{"id":63165,"date":"2020-09-26T02:15:10","date_gmt":"2020-09-26T09:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=63165"},"modified":"2021-08-01T17:57:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T00:57:01","slug":"black-coffee-26-sep-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id63165-black-coffee-26-sep-2020.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: The Chairmen of the Boards"},"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

Let’s get right to this week’s financial commentary …<\/p>\n

A board of directors is one or two ambitious men — and a lot of ballast. Groups of men are vacuums; great big empty nothings. Sit at any committee meeting. The point is only who chooses to fill that nothing.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Ayn Rand<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? More than two-thirds of American movie theaters have been open since Labor Day — but even the release of top-notch movies by big-time directors isn’t putting people back in the seats. After two weeks, Christopher Nolan’s latest flick, Tenet<\/em>, has earned 80% less<\/a> at the same point than his previous blockbusters Inception<\/em>, Interstellar<\/em>, and Dunkirk<\/em> — and it’s still<\/strong><\/em> struggling to attract movie-goers.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Apparently, the 160 WalMarts that turned their parking lots into drive-in movie theaters<\/a> this summer were unable to revive interest in the movie business — although it seems to have boosted WalMart’s<\/strong><\/em> bottom line.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Curiously, despite WalMart’s growing sales, the company decided it would be a good idea to increase the rank and file’s workload by cutting employee hours<\/a> — which suggests everyone would be much better off if we had more people like this<\/strong><\/em> on the top floor who are tasked with making all of the important business decisions:<\/p>\n