{"id":63376,"date":"2020-10-17T02:15:36","date_gmt":"2020-10-17T09:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=63376"},"modified":"2021-08-01T17:58:52","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T00:58:52","slug":"black-coffee-17-oct-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id63376-black-coffee-17-oct-2020.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: The Wolf at the Door"},"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

First off, I want to thank everyone who offered their support and condolences last week. Your kind words provided me with some much-needed comfort during an emotionally trying time. I really appreciate it.<\/p>\n

Okay, let’s get right to it …<\/p>\n

No society can surely be flourishing and happy when the far greater part of its members are poor and miserable.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Adam Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n

The corruption in business and government; the tyranny; the world-strangling debt and deficits — all of it is possible only with fiat currency.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Franklin Sanders<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? Professor Teresa Ghilarducci, who is one of the nation’s leading experts on retirement, says that half of all Americans aged 55 and up will retire in poverty<\/a> or near-poverty. What exactly does that mean? Well … the professor says a person who’s 65 and living on $20,000 a year or less will end up suffering from “chronic deprivation for the rest of their life.”<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Then again, it’s not just older Americans who are plagued with low incomes. The Social Security Administration just released their latest wage statistics<\/a> and they show that 2 out of 3 American workers earned less than $50,000 in 2019. Unfortunately, that’s not the worst of it — 50% of the entire American workforce made less than $34,248 last year. Yes, half!<\/em><\/strong> Meanwhile …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> In other news, despite record-low mortgage interest rates, the share of homeowners who are four months behind<\/a> on their mortgage payments hit a 21-year high in July. The 120-day delinquency rate stood at 1.4%, up from 0.12% in July 2019 — that’s the highest level since data tracking started in 1999. As if the Fed needed yet more<\/em><\/strong> evidence that their reckless zero-interest rate policy (ZIRP) continues to be an abject failure.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Speaking of ZIRP, last week economist Darwin Larmack warned that as rates approach 0%, only the finance industry thrives<\/a> because zombie and other corporations use ever-increasing leverage to buy existing capital. “The consequence,” Larmack warns, “is a smaller percentage of debt backed by productive capital — in a system where total debt can never be repaid, and the can is kicked until it can’t anymore.” In other words: We’re stuck with a system that could have been designed by these guys …<\/p>\n