Blog: Interestig...Indy
An international investigation of what is certain to be the largest financial fraud in history (involving at least $1 trillion) is now implicating former US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, according to CIA, MI6, Opus Dei and Interpol sources.
This scandal at the heart of the secret world of global high finance made a brief entry into the public conscious in June, 2009 when two Japanese carrying $134.5 billion worth of government bonds were detained in Italy. The corporate propaganda media wrote about this incident before dismissing it by saying the “bonds were fraudulent.” These corporate so-called journalists failed to follow up on why the Japanese individuals, Watanabe and Yamaguchi, were carrying diplomatic passports. That meant their arrest was illegal and that the Italian authorities did not have the right to confiscate the bonds.
The Italian government tried to sell the bonds to the Chinese government at 40% of their face value but the Chinese said that if they bought the bonds the Italians would also then have to pay back their debts to China. The Italian authorities realized this would bankrupt Italy. Instead, the Italians then asked a Vatican Banker by the name of Daniele Dal Bosco to try to sell the bonds back to their original owners, an organization known as the Dragon Family, at 10% of their face value. The Dragon family refused to buy back their own bonds.
However, Dal Bosco, a member of the Monte Carlo P2 Freemason Lodge, was instead asked by a Dragon Family agent to act as custodian for an additional $1 trillion worth of bonds. These bonds are a combination of Kennedy Bonds, Federal Reserve Notes and Japanese government bonds that the Dragon family was trying to keep out of the hands of the Federal Reserve Board.
High ranking members of the United Nations then approached Dal Bosco and offered him $100 million to hand them the bonds. This transaction was stopped by White Dragon Society agents.
Dal Bosco then absconded with those bonds and turned to an organization known as the Office of International Treasury Control. Using the OITC name, Dal Bosco then tried to cash the bonds with the Vatican, the Italian government and, again, the United Nations.
However, an investigation of the OITC by international criminal authorities revealed the organization to be a sophisticated fraud. The nominal head of the OITC is a Cambodian of royal blood by the name of R.C. Dam. Mr. Dam was at one point recognized as having the nominal rights to a large pool of gold owned by the various royal families of the world. However, these rights have long since been rescinded and the OITC has for years now operated as a fraudulent organization.
UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon has been implicated because the OITC has defrauded at least three countries and an unknown number of individuals by claiming to have UN backing. The UN never, until the current investigation began, denied its affiliation with the OITC. Investigators are now awaiting a formal response from Ban Ki Moon because, they say, he personally tried to help Dal Bosco cash the bonds. The UN, the BIS and the Federal Reserve Board all now say the OITC is a fraud.
Investigators in the US and the UK have now confirmed the two Japanese were fooled by a group headed by Alan Greenspan into bringing the bonds from Italy to Switzerland. Greenspan’s cabal was planning from the very beginning to seize the bonds and cash them.
Many of these bonds are linked to the attempt by former US President John Kennedy to return the money creating powers of the privately owned Federal Reserve Board to the American people. The Feds attempt to get their hands on these bonds and cash them was blocked by an international team of investigators including members of the Japanese Security Police, MI6, the CIA, Interpol, other government agencies and various secret societies including MJ12, the White Dragon Society and certain Freemason groups.
The Vatican is now denying any link to Del Bosco and a representative of Opus Dei told an investigator affiliated with the White Dragon Society that “we will get the bonds back for you but do not ask about what happens to Del Bosco.” Dal Bosco is now believed to be hiding somethere in Italy, probably the town of Negrar outside of Verona.
There is a large international meeting scheduled in Washington at the end of this month to deal with ongoing financial war these bonds are an integral part of. It is looking very much like the end game for the Federal Reserve Board and their puppets in Washington D.C. The nightmare is finally ending
Credit for this info....Ben Fulford...
http://benjaminfulford.typepad.com/benjaminfulford/2010/08/united-nations-alan-greenspan-now-implicated-in-1345-billion-bond-scandal.html
Mmmmm....Indy
]]>Blog: Interestig...Indy
An international investigation of what is certain to be the largest financial fraud in history (involving at least $1 trillion) is now implicating former US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, according to CIA, MI6, Opus Dei and Interpol sources.
This scandal at the heart of the secret world of global high finance made a brief entry into the public conscious in June, 2009 when two Japanese carrying $134.5 billion worth of government bonds were detained in Italy. The corporate propaganda media wrote about this incident before dismissing it by saying the “bonds were fraudulent.” These corporate so-called journalists failed to follow up on why the Japanese individuals, Watanabe and Yamaguchi, were carrying diplomatic passports. That meant their arrest was illegal and that the Italian authorities did not have the right to confiscate the bonds.
The Italian government tried to sell the bonds to the Chinese government at 40% of their face value but the Chinese said that if they bought the bonds the Italians would also then have to pay back their debts to China. The Italian authorities realized this would bankrupt Italy. Instead, the Italians then asked a Vatican Banker by the name of Daniele Dal Bosco to try to sell the bonds back to their original owners, an organization known as the Dragon Family, at 10% of their face value. The Dragon family refused to buy back their own bonds.
However, Dal Bosco, a member of the Monte Carlo P2 Freemason Lodge, was instead asked by a Dragon Family agent to act as custodian for an additional $1 trillion worth of bonds. These bonds are a combination of Kennedy Bonds, Federal Reserve Notes and Japanese government bonds that the Dragon family was trying to keep out of the hands of the Federal Reserve Board.
High ranking members of the United Nations then approached Dal Bosco and offered him $100 million to hand them the bonds. This transaction was stopped by White Dragon Society agents.
Dal Bosco then absconded with those bonds and turned to an organization known as the Office of International Treasury Control. Using the OITC name, Dal Bosco then tried to cash the bonds with the Vatican, the Italian government and, again, the United Nations.
However, an investigation of the OITC by international criminal authorities revealed the organization to be a sophisticated fraud. The nominal head of the OITC is a Cambodian of royal blood by the name of R.C. Dam. Mr. Dam was at one point recognized as having the nominal rights to a large pool of gold owned by the various royal families of the world. However, these rights have long since been rescinded and the OITC has for years now operated as a fraudulent organization.
UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon has been implicated because the OITC has defrauded at least three countries and an unknown number of individuals by claiming to have UN backing. The UN never, until the current investigation began, denied its affiliation with the OITC. Investigators are now awaiting a formal response from Ban Ki Moon because, they say, he personally tried to help Dal Bosco cash the bonds. The UN, the BIS and the Federal Reserve Board all now say the OITC is a fraud.
Investigators in the US and the UK have now confirmed the two Japanese were fooled by a group headed by Alan Greenspan into bringing the bonds from Italy to Switzerland. Greenspan’s cabal was planning from the very beginning to seize the bonds and cash them.
Many of these bonds are linked to the attempt by former US President John Kennedy to return the money creating powers of the privately owned Federal Reserve Board to the American people. The Feds attempt to get their hands on these bonds and cash them was blocked by an international team of investigators including members of the Japanese Security Police, MI6, the CIA, Interpol, other government agencies and various secret societies including MJ12, the White Dragon Society and certain Freemason groups.
The Vatican is now denying any link to Del Bosco and a representative of Opus Dei told an investigator affiliated with the White Dragon Society that “we will get the bonds back for you but do not ask about what happens to Del Bosco.” Dal Bosco is now believed to be hiding somethere in Italy, probably the town of Negrar outside of Verona.
There is a large international meeting scheduled in Washington at the end of this month to deal with ongoing financial war these bonds are an integral part of. It is looking very much like the end game for the Federal Reserve Board and their puppets in Washington D.C. The nightmare is finally ending
Credit for this info....Ben Fulford...
http://benjaminfulford.typepad.com/benjaminfulford/2010/08/united-nations-alan-greenspan-now-implicated-in-1345-billion-bond-scandal.html
Mmmmm....Indy
]]>Blog: Interestig...Indy
Salut mes ami...
........
August 6, 2010
]]>
Salut mes ami...
........ August 6, 2010
]]>ekly Geopolitical News and Analysis100802: The criminal cabal is creating incidents everywhere in a bid to start martial law in the West
What do North Korean nuclear threats, US military wiki-leaks, harassment of journalists, trouble on the Columbia/Venezuela border, attacks on Chinese oil pipelines, Japanese tankers and other oil facilities all have in common?
The answer is they are all desperate maneuvers by criminal Western oligarchs hoping to start World War 3 and keep themselves in power via martial law. It is also a symptom of the extreme, desperate power struggle now unfolding in Washington D.C. Although some are hoping for imminent announcements the nightmare has ended, this struggle is likely to continue into the autumn and possibly beyond.
Weekly Geopolitical News and Analysis
Story was poisoned during a March, 2010 visit to the US with a virus created by the Fort Meade biological warfare facility, according to close associates of Story who spoke to him the day before his July 14th death. Although there exists an antidote for this virus, Story was unaware he was poisoned with it until recently by which point his liver damage had progressed too far for treatment, according to the sources.
Although Story is now dead, his sources will continue to provide the public with vital information about the secret financial war that is now raging towards its conclusion. The murder of Story will not go un-avenged, according to several sources inside the U.S. and UK military-industrial complex.
The murder of Story is part of a broader, but doomed campaign to silence journalists. Jane Burgermeister, who did much to expose the pharmaceutical industry’s involvement in the creation of the H1N1 virus, contacted this writer today saying she feared for her life. She is the victim of systematic harassment by Austrian security service thugs and their corporate/government bosses.
This writer has also been the target of multiple murder attempts. The same cabal that killed my colleague Paul Klebnikov (the former Forbes Moscow Bureau Chief) and killed Daniel Pearle of the Wall Street Journal, has been systematically murdering journalists around the world as a part of their effort keep in power and fool the public with their fake “war on terror.”
Below is a copy of Christopher Story’s last report. There has been a systematic effort to remove this report from the internet so please disseminate it far and wide.
Below that you will find a copy of an e-mail from Jane Burgermeister.
Below that, you will find a list of the members of the Knights of Malta, who are a major part of the criminal cabal that is trying to turn Western Civilization into a fascistic dictatorship. When the White Dragon roars, their reign of terror will finally end.
Edward Harle’s (Christopher Story’s) last report:U.S. CADRES TOO COWARDLY, WEAK AND FECKLESS TO ARREST BUSH SR. FOR FINANCIAL TERRORISM AND OPEN-ENDED WANTON MAFIOSO SABOTAGE
Saturday 10 July 2010 00:01
NEW INFORMATION:
BELOW:
CIA/MI6.OBAMA/BUSH SR./CHENEY ORDERED CHISTOPHER STORY’S ASSASSINATION
AND ARE SUPRISED AND TERRIFIED THAT HE IS NOT DEAD
OBAMA AND BUSH ‘SPOKEN TO’ BY MEN WITH GUNS
• When ‘President’ Barack Hussein Obama touched down on the White House Lawn at 5:30pm on 9th July, he was ‘spoken to’. Enquiries by this service confirm that those doing the ‘speaking’ were not Secret Service operatives. On the contrary they were men with guns.
• Within the past 24-30 hours, private citizen George Godfather H. W. Bush Sr. has likewise been ‘spoken to’ twice. The people doing the ‘speaking’ were men with guns.
• The Chinese have had enough and are ready to take drastic lethal measures.
• Private citizens George H. W. Bush Sr. and Neil Bush think they are immortal and can take the loot they are blocking to the grave.
• Obama, who answers to the private citizen George H. W. Bush Sr., is saying he’s a ‘national citizen’. In order to be President of the United States, under the Constitution and the Soldiers and Sailors Act, you have to be a NATURAL citizen born in the United States or born in a US military family serving abroad.
CIA/CHENEY/MI6/OBAMA/BUSH SR. HAVE ATTEMPTED
TO ASSASSINATE CHRISTOPHER STORY
A detailed report on this assassination attempt and the horrible illness inflicted on the Editor as a consequence will be published as soon as feasible.
•We now have proof that the CIA/MI6/Obama/Bush/Cheney issued an assassination order against this Editor. We have proof that they are suprised that the Editor is not dead.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
• THE WHOLE WORLD AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL KNOWS IN DETAIL ABOUT THIS U.S. CORRUPTION AND CRIMINAL FINANCIAL TERRORISM CRISIS, NOT LEAST FROM THIS WEBSITE. THEY RIGHTLY REGARD THE UNITED STATES AS AN ARROGANT, RUTHLESS PARIAH STATE THAT IMAGINES IT CAN DO WHAT IT PLEASES AS IT DESTROYS ITSELF
• LIENHOLDERS HAVE SEIZED CONTROL OF BANK OF AMERICA, CHARLOTTE, NC., AND OF DEUTSCHE BANK, FRANKFURT AND HAVE CLEANED OUT THE SABOTEURS: SEE BELOW
• HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN SIGNED THE NECESSARY PAYOUT DOCUMENTS, AS EXPECTED, DURING HER VISIT TO NEW YORK. SHE WAS DOUBLE-CROSSED BY BUSH SR.
• SEE KEY POINTS BELOW AND CONFIRMATION IN ATTORNEY-AT-LAW A. CLIFTON HODGES’ LETTER TO THE BRITISH CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, GEORGE OSBORNE, DATED 8TH JULY 2010. THIS LETTER CONFIRMS ALL OF THE KEY POINTS OUTLINED BELOW.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
MISPRISION OF FELONY: U.S. CODE, TITLE 18, PART 1, CHAPTER 1, SECTION 4:
‘Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some Judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both’.
‘Seeing what’s at the end of one’s nose requires constant effort’. George Orwell.
• Please be advised that the Editor of International Currency Review and associated intelligence services cannot enter into email correspondence related to this or to any of the earlier reports on the US/German/French official criminality underlying this crisis.
• BOOKS: Edward Harle Limited has so far published FIVE intelligence titles: The Perestroika Deception, by Anatoliy Golitsyn; Red Cocaine, by Dr Joseph D. Douglass, Jr.; The European Union Collective, by Christopher Story; The New Underworld Order, by Christopher Story; and The Red Terror in Russia, by Sergei Melgounov. All titles are permanently in stock.
• By Christopher Story FRSA, Editor and Publisher, International Currency Review, World Reports Limited, London and New York. For earlier reports, press the ARCHIVE. Order your intelligence subscriptions and ‘politically incorrect’ [i.e., correct] intelligence books online.
• CMKM/CMKX CASE DOCUMENTS:
Press Archive for this report [29th January 2010]
Case Number CV10-00031 JVS (MLGx):
SERVICE OF CMKM.CMKX $3.87 TRILLION SUIT VS. S.E.C.
You can also access the CMKM/CMKX text at: http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/paKdda
The biggest lawsuit in world legal history: The phantom share giga-scandal.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
• OUR U.S. LANDLINES ARE NOW PERMANENTLY CLOSED BECAUSE OF U.S. HARASSMENT.
WE CAN BE CONTACTED VIA EMAIL, UK FAX OR VIA THE WEBSITE ‘CONTACT US’ FACILITY.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
• FOR LATEST INFORMATION ON OUR INTELLIGENCE PUBLICATIONS, SEE SECOND PANEL.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
EMAIL POLICY: All anonymous emails from parties who are too wet and scared to provide their full coordinates as required by our ‘Contact Us’ facility are trashed unread. All uncouth, New Age, rude, discourteous, blasphemous, satanic, goss, filthy and otherwise objectionable emails, including ignorant rants promoting ‘Black’ revisionist claptrap about e.g. the British Monarchy ‘owning’ America and other old Nazi ‘Black’ propaganda emanating from the CIA’s massive lie and disinformation apparat, are trashed. For many years this website has carried a statement at the foot of the reports stating in crystal clear English that we will NOT enter into correspondence concerning the current and earlier reports posted on this website.
• We use simple, plain English so that people can understand what we say.
• We correspond with known and trusted correspondents only. Stray questions about of the blue on matters connected with the Settlements are not answered.
As you can see from the above, we have closed down all our communications because of interminable and intolerable harassment from the United States. We have also added a large number of parties to our ‘Black List’ so that their incessant emails bounce.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••*
NEW REPORT STARTS HERE:
• KEY POINTS:
• The Lienholders exercised a foreclosure and management takeover on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd July 2010 of Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt, Germany and of Bank of America, Charlotte, NC. They took this action due to ongoing sabotage by the US official keptocracy.
• They immediately removed people in both banks working for the saboteurs and opponents of the necessary resolutions and cleared derivatives (toxic debt) off the balance sheets.
• This took Deutsche Bank out of the control of Bush Sr.’s agent [see earlier reports: Archive], Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the saboteurs in Germany.
• Likewise they took the CIA’s compromised Bank of America out of the control of the corrupt bankers and CIA saboteurs in the United States.
• Her Majesty The Queen signed the necessary authorities for the Refunding Programme, the Loan Facility and other necessary papers during her visit to New York, as expected.
• As a result of the above the necessary funds were available for distribution
on Tuesday 6th July 2010.
• As usual, George Bush Sr. interfered, as a consequence of which the Chinese parties had a ‘talk’ with the corrupt, demonic Godfather Bush Sr.
• By 7th July (Wednesday) a full meeting of Compliance Officers had taken place and the parties were again said to be prepared to initiate the transfers.
• Whereupon the corrupt Leon Panetta, Director of Central Intelligence (CIA), pathetically following ‘instructions’ issued by a private citizen named George H. W. Bush and issued to his poodle in the White House, the gutless Barack Hussein Obama, issued instructions to banking authorities the ‘placate but do not pay’ (accounting for the immediate lies summarised below), thus ‘preventing’ the feckless and terrified banking authorities from making any transfers.
• Bush Sr.’s poodle, Barack Hussein Obama, is too weak and lacking in backbone to grasp that Bush Sr.’s threats [see below] are BLUFF. He lacks the spine to stand up to this crook and face him down, which is the only way to deal with these possessed ‘Black’ US Nazi operatives, as we have amply demonstrated on this website
• On 7th July, the Chinese authorities then had another talk’ with Bush Sr., as a consequence of which the payout procedures were put back in place on that date, to start up at 3:00pm EDT..
• Having thus lied as usual to the Chinese parties, private citizen Bush Sr. contacted Barack Hussein Obama and INSTRUCTED HIM not to allow the release of the funds.
• In that telephone call to the White House, Bush Sr. also threatened that if Obama authorised release of the funds, Bush Sr. would go to the Supreme Court and have Obama’s Presidency terminated’ [see earlier reports, notably the Biden comment on this score].
• As a consequence, the terrified and gutless Obama obeyed the private citizen George H. W. Bush and the agreed-upon payout of the Settlement funds has not taken place.
• Michael C. Cottrell, BA, M.S., was duly advised on Tuesday 6th July that the preliminary payment due to him would be satisfied on that date and that the Loan Facility would be in place on Thursday 8th July 2010.
• On Friday 9th July ‘the word went out’ that Mr Cottrell was not to be paid, the opposite of what had been categorically stated earlier.
• The payments agreed to and set out in the Basel List have not been affected as a direct consequence of this sabotage.
• Given the above, Gold Badges, US Law Enforcement, the corrupted US military under the former CIA Director Robert Gates, et al., are all in continuing dereliction of their duty in failing to arrest and lock up the Financial Terrorist George H. W. Bush Sr., either because they, like Joseph Biden, are all blackmailed and compromised, or because they fear that Mr Bush Sr.’s thuggists will murder them, and because they lack the intelligence to understand that Bush Sr.’s behaviour amounts to nothing more than the familiar childish, weak Psy-Ops BLUFF and bullying overfamiliar to students of the Mafiosi Godfathers, of which this criminal is the most ruthless and dangerous operative alive today.
• US law enforcement, Gold badges, feckless CIA operatives, cloth-eared, arrogant and corrupt US military cadres have accordingly dragged the reputation of the United States below sewer level in the eyes of all in the know at highest levels worldwide, with their gutless behaviour.
• Everyone who is anyone in positions of relevant importance worldwide is fully aware of this scandalous state of affairs, not least from this website, which has enormous clout ‘where it matters’. They had better exercise their powers to put an end to what is undoubtedly the biggest financial terrorism and corruption crisis in world history.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
LETTER FROM ATTORNEY-AT-LAW A. CLIFTON HODGES TO GEORGE OSBORNE,
BRITISH CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: 8TH JULY 2010
HODGES AND ASSOCIATES
A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORPORATION
4 EAST HOLLY STREET
SUITE 202
PASADENA
CA 91103
Telephone: (626) 564-9797
Facsimile: (626) 564-9111
A. Clifton Hodges
James S. Kostas
Donald W. Ricketts*
*Of Counsel
July 8th, 2010
MOST URGENT
Sent Via E-Mail and Facsimile
The Right Honorable George Osborne, MP
Chancellor of the Exchequer
HM Treasury
Horse Guards Road
London SW1A 2HQ
Fax No. 020 7270 4580
Re: U.S. Dollar Refunding Project
Dear Honorable George Osborne:
I write to you once more in furtherance of matters raised in my prior correspondence of June 25, 2010; I understand that you have received instructions regarding my approach, and the various points raised in my earlier messages. Your assistance is most urgently required in addressing these matters, and the apparent disavowal of earlier agreements made and reaffirmed at previous G-8 meetings concerning the U.S. Dollar Refunding Project. I write on behalf of my clients Michael C. Cottrell, B.A., M.S., of Erie, Pennsylvania, USA, and his corporations: Pennsylvania Investments, Inc., registered in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Cottrell Securities Limited, registered in England and Wales.
