May 272009

Let’s say you’re a baseball card collector, and you own a Micky Mantle rookie card. A quick google search shows that one recently went for $165k. Each card has a buying power of 165,000 US Dollars. Let’s assume now that Bowman (one of the baseball card companies that made Mickey Mantle cards) opened their vaults, and began to sell their entire stash of original Mickey Mantle rookie cards (lets assume that there were tens of thousands, just for grins). Even though YOUR card is still in mint condition, because of the fact that there are so many more in circulation now, your card that was previously valued at $165k is going to be worth the same as a Kirby Puckett card (about 8 bucks).

However simplistic that example may have been, that’s what’s going on to our dollar right now.
With trillion-dollar bailouts and expensive wars going on, the dollar is being cheapened every day by the printing presses at the Federal Reserve.

How is it that we don’t feel it, you ask? Here’s the short answer: We’re in a depression. People have begun saving again and paying off bills, banks are loaning less and NOT circulating the dollars. So while many, many dollars are being pumped into the system, not a lot of them are being spent.
Just like a bunch of Mickey Mantle cards in storage, no one feels the effects of uncirculated dollars.

This is why an economic recovery is going to be the worst thing imaginable for dollar holders
As the markets thaw out, and consumers start spending again, people are going to realize that there’s a whole lot more paper dollars floating around than before. About a week ago, as rumors started floating around that we were on our way out of this slump, the dollar fell. Coincidence? No way.

This is how Obama is going to cut the federal deficit in half
Loans don’t adjust for inflation (yet). Pres. Obama is going to pay off debts with cheap dollars. The dollar is already at risk of losing its AAA rating, and China, our biggest debt holder, is taking notice.

The important thing is to have something that has value in and of itself. The dollar is worth something because the US Government says it does. That’s no good — this is where gold comes in. It’s real, it doesn’t inflate, it can be stored, sold, bought, melted down and can be transported easily.

Well, the transportability issue isn’t really all that accurate, since we don’t even deal with cash much anymore– we’re used to the digital buying and selling of dollar-backed credits. Fortunately, I found an awesome site called GoldMoney.com. they have their own currency, called GoldGrams, which are 100 percent backed by gold. They function like a bank, allowing you to make payments on things online and transfer from GoldGrams to dollars quickly (for a small fee). The best thing is that the money is independent of the dollar, so the more the dollar tanks, the more buying power you have. Just these last few weeks, one GoldGram went up in value by 3 dollars. The more dollars begin to circulate, the lower they’ll go in value, while gold goes up. Gold is about to hit 1,000 dollars an ounce. The time to get into gold is now.

If you like sensible economics, and good monetary advice, check out Richard Maybury’s free bulletins. Honestly, his books changed how I see the world.

May 152009

Think fast:

Someone tells you that they’re making a fortune doing something that another guy with a fortune told you to do, because God told him to do it.

Welcome to the strange world of Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing, and the strange re-interpretation of a website called SuFortunaDVD.com.

First off, I think it’s impossible to have a company name with more industry buzz-words.
Fortune High Tech Marketing. It’s like calling a cereal Yummy Crunchy Tasty-Puffs.
I don’t doubt that the founder, Paul Orberson, has found incredible success as a salesman (here’s an article to prove it), but in his business plan, success is only to be found at the very top.

Regardless of that, it seems like things get a little convoluted when translated to Spanish.
Enter SuFortunaDVD.com, a website that is tailor-made for Prosperity-Gospel Christian latin Americans. In the middle of the video, the short man tells of Paul Orberson’s claims that God told him to create a company that would allow him to share his fabulous wealth with everyone (last I checked, that was called a charity). At the home page is a thirty-minute long video where a short man with white hair explains the way the company works. Here’s what I gathered:

You have to sign up three people as salesmen, then sign on customers that subscribe to 10 of these products. The money is made by subscribing these customers to “customer loyalty” programs. The problem is that if you only have 17 programs to pick from! Try convincing someone in this capitalist market that they’ll be locked into a loyalty program.

With such a poor business strategy, where does this company make their money?
This is where the 300 dollar entrance fee comes in. For licensing and other “startup costs”, Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing will charge 300 dollars from the starting block. SuFortunaDVD gets by this prickly subject quickly by saying that by signing up just a few people, you’ll be able to recoup that cash, and more.

SuFortunaDVD.com doesn’t seem to convince, either. The website is slapped together, made with Joomla, an automatic drag-and-drop website maker.

The Problem: To be sucessful in this business, you have to make sure that everyone in your “downline” is actively working. You have to babysit everyone below you.

At the end of the video, the short man talking re-introduces himself as Pastor Juan Ayala, the Executive Manager of all of Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing. Why he would want to present himself as a religious leader instead of a business professional shows that he has a very focused audience. When clicking on the “radio” button, a playlist comes up of christian songs proclaiming wealth and success, interspersed with testimonies.

It seems like this business is more about faith than work.

May 152009

The last time I realized I was making money with Google ads, I made the ad space bigger.
This appears to have worked. I’ve made more in the last two months than I’ve made in the whole year-and-a-half existence of this blog. And I haven’t posted anything for two and a half months!

That being said, I’ve been able to pay for hosting for this year, and hopefully I’ll receive my check in the mail.

I have to keep writing.