{"id":50914,"date":"2018-09-15T04:15:08","date_gmt":"2018-09-15T11:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=50914"},"modified":"2018-09-18T05:47:25","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T12:47:25","slug":"black-coffee-15-september-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id50914-black-coffee-15-september-2018.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Does Bitcoin Have Intrinsic Value?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"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, away we go …<\/p>\n

“Fear the boom, not the bust.” <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Ludwig von Mises<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Throughout history, money has oppressed nearly all people in one of two ways: either it has been abundant and very unreliable, or reliable and very scarce.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— John Kenneth Galbraith<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> I see the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) recently warned of severely negative impacts<\/a> to international trade if the global tariff war continues. The fear is that higher tariffs could increase US inflation, which in turn would force the Fed to raise rates, thereby driving up the dollar and hurting both American exporters and emerging market economies. Or so they say.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> On a somewhat related note, September 15th marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Lehman Brothers, which many say ushered in the “official” start of the Great Financial Crisis. Sadly, nothing much has changed since then<\/a>. If anything, the risks to the international monetary system have increased many times over.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? A new study finds that fine arts majors not only earn one of the lowest average salaries<\/a> of the 162 majors that were examined but, even worse, they also have an unemployment rate of 9.1%. Compare that to the 5.7% unemployment rate for people without a high school diploma.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Speaking of unemployment, last week the President announced that last quarter’s GDP figure surpassed the unemployment rate for the first time in 100 years. Hooray!<\/p>\n

\n

The GDP Rate (4.2%) is higher than the Unemployment Rate (3.9%) for the first time in over 100 years!<\/p>\n

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n