Marketing is about making what you sell appear more attractive. But in order to do so, one should 1st get a means of getting the message through to the masses; and one of the most effective ways of doing that in the modern world is through internet marketing. designed initially for military functions, the internet now has millions of users logging on to it from all over the world for some reasons. in this article we shall focus our attention on a certain aspect of internet marketing, and in case if you own a small business or planning to start one, this article about small business internet marketing will give you some insight.

Unless you own a large scale business with a huge income, it is very challenging to get the desired output through conventional means of marketing. This is because with conventional marketing ways, in order to effectively get the message about your product to the people, it would want a considerable number of capital, and it could sometimes even prove to be an unprofitable investment. This is why small business internet marketing is one of the greatest solutions; with small business internet marketing, an average businessman/ businesswoman could get the desired results of marketing at a smaller cost compared to the utilise of conventional ways.

One of the greatest and fundamental styles of doing small business internet marketing is to have your own internet site which gives info about your products and your business. As there are numerous among us who favour to browse through the internet until they know what they want and then straight away purchase certain services or products, having an own internet site with products and services is a must for small business internet marketing.

Just like in conventional ways of marketing, internet marketing also has its limits when it comes to the number one can afford to invest on marketing. therefore in small business internet marketing one should hold in head that just like one can t promote his or her products with billboards in densely populated areas without spending few thousand dollars, one can t put advertisements of web pages with high traffic without investing a considerable number. due to this component one needs to get cheap, yet effective, means of getting your message through to the general public when it comes to small business internet marketing; adding search engine optimization to your internet site, and producing back links to your internet site from popular internet site are some of the choices you have for this purpose.

Advice And Information On Your Small Business Internet Marketing …

Central European Distribution Corp. Reports Operating Results (10-Q)
By 10qk. Central European Distribution Corp. ( CEDC ) filed Quarterly Report for the period ended 2010-06-30. Read more » »

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By admin – August 11, 2010

Central European Distribution Corp. Reports Operating Results (10-Q)

TripleNet’s (Triplenet Provider Profile on 1031reviews.com) a bit of the bellweather for the industry, given its early leadership and acquisition/ merger with Grubb and Ellis.  It’s always good to see them go through an SEC investigation with no enforcement, but again reinforces the need to make sure you do your homework.

In related news, we’re 1/2 to building out review functionality on www.1031reviews.com so hopefully we can start capturing some investor to investor feedback shortly.

SEC Closes its Investigation of Triple Net Properties, LLC with a Recommendation of no Enforcement Action
PR Newswire
June 02, 2008: 08:34 AM EST

SANTA ANA, Calif., June 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Grubb & Ellis Company (NYSE: GBE), a leading real estate services and investment firm, announced today that the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission has informed counsel for the Company that the SEC is closing the previously disclosed investigation referred to as "in the matter of Triple Net Properties, LLC" without any enforcement action against Triple Net Properties, LLC or NNN Capital Corp. Triple Net Properties, LLC and NNN Capital Corp. became subsidiaries of Grubb & Ellis Company as part of the merger with NNN Realty Advisors.

"the Company cooperated fully with the SEC staff throughout the investigation, and we couldn?t be more pleased with the successful outcome," said Scott D. Peters, Chief Executive Officer of Grubb & Ellis Company.

TripleNet Survives SEC Investigation

I have a philosophy, which is that if you can create win-win situations you should always do so. My daughter, Briana, is 12 years old and has been invited to travel to Europe next summer to be a Student Ambassador through the People to People program. one of the requirements I am making for Briana to go is that she must raise one-half of the finds for the trip. since Briana needs funds for her trip, and my company, Entrust Retirement Services, Inc. needed help stuffing envelopes to send out our quarterly statements, Briana came to work for us to help stuff envelopes. This earned her money for her trip and at the same time reduced my taxable income – a definite win-win scenario.

You may be asking, “What does this have to do with IRAs?” as her father and as a professional in the area of self-directed IRAs, of course it immediately struck me that Briana now has earned income and is therefore eligible for a Roth IRA, even at age 12. This got me thinking about how long a Roth IRA could last under a certain set of circumstances.

The original owner of a Roth IRA never has to take distributions from that Roth IRA.

Briana can therefore accumulate funds in her Roth IRA for her entire life without ever having to take a distribution. This is one of the benefits of a Roth IRA over a traditional IRA. with a traditional IRA distributions must begin no later than April 1 of the year following the year the IRA owner reaches age 70 1/2. when she dies, Briana can leave the Roth IRA to anyone she wants (although she may need her spouse’s consent in certain circumstances if she lives in a community property state). an IRA inherited by someone is sometimes referred to as a “Beneficiary IRA” or a “Stretch IRA,” especially if the person is very young.

