{"id":69686,"date":"2021-11-13T02:15:45","date_gmt":"2021-11-13T10:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=69686"},"modified":"2021-11-15T17:48:08","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T01:48:08","slug":"black-coffee-13-nov-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id69686-black-coffee-13-nov-2021.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Smooth Criminals"},"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

I hope everybody had an enjoyable week. Without further ado, let’s get right to this week’s commentary …<\/p>\n

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inflation is a thief in the night, and if we don’t act promptly and decisively we will always be behind.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— William McChesney Martin, Fed Chairman (c. 1958)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Walter Scott<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted this week that the cost to reach the utopian dream where man is able to control global “climate change” is going to cost more than $100 trillion<\/a>; it’s a truly ambitious goal considering that the government can’t perform far simpler tasks — such as controlling spending and balancing its own budget. Never mind that the knowingly-understated price tag is more than twice<\/strong><\/em> global GDP. Heh. I guess we’re so deep into the fiscal policy rabbit hole now that the math no longer matters. For anything …<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> But wait … Secretary Yellen’s remarks only went downhill from there<\/a>, as she also openly admitted that, “The gap between what governments have and what the world needs is large, and the private sector needs to play a bigger role.” Translation: Soon, the billionaires won’t be the only ones dipping into their wallets to pay those ‘unrealized capital gains’ taxes. As for us little people, we’ve been paying in other ways for quite awhile now …<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Needless to say, that kind of unhinged government spending is why prices for everything are soaring. The non-transitory surge in inflation continued in October with a 0.6% month-over-month (MoM) increase in producer prices; on a year-over-year (YoY) basis, the producer price index (PPI) increase is an alarming 8.6%<\/a> – that’s a record high. As for consumer prices, the CPI October print was 6.2% YoY – that’s the highest rate in more than 30 years<\/a>. So much for transitory.<\/p>\n

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Source: King World News<\/p><\/div>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> You’d think everybody could agree that skyrocketing consumer prices were something most folks would prefer to avoid at all costs. Not so, apparently, as Zero Hedge reported this week that, “While millions of Americans are suffering from runaway, galloping inflation everywhere from the gas pump to the grocery store — which affects low-income individuals the most — MSNBC deployed their best pretzel-logician<\/a> to explain why all this inflation is literally … wait for it … ‘good.'” Heh. Just more proof that we really do live in a clown world.<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> At least the Bank of England isn’t buying MSNBC’s ludicrous claim. In fact, this week the BoE’s governor apologized to British citizens<\/a>, saying he is ‘very sorry’ that UK inflation is rising amid forecasts the cost of living could increase as much as 5%. No, really. Now who wants to tell the clueless central banker at the BoE or<\/strong><\/em> the Fed that price increases passed 5% long ago and have been in double-digit territory for a long long<\/strong><\/em> time? Or that inflation is blatant theft of the public’s purchasing power? The trick now is figuring out how to stop this ongoing monetary larceny. Hmm. Maybe something like this<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n