{"id":64893,"date":"2021-02-06T02:15:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T10:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=64893"},"modified":"2021-02-08T19:36:26","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T03:36:26","slug":"black-coffee-6-feb-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id64893-black-coffee-6-feb-2021.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Paper Lies and Broken Promises"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-51224 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/hurricane-flags.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"251\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/hurricane-flags.jpg 404w, https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/hurricane-flags-300x287.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 251px) 100vw, 251px\" \/><em>It&#8217;s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe &#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what&#8217;s been going on in the world of money and personal finance.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s get right to this week&#8217;s commentary &#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>A US dollar is an IOU from the Federal Reserve Bank; a promissory note that doesn&#8217;t actually promise anything.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>&#8212; PJ O&#8217;Rourke<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men&#8217;s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>&#8212; Ayn Rand<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Credits and Debits<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? Amazon founder and world&#8217;s richest man announced he is stepping down as CEO later this year, after reporting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/investing\/amazon-crushes-q4-earnings-sales-estimates-ceo-transition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">record revenue<\/a> for the fourth quarter of 2020. Then again, with the government shutting down most of Amazon&#8217;s small-business competitors in the name of &#8220;saving&#8221; humanity from the COVID pandemic, I suppose those record profits shouldn&#8217;t come as much of a surprise.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Bezos To Spend Newfound Free Time Bulldozing Small Businesses In Person <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dKinAIQ2pv\">https:\/\/t.co\/dKinAIQ2pv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheBabylonBee\/status\/1357041164294238215?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 3, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> In other news, I see the Fed is still holding rates at zero and buying $120 billion in bonds every month, while increasing their bond purchases every time the market has threatened to roll over. Curiously, since rallying off the March 2020 lows, all that <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><del>liquidity<\/del><\/span> freshly-printed currency has also perfectly coincided with <a href=\"https:\/\/realinvestmentadvice.com\/technically-speaking-is-a-larger-correction-coming\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">increased speculation<\/a> in the stock market. Although I&#8217;m sure those two events are completely unrelated. Like, totally.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit:<\/strong><\/span> If you ask Charles Hugh Smith, he says &#8220;the stock market has been punctured by <a href=\"https:\/\/charleshughsmith.blogspot.com\/2021\/01\/the-stock-market-fatally-wounded-by.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the thin blades of truth<\/a>. It&#8217;s fatally wounded but nobody dares notice; the wounds are barely visible, but the internal damage is mortal.&#8221; As a result, he says, &#8220;The stock market is already stumbling and will soon crash.&#8221; Sadly, it appears that Charles decided to stop taking his meds. After all, everybody knows that stocks only go <em><strong>up<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Why are you buying it?<br \/>\nBecause it&#8217;s going up.<br \/>\nWhy is it going up?<br \/>\nBecause others are buying it.<br \/>\nWhy are they buying it?<br \/>\nBecause others are tweeting about it.<br \/>\nWhy are they tweeting about it?<br \/>\nBecause it&#8217;s going up.<\/p>\n<p>Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NorthmanTrader\/status\/1356300568180961281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 1, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> This week Goldman Sachs warned that the recent short squeeze events with Gamestop and other stocks &#8220;demonstrate that <a href=\"https:\/\/dawsoncountyjournal.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/30\/goldman-warns-if-the-short-squeeze-continues-the-entire-market-could-crash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unsustainable excess<\/a> in one small part of the market can create broader turmoil, boosting the risk of one fund&#8217;s unwind snowballing through the market.&#8221; In other words: if retail traders continue to push the most shorted stocks higher, the entire market could crash. How &#8217;bout that; it looks like Goldman Sachs is a big fan of Charles Hugh Smith.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit:<\/strong><\/span> For his part, market analyst Wolf Richter says the latest short squeeze fiasco on Wall Street has finally exposed to the masses that, thanks to the Fed, not only are the big players over-leveraged, but also that <a href=\"https:\/\/wolfstreet.com\/2021\/02\/03\/the-stock-market-is-broken-now-for-all-to-see\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the stock market is both broken <em><strong>and<\/strong><\/em> rigged<\/a>: &#8220;The idea that price discovery takes place on a rational transparent basis, but free of rampant manipulations, has totally imploded.&#8221; Well &#8230; better late than never. I think.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MBtVIJKyrm\">pic.twitter.com\/MBtVIJKyrm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>StockCats (@StockCats) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StockCats\/status\/1357378433106534401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 4, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit:<\/strong><\/span> On a related note, Pam and Russ Martens report that, &#8220;What&#8217;s being ignored is that the largest federally-insured banks in this country, that now double as trading casinos thanks to the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, have every incentive to suck in small investors to <a href=\"https:\/\/wallstreetonparade.com\/2021\/01\/gamestop-shares-dark-pools-owned-by-goldman-sachs-jpmorgan-ubs-et-al-have-made-tens-of-thousands-of-trades\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">create an escape route<\/a> for themselves; this occurs &#8212; by hook or crook &#8212; at every market bubble top.&#8221; Oh &#8230; and speaking of escape routes:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/41BX9zn_qZo?controls=0&amp;start=325;end=459\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">&#65279;<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit:<\/strong><\/span> So while Gamestop traders can put the stock market at risk, the asset with the most potential to bring down <em><strong>the entire financial system<\/strong><\/em> is silver. And when you consider that global <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2020\/07\/09\/2059848\/0\/en\/Silver-Investment-Demand-Up-by-10-Percent-in-First-Half-of-2020.