The events of the past week are difficult to understand, and impossible to tolerate. I am advised and understand that the Lienholders executed a foreclosure and management takeover Fri-Sat 2-3 July of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, and of Bank of America in Charlotte, NC.
They “cleaned out” both banks of people working for the opponents and cleared toxic debt [including derivatives] off the bank balance sheets. Accordingly, they took DB out of the control of Angela Merkel and opponents in Germany, and they took BOA out of all possible control by the opponents in this country. As a result of these actions, it was expected that the World Global Settlement funds could be distributed this week.
These funds were available for distribution on Tuesday, July 6. Because George Bush Sr. was initiating interference, the Chinese authorities then had a “talk” with Bush Sr. By Wednesday afternoon a full Compliance Officer meeting had been conducted, and the appropriate parties were again prepared to initiate the transfers when Mr. Leon Panetta, pursuant to instructions from President Obama and George Bush Sr. issued instructions to the banking authorities to “placate but do not pay”; this prevented the authorities from making any such transfers. I am advised that the Chinese authorities then had another “talk” with Bush Sr., and all was ready again on today, July 7, and set to commence @ 3:00 PM EDT.
At approximately 3:00 PM EDT, I am told by several sources, George Bush Sr. apparently contacted President Obama and instructed him not to allow release of the funds. Bush Sr. then advised the President that if the funds were released, Bush would “go to the Supreme Court and have Obama’s Presidency terminated”. In accord with these instructions, the payout of the World Global Settlement funds has not proceeded.
THE PAYMENTS PREVIOUSLY AGREED TO AND SET FORTH ON THE BASEL LIST HAVE NOT BEEN MADE AS A DIRECT RESULT OF THESE CONTINUED DELAYS. Direct intervention through your good offices on behalf of the Royal Monarchal Power, is absolutely required to bring this matter to conclusion. To secure release of these Settlement funds, it is imperative that your power as one of the U.S. Treasury Lienholders, be exercised with such force as may be required to effect completion.
I respectfully plead that you utilize the inherent Royal Monarchal Power at the earliest possible moment to ensure completion of this funding. Thank you in advance for your assistance; please contact me directly if I can provide any additional information or help.
Sincerely,
HODGES AND ASSOCIATES
A. CLIFTON HODGES
ACH/gm
Cc: Lindell H. Bonney, Sr.
Colonel Dana Wilcox
Michael C. Cottrell, BA, MS
President Barack Obama
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Interpol, USNCB
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
THE FOLLOWING DATA HAS BEEN PUBLISHED AT THE FOOT
OF MOST OF THESE REPORTS FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS++:
• COMPILED BY U.S. SECURITIES EXPERT MICHAEL C. COTTRELL, B.A., M.S..
LIST OF U.S. STATUTES, SECURITIES REGULATIONS AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF WHICH THE CRIMINALISTS AND ALL THE MAIN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REMAIN IN BREACH:
LEGAL TUTORIAL: The Steps of Common Fraud:
Step 1: Fraud in the Inducement: “… is intended to and which does cause one to execute an instrument, or make an agreement… The misrepresentation involved does not mislead one as the paper he signs but rather misleads as to the true facts of a situation, and the false impression it causes is a basis of a decision to sign or render a judgment”.
Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Hauppauge:
Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
Step 2: Fraud in Fact by Deceit (Obfuscation and Denial) and Theft:
• “ACTUAL FRAUD. Deceit. Concealing something or making a false representation with an evil intent [scanter] when it causes injury to another…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
• “THE TORT OF FRAUDULENT DECEIT… The elements of actionable deceit are: A false representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or recklessly, or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth, and with intent to induce reliance thereon, on which plaintiff justifiably relies on his injury…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Deceit’.
Step 3: Theft by Deception and Fraudulent Conveyance:
THEFT BY DECEPTION:
• “FRAUDULENT CONCEALMENT… The hiding or suppression of a material fact or circumstance which the party is legally or morally bound to disclose…”.
• “The test of whether failure to disclose material facts constitutes fraud is the existence of a duty, legal or equitable, arising from the relation of the parties: failure to disclose a material fact with intent to mislead or defraud under such circumstances being equivalent to an actual ‘fraudulent concealment’…”.
• To suspend running of limitations, it means the employment of artifice, planned to prevent inquiry or escape investigation and mislead or hinder acquirement of information disclosing a right of action, and acts relied on must be of an affirmative character and fraudulent…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., ‘Black’s Law Dictionary’, Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Concealment’.
FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE:
• “FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE… A conveyance or transfer of property, the object of which is to defraud a creditor, or hinder or delay him, or to put such property beyond his reach…”.
• “Conveyance made with intent to avoid some duty or debt due by or incumbent or person (entity) making transfer…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., ‘Black’s Law Dictionary’, Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Conveyance’.
U.S. SECURITIES REGULATIONS OF WHICH INSTITUTIONS
HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE IN BREACH [SEE REPORTS]:
• NASD Rule 3120, et al.
• NASD Rule 2330, et al
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3040
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and SEC Rule 15c3-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3110
• SEC Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and Procedural Rule 8210
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 2330 and IM-2330
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-5
• NASD Systems and Programme Rules 6950 through 6957
• 97-13 Bank Secrecy Act, Recordkeeping Rule for funds transfers and transmittals of funds, et al.
U.S. LAWS ROUTINELY BREACHED BY THE CRIMINAL OPERATIVES AND INSTITUTIONS:
• Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act
• Anti-Drug Abuse Act
• Applicable international money laundering restrictions
• Bank Secrecy Act
• Crimes, General Provisions, Accessory After the Fact [Title 18, USC]
• Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act
• Economic Espionage Act
• Hobbs Act
• Imparting or Conveying False Information [Title 18, USC]
• Maloney Act
• Misprision of Felony [Title 18, USC] (1)
• Money-Laundering Control Act
• Money-Laundering Suppression Act
• Organized Crime Control Act of 1970
• Perpetration of repeated egregious felonies by State and Federal public employees and their Departments and agencies, which are co-responsible with the said employees for ONGOING illegal and criminal actions, to sustain fraudulent operations and crimes in order to cover up criminalist activities and High Crimes and Misdemeanours by present and former holders of high office under the United States
• Provisions pertaining to private business transactions being protected under both private and criminal penalties [H.R. 3723]
• Provisions prohibiting the bribing of foreign officials [F.I.S.A.]
• Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act [R.I.C.O.]
• Securities Act 1933
• Securities Act 1934
• Terrorism Prevention Act
• Treason legislation, especially in time of war.
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NOTICES:
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• This is a very old, malevolent US counterintelligence DIRTY TRICK.
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In so doing, the criminal pirates proclaimed that they knew perfectly well that they were/are engaged in theft and can be prosecuted for stealing copyright.
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© 2010 World Reports Limited • Edward Harle Limited • Global Analysis Limited • Website by Layer1
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Jane Burgermeister’s most recent e-mail:
The Austrian government’s and Big Pharma’s ludicrous agenda to frame Jane Burgermeister and get her jailed has now reached a new level.
Anyone who thought that judges and prosecutors in Austria are not capable of the most blatant mafia methods to set up critics of the swine flu vaccination campaign for arrest needs to think again.
The state prosecutor for corruption Mag Katja Wallenchewski sent me a letter yesterday as part of a blatant attempt to switch the criminal charges I filed on July 23 with documented evidence of file manipulation and corruption of Austrian judges and replace them with a completely different set of charges I never filed and which belong to a total stranger.
According to Wallenschewski’s letter dated July 27th, the criminal charges of complete strangers – two people called Christine Cote and Heiner Lohmann -- are listed under my name and under my file number.
You have to read the small print on page 2 to find out that the letter informing me that the prosecutors office has dropped the criminal charges against the Judge Michaela Lauer actually refers to completely different criminal charges altogether – namely to the charges of someone called Christine Cote filed on July 5th as well as of a Heiner Lohmann filed on 15 July.
http://wakenews.net/Brief_Seite_1.JPG
http://wakenews.net/Brief_Seite_2.JPG
http://wakenews.net/JMBurgermeisterStaatsanwalt100730.pdf
So why am I getting the letter? What have their charges got to do with me and my file number?
It can be assumed that these criminal charges by total strangers are now filed under my name while my own criminal charges have been switched over to their file or another file.
To send me a letter informing me that the criminal charges of totally unknown people have been dropped is in itself a serious error at best because a third party should never be informed about the status of the charges filed by others.
Googling around, I found out that Christine Cote appears to have run an eccentric swine flu vaccine site that has also been critical of me. I tried to email her at Christine.cote@aon.at yesterday but the email bounced. No one answers a number listed under that name in Vienna or replies to messages left on the answerphone.
My bet is that these criminal charges by Christine Cote and Heiner Lohmann against Judge Michaela Lauer are full of violent threats and hysteria and so will offer the perfect excuse for the Austrian police to arrest me any time. Certainly, this pair of "swine flu activists" have never ever contacted me.
My own set of charges with the stamp of the prosecutors office confirming I handed them in on July 23rd are very factual: every single allegation of corruption and file manipulation is well documented as anyone can read at this link:
http://wakenews.net/anzeige-jb.pdf
I also filed appeals in civil courts in Vienna on July 5th and July 9th documenting the evidence of systematic corruption by Judge Lauer in connection with the inheritance of my father and the court custody of my aunt as can be seen under the link:
http://wakenews.net/Appeal_Father_1.pdf
http://wakenews.net/Appeal_Father_2.pdf
http://wakenews.net/Appeal_Father_3.pdf
http://wakenews.net/Appeal_Father_4.pdf
http://wakenews.net/Appeal_Father5.pdf
http://wakenews.net/html/burgermeister-rekurs-dok_.html
I am happy to send anyone pdf copies myself if the above links don’t work.
The systematic corruption is so well documented by me, in fact, that the Austrian judges are obviously getting very worried and having to resort to this blatant frame up and maneuver to get me jailed or under custody.
As soon as a criminal charges with threats against a judge are put into my file, even if it is a blatant error by the prosecutor, the police can be sent to arrest me and at literally any moment.
I have not seen Christine Cote’s and Heiner Lohmann’s charges against Judge Lauer but they probably confirm every cliché about conspiracy swine flu theorists as lunatics.
In fact, the claims I made from the beginning about the swine flu pandemic being hyped by the pharmaceutical companies have been substantiated by bodies such as the widely publicized report by UK MP Paul Flynn at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly at the beginning of June -- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10396382 -- as well as the prestigious British Medical Journal.
Deborah Cohen (BMJ features editor) and Philip Carter document in a June 3rd report how scientists who convinced the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare swine a global pandemic level 6 emergency have close financial ties to the drug companies that profited from the sale of those vaccines .
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/340/jun03_4/c2912
Even the corporate mainstream media that played an instrumental role in hyping the virus has printed reports saying that the pandemic was exaggerated. Der Spiegel published a report called the “Chronology of a hysteria” in March 2010.
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-69407395.html
Der Spiegel also reported on the Bilderberg meeting in Spain in June 2010.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,698844,00.html
Far from being a crazy conspiracy theorist, I have thoroughly documented the claims I have made thanks to my background as a science journalist who has been working for years for publications such as Nature:
http://www.nature.com/climate/2007/0708/full/climate.2007.35.html
http://www.nature.com/bioent/bioenews/122004/full/bioent841.html
http://www.nature.com/bioent/2004/040901/full/bioent827.html
http://www.nature.com/bioent/bioenews/102004/full/bioent833.html
the British Medical Journal. See, for example,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC214077/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC214066/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1125282/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC261767/
Reuters
http://www.reutershealth.com/en/index.html
The Scientist
http://www.the-scientist.com/search/search_results.jsp?cx=003264466409666250718%3Aqrpes37jcpu&cof=FORID%3A11&q=jane+burgermeister&sa=Search&siteurl=www.the-scientist.com%2F#926
As well as the Guardian, the European Voice and American Prospect and many other publications.
But before the next mass vaccination campaigns or pandemics are launched, effective investigative journalists who document the corruption of WHO and national governments have to be removed and the internet censured.
They have to be framed by an elaborate process involving judges and state prosecutors interacting with “swine flu” activists”.
Ever since I filed charges against Baxter at the beginning of April 2008, presenting evidence that the contamination of 72 kilos of seasonal flu with the bird flu virus – supplied by WHO – had been deliberate given the fact the laboratories have to follow strict biosafety level 3 regulations, I have been hounded by the government.
I have also been ridiculed by much of the corporate mainstream Austrian media. But then again, every journalist in Austria working for Austrian media still needs a government license!
The same media were largely silent about the Baxter incident and also about that the fact the Vienna state prosecutor had ordered an investigation into Baxter’s contamination of the vaccine material, although the charges were dropped in September 2009 just in time for Baxter to get its approval for its swine flu jab.
I soon felt the wrath of the government after filing charges on the Baxter incident in April 2009. I had to take legal action in May 2009 against the same Judge Lauer at the court in Hietzing for the way she tried to smear me and exclude me from the court guardianship of my father, who ended up dying on October 23,2009 in a hospital in Hietzing in which the Rothschild family through a foundation still play an active role .
I stated in my criminal charges Lauer might be working for the shadowy Bilderberg network and Big Pharma and asked for an investigation. But the very same Mag Wallenschewski who is now trying to frame me as a crazy swine flu conspiracy theorist also play
ekly Geopolitical News and Analysis100802: The criminal cabal is creating incidents everywhere in a bid to start martial law in the West
What do North Korean nuclear threats, US military wiki-leaks, harassment of journalists, trouble on the Columbia/Venezuela border, attacks on Chinese oil pipelines, Japanese tankers and other oil facilities all have in common?
The answer is they are all desperate maneuvers by criminal Western oligarchs hoping to start World War 3 and keep themselves in power via martial law. It is also a symptom of the extreme, desperate power struggle now unfolding in Washington D.C. Although some are hoping for imminent announcements the nightmare has ended, this struggle is likely to continue into the autumn and possibly beyond.
Weekly Geopolitical News and Analysis
Story was poisoned during a March, 2010 visit to the US with a virus created by the Fort Meade biological warfare facility, according to close associates of Story who spoke to him the day before his July 14th death. Although there exists an antidote for this virus, Story was unaware he was poisoned with it until recently by which point his liver damage had progressed too far for treatment, according to the sources.
Although Story is now dead, his sources will continue to provide the public with vital information about the secret financial war that is now raging towards its conclusion. The murder of Story will not go un-avenged, according to several sources inside the U.S. and UK military-industrial complex.
The murder of Story is part of a broader, but doomed campaign to silence journalists. Jane Burgermeister, who did much to expose the pharmaceutical industry’s involvement in the creation of the H1N1 virus, contacted this writer today saying she feared for her life. She is the victim of systematic harassment by Austrian security service thugs and their corporate/government bosses.
This writer has also been the target of multiple murder attempts. The same cabal that killed my colleague Paul Klebnikov (the former Forbes Moscow Bureau Chief) and killed Daniel Pearle of the Wall Street Journal, has been systematically murdering journalists around the world as a part of their effort keep in power and fool the public with their fake “war on terror.”
Below is a copy of Christopher Story’s last report. There has been a systematic effort to remove this report from the internet so please disseminate it far and wide.
Below that you will find a copy of an e-mail from Jane Burgermeister.
Below that, you will find a list of the members of the Knights of Malta, who are a major part of the criminal cabal that is trying to turn Western Civilization into a fascistic dictatorship. When the White Dragon roars, their reign of terror will finally end.
Edward Harle’s (Christopher Story’s) last report:U.S. CADRES TOO COWARDLY, WEAK AND FECKLESS TO ARREST BUSH SR. FOR FINANCIAL TERRORISM AND OPEN-ENDED WANTON MAFIOSO SABOTAGE
Saturday 10 July 2010 00:01
NEW INFORMATION:
BELOW:
CIA/MI6.OBAMA/BUSH SR./CHENEY ORDERED CHISTOPHER STORY’S ASSASSINATION
AND ARE SUPRISED AND TERRIFIED THAT HE IS NOT DEAD
OBAMA AND BUSH ‘SPOKEN TO’ BY MEN WITH GUNS
• When ‘President’ Barack Hussein Obama touched down on the White House Lawn at 5:30pm on 9th July, he was ‘spoken to’. Enquiries by this service confirm that those doing the ‘speaking’ were not Secret Service operatives. On the contrary they were men with guns.
• Within the past 24-30 hours, private citizen George Godfather H. W. Bush Sr. has likewise been ‘spoken to’ twice. The people doing the ‘speaking’ were men with guns.
• The Chinese have had enough and are ready to take drastic lethal measures.
• Private citizens George H. W. Bush Sr. and Neil Bush think they are immortal and can take the loot they are blocking to the grave.
• Obama, who answers to the private citizen George H. W. Bush Sr., is saying he’s a ‘national citizen’. In order to be President of the United States, under the Constitution and the Soldiers and Sailors Act, you have to be a NATURAL citizen born in the United States or born in a US military family serving abroad.
CIA/CHENEY/MI6/OBAMA/BUSH SR. HAVE ATTEMPTED
TO ASSASSINATE CHRISTOPHER STORY
A detailed report on this assassination attempt and the horrible illness inflicted on the Editor as a consequence will be published as soon as feasible.
•We now have proof that the CIA/MI6/Obama/Bush/Cheney issued an assassination order against this Editor. We have proof that they are suprised that the Editor is not dead.
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• THE WHOLE WORLD AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL KNOWS IN DETAIL ABOUT THIS U.S. CORRUPTION AND CRIMINAL FINANCIAL TERRORISM CRISIS, NOT LEAST FROM THIS WEBSITE. THEY RIGHTLY REGARD THE UNITED STATES AS AN ARROGANT, RUTHLESS PARIAH STATE THAT IMAGINES IT CAN DO WHAT IT PLEASES AS IT DESTROYS ITSELF
• LIENHOLDERS HAVE SEIZED CONTROL OF BANK OF AMERICA, CHARLOTTE, NC., AND OF DEUTSCHE BANK, FRANKFURT AND HAVE CLEANED OUT THE SABOTEURS: SEE BELOW
• HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN SIGNED THE NECESSARY PAYOUT DOCUMENTS, AS EXPECTED, DURING HER VISIT TO NEW YORK. SHE WAS DOUBLE-CROSSED BY BUSH SR.
• SEE KEY POINTS BELOW AND CONFIRMATION IN ATTORNEY-AT-LAW A. CLIFTON HODGES’ LETTER TO THE BRITISH CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, GEORGE OSBORNE, DATED 8TH JULY 2010. THIS LETTER CONFIRMS ALL OF THE KEY POINTS OUTLINED BELOW.
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MISPRISION OF FELONY: U.S. CODE, TITLE 18, PART 1, CHAPTER 1, SECTION 4:
‘Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some Judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both’.
‘Seeing what’s at the end of one’s nose requires constant effort’. George Orwell.
• Please be advised that the Editor of International Currency Review and associated intelligence services cannot enter into email correspondence related to this or to any of the earlier reports on the US/German/French official criminality underlying this crisis.
• BOOKS: Edward Harle Limited has so far published FIVE intelligence titles: The Perestroika Deception, by Anatoliy Golitsyn; Red Cocaine, by Dr Joseph D. Douglass, Jr.; The European Union Collective, by Christopher Story; The New Underworld Order, by Christopher Story; and The Red Terror in Russia, by Sergei Melgounov. All titles are permanently in stock.
• By Christopher Story FRSA, Editor and Publisher, International Currency Review, World Reports Limited, London and New York. For earlier reports, press the ARCHIVE. Order your intelligence subscriptions and ‘politically incorrect’ [i.e., correct] intelligence books online.
• CMKM/CMKX CASE DOCUMENTS:
Press Archive for this report [29th January 2010]
Case Number CV10-00031 JVS (MLGx):
SERVICE OF CMKM.CMKX $3.87 TRILLION SUIT VS. S.E.C.
You can also access the CMKM/CMKX text at: http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/paKdda
The biggest lawsuit in world legal history: The phantom share giga-scandal.