Unlike Briana, who never has to take distributions during her lifetime, if a non-spouse beneficiary inherits her Roth IRA they must take required minimum distributions (RMDs) based on the beneficiary’s life expectancy as determined by the IRS. The good news is that if Briana has had a Roth IRA for at least 5 tax years when she dies, required minimum distributions from the inherited Stretch Roth IRA to the beneficiary who inherits the account will be tax free, even if they are under age 59 1/2 at the time of the distributions.

So how might this work out in Briana’s situation? Let’s assume Briana makes exactly $1,000 in earned income for tax year 2008. Roth IRA contributions can be made based on the amount of her earned income (her investment income, if any, doesn’t count), up to a maximum of $5,000 for people under age 50 by the end of the year for 2008. In Briana’s case, since she earned less than the $5,000 contribution limit, she can only contribute $1,000.

2 if we assume that Briana will live to age 87, and she never makes another contribution to that Roth IRA, the value of the Roth IRA upon her death (75 years from the start of the Roth IRA) would be as follows: Initial Contribution Annualized Yield Result after 75 Years $1,000 6% $ 89,013.00 $1,000 12% $ 7,748,834.00 $1,000 18% $659,839,065.00 For purposes of our discussion, I will assume an annualized yield of 12%.

Some may argue that this isn’t realistic, but in fact at Entrust we see much higher yields in self-directed IRAs than just 12%. For example, my Mom’s self-directed IRA has achieved a yield of more than 13% per year over the last couple of years by simply doing hard money lending (but that is the topic of a different article). if your calculator holds enough numbers, multiply the appropriate amount from the above chart times 5 or 6 for a full single year contribution depending on the age of the contributor (ie. $5,000 for those under age 50, and $6,000 for those age 50 or older). of course the results on the chart above do not even account for continuous contributions during Briana’s lifetime, which she will almost certainly make based on the financial education she is going to get from me!

If Briana has a daughter at age 31 (although how she is going to have a child before she’s ever allowed to date I’m not sure), and her daughter delivers her granddaughter at age 31, who in turn gives birth to her great granddaughter at age 31, Briana will be age 81 when her great granddaughter is born (we’ll call her Samantha). if Briana updates her beneficiary designation to leave Samantha her huge Roth IRA, Samantha will be age 6 when Briana dies at age 87. By December 31 of the following year, when Samantha is age 7, required minimum distributions must begin from the inherited Stretch Roth IRA.

To calculate Samantha’s required minimum distributions, her life expectancy must be determined from the IRS Single Life Expectancy Table (Table 1 in the back of IRS Publication 590). once the appropriate Life Expectancy Factor is found on the table, Samantha must take the value of the account as of December 31 of the prior year and divide it by the factor. For a beneficiary who must begin distributions from an inherited IRA at age 7 the Life Expectancy Factor from the IRS table is 75.8.

Samantha’s first year distribution is calculated as follows: Prior Year End Balance ($7,748,834) Life Expectancy Factor (75.8) = Required Minimum Distribution ($102,227.36) In subsequent years the factor is reduced by 1, and in each year the balance on December 31 of the prior year is divided by the new factor (ie. the Life Expectancy Factor is 74.8 in year 2, 73.8 in year 3, etc.). since the original Life Expectancy Factor was 75.8, after a total of 76 years the inherited Stretch Roth IRA must be completely distributed, either to Samantha or to Samantha’s heirs if she doesn’t live that long.

The best part is that Samantha is not required to just let the money sit there earning nothing for the 76 years of required minimum distributions. as long as there is sufficient funds in the account to meet the annual required minimum distributions, the account can continue to be invested in real estate, notes, private company stock and limited partnerships, among many other choices, so that it continues to grow. In Samantha’s inherited Stretch Roth IRA, for example, during the first year of distributions if the account earns a 12% annualized yield, the income will be $929,860, while Samantha’s required minimum distribution would only be $102,227, resulting in an increase in the account balance of $827,633.

The following chart shows how powerful an inherited Stretch Roth IRA of just $100,000 can be if distributed over a long period of time: Starting Principal Beginning Life Expectancy Factor Yield Total Distributions $100,000.00 75.8 6% $ 2,033,743 $100,000.00 75.8 12% $ 80,496,367 $100,000.00 75.8 18% $3,420,454,810 if an annualized yield of 12% can be maintained for the entire life of Briana and Samantha so that the beginning balance of Samantha’s inherited Stretch Roth IRA is $7,748,834.00, total distributions from the account for Samantha and her heirs would be a staggering $6,237,497,033 – and under current law it is all TAX FREE! This is obviously an incredible estate planning tool. A lifetime of tax free income is quite a gift to leave to your heirs.

