Happy New Year - Time to Catch-Up

Please allow me to begin by apologizing for the severe lack of posts over the past six months. Between a major move, having my first child, taking on two new administrative positions, several consulting projects, the college football season, my mother's moving and health issues, and more; things have been quite busy for me lately. I have also taken responsibility as co-owner for two CBS Sports Official Fanatics sites as indicated below:

CBS' Official USC Football Fanatics Group


CBS' Official CSU Bakersfield Basketball Fanatics Group

Please click on the links above to join each site.

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OK, now that we have all of that out of the way, let's get on to real issues. Apparently, this may not be the best design for a blog site, as I know that a lot of you have commented, but approved comments do not appear to be showing on the site. Perhaps, I am doing something wrong or the design is flawed, I'm not sure. Please, continue to post your comments, so that I can keep up with what you are doing, and so that I am able to help. If you would like your comment to appear, do not place any personally identifiable information in the comment (i.e. Real name, phone number, email, SSN#, etc.). You may make two comments, one with your public comments and the second with your contact information, if you would like a response. I will ensure that your personal information does not appear on the site.

State of the Economy (How Did We Get Here?)

We are SCREWED! OK, well maybe it is not that bad for everyone, but we certainly have issues, and our government can't seem to get out of its own way. One of my biggest complaints about the educational system in the United States is that we do not teach our own system of economics to our young people. Columbus and the Pilgrims did not board wooden ships, and sail half-way around the world (and risk going over the edge) in order to set-up camp and find jobs at the local 7-11. The early settlers to our country left their birthplaces to avoid persecution, prison, to gain religious freedom, and to have the freedom to choose their own type of work and profession. In the late 18th Century, most women did not work outside the home, 95% of men who worked had some kind of a trade or profession, and the 5% or so who did work for someone else were generally working in some sort of an apprentice capacity in order to learn a trade or skill, which would allow them to become self-sufficient and self-employed. Towards the end of the 19th Century, the golden spike was driven into the East/West railroad, and our economic system changed forever. Up until that point, every community had to be largely self-sufficient. That means that anything needed by the town had to be grown or produced there, or brought in by inefficient means, such as carriages, carried on foot, or horseback. That limited the availability for many products and materials. It also created opportunity for those within the town or village to provide services or manufacture products for the town. We had tailors, seamstresses, metal workers, printers, hobbyists, carpenters, etc. serving the needs of the local town. Now that the railroad was in place, enterprising souls could take these seamstresses, carpenters, and other tradespeople from the small towns, move them into a factory setting, and mass-produce these same items for a fraction of the cost. The rail system could then distribute these goods nationwide, and make them available to towns that did not have locals to produce them. In some cases, the local providers were displaced by this competition (way before Wal-Mart, folks!). As manufacturing companies proliferated, they realized that they needed an educated labor pool in order to ensure that those incoming employees had at least the ability to read, write, and calculate (Think Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic). Prior to this time, most education was handled by churches or community centers that providing a "School Marm" to teach all grades on a daily basis. Watch some old episodes of "Little House on the Prairie," if you would like to see an example of this. Since education had to be made consistent nationwide, the government (God Bless Them) stepped in and created our current educational system. Curricula were decided, teachers hired, and funding provided to establish schools across our nation. Education was made compulsory shortly thereafter. The problem with this whole scenario is that the schools were not created to promote our system of economics (Capitalism), but rather to train students to become employees of these new factories and other centralized companies (Socialism). The new mantra became, "Get a good education and go to college, so you can get a good JOB!" (Many thanks to Dave Severn, who provided a similar historical account years ago on a mass-produced tape entitled, "Pigs Don't Know Pigs Stink!") This brings me back to my point. Since we have systematically destroyed the system of economics upon which this country was founded, and we have spent over 100 years not teaching the fundamentals of capitalism, we find ourselves at a point where the electorate (We the People) have no clue about whom we should elect to office, and the fools that we do elect have no clue about fixing the problem.

How Do We Fix It?

The only way to fix the problem now is to allow everything to crash, and let private businesses find the solution to prop it back up. This whole situation was caused by unrestrained greed. If we bailout the idiots who got us into this mess by providing capital to them, we only exacerbate the problem. Giving more money to banks will not fix things at the consumer level. Giving more money to auto makers will not give them an incentive to correct their issues. They need to be allowed to go bankrupt, reduce their liabilities and labor costs, and then give money to consumers to use for down payments, so that the public may choose which automaker should survive based on their ability to serve the demands of the consuming public. Better yet, just give out $700 billion in tax refunds, and let the consumers make all of the decisions as to whom should survive. I was disappointed with the $700 billion bailout. I understood the argument that providing $700 billion was better than allowing the market to lose trillions in market capital by allowing things to fall, but before the first dollar of the $700 billion was advanced, the market had lost $6 trillion dollars already, and the real estate market has lost over $2 trillion more. If the bailout is not going to fix anything, recall it! It is now too late for that, as much of the money has already been advanced. No matter what method is used to try and correct this situation, we are all going to feel some pain. The only answer that I can provide is how to protect and enhance your own (or your family's) situation. Unfortunately, I am going to make you wait one week for the answer. In the meantime, I will ask you to spend this week analyzing your current financial position. Gather together all of your investment account statements, your tax information, your banking and savings information, and all of your bills. Then, start a fire (just kidding). Bring all of this information together. Have it ready by the time my blog posts next week, and I will tell you how you can get rid of all of your debts and be on your way to financial recovery in the next five years. No fooling! Now, is the best time to take advantage of this situation, and to use it to your advantage.

Investment Opportunities (By Popular Request)

With the current economic meltdown, several of you have asked me for specific investment advice. While I refrain from making global suggestions for individual stock issues, I do have some worthwhile opportunities on my desk for the right investors. If you have interest in seeing these, and the ability to act quickly (i.e. Be able to wire money within two business days), you may place a comment here with your contact information, and I will forward information to you. These are private placement opportunities available only to accredited investors. Minimum investment is $25,000 and maximum investment is $10 million. However, you will not be allowed to participate if your participation constitutes more than 25% of your invested assets (not including your home).

That's all for this week. Happy New Year! See you next week, for real!