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• OUR U.S. LANDLINES ARE NOW PERMANENTLY CLOSED BECAUSE OF U.S. HARASSMENT.
WE CAN BE CONTACTED VIA EMAIL, UK FAX OR VIA THE WEBSITE ‘CONTACT US’ FACILITY.
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• FOR LATEST INFORMATION ON OUR INTELLIGENCE PUBLICATIONS, SEE SECOND PANEL.
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EMAIL POLICY: All anonymous emails from parties who are too wet and scared to provide their full coordinates as required by our ‘Contact Us’ facility are trashed unread. All uncouth, New Age, rude, discourteous, blasphemous, satanic, goss, filthy and otherwise objectionable emails, including ignorant rants promoting ‘Black’ revisionist claptrap about e.g. the British Monarchy ‘owning’ America and other old Nazi ‘Black’ propaganda emanating from the CIA’s massive lie and disinformation apparat, are trashed. For many years this website has carried a statement at the foot of the reports stating in crystal clear English that we will NOT enter into correspondence concerning the current and earlier reports posted on this website.
• We use simple, plain English so that people can understand what we say.
• We correspond with known and trusted correspondents only. Stray questions about of the blue on matters connected with the Settlements are not answered.
As you can see from the above, we have closed down all our communications because of interminable and intolerable harassment from the United States. We have also added a large number of parties to our ‘Black List’ so that their incessant emails bounce.
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NEW REPORT STARTS HERE:
• KEY POINTS:
• The Lienholders exercised a foreclosure and management takeover on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd July 2010 of Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt, Germany and of Bank of America, Charlotte, NC. They took this action due to ongoing sabotage by the US official keptocracy.
• They immediately removed people in both banks working for the saboteurs and opponents of the necessary resolutions and cleared derivatives (toxic debt) off the balance sheets.
• This took Deutsche Bank out of the control of Bush Sr.’s agent [see earlier reports: Archive], Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the saboteurs in Germany.
• Likewise they took the CIA’s compromised Bank of America out of the control of the corrupt bankers and CIA saboteurs in the United States.
• Her Majesty The Queen signed the necessary authorities for the Refunding Programme, the Loan Facility and other necessary papers during her visit to New York, as expected.
• As a result of the above the necessary funds were available for distribution
on Tuesday 6th July 2010.
• As usual, George Bush Sr. interfered, as a consequence of which the Chinese parties had a ‘talk’ with the corrupt, demonic Godfather Bush Sr.
• By 7th July (Wednesday) a full meeting of Compliance Officers had taken place and the parties were again said to be prepared to initiate the transfers.
• Whereupon the corrupt Leon Panetta, Director of Central Intelligence (CIA), pathetically following ‘instructions’ issued by a private citizen named George H. W. Bush and issued to his poodle in the White House, the gutless Barack Hussein Obama, issued instructions to banking authorities the ‘placate but do not pay’ (accounting for the immediate lies summarised below), thus ‘preventing’ the feckless and terrified banking authorities from making any transfers.
• Bush Sr.’s poodle, Barack Hussein Obama, is too weak and lacking in backbone to grasp that Bush Sr.’s threats [see below] are BLUFF. He lacks the spine to stand up to this crook and face him down, which is the only way to deal with these possessed ‘Black’ US Nazi operatives, as we have amply demonstrated on this website
• On 7th July, the Chinese authorities then had another talk’ with Bush Sr., as a consequence of which the payout procedures were put back in place on that date, to start up at 3:00pm EDT..
• Having thus lied as usual to the Chinese parties, private citizen Bush Sr. contacted Barack Hussein Obama and INSTRUCTED HIM not to allow the release of the funds.
• In that telephone call to the White House, Bush Sr. also threatened that if Obama authorised release of the funds, Bush Sr. would go to the Supreme Court and have Obama’s Presidency terminated’ [see earlier reports, notably the Biden comment on this score].
• As a consequence, the terrified and gutless Obama obeyed the private citizen George H. W. Bush and the agreed-upon payout of the Settlement funds has not taken place.
• Michael C. Cottrell, BA, M.S., was duly advised on Tuesday 6th July that the preliminary payment due to him would be satisfied on that date and that the Loan Facility would be in place on Thursday 8th July 2010.
• On Friday 9th July ‘the word went out’ that Mr Cottrell was not to be paid, the opposite of what had been categorically stated earlier.
• The payments agreed to and set out in the Basel List have not been affected as a direct consequence of this sabotage.
• Given the above, Gold Badges, US Law Enforcement, the corrupted US military under the former CIA Director Robert Gates, et al., are all in continuing dereliction of their duty in failing to arrest and lock up the Financial Terrorist George H. W. Bush Sr., either because they, like Joseph Biden, are all blackmailed and compromised, or because they fear that Mr Bush Sr.’s thuggists will murder them, and because they lack the intelligence to understand that Bush Sr.’s behaviour amounts to nothing more than the familiar childish, weak Psy-Ops BLUFF and bullying overfamiliar to students of the Mafiosi Godfathers, of which this criminal is the most ruthless and dangerous operative alive today.
• US law enforcement, Gold badges, feckless CIA operatives, cloth-eared, arrogant and corrupt US military cadres have accordingly dragged the reputation of the United States below sewer level in the eyes of all in the know at highest levels worldwide, with their gutless behaviour.
• Everyone who is anyone in positions of relevant importance worldwide is fully aware of this scandalous state of affairs, not least from this website, which has enormous clout ‘where it matters’. They had better exercise their powers to put an end to what is undoubtedly the biggest financial terrorism and corruption crisis in world history.
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LETTER FROM ATTORNEY-AT-LAW A. CLIFTON HODGES TO GEORGE OSBORNE,
BRITISH CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: 8TH JULY 2010
HODGES AND ASSOCIATES
A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORPORATION
4 EAST HOLLY STREET
SUITE 202
PASADENA
CA 91103
Telephone: (626) 564-9797
Facsimile: (626) 564-9111
A. Clifton Hodges
James S. Kostas
Donald W. Ricketts*
*Of Counsel
July 8th, 2010
MOST URGENT
Sent Via E-Mail and Facsimile
The Right Honorable George Osborne, MP
Chancellor of the Exchequer
HM Treasury
Horse Guards Road
London SW1A 2HQ
Fax No. 020 7270 4580
Re: U.S. Dollar Refunding Project
Dear Honorable George Osborne:
I write to you once more in furtherance of matters raised in my prior correspondence of June 25, 2010; I understand that you have received instructions regarding my approach, and the various points raised in my earlier messages. Your assistance is most urgently required in addressing these matters, and the apparent disavowal of earlier agreements made and reaffirmed at previous G-8 meetings concerning the U.S. Dollar Refunding Project. I write on behalf of my clients Michael C. Cottrell, B.A., M.S., of Erie, Pennsylvania, USA, and his corporations: Pennsylvania Investments, Inc., registered in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Cottrell Securities Limited, registered in England and Wales.
The events of the past week are difficult to understand, and impossible to tolerate. I am advised and understand that the Lienholders executed a foreclosure and management takeover Fri-Sat 2-3 July of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, and of Bank of America in Charlotte, NC.
They “cleaned out” both banks of people working for the opponents and cleared toxic debt [including derivatives] off the bank balance sheets. Accordingly, they took DB out of the control of Angela Merkel and opponents in Germany, and they took BOA out of all possible control by the opponents in this country. As a result of these actions, it was expected that the World Global Settlement funds could be distributed this week.
These funds were available for distribution on Tuesday, July 6. Because George Bush Sr. was initiating interference, the Chinese authorities then had a “talk” with Bush Sr. By Wednesday afternoon a full Compliance Officer meeting had been conducted, and the appropriate parties were again prepared to initiate the transfers when Mr. Leon Panetta, pursuant to instructions from President Obama and George Bush Sr. issued instructions to the banking authorities to “placate but do not pay”; this prevented the authorities from making any such transfers. I am advised that the Chinese authorities then had another “talk” with Bush Sr., and all was ready again on today, July 7, and set to commence @ 3:00 PM EDT.
At approximately 3:00 PM EDT, I am told by several sources, George Bush Sr. apparently contacted President Obama and instructed him not to allow release of the funds. Bush Sr. then advised the President that if the funds were released, Bush would “go to the Supreme Court and have Obama’s Presidency terminated”. In accord with these instructions, the payout of the World Global Settlement funds has not proceeded.
THE PAYMENTS PREVIOUSLY AGREED TO AND SET FORTH ON THE BASEL LIST HAVE NOT BEEN MADE AS A DIRECT RESULT OF THESE CONTINUED DELAYS. Direct intervention through your good offices on behalf of the Royal Monarchal Power, is absolutely required to bring this matter to conclusion. To secure release of these Settlement funds, it is imperative that your power as one of the U.S. Treasury Lienholders, be exercised with such force as may be required to effect completion.
I respectfully plead that you utilize the inherent Royal Monarchal Power at the earliest possible moment to ensure completion of this funding. Thank you in advance for your assistance; please contact me directly if I can provide any additional information or help.
Sincerely,
HODGES AND ASSOCIATES
A. CLIFTON HODGES
ACH/gm
Cc: Lindell H. Bonney, Sr.
Colonel Dana Wilcox
Michael C. Cottrell, BA, MS
President Barack Obama
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Interpol, USNCB
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THE FOLLOWING DATA HAS BEEN PUBLISHED AT THE FOOT
OF MOST OF THESE REPORTS FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS++:
• COMPILED BY U.S. SECURITIES EXPERT MICHAEL C. COTTRELL, B.A., M.S..
LIST OF U.S. STATUTES, SECURITIES REGULATIONS AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF WHICH THE CRIMINALISTS AND ALL THE MAIN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REMAIN IN BREACH:
LEGAL TUTORIAL: The Steps of Common Fraud:
Step 1: Fraud in the Inducement: “… is intended to and which does cause one to execute an instrument, or make an agreement… The misrepresentation involved does not mislead one as the paper he signs but rather misleads as to the true facts of a situation, and the false impression it causes is a basis of a decision to sign or render a judgment”.
Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Hauppauge:
Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
Step 2: Fraud in Fact by Deceit (Obfuscation and Denial) and Theft:
• “ACTUAL FRAUD. Deceit. Concealing something or making a false representation with an evil intent [scanter] when it causes injury to another…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
• “THE TORT OF FRAUDULENT DECEIT… The elements of actionable deceit are: A false representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or recklessly, or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth, and with intent to induce reliance thereon, on which plaintiff justifiably relies on his injury…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Deceit’.
Step 3: Theft by Deception and Fraudulent Conveyance:
THEFT BY DECEPTION:
• “FRAUDULENT CONCEALMENT… The hiding or suppression of a material fact or circumstance which the party is legally or morally bound to disclose…”.
• “The test of whether failure to disclose material facts constitutes fraud is the existence of a duty, legal or equitable, arising from the relation of the parties: failure to disclose a material fact with intent to mislead or defraud under such circumstances being equivalent to an actual ‘fraudulent concealment’…”.
• To suspend running of limitations, it means the employment of artifice, planned to prevent inquiry or escape investigation and mislead or hinder acquirement of information disclosing a right of action, and acts relied on must be of an affirmative character and fraudulent…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., ‘Black’s Law Dictionary’, Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Concealment’.
FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE:
• “FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE… A conveyance or transfer of property, the object of which is to defraud a creditor, or hinder or delay him, or to put such property beyond his reach…”.
• “Conveyance made with intent to avoid some duty or debt due by or incumbent or person (entity) making transfer…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., ‘Black’s Law Dictionary’, Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Conveyance’.
U.S. SECURITIES REGULATIONS OF WHICH INSTITUTIONS
HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE IN BREACH [SEE REPORTS]:
• NASD Rule 3120, et al.
• NASD Rule 2330, et al
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3040
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and SEC Rule 15c3-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3110
• SEC Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and Procedural Rule 8210
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 2330 and IM-2330
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-5
• NASD Systems and Programme Rules 6950 through 6957
• 97-13 Bank Secrecy Act, Recordkeeping Rule for funds transfers and transmittals of funds, et al.
U.S. LAWS ROUTINELY BREACHED BY THE CRIMINAL OPERATIVES AND INSTITUTIONS:
• Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act
• Anti-Drug Abuse Act
• Applicable international money laundering restrictions
• Bank Secrecy Act
• Crimes, General Provisions, Accessory After the Fact [Title 18, USC]
• Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act
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• Hobbs Act
• Imparting or Conveying False Information [Title 18, USC]
• Maloney Act
• Misprision of Felony [Title 18, USC] (1)
• Money-Laundering Control Act
• Money-Laundering Suppression Act
• Organized Crime Control Act of 1970
• Perpetration of repeated egregious felonies by State and Federal public employees and their Departments and agencies, which are co-responsible with the said employees for ONGOING illegal and criminal actions, to sustain fraudulent operations and crimes in order to cover up criminalist activities and High Crimes and Misdemeanours by present and former holders of high office under the United States
• Provisions pertaining to private business transactions being protected under both private and criminal penalties [H.R. 3723]
• Provisions prohibiting the bribing of foreign officials [F.I.S.A.]
• Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act [R.I.C.O.]
• Securities Act 1933
• Securities Act 1934
• Terrorism Prevention Act
• Treason legislation, especially in time of war.
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Jane Burgermeister’s most recent e-mail:
The Austrian government’s and Big Pharma’s ludicrous agenda to frame Jane Burgermeister and get her jailed has now reached a new level.
Anyone who thought that judges and prosecutors in Austria are not capable of the most blatant mafia methods to set up critics of the swine flu vaccination campaign for arrest needs to think again.
The state prosecutor for corruption Mag Katja Wallenchewski sent me a letter yesterday as part of a blatant attempt to switch the criminal charges I filed on July 23 with documented evidence of file manipulation and corruption of Austrian judges and replace them with a completely different set of charges I never filed and which belong to a total stranger.
According to Wallenschewski’s letter dated July 27th, the criminal charges of complete strangers – two people called Christine Cote and Heiner Lohmann -- are listed under my name and under my file number.
You have to read the small print on page 2 to find out that the letter informing me that the prosecutors office has dropped the criminal charges against the Judge Michaela Lauer actually refers to completely different criminal charges altogether – namely to the charges of someone called Christine Cote filed on July 5th as well as of a Heiner Lohmann filed on 15 July.
http://wakenews.net/Brief_Seite_1.JPG
http://wakenews.net/Brief_Seite_2.JPG
http://wakenews.net/JMBurgermeisterStaatsanwalt100730.pdf
So why am I getting the letter? What have their charges got to do with me and my file number?
It can be assumed that these criminal charges by total strangers are now filed under my name while my own criminal charges have been switched over to their file or another file.
To send me a letter informing me that the criminal charges of totally unknown people have been dropped is in itself a serious error at best because a third party should never be informed about the status of the charges filed by others.
Googling around, I found out that Christine Cote appears to have run an eccentric swine flu vaccine site that has also been critical of me. I tried to email her at Christine.cote@aon.at yesterday but the email bounced. No one answers a number listed under that name in Vienna or replies to messages left on the answerphone.
My bet is that these criminal charges by Christine Cote and Heiner Lohmann against Judge Michaela Lauer are full of violent threats and hysteria and so will offer the perfect excuse for the Austrian police to arrest me any time. Certainly, this pair of "swine flu activists" have never ever contacted me.
My own set of charges with the stamp of the prosecutors office confirming I handed them in on July 23rd are very factual: every single allegation of corruption and file manipulation is well documented as anyone can read at this link:
http://wakenews.net/anzeige-jb.pdf
I also filed appeals in civil courts in Vienna on July 5th and July 9th documenting the evidence of systematic corruption by Judge Lauer in connection with the inheritance of my father and the court custody of my aunt as can be seen under the link:
http://wakenews.net/Appeal_Father_1.pdf
http://wakenews.net/Appeal_Father_2.pdf
http://wakenews.net/Appeal_Father_3.pdf
http://wakenews.net/Appeal_Father_4.pdf
http://wakenews.net/Appeal_Father5.pdf
http://wakenews.net/html/burgermeister-rekurs-dok_.html
I am happy to send anyone pdf copies myself if the above links don’t work.
The systematic corruption is so well documented by me, in fact, that the Austrian judges are obviously getting very worried and having to resort to this blatant frame up and maneuver to get me jailed or under custody.
As soon as a criminal charges with threats against a judge are put into my file, even if it is a blatant error by the prosecutor, the police can be sent to arrest me and at literally any moment.
I have not seen Christine Cote’s and Heiner Lohmann’s charges against Judge Lauer but they probably confirm every cliché about conspiracy swine flu theorists as lunatics.
In fact, the claims I made from the beginning about the swine flu pandemic being hyped by the pharmaceutical companies have been substantiated by bodies such as the widely publicized report by UK MP Paul Flynn at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly at the beginning of June -- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10396382 -- as well as the prestigious British Medical Journal.
Deborah Cohen (BMJ features editor) and Philip Carter document in a June 3rd report how scientists who convinced the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare swine a global pandemic level 6 emergency have close financial ties to the drug companies that profited from the sale of those vaccines .
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/340/jun03_4/c2912
Even the corporate mainstream media that played an instrumental role in hyping the virus has printed reports saying that the pandemic was exaggerated. Der Spiegel published a report called the “Chronology of a hysteria” in March 2010.
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-69407395.html
Der Spiegel also reported on the Bilderberg meeting in Spain in June 2010.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,698844,00.html
Far from being a crazy conspiracy theorist, I have thoroughly documented the claims I have made thanks to my background as a science journalist who has been working for years for publications such as Nature:
http://www.nature.com/climate/2007/0708/full/climate.2007.35.html
http://www.nature.com/bioent/bioenews/122004/full/bioent841.html
http://www.nature.com/bioent/2004/040901/full/bioent827.html
http://www.nature.com/bioent/bioenews/102004/full/bioent833.html
the British Medical Journal. See, for example,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC214077/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC214066/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1125282/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC261767/
Reuters
http://www.reutershealth.com/en/index.html
The Scientist
http://www.the-scientist.com/search/search_results.jsp?cx=003264466409666250718%3Aqrpes37jcpu&cof=FORID%3A11&q=jane+burgermeister&sa=Search&siteurl=www.the-scientist.com%2F#926
As well as the Guardian, the European Voice and American Prospect and many other publications.
But before the next mass vaccination campaigns or pandemics are launched, effective investigative journalists who document the corruption of WHO and national governments have to be removed and the internet censured.
They have to be framed by an elaborate process involving judges and state prosecutors interacting with “swine flu” activists”.
Ever since I filed charges against Baxter at the beginning of April 2008, presenting evidence that the contamination of 72 kilos of seasonal flu with the bird flu virus – supplied by WHO – had been deliberate given the fact the laboratories have to follow strict biosafety level 3 regulations, I have been hounded by the government.
I have also been ridiculed by much of the corporate mainstream Austrian media. But then again, every journalist in Austria working for Austrian media still needs a government license!
The same media were largely silent about the Baxter incident and also about that the fact the Vienna state prosecutor had ordered an investigation into Baxter’s contamination of the vaccine material, although the charges were dropped in September 2009 just in time for Baxter to get its approval for its swine flu jab.
I soon felt the wrath of the government after filing charges on the Baxter incident in April 2009. I had to take legal action in May 2009 against the same Judge Lauer at the court in Hietzing for the way she tried to smear me and exclude me from the court guardianship of my father, who ended up dying on October 23,2009 in a hospital in Hietzing in which the Rothschild family through a foundation still play an active role .
I stated in my criminal charges Lauer might be working for the shadowy Bilderberg network and Big Pharma and asked for an investigation. But the very same Mag Wallenschewski who is now trying to frame me as a crazy swine flu conspiracy theorist also play
I absolutely agree. I look at "failures" as lessons. To me a failure is someone who gives up.
and I never give up 
Karen Blundell 169 days ago
I've been self-employed for a few years now and I can say that if you want to get stuff done, get used to failure. I think every one of my successes is built on about a hundred failed attempts. Maybe I'm a particularly slow learner, but it just goes to show what a bit of tenacity can get you. :)
]]>and I never give up
Very important point you make here.
I've been self-employed for a few years now and I can say that if you want to get stuff done, get used to failure. I think every one of my successes is built on about a hundred failed attempts. Maybe I'm a particularly slow learner, but it just goes to show what a bit of tenacity can get you. :)
ShaneRQR 170 days ago
I absolutely agree. I look at "failures" as lessons. To me a failure is someone who gives up.
and I never give up
Karen Blundell 169 days ago
I've been self-employed for a few years now and I can say that if you want to get stuff done, get used to failure. I think every one of my successes is built on about a hundred failed attempts. Maybe I'm a particularly slow learner, but it just goes to show what a bit of tenacity can get you. :)
]]>and I never give up
I've been promising to start this Affiliate Marketing blog for several weeks — I guess I'd better just do it, right?