It should be noted that I have ignored for the purposes of this article the estate tax and generation skipping tax issues in order to illustrate the power of an inherited Stretch Roth IRA.

No one can predict what tax law changes will take place over the next 75 years, or what the estate tax and generation skipping tax limitations will be if they continue to exist for that long.

However, you should never avoid estate and tax planning simply because the law might change.

We can only plan based on what we know right now. one thing is for sure – to fail to plan is to plan to fail.

Published: August 18, 2010

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Realty Times – How to Stretch a Roth IRA to Last More Than 150 Years

By Vaughan Gunson
Tax Justice campaign coordinator
from CAFCA’s “Foreign Control Watchdog”, August 2010

The figures are mind blowing. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that the financial crisis cost the world $US11.9 trillion. The human cost is immeasurable. and it ain’t over. The international bailouts of banks and other financial institutions have seen trillions of dollars of private debt off-loaded onto governments. The financial crisis has not been fixed. The problem has just been shifted. The bailouts have created a “sovereign debt crisis”, which is breaking first in Europe. Governments worldwide are scrambling to get debt under control. The “fiscal stimulus” that accompanied the wave of banking bailouts has now passed over to “austerity measures”, which means cuts to public services and higher taxes for grassroots people. those who had no part, no say, and no responsibility for the financial crisis are being made the victims, many times over.

The leaders of a club of rich countries called the G20 (Group of 20) recently met in Toronto, Canada. The strategy of making us pay for the crisis was clear. G20 leaders issued a joint statement on 27/6/10 committing member countries to halving their budget deficits by 2013 [1]. as Toronto resident and anti-capitalist campaigner Naomi Klein wrote: “Faced with the effects of a crisis created by the world’s wealthiest and most privileged strata, they decided to stick the poorest and most vulnerable people in their countries with the bill” [2]. This is what the world’s elite are trying to get away with, if we let them.

Austerity Hits new ZealandThe new Zealand economy nose-dived into recession in 2009 as the financial crisis quickly spread to the real economy. there have been widespread job losses and general job insecurity, as well as stagnant or declining wages relative to inflation. many people are struggling under the burden of mortgage and credit card debt. our Government has not bailed out banks like the US or Britain, but the impact of the crisis on the Government’s budget has been similar to overseas: declining tax revenue from falling economic activity, combined with increased spending demands, like unemployment benefits.

The policy “solution” that the John Key government is pursuing is no different from the dominant policy response by governments around the globe. Protect the rich and do everything possible to get the economy going again under much the same model as before. Increase taxes on grassroots people, while restricting their access to public services. National’s 2010 Budget saw direct cuts to Government spending, like early child care. and effective cuts, as funding increases for health and education failed to keep pace with inflation. More social spending cuts have been signalled. many public sector employees are facing the axe as the budgets of Government departments are slashed.

Amidst this austerity, National still delivered tax cuts to the rich and big corporates. This benevolence to the rich was funded by increasing the goods and services tax (GST) from 12.5% to 15%. It’s widely accepted that GST is a regressive tax which disproportionately impacts on grassroots people, who spend most of their weekly income on the basics. many people in new Zealand and around the world smell a rat. The scale of the much reported banking bailouts, the ongoing impact of the crisis on our lives, as we worry about our jobs and paying off debt, has raised the question for many: is there something wrong here?

The SpeculatorsWe need to understand what’s wrong so we can organise strategically to defend ourselves. Crucial to that understanding, is grasping the dominant role financial speculation has assumed in the world economy. Financial speculation is defined on Wikipedia as “the buying, holding, selling, and short-selling of stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, collectibles, real estate, derivatives, or any valuable financial instrument to profit from fluctuations in its price, irrespective of its underlying value” [3]. Speculation has long been a part of the capitalist economy, with its damaging effects well documented, if often ignored.

But what we’re seeing today is historically unprecedented. in 2008, the trade in derivatives [4]– the most speculative of financial transactions – was $US500 trillion, which was ten times the value of the entire world’s output of tangible products and services. Much of this speculative activity is computer automated, with “purchases” lasting minutes or even seconds. The rapid growth in commodity speculation over the last decade has led to such perverse phenomena as a barrel of oil being traded, on average, 27 times before it reaches the pumps.

The reason for all this speculation is quite simple: the profits to be made from traditional investment in capitalist enterprises that produce something of value has been in decline since the post-war economic boom came to an end in the early 1970s. Today’s unprecedented levels of financial speculation represents the desire, on the part of the world’s elite, to continue reaping high profits, way more than the stagnant real economy will allow [5]. to achieve this, governments worldwide have removed all barriers to financial speculation and encouraged a supply of cheap credit by banks and other sanctioned lenders. A giant financial casino has been created, where everything that fluctuates in price has attracted the speculators [6].

