ...

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April 5, 2023

A Surefire Way to Teach Kids the Value of Money

By Len Penzo

One of the more difficult jobs any parent faces is teaching their kids the value of a dollar. Sadly, some kids never learn that money doesn't grow on trees. It may seem cruel, but parents who aren't afraid to let their kids spend their money on ...

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December 22, 2022

The Importance of Understanding Energy Tariffs

By Sabado Domingo

Energy is necessary for running our businesses and homes, but it can be costly. Consumers and suppliers alike have borne the brunt of the UK's energy crisis, which has since seen the price of energy skyrocketing thanks to high energy ...

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December 6, 2022

When Is the Right Time to Use Your Wealth Insurance (Gold & Silver)?

By Len Penzo

Many people who understand that our current unsustainable debt-based monetary system is in its death throes protect their hard-earned nest eggs by purchasing physical gold and silver. Ironically, many are understandably uncertain about the right time ...

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December 5, 2022

The Optimistic Future of Bitcoin in the Oil Industry

By Tex Freitag

With bitcoin, a vulnerability in the oil and gas industry could be mitigated by oil companies using blockchain technology as a means of transacting business on an international level without the need for central banks and foreign exchange ...

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November 21, 2022

101 Slang Terms for Money

By Len Penzo

In 1737, Benjamin Franklin published The Drinker's Dictionary, a long list of over 200 alternative terms and phrases for being drunk. On the other hand, good ol' Ben never published a similar list of money slang -- which I find to be curious when you ...

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November 14, 2022

The End of the Dollar: Exponential Curves and the Illusion of Safety

By Len Penzo

Perhaps the most deceiving force in the entire universe is the exponential function. It's not surprising when people insist that my warnings about the end of the debt-based dollar monetary system are nonsense. Usually they argue that it's because ...

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November 7, 2022

Forex Trading 101

By Tex Freitag

When trading currencies at a forex broker online, you find the currencies listed as pairs, e.g. EUR/USD, USD/JPY and GBP/USD. Any listed pair will also have a number next to it. For example: GBP/USD 1.2133. This means that if you can buy 1 GBP for ...

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September 13, 2022

A Primer on the Gold Standard and Gold Revaluation

By Len Penzo

Today I want to share a primer with you on the gold standard, as well as a fun hypothetical example of how a potential gold revaluation would work. With nearly $200 trillion in funded and unfunded liabilities on its books, the US government has ...

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June 6, 2022

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