moneymuser

2009-07-26T22:46:00.000-07:00

The key to the economy is entrepreneuers. Find what people need, and provide the product that will fill that need. No need for expensive offices. Just focus on providing that product. Now, of course you should make them aware that you expect a fair income from it. So be sure that you have that point covered in some way.

2009-05-02T00:30:00.000-07:00

Where are we going?

It looks like the banks have off-balance sheet items which is odd to me as I was taught that a balance sheet is a spotlight on a businesses financial standing at a moment of time. So what is this off balance sheet thing? Why is it not included? If it would materially dwarf the details if brought in, then you can have balance sheet for the various entities and a consolidated balance sheet which gives the full picture. What is so reasonable about that? All publicly listed corps are supposed to be transparent. If you want to avoid that, then go private!

Off balance sheet = something to hide

The US national debt is being ramped up beyond the ability of the US government to pay. And yet more is being added to the debt. And what is the money being spent on? Is it something that will increase valuable final products? It seems not as I have not heard of new towns being built and new farms and new factories or the infrastructure put in to allow the current industry to produce more. I admit I am unsure of how this would be accomplished. Tendrils of thought come through that geothermal energy would be good, wind farms, solar farms seem a good idea. For California I would advocate a means to handle the potential water shortage. Desalination plants, water conservation schemes, would also help make it possible for production to occur.

Food. It is said that the USA could produce enough food to feed the world. But at what cost? I may be off the mark here, but my understanding is that monoculture is destroying the soil and GM seeds are producing food that is not biologically assimilable. If the fertilizer supplies fail (oil?) then so will the crops. Hence rotating crops is needed.

Water. Climate change is altering the distribution of water. For example, Australia is suffering droughts which are lasting longer than they used to. New Zealand suffered 4 severe drought seasons in a row. Therefore, desalinization and irrigation are needed. This is a type of infrastructure that will boost farming and food and also provide water for towns as a by-product.

This is the food for thought for now.

2009-03-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

This is really interesting.

The Bubble That Must Burst

by Michael S. Rozeff
by Michael S. Rozeff

The bubble that must burst is a very, very large bubble. It is worldwide. It is co-existent with most nations of the world.

Like all bubbles, for a time it appears rational. It even seems to work. The bubble seems to bring all gains and no losses, and all at very low cost. The returns seem very high and never-ending. They attract the resources and allegiance of many because the yield seems so high.

But like all bubbles it cannot go on forever, because it is based on greed and gain extracted from other persons against their wills. It is a bubble based on extrapolative expectations that eventually cannot be sustained by reality.

What is this bubble? It is the bubble of constitutional and representative democracies that lack the consent of all of those being governed. It is the bubble of states that promise more and more social gains and cannot deliver upon these promises. It is a bubble of governments that are chain letters and Ponzi schemes. It is a bubble built upon robbing some to pay others.

All of these bubbles must, by the dynamic of their intrinsic nature, come to an end. They all must, by the necessity of facing reality, be deflated. And, in the process, the peoples of the earth will have to come face to face with themselves and will have to fashion new social and political relations.

The constitutional and representative democracies cannot be saved by changing the leadership, because they are based on rules of force that must come to grief. They cannot be changed by voting. No stable economy can be reflated by a central bank, and no stable nation can be reflated by voting in new leaders. Counter-intuitively, the government bubble will burst when more and more people do not vote and withdraw their support from a government based on unworkable and unjust rules of force.

Democracy, as people are now exercising it through majority force throughout the world, is rotten to the core. It is common within these government systems for people to rush to take advantage of anyone else they can, in their greed. Democracy has become one big speculative bubble, as many people have placed bets on an ever-expanding gain for themselves at the expense of others. This cannot go on indefinitely, so it is a bubble that has to burst.

Chain letters must come to an end. Ponzi schemes must unravel. The music must stop and there will not be enough chairs for all to sit on. Speculative bubbles must burst. Governments built upon ever-expanding circles of greed and gain must fail. Trees do not grow to the sky.

Deep down, we know this. We only hope that we will not be the one left standing when the music stops. We only hope the system will last another 10 or 20 or 30 years or whatever life we have left. We wish our children and grandchildren well, but we are secretly glad that we do not have to confront the problems we hope will be deferred to them and not fall upon us.

Why must bubbles burst? Basically because they cannot pay off according to our expectations.

