{"id":33069,"date":"2015-08-22T03:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T10:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=33069"},"modified":"2024-02-18T09:39:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T17:39:56","slug":"black-coffee-its-time-to-set-your-financial-doomsday-clocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id33069-black-coffee-its-time-to-set-your-financial-doomsday-clocks.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: It’s Time to Set Your Financial Doomsday Clocks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe<\/em> …<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Okay, off we go …<\/p>\n

Credits and Debits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Last Monday, the Telegraph published a piece warning that the “Financial Doomsday Clock” was now at one minute to midnight<\/a>. I know. I didn’t realize there was a financial doomsday clock either.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Laugh all you want, but the Telegraph may be on to something because the Dow just finished its worst week in four years<\/a>. Uh huh. Between the opening bell on Monday and the closing bell on Friday, the venerable stock index lost 5.8%. Yes, that<\/em> Dow.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> I’m sure there are more than a few clueless Wall Street traders<\/a> out there who are scratching their heads at the moment because they’ve been conditioned to believe that the stock market only goes up — regardless of the fundamentals.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> See, folks, this is what happens when the Plunge Protection Team<\/a> goes on summer vacation. I mean, what else could possibly explain the Dow being down 530 points<\/a> on Friday alone? That was the Dow’s ninth-biggest point drop of all time.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Okay, okay. Maybe it ain’t all doom and gloom — in percentage terms, the Dow declined “just” 3.1% on Friday. To put that in perspective, on September 29, 2008, the Dow lost 7.0% of its value in a single day — and yet even that<\/em> miserable performance is only bad enough<\/a> to rank as its 20th worst day ever.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> For what it’s worth, Twitter’s stock ended Friday at $25.87 per share. That’s lower than Twitter’s initial public offering price of $26 back in 2013.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> For their part, CNN summed the whole Twitter situation up rather nicely with this headline: #EpicFail<\/a><\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Then again, there have been plenty of warnings<\/a> that social media stocks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are going to go the way of those once high-flying — but revenue poor — dot-com stocks like Pets.com. I agree.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the Financial Doomsday Clock is now at two minutes past<\/em> midnight. Shortages in South America’s socialist paradise are so bad that desperate people stand in interminable lines for everything from chicken to toilet paper — even though most end up being turned away<\/a>. Forward!<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Venezuela’s currency, the Bolivar, is now losing value so rapidly that people there are using the nearly-worthless cash as napkins<\/a>. Eventually, all<\/em> fiat currencies suffer the same fate. Yes, the US dollar is a fiat currency. (And I hope you were paying attention when your high school instructor was teaching deductive reasoning.)<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? According to Zillow, renting a US home has never<\/em> been less affordable. In fact, with the average American now spending more than 30% of their income on rent, the chief economist for Zillow says the current situation is downright “crazy.<\/a>”<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Things are so crazy, one guy is currently renting a Manhattan apartment for $1100 per month. What’s that, you say? Eleven-hundred bucks is a bargain for a Manhattan apartment? It ain’t if it’s just 100 square-feet! No, really<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Of course, I guess you can do worse than pay $1100 for a 100 square foot pad in the Big Apple. Take, for instance, one particular development there that, according to the Wall Street Journal, is asking a cool $1 million — and that’s just for the parking spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the Numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of Twitter, here are a few key statistics about social media giant:<\/p>\n

1,000,000,000<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Number of registered Twitter accounts.<\/p>\n

316,000,000<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Number of people who actually use Twitter (active accounts).<\/p>\n

43<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Percentage of Twitter users who have tweeted in the past, but not within the last year.<\/p>\n

44<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Percentage of Twitter users who have created an account, but never sent a tweet.<\/p>\n

1<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Saudi Arabia’s rank among nations with highest percentage of active Twitter users.<\/p>\n

208<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Average number of followers per Twitter user.<\/p>\n

74,300,000<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Number of people who follow pop singer Katy Perry. (Nobody has more followers.)<\/p>\n

23<\/strong><\/span><\/span> In theory, the percentage of active Twitter users who follow Katy Perry.<\/p>\n

157<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Number of people Katy Perry is currently following. (@LenPenzo<\/a> isn’t one of them. Yet.)<\/p>\n

Source: Expanded Ramblings<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Question of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n

[poll id=\"76\"]<\/code><\/p>\n

Last Week’s Poll Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

Would you consider buying an electric car for your next vehicle?<\/p>\n