{"id":59693,"date":"2020-02-29T02:15:52","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T10:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=59693"},"modified":"2020-03-03T05:17:56","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T13:17:56","slug":"black-coffee-29-feb-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id59693-black-coffee-29-feb-2020.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Red Storm Rising"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hurricane-flags\"<\/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 think it’s fair to say it has been a pretty tough week for most people’s investment portfolios this week. That being said, I hope everybody is having a wonderful weekend.<\/p>\n

You can ignore reality, but you can’t ignore the consequences of reality.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Ayn Rand<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Frank Lane<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? A recent survey of US consumers on Corona beer found that 38% “would not buy Corona beer under any circumstances.” And 16% of the respondents said they were “confused about whether Corona beer is related to the coronavirus<\/a>.” In other words, roughly 1 in every 7 Americans is officially an idiot.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> On a related note, until last week, Wall Street markets had gone full retard<\/a> too — they were on an almost-constant upward trajectory, with little to no regard for earnings and other basic business and macroeconomic fundamentals. In fact, things were so bad that I was actually beginning to entertain thoughts that perpetual motion machines were real — and that there really was<\/strong><\/em> such a thing as a free lunch.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Then again, I also knew that until recently the markets were only going up because they had been feasting on a daily diet of currency injections that were being pumped into the economy by the Fed. And why was the Fed doing that<\/strong><\/em>? Because, as asset manager Sven Henrich noted earlier this month:<\/p>\n

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If central bankers don’t intervene every single daypic.twitter.com\/I0FnNz9K4b<\/a><\/p>\n

Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) February 19, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n