{"id":89361,"date":"2025-10-11T01:00:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T08:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=89361"},"modified":"2025-10-16T08:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:26:11","slug":"black-coffee-11-oct-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id89361-black-coffee-11-oct-2025.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Everyone Out of the Pool!"},"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

Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014 Ovid<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? Rite Aid, once one of America\u2019s biggest pharmacy chains, shuttered its remaining 89 stores<\/a> this week after filing for bankruptcy in May for the second time in less than two years. The chain was founded way back in 1962. Now, Rite Aid is only a memory, cast into the dustbin of other failed drug stores. Oh, and speaking of failures…<\/p>\n

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h\/t: @alifarhat<\/p><\/div>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> On a related note, a total of 249,152<\/a> individual Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings were made in the first nine months of this year in the United States, which is 15% more compared to the same period last year. Unlike a Chapter 13 bankruptcy which permits companies to stay in business while working out their debt trouble, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy involves a court-appointed trustee selling off an individual\u2019s nonexempt assets to pay off creditors. Then again, it appears as if even the creditors are once again struggling to survive…<\/p>\n

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h\/t: @alifarhat<\/p><\/div>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Of course, one can be forgiven for assuming the number of individuals filing for liquidation bankruptcies is related to ongoing housing affordability woes. Yes; housing affordability in America is now the best it’s been in more than two and a half years \u2013 the trouble is the monthly principal and interest (P&I) payment on an average-priced home has fallen to $2148, or 30%<\/a> of the median US household income, which is still more than five percentage points above the long-run average. In other words: For first time buyers, buying a home is still unaffordable<\/strong><\/em>. Never mind the electricity bills…<\/p>\n

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Credit:<\/strong><\/span> With that in mind, Maxwell House coffee is temporarily lowering its price for one year and rebranding itself as “Maxwell Apartment<\/a>\u201d to keep coffee lovers stocked up with a full year\u2019s worth of coffee. No, really. For $39.99, fans can snag four 27.5-ounce canisters of Maxwell Apartment coffee on Amazon. Before the marketing gimmick, those four canisters would cost about $52. The deal is designed to save coffee lovers more than $1000 annually, compared to daily cafe runs, which can add up to more than $90 per month. Unfortunately, that gesture probably won\u2019t be enough to get everybody back into the pool\u2026<\/p>\n