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">investment demand for silver<\/a> last year was $10 <em><strong>billion<\/strong><\/em> &#8212; give or take a few &#8212; it&#8217;s easy to imagine just how high the silver price could get if just 1% of the estimated $100 <em><strong>trillion<\/strong><\/em> currently invested in stocks, bonds and real estate decided to migrate into precious metals.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/04qmDaG4wW\">pic.twitter.com\/04qmDaG4wW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pirate SILVERSQUEEZE (@p1r473) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/p1r473\/status\/1356394979837489156?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 2, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Of course, the tiny silver market&#8217;s ability to expose the entire monetary system sham is <em><strong>exactly<\/strong><\/em> why <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/c\/comex.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">COMEX<\/a> allows the sale of paper silver contracts at a rate that require nearly 200 days of silver production to cover them. Even more absurd is what happened on Tuesday. As <em>Renaissance Men<\/em> observed, &#8220;silver was smashed $2 after the banks sold <em><strong>900 days of production<\/strong><\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/renaissancemen.org\/2021\/02\/02\/why-the-silver-longs-and-eric-sprott-can-defeat-the-silver-shorts-an-education-in-4d-chess\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">That&#8217;s not hedging<\/a>; it&#8217;s open price suppression. This is how empires fall.&#8221; Heh. You can say that again.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_64927\" style=\"width: 544px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-64927\" class=\"wp-image-64927\" src=\"http:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Silver-short-production-to-cover-1024x750.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"534\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Silver-short-production-to-cover-1024x750.png 1024w, https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Silver-short-production-to-cover-300x220.png 300w, https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Silver-short-production-to-cover-768x563.png 768w, https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Silver-short-production-to-cover-1536x1125.png 1536w, https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Silver-short-production-to-cover.png 1720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 534px) 100vw, 534px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-64927\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Silver, gold and platinum remain severely undervalued because bullion banks are allowed to create the illusion of abundant supply via naked short selling . Yes, it&#8217;s blatant fraud &#8212; and it&#8217;s tacitly permitted by the government. (Surprise, surprise.)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit:<\/strong><\/span> In 1729, Voltaire observed that fiat money always returns to its intrinsic value of zero &#8212; a fate that asset manager Egon VonGreyerz is now warning will strike the dollar <a href=\"https:\/\/kingworldnews.com\/greyerz-bullion-banks-are-short-100-million-ounces-of-silver-and-macleod-is-right-there-is-no-liquidity-in-london\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">no later than 2024<\/a>. Hey &#8230; it&#8217;s possible. Just don&#8217;t tell the mainstream media; they believe paper dollars conjured out of thin air by the Fed are superior wealth protection to &#8220;unbacked&#8221; physical gold and silver. Yep. Now quiet on the set! Roll cameras in 3 &#8230; 2 &#8230; 1 &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BiXIs3bbETA?controls=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Credit:<\/strong><\/span> As financial analyst James Turk notes, &#8220;The real cause of today&#8217;s trials and tribulations is <a href=\"https:\/\/kingworldnews.com\/silver-price-soaring-on-squeeze-50-price-target-just-issued-but-look-at-this-surprise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a broken monetary system<\/a>. Money is the heart of economic activity, and inferior money results in an inferior economy. So the consequences of Nixon&#8217;s decision in 1971 to abandon gold are coming home to roost, which isn&#8217;t a surprise to anyone who knows monetary history.&#8221; Nor should it be to <em><strong>you<\/strong><\/em>. (Otherwise, I really need to do a better job here.)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> So &#8230; how broken is the current debt-based monetary system? Consider this: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/c\/the-coinage-act-of-1972.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A lawful US dollar<\/a> was originally promised as being equivalent to 0.7734 troy ounces of silver &#8212; which is why US coins had silver in them until 1965. But over time, the government gradually weakened the law. In fact, the US dollar can now be legally debased to zero &#8212; which is why a paper dollar in your pocket today will fetch just 0.0300 ounces. And even <em><strong>less<\/strong><\/em> tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-64945\" src=\"http:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Dollar-589x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"532\" height=\"925\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Dollar-589x1024.jpg 589w, https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Dollar-173x300.jpg 173w, https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Dollar.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 532px) 100vw, 532px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Unfortunately, most people don&#8217;t realize how devalued the US dollar has become. When measured against gold, <a href=\"https:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/article\/4366155-u-s-dollar-devalues-99-vs-gold-in-100-years-gold-price-crosses-2067\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the dollar is already down 99%<\/a> since 1913. But, as VonGreyerz reminds us, &#8220;a 100% loss of value from today is actually that remaining 1%.&#8221; And <em><strong>that<\/strong><\/em> means the game can end at any moment &#8212; all it&#8217;s going to take is one modestly-wealthy investor to call the bankers&#8217; bluff and demand delivery of the physical silver that they claim to own, but clearly don&#8217;t have.<\/p>\n<p><strong>By the Numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With this week&#8217;s announcement that Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO of the company he founded, Amazon, let&#8217;s look at some figures related to his wealth:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>$192,300,000,000<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Bezos&#8217; approximate net worth on Jan 22, 2021.