Take the housing bubble as an example, but a bubble in growth stocks works in the same way. Changes in expectations cause price changes. If we think houses will rise in price, we are more inclined to buy them. This makes the price rise. It reinforces our expectations and draws in new buyers. Many causes of changes in expectations are possible. In the U.S., we had lower interest rates and the authorities encouraged re-financing at lower rates. In some places, new house building was restricted as in California. House prices started to rise. This started a speculative move in which people started bidding house prices higher. This was concentrated in a handful of states. Some areas grew because they had a real business boom. The idea got around, from several sources, that prices were rising. People had extrapolative expectations. They thought that what was past was prologue. These expectations self-reinforced for a while, even years.

Eventually, the reality sets in, which is that the asset cannot rise too fast in price indefinitely. It sets in for a number of reasons. Builders build houses at much lower replacement costs, drawing demand away from the high-priced houses. They also build more of the high-priced houses than there are buyers. Rentals begin to look relatively less expensive. The market runs out of new buyers, because prices are high compared to wages and salaries. Other investments begin to look relatively more attractive. Interest rates rise. Speculators begin to sell out what they had bought earlier in order to take profits. The bubble bursts, as it has to.

People are expecting a big profit, or a high yield from the house purchase. That is why they buy at high prices. They think they are going higher. When people count into their calculation of a high yield the expected future price gains, as in buying high-priced growth stocks or high-priced houses, they are pouring money into these assets thinking they have higher yields, and they are bidding the prices up so as to get those yields. In the process, the yields are falling. The whole price process is driven by what is in their minds because it's all what they expect will happen in the future.

Greed for gain comes to grief. Many people and institutions borrowed heavily to take advantage of the housing bubble. It was like the stock margin buying in the 1920s. All of those that used so much financial leverage should fail. We who did not should not be made to pay them for their greed and mistakes. All the ones that took out asset insurance from counterparties that had no assets – they erred in their evaluations too, and they also should bear their own losses or fail. Innocent people shouldn't be paying for the mistakes of others. All the ones that can't pay for their houses now and are under water should face the consequences themselves. They too blundered. No one should be made to bail out someone else.

This is not the way of most governments, however. Bailouts are the way. The attempt is to find chairs for those left standing. The chairs have to be stolen from those who were prudent enough to sit down earlier before the music stopped and the game of musical chairs ended. Governments today routinely violate basic human rights to life, liberty, and property.

Government bailouts are the government’s absorption of the housing bubble into its own social security bubble. This hastens the bursting of the government bubble.

Generations before us started the government bubbles that now rule us. They bet on government. They saw gains coming down the pike as they collected their Social Security and built their subsidized houses and drove on their subsidized highways and grew their subsidized crops, all through subsidized loans. They saw gains from favoring labor and executives and public schools. The bubble grew because shifting coalitions bid up the power of government and collected the gains. Voters psychologically buy into the government bubble. They have extrapolative expectations. They think that they will secure the gains that the earlier generation managed to extract. But those gains are in their minds. They are unpaid promises made by their officials. Who will pay for those gains? Who will pay for the bailouts, the health care promises, the retirement promises, and all the other trillions upon trillions of guarantees being liberally handed out? The bubble has to burst. There’s only so much gold in them thar hills before the price of extraction rises beyond its worth.

One can do no wrong by buying a house that is going up in price, or so it appears. And one can do no wrong by endorsing a government that provides a rising stream of benefits, or so it seems. Why not buy a second home or a third? Why not borrow to buy them? And why not expand the government and get more benefits? Why not have the government borrow to provide them?

Government in its current form is an overpriced growth stock. It is paying dividends out of contributions forced out of newcomers to the game and extracted in countless ways from the dividend recipients and obtained from borrowing. It is promising a rising stream of future dividends, while itself producing nothing of value.

When the value of the obligatory debts exceeds the value of the assets, the enterprise is insolvent. The owners walk away from the assets. When government debts exceed the value of the social benefits, people will walk away from the government. Many already have, in a variety of ways. Why pay more than what something is worth? Why invest any emotional capital in an institution one regards as unfit, unjust, inefficient, intrusive, irrational, unworkable, and ineffective?

Government is now an insolvent enterprise. Government is a Ponzi scheme. Government is a fraud. Government is a bubble that must burst.

That being the case and while there is still time to think without the pressure of rapidly changing events, we can only benefit by exploring and considering a wide range of social and political options that are in accord with basic and sound principles of peace, liberty, justice, and rights. A period of revolutionary reconstruction lies ahead of us. We should not be reflating the government bubble that will burst; we should not be reflating the forces of domination and greed exercised through and by coercive government.