Just like in the real economy, where large companies grow to dominate industries, so it is in the world of financial speculation. The last two decades have seen the rise of giant investment funds, where investors – usually rich wealthy ones – pool their money together in the hope of achieving better returns from long term investments and short term speculation. Billion dollar pension funds and hedge funds, by the very size, can influence the markets. in 2008, it was estimated that pension funds globally controlled US$20 trillion in assets. Hedge funds, which are most often involved in pure speculation, managed around $US2.5 trillion immediately prior to the financial crisis[7]. in sum, financial speculation has grown to 60 times the level of the world’s combined gross domestic product (GDP)[8].

Government-Banks-Speculator NexusThe governments of the world have acted as the “public facilitators” of global financial speculation. They’ve done so in partnership with the big banks, who are the “private facilitators” of speculation. The world’s big banks are either directly engaged in speculation, being at the epicentre of all financial activity and thus able to read trends and manipulate the markets, or they supply the credit with which others play in the casino. thus the banks are the biggest speculators of them all. and they’ve got fatter and fatter. America’s six largest banks have combined assets totalling 63% of the United State’s gross domestic product. The extent of the banks’ ascendency is revealed by the fact that only 15 years ago the combined assets of the six biggest banks were 17% of GDP9.

It’s an open secret that Wall Street banks have entered markets with the aim of generating a price bubble. after making their speculative profits they’ve exited the market, collapsing the bubble, before moving on to the next market. The housing bubble followed the dot.com bubble, then the oil price bubble. Next it was the food price bubble. these aren’t speculative bubbles caused by the random vagaries of the market, but orchestrated on high by powerful banking interests, with the blessing of Washington regulators.

Grant Morgan, in his essay “Beware! The End is Nigh! why global capitalism is tipping towards collapse, and how we can act for a decent future”, argues that financialisation is the central pillar of neo-liberalism, the economic agenda promoted by big Business and imposed by governments around the world over the last three decades. he likens the massive expansion of the financial sector, with its easy credit and speculative bubbles, to a global Ponzi* scam, one protected by government laws, corporate politicians and state officials[10].

Speculation has been hard-wired into the global economy. those who control financial systems reap the rewards, but only by causing structural damage to the whole system. all reasonable logic says that this must end, that it’s unsustainable. but as global capitalism has bet everything on financialisation, there’s no possibility of turning back. The government-banks-speculator nexus, from the point of the view of the world’s elite, has to continue[11].Crimes Against HumanityWaves of global speculation have had an enormous impact on the world economy and the lives of the grassroots majority. The housing bubble pushed house prices through the roof and caused grassroots people to be burdened with historically high levels of debt. when the housing bubble in the US burst in 2007, the big financial players quickly went looking for a new market to speculate in. They turned to another necessity of life: food. World rice prices – a staple for much of the world’s population – increased by 320% between January 2007 and June 2008. The price for wheat went up 240%[12]. there was no reason for this other than the deliberate creation of a price bubble by powerful financial players able to shift billions into these markets, chiefly big American banks, with the rest following.

That bubble burst as the financial crisis hit, but food prices haven’t come all the way back down. once prices rise, other corporates in the food chain have an interest in keeping prices at the higher level. Food distributors and supermarket chains are quick to seize the opportunity to skim some extra profit. So we’re still paying more for rice and bread than we were in 2007. Governments, big and small, are facilitating this crime against humanity. in 2000, the United States government passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which allowed non-grain producers to buy derivatives on the grain futures market. The intended beneficiaries of the law change: pension funds, hedge funds, and all sorts of other financial speculators, including big banks.

Of course if you’re a big corporate bank you don’t want to actually physically own a whole lot of grain, to sell or do anything else with it. but what derivatives markets do is allow speculators to trade in pieces of paper (“promises to buy” in the future) instead. Jayati Ghosh, a respected Indian researcher and campaigner, explains: “[W]hat’s happened, really, in this decade, is that the possibility of speculation in food grain has been delinked from the physical holding of the commodity: you don’t need to hold a commodity anymore; you can hold pieces of paper, which are contracts on the price for the future”[13] .

Speculative bubbles never last, but if you’re a big player able to manipulate prices through the sheer scale of your purchases, then you can make a killing. and it’s a killing field indeed, because grain, or any other basic food commodity that gets turned into a speculative bubble, means a global price spike, which causes the world’s poorest to starve. in 2007-08, the number of people suffering from malnutrition globally rose from 800 million to one billion. This was the direct result of financial speculation in food. Ghosh believes another food bubble is being manufactured. World food prices have been rising since April 2009, and not because of increasing demand or contracting supply, but speculation again in commodity futures markets.