The intended purpose is to focus on and highlight the process and benefits of home-based Affiliate Marketing on the Internet.
The title of this blog is "Affiliate Power" which reflects the name of the new website I launched a few weeks ago, Affiliate Power Central (APC).
APC is the product of an affiliate program called My Affiliate Power Site (MAPS). Interested parties can find more information about that on the APC site. And I will likely write something more about it in a future post.
The MAPS sites are built on a WordPress platform, which means they are easily customizable. I have made a few changes to my site, but I've been too busy to do anything significant as yet. It will come, in time.
My plan for the APC site is to gradually add info and resources of interest to Internet and Affiliate Marketers.
My plan for this TM blog thread is to introduce my interest and activity in Affiliate Marketing and to offer tips and insight into the process of Affiliate Marketing.
The bottom line for me and for you is to learn and practise the best ways to earn home business income with affiliate products, services and programs. More to come here in following days. 
Blog: Affiliate Power
Affiliate Marketing
How quickly things can change!
About a year ago I joined a promising Affiliate Marketing company with an awesome product (but as is typical, a pricing structure that was a tad high). I never truly warmed up to the marketing plan, largely because although there was an abundance of training material available, I couldn't find a simplified, duplicatable, step-by-step plan to give to others whom I would sponsor into the company.
Maybe such a plan was there, but I couldn't find it.
Well, a week ago my upline told me about a third-party marketing system designed to promote this company. I looked at the system as was immediately blown away by it's thoroughness and professionalism. Thanks to this support system, I could see my efforts with the affiliate company really start to take off.
So I signed up for the system, revised a whole bunch of links and ads, and began promoting the affiliate company via the new support system like crazy!
That was on Tuesday of this week. Later in the day Wednesday the affiliate company sent an announcement to affiliates that they were cancelling the network marketing part of their marketing plan!
And just when I had been fired up all anew and had plans to make the affiliate company my primary focus over the next few months.
Well!
On the positive side, I am still a fan of the company's product, and after I emailed them almost immediately upon receipt of their closure notice and they responded almost as quickly, I learned that there may still be a direct sales opportunity for affiliates who qualify. Just not a MLM component to the compensation plan.
I will know more about it in April when they announce their new plan. If I continue as a marketer for the product, I may write more about it here at that time.
Just goes to show why you should not put all of your eggs in one basket. Also, the value and importance of having an all-encompassing longrange goal that is independent from short range setbacks.
GT 169 days ago
Bad luck, GT, that must have been a blow. Glad to see you're remaining positive though.
Lynn 168 days ago
Hi, Lynn:
Thanks for the comment. In one sense, it wasn't a huge surprise. I could see the writing on the wall a year ago, not long after the company first launched. When it launched, the technology being used was relatively new, so the company had a head start. But since then, everybody has started using the technology, so it is no longer a unique advantage.
Also, I have seen many companies over the years run into challenges when using a multi-level compensation plan. A few companies make it work for the long term, but most companies seem to loose ground after the first few years of initial excitement and enthusiasm amongst distributors wears off.
I was with a Network Marketing company in the mid-90s that did phenomonally well for a few years. But two things happened: first, the novelty began to wear off as the "big guns" began exhausting their supply of loyal followers. (Sponsoring success weakens the farther down the experience chain you go.)
Second, because of this company's success, the government started doing audits to make sure the company was on the up-and-up. The company had no real problem, but generally what happens is some of the distributors start to panic and they start jumping ship. That usually has a snowball effect and it can sometimes kill a company.
Sales and revenue began dropping for this company and they eventually closed the doors. Too bad. The product was top quality and I have never liked a compensation plan, before or since, as much as I liked theirs.
But, that is all part of the business of marketing, no matter what the product, the method or the marketing style.
GT 164 days ago
See the first post in this thread for more details about Affiliate Power Central, my newest website. In addition to plans to gradually add information and (free) resources for Affiliate Marketing, I plan also to expand the focus on personal development.
Many of my friends and associates know that I am a big Brian Tracy fan, and as a Brian Tracy International affiliate, I have been promoting Brian's awesome products on my websites and blogs.
It is my firm belief that success in any endeavor, any walk of life, depends first on developing either your skills or your confidence, or both. Affiliate Marketing is no different. Anybody can put up a website and throw stuff on it, but you also need to improve or develop your communication skills and interpersonal skills so you have a better sense of how to motivate people and inspire them to some form of action. That takes some awareness and sensitivity.
It also helps to build your confidence to overcome the fear of approaching prospects or even making bold statements in your marketing materials, articles and blog posts.
There is a whole range of personal characteristics and abilities that can benefit from a regular program of personal development. Improving in these areas can only help to improve in other areas of marketing that involve only the "technical" aspects of marketing.
I am a dedicated life-long learner and think EVERYbody should be focused on that, too ... of course!
GT 161 days ago
Affiliate Power for the Home Business
As mentioned earlier, my new Affiliate Power website is a Wordpress site, which means it is a blogging platform. So, I have been trying to post blog comments as I am able to (although I have been busy lately with offline writing clients).
My most recent blog post is Affiliate Power for the Home Business. Of course, I talk a little about the process and the benefits of Affiliate Marketing and a few ways to use it to generate residual income. For example, promoting an affiliate program that involves selling memberships or subscriptions with monthly or annual renewals. Or finding an affiliate company where you send prospects to the company's website and the prospect's activity and sales on that site are tracked and you are credited with sales, now and for a certain time into the future.
Anyway, that's the gist of it. You are welcome to read it if you want.
GT 157 days ago
I've been incredibly busy offline with client writing projects and a few unexpected family things (good for them, but not so good for me and my deadlines! LOL) However, a week or more ago I did manage to post a new blog post on my Affiliate Power site. It is titled Home Business Opportunity.
The main focus of the post is to highlight one of the Affiliate Marketing programs that interested entrepreneurs can use to generate home business income. To emphasize my main point, I use the illustration of planting a "money tree" and I offer readers the "seeds of success" so they can plant their own money tree.
The idea is to start today so you can enjoy the fruit tomorrow. Too many people wait until a crisis hits before they start taking any action to prepare for the future. I recommend taking that action today to prepare for your financial future.
Of course, most members of Telekinetic Marketing are already leaders and forward thinkers, so you don't really need to hear the story. But that's what my latest blog post is about.
GT 145 days ago
The New Psychology of Achievement
Due to my offline writing projects, I haven't done an awful lot of marketing and promotion for my Affiliate Power site, but I did manage to write a new blog post the other day. The title (and link) is The New Psychology of Achievement, highlighting one of Brian Tracy's audio progams.
I had a long highway trip a few weeks ago, so I used the time to list to this audio program ... and I wish I could have put the car on autopilot so I could take notes and write down all the inspirational ideas the program brought to mind! LOL
Anyway, if you are interested and have a few minutes, check out the post at Affiliate Power Central. Who knows? Maybe Brian will inspire you to greater personal achievement and satisfaction!
GT 138 days ago
How quickly things can change!
About a year ago I joined a promising Affiliate Marketing company with an awesome product (but as is typical, a pricing structure that was a tad high). I never truly warmed up to the marketing plan, largely because although there was an abundance of training material available, I couldn't find a simplified, duplicatable, step-by-step plan to give to others whom I would sponsor into the company.
Maybe such a plan was there, but I couldn't find it.
Well, a week ago my upline told me about a third-party marketing system designed to promote this company. I looked at the system as was immediately blown away by it's thoroughness and professionalism. Thanks to this support system, I could see my efforts with the affiliate company really start to take off.
So I signed up for the system, revised a whole bunch of links and ads, and began promoting the affiliate company via the new support system like crazy!
That was on Tuesday of this week. Later in the day Wednesday the affiliate company sent an announcement to affiliates that they were cancelling the network marketing part of their marketing plan!
And just when I had been fired up all anew and had plans to make the affiliate company my primary focus over the next few months.
Well!
On the positive side, I am still a fan of the company's product, and after I emailed them almost immediately upon receipt of their closure notice and they responded almost as quickly, I learned that there may still be a direct sales opportunity for affiliates who qualify. Just not a MLM component to the compensation plan.
I will know more about it in April when they announce their new plan. If I continue as a marketer for the product, I may write more about it here at that time.
Just goes to show why you should not put all of your eggs in one basket. Also, the value and importance of having an all-encompassing longrange goal that is independent from short range setbacks.
Thanks for the comment. In one sense, it wasn't a huge surprise. I could see the writing on the wall a year ago, not long after the company first launched. When it launched, the technology being used was relatively new, so the company had a head start. But since then, everybody has started using the technology, so it is no longer a unique advantage.
Also, I have seen many companies over the years run into challenges when using a multi-level compensation plan. A few companies make it work for the long term, but most companies seem to loose ground after the first few years of initial excitement and enthusiasm amongst distributors wears off.
I was with a Network Marketing company in the mid-90s that did phenomonally well for a few years. But two things happened: first, the novelty began to wear off as the "big guns" began exhausting their supply of loyal followers. (Sponsoring success weakens the farther down the experience chain you go.)
Second, because of this company's success, the government started doing audits to make sure the company was on the up-and-up. The company had no real problem, but generally what happens is some of the distributors start to panic and they start jumping ship. That usually has a snowball effect and it can sometimes kill a company.
Sales and revenue began dropping for this company and they eventually closed the doors. Too bad. The product was top quality and I have never liked a compensation plan, before or since, as much as I liked theirs.
But, that is all part of the business of marketing, no matter what the product, the method or the marketing style.
See the first post in this thread for more details about Affiliate Power Central, my newest website. In addition to plans to gradually add information and (free) resources for Affiliate Marketing, I plan also to expand the focus on personal development.
Many of my friends and associates know that I am a big Brian Tracy fan, and as a Brian Tracy International affiliate, I have been promoting Brian's awesome products on my websites and blogs.
It is my firm belief that success in any endeavor, any walk of life, depends first on developing either your skills or your confidence, or both. Affiliate Marketing is no different. Anybody can put up a website and throw stuff on it, but you also need to improve or develop your communication skills and interpersonal skills so you have a better sense of how to motivate people and inspire them to some form of action. That takes some awareness and sensitivity.
It also helps to build your confidence to overcome the fear of approaching prospects or even making bold statements in your marketing materials, articles and blog posts.
There is a whole range of personal characteristics and abilities that can benefit from a regular program of personal development. Improving in these areas can only help to improve in other areas of marketing that involve only the "technical" aspects of marketing.
I am a dedicated life-long learner and think EVERYbody should be focused on that, too ... of course!
As mentioned earlier, my new Affiliate Power website is a Wordpress site, which means it is a blogging platform. So, I have been trying to post blog comments as I am able to (although I have been busy lately with offline writing clients).
My most recent blog post is Affiliate Power for the Home Business. Of course, I talk a little about the process and the benefits of Affiliate Marketing and a few ways to use it to generate residual income. For example, promoting an affiliate program that involves selling memberships or subscriptions with monthly or annual renewals. Or finding an affiliate company where you send prospects to the company's website and the prospect's activity and sales on that site are tracked and you are credited with sales, now and for a certain time into the future.
Anyway, that's the gist of it. You are welcome to read it if you want.
]]>
I've been incredibly busy offline with client writing projects and a few unexpected family things (good for them, but not so good for me and my deadlines! LOL) However, a week or more ago I did manage to post a new blog post on my Affiliate Power site. It is titled Home Business Opportunity.
The main focus of the post is to highlight one of the Affiliate Marketing programs that interested entrepreneurs can use to generate home business income. To emphasize my main point, I use the illustration of planting a "money tree" and I offer readers the "seeds of success" so they can plant their own money tree.
The idea is to start today so you can enjoy the fruit tomorrow. Too many people wait until a crisis hits before they start taking any action to prepare for the future. I recommend taking that action today to prepare for your financial future.
Of course, most members of Telekinetic Marketing are already leaders and forward thinkers, so you don't really need to hear the story. But that's what my latest blog post is about.
Due to my offline writing projects, I haven't done an awful lot of marketing and promotion for my Affiliate Power site, but I did manage to write a new blog post the other day. The title (and link) is The New Psychology of Achievement, highlighting one of Brian Tracy's audio progams.
I had a long highway trip a few weeks ago, so I used the time to list to this audio program ... and I wish I could have put the car on autopilot so I could take notes and write down all the inspirational ideas the program brought to mind! LOL
Anyway, if you are interested and have a few minutes, check out the post at Affiliate Power Central. Who knows? Maybe Brian will inspire you to greater personal achievement and satisfaction!
I've been promising to start this Affiliate Marketing blog for several weeks — I guess I'd better just do it, right?
The intended purpose is to focus on and highlight the process and benefits of home-based Affiliate Marketing on the Internet.
The title of this blog is "Affiliate Power" which reflects the name of the new website I launched a few weeks ago, Affiliate Power Central (APC).
APC is the product of an affiliate program called My Affiliate Power Site (MAPS). Interested parties can find more information about that on the APC site. And I will likely write something more about it in a future post.
The MAPS sites are built on a WordPress platform, which means they are easily customizable. I have made a few changes to my site, but I've been too busy to do anything significant as yet. It will come, in time.
My plan for the APC site is to gradually add info and resources of interest to Internet and Affiliate Marketers.
My plan for this TM blog thread is to introduce my interest and activity in Affiliate Marketing and to offer tips and insight into the process of Affiliate Marketing.
The bottom line for me and for you is to learn and practise the best ways to earn home business income with affiliate products, services and programs. More to come here in following days.
Blog: Affiliate Power
Affiliate Marketing
How quickly things can change!
About a year ago I joined a promising Affiliate Marketing company with an awesome product (but as is typical, a pricing structure that was a tad high). I never truly warmed up to the marketing plan, largely because although there was an abundance of training material available, I couldn't find a simplified, duplicatable, step-by-step plan to give to others whom I would sponsor into the company.
Maybe such a plan was there, but I couldn't find it.
Well, a week ago my upline told me about a third-party marketing system designed to promote this company. I looked at the system as was immediately blown away by it's thoroughness and professionalism. Thanks to this support system, I could see my efforts with the affiliate company really start to take off.
So I signed up for the system, revised a whole bunch of links and ads, and began promoting the affiliate company via the new support system like crazy!
That was on Tuesday of this week. Later in the day Wednesday the affiliate company sent an announcement to affiliates that they were cancelling the network marketing part of their marketing plan!
And just when I had been fired up all anew and had plans to make the affiliate company my primary focus over the next few months.
Well!
On the positive side, I am still a fan of the company's product, and after I emailed them almost immediately upon receipt of their closure notice and they responded almost as quickly, I learned that there may still be a direct sales opportunity for affiliates who qualify. Just not a MLM component to the compensation plan.
I will know more about it in April when they announce their new plan. If I continue as a marketer for the product, I may write more about it here at that time.
Just goes to show why you should not put all of your eggs in one basket. Also, the value and importance of having an all-encompassing longrange goal that is independent from short range setbacks.
GT 169 days ago
Bad luck, GT, that must have been a blow. Glad to see you're remaining positive though.
Lynn 168 days ago
Hi, Lynn:
Thanks for the comment. In one sense, it wasn't a huge surprise. I could see the writing on the wall a year ago, not long after the company first launched. When it launched, the technology being used was relatively new, so the company had a head start. But since then, everybody has started using the technology, so it is no longer a unique advantage.
Also, I have seen many companies over the years run into challenges when using a multi-level compensation plan. A few companies make it work for the long term, but most companies seem to loose ground after the first few years of initial excitement and enthusiasm amongst distributors wears off.
I was with a Network Marketing company in the mid-90s that did phenomonally well for a few years. But two things happened: first, the novelty began to wear off as the "big guns" began exhausting their supply of loyal followers. (Sponsoring success weakens the farther down the experience chain you go.)
Second, because of this company's success, the government started doing audits to make sure the company was on the up-and-up. The company had no real problem, but generally what happens is some of the distributors start to panic and they start jumping ship. That usually has a snowball effect and it can sometimes kill a company.
Sales and revenue began dropping for this company and they eventually closed the doors. Too bad. The product was top quality and I have never liked a compensation plan, before or since, as much as I liked theirs.
But, that is all part of the business of marketing, no matter what the product, the method or the marketing style.
GT 164 days ago
See the first post in this thread for more details about Affiliate Power Central, my newest website. In addition to plans to gradually add information and (free) resources for Affiliate Marketing, I plan also to expand the focus on personal development.
Many of my friends and associates know that I am a big Brian Tracy fan, and as a Brian Tracy International affiliate, I have been promoting Brian's awesome products on my websites and blogs.
It is my firm belief that success in any endeavor, any walk of life, depends first on developing either your skills or your confidence, or both. Affiliate Marketing is no different. Anybody can put up a website and throw stuff on it, but you also need to improve or develop your communication skills and interpersonal skills so you have a better sense of how to motivate people and inspire them to some form of action. That takes some awareness and sensitivity.
It also helps to build your confidence to overcome the fear of approaching prospects or even making bold statements in your marketing materials, articles and blog posts.
There is a whole range of personal characteristics and abilities that can benefit from a regular program of personal development. Improving in these areas can only help to improve in other areas of marketing that involve only the "technical" aspects of marketing.
I am a dedicated life-long learner and think EVERYbody should be focused on that, too ... of course!
GT 161 days ago
Affiliate Power for the Home Business
As mentioned earlier, my new Affiliate Power website is a Wordpress site, which means it is a blogging platform. So, I have been trying to post blog comments as I am able to (although I have been busy lately with offline writing clients).
My most recent blog post is Affiliate Power for the Home Business. Of course, I talk a little about the process and the benefits of Affiliate Marketing and a few ways to use it to generate residual income. For example, promoting an affiliate program that involves selling memberships or subscriptions with monthly or annual renewals. Or finding an affiliate company where you send prospects to the company's website and the prospect's activity and sales on that site are tracked and you are credited with sales, now and for a certain time into the future.
Anyway, that's the gist of it. You are welcome to read it if you want.
GT 157 days ago
I've been incredibly busy offline with client writing projects and a few unexpected family things (good for them, but not so good for me and my deadlines! LOL) However, a week or more ago I did manage to post a new blog post on my Affiliate Power site. It is titled Home Business Opportunity.
The main focus of the post is to highlight one of the Affiliate Marketing programs that interested entrepreneurs can use to generate home business income. To emphasize my main point, I use the illustration of planting a "money tree" and I offer readers the "seeds of success" so they can plant their own money tree.
The idea is to start today so you can enjoy the fruit tomorrow. Too many people wait until a crisis hits before they start taking any action to prepare for the future. I recommend taking that action today to prepare for your financial future.
Of course, most members of Telekinetic Marketing are already leaders and forward thinkers, so you don't really need to hear the story. But that's what my latest blog post is about.
GT 145 days ago
The New Psychology of Achievement
Due to my offline writing projects, I haven't done an awful lot of marketing and promotion for my Affiliate Power site, but I did manage to write a new blog post the other day. The title (and link) is The New Psychology of Achievement, highlighting one of Brian Tracy's audio progams.
I had a long highway trip a few weeks ago, so I used the time to list to this audio program ... and I wish I could have put the car on autopilot so I could take notes and write down all the inspirational ideas the program brought to mind! LOL
Anyway, if you are interested and have a few minutes, check out the post at Affiliate Power Central. Who knows? Maybe Brian will inspire you to greater personal achievement and satisfaction!
GT 138 days ago
How quickly things can change!
About a year ago I joined a promising Affiliate Marketing company with an awesome product (but as is typical, a pricing structure that was a tad high). I never truly warmed up to the marketing plan, largely because although there was an abundance of training material available, I couldn't find a simplified, duplicatable, step-by-step plan to give to others whom I would sponsor into the company.
Maybe such a plan was there, but I couldn't find it.
Well, a week ago my upline told me about a third-party marketing system designed to promote this company. I looked at the system as was immediately blown away by it's thoroughness and professionalism. Thanks to this support system, I could see my efforts with the affiliate company really start to take off.
So I signed up for the system, revised a whole bunch of links and ads, and began promoting the affiliate company via the new support system like crazy!
That was on Tuesday of this week. Later in the day Wednesday the affiliate company sent an announcement to affiliates that they were cancelling the network marketing part of their marketing plan!
And just when I had been fired up all anew and had plans to make the affiliate company my primary focus over the next few months.
Well!
On the positive side, I am still a fan of the company's product, and after I emailed them almost immediately upon receipt of their closure notice and they responded almost as quickly, I learned that there may still be a direct sales opportunity for affiliates who qualify. Just not a MLM component to the compensation plan.
I will know more about it in April when they announce their new plan. If I continue as a marketer for the product, I may write more about it here at that time.
