博文

目前显示的是 八月, 2010的博文

Money Talks

When you steal or lose someone's money, you take a part of their life. ~Rich Dad Today, there are millions of financial planners and other so-called financial experts who truly believe they're doing the right thing when they recommend the investments they sell. Most financial experts aren't rich people but merely sales people. They have no financial education - only sales training. They sell what they're told to sell. Just ask anyone who has worked for one of these financial sweat shops. One of the biggest rip offs is the 401(k), a government endorsed Ponzi scheme designed to make mutual fund companies rich. A major problem arises when more people want their money back than there are people willing to put money in. This is why the 401(k) has such severe penalties for early withdrawal. The Conspiracy roars on. Those that caused and profited from the financial crisis remain in control. Agents of the Conspiracy, the hundreds of thousands of financial sales people masquerad...

Dogs Dog Breeds (21-30)

30. Australian Shepherd dogs 29. Miniature Beagle puppies and dogs 28. Beagle dogs 27. American Water Spaniel dogs 26. American Foxhound dogs 25. Basset Hound dogs 24. Basenji dogs 23. Australian Terrier dogs 22. Australian Shepherd puppies and dogs 21. Miniature American Eskimo Dogs

All that glitters isn't gold, some of it is wine

(Reuters) - Like gold, top wines are highly prized, represent wealth and are selling near their historical highs. Prices of the five premier cru Bordeaux -- Chateaux Lafite Rothschild, Haut-Brion, Margaux, Latour and Mouton-Rothschild, and the grand crus of Burgundy, particularly Romanee-Conti, are at or above 2007 levels. During times of economic stress and worry, buyers look to safe investments and gold is seen as a defensive strategy. It's tangible, has intrinsic value and is a good diversifier ... The same can be said for the top growth Bordeaux and for the same reasons. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67G2PI20100817

China starts trading yuan against Malaysian ringgit

China starts trading yuan against Malaysian ringgit August 20, 2010 12:14 am TWN, AFP SHANGHAI -- China began trading the Malaysian ringgit against the Chinese yuan on the domestic foreign exchange market Thursday in the latest step toward making the yuan an international currency. Beijing has been taking steps including promoting the use of the yuan to settle international trade and forging currency swap agreements in a bid to make the yuan a major global currency. The central bank said earlier this week it would allow foreign financial institutions that participate in the yuan settlement program to invest their yuan proceeds in China's interbank bond market, giving those receiving yuan as payments an investment channel. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/china/china-business/2010/08/20/269433/China-starts.htm

Why are retirees running out of money?

Why are retirees running out of money? Simple. Banks are paying next to zero for their savings. To make matters worse, since the interest payments on savings are so small, retirees are eating into their principle - money they spent their whole life saving - just to make ends meet. This is one more example of the rich ripping off the poor, in this case the elderly poor. As inflation rises, their savings purchase less and less. After 1971, the Federal Reserve Bank was allowed to print money. Printing money is the same as ripping off savers because each dollar printed devalues every other dollar in circulation - including your savings. Every dollar printed not only rips off savers but also rips off taxpayers because the interest on every dollar printed is paid for through taxes. "Deflation is always reversible under a fiat money system." ~comments from Fed Chairman Bernanke on printing dollars. In other words, deflation is far more frightening than inflation. Today, the economy ...

Dogs Dog Breeds (11-20)

20. American Eskimo Dogs 19. Japanese Akita dogs 18. Anatolian Shepherd dogs 17. Alaskan Malamute puppies and dogs 16. Alaskan Malamute dogs 15. Airedale Terrier dogs 14. Afghan Hound dogs 13. Affenpinscher dogs 12. Tibetan Mastiff 11. English Mastiff

The Budget

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You may walk away happy with a small income tax cut, or the fact that cigarette and beer taxes have not gone up. But there is much more to the Budget than just those few ringgit you saved... * Whatever "goodies" we get, we pay it for in other ways. Those "goodies" are not free money handed out by the government. Those "goodies" are paid for with our tax money! Every Ringgit of "goodies" that we "get" is a Ringgit less for other important things, like healthcare or education, for example. * Economist, financial analysts, the mass media and the ordinary public have been fixated on the annual Budget deficit staying withing 3-5% of gross domestic product (GDP). Public discussion has focused on the Budget deficit being "manageable" or "prudent" at that level. We ignored two things. Firstly, while the deficit was steady at 3-5% of GDP, the actual level of government spending was soaring. Secondly, as total government spend...

