{"id":62497,"date":"2020-08-15T02:15:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T09:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=62497"},"modified":"2023-03-25T14:30:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T21:30:45","slug":"black-coffee-15-aug-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id62497-black-coffee-15-aug-2020.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Empty Coffers and Sticky Fingers"},"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

Despite the continuing economic slowdown, I hope all of you have a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.<\/p>\n

Okay, let’s get right to it …<\/p>\n

It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Mark Twain<\/strong><\/p>\n

Governments lie; bankers lie; even auditors sometimes lie. Gold tells the truth.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Lord Rees Mogg<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? America’s coin shortage is still raging from sea to shining sea. It certainly isn’t helping that pennies minted between 1909 and 1982 — which are 95% copper — currently have a melt value of 1.85 cents. In other words: Why spend those pennies at a business, or take them to a bank and get face value, when you can almost double your money<\/a> by toting them to a metals recycler?<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> In other news, the latest unemployment data<\/a> shows that the workforce is continuing to claw back the millions of jobs on Main Street that were lost due to the coronavirus shutdowns — but there’s still a long way to go. As for Wall Street, well … the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are continuing to hover near all-time highs<\/a>. So there’s that.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> But, as Charles Hugh Smith correctly observes, “Markets that never go down aren’t markets; they’re signaling mechanisms of the ‘Powers That Be.’ The reliance on ‘good news’ narratives dooms our financial system and economy to a death spiral<\/a> once reality breaks.” Yes — but it sure looks as if the current Wall Street party isn’t going to end until the Fed takes the punch bowl away.<\/p>\n

\n

When bulls are blindly buying into the highest valuations in history..pic.twitter.com\/ku5zRcvtRB<\/a><\/p>\n

Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) August 13, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n