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>1<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Bezos&#8217; rank among the world&#8217;s richest individuals.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>$82,000<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Bezos&#8217; annual salary as Amazon CEO.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">$149,353<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Amount of cash Bezos earns every minute.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>$2,489<\/strong><\/span><\/span> Amount Bezos earns every second.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contributing Sources: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.in\/business\/news\/top-10-richest-people-in-the-world\/articleshow\/74415117.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Business Insider<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/webeenow.com\/how-much-does-jeff-bezos-make-per-minute-the-dizzying-salary-of-the-amazon-ceo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WebBee<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Question of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><code>[poll id=\"358\"]<\/code><\/p>\n<p><strong>Last Week&#8217;s Poll Results<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How many months of expenses will your emergency savings fund cover?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One (33%)<\/li>\n<li>Three (23%)<\/li>\n<li>Less than 1 (17%)<\/li>\n<li>More than 3 (16%)<\/li>\n<li>I have no savings (7%)<\/li>\n<li>Two (4%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More than 2200 Len Penzo dot Com readers responded to last week&#8217;s question and it turns out that almost 2 in 5 have three months&#8217; expenses or more of emergency savings set aside for a rainy day. Hooray! On the other hand, almost 1 in 4 have less than one month of expenses held in reserve. <em><strong>That&#8217;s<\/strong><\/em> scary.<\/p>\n<p>If <strong><em>you<\/em><\/strong> have a question you&#8217;d like me to ask the readers here, send it to me at <strong>Len@LenPenzo.com<\/strong> and be sure to put &#8220;Question of the Week&#8221; in the subject line.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Useless News: True Confessions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wife&#8217;s diary &#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Dear Diary: <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so, I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment on it. Conversation wasn&#8217;t flowing, so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed, but he didn&#8217;t say much. I asked him what was wrong. He said, &#8216;Nothing.&#8217; Then I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said again that he wasn&#8217;t upset, that it had nothing to do with me, and not to worry about it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>On the way home, I told him that I loved him. He smiled slightly, and kept driving. I can&#8217;t explain his behavior. I don&#8217;t know why he didn&#8217;t say, &#8216;I love you, too.&#8217;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>He just sat there quietly, and watched TV. He continued to seem distant and absent. Finally, with silence all around us, I decided to go to bed. About 15 minutes later, he came to bed. But I still felt that he was distracted, and his thoughts were somewhere else.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>He fell asleep; I cried. I don&#8217;t know what to do. I&#8217;m almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Husband&#8217;s diary &#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>A one-foot putt. Who the hell misses a one-foot putt?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>(h\/t: RD Blakeslee)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>More Useless News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hey, while you&#8217;re here, please don&#8217;t forget to:<\/p>\n<p>1. Click on that <strong>Like<\/strong> button in the sidebar to your right and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LenPenzo\">become a fan of Len Penzo dot Com on Facebook<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>2. Make sure you follow me on my new favorite quick-chat site, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/gab.com\/LenPenzo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gab<\/a><\/strong> &#8212; oh yeah, <a href=\"https:\/\/parler.com\/LenPenzo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">and Parler<\/a> too! Of course, you can always <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/LenPenzo\">follow me on Twitter<\/a> too. Just be careful what you say there.<\/p>\n<p>3. <a href=\"mailto:lenpenzolist@aweber.com\">Subscribe via email<\/a> too!<\/p>\n<p>And last, but not least &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>4. <em><strong>Please support this website by patronizing my sponsors!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Thank you!!!! &#128522;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Letters, I Get Letters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Every week I feature the most interesting question or comment &#8212; assuming I get one, that is. And folks who are lucky enough to have the only question in the mailbag get their letter highlighted here whether it&#8217;s interesting or not! You can reach out to me at: <strong>Len@LenPenzo.com<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After finding my blog and reading more than a few articles, <strong>Prometheus<\/strong> sent this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>You do realize how demeaning it is to refer to your wife as Honeybee?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Not really &#8212; but if it&#8217;s true I&#8217;m lucky she hasn&#8217;t caught on yet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>If you enjoyed this, please forward it to your friends and family. I&#8217;m Len Penzo and I approved this message.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"font-size: smaller;\">Photo Credit: public domain<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe &#8230; Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what&#8217;s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Let&#8217;s get right to this week&#8217;s commentary &#8230; A US dollar is an IOU from the Federal Reserve [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","pmpro_default_level":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[472],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-64893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary","8":"pmpro-has-access","9":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.8 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Black Coffee: Paper Lies and Broken Promises<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id64893-black-coffee-6-feb-2021.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black Coffee: Paper Lies and Broken Promises\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe &#8230; Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what&#8217;s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. 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