{"id":85705,"date":"2024-12-28T01:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T09:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=85705"},"modified":"2024-12-31T08:00:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T16:00:33","slug":"black-coffee-28-dec-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id85705-black-coffee-28-dec-2024.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: The Final Countdown"},"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 a wonderful week. And with that, let’s get right to this week’s commentary, shall we?<\/p>\n

Truth forever on the scaffold; wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– James Russell Lowell<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? Discount retail store chain Big Lots announced this week that it will initiate \u201cgoing out of business<\/a>\u201d sales at all its remaining locations after it was unable to reach an agreement with an investment firm. Then again, maybe fate would have been different if they has only worked harder at coming up with a “can’t miss” loss leader. Am I right, Costco?<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> On a related note, we see that Party City suddenly closed the doors of more than 800 stores last Friday, officially ending its 40-year run<\/a> in the retail industry.<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> One reason companies like Big Lots and Party City are going out of business is that consumers are pinched. In fact, Bank of America is reporting that almost a third of all US households now \u201cspend more than 95%<\/a> of their disposable income on necessities such as housing costs, groceries and utility bills.\u201d Obviously, that doesn\u2019t leave a lot of room for vacations and other discretionary purchases.<\/p>\n

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

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Sadly, there are other signs that American households are struggling to make ends meet, as a new survey found that almost 25% of all households said they couldn\u2019t pay their electricity bill<\/a> during at least one month within the past year. Now … does anybody care to guess how many of them<\/strong><\/em> hold college degrees?<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> In the meantime, The Fed lowered its benchmark interest rate again last week, despite fresh signs that inflation is once again rearing its ugly head – especially at the supermarket. In fact, the annual rate of grocery price inflation<\/a> is the highest since this time last year. However, it\u2019s a far cry from 2022 when grocery prices averaged 11.4% and peaked at 13.5%. And, yes, we know. Even that’s understated because those rates are based on the government’s highly deceptive consumer price index (CPI).<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> By the way, after several years of what seems like a continuous churn of uninterrupted gains, the major US stock market indices seem almost impervious to any sustained downdraft. Then again, you can blame the Fed’s penchant for meddling with the cost of money and, since 2009, pushing its quantitative easing (QE) program. Without their hand on the scales, you can bet the stock market would look a lot different than it does today. In other words, our economy is a complete illusion<\/a>. And it will stay that way until the central bankers’ hocus pocus finally stops working. You know … kind of like this<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n