Just goes to show why you should not put all of your eggs in one basket. Also, the value and importance of having an all-encompassing longrange goal that is independent from short range setbacks.
Thanks for the comment. In one sense, it wasn't a huge surprise. I could see the writing on the wall a year ago, not long after the company first launched. When it launched, the technology being used was relatively new, so the company had a head start. But since then, everybody has started using the technology, so it is no longer a unique advantage.
Also, I have seen many companies over the years run into challenges when using a multi-level compensation plan. A few companies make it work for the long term, but most companies seem to loose ground after the first few years of initial excitement and enthusiasm amongst distributors wears off.
I was with a Network Marketing company in the mid-90s that did phenomonally well for a few years. But two things happened: first, the novelty began to wear off as the "big guns" began exhausting their supply of loyal followers. (Sponsoring success weakens the farther down the experience chain you go.)
Second, because of this company's success, the government started doing audits to make sure the company was on the up-and-up. The company had no real problem, but generally what happens is some of the distributors start to panic and they start jumping ship. That usually has a snowball effect and it can sometimes kill a company.
Sales and revenue began dropping for this company and they eventually closed the doors. Too bad. The product was top quality and I have never liked a compensation plan, before or since, as much as I liked theirs.
But, that is all part of the business of marketing, no matter what the product, the method or the marketing style.
See the first post in this thread for more details about Affiliate Power Central, my newest website. In addition to plans to gradually add information and (free) resources for Affiliate Marketing, I plan also to expand the focus on personal development.
Many of my friends and associates know that I am a big Brian Tracy fan, and as a Brian Tracy International affiliate, I have been promoting Brian's awesome products on my websites and blogs.
It is my firm belief that success in any endeavor, any walk of life, depends first on developing either your skills or your confidence, or both. Affiliate Marketing is no different. Anybody can put up a website and throw stuff on it, but you also need to improve or develop your communication skills and interpersonal skills so you have a better sense of how to motivate people and inspire them to some form of action. That takes some awareness and sensitivity.
It also helps to build your confidence to overcome the fear of approaching prospects or even making bold statements in your marketing materials, articles and blog posts.
There is a whole range of personal characteristics and abilities that can benefit from a regular program of personal development. Improving in these areas can only help to improve in other areas of marketing that involve only the "technical" aspects of marketing.
I am a dedicated life-long learner and think EVERYbody should be focused on that, too ... of course!
As mentioned earlier, my new Affiliate Power website is a Wordpress site, which means it is a blogging platform. So, I have been trying to post blog comments as I am able to (although I have been busy lately with offline writing clients).
My most recent blog post is Affiliate Power for the Home Business. Of course, I talk a little about the process and the benefits of Affiliate Marketing and a few ways to use it to generate residual income. For example, promoting an affiliate program that involves selling memberships or subscriptions with monthly or annual renewals. Or finding an affiliate company where you send prospects to the company's website and the prospect's activity and sales on that site are tracked and you are credited with sales, now and for a certain time into the future.
Anyway, that's the gist of it. You are welcome to read it if you want.
]]>
I've been incredibly busy offline with client writing projects and a few unexpected family things (good for them, but not so good for me and my deadlines! LOL) However, a week or more ago I did manage to post a new blog post on my Affiliate Power site. It is titled Home Business Opportunity.
The main focus of the post is to highlight one of the Affiliate Marketing programs that interested entrepreneurs can use to generate home business income. To emphasize my main point, I use the illustration of planting a "money tree" and I offer readers the "seeds of success" so they can plant their own money tree.
The idea is to start today so you can enjoy the fruit tomorrow. Too many people wait until a crisis hits before they start taking any action to prepare for the future. I recommend taking that action today to prepare for your financial future.
Of course, most members of Telekinetic Marketing are already leaders and forward thinkers, so you don't really need to hear the story. But that's what my latest blog post is about.
Due to my offline writing projects, I haven't done an awful lot of marketing and promotion for my Affiliate Power site, but I did manage to write a new blog post the other day. The title (and link) is The New Psychology of Achievement, highlighting one of Brian Tracy's audio progams.
I had a long highway trip a few weeks ago, so I used the time to list to this audio program ... and I wish I could have put the car on autopilot so I could take notes and write down all the inspirational ideas the program brought to mind! LOL
Anyway, if you are interested and have a few minutes, check out the post at Affiliate Power Central. Who knows? Maybe Brian will inspire you to greater personal achievement and satisfaction!
no more rockhounding if this medieval land grab takes place...Agenda 21eh!
Indy
This is the new updated version
THE AGENDA 21 MAP.
Simulated Reserve and Corridor System to Protect Biodiversity.
As Mandated by the Convention on Biological Diversity, The Wildlands Project, UN and US Man and the Biosphere Program and Various UN, US Heritage Programs and NAFTA.
RED Core Reserves and Corridors - Little to no human use.
YELLOW Buffer Zones - Highly Regulated Use.
TURQUOSE Normal Use Zones of Cooperation.
ORANGE Border 21/La Paz Sidebar Agreement of NAFTA. 124 mile wide International Zone of Cooperation.
PINK Indian Reservations.
GRAY Military Reservations.
BLACK DOTS Cities over 10,000 people.
Some major highways and Interstate rivers are also shown.
Taken from the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity Article ??,* United Nations Global Diversity Assessment Section 1? to ??. US Man and the Biosphere Strategic Plan. UN, US Heritage Corridor Program. "The Wildlands Project," Wild Earth 1992. Also see Science "The High Cost of Biodiversity," 25 June 1993 pp ?? to ?? and the boarder v21 sidebar of NAFTA. The very high percentage of buffer zone in the West is due to the very high percentage of Federal land.
http://98.131.164.239/images/AGENDA-21-BMP.GIF
Well now...Could be?...A second trainwreck of the present financial global system.
is straight ahead, happening;
QUOTE.
“Look at those initial claims,” said Diane Garnick, a New York-based investment strategist at Invesco Ltd., which manages $400 billion. “Unemployed people don’t spend money. That means the growth we’ve seen is not sustainable until people get jobs. Also, there are lots of uncertainties on a global basis. That’s certainly negative news for the market. I wouldn’t be surprised if we started to see dramatic increases in volatility again.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a946mjtMdz48&pos=1
The phrase in bold above...When translated from High finance speak means "Trainwreck"
Watch the markets...Mmmmm...Indy
Well the EEC did not bail out Greece...Looks like Greece won't play the money lenders game...
Which is (Do what we say or no money)...So this will not generate confidence...I expect the money to keep leaving Greece...Of course the EEC will bail them out if they go bust...No choice...If Greece was still running on its own currency they would not have a problem...Just devalue thats all...However...Mmmmm...Indy
I always like to pass on what I consider to be solid info...So
(Fair use cited for this article)
| An Insider’s View of the Real Estate Train Wreck |
Quote |
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An Insider’s View of the Real Estate Train Wreck Feb 10th, 2010 | By David Galland | Category: Featured, Housing, Investing Strategies leadimage The first time I spoke with real estate entrepreneur Andy Miller was in late 2007, when I asked him to serve on the faculty of a Casey Research Summit. As John Mauldin, a former faculty member himself, knows, we’re very selective with our speakers. And there was no one in the nation I wanted more than Andy to address the critical topic of real estate. My interest in Andy was due to the fact that he has been singularly successful in pretty much all aspects of the real estate market, including financing and developing large projects — such as shopping centers, apartment communities, office buildings, and warehouses — from one end of the country to the other. His expertise has also allowed him to build an impressive business providing assistance to large financial institutions that need help in dealing with problem commercial real estate loans. As you might suspect, business is booming. Back in 2007, however, what most intrigued me about Andy was that he had been almost alone among his peer group in foreseeing the coming end of the real estate bubble, and in liquidating essentially all of his considerable portfolio of projects near the top. There are people that think they know what’s going on, and those who actually know — Andy very much belongs in the latter category. In fact, he initially refused to speak at our event, only agreeing very reluctantly after I had hounded him for several months. The reason for his refusal, I later found out, was that he had spoken at several industry events before the real estate collapse and had been all but booed off the stage for his dire outlook. The happy ending of this story is that Andy’s speech at our Summit was a rousing success, and he enjoyed it so much that he has now spoken at several, and has kindly agreed to sit for periodic interviews to keep our readers up to date on the latest developments in this critical sector. So far, Andy’s real estate forecasts continue to come true. As you’ll read in the following excerpt from my latest interview with Andy, who now spends considerable time each day helping the nation’s biggest banks cope with growing stacks of problem loans, he remains deeply concerned about the outlook for real estate. David Galland No one has been more right on the housing market in recent years. So, what’s coming next? Some of the housing numbers in the last few months look a little less ugly. Could housing be getting ready to get well? MILLER: I don’t think so. For all intents and purposes, the United States home mortgage market has been nationalized without anybody noticing. Last September, reportedly over 95% of all new loans for single-family homes in the U.S. were made with federal assistance, either through Fannie Mae and the implied guarantee, or Freddie Mac, or through the FHA. If it’s true that most of the financing in the single-family home market is being facilitated by government guarantees, that should make everybody very, very concerned. If government support goes away, and it will go away, where will that leave the home market? It leaves you with a catastrophe, because private lenders for single-family homes are nervous. Lenders that are still lending are reverting to 75% to 80% loan to value. But that doesn’t help a homeowner whose property is worth less than the mortgage. So when the supply of government-facilitated loans dries up, it’s going to put the home market in a very, very bad place. Why am I so certain that the federal government will have to cut back on its lending? Because most of the financing is done via the bond market, through Ginnie Mae or other government agencies. And the numbers are so big that eventually the bond market is going to gag on the government-sponsored paper. The public doesn’t have any idea of the scale of the guarantees the government is taking on through Fannie, Freddie, and FHA. It’s huge. If people understood what the federal government has done and subjected the taxpayers to, there would be a public outrage. But you can’t get people to focus on it, and it’s very esoteric, it’s very hard to understand. But it’s not something the bond market won’t notice. The government can’t keep doing what it has been doing to support mortgage lending without pushing interest rates way up. Refinancings of single-family homes are very interest-rate sensitive. Consumers have their backs against the wall. They have too much debt. Refinancing their maturing mortgages or their adjustable-rate mortgages is very problematic if rates go up, but that’s exactly where they’re headed. So anyone who’s comforted by current statistics on single-family homes should look beyond the data and into the dynamics of the market. What they’ll find is very alarming. On that topic, recent data I saw was that something like 24% of the loans FHA backed in 2007 are now in default, and for those generated in 2008, 20% are in default, and the FHA is out of money. MILLER: Fannie Mae had a $19 billion loss for the third quarter of 2009, and they are now drawing on their facility with the U.S. Treasury. We have all forgotten that Fannie and Freddie are still being operated under a federal conservatorship. On Christmas Eve, the agency announced that they were going to remove all the caps on the agencies. So what about commercial real estate? MILLER: When I saw what was happening in the housing market, I liquidated all my multifamily apartments, shopping centers, and office buildings. I liquidated all my loan portfolios, and I’m happy I did. Then it occurred to me in 2005 and 2006 that the commercial world had to follow suit. Why? Because it’s a normal progression. Obviously, when single-family homes decline in value, multifamily apartments decline in value. And when consumers hit the wall with spending and debt, that’s going to have an impact on retailers that pay for commercial space. Furthermore, the financing for retail properties had gotten ludicrous. The conduits were making loans that they advertised as 80% of property value when they originated them, but in reality the loan-to-value ratios were well over 100%. And I say that to you with absolute, categorical certainty, because I was a seller and nobody knew the value of the properties that I was selling better than I did. I had operated some of them for 20 years, so I knew exactly what they were bringing in. I knew what the operating expenses were, and I knew what the cap rates were. And, you know, the underwriting on the loan side and the purchasing side of these assets was completely insane. It was ludicrous. It did not reflect at all what the conduits thought they were doing. They were valuing the properties way too aggressively. I became very bearish about the commercial business starting in late ‘05. In fact, I think I was in Argentina with Doug Casey, sitting on a veranda at one of the estancias, and he and I were lamenting what was going on in the real estate business, and I said there was going to be a huge adjustment in the commercial market. Beyond the obvious, that the real estate market has taken pretty significant hits and some banks have been dragged under by their bad loans, what has really changed in real estate since the crash? MILLER: I think the first thing that changed was that people learned that prices don’t go up forever. Lenders also saw that underwriting guidelines for commercial real estate loans, especially in the securitization markets, were erroneous. They realized that some of their properties had been financed too aggressively, but still, I don’t think even at the fall of Lehman, anybody was predicting a wholesale collapse in commercial real estate. But they did see they should be more circumspect with loan underwritings. In fact, after the fall of Lehman, they completely stopped lending. I think they realized we had been living in fantasy land for 10 years. And that was the first change — a mental adjustment from Alice in Wonderland to reality. Today it’s clear that commercial properties are not performing and that values have gone down, although I’ve got to tell you, the denial is still widespread, particularly in the United States and on the part of lenders sitting on and servicing all these real estate portfolios. People still do not understand how grave this is. Right now there are an awful lot of banks that do an awful lot of commercial real estate lending, and for about a year now you’ve been telling me that you saw the first and second quarter of 2010 as being particularly risky for commercial real estate. Why this year, and what do you see happening with these loans and the banks holding them? MILLER: It’s an educated guess, and it hasn’t changed. I still think that it’s second quarter 2010. The current volume of defaults is already alarming. And the volume of commercial real estate defaults is growing every month. That can only keep going for so long, and then you hit a breaking point, which I believe will come sometime in 2010. When you hit that breaking point, unless there’s some alternative in place, it’s going to be a very hideous picture for the bond market and the banking system. The reason I say second quarter 2010 is a guess is that the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC can influence how fast the crisis unfolds. I think they can have an impact on the severity of the crisis as well – not making it less severe but making it more severe. I will get to that in a minute. But they can influence the speed with which it all unfolds, and I’ll give you an example. In November, the FDIC circulated new guidelines for bank regulators to streamline and standardize the way banks are examined. One standout feature is that as long as a bank has evaluated the borrower and the asset behind a loan, if they are convinced the borrower can repay the loan, even if they go into a workout with the borrower, the bank does not have to reserve for the loan. The bank doesn’t have to take any hit against its capital, so if the collateral all of a sudden sinks to 50% of the loan balance, the bank still does not have to take any sort of write-down. That obviously allows banks to just sit on weak assets instead of liquidating them or trying to raise more capital. That’s very significant. It means the FDIC and the Treasury Department have decided that rather than see 1,000 or 2,000 banks go under and then create another RTC to sift through all the bad assets, they’ll let the banking system warehouse the bad assets. Their plan is to leave the assets in place, and then, when the market changes, let the banks deal with them. Now, that’s horribly destructive. Just to be clear on this, let’s say I own an apartment building and I’ve been making my payments, but I’m having trouble and the value of the property has fallen by half. I go to the bank and say, “Look, I’ve got a problem,” and the bank says, “Okay, let’s work something out, and instead of you paying $10,000 a month, you pay us $5,000 a month and we’ll shake hands and smile.” Then, even though the property’s value has dropped, as long as we keep smiling and I’m still making payments, then the bank won’t have to reserve anything against the risk that I’ll give the building back and it will be worth a whole lot less than the mortgage. MILLER: I think what you just described is accurate. And it’s exactly a Japanese-style solution. This is what Japan did in ‘89 and ‘90 because they didn’t want their banking system to implode, so they made it easier for their banks to sit on bad assets without owning up to the losses. And what’s the result? Well, it leaves the status quo in place. The real problem with this is twofold. One is that it prolongs the problem – if a bank is allowed to sit on bad assets for three to five years, it’s not going to sell them. Why is that bad? Well, the money tied up in the loans the bank is sitting on is idle. It is not being used for anything productive. Wouldn’t banks know that ultimately the piper must be paid, and so they’d be trying to build cash — trying to build capital to deal with the problem when it comes home to roost? MILLER: The more intelligent banks are doing exactly that, hoping they can weather the storm by building enough reserves, so when they do ultimately have to take the loss, it’s digestible. But in commercial real estate generally, the longer you delay realizing a loss, the more severe it’s going to be. I can tell you that because I’m out there servicing real estate all day long. Not facing the problems, and not writing down the values, and not allowing purchasers to come in and take these assets at discounted prices — all the foot-dragging allows the fundamental problem to get worse. In the apartment business, people are under water, particularly if they got their loan through a conduit. When maintenance is required, a borrower with a property worth less than the loan is very reluctant to reach into his pocket. If you have a $10 million loan on a property now worth $5 million, you’re clearly not making any cash flow. So what do you do when you need new roofs? Are you going to dig into your pocket and spend $600,000 on roofing? Not likely. Why would you do that? Or a borrower who is sitting on a suburban office property — he’s got two years left on the loan. He knows he has a loan-to-value problem. Well, a new tenant wants to lease from him, but it would cost $30 a square foot to put the tenant in. Is the borrower going to put the tenant in? I don’t think so. So the problems get bigger. Why would the owner bother going through a workout with the bank if he knows he’s so deep underwater he’s below snorkel depth? MILLER: It’s always in your interest to delay an inevitable default. For example, the minute you give the property back to the bank, you trigger a huge taxable gain. All of a sudden the forgiveness of debt on your loan becomes taxable income to you. Another reason is that many of these loans are either full recourse or part recourse. If you’re a borrower who’s guaranteed a loan, why would you want to hasten the call on your guarantee? You want to delay as long as possible because there’s always a little hope that values will turn around. So there is no reason to hurry into a default. None. So that’s from the borrower’s standpoint. But wouldn’t the banks want to clear these loans off their balance sheets? MILLER: No. The banks have a lot of incentive to delay the realization of the problem because if they liquidate the asset and the loss is realized, then they have to reserve the loss against their capital immediately. If they keep extending the loan under the rules present today, then they can delay a write-down and hope for better days. Remember, you suffer if the bank succumbs and turns around and liquidates that asset, then you really do have to take a write-down because then your capital is gone. So here we are, we’ve got the federal government again, through its agencies and the FDIC, ready to support the commercial real estate market. They’ve taken one step, in allowing banks to use a very loose standard for loss reserves. What else can they do? MILLER: Well, obviously nobody knows, but I can guess at what’s coming by extrapolating from what the federal government has already done. I believe that the Treasury and the Federal Reserve now see that commercial real estate is a huge problem. I think they’re going to contrive something to help assist commercial real estate so that it doesn’t hurt the banks that lent on commercial real estate. It’ll resemble what they did with housing. They created a nearly perfect political formula in dealing with housing, and they are going to follow that formula. The entire U.S. residential mortgage market has in effect been nationalized, but there wasn’t any act of Congress, no screaming and shouting, no headlines in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times about “Should we nationalize the home loan market in America.” No. It happened right under our noses and with no hue and cry. That’s a template for what they could do with the commercial loan market. And how can they do that? By using federal guarantees much in the way they used federal guarantees for the FHA. FHA issues Ginnie Mae securities, which are sold to the public. Those proceeds are used to make the loans. But it won’t really be a solution. In fact, it will make the problems much more intense. Don’t these properties have to be allowed to go to their intrinsic value before the market can start working again? MILLER: Yes. Of course, very few people agree with that, because if you let it all go today, there would be enormous losses and a tremendous amount of pain. We’re going to have some really terrible, terrible years ahead of us because letting it all go is the only way to be done with the problem. Do you think the U.S. will come out of this crisis? I mean, do you think the country, the institutions, the government, or the banking sector are going to look anything like they do today when this thing is over? MILLER: I know this is going to make you laugh, but I’m actually an optimist about this. I’m not optimistic about the short run, and I’m not optimistic about the severity of the problem, but I’m totally optimistic as it relates to the United States of America. This is a very resilient place. We have very resilient people. There is nothing like the American spirit. There is nothing like American ingenuity anywhere on Planet Earth, and while I certainly believe that we are headed for a catastrophe and a crisis, I also believe that ultimately we are going to come out better. Regards, David Galland The Casey Report |
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Yes Indy - we are aware. Many areas have been kept open to rockhounding because clubs have been designated to care for rockhound areas.
I am actually in support of this map. You would have to come to America to understand that it is a good thing. If people want to breed like stinking rabbits, let them live in cities. You know I wander out here til my heart's content. I like it best where it's walk in only - no roads. Americans are lazy creatures - they want the whole world to be a freaking drive up window........it is so much easier to throw their damned trash everywhere that way. It is becoming very difficult to go anywhere -even into extreme back areas and not see mounds of trash thrown all over. This trash kills plants and wildlife. It stinks, it creates fire hazards, it's a total eyesore. It's not pleasant to sit on a nice beach area when you are surrounded by paper, plastic, discarded household trash, and worst of all baby diapers. It's revolting....yet everywhere they let the general public play, that is what you will find - mounds and mounds of trash. Humans who refuse to think beyond their capacity to throw trash really need to be cages. There are resources for them to learn better - but they refuse. Ignorance in America is a choice.
