{"id":52502,"date":"2018-12-29T03:15:13","date_gmt":"2018-12-29T11:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=52502"},"modified":"2020-07-05T12:44:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-05T19:44:00","slug":"black-coffee-29-dec-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id52502-black-coffee-29-dec-2018.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Two Minutes to Midnight"},"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

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays! Let’s get right to it, shall we?<\/p>\n

“Money is gold, nothing else.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— JP Morgan<\/strong><\/p>\n

“You make most of your money in a bear market; you just don’t realize it at the time.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Shelby Cullom Davis<\/strong><\/p>\n

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Bill Vaughan<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> I see Forbes has published its annual list of America’s wealthiest celebrities<\/a>, and Star Wars creator George Lucas tops the list with a net worth of $5.4 billion, thanks to the 2012 sale of his Lucasfilm production company to Disney for $4.1 billion. Sadly, the list also unintentionally highlights the growing disparity between the richest and poorest Americans. You can thank the Fed for that.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> The newest member of that list is 21 year-old Kylie Jenner, whose $900 million net worth has her on course to become the youngest billionaire ever. According to Forbes, Kylie Cosmetics found success<\/a> by targeting her 168 million-plus social media followers. I’m not sure which is more shocking: Kylie’s $900 million net worth, or the fact that she has 168 million followers. No; I’m not bitter. Okay … maybe just a little.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> For what it’s worth, the 500 richest people in the world had a combined $4.7 trillion<\/a> in wealth as of last Friday’s stock market close, some $511 billion less than they had at the beginning of the year. I know what you’re thinking: How will those unfortunate people ever survive?<\/em> I’m sure they’ll manage. Somehow.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Speaking of the stock market, the second longest bull market for stocks has finally come to an end<\/a> — even if it was<\/strong><\/em> an artificial one from the get-go, thanks to a decade of central bank “money” printing. Now we’ll see just how bad it will get; the stock market bear is just getting started, so it could be a long way down from here.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> The good news is, for the week, the S&P 500 managed to climb 2.9%, while the Dow rose 2.8% and the Nasdaq rallied 4%. Those were the first weekly gains<\/a> for all three indices since the end of November. Even so, all three indices are still smarting from eye-watering losses for the month of December, with the S&P down 9.9%, the Dow off 9.7% and the Nasdaq down 10.2%. Somebody pass me a tissue. This guy too:<\/p>\n