{"id":77190,"date":"2023-02-18T01:15:31","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T09:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=77190"},"modified":"2023-02-21T07:06:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T15:06:36","slug":"black-coffee-18-feb-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id77190-black-coffee-18-feb-2023.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: It’s Your Nickel"},"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

Well … another busy week is behind us. So with that in mind, let’s get this party started …<\/p>\n

A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– Yogi Berra<\/strong><\/p>\n

The house rots for 50 years, but it collapses in one night.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– Anonymous<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? Last week the Bureau of Lying Statistics (BLS) quietly revised the CPI higher<\/a> for four of the past five months, with one month unchanged. Just in case you were beginning to believe the mainstream media’s accusations about your “lying” eyes.<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> As for this week, the same BLS released the latest inflation data for January<\/a> and it shows that inflation is still raging. In fact, the rising living costs have now outpaced US workers’ income gains for the 22nd month in a row. Or to put it another way: For nearly two years, Americans have seen an uninterrupted decline in their standard of living. (In case you haven’t already noticed.)<\/p>\n

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(h\/t: @LordHighFix3r)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> In other news, the push for CBDCs continues, although the commercial banks are their biggest obstacle. Why? Because the introduction of a retail CBDC<\/a> administered by the Fed would render those banks obsolete. Macroeconomics analyst Connor O’Keeffe believes that any “rollout of a retail CBDC straight to individuals would most likely occur during a banking collapse when (politicians) could drop the nation’s banks without fear of reprisal.” Then again, I suspect most financial experts would say that dreadful day is still several years away. Well … at least the ones who have no qualms making forecasts far into the future.<\/p>\n

\"\"Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Not surprisingly, O’Keefe also notes that CBCD proponents will “vilify anyone<\/a> trying to roll back the program.” How so? Here’s one way: Big Government politicians could assert that without CBDCs, the poor will be cut off from the economy. O’Keefe calls it “an implicit threat cloaked in compassionate language.” And even though such an assertion is absurd on its face, many people will simply nod in agreement. The good news is CBDCs are unlikely to ever be rolled out because Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has been working just fine. Oh, wait …<\/p>\n

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(h\/t: @DaveMarinara)<\/p><\/div>\n

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Unfortunately for all of us, O’Keeffe warns that “CBDCs represent the next stage in the corruption of money<\/a> brought about by governments. But if enough people are made aware of the dangers posed by a nationalized banking system, the retail CBDC program may never get off the ground. As it’s much harder to roll back a government program than it is to stop the implementation of one, the time to loudly and assertively berate the government for even daring to consider such a blatant power grab is now.” He can say that again.<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Strangely, despite incontrovertible evidence Fed monetary policy has been an abject failure for many decades – thereby revealing it has absolutely no idea what it’s doing<\/a> – investors and markets still hang on every word that comes from our inept central bank. If that isn’t proof we’re all living in a clown world, I don’t know what is.<\/p>\n

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Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Speaking of puzzling markets that seemingly depend on the Fed’s “forward guidance,” the always-entertaining financial commentator, Franklin Sanders posited this: “Picture in your mind, if you can, this ludicrous, risible, laughable, preposterously bizarre spectacle<\/a>, the greatest economy in the world held hostage to the pronouncements of a clown who don’t know sic ’em from come here about the real economy, who never broke a sweat setting a fencepost or sweeping a room or cleaning a toilet, most likely.” Uh huh. In other words, someone who is probably related to this<\/em><\/strong> guy:<\/p>\n