{"id":44017,"date":"2017-07-22T05:15:32","date_gmt":"2017-07-22T12:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=44017"},"modified":"2024-09-17T11:28:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T18:28:40","slug":"black-coffee-22-july-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id44017-black-coffee-22-july-2017.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Why Silicon Valley Billionaires Are Allergic to Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Another glorious week comes to an end. Off we go …<\/p>\n

“One can’t believe impossible things,” said Alice.
\n“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> In case you’ve been wondering where all of money that the Fed conjures out of thin air eventually ends up, wonder no more<\/a>: Five of the ten wealthiest counties in America are in the Washington DC metropolitan area. Heh. Imagine that.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> The booming economy around the US capital doesn’t impress investment advisor John Maudlin. He says we’re on the verge of a major financial crisis<\/a> that will rear its ugly head sometime in 2018 — if not later this year. Yeah, yeah; I’ll believe it when I see it. Wait … did I really just write that?<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Don’t tell that to stock market investors. As of Friday’s closing bell, the S&P 500 has now gone 270 days without a 5% pullback<\/a> — that’s the longest such streak since 1996. Wow.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Meanwhile, the S&P 500’s information-technology sector set an all-time high this week, surpassing the old mark set in March 2000, at the peak of the dot-com bubble. According to the Wall Street Journal, S&P tech stocks are up 23%<\/a> in 2017, by far the best-performing among the index’s 11 sectors.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Perhaps all of this stock market exuberance is due to the fact that investors have now deployed most of their cash<\/a> that had been sitting on the sidelines. The last time sideline cash levels were so low was right before the last big market crash in 2008. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. At least, I’m pretty sure. Okay … truth be told, I’m not sure at all.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? In just five short years from now, Social Security will be paying out more than it receives<\/a>. Remember that the next time some snarky kid accuses you of having one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. At least you got paid!<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> With that in mind, maybe it’s a good thing that the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that, “The idea of a universal basic income monthly cash payments from the government to every individual, working or not, with no strings attached is gaining traction, thanks in part to endorsements from Silicon Valley<\/a> (billionaires).” I guess it’s not just Washington DC — money grows on trees in California too.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> The truth is, those ivory-tower billionaires will never<\/em> provide this “free money” from their own wallets — especially when they can collude with the powers-that-be to use the printing press to silently steal what they need from the public in the form of a debauched currency. Of course, billionaires don’t care about those things because most of their wealth is held in the form of real<\/em> tangible assets — not paper.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Frankly, that kind of thinking is why champions of the nanny-state will never<\/em> accept the gold standard in any form — not that the US is in a position to return to one. After all, according to President Trump: “We don’t have the gold<\/a>” anymore. It’s tough to argue against him; more than 60 years have passed since the American government properly audited the 8333 tons of gold it still claims to hold.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Speaking of missing gold, tennis legend Boris Becker recently declared bankruptcy<\/a>. You’ve got to backhand it to Becker … in his heyday, the guy was worth $100 million. Yes, $100 million! And now it’s all gone. I don’t know about you, but that’s the biggest financial double-fault I’ve<\/em> ever seen.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> I know what you’re thinking: How could anybody ever squander a $100-million fortune?<\/em> Apparently, Boris stepped over the line when he made several ill-advised “Nigerian investments.” No, really<\/a>. Sadly, Becker’s blunder is why so many Nigerian “princes” usually end up living like kings.<\/p>\n

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

[poll id=\"173\"]<\/code><\/p>\n

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

Do you plan on taking, or did you already take, a road trip vacation this summer?<\/p>\n