{"id":81286,"date":"2023-12-09T01:15:15","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T09:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=81286"},"modified":"2023-12-12T09:36:47","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T17:36:47","slug":"black-coffee-9-dec-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id81286-black-coffee-9-dec-2023.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: More Smoke, More Mirrors"},"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 right thing to do never requires any subterfuge, it is always simple and direct.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– Calvin Coolidge<\/strong><\/p>\n

To swallow and follow is a weakness still dominating the human mind.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– Charlotte Perkins Gilman<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Credit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? Last month a Malaysian woman woke up to find one of her bank accounts had mysteriously grown by $86.3 million<\/a>. However, when she tried to withdraw the cash, the system kept going down – so she took to Facebook to complain about the bank’s poor customer service. This quickly grabbed the attention of her bank, which eventually restored access to her account – but without the $86.3 million, which was an error. Oh, well. Easy come, easy go.<\/p>\n

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Credit:<\/strong><\/span> In other news, a recent study that gathered data from 330,000 vehicle owners of model years between 2000 and 2024 discovered that, contrary to convectional wisdom, electric vehicles (EVs) are 79% less<\/strong><\/em> reliable<\/a> than cars with an internal combustion engine (ICE) – despite the fact that EVs have fewer moving parts and simpler drivetrain designs. And if you think that’s<\/em><\/strong> bad, plug-in hybrids are even worse when it comes to reliability, with a staggering 146% more problems versus traditional ICE-powered cars. Heh. So much for those who insist the only real problem with EVs was the need to recharge the batteries …<\/p>\n