{"id":77102,"date":"2023-02-11T01:15:18","date_gmt":"2023-02-11T09:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=77102"},"modified":"2023-02-14T07:11:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T15:11:03","slug":"black-coffee-11-feb-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id77102-black-coffee-11-feb-2023.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: The Love & Money Edition"},"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

Rather than love, or money, or fame, give me truth.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– Henry David Thoreau<\/strong><\/p>\n

Try paying the bills with love.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– T. Harv Eker<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? The cost to fuel electric vehicles in the US is higher than gas-powered cars<\/a> for the first time in 18 months. According to the Anderson Economic Group, “In Q4 2022, typical mid-priced internal combustion engine (ICE) car drivers paid about $11.29 to fuel their vehicles for 100 miles of driving. That cost was around 31 cents cheaper than the amount paid by mid-priced EV drivers charging mostly at home, and over $3 less than the cost borne by comparable EV drivers charging commercially.” Heh. Just wait until they have to replace the batteries.<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Speaking of another scam, hackers stole $3.8 billion<\/a> from crypto investors in 2022 – that’s a 13% increase from 2021. It also marks a new all-time high for annual theft of so-called digital coins. Think about that while you’re watching all of those cryptocurrency exchange commercials during this year’s Super Bowl telecast. Oh, wait …<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> And if you think the cryptocurrencies<\/strong><\/em> are a scam, this week the US government said “hold my beer.” In fact, the Bureau of Labor<\/del><\/span> Lying Statistics (BLS) reached a state of peak stupidity last week by celebrating a net gain of more than a half-million new jobs<\/a> in January; a story the mainstream media happily published with giant headlines. Why is that stupid? Because that half-million figure included a seasonal adjustment of more than 3 million to the upside. So if you have your critical-thinking cap on, you understand that, in reality, more than 2.5 million jobs were actually lost<\/em><\/strong> in January. See how that works?<\/p>\n

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(h\/t: TFMetalsReport.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> But wait … the subterfuge gets even better. Thanks to a captured financial media that is happy to dutifully transcribe whatever pablum that’s fed to them – rather than ask tough questions – almost every American is also blissfully unaware that the same jobs report also showed that the same DC bureaucrats quietly revised the employment numbers<\/a> for the second-quarter 2022 – from a net gain<\/em><\/strong> of 1.1 million jobs to a net loss<\/strong><\/em> of 287,000 jobs. Frankly, the deception can only be a sign of abject incompetence or nefarious intent. I suspect it’s the latter, as repeated errors of this magnitude are usually intentional. Just ask this<\/strong><\/em> guy:<\/p>\n