Speculation in new ZealandWhile new Zealand’s finance sector is not big by world standards, the same banks-speculators-government nexus exists. Since 1984 a priority of both Labour and National governments has been deregulation of all parts of the financial industry. This has opened up new Zealand’s financial markets to international and local speculators, resulting in price volatility and inevitable cycles of boom and bust. One market that attracts high levels of speculation is the new Zealand currency market. The Kiwi dollar is the 11th most traded currency in the world. new Zealand certainly isn’t the 11th biggest economy in the world with a massive turn over of trade. Global speculators have created a market for the Kiwi dollar. It’s like a special game of roulette has been created in the South Pacific for the world’s high rollers.

Despite its relatively small size the new Zealand stock market is also subject to plenty of speculative activity. The volume of shares traded is quite substantial. in June 2010, for example, daily turnover ranged between $50 million and $120 million. Like all stock markets around the world a large percentage of this trade is by speculators – mostly overseas ones – betting on share price fluctuations. Share purchases for long term investment are only a small fraction of regular trading activity.

The John Key government wants to encourage more speculation in new Zealand. Perhaps this is not surprising, given that John Key made his fortune in the world of high finance. but it also reflects the fact that the Government, and the economy as it stands, is locked in tight to the model of hyper-financialisation which remains the source of so much profit for the rich. The Government has given the green light for NZX, the company that runs the new Zealand stock market, to create a derivatives market for milk. This market for “promises to buy” will see milk prices directly influenced by local and international speculators. Milk and milk products will therefore get caught up in any food price bubble[14].

John Key has also floated the idea of turning new Zealand into a “financial hub”. The plan rests on enticing global investors to new Zealand with the promise of tax breaks. A recent Inland Revenue Department report entitled “Allowing a zero per cent tax rate for non-residents investing in a PIE [portfolio investment entity]” reveals what’s being considered. Under this proposal, overseas investors would be allowed to operate in this country and not pay new Zealand tax on their international investments. Perhaps the greatest wrong is the establishment of an Emissions Trading Scheme, or pollution market, as it should truthfully be known. The Government’s pollution market will be another opportunity for the speculators, which is precisely why the world’s big banks and other financial institutions are pushing carbon trading as a solution to climate change. It won’t be a solution, far from it, but it will be another market for them to profit from.

Tax The Speculators!The scale of the bailouts, in the US and Europe in particular, has caused great anger amongst grassroots people worldwide, and this has led to some politicians proposing measures to try and reform the financial industry. The global crisis has not, however, reversed the “free licence” that governments have given to the world’s financial speculators. Their ability to grow their wealth and power remains intact. but they are potentially vulnerable, for the reason that the role the banks and other financial institutions have played in the crisis is becoming understood by many grassroots people. It’s therefore imperative that our side flames the fires of anger by further exposing the government-banks-speculator nexus, while at the same time putting forward solutions.

That’s where the new Zealand campaign for tax justice launched by Socialist Worker and the Alliance Party comes in. The immediate focus of the campaign is a non-citizens’ initiated referendum petition which requests Parliament to 1) Remove GST from food; and 2) Tax financial speculation. these two demands address major injustices in new Zealand’s tax system. Grassroots people have to pay tax on one of life’s necessities, food, while financial speculation goes untaxed. Overseas speculators playing new Zealand’s financial markets do not pay a cent of tax on their market gains to the new Zealand government. likewise, the rich in this country pay no tax on their wheeling and dealing. The main exemption from GST today is for “financial services”, which includes all the activities associated with financial speculation. Taxing financial speculation, as demanded by the Tax Justice petition, would be a progressive reform of a tax system that currently favours the wealthy[15].

Build The Real EconomyThe first principle of progressive taxation is that you tax the rich more than poor. On this count taxing financial speculation is progressive. It’s only the very rich who speculate. The second principle of progressive taxation is that you tax things that society wants to discourage. Global financial speculation ruins more lives than smoking, and costs society astronomically more in dollar terms, so if any bad habit needed to be taxed, it’s financial speculation. The best way to make the speculators pay more tax is to hit them at the point where they accumulate their wealth, which is when they buy and sell. This can be done through what’s called a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), a small percentage tax (perhaps 1% or less) on financial transactions.

