{"id":63262,"date":"2020-10-03T02:15:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-03T09:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=63262"},"modified":"2022-05-19T07:43:29","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T14:43:29","slug":"black-coffee-3-oct-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id63262-black-coffee-3-oct-2020.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Forward, Soviet!"},"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

As long as the bosses pretend to pay us, we’ll pretend to work.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— An adage from the old Soviet Union<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Is it true that the Soviet Union is the most progressive country in the world?<\/em>
\nA:<\/strong> Of course! Life was already better yesterday than it’s going to be tomorrow!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— An old Soviet joke<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Vladimir Lenin<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? As Franklin Sanders pointed out<\/a> this week, the Bank Stock Index BKX<\/a> has fallen more than 35% year to date, and has badly lagged other stocks since the March crash — which begs the question: What do bank investors know that the general public doesn’t?<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> You can bet investors know the banks are in trouble again. Until September of last year when the repo-markets imploded, they were fortunate that the the Fed and other central banks had been able to postpone the financial crisis<\/a> that was originally unleashed back in 2008 — but the US financial markets have been in a constant state of resuscitation by the Fed ever since.<\/p>\n

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HOLLYWOOD UPDATE: Cruella de Vil and Mr. Magoo to team up in new Walt Disney Studios sequel, “Saving Mr. Banks 2 : Bail-In.” pic.twitter.com\/3E46LeF9F2<\/a><\/p>\n

Rudy Havenstein, now with sound. (@RudyHavenstein) September 21, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n