{"id":85119,"date":"2024-11-02T01:00:17","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T08:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=85119"},"modified":"2024-11-10T08:19:58","modified_gmt":"2024-11-10T16:19:58","slug":"black-coffee-2-nov-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id85119-black-coffee-2-nov-2024.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: All That Glitters"},"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’ve got another busy weekend ahead of me, so let’s get right to this week’s commentary …<\/p>\n

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Fortune is like glass – the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

– Publilius Syrus<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? The results of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) experiment was completed and the results aren\u2019t surprising. It turns out that 1000 low-income individuals were randomized into receiving $1000 per month unconditionally for three years – and, ironically, the recipients became poorer<\/a>. In fact, the transfers led to an overall reduction<\/strong><\/em> in annual total individual income of about $1500 compared to the control group. Imagine that.<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Not surprisingly, UBI recipients worked 1.3 hours per week less, and stayed unemployed for longer<\/a>. Even worse, the free cash also led to other adult members of the household working fewer hours as well. No, really. Unemployment duration increased by more than a month for those who received free government income. Imagine that. So there you have it: Yet another socialist economic program that ends up making the lives subjected to it worse off, not better. Kind of like other<\/strong><\/em> universal solutions …<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> In other news, we see that sales of existing homes fell in September to the their lowest level in 14 years<\/a> as house hunters remained on the sidelines despite mortgage rates easing during the month. Yes, that sounds just a wee<\/strong><\/em> bit confusing to us. Then again, we\u2019re clearly not the only ones who seem to be a bit mixed up …<\/p>\n