Did you know that over here some churches actually teach people that all the pollution is just fine and dandy. They teach this because they think that the last days means we don't have to care, and they destroy without a blink of an eyelash. If they actually wanted to read the document that they want to flap their filthy little destructive gums about they might find that this planet is a gift and it is a gift they were meant to respect and care for. I have visions of them getting to the "Pearly Gates" and having God turn to the Archangels saying "Don't let that trashbag in here, I don't want him/her scumming up my house." Cleanliness is next to Godliness for a reason and they seem, for the convenience of throwing their garbage and poisons as they please, to neglect anything but that fact that their documents claim the earth is temporary housing. This kind of illogical, lazy, apathetic mindless drooling must be contained. I am pretty sure if the Bible is truth, that these careless polluting creatures will not be with their God in the end but shuffled off to some other realm that they can all merrily pollute toegether and exist in desperation and ill health. You can not stand next to perfection and be a purveyor of corruption and filth.
And then there are so many who mindlessly eat any drug offered that their very urine is toxic. If you live near a city in the US you can count on your water being well laced with all of the drugs the willingly ignorant spew back into the environment. Do we want these fools out pissing their poison into the wilderness, too? Blind faith is more than a religious issue here - it is a rampant fault that many also have blind faith in any human with a title - even though history shows it to be deadly to maintain such a blind faith. I am presuming being made in the image of God is just a physical thing - surely if brains were meant to immitate perfection this kind of crap would not be going on.
IF people refuse to contain themselves and live according to logic, then someone has to contain them. IF we let those that refuse to use their heads for anything other than toxin recepticals run free at will they will destroy the whole species and take down everything else alive with them. We do not see the "useless eaters" that the Nazi party has maintained to cull..........we see DESTRUCTIVE eaters that are taking down everything in their path in their voracious selfish and idiotic consumption.
No need to worry -- we CAN'T save these people. If every altruistic person on the planet were to join hands to save them, they could not do so. These people are so unwilling to learn anything that they are self destructive, and when lumped into large masses are genocidal. They are being culled by the millions each year because of their blind faith and their lazy apathy. What suicide they do not commit on their own, mother nature seems about to take responsibility for. Over the next decade we will see the loss of billions. The population will be cut in half again (at least) and it will not be man's hand complete for the responsibilty. Sure man is responsible now for some conditions, but if we breed out of our food capacity as rabbits and deer (read: dumb animals) are sometimes prone to do, everyone suffers, everyone is at risk no matter what personal responsibility they took to right the situation.
The situation has gone out of control and many innocents are going to die. However - it is those that refuse to think and stupidly allow themselves to be poisoned to death that will be predominently victims of their own ignorance and greed. Until the population is balanced again - there will be land and eco-system management. The planet will restabilize at a natural level of sustainable population. Until the time that land can safely be opened to humans who will not destroy everything in their path, I am more than happy to take my backpack and walk into the remote areas and to take only the stones I can carry out with me.
Sal 179 days ago
There are bugs in this blog script Sally so I am moving the orginal post and your reply to the
NN group...Title: Agenda 21...Bisou...Indy
Robert Velare (Indiana) 179 days ago
I am actually in support of this map. You would have to come to America to understand that it is a good thing. If people want to breed like stinking rabbits, let them live in cities. You know I wander out here til my heart's content. I like it best where it's walk in only - no roads. Americans are lazy creatures - they want the whole world to be a freaking drive up window........it is so much easier to throw their damned trash everywhere that way. It is becoming very difficult to go anywhere -even into extreme back areas and not see mounds of trash thrown all over. This trash kills plants and wildlife. It stinks, it creates fire hazards, it's a total eyesore. It's not pleasant to sit on a nice beach area when you are surrounded by paper, plastic, discarded household trash, and worst of all baby diapers. It's revolting....yet everywhere they let the general public play, that is what you will find - mounds and mounds of trash. Humans who refuse to think beyond their capacity to throw trash really need to be cages. There are resources for them to learn better - but they refuse. Ignorance in America is a choice.
Did you know that over here some churches actually teach people that all the pollution is just fine and dandy. They teach this because they think that the last days means we don't have to care, and they destroy without a blink of an eyelash. If they actually wanted to read the document that they want to flap their filthy little destructive gums about they might find that this planet is a gift and it is a gift they were meant to respect and care for. I have visions of them getting to the "Pearly Gates" and having God turn to the Archangels saying "Don't let that trashbag in here, I don't want him/her scumming up my house." Cleanliness is next to Godliness for a reason and they seem, for the convenience of throwing their garbage and poisons as they please, to neglect anything but that fact that their documents claim the earth is temporary housing. This kind of illogical, lazy, apathetic mindless drooling must be contained. I am pretty sure if the Bible is truth, that these careless polluting creatures will not be with their God in the end but shuffled off to some other realm that they can all merrily pollute toegether and exist in desperation and ill health. You can not stand next to perfection and be a purveyor of corruption and filth.
And then there are so many who mindlessly eat any drug offered that their very urine is toxic. If you live near a city in the US you can count on your water being well laced with all of the drugs the willingly ignorant spew back into the environment. Do we want these fools out pissing their poison into the wilderness, too? Blind faith is more than a religious issue here - it is a rampant fault that many also have blind faith in any human with a title - even though history shows it to be deadly to maintain such a blind faith. I am presuming being made in the image of God is just a physical thing - surely if brains were meant to immitate perfection this kind of crap would not be going on.
IF people refuse to contain themselves and live according to logic, then someone has to contain them. IF we let those that refuse to use their heads for anything other than toxin recepticals run free at will they will destroy the whole species and take down everything else alive with them. We do not see the "useless eaters" that the Nazi party has maintained to cull..........we see DESTRUCTIVE eaters that are taking down everything in their path in their voracious selfish and idiotic consumption.
No need to worry -- we CAN'T save these people. If every altruistic person on the planet were to join hands to save them, they could not do so. These people are so unwilling to learn anything that they are self destructive, and when lumped into large masses are genocidal. They are being culled by the millions each year because of their blind faith and their lazy apathy. What suicide they do not commit on their own, mother nature seems about to take responsibility for. Over the next decade we will see the loss of billions. The population will be cut in half again (at least) and it will not be man's hand complete for the responsibilty. Sure man is responsible now for some conditions, but if we breed out of our food capacity as rabbits and deer (read: dumb animals) are sometimes prone to do, everyone suffers, everyone is at risk no matter what personal responsibility they took to right the situation.
The situation has gone out of control and many innocents are going to die. However - it is those that refuse to think and stupidly allow themselves to be poisoned to death that will be predominently victims of their own ignorance and greed. Until the population is balanced again - there will be land and eco-system management. The planet will restabilize at a natural level of sustainable population. Until the time that land can safely be opened to humans who will not destroy everything in their path, I am more than happy to take my backpack and walk into the remote areas and to take only the stones I can carry out with me.
]]>NN group...Title: Agenda 21...Bisou...Indy
]]>no more rockhounding if this medieval land grab takes place...Agenda 21eh!
Indy
This is the new updated version
THE AGENDA 21 MAP.
Simulated Reserve and Corridor System to Protect Biodiversity.
As Mandated by the Convention on Biological Diversity, The Wildlands Project, UN and US Man and the Biosphere Program and Various UN, US Heritage Programs and NAFTA.
RED Core Reserves and Corridors - Little to no human use.
YELLOW Buffer Zones - Highly Regulated Use.
TURQUOSE Normal Use Zones of Cooperation.
ORANGE Border 21/La Paz Sidebar Agreement of NAFTA. 124 mile wide International Zone of Cooperation.
PINK Indian Reservations.
GRAY Military Reservations.
BLACK DOTS Cities over 10,000 people.
Some major highways and Interstate rivers are also shown.
Taken from the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity Article ??,* United Nations Global Diversity Assessment Section 1? to ??. US Man and the Biosphere Strategic Plan. UN, US Heritage Corridor Program. "The Wildlands Project," Wild Earth 1992. Also see Science "The High Cost of Biodiversity," 25 June 1993 pp ?? to ?? and the boarder v21 sidebar of NAFTA. The very high percentage of buffer zone in the West is due to the very high percentage of Federal land.
http://98.131.164.239/images/AGENDA-21-BMP.GIF
Well now...Could be?...A second trainwreck of the present financial global system.
is straight ahead, happening;
QUOTE.
“Look at those initial claims,” said Diane Garnick, a New York-based investment strategist at Invesco Ltd., which manages $400 billion. “Unemployed people don’t spend money. That means the growth we’ve seen is not sustainable until people get jobs. Also, there are lots of uncertainties on a global basis. That’s certainly negative news for the market. I wouldn’t be surprised if we started to see dramatic increases in volatility again.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a946mjtMdz48&pos=1
The phrase in bold above...When translated from High finance speak means "Trainwreck"
Watch the markets...Mmmmm...Indy
Well the EEC did not bail out Greece...Looks like Greece won't play the money lenders game...
Which is (Do what we say or no money)...So this will not generate confidence...I expect the money to keep leaving Greece...Of course the EEC will bail them out if they go bust...No choice...If Greece was still running on its own currency they would not have a problem...Just devalue thats all...However...Mmmmm...Indy
I always like to pass on what I consider to be solid info...So
(Fair use cited for this article)
| An Insider’s View of the Real Estate Train Wreck |
Quote |
|
An Insider’s View of the Real Estate Train Wreck Feb 10th, 2010 | By David Galland | Category: Featured, Housing, Investing Strategies leadimage The first time I spoke with real estate entrepreneur Andy Miller was in late 2007, when I asked him to serve on the faculty of a Casey Research Summit. As John Mauldin, a former faculty member himself, knows, we’re very selective with our speakers. And there was no one in the nation I wanted more than Andy to address the critical topic of real estate. My interest in Andy was due to the fact that he has been singularly successful in pretty much all aspects of the real estate market, including financing and developing large projects — such as shopping centers, apartment communities, office buildings, and warehouses — from one end of the country to the other. His expertise has also allowed him to build an impressive business providing assistance to large financial institutions that need help in dealing with problem commercial real estate loans. As you might suspect, business is booming. Back in 2007, however, what most intrigued me about Andy was that he had been almost alone among his peer group in foreseeing the coming end of the real estate bubble, and in liquidating essentially all of his considerable portfolio of projects near the top. There are people that think they know what’s going on, and those who actually know — Andy very much belongs in the latter category. In fact, he initially refused to speak at our event, only agreeing very reluctantly after I had hounded him for several months. The reason for his refusal, I later found out, was that he had spoken at several industry events before the real estate collapse and had been all but booed off the stage for his dire outlook. The happy ending of this story is that Andy’s speech at our Summit was a rousing success, and he enjoyed it so much that he has now spoken at several, and has kindly agreed to sit for periodic interviews to keep our readers up to date on the latest developments in this critical sector. So far, Andy’s real estate forecasts continue to come true. As you’ll read in the following excerpt from my latest interview with Andy, who now spends considerable time each day helping the nation’s biggest banks cope with growing stacks of problem loans, he remains deeply concerned about the outlook for real estate. David Galland No one has been more right on the housing market in recent years. So, what’s coming next? Some of the housing numbers in the last few months look a little less ugly. Could housing be getting ready to get well? MILLER: I don’t think so. For all intents and purposes, the United States home mortgage market has been nationalized without anybody noticing. Last September, reportedly over 95% of all new loans for single-family homes in the U.S. were made with federal assistance, either through Fannie Mae and the implied guarantee, or Freddie Mac, or through the FHA. If it’s true that most of the financing in the single-family home market is being facilitated by government guarantees, that should make everybody very, very concerned. If government support goes away, and it will go away, where will that leave the home market? It leaves you with a catastrophe, because private lenders for single-family homes are nervous. Lenders that are still lending are reverting to 75% to 80% loan to value. But that doesn’t help a homeowner whose property is worth less than the mortgage. So when the supply of government-facilitated loans dries up, it’s going to put the home market in a very, very bad place. Why am I so certain that the federal government will have to cut back on its lending? Because most of the financing is done via the bond market, through Ginnie Mae or other government agencies. And the numbers are so big that eventually the bond market is going to gag on the government-sponsored paper. The public doesn’t have any idea of the scale of the guarantees the government is taking on through Fannie, Freddie, and FHA. It’s huge. If people understood what the federal government has done and subjected the taxpayers to, there would be a public outrage. But you can’t get people to focus on it, and it’s very esoteric, it’s very hard to understand. But it’s not something the bond market won’t notice. The government can’t keep doing what it has been doing to support mortgage lending without pushing interest rates way up. Refinancings of single-family homes are very interest-rate sensitive. Consumers have their backs against the wall. They have too much debt. Refinancing their maturing mortgages or their adjustable-rate mortgages is very problematic if rates go up, but that’s exactly where they’re headed. So anyone who’s comforted by current statistics on single-family homes should look beyond the data and into the dynamics of the market. What they’ll find is very alarming. On that topic, recent data I saw was that something like 24% of the loans FHA backed in 2007 are now in default, and for those generated in 2008, 20% are in default, and the FHA is out of money. MILLER: Fannie Mae had a $19 billion loss for the third quarter of 2009, and they are now drawing on their facility with the U.S. Treasury. We have all forgotten that Fannie and Freddie are still being operated under a federal conservatorship. On Christmas Eve, the agency announced that they were going to remove all the caps on the agencies. So what about commercial real estate? MILLER: When I saw what was happening in the housing market, I liquidated all my multifamily apartments, shopping centers, and office buildings. I liquidated all my loan portfolios, and I’m happy I did. Then it occurred to me in 2005 and 2006 that the commercial world had to follow suit. Why? Because it’s a normal progression. Obviously, when single-family homes decline in value, multifamily apartments decline in value. And when consumers hit the wall with spending and debt, that’s going to have an impact on retailers that pay for commercial space. Furthermore, the financing for retail properties had gotten ludicrous. The conduits were making loans that they advertised as 80% of property value when they originated them, but in reality the loan-to-value ratios were well over 100%. And I say that to you with absolute, categorical certainty, because I was a seller and nobody knew the value of the properties that I was selling better than I did. I had operated some of them for 20 years, so I knew exactly what they were bringing in. I knew what the operating expenses were, and I knew what the cap rates were. And, you know, the underwriting on the loan side and the purchasing side of these assets was completely insane. It was ludicrous. It did not reflect at all what the conduits thought they were doing. They were valuing the properties way too aggressively. I became very bearish about the commercial business starting in late ‘05. In fact, I think I was in Argentina with Doug Casey, sitting on a veranda at one of the estancias, and he and I were lamenting what was going on in the real estate business, and I said there was going to be a huge adjustment in the commercial market. Beyond the obvious, that the real estate market has taken pretty significant hits and some banks have been dragged under by their bad loans, what has really changed in real estate since the crash? MILLER: I think the first thing that changed was that people learned that prices don’t go up forever. Lenders also saw that underwriting guidelines for commercial real estate loans, especially in the securitization markets, were erroneous. They realized that some of their properties had been financed too aggressively, but still, I don’t think even at the fall of Lehman, anybody was predicting a wholesale collapse in commercial real estate. But they did see they should be more circumspect with loan underwritings. In fact, after the fall of Lehman, they completely stopped lending. I think they realized we had been living in fantasy land for 10 years. And that was the first change — a mental adjustment from Alice in Wonderland to reality. Today it’s clear that commercial properties are not performing and that values have gone down, although I’ve got to tell you, the denial is still widespread, particularly in the United States and on the part of lenders sitting on and servicing all these real estate portfolios. People still do not understand how grave this is. Right now there are an awful lot of banks that do an awful lot of commercial real estate lending, and for about a year now you’ve been telling me that you saw the first and second quarter of 2010 as being particularly risky for commercial real estate. Why this year, and what do you see happening with these loans and the banks holding them? MILLER: It’s an educated guess, and it hasn’t changed. I still think that it’s second quarter 2010. The current volume of defaults is already alarming. And the volume of commercial real estate defaults is growing every month. That can only keep going for so long, and then you hit a breaking point, which I believe will come sometime in 2010. When you hit that breaking point, unless there’s some alternative in place, it’s going to be a very hideous picture for the bond market and the banking system. The reason I say second quarter 2010 is a guess is that the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC can influence how fast the crisis unfolds. I think they can have an impact on the severity of the crisis as well – not making it less severe but making it more severe. I will get to that in a minute. But they can influence the speed with which it all unfolds, and I’ll give you an example. In November, the FDIC circulated new guidelines for bank regulators to streamline and standardize the way banks are examined. One standout feature is that as long as a bank has evaluated the borrower and the asset behind a loan, if they are convinced the borrower can repay the loan, even if they go into a workout with the borrower, the bank does not have to reserve for the loan. The bank doesn’t have to take any hit against its capital, so if the collateral all of a sudden sinks to 50% of the loan balance, the bank still does not have to take any sort of write-down. That obviously allows banks to just sit on weak assets instead of liquidating them or trying to raise more capital. That’s very significant. It means the FDIC and the Treasury Department have decided that rather than see 1,000 or 2,000 banks go under and then create another RTC to sift through all the bad assets, they’ll let the banking system warehouse the bad assets. Their plan is to leave the assets in place, and then, when the market changes, let the banks deal with them. Now, that’s horribly destructive. Just to be clear on this, let’s say I own an apartment building and I’ve been making my payments, but I’m having trouble and the value of the property has fallen by half. I go to the bank and say, “Look, I’ve got a problem,” and the bank says, “Okay, let’s work something out, and instead of you paying $10,000 a month, you pay us $5,000 a month and we’ll shake hands and smile.” Then, even though the property’s value has dropped, as long as we keep smiling and I’m still making payments, then the bank won’t have to reserve anything against the risk that I’ll give the building back and it will be worth a whole lot less than the mortgage. MILLER: I think what you just described is accurate. And it’s exactly a Japanese-style solution. This is what Japan did in ‘89 and ‘90 because they didn’t want their banking system to implode, so they made it easier for their banks to sit on bad assets without owning up to the losses. And what’s the result? Well, it leaves the status quo in place. The real problem with this is twofold. One is that it prolongs the problem – if a bank is allowed to sit on bad assets for three to five years, it’s not going to sell them. Why is that bad? Well, the money tied up in the loans the bank is sitting on is idle. It is not being used for anything productive. Wouldn’t banks know that ultimately the piper must be paid, and so they’d be trying to build cash — trying to build capital to deal with the problem when it comes home to roost? MILLER: The more intelligent banks are doing exactly that, hoping they can weather the storm by building enough reserves, so when they do ultimately have to take the loss, it’s digestible. But in commercial real estate generally, the longer you delay realizing a loss, the more severe it’s going to be. I can tell you that because I’m out there servicing real estate all day long. Not facing the problems, and not writing down the values, and not allowing purchasers to come in and take these assets at discounted prices — all the foot-dragging allows the fundamental problem to get worse. In the apartment business, people are under water, particularly if they got their loan through a conduit. When maintenance is required, a borrower with a property worth less than the loan is very reluctant to reach into his pocket. If you have a $10 million loan on a property now worth $5 million, you’re clearly not making any cash flow. So what do you do when you need new roofs? Are you going to dig into your pocket and spend $600,000 on roofing? Not likely. Why would you do that? Or a borrower who is sitting on a suburban office property — he’s got two years left on the loan. He knows he has a loan-to-value problem. Well, a new tenant wants to lease from him, but it would cost $30 a square foot to put the tenant in. Is the borrower going to put the tenant in? I don’t think so. So the problems get bigger. Why would the owner bother going through a workout with the bank if he knows he’s so deep underwater he’s below snorkel depth? MILLER: It’s always in your interest to delay an inevitable default. For example, the minute you give the property back to the bank, you trigger a huge taxable gain. All of a sudden the forgiveness of debt on your loan becomes taxable income to you. Another reason is that many of these loans are either full recourse or part recourse. If you’re a borrower who’s guaranteed a loan, why would you want to hasten the call on your guarantee? You want to delay as long as possible because there’s always a little hope that values will turn around. So there is no reason to hurry into a default. None. So that’s from the borrower’s standpoint. But wouldn’t the banks want to clear these loans off their balance sheets? MILLER: No. The banks have a lot of incentive to delay the realization of the problem because if they liquidate the asset and the loss is realized, then they have to reserve the loss against their capital immediately. If they keep extending the loan under the rules present today, then they can delay a write-down and hope for better days. Remember, you suffer if the bank succumbs and turns around and liquidates that asset, then you really do have to take a write-down because then your capital is gone. So here we are, we’ve got the federal government again, through its agencies and the FDIC, ready to support the commercial real estate market. They’ve taken one step, in allowing banks to use a very loose standard for loss reserves. What else can they do? MILLER: Well, obviously nobody knows, but I can guess at what’s coming by extrapolating from what the federal government has already done. I believe that the Treasury and the Federal Reserve now see that commercial real estate is a huge problem. I think they’re going to contrive something to help assist commercial real estate so that it doesn’t hurt the banks that lent on commercial real estate. It’ll resemble what they did with housing. They created a nearly perfect political formula in dealing with housing, and they are going to follow that formula. The entire U.S. residential mortgage market has in effect been nationalized, but there wasn’t any act of Congress, no screaming and shouting, no headlines in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times about “Should we nationalize the home loan market in America.” No. It happened right under our noses and with no hue and cry. That’s a template for what they could do with the commercial loan market. And how can they do that? By using federal guarantees much in the way they used federal guarantees for the FHA. FHA issues Ginnie Mae securities, which are sold to the public. Those proceeds are used to make the loans. But it won’t really be a solution. In fact, it will make the problems much more intense. Don’t these properties have to be allowed to go to their intrinsic value before the market can start working again? MILLER: Yes. Of course, very few people agree with that, because if you let it all go today, there would be enormous losses and a tremendous amount of pain. We’re going to have some really terrible, terrible years ahead of us because letting it all go is the only way to be done with the problem. Do you think the U.S. will come out of this crisis? I mean, do you think the country, the institutions, the government, or the banking sector are going to look anything like they do today when this thing is over? MILLER: I know this is going to make you laugh, but I’m actually an optimist about this. I’m not optimistic about the short run, and I’m not optimistic about the severity of the problem, but I’m totally optimistic as it relates to the United States of America. This is a very resilient place. We have very resilient people. There is nothing like the American spirit. There is nothing like American ingenuity anywhere on Planet Earth, and while I certainly believe that we are headed for a catastrophe and a crisis, I also believe that ultimately we are going to come out better. Regards, David Galland The Casey Report |
|
Yes Indy - we are aware. Many areas have been kept open to rockhounding because clubs have been designated to care for rockhound areas.