Financial Bombs

Their concern was not for the environment or those suffering the ravages of this disaster. Their concern was for the pensioners who are counting on BP for a secure retirement. On June 17, London's Daily Mail ran a headline screaming, "Obama Bullies BP into £13.5bn Fund for Oil Spill Victims... but British Pensioners will Pick Up the Bill." The British are angry with Obama for pressuring BP to suspend dividend payments and set aside $20 billion for the cleanup. Obama's strong-arm position has not only affected British pensioners, who own 40% of BP, but American pension funds, who own 39%, as well. In other words, the economic damage of the BP disaster goes far beyond the Gulf. The damage is spreading to pensions, pensioners, and portfolios all around the world. Canary Wharf's ‘BP' stands for Bomb Production. Canary Wharf is much like AIG, a factory for exotic financial products known as derivatives. The problem is that most people do not know what these murky a...

Dogs Dog Breeds (1-10)

10. Zorba Mastiff 9. American Mastiff 8. Rottweiler puppies and dogs 7. Chihuahua puppies and dogs 6. Dalmatian puppies and dogs 5. Dog Breed Selector 4. List of Breeds of Dogs 3. Dog Breed Selector Quiz 2. Choosing Dog Breed Quiz 1. What Breed of Dog do I Want?

Home Loans at 2% Interest

Dropping interest rates on home loans to near zero percent rates would be one way the government could print more money and stimulate the economy, but it would damage the lives of millions of honest hard working people as taxes and inflation rose. In such a low interest rate environments, debtors would be winners, and workers and savers would be losers. It would be a sign that the government is desperate, that printing presses are running, and that our leaders will do anything to save the economy ... including destroy it. If our leaders become desperate, the fractional reserve could be raised to lets say 1 to 30. This would destroy the value of your savings, but banks could drop interest rates to 2 percent and still make money, especially if they paid savers less than 1 percent for their money. Every dollar in your pocket is debt, an IOU from your government. This is why you and I need to be smarter and use good debt wisely. If we get into lots of good debt, we'll do our part to sa...

The Growing Divide

Prior to 1974, employers rewarded workers for years of loyalty and hard work with a guaranteed retirement income. They didn’t have to save for retirement. After 1974, workers had to move a portion of their income into managed accounts stuffed with stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, hoping that the market would grow steadily for many years. Because people were not financially intelligent and didn’t understand the financial markets, a whole new industry was created, financial planning. One reason why those in the middle class are getting poorer is because they’re playing by the old rules of money. They’ve been taught to go to school, get a good job, and save for retirement in a well-diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Meanwhile, the rich play by the new rules of money and get rich off those stuck trying to play the retirement game in the old system. it’s pointless to fight the system because the banks and the ultra-rich are in control and know how to manipulate the sy...

Insight into Decision Making

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A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track. The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way? Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make........ ........... Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place? Nevertheless, he had...

Don't Fight the System

"The thing went from what is best to what could be passed," he says. My translation: You can't fight the system. Don't Fight the System Volcker knows all too well that the Conspiracy is in control. In the end, it's not the government that has the power. It's the Fed and the ultra-rich banks. This latest financial reform bill is simply a way to pacify the voters and make the government look like it's doing something. The fundamental problems that caused the crisis are still in place—and the people responsible are still in power. The boom and bust cycle will continue as it always has since Nixon took the dollar of the gold standard in 1971. you need to learn to play by the rules of the rich—The 8 New Rules of Money. You cannot expect the government to bail you out. They only do that for powerful banks and corporations—and they use your money to do it. Counting on the government and regulation to save you and the country sets you up for disappointment and fai...

Ideal Market Niche

Philip Kotler: An ideal market niche would have the following characteristics: * The niche is of sufficient size and purchasing power to be profitable * The niche has growth potential * The niche is of negligible interest to major ompetitors * The firm has the required skills and resources to serve the niche effectively * The firm can defend itself against an attacking major competitor through the customer goodwill it has built up” To what extent does your chosen niche fit these criteria?

The soundness of morality

Whatever the sometimes unfathomable justifications used to defend government policy (and this happens all over the world), one can still agree that a policy is an improvement on the past. The idea of relinquishing control over things is so abhorrent to most politicians that it lays bare the aphrodisiac of power. The only fix is to take back the unnecessary powers held by politicians, and then ensure that strong checks and balances – inhabited by people other than politicians – prevent the same mistakes being made again. Anyone who has ever played SimCity or similar games will have felt the sublime satisfaction in seeing one’s civilisation expand and flourish in one’s image: bulldoze a tower there, build a park here, whack a nuclear power plant there. But perhaps not everyone would be happy with it there, and that is precisely why we must prevent anyone from enjoying power without accountability. ~ Tunku ’Abidin Muhriz (ideas.org.my) http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=50029