Barry Coates, executive director of Oxfam new Zealand, is all for a Financial Transaction Tax, so that “taxes on life’s essentials [like GST]” can be replaced “with a tax on socially destructive financial speculation”[16]. A Financial Transaction Tax would net billions, for example, from speculative trading in the Kiwi dollar alone. Not all of this trade occurs in new Zealand, but a sovereign country can place a tax or levy on the trade of its own currency taking place any where in the world17. A big positive of a FTT is that it would reduce the volume of short-term financial transactions, often computer automated, by large institutional speculators, big banks, pension funds, hedge funds, and the like. A small percentage tax at the point of purchase and sale would wipe out any profits the really big spenders are able to make from short term speculation.

The main obstacle to taxing the speculators is political. The beneficiaries of the current environment of gung ho speculation will oppose any move to curb their profits and power. That’s what privileged elites have always done. They’ll put up arguments like: “it’s too difficult”, when it’s not. They’ll say it will cost “Kiwi jobs”. It won’t, because speculation only benefits the speculator, creating economic havoc in the process. The global financial meltdown of 2008 will forever be proof of this. The political arguments for taxing the speculators can be won. Following the global financial implosion, the time is right to popularise a tax which hits the most hated global purveyors of greed and exploitation. That’s the aim of the Tax Justice campaign (for more information go to http://www.nogstonfood.org/).

In the longer term we need to wrest control of the economy off the speculators, banks, and those politicians wedded to hyper-financialised capitalism. We need to re-engineer the economy and direct energy and expertise into the sustainable production of real things, useful things, by useful people. Deciding the direction to go is not really the problem, there’s plenty of good ideas around that can guide us towards a more people-centred economy. The challenge is connecting with people on a mass scale, and achieving the necessary unity of action to begin that journey. A popular campaign for tax justice could be a spearhead for a wider movement that takes on the speculators and raises an alternative vision of an economy that works for us.

End Notes

1. Larry Elliott and Patrick Wintour, “G20 nations commit to halving budget deficits by 2013”, guardian.co.uk, 28/6/10.

2. Naomi Klein, “Let’s take no orders to slash and burn from this G20 club”, from guardian.co.uk, 29/6/10.

3. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculation.

4. Derivatives are contractual promises to buy a commodity at an agreed price in the future. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_(finance).

5. One measure of the floundering real economy is under-utilisation of industry capacity, which was 70-80% prior to the financial crisis, and has worsened since.

6. See the section on financialisation, “Follow the money”, in Grant Morgan’s essay, “Beware! The end is nigh! why global capitalism is tipping towards collapse, and how we can act for a decent future”, Unity Journal, March 2010, pp16-27.

7. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_funds.

8. Barry Coates, “We could replace tax on essentials with one on destructive speculation”, Stuff News, 2/3/10.

9. Grant Morgan, “Beware! The end is nigh! why global capitalism is tipping towards collapse, and how we can act for a decent future”, Unity Journal, March 2010, pp.20-21.

10. Grant Morgan, ibid. p.21

11. but the point where it’s impossible for governments to be the “lender of last resort”, and bailout the system again, is fast approaching. The whole hyper-financialised world economy faces collapse as it comes up against real world economic and political limits.

12. Jayati Ghowsh interview, The Real News Network, http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option+com_content&task+view&id+31&Itemid+74&jumival+5067

13. Jayati Ghowsh interview, ibid.

14. Hamish Rutherford, ‘‘Serious interest’ in derivatives”, 18/4/10.

15. he wasn’t speaking for all new Zealand’s mega-wealthy, but Trade me founder Sam Morgan was telling the truth when he said he hardly pays any tax.

16. Barry Coates, “We could replace tax on essentials with one on destructive speculation”, 2 /3/10.

17. Barry Coates, ibid. Collecting this levy should be one of the functions of a Reserve Bank operating in the interests of the grassroots new Zealanders rather than the international financial institutions.

UNITY: Why We Need To Tax Financial Speculation

Managing your finances can be a little difficult to do. A lot of people are trying their very best to insure that they are saving as much as they can, only make the right financial moves if they want to stay ahead of the curve. A lot of the time, this means that they will have to watch where every dollar goes, and while that’s something that can be a little hard to do, given temptation, it is essential if you want to have a long and successful life. We’ll have to make sure that all of our affairs are in order, making sure that we are making the best financial moves, and cutting expenses when we see fit. later on, as retirement age approaches, there is going to be a lot more planning, and using a retirement planning tool. Luckily, there are a plethora of different tolls that will help you make some of the most informed decisions of your life. A lot of people have utilized retirement planning tools, as it takes a lot out of the process. with a proficient planning tool, you’ll be able to figure out exactly how much you’ll need to retire and how many years you’ll need to work to reach your goals. People find this measure great because they don’t have to painstaking go through all of the calculations.