I am actually in support of this map. You would have to come to America to understand that it is a good thing. If people want to breed like stinking rabbits, let them live in cities. You know I wander out here til my heart's content. I like it best where it's walk in only - no roads. Americans are lazy creatures - they want the whole world to be a freaking drive up window........it is so much easier to throw their damned trash everywhere that way. It is becoming very difficult to go anywhere -even into extreme back areas and not see mounds of trash thrown all over. This trash kills plants and wildlife. It stinks, it creates fire hazards, it's a total eyesore. It's not pleasant to sit on a nice beach area when you are surrounded by paper, plastic, discarded household trash, and worst of all baby diapers. It's revolting....yet everywhere they let the general public play, that is what you will find - mounds and mounds of trash. Humans who refuse to think beyond their capacity to throw trash really need to be cages. There are resources for them to learn better - but they refuse. Ignorance in America is a choice.
Did you know that over here some churches actually teach people that all the pollution is just fine and dandy. They teach this because they think that the last days means we don't have to care, and they destroy without a blink of an eyelash. If they actually wanted to read the document that they want to flap their filthy little destructive gums about they might find that this planet is a gift and it is a gift they were meant to respect and care for. I have visions of them getting to the "Pearly Gates" and having God turn to the Archangels saying "Don't let that trashbag in here, I don't want him/her scumming up my house." Cleanliness is next to Godliness for a reason and they seem, for the convenience of throwing their garbage and poisons as they please, to neglect anything but that fact that their documents claim the earth is temporary housing. This kind of illogical, lazy, apathetic mindless drooling must be contained. I am pretty sure if the Bible is truth, that these careless polluting creatures will not be with their God in the end but shuffled off to some other realm that they can all merrily pollute toegether and exist in desperation and ill health. You can not stand next to perfection and be a purveyor of corruption and filth.
And then there are so many who mindlessly eat any drug offered that their very urine is toxic. If you live near a city in the US you can count on your water being well laced with all of the drugs the willingly ignorant spew back into the environment. Do we want these fools out pissing their poison into the wilderness, too? Blind faith is more than a religious issue here - it is a rampant fault that many also have blind faith in any human with a title - even though history shows it to be deadly to maintain such a blind faith. I am presuming being made in the image of God is just a physical thing - surely if brains were meant to immitate perfection this kind of crap would not be going on.
IF people refuse to contain themselves and live according to logic, then someone has to contain them. IF we let those that refuse to use their heads for anything other than toxin recepticals run free at will they will destroy the whole species and take down everything else alive with them. We do not see the "useless eaters" that the Nazi party has maintained to cull..........we see DESTRUCTIVE eaters that are taking down everything in their path in their voracious selfish and idiotic consumption.
No need to worry -- we CAN'T save these people. If every altruistic person on the planet were to join hands to save them, they could not do so. These people are so unwilling to learn anything that they are self destructive, and when lumped into large masses are genocidal. They are being culled by the millions each year because of their blind faith and their lazy apathy. What suicide they do not commit on their own, mother nature seems about to take responsibility for. Over the next decade we will see the loss of billions. The population will be cut in half again (at least) and it will not be man's hand complete for the responsibilty. Sure man is responsible now for some conditions, but if we breed out of our food capacity as rabbits and deer (read: dumb animals) are sometimes prone to do, everyone suffers, everyone is at risk no matter what personal responsibility they took to right the situation.
The situation has gone out of control and many innocents are going to die. However - it is those that refuse to think and stupidly allow themselves to be poisoned to death that will be predominently victims of their own ignorance and greed. Until the population is balanced again - there will be land and eco-system management. The planet will restabilize at a natural level of sustainable population. Until the time that land can safely be opened to humans who will not destroy everything in their path, I am more than happy to take my backpack and walk into the remote areas and to take only the stones I can carry out with me.
Sal 179 days ago
There are bugs in this blog script Sally so I am moving the orginal post and your reply to the
NN group...Title: Agenda 21...Bisou...Indy
Robert Velare (Indiana) 179 days ago
I am actually in support of this map. You would have to come to America to understand that it is a good thing. If people want to breed like stinking rabbits, let them live in cities. You know I wander out here til my heart's content. I like it best where it's walk in only - no roads. Americans are lazy creatures - they want the whole world to be a freaking drive up window........it is so much easier to throw their damned trash everywhere that way. It is becoming very difficult to go anywhere -even into extreme back areas and not see mounds of trash thrown all over. This trash kills plants and wildlife. It stinks, it creates fire hazards, it's a total eyesore. It's not pleasant to sit on a nice beach area when you are surrounded by paper, plastic, discarded household trash, and worst of all baby diapers. It's revolting....yet everywhere they let the general public play, that is what you will find - mounds and mounds of trash. Humans who refuse to think beyond their capacity to throw trash really need to be cages. There are resources for them to learn better - but they refuse. Ignorance in America is a choice.
Did you know that over here some churches actually teach people that all the pollution is just fine and dandy. They teach this because they think that the last days means we don't have to care, and they destroy without a blink of an eyelash. If they actually wanted to read the document that they want to flap their filthy little destructive gums about they might find that this planet is a gift and it is a gift they were meant to respect and care for. I have visions of them getting to the "Pearly Gates" and having God turn to the Archangels saying "Don't let that trashbag in here, I don't want him/her scumming up my house." Cleanliness is next to Godliness for a reason and they seem, for the convenience of throwing their garbage and poisons as they please, to neglect anything but that fact that their documents claim the earth is temporary housing. This kind of illogical, lazy, apathetic mindless drooling must be contained. I am pretty sure if the Bible is truth, that these careless polluting creatures will not be with their God in the end but shuffled off to some other realm that they can all merrily pollute toegether and exist in desperation and ill health. You can not stand next to perfection and be a purveyor of corruption and filth.
And then there are so many who mindlessly eat any drug offered that their very urine is toxic. If you live near a city in the US you can count on your water being well laced with all of the drugs the willingly ignorant spew back into the environment. Do we want these fools out pissing their poison into the wilderness, too? Blind faith is more than a religious issue here - it is a rampant fault that many also have blind faith in any human with a title - even though history shows it to be deadly to maintain such a blind faith. I am presuming being made in the image of God is just a physical thing - surely if brains were meant to immitate perfection this kind of crap would not be going on.
IF people refuse to contain themselves and live according to logic, then someone has to contain them. IF we let those that refuse to use their heads for anything other than toxin recepticals run free at will they will destroy the whole species and take down everything else alive with them. We do not see the "useless eaters" that the Nazi party has maintained to cull..........we see DESTRUCTIVE eaters that are taking down everything in their path in their voracious selfish and idiotic consumption.
No need to worry -- we CAN'T save these people. If every altruistic person on the planet were to join hands to save them, they could not do so. These people are so unwilling to learn anything that they are self destructive, and when lumped into large masses are genocidal. They are being culled by the millions each year because of their blind faith and their lazy apathy. What suicide they do not commit on their own, mother nature seems about to take responsibility for. Over the next decade we will see the loss of billions. The population will be cut in half again (at least) and it will not be man's hand complete for the responsibilty. Sure man is responsible now for some conditions, but if we breed out of our food capacity as rabbits and deer (read: dumb animals) are sometimes prone to do, everyone suffers, everyone is at risk no matter what personal responsibility they took to right the situation.
The situation has gone out of control and many innocents are going to die. However - it is those that refuse to think and stupidly allow themselves to be poisoned to death that will be predominently victims of their own ignorance and greed. Until the population is balanced again - there will be land and eco-system management. The planet will restabilize at a natural level of sustainable population. Until the time that land can safely be opened to humans who will not destroy everything in their path, I am more than happy to take my backpack and walk into the remote areas and to take only the stones I can carry out with me.
]]>NN group...Title: Agenda 21...Bisou...Indy
]]>... But, when the mood hits ...
I have no great story to tell, not like some writers. But maybe the odd aspiring writer might find some inspiration here.
I've been interested in writing since my teen years, although I never started developing my writing skills with any degree of seriousness until about 12 or so years ago.
At that time, about this time of the year in 1998, I discovered that a Toastmasters International public speaking club had just started up in our little town. I knew what Toastmasters was and what value it had to offer, so I attended a meeting and joined.
The club focuses on three primary areas of development: speaking, listening and leadership. Every club has a different "personality" and may place different degrees of emphasis on each of those areas.
Anyway, I joined to get training and practice in basic public speaking. I quickly learned about the emphasis on leadership training, and just as quickly got talked into becoming the club's Vice President of Public Relations! Little did I know that was to be the catalyst to launch my writing career.
I decided that one good way to fulfill my duty as VP PR would be to get articles about Toastmasters published in our local weekly newspaper. So. I approached the editor with the idea of writing a series of 10 weekly articles on Toastmasters and public speaking.
The editor tentatively agreed, not knowing if I had any writing talent or if I could deliver on my promise of 10 articles.
What a thrill it was to see my first article printed in the newspaper! Thanks to Toastmasters, I was beginning to fulfill one of my lifelong dreams: to see my writing in print!
Later, I realized that the dream had not been properly defined and I found that I had to clarify certain points of the dream. But in the beginning, I was just so excited to be published!
That was the beginning of my writing career. More about that to follow in future blog posts.
Blog: Writing For Dollars
"Writing for Dollars" started out as "writing for free!"
As just mentioned, I started writing for our local weekly newspaper on the premise of providing a series of articles related to public speaking. I received no offer of pay for this; the editor was basically counting it as free advertising space for our Toastmasters club.
I found out a few years later that he didn't think I would write more than a couple of articles, then I would lose interest or run out of material.
Guess what? I didn't miss a week for over three years! No way was I going to pass up that opportunity. Of course, after about 20-30 weeks or so I was getting tired of coming up with public speaking themes, so I started branching out into general interest topics. What a great experience and great training for an aspiring writer!
However, I was still writing for free. I didn't know how I was going to change that, but I realized that my dream of becoming a writer needed to be adjusted — I needed to add a monetary element to the dream!
My chance came when I was out of a job due to the closing of the business where I worked. A few weeks later, the newspaper said they were looking for a new reporter and would I be interested. The pay wasn't anything impressive ... but ... they were willing to PAY me to WRITE! Yippee!!
Of course, I said yes.
Later, I realized that I needed to adjust the dream once again, but initially it was like getting paid to go to journalism school.
Unfortunately, there was one casualty involved in the decision to actually work for the paper: I was so busy researching and writing news, I no longer had time to write my weekly column article!
Oh, well. You can't have everything ...
... Or can you?
GT 184 days ago
Writing for dollars is great ... but you need to analyze how much you're getting paid for the time you're actually putting into it.
I am "fussy" or "particular" with what I write for public view. Blogs are a little more relaxed, but when writing for dollars, I want to make sure the final copy is first class.
Sooo ... while working for the newspaper, I ended up going in at 9 a.m., taking "breaks" at my desk, going home for an hour at supper time, then going back to work until 10, 11, 12 p.m. ... and sometimes later, depending on what day of the week it was.
I did that seven days a week for almost two years.
My duties included phone interviews, personal interviews, attending numerous civic, public and community meetings, research by phone and — finally — the actual writing. Also, I was in training to become the editor as well as the lead reporter, so it eventually became like two jobs for one pay.
But once again, I did not complain because THEY paid ME to train me — absolutely awesome to get experience like that AND get paid for it!
However, after two years, I was starting to burn out and I felt it was time for a change. We parted on friendly terms and I have even gone back for brief projects a couple of times. (Now I'm too busy with freelance writing, so I have had to decline their requests lately.)
So, quitting the newspaper, how was I going to strike out on my own? Watch this space ...
GT 179 days ago
After I quit working for the newspaper, my plan was to research writing markets on the Internet and start submitting articles to mainstream electronic publications. I didn't get very far with that.
Then two unexpected things happened.
First, after learning that I was no longer at the newspaper, a local corporate entity hired me as a freelance writer to write newsletter content for them.
Second, a day job came up that caught my interest, again (as always) for the experience it would allow. However, this one wasn't directly writing-related, so after a year I realized I had been diverted from my writing dream, so I quit that job. It was a good experience — just not what I truly wanted to do.
Once I left that day job, I began researching online writing markets again. And again, I didn't make it very far! Once I started spending time online, the Internet Marketing bug bit me!
In another blog, I have mentioned an interest in marketing, promotion, selling, that sort of thing. I knew there was tremendous potential on the Internet, but up until that point, had not looked into it.
Well, my research into writing markets led me to a few online writing groups, and one or two of these groups started sending me information that blended writing and marketing, and then some of the marketing stuff lead to Internet Marketing (of the Affiliate Marketing variety) and that's what got my attention.
I was attracted to the idea of getting a pre-built, ecommerce-ready website so I signed up as an affiliate with one of the programs and began my online marketing training.
The offshoot was that quite a bit of the recommended promotional and Search Engine Optimization methods involved writing! So that is how I justified the divergence from my writing dream.
Well, I was in my glory as far as marketing and promotion went, but the downside was that the writing I was doing for my online business, though gratifying in its own sense, wasn't the traditional "writing for dollars" kind that I had originally been seeking. And I soon realized that writing for dollars for the "Internet Marketing community" wasn't something I was willing to do: too many writers were selling their services for $3, $5 and $10 an article and I wasn't willing to write for those amounts since I was earning substantially more than that per article for the content I was writing for local corporate clients.
I continued to build my online marketing business while strengthening my presence in the local community as a freelance writer.
Next blog entry: word of mouth exposure is great!
GT 176 days ago
Why Advertise?
My local freelance writing business developed by chance, without my own intentional effort.
One local client approached me for an ongoing project (which has since expanded, as previously reported here: the projects are now larger, more frequent and pay more than in the beginning).
Another local client (with connections to the first client) hired me to do a similar ongoing project (which has expanded and now pays more).
Other local clients have hired me for single or brief writing projects.
I have a major writing project coming up for another local client, starting in April for a couple of months.
All of this has happened, and I have not once advertised or publicized my writing services. Each client has learned of me via word of mouth. I consider myself fortunate because I know this is not always the case for struggling writers.
Here is the message I get from this experience: There is a need for dependable writers, and people who value quality are willing to pay for a good writer.
There are a number of qualified writers in our community. I don't really know why I have been given these opportunities, other than my willingness to fit the client's needs into my schedule, and my demonstrated ability to write well and to adapt my style to the needs of the particular client.
I would suggest that if you are a writer, there could be opportunities in your community that you are not yet aware of.
I have not had to advertise. Your situation may be different and you may have to do some footwork to either:
1) Let potential clients know you are available;
2) "Inspire" potential clients with some ideas of ways your writing skills and experience mught help their businesses or organizations.
GT
GT 171 days ago
Writing ... and MORE ... for Dollars
An interesting thing happened soon after I started doing regular writing projects for my first main client. Before long, it became apparent that they needed more than just the writing; they needed someone to coordinate the material for production after it was written.
I had experience with coordination and production, so it was a natural addition to my writing services, but it wasn't something that was intended in the original writing contract. So, that meant I could boost my writing rates! My value as a "consultant" or "contractor" had increased.
It looks like something similar may happen with another of my main clients.
My point in mentioning this is to point out that if you are a writer willing to expand your level of service to your clients, you may be able to increase your value and your rates.
Also, there may be areas that your clients could improve or expand their reach into their targeted markets that they have not yet thought about. If you can do some "visioning" for them along these lines and suggest some ways you might be able to coordinate such expansion for them - for an added fee - then you might be onto something new here!
Give it some thought. If you have a question about this, feel welcome to ask it here. I'll offer more insight or do my best to answer the question.
GT 169 days ago
Different Strokes
I have two primary (local) writing clients: one municipal and one institutional. Basically, I write newsletter content for each of them based on subjects they suggest or request.
With the main client, I do some research online and via email communication, but much of it I do with telephone interviews and the occasional one-on-one interview. And I attend meetings!
With the secondary client, it has developed that I do the interviews almost exclusively by email. I very much prefer doing it this way because I can then spell out (literally) my interview questions, and the subject can then review the questions and write down responses at their leisure.
That way, they can say EXACTLY what they mean, and when it comes to names, titles and other such references, they are usually pretty good at making sure they spell things correctly.
At my end, I do a good job of taking their details and crafting it all into an informative, entertaining article that profiles the person in a positive way.
The publishing schedule for these two clients is totally opposite as well. With the first, I have set specific publishing dates. With the second, their publishing dates are subject to the availability of the department that inputs and uploads the material to their website. It is sometimes months from the time I finish writing until the product of my effort is actually posted. But the good news is, I get to bill for my services once the writing is done. I don't have to wait for it to be published before I get paid.
I have a new client project starting in April that is substantially different from the above two projects. It's a once-a-year project that lasts until mid-June, so it may become an annual project for me. We'll see how it goes this first time!
GT 164 days ago
Writing for Dollars pays well ... but ...
I've spent several years getting to the point I'm now at with my local writing clients where I get paid fair commercial market value for my writing services. I can choose the customers I want, work from home, do the work when I choose, and I don't have to knock myself out to get it done.
Okay. Let me qualify that. If I was more diligent in planning ahead and starting each project early, I wouldn't have to knock myself out to get the work done. But I sometimes drag my feet (because I am my own boss and I work from home and I do the work when I choose to do it). And I sometimes find myself scrambling and quite stressed as deadlines approach! LOL
But that's my fault and it can be easily avoided. Next time, I'll do better. (Yeah, right. LOL)
So, now that I'm at that point where I enjoy all the benefits just mentioned, am I happy? Unfortunately, no. I have other aspirations now and I'm not so sure this form of freelance writing fits in with them.
I suppose one way to look at the problem is that I feel that I am always on the road to somewhere and although I reach certain points on my life map, I never get the feeling as though I have "arrived" yet. As soon as I achieve one thing I've already got my eye on something new or different or better.
I see people with regular careers who put in their days with no new challenges and all they're doing is marking the days until their retirement. I can't imagine doing that. In my opinion, there is ALWAYS something bigger and better, no matter what your job or profession or career is.
So, having achieved a certain level of freelance writing "success" I am starting to question how much longer I will keep doing it the way I am presently doing it. I'm sure I won't cut it out entirely, but I may start thinking about trimming back some of my local clients to allow more time and flexibility for other projects.
I'm not a quick decision-maker. It could be 2011 before I finally decide to make changes. Well see.
GT 161 days ago
Benefit of Writing for Dollars
Most of the writing I do for local clients is in the form of articles, features and profiles of people, projects, and locally relative news and events. This means that (like a news reporter) I get to talk to people and go behind the scenes to see things that the average person doesn't get to see.