We should be shaking off the myths, fallacies, errors, and wrong turns of the past. We should be stating, and reinstating, and advancing those principles that can shape societies along sound lines. There are sound ideas that came along with constitutional governments, but they have been shunted aside and diluted. Consent of the governed, all of the governed, is one of those principles. This implies a second principle: Government without claim over territory, or an end to the idea that a sovereign has a right to claim rule over a territory and every person and thing within it. No person can rightfully be made a citizen of a government without his consent and by virtue of the place where he happens to live.

The internet can be a model of what is to come with respect to getting to a much-reduced arbitrary and non-consensual governance and a situation where social interactions are freed from unnecessary coercive restrictions. People can freely join whatever societies of persons they wish throughout the globe in a way that surpasses the force-ridden idea of territorial domains. The internet has no such territorial borders, and such borders only reinforce coercion as well as being the product of coercion. The internet is breaking down those borders as it opens up communications.

The bubble governments of the present have vastly intruded upon social matters. They have made the social into the political in areas where they have not obtained the consent of all. There is a large enough and difficult enough realm of governance without government absorbing society. There are all sorts of disputes, conflicts, and crimes that require governance and justice procedures. Libertarians have thought long and hard about how to preserve and improve these governance systems, even as the non-consensual features of the present bubble governments fall by the wayside when these bubbles eventually burst. Libertarians have thought long and hard about rights, rule of law, due process, and property rights. This thinking needs to be continued, questioned, tested, ramped up, restated, refined, integrated, and understood even better. The government bubble is going to burst, and we will need this and more thinking in order to cope with the coming opportunities to remake social and political relations.

March 26, 2009

Michael S. Rozeff [send him mail] is a retired Professor of Finance living in East Amherst, New York.

Michael S. Rozeff Archives

So this lays out the theory. Now to lay out the practical of how to protect oneself and take advantage of the opportunity - in an ethical way.

2009-03-01T23:38:00.001-08:00

A friend sent me an email saying:

Please watch this.

RE Market:

http://www.financialarmageddon.com/2009/02/stabilizing-folly.html

So I did. And I decided to look into it a bit.... and replied...

That is an interesting graph. And I thought he should have been indicating a lower point on the graph as my understanding was that housing prices had dropped by 50%. If he is right then there is more pain to come.

I have chosen to not keep a track of housing. A friend of mine told me to not buy a house unless it is for myself. But he preferred that I rent while saving up to buy a house when the time is right.

My question is. Why are house prices continuing to fall? Well the average income is $50,000 per year as of 2007. Rule of thumb is to use 25% for purchasing a house =$12,500 = $1,000 per month. This applied to a 30 year mortgage is a house worth approx 150,000. This should be the average price of a house in the USA. Currently it is about $250,000 (283,400 per economagic.com)

The banks have loaned out approx $250,000 on something worth $150,000 possibly based on a false reported income.

So, yes, that graph does have to come down to half its peak as only then it approximates what the average person can afford.

Now what makes this more interesting is to find out how many homes are empty. Because that can depress the market even more. An excess of inventory will depress the asking price.

It does indeed look as if there is a long way to go. How can anyone try to fight such a market force? If inflation starts, then after wages increase, the two levels will converge, but right now, wages are being forced down by unemployment and voluntary salary decreases. So both graphs are heading downward.

It looks to me like someone needs to kick inflation into action. And they have already started it with a huge deficit budget. I have not calculated what portion is going into creating real value vs being re-distributed to the indolent. But there is certainly enough printing press money happening to start inflation counteracting the deflation! But that money is not yet floating into the economy so until it does, both graphs continue downward.

Now look what you got me into. An analysis and prediction model for Armageddon! I just might see if I can graph these and predict what the low point in housing will be.

2009-02-28T01:11:00.000-08:00

Dare I delve into the future of our money? I think I had better!

Money comes in many forms. There is the folding green stuff. There is your credit card. And there is your bank balance which can be accessed by checks, wires, debit cards.

This is the money supply. From this pool of credit (debt) and equity (positive bank balances) dips the commercial world. The more dips that are made, the better the economy runs. However, the flow of equity into that pool has not increased as peoples wages have been generally fixed. So to fill up the pool more, you had to convert th equity in your house into a loan and therewith bump up the account.

People are losing jobs. They have to cut their spending. There are fewer dips into the pool. So more people get laid off. And so it winds down.

Obama is supposedly stimulating the economy with this big spending package. But where is the money going?