Also, there is human error that has to be taken into account, and with a good retirement planning tool, there’s a good chance that there won’t be any of that. The tools are based in today’s currency value, and most of the planning tools are set at a 3% inflation rate, so it’s important that you take into account those things. Retirement is one of the best things in the world, as it allows you to do as you please, a life that’s filled with reward. If you’re serious about retiring well, take into account all of the things that you’ll need to make it all worthwhile. If you use a retirement planning tool, you’ll find this to be a lot easier than expected.

Retirement Planning Tool

You want stimulus? Well, how ’bout the chance to go almost 15 months without a house payment?

Thanks to cottony-soft (and FedGov encouraged) accounting standards, banks are loathe to foreclose on underwater properties. as a bank, realizing five- and six-digit losses is no fun. It tends to leave ouchies on your balance sheet, and more importantly, has a negative effect on management bonuses.

Defaulted borrowers were spending an average of 469 days in their home after ceasing to make payments as of July 31, so the financial attraction of strategic defaults increases.

Four hundred days with no house payment? a fellow could save up quite a stash in his piggy bank, going that long without sending a check to the mortgage company.

In any case, that tantalizing little snippet comes from an article at AmericanBanker.com.

And speaking of homeowner savings, just imagine all the dutiful home care and maintenance being performed by all these “living free for now” borrowers — borrowers who know that one day the bank will be coming to throw their La-Z-Boy on the lawn and Master Lock all the doors. The question isn’t if, but when.

Oh, I’m sure that leaky roof will get fixed. Any day now.

Yes, indeed. Delaying foreclosures (most econ-types refer to it as “extend and pretend”) with schemes like relaxed accounting standards and FedGov-initiated can-kickings (HAMP much?) should work out just fine.

Home (Free) on the Range

Wealth Masters International (WMI) is Multi Level Marketing Opportunity based in Sugar Land, Texas. the main products offered by WMI are financial education products. the entry level product consists of financial training provided on a series of DVD and CD disks, and a series of alliances which help the consultant to implement the ideas contained in the training. second and third level products are conferences which are geared towards financial learning, personal development and health and lifestyle.

The financial opportunity from Wealth Masters is to become a consultant and to earn commission from product sales. the compensation scheme is a combination of the Direct Sales scheme and the Multi-level Marketing scheme: some of the profit from sales goes to the consultant making the sale, and some is shared by the sponsoring consultant.

The M1 Masters Course in the WMI entry level product. A series of DVDs/CDs provide training on diverse aspects of finance including asset protection, incorporation, tax and estate planning. some of this training has been developed by WMI (Kip Herriage, co-founder of WMI), and some is provided by the alliance partners. some people have made the criticism that the training is really most useful when you employ the alliance partners as professional advisers, and that this is an extra hidden cost.

The M1 course is not all finance oriented. there is also a lifestyle, personal development and health component provided, such as the healthy eating course which is included.

A financial conference (M2 Wealth Conference) is the second tier offering on WMI’s product range. there are speakers present from WMI’s alliance partners, and other speakers representing companies offering investment opportunities. there is also a lifestyle and motivational component in the conference program.

WMI’s third level of product is the M3 Lifestyle Experience. In fact this is rather similar to the M2 level, but held in a more exotic offshore location, and with a greater lifestyle component. it is also more expensive than the M2 Wealth Conference product.

Anyone interested in Wealth Masters International can consider the value to themselves in two ways. Firstly the products offered by WMI may be valuable in their own right to any individual. Secondly there is the opportunity to act as a consultant and earn income from sales of those products to other individuals. As a MLM opportunity consultants can recruit (sponsor) further consultants, and earn a proportion of the profits made by those other consultants.

To earn income from WMI consultants will also have to buy copies of the company’s product range for themselves. these products are not inexpensive, and other costs including monthly subscription costs must be included in a consultants business plan. an estimated investment of $26,000 is required in the first year. When evaluating the opportunity offered by Wealth Masters International you should examine the value to yourself of the company products, and you should ensure that you understand the MLM model by which the company operates its business.

Find all of the details and information you need about WMI, you will have access to many tools and methods to help you succeed fast!

Discover Product Range And MLM Marketing Opportunity From Wealth …

In the last year and a half, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has taken a number of steps to develop the mutual funds industry in India. One significant move in this direction has been allowing trading of mutual funds at the country’s stock exchanges. After studying the feasibility of doing this in 2009, SEBI approved mutual fund transactions through stock exchanges in November last year. this was done to extend the convenience of the secondary market infrastructure to mutual fund investors who could earlier invest in funds only through the existing distributor/agent channel.India’s exchanges with a large number of trading terminals connected through numerous Lease Lines and VSAT terminals can reach investors in over 400 cities. besides reach, exchange trading offers number of other benefits too: opportunity to invest in multiple asset class through a single (demat) account, aggregation of entire portfolio in a single place enabling easy monitoring and more efficient investment decision making, reduction of paper work and errors etc. also the exchanges’ existing delivery vs payment process offers de-risking of settlement process and increases transparency.Following SEBI’s approval, the two Indian Exchanges, the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) started trading in mutual funds in November-December, 2009 (NSE: Mutual Fund Service System, BSE: StAR MF). under the current arrangements investors would be able to deal in Mutual funds that have signed up with the exchanges and in the schemes which the fund houses have permitted to be traded at the exchanges. out of 40 Asset Management Companies, around 20-22 have signed up with the two exchanges so far. SEBI is planning to make listing of all schemes mandatory.A look at the figures (see graph below) reveals this new channel for investing in mutual funds has not been very popular among investors yet. It can be noted in this context, average daily transaction value (sales+redemptions) for the overall industry during May-July, 2010, had been around 690 bn Rs, which makes exchange trading around 0.3% of total trading during the same period. The occasional jump (July) in trading value is more because of market fluctuations than investors’ preference for exchange trading: Industry Assets under Management went down by 10% in July as compared to May, as a result subscription went up. though it has to be acknowledged that of late, there has been a push from the fund houses to encourage investors to take the exchange route.However, these are still early days for this new system. moreover, since removal of entry load (distribution fee charged by agents to investors) in August, 2009, the industry has been in a state of flux with agents now focusing more on selling insurance products which have high distribution fees. To overcome this problem the fund houses have been trying a number of new distribution models in last one year for attracting new investors; but a clear pattern is yet to emerge. It can be argued with more investor education and awareness about the new technology channels and SEBI’s continuous push, exchange trading of mutual funds is likely to pick up in the future. Banks are a big player in mutual funds and the regulators’ urging banks to transact through exchanges may be one step towards achieving this. Another recent phenomenon is that many brokerages are placing orders through exchanges in the recent months. these all hold good promise for this new channel, however, its long term impacts are yet to be seen.

Asia Celent Blog » Exchange Trading of Mutual Funds in India

A brief scan of the financial pages of the national press might give you some idea of the number of employers these days why are eager to switch their employees from final salary pension schemes into other, personal pension, plans. Many employers are so keen to encourage such a switch that they are offering a lump sum cash inducement for those who elect to transfer their pension rights in this way. despite such an apparently attractive inducement, however, where can the employee get pension transfer advice that he or she can feel secure in knowing the transfer is in their own best interest?

The reason for many employers wanting to shift employees away from final salary schemes is that such schemes tend to be relatively expensive. for the employee, however, the attraction may well be the certainty offered by a final salary scheme, since it will be known all along just how the pension is calculated and what it is likely to amount to. A personal pension plan, however, will depend on the performance of the pension fund’s investments and the equally unknown variations in annuity rates. so, the personal pension plan could do better, or it could do worse than, the occupational final salary scheme. How can the employee begin to compare the two, therefore, to know whether to accept the employer’s incentive to quit the safety and certainty of a final salary scheme?

The answer is that it is an extremely difficult decision to make and not one which should be made without dependable pension transfer advice. the complicated nature of pension transfers is no idle judgment, but one that comes from the financial services industry regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Speaking about the responsibility of pension fund trustees towards any of its members who are thinking about a pension transfer, the Authority states: “Although it is not compulsory, the trustees should encourage members to take advice as pension transfers are complicated and it is difficult to make suitable decisions without advice, even when all the relevant information is provided”.

So, the FSA itself would encourage anyone thinking of transferring from one pension scheme to another – and that includes a transfer out of a final salary scheme – should first consult an independent financial adviser. It is the independent financial adviser, for example, who can begin to make sense of the next most important piece of information you will need in order to weigh up the pros and cons of any transfer. that is a transfer value analysis and an estimate of the benefits that your present scheme would pay. fairly obviously, this is something that would be needed before any comparison between the existing and new scheme could be attempted. Furthermore, the transfer value analysis is something that only the trustees of your present scheme could provide.

For whatever reason you are considering taking pension transfer advice, the best-placed source is an independent financial adviser because:

? Independent financial advice is recommended by the Financial Services Authority;

? you will need someone who can help you understand and interpret the transfer value analysis provided by the trustees of your current pension scheme;

? you will benefit from professional advice in weighing up the benefits and drawbacks of your present scheme compared to any alternative.

Steve Wright is Managing Director of Wrightway Financial Consultants, Independent Financial Advisers specialising in Pensions, Investments, Mortgages and Insurance. One of their major areas is pension transfer advice.

Where to Get Pension Transfer Advice