Yesterday, I went out to do a few interviews and for one of them, I received the "royal tour" of a major new facility being built in the community. I was taken through the plant and got to see all the machinery and equipment and was given the lowdown on what everything does and how it all goes together.
On another interview I was given all the details on some new recycling programs and initiatives being introduced into our community. We actually have an awesome recycling facility that is recognized throughout our province as a great example of such facilities - it has been for several years now.
I also get to talk to community leaders and get insight into issues that, again, the average person may not always have access to. Of course, I have to be sensitive and know when NOT to tell the whole story, or when NOT to repeat everything my sources say. Some things are better left unsaid.
Additionally, I get invited to special events that are generally quite enjoyable.
So, writing for dollars does have its benefits and rewards.
GT 157 days ago
Blood, Sweat and Writing For Dollars
When my wife came home from her day job today I told her that I had experienced the term "blood, sweat, toil and tears" in my writing today - LOL. But I quickly qualified the comment by adding that it wasn't really all THAT bad!
What I meant was, I came up against another one of those articles where you start with a blank page and little else and you wonder how on earth you are going to make something out of nothing. However, that was the third article in this edition of the project where I felt that way, so I'm learning how to deal with it.
To be truthful, once I get through the initial "sweating blood" phase of a tough article, I am usually pretty good at pulling it together and crafting a good piece. The way I overcome the problem is I get out a piece of paper (I think best on paper, not on screen), and I start by drafting an outline of the elements needed to make the article work: for example, a rough idea of the opening paragraph; what type of info would logically follow in the next paragraph; what would logically follow in the next; and so on for a few more paragraphs.
Then I start looking for sources for the info to slot into those paragraphs: maybe a quote from an interview subject, or info from a meeting or from a print or online document (as provided by the story subject source), or something based on something one of the article subjects might have mentioned. The point is, once I have the outline and have an idea of the TYPE of info I need for that spot in the article, then it makes it easier to track the required info down.
Actually, by the time I get through making the outline, the ideas are already starting to flow and the article most often takes on a life of it's own. It's just that I am one of those writer's who truly does have to "sweat out an article" sometimes. It's not always easy. But the great thing is, once the article is finished, I am usually quite happy with it and my clients seem to be, too.
And then comes the best part of all: submitting my invoice and receiving the payment for writing services rendered. I still pinch myself sometimes when I receive my writing pay. It's hard to believe I get PAID for doing it! 
GT 145 days ago
Writing for Dollars is FUN ... from a certain perspective!
As I may have mentioned, I have a couple of local writing clients for whom I write newsletter content. I have just finished an edition for one client and I'm a little behind on an edition for another client. Also, I have a new writing project that will soon kick into gear and will absorb a lot of attention until mid-June ... when I'll have to be finishing another newsletter edition for the FIRST client again!
I experience a lot of anxiety at the beginning of a project. It's the old "how on earth do I start this" problem. It's partly procrastination and partly uncertainty. Fortunately, once I get into it and start mapping out the stories, the interviews and so on, it gets exciting and begins to flow.
But I sometimes go through a state where I tell myself I don't need this anxiety and I'm going to quit doing these projects. When I look back at it, I think that mindset is all part of the defense mechanism that pushes me forward to get the project started, then finished. You know what I mean. You tell yourself you'll just finish this one project, then you're done. For good.
However ... once I get through the first half, and especially once I get to the end, I start saying things like, "Hey. That wasn't so bad, was it?" and "Maybe I'll do just one more and see how it goes." LOL, I'm such a sucker for self-punishment.
So, I just finished one project and today I am taking a breather before starting to focus on the next one and I'm thinking that the one I just finished was fun after all. It wasn't so bad. Maybe I'll hang on for one more and see how it goes.
GT 138 days ago
As just mentioned, I started writing for our local weekly newspaper on the premise of providing a series of articles related to public speaking. I received no offer of pay for this; the editor was basically counting it as free advertising space for our Toastmasters club.
I found out a few years later that he didn't think I would write more than a couple of articles, then I would lose interest or run out of material.
Guess what? I didn't miss a week for over three years! No way was I going to pass up that opportunity. Of course, after about 20-30 weeks or so I was getting tired of coming up with public speaking themes, so I started branching out into general interest topics. What a great experience and great training for an aspiring writer!
However, I was still writing for free. I didn't know how I was going to change that, but I realized that my dream of becoming a writer needed to be adjusted — I needed to add a monetary element to the dream!
My chance came when I was out of a job due to the closing of the business where I worked. A few weeks later, the newspaper said they were looking for a new reporter and would I be interested. The pay wasn't anything impressive ... but ... they were willing to PAY me to WRITE! Yippee!!
Of course, I said yes.
Later, I realized that I needed to adjust the dream once again, but initially it was like getting paid to go to journalism school.
Unfortunately, there was one casualty involved in the decision to actually work for the paper: I was so busy researching and writing news, I no longer had time to write my weekly column article!
Oh, well. You can't have everything ...
... Or can you?
I am "fussy" or "particular" with what I write for public view. Blogs are a little more relaxed, but when writing for dollars, I want to make sure the final copy is first class.
Sooo ... while working for the newspaper, I ended up going in at 9 a.m., taking "breaks" at my desk, going home for an hour at supper time, then going back to work until 10, 11, 12 p.m. ... and sometimes later, depending on what day of the week it was.
I did that seven days a week for almost two years.
My duties included phone interviews, personal interviews, attending numerous civic, public and community meetings, research by phone and — finally — the actual writing. Also, I was in training to become the editor as well as the lead reporter, so it eventually became like two jobs for one pay.
But once again, I did not complain because THEY paid ME to train me — absolutely awesome to get experience like that AND get paid for it!
However, after two years, I was starting to burn out and I felt it was time for a change. We parted on friendly terms and I have even gone back for brief projects a couple of times. (Now I'm too busy with freelance writing, so I have had to decline their requests lately.)
So, quitting the newspaper, how was I going to strike out on my own? Watch this space ...
Then two unexpected things happened.
First, after learning that I was no longer at the newspaper, a local corporate entity hired me as a freelance writer to write newsletter content for them.
Second, a day job came up that caught my interest, again (as always) for the experience it would allow. However, this one wasn't directly writing-related, so after a year I realized I had been diverted from my writing dream, so I quit that job. It was a good experience — just not what I truly wanted to do.
Once I left that day job, I began researching online writing markets again. And again, I didn't make it very far! Once I started spending time online, the Internet Marketing bug bit me!
In another blog, I have mentioned an interest in marketing, promotion, selling, that sort of thing. I knew there was tremendous potential on the Internet, but up until that point, had not looked into it.
Well, my research into writing markets led me to a few online writing groups, and one or two of these groups started sending me information that blended writing and marketing, and then some of the marketing stuff lead to Internet Marketing (of the Affiliate Marketing variety) and that's what got my attention.
I was attracted to the idea of getting a pre-built, ecommerce-ready website so I signed up as an affiliate with one of the programs and began my online marketing training.
The offshoot was that quite a bit of the recommended promotional and Search Engine Optimization methods involved writing! So that is how I justified the divergence from my writing dream.
Well, I was in my glory as far as marketing and promotion went, but the downside was that the writing I was doing for my online business, though gratifying in its own sense, wasn't the traditional "writing for dollars" kind that I had originally been seeking. And I soon realized that writing for dollars for the "Internet Marketing community" wasn't something I was willing to do: too many writers were selling their services for $3, $5 and $10 an article and I wasn't willing to write for those amounts since I was earning substantially more than that per article for the content I was writing for local corporate clients.
I continued to build my online marketing business while strengthening my presence in the local community as a freelance writer.
Next blog entry: word of mouth exposure is great!
]]>
My local freelance writing business developed by chance, without my own intentional effort.
One local client approached me for an ongoing project (which has since expanded, as previously reported here: the projects are now larger, more frequent and pay more than in the beginning).
Another local client (with connections to the first client) hired me to do a similar ongoing project (which has expanded and now pays more).
Other local clients have hired me for single or brief writing projects.
I have a major writing project coming up for another local client, starting in April for a couple of months.
All of this has happened, and I have not once advertised or publicized my writing services. Each client has learned of me via word of mouth. I consider myself fortunate because I know this is not always the case for struggling writers.
Here is the message I get from this experience: There is a need for dependable writers, and people who value quality are willing to pay for a good writer.
There are a number of qualified writers in our community. I don't really know why I have been given these opportunities, other than my willingness to fit the client's needs into my schedule, and my demonstrated ability to write well and to adapt my style to the needs of the particular client.
I would suggest that if you are a writer, there could be opportunities in your community that you are not yet aware of.
I have not had to advertise. Your situation may be different and you may have to do some footwork to either:
1) Let potential clients know you are available;
2) "Inspire" potential clients with some ideas of ways your writing skills and experience mught help their businesses or organizations.
GT
An interesting thing happened soon after I started doing regular writing projects for my first main client. Before long, it became apparent that they needed more than just the writing; they needed someone to coordinate the material for production after it was written.
I had experience with coordination and production, so it was a natural addition to my writing services, but it wasn't something that was intended in the original writing contract. So, that meant I could boost my writing rates! My value as a "consultant" or "contractor" had increased.
It looks like something similar may happen with another of my main clients.
My point in mentioning this is to point out that if you are a writer willing to expand your level of service to your clients, you may be able to increase your value and your rates.
Also, there may be areas that your clients could improve or expand their reach into their targeted markets that they have not yet thought about. If you can do some "visioning" for them along these lines and suggest some ways you might be able to coordinate such expansion for them - for an added fee - then you might be onto something new here!
Give it some thought. If you have a question about this, feel welcome to ask it here. I'll offer more insight or do my best to answer the question.
I have two primary (local) writing clients: one municipal and one institutional. Basically, I write newsletter content for each of them based on subjects they suggest or request.
With the main client, I do some research online and via email communication, but much of it I do with telephone interviews and the occasional one-on-one interview. And I attend meetings!
With the secondary client, it has developed that I do the interviews almost exclusively by email. I very much prefer doing it this way because I can then spell out (literally) my interview questions, and the subject can then review the questions and write down responses at their leisure.
That way, they can say EXACTLY what they mean, and when it comes to names, titles and other such references, they are usually pretty good at making sure they spell things correctly.
At my end, I do a good job of taking their details and crafting it all into an informative, entertaining article that profiles the person in a positive way.
The publishing schedule for these two clients is totally opposite as well. With the first, I have set specific publishing dates. With the second, their publishing dates are subject to the availability of the department that inputs and uploads the material to their website. It is sometimes months from the time I finish writing until the product of my effort is actually posted. But the good news is, I get to bill for my services once the writing is done. I don't have to wait for it to be published before I get paid.
I have a new client project starting in April that is substantially different from the above two projects. It's a once-a-year project that lasts until mid-June, so it may become an annual project for me. We'll see how it goes this first time!
I've spent several years getting to the point I'm now at with my local writing clients where I get paid fair commercial market value for my writing services. I can choose the customers I want, work from home, do the work when I choose, and I don't have to knock myself out to get it done.
Okay. Let me qualify that. If I was more diligent in planning ahead and starting each project early, I wouldn't have to knock myself out to get the work done. But I sometimes drag my feet (because I am my own boss and I work from home and I do the work when I choose to do it). And I sometimes find myself scrambling and quite stressed as deadlines approach! LOL
But that's my fault and it can be easily avoided. Next time, I'll do better. (Yeah, right. LOL)
So, now that I'm at that point where I enjoy all the benefits just mentioned, am I happy? Unfortunately, no. I have other aspirations now and I'm not so sure this form of freelance writing fits in with them.
I suppose one way to look at the problem is that I feel that I am always on the road to somewhere and although I reach certain points on my life map, I never get the feeling as though I have "arrived" yet. As soon as I achieve one thing I've already got my eye on something new or different or better.
I see people with regular careers who put in their days with no new challenges and all they're doing is marking the days until their retirement. I can't imagine doing that. In my opinion, there is ALWAYS something bigger and better, no matter what your job or profession or career is.
So, having achieved a certain level of freelance writing "success" I am starting to question how much longer I will keep doing it the way I am presently doing it. I'm sure I won't cut it out entirely, but I may start thinking about trimming back some of my local clients to allow more time and flexibility for other projects.
I'm not a quick decision-maker. It could be 2011 before I finally decide to make changes. Well see.
Most of the writing I do for local clients is in the form of articles, features and profiles of people, projects, and locally relative news and events. This means that (like a news reporter) I get to talk to people and go behind the scenes to see things that the average person doesn't get to see.
Yesterday, I went out to do a few interviews and for one of them, I received the "royal tour" of a major new facility being built in the community. I was taken through the plant and got to see all the machinery and equipment and was given the lowdown on what everything does and how it all goes together.
On another interview I was given all the details on some new recycling programs and initiatives being introduced into our community. We actually have an awesome recycling facility that is recognized throughout our province as a great example of such facilities - it has been for several years now.
I also get to talk to community leaders and get insight into issues that, again, the average person may not always have access to. Of course, I have to be sensitive and know when NOT to tell the whole story, or when NOT to repeat everything my sources say. Some things are better left unsaid.
Additionally, I get invited to special events that are generally quite enjoyable.
So, writing for dollars does have its benefits and rewards.
When my wife came home from her day job today I told her that I had experienced the term "blood, sweat, toil and tears" in my writing today - LOL. But I quickly qualified the comment by adding that it wasn't really all THAT bad!
What I meant was, I came up against another one of those articles where you start with a blank page and little else and you wonder how on earth you are going to make something out of nothing. However, that was the third article in this edition of the project where I felt that way, so I'm learning how to deal with it.
To be truthful, once I get through the initial "sweating blood" phase of a tough article, I am usually pretty good at pulling it together and crafting a good piece. The way I overcome the problem is I get out a piece of paper (I think best on paper, not on screen), and I start by drafting an outline of the elements needed to make the article work: for example, a rough idea of the opening paragraph; what type of info would logically follow in the next paragraph; what would logically follow in the next; and so on for a few more paragraphs.
Then I start looking for sources for the info to slot into those paragraphs: maybe a quote from an interview subject, or info from a meeting or from a print or online document (as provided by the story subject source), or something based on something one of the article subjects might have mentioned. The point is, once I have the outline and have an idea of the TYPE of info I need for that spot in the article, then it makes it easier to track the required info down.
Actually, by the time I get through making the outline, the ideas are already starting to flow and the article most often takes on a life of it's own. It's just that I am one of those writer's who truly does have to "sweat out an article" sometimes. It's not always easy. But the great thing is, once the article is finished, I am usually quite happy with it and my clients seem to be, too.
And then comes the best part of all: submitting my invoice and receiving the payment for writing services rendered. I still pinch myself sometimes when I receive my writing pay. It's hard to believe I get PAID for doing it!
As I may have mentioned, I have a couple of local writing clients for whom I write newsletter content. I have just finished an edition for one client and I'm a little behind on an edition for another client. Also, I have a new writing project that will soon kick into gear and will absorb a lot of attention until mid-June ... when I'll have to be finishing another newsletter edition for the FIRST client again!
I experience a lot of anxiety at the beginning of a project. It's the old "how on earth do I start this" problem. It's partly procrastination and partly uncertainty. Fortunately, once I get into it and start mapping out the stories, the interviews and so on, it gets exciting and begins to flow.
But I sometimes go through a state where I tell myself I don't need this anxiety and I'm going to quit doing these projects. When I look back at it, I think that mindset is all part of the defense mechanism that pushes me forward to get the project started, then finished. You know what I mean. You tell yourself you'll just finish this one project, then you're done. For good.
However ... once I get through the first half, and especially once I get to the end, I start saying things like, "Hey. That wasn't so bad, was it?" and "Maybe I'll do just one more and see how it goes." LOL, I'm such a sucker for self-punishment.
So, I just finished one project and today I am taking a breather before starting to focus on the next one and I'm thinking that the one I just finished was fun after all. It wasn't so bad. Maybe I'll hang on for one more and see how it goes.
... But, when the mood hits ...
I have no great story to tell, not like some writers. But maybe the odd aspiring writer might find some inspiration here.
I've been interested in writing since my teen years, although I never started developing my writing skills with any degree of seriousness until about 12 or so years ago.
At that time, about this time of the year in 1998, I discovered that a Toastmasters International public speaking club had just started up in our little town. I knew what Toastmasters was and what value it had to offer, so I attended a meeting and joined.
The club focuses on three primary areas of development: speaking, listening and leadership. Every club has a different "personality" and may place different degrees of emphasis on each of those areas.
Anyway, I joined to get training and practice in basic public speaking. I quickly learned about the emphasis on leadership training, and just as quickly got talked into becoming the club's Vice President of Public Relations! Little did I know that was to be the catalyst to launch my writing career.
I decided that one good way to fulfill my duty as VP PR would be to get articles about Toastmasters published in our local weekly newspaper. So. I approached the editor with the idea of writing a series of 10 weekly articles on Toastmasters and public speaking.
The editor tentatively agreed, not knowing if I had any writing talent or if I could deliver on my promise of 10 articles.
What a thrill it was to see my first article printed in the newspaper! Thanks to Toastmasters, I was beginning to fulfill one of my lifelong dreams: to see my writing in print!
Later, I realized that the dream had not been properly defined and I found that I had to clarify certain points of the dream. But in the beginning, I was just so excited to be published!
That was the beginning of my writing career. More about that to follow in future blog posts.
Blog: Writing For Dollars
"Writing for Dollars" started out as "writing for free!"
As just mentioned, I started writing for our local weekly newspaper on the premise of providing a series of articles related to public speaking. I received no offer of pay for this; the editor was basically counting it as free advertising space for our Toastmasters club.
I found out a few years later that he didn't think I would write more than a couple of articles, then I would lose interest or run out of material.
Guess what? I didn't miss a week for over three years! No way was I going to pass up that opportunity. Of course, after about 20-30 weeks or so I was getting tired of coming up with public speaking themes, so I started branching out into general interest topics. What a great experience and great training for an aspiring writer!
However, I was still writing for free. I didn't know how I was going to change that, but I realized that my dream of becoming a writer needed to be adjusted — I needed to add a monetary element to the dream!
My chance came when I was out of a job due to the closing of the business where I worked. A few weeks later, the newspaper said they were looking for a new reporter and would I be interested. The pay wasn't anything impressive ... but ... they were willing to PAY me to WRITE! Yippee!!
Of course, I said yes.
Later, I realized that I needed to adjust the dream once again, but initially it was like getting paid to go to journalism school.
Unfortunately, there was one casualty involved in the decision to actually work for the paper: I was so busy researching and writing news, I no longer had time to write my weekly column article!
Oh, well. You can't have everything ...
... Or can you?
GT 184 days ago
Writing for dollars is great ... but you need to analyze how much you're getting paid for the time you're actually putting into it.
I am "fussy" or "particular" with what I write for public view. Blogs are a little more relaxed, but when writing for dollars, I want to make sure the final copy is first class.
Sooo ... while working for the newspaper, I ended up going in at 9 a.m., taking "breaks" at my desk, going home for an hour at supper time, then going back to work until 10, 11, 12 p.m. ... and sometimes later, depending on what day of the week it was.
I did that seven days a week for almost two years.
My duties included phone interviews, personal interviews, attending numerous civic, public and community meetings, research by phone and — finally — the actual writing. Also, I was in training to become the editor as well as the lead reporter, so it eventually became like two jobs for one pay.
But once again, I did not complain because THEY paid ME to train me — absolutely awesome to get experience like that AND get paid for it!
However, after two years, I was starting to burn out and I felt it was time for a change. We parted on friendly terms and I have even gone back for brief projects a couple of times. (Now I'm too busy with freelance writing, so I have had to decline their requests lately.)
So, quitting the newspaper, how was I going to strike out on my own? Watch this space ...
GT 179 days ago
After I quit working for the newspaper, my plan was to research writing markets on the Internet and start submitting articles to mainstream electronic publications. I didn't get very far with that.
Then two unexpected things happened.
First, after learning that I was no longer at the newspaper, a local corporate entity hired me as a freelance writer to write newsletter content for them.
Second, a day job came up that caught my interest, again (as always) for the experience it would allow. However, this one wasn't directly writing-related, so after a year I realized I had been diverted from my writing dream, so I quit that job. It was a good experience — just not what I truly wanted to do.
Once I left that day job, I began researching online writing markets again. And again, I didn't make it very far! Once I started spending time online, the Internet Marketing bug bit me!
In another blog, I have mentioned an interest in marketing, promotion, selling, that sort of thing. I knew there was tremendous potential on the Internet, but up until that point, had not looked into it.
Well, my research into writing markets led me to a few online writing groups, and one or two of these groups started sending me information that blended writing and marketing, and then some of the marketing stuff lead to Internet Marketing (of the Affiliate Marketing variety) and that's what got my attention.
I was attracