{"id":26206,"date":"2014-07-26T14:26:53","date_gmt":"2014-07-26T21:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=26206"},"modified":"2023-08-30T15:50:02","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T22:50:02","slug":"black-coffee-promises-promises-promises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id26206-black-coffee-promises-promises-promises.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Promises, Promises, Promises"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/black-coffee.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-23820\" title=\"black coffee\" src=\"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/black-coffee.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"187\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/black-coffee.jpg 500w, https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/black-coffee-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><em>It&#8217;s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe<\/em> &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what&#8217;s been going on in the world of money and personal finance.<\/p>\n<p>I planted a couple of tomato plants in the spring and so far I&#8217;ve only been able to enjoy about 15 tomatoes. For the longest time, I assumed the plant was just not bearing fruit due to the climate, but yesterday I discovered <em>the real<\/em> problem &#8212; they&#8217;re being pilfered by a pesky squirrel that has been sneaking into my backyard.<\/p>\n<p>Talk about frustrating!<\/p>\n<p>So the battle is on to see who is going to end up eating more of my homegrown tomatoes this year. (Hint: It&#8217;s not going to be the squirrel.)<\/p>\n<p>Okay, off we go &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Question of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><code>[poll id=\"18\"]<\/code><\/p>\n<p><strong>Last Week&#8217;s Poll Results<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How many cars have you owned in your lifetime?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>4 &#8211; 6 (28%)<\/li>\n<li>1 &#8211; 3 (21%)<\/li>\n<li>More than 12 (20%)<\/li>\n<li>7 &#8211; 9 (16%)<\/li>\n<li>10 &#8211; 12 (10%)<\/li>\n<li>0 (5%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More than 400 people responded to last week&#8217;s question and I think the most interesting nugget from the survey is that 1 in 5 Len Penzo dot Com readers have owned <em>more<\/em> than a dozen cars during their lifetime. Wow! I don&#8217;t care if you&#8217;re a thirtysomething or a septuagenarian &#8212; <em>that<\/em> is a lot of cars.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Credits and Debits<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit:<\/strong><\/span> The S&amp;P 500 hit yet another new high on Thursday before falling back a bit on Friday. For the year, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/news\/2014-07-25\/u-dot-s-dot-stocks-end-week-little-changed-on-mixed-earnings\">the S&amp;P is up 7%<\/a> &#8212; despite a US economy that contracted 2.9% last quarter, and little news suggesting that things are improving.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit:<\/strong><\/span> In fact, it&#8217;s been more than <a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/2014\/07\/21\/sp-500-hasnt-seen-correction-in-more-than-1000-days\/\">1023 days<\/a> since the S&amp;P 500 saw its last 10% correction. And while that may seem like a long run, the S&amp;P has also seen two longer runs &#8212; 1800 and 2500 days &#8212; over the past 25 years. So maybe this bull market still has legs.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Then again, bubble paranoia seems to be spreading. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2014-07-16\/bubble-paranoia-setting-in-as-s-p-500-surge-stirs-angst.html\">A recent poll<\/a> by Bloomberg Global found that three in five financial professionals now believe the stock market is either in bubble territory or on the verge of one. Uh oh.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> I know I sound like a broken record, but the disconnect between the stock market and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oftwominds.com\/blogjuly14\/ponzi-economy7-14.html\">the rotting US economy<\/a> is bigger than ever. When any nation has less than half of its working-age population between 16 and 54 with full-time jobs &#8212; as the US does now &#8212; then it has <em>big<\/em> problems.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> The continuing cascade of disappearing full-time jobs is magnifying another economic problem: Real wages are at the same level today that they were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2014-07-22\/rising-wages-where-real-wages-post-first-annual-decline-2012\">six years ago<\/a>. But how can that be if we&#8217;ve been in an economic recovery since 2009?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit<\/strong>:<\/span> At least the prices on durable goods are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/everything-in-your-house-is-getting-cheaper-to-buy-2014-07-22\">dropping everywhere<\/a>. Unfortunately, most durable goods &#8212; like home appliances, televisions, and new cars &#8212; are <em>discretionary<\/em> purchases. Meanwhile, the prices for the things we <em>need<\/em> &#8212; like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2014\/07\/22\/us-usa-economy-inflation-idUSKBN0FR19O20140722\">food, energy and rent<\/a> &#8212; continue to suffer from steadily increasing prices.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> History tells us that all societies with more people in the cart than pulling it eventually collapse, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2014-07-22\/venezuelas-transformation-socialist-utopia-nearly-complete-its-factories-grind-halt\">as Venezuela&#8217;s is now<\/a>. For what it&#8217;s worth, <a href=\"http:\/\/cnsnews.com\/news\/article\/terence-p-jeffrey\/census-49-americans-get-gov-t-benefits-82m-households-medicaid\">49% of all Americans<\/a> receive government benefits of some kind, whether they&#8217;re justified or not. Don&#8217;t shoot me, folks; I&#8217;m only the messenger.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit<\/strong>:<\/span> Speaking of government &#8220;benefits,&#8221; in a potential lethal blow to Obamacare, a federal appeals court said last week that the law, as written, clearly states that the government <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/opinion\/2014\/07\/22\/obamacare-in-death-spiral-after-federal-appeals-court-strikes-down-some\/\">can&#8217;t subsidize<\/a> health insurance plans in the 34 states that do not have their own exchanges &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> &#8230; But then <em>another<\/em> appeals court <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/id\/101838640\">said it could<\/a> because the law was ambiguous on that point &#8212; so this issue will remain undecided until the Supreme Court makes a decision. Too bad we&#8217;ll probably have to wait until 2016 for their answer. Well, unless the economy collapses first.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> What&#8217;s <em>not<\/em> ambiguous is the President&#8217;s assurance to Americans back in 2009 that Obamacare&#8217;s individual mandate surtax <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TdgPauuMmJI\">wasn&#8217;t a tax<\/a>. Somebody should remind the IRS too, because <a href=\"http:\/\/www.atr.org\/new-irs-form-proves-obama-lied-about-individual-mandate-tax\">they just added a line<\/a> for that so-called &#8220;non-tax&#8221; on their latest 1040 tax form. I know.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Of course, the President also promised, &#8220;If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan. Period. End of story.&#8221; He made <em>that<\/em> claim more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qpa-5JdCnmo\">three dozen times<\/a>. And we all know how that turned out.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> The sad truth is, in 2014 Obamacare will end up creating <a href=\"http:\/\/nypost.com\/2014\/01\/14\/another-25-million-obamacare-victims\/\">twice as many losers<\/a> as winners &#8212; in all, 30 million people are expected to lose their healthcare plans this year.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> As for those who still have their plans, the majority are still waiting for annual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_o65vMUk5so\">premiums to drop $2500<\/a>. (Yes, yet another utopian commitment that had no chance of ever standing up to economic reality.)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit<\/strong>:<\/span> Needless to say, a lot of people now feel betrayed by all of these broken healthcare promises &#8212; supposedly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Hxwot4sGTrM\">some more than others<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">(The Best of)<\/span> By the Numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A look at Cleveland, Ohio:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>7 <\/strong><\/span><\/span>Cleveland&#8217;s rank among the biggest US cities in 1950, when its population was over 900,000.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>396,815<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Cleveland&#8217;s population according to the 2010 US Census &#8212; that represents a 100-year low.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>45<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Cleveland&#8217;s rank among the biggest US cities today.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>1 <\/strong><\/span><\/span>Major rivers that bisect Cleveland. (Cuyahoga)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>13<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Number of times that the Cuyahoga River has caught fire since 1868. (Yes, really.)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>21 <\/strong><\/span><\/span>Estimated percentage of people who can&#8217;t say &#8220;Cuyahoga&#8221; without spraining their tongue.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>49<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Years since Cleveland has won a major sports title. (No city with at least three major sports franchises has waited longer.)<\/p>\n<p><em>Source: Wikipedia<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Other Useless News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here are the top 5 articles viewed by my <strong>5879 <\/strong>RSS feed and weekly email subscribers over the past 30 days (excluding Black Coffee posts):<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>10 Ways to Get Fit for Little or No Money<\/li>\n<li>19 Tips for Saving a Bundle of Money on Home Appliances<\/li>\n<li>Why Paying Off the Mortgage Early May be a Big Mistake<\/li>\n<li>DVDs from Hell: How to Deal with Unskippable Trailers and Ads<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id5689-things-you-should-always-haggle-for-2.html\">Don&#8217;t Be a Wimp: 22 Things You Should Always Haggle For<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Hey, no matter how <em>you<\/em> got here, please be sure to:<\/p>\n<p>1. Click that <strong>Like<\/strong> button in the sidebar to your right and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LenPenzo\">become a fan of Len Penzo dot Com on Facebook<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>2. Make sure you <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/LenPenzo\">follow me on Twitter<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>And last, but not least&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>3. Don&#8217;t forget to <a href=\"mailto:lenpenzolist@aweber.com\">subscribe via email<\/a> too. Thank you!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here&#8217;s Some Other Articles You Might Enjoy &#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DINKS Finance<\/strong> &#8211; Am I Missing Out By Not Having Kids? <em>(Note from Len: Yes.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Budgeting for More &#8211;<\/strong> Advice for Young, First-Time Home Buyers<\/p>\n<p><strong>Money Counselor<\/strong> &#8211; Debt Doesn&#8217;t Cure Debt!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Money Under 30 &#8211; <\/strong>How to Collect from People Who Owe You Money<\/p>\n<p><strong>Young Adult Money<\/strong> &#8211; 4 Reasons Not to Quit Your Job to Start a Business<\/p>\n<p><strong>Letters, I Get Letters <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Every week I feature the most interesting question or comment &#8212; 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&#8217;s interesting or not! You can reach out to me at: <strong>Len@LenPenzo.com<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Denise<\/strong> was not impressed with my article explaining why <a href=\"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id1309-21-reasons-why-corner-lots-are-for-suckers-2.html\">corner lots are for suckers<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I have lived on corner lots most of my life. I have not had any problems. I think you don&#8217;t like yard work [and] probably live an apartment. I want to know where you get this information.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">You&#8217;re right, Denise. I just make this stuff up as I go along.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m Len Penzo and I approved this message.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"font-size: smaller;\">Photo Credit: brendan-c<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe &#8230; Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what&#8217;s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. I planted a couple of tomato plants in the spring and so far I&#8217;ve only been able to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","pmpro_default_level":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[472],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary","8":"pmpro-has-access","9":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.8 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Black Coffee: Promises, Promises, Promises<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id26206-black-coffee-promises-promises-promises.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black Coffee: Promises, Promises, Promises\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe &#8230; Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what&#8217;s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. I planted a couple of tomato plants in the spring and so far I&#8217;ve only been able to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id26206-black-coffee-promises-promises-promises.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Len Penzo dot Com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LenPenzo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-26T21:26:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-30T22:50:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/black-coffee.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Len Penzo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta 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