Into banks is good as their cash levels need heightening as less money flows through the system. With a bigger cash reserve they can continue to open their doors and make loans etc.

Into welfare is a waste. Rather than promote businesses to create more jobs, it falls into the hands of the unproductive and buys no production. A better plan would be to fund a planting of a forest in the desert, or create a desalination plant off the coast so as to water crops.

Perhaps it is a difficult concept to grasp, but if you put money into the hands of a person who uses it to create more products (= more money) then you will get more jobs and more wealth in the economy which creates the jobs and wages that are needed. However, if you place the money in the hands of a person who spends it on food and clothes and fuel, it buys you nothing. It floats away into a million hands and creates nothing of value.

The USA is melting down. Useless industries are failing.

What is needed is the new industries that will retrain people into the new jobs of the future and create the facilities that will grow the economy.

There is more to this, but that will be later!

2008-12-26T12:37:00.000-08:00

Fellow citizens of the world, I hope and pray that the future is brighter than I can see what it might be for now.

The economy is slowing down. This means that more people are holding onto their money and not spending it in the economy. Therefore sales are decreasing and firms are having to cut costs. Laying off employees is a very common way of doing so, except it might make more sense for the "down time" for the employee to be employed in promoting the services the company provides and emphasizing the value of the service, product, etc. This can increase cash flow.

The economy is slowing down. This also means that people are not willing to lend money to others as there is a greater risk they will not get it back. The receiver of the loan could go bankrupt, or spend the money on things that do not result in valuable, salable product. So there is a cautious atmosphere in the loans markets.

The above two factors are in themselves creating the pre-requisites for a "Great Depression". The more uncertainty there is in the market place, the more the brakes are applied to the flow of money. It is the lack of confidence in getting value for you money that creates the Economic Meltdown and the Great Depression.

So how do we engineer an economic recover? By providing items people have to have, at the highest price they can bear and by pumping the profit from your transactions into your business (more employees, materials, and promotion). This puts money into the economy in a constructive way. Money spent on TVs, cars, clothes, toys and gadgets is money lost to the economy as it does not directly provide jobs that create more value. it is not easy to think it through all the way to see how your product will create more value in the economy, but it does need to be worked out. In my next post, I will put in some examples of what could be good examples of ways to create more value in the economy.

2008-10-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com Widgets

If all went well there should appear above a book I recommend you get. The basics of economics should be well understood

2008-10-01T23:55:00.000-07:00

It is rather astonishing to follow the saga of the bailout. It seems obvious that it is a bad deal. On two fronts.
1) The national debt is increased which will increase the proportion of tax money to service it

The national debt is an accumulation of overspendings on various government budgets. It is now $10,028,532,133,629 which is $32,898 each. And now:
700,000,000,000 is being added to it. And the tax payer has to pay the interest on the loan.
This is a 7% increase in one day!

Usually when you get a loan, there is is something to back it up, such as a house or a car or whatever. This loan is backed up only by a promise to pay by the citizens of the USA thanks to the elected congressmen. But with a recession or depression on the way, the increase in debt servicing will require a cut in Federal services. Take your pick... Social services? Border Patrol, Homeland services? etc

2) The money is arriving too high up the food chain.

Supposedly the problem is in the freeing up/unblocking of the facility to supply money to the main street businesses. Banks are supposedly refusing to lend money to people who have FICO scores of 700 or more. This is the killer. The 700 billion needs to be placed in an independent bank that is tasked to supply main street businesses. Or allow mortgages to be re-financed. But apparently the funds are destined to buy the derivatives based on the mortgages.

I have in mind an attempt by Maggie Thatcher to save the British Pound by throwing a bunch of money at the exchange market and it was simply swallowed up with no effect at all on the value of the British Pound on the market. Perhaps there are parallels here, and perhaps not. But there was no time to fully study the situation and there was a stampede to implement the forlorn hope.

2008-08-29T00:07:00.000-07:00

Passion. What a word to describe the search for financial independence. The amount of passion you have determines how quickly you will get there and in what shape!

Let me explain: Passion is a measure of how exuberant you are in pursuing your goal. The ideal passion would be a raucous, joyful exposition of what is wanted and then a happy assault on the obstacles which are evident with no thought of it not eventuating. Passion degrades to the degree one becomes less certain of one's eventual victory.

That is my view of it!

More axe sharpening

2008-08-20T00:31:00.001-07:00

It is so important. Sharpening the axe/ getting your goals solidified, is key to getting a product rather than making a useless contribution. I was reading the book "Science of Survival" over the weekend - or more precisely the chapter on Pleasure Moments - which jumped me into the concepts of Happiness as different to Pleasure, as different to Passion. All three are important aspects to living and to getting the result you want. Currently my view of it is that your derive pleasure from having the money if you have set a goal for its use, while happiness is derived from the overcoming of the obstacles encountered in the activity of making the money, and the passion is the measure of intensity and joy exhibited in getting the actions done. For me, I have to work on the passion as it is not in large measure right now. It may be that there is a cold hard intensity at work as I am certainly driven to making a success of myself. I work at it for long hours, but I see I could do more with the time I have. So for now I am dissecting the passion in hopes of locating the spark of it so I can pour gasoline onto the spark! What a fire we then would have!

More on sharpening the axe

2008-08-13T23:37:00.001-07:00

Perhaps the first time you take out the axe, you need to really work on sharpening it. But once that initial sharpening is done, perhaps the re-sharpening takes a lot less. So if you know your financial goals, you just need to revisit them to be sure nothing has changed and then you are set. You have your compass set, the course plotted and you are on your way to your financial goal.

Tried it out a bit today as I got a request for funds. I explained what my next goal is which is in line with the overall goals of the group who were requesting the funds. So I got to keep to my goals.

It seemed to be easy to show them that I had my plan and that I was progressing on it.

2008-08-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

You have to believe in yourself. Otherwise you follow the suggestions of others rather than your own dictates. Why buy a brand new car when a 10 year old one will do the same job just as efficiently. Then why not a 20 year old one as those are real cheap to buy. And expensive to maintain.

It is a balancing act of what to get for what you have available without wasting your resources.

I recall that Abraham Lincoln said something about sharpening his axe for 4 hours to cut down the tree in 2 hours rather than spend longer chopping because the axe is blunt. Proper preparation is more efficient than just going at the task.

Similarly in utilizing your money. Spend 4 hours working out what you want to achieve in life and then work out how to use the funds you have toward that goal and then you spend it!

Is this a new approach?

2008-08-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

How can I get to say no when it is my own money? Obviously, if someone has gotten you to a point where you are wavering in your resolve, you must be in agreement with them or their aim. This is the crux that has to be weathered. For example if you are eing asked to help someone less fortunate than you are, then you are helping another. I have been able to weather some of these requests, but not all. By offering a small sum and pleading poor finances you can sometimes end up with a small donation which does not really do anything.

But I have learned one thing. Do not give anyone money if they have gotten into trouble financially by illness or losing their job. They have to get out of it themselves which is tough to do but in the end is beneficial for all. But if they have gotten to a certain point and need an investment so as to keep the game rolling, this is a better proposition. You are reinforcing success rather than reinforcing failure. This promotes growth which is the purpose of money.. to apply energy to something so as to make it grow.

2008-08-10T02:20:00.000-07:00

Money is a tool. It is not the goal of endeavour. At least it should not be. It is the medium of exchange to enable you to get what you want. As with any tool you have to know how to use it. Sorry is the fellow who has to much month at the end of his money. He obviously spent without seeing what the prudent course was! I have fallen into the trap of listening to friends who needed that bit extra to survive another month. Or other friends who felt I was a good guy and wanted me to contribute to a good cause.

But I fear I have over-reached myself.

Interest has ballooned to usury levels. 25% on one credit card rather than the 1.9% which I have on the 2nd best card. Best is 0% which lasts but 4 months longer! Bother! I hate paying that much interest!

So how come I got myself in this position? To a degree I am a soft touch, a sucker for the plea of distress. But seeing where it got me, I now need to put discipline in so it does not happen again.

Easier said than done!

There is a drill that was proposed by L. Ron Hubbard whereby a finance person stood in front of a mirror and said "no" until they achieved the ability to say that without feeling funny about it. Well I need to do that drill again!

Yet I must say I can say "no" when it is someone else's money. But when it is mine, it becomes a different story!

Next post can go over this dilemma, as it surely is a sore spot!

2008-01-20T20:20:00.000-08:00

Posting to razela on youtube january 20, 2008

If it is desired to not tax poor people and the sick and helpless, then I would suggest there be a zero rate sales tax (as they have in the UK) which tax would be applied to bread, milk, bus fares, used items etc as would be appropriate to help the poor, and to hospices, medical centers etc as would be appropriate to the sick and helpless.

But the best solution is to slash the government budget, "downsize the government so they don't downsize us" (catchy slogan, probably needs refining) because if government spending is slashed, the tax bill goes down. Then, the more we can pay off the trillions of national debt, the less we have to pay to service the interest, and the less tax we will eventually have to pay.

Can't we get some sort of balance sheet and income and expenditure schedule from the government so we can examine their spending? we can tell them what line items to slash - like the "airfares for junkets abroad"

My understanding is that inflation is created by putting money into the economy that does not buy anything. For example, funding the war in Iraq comes from a loan from the Federal Reserve. This increases the national debt which increases the proportion of taxes that have to be used to pay the debt. This also increases the bank balances of the contractors in Iraq, and weapons makers in the USA with a very small creation of infrastructure in Iraq, and depletion of resources in the USA which could have been used to make better cars, safer bridges, smoother roads, and energy efficient buildings in the USA. So all this extra money is let loose into the economy with no corresponding increase in consumer goods and so you have an increased money supply but no increase in products to spend the money on. So the price of goods goes up! But the clever oil people get in there first and up the price of gas, so you spend more of your salary on gas rather than on a new house. This is called inflation. It is a very simplistic view, but in essence is what is happening.

Keep up the good work Razela, focus on solutions and ignore those who present problems and you will do alright.

2007-06-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Money is something that you spend from a pay check.
Capital is controlled by bankers and the agreements they have.
Capital is deployed.
Money is spent.

There is an excellent lecture on economics and globalization by Jim Cramer from Clark University in Washington. 2 hours long but full of insights.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-345721242223597335&q=lectures+business+globalization

Capital should be deployed to create wealth. Wealth is measured in terms of property and valuable commodity. Infastructure is a subset of property in that it is a requisite structure required so that commerce can occur and more wealth created.

Under infrastructure is included education and healthcare, communications.

Treat people as slaves and you will get revolt attended by destruction
Treat people as citizens with hopes and dreams and you get a creative civilization
Treat people as spiritual beings and the civilization will thrive as a golden age.

That is how I see it.

2007-02-20T23:07:00.000-08:00

And now for something a bit different:

What is money?

What is the use of it? How should it be used?

Money is all shapes and sizes. It is paper, metal, beads, numbers recorded on paper, and so on. It comes in all shapes and sizes. But there is one constant with it. The idea that you can give it to someone and they will give you something back in return because you gave it to them. That person has confidence that they can pass the mone on to someone else in excange for something they want. So we have a dependency, a trust.

In the exchange cycle above, both parties were pleased with the transaction. They felt they hd a deal. Thus the value of the medium of exchange (money) is enhanced.

Where someone steals money from another, there is a debasing of the value of the money. For the thief, there was nothing given up, so the money means nothing. So it gets wasted.

What about the person who makes a lot of money? They have created something that a lot of people want, or a big item that someone wanted enough to pay the big bucks for. But there is an exchange of something valuable for something valuable.

So, howcome a lot of people are poor? Why don't they find something that someone else wants? What is there? Nothing readily to hand, but if the person exerts some thought and effort to it, he can find something that someone else wants, and if he creates it, someone will buy.

But, how does the new item get created? The product creator goes to a place where the raw materials exist, or where the knowledge is, or where the mentor can be found. He gets the data/materials and works on a device to transform the materials into a product.

Now, notice something. The raw materials, library, mentor, device of transformation. Where did these come from? Each day you go to work on roads (even though more and more of them have potholes!) use electricity transported from a power station somewhere, directed by traffic lights, and so on. Who put those there? How would it be if they had not been put into existence?

So, is it too much of a leap to postulate (theorise) that in order to make an area thrive economicaly, you need to put in place the basic items that thriving businesses crave. So, how much would that cost? Who would fund it?

What happens when an area thrives? Money is created. With more money there is prosperity and there is more taxes paid. So the money used to create a thriving area can be replaced at a later date by taxes derived from the thriving area. And this money can be used to take the thriving area to the next level!

Now, how does this get kick-started? In developed countries, the basics are in place. So all that is needed is people with ideas and vision to forge paths ahead. So, how do you create such people?

Hmmmm! Lets think on tht a bit!

Stephan

2006-12-18T23:48:00.000-08:00

Dear all,

Here is a page that is well worth going through and checking out the links of. If you wondered why you pay so much tax, then ponder over this.

Would you like to help fund a war chest of $480 million so as to purchase the Federal Reserve on behalf of the government? Hmmm. Now there is a thought. $3 per citizen and we have it!

http://www.wtv-zone.com/Mary/FEDERALRESERVE.HTML

enjoy! And when done, check out my http://constitutionmuser.blogspot.com
as I might have posted a piece on who can mint money in the USA. But you probably already know who has that right anyway!

Stephan

2006-11-12T23:57:00.000-08:00

It seems to be easier to trade time for money rather than create a network and organize it so that the fruits fall into my lap. All my efforts so far have resulted in no organization and no people in my sphere of influence who can create a wealth.

So, it remains that I must continue to do the actions that would create an organization and bring about a financal base that can be grown. And the purpose for this is not the aggradisement of funds, but the creation of independent wealth for all in the organization and for a creation of a better world for all,for the future.

But we are in the here and now, with a need to create a machine that grows to the required size.

What tools do I have?

The e-mail to encourage people to buy the the knowledge they need to take the next step to raising their income so they can have time to help their fellows achieve their financial feedom which then enables them to do those actions needed to better the lot of themselves and others. This is done by those who have heart and vision.

The written knowledge. This is mateial that is of use and is not a scam, but will help a person achieve the desired result.

Perserverance to stay the course until the aim is achieved.

Intelligence to perceive the right way to proceed.

So let us proceed!

Money is a tool so as to bring about the resources we need to acquire. It is only a tool.

Stephan

2006-09-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

Dear reader,

Money is such a fervent subject. But there is a thought I had on it that you might care to consider.

If you really want something, it does not matter how much money it costs, you will get it somehow!

This was brought home to me when I was finding out how much it would cost to get an MBA degree on-line.

I contacted ( or more accurately they contacted me after one click on an ad) 4 online universities.

Colorado Tech University. An MBA costs about $30,000 and you get your MBA from a prestigious university with lots of assistance from the staff. The registrar/enroller was very good as she helped me firm up the reasons for getting a degree and being committed to doing it. She was not happy that I did not have my life organized for starting right away, but instead in the New Year. But she was very helpful, and was willing to look for ways around the problem I have on finance. I do not have any financial resources at all and would need a grant. The probability of getting a grant from the government is rather remote as I am not a citizen of the USA but a permanent resident. So I will have to find the funds myself. Thus I am not likely to attend CTU.

Incidentally there is a $50 fee for the application. I thought it was a scam, but it appears not as the other 3 on-line universities are also asking for such a fee!

Phoenix University is also a candidate. But again, the MBA will cost about $30,000 but the name is a good one.

AIU also put in a bid and they are about $20,000 which is easier to look at but still out of my range.There is a very real advantage with this university as it has branches in London and Dubai and thus is an international entity which makes for for more reputation and is well accredited

WGU looks quite likely. The cost is $2,700 per half year. Now the duration of the training could be 18 months which is $8,100 which is really quite a better proposition. the name is not at all famous, but the knowledge is the same as the University is accredited. this means that the curriculum is approved by the Dept of Education and follows the guidelines of what is needed for such a degree.

So, let's say I want to have a very prestigious degree. then ideally I would go to Harvard. But I can not do that so CTU would be a top choice in my view just ahead of Phoenix. but I can not come up with the bucks. So it looks like WGU will get my business after I pony up the funds! I will apply for a scholarship of course as that would put off the financial pain.

Now, by no means consider this to be a final say on the matter! I have yet to have my interview with the registrar for Phoenix University which will be face to face. And there is more I need to read on AIU and WGU and make comparisons amongst the MBA curriculums. So I'm afraid you might have to return to this blog to see what I come up with.

bottom line is that I get the data. With that knowledge I can have the tools to take the reins in some company (probably in a senior, but not ultimate position) and prove my worth. As to the point of the money, try as I could, I could not work out $30,000 for going to CTU. My cards are stretched to as far as I can go with the income I am now getting. I reckon I could stretch to $3,000 more which puts me in the realm of WGU.

There are non-personal reasons to run a company and I will go more into that next time I am on this Blog. Money is not everything, which is something you can say only when you have enough of it!

Thanks for your interest

Stephan

Monopoly Men (Federal Reserve Fraud) (1999)

2006-09-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

The Federal Reserve, or the Fed as it is lovingly called, may be one of the most mysterious entities in modern American government. Or more accurately in American business!

Created during Wilson's presidency to protect the economy in times of financial turmoil, its real business remains to be discovered. During the Wilson presidency, the U.S. government sanctions the creation of the Federal Reserve. Thought by many to be a government organization maintained to provide financial accountability in the event of a domestic depression, the actual business of the Fed is shrouded in secrecy.

Many Americans will be shocked to discover that the principle business of the Fed is to print money from nothing, lend it to the U.S. government and charge interest on these loans. Who keeps the interest? Good question. Find out as the connective tissue between this and other top-secret international organizations is explored and exposed.

Once you have insight into this organization, you will then see what is happening in the business world and take measures to secure your future. Wasn't there a recent law that made it more difficult to declare bankruptcy? Would that make it easier for a bank to collect the money owed albeit over a long period of time?

View the video and ask some questions, do some searches for more data, but become more aware of the economic treadmill we are being forced or coerced into walking!

2006-09-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

Dear Folks,

I'm in! I have a job paying $10 an hour which per my mentor is peanuts. But peanuts is better than nothing!

However, it brings to the fore the value of spending only enough to get by. Every penny has to be watched as it might escape into the black hole! There are many temptations displayed on the internet as I look around for accommodation. So! What keeps me from being tempted? THE GOAL. I continually remind myself of the GOAL to be out of debt and independently funded. I have the dream of sitting in a small place with a view with Classical Music pouring out of some rather decent speakers with the nearest neighbour miles away, reading a book I'm enjoying, with a glass of wine standing by on a small table. Besides, I do not need another cell phone, nor another magazine, or a new lounge suite. I can have those later when i have a load of money to get it with.

So that is the concept.

I have a GOAL and my eye is on that GOAL.

Until next time!
More ideas on earning a fortune
Stephan Hokke

2006-09-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

This week I have been out and about in search of a job. I wrote a resume and it was 4 pages long! The reference book I had said 3 pages max! Oh boy! So I cut it back to 2 1/2. A friend of mine looked at it and said it was too low key! Well now that could well be true as we do not really go out of our way to say how good we are in New Zealand. "But this is America!!!!" he said. And so it is! So back to the resume file again!

Now, he looked over the resume and said that it would have gotten me a clerical job, but from what he knows of me, I could get an Executive position. Imagine that. Going from a $25,000 job to a $100,000 just by highlighting a bit which had been placed at the end of the resume.

Now doesn't that tell you a bit about how you market yourself affecting how you get recompensed?

Money is attracted to those who fit the part in the estimation of the employer. So your resume is more an ad of how you can yourself meet the needs of the employer.

I just mentioned I could do spreadsheets and I got offered a $10 an hour job. Not a lot, but when you have bills to pay and nothing coming in, definitely something to jump at! So start off with this, lts see what happens when I mention I have been trained as an executive!

Cheers for today

Stephan

2006-09-04T17:38:00.000-07:00

Dear folks,

I've found a way to make a lot of money with my computer from home!

On my recent holiday I was looking at how I was going to make a living. I knew I needed to get a new job when I got back, but starting with a fresh slate, what should I do next?

Funny thing happened. I picked up a book in the local library which is in the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" series of books. This was about the Investor quadrant of employee, self employed, business owner, investor and how these four types of money earner inter-related and the strategy they should each apply to achieve their goal. It got me to thinking what I wanted to achieve and where I wanted to be in 10 years time.

MY father told me to work hard, and save up for what I wanted. He is well off, but not yet RICH. RICH DAD advised a bit differently. To spend less than you make AND invest in ASSETs. Now an ASSET is defined as an item that earns you money just by having it. For example a car is an ASSET only if you hire it out and get money back on it more than it costs to register,insure,repair,gas-up. That is a totaly new view!

Now, I failed to take the advice of MY dad and am now in debt! So I have focused on what to do to earn money. I'm looking for a job. I have no idea how hard it is going to be as so far I have typed up my resume and one cover letter, I have an interview on Tuesday for a sales job at an electronics retailer. But what will it take to earn a LOT of money? A retailer shop assistant's pay will cover enough for a room in a house and some food and travel costs and that will be it!

So I looked for something extra.

I have found a great Home Business which is most successful for others I have seen working with it. It involves personal contact usually and there is a presentation you can do right off the internet. I use the products every day and am extremely happy with them. The way forward is to get in touch with a few people along with my trusty lap-top. But I want to do more in between the down times when I am not presenting. So what else is there?

I found it! It's how to make money using my faithful laptop. I can sit in a coffee shop and sup my tea, and type away. Now how about that! I'll let you know how well I do at it, but I have seen success stories where the person made $300 overnight! It does involve a bit of typing, and following instructions, but from where I sit, it is quite the way to go.
So here goes! I'm on my way to my fortune!

If you want, check it out for yourself at:
http://sjh01med.sellpower.hop.clickbank.net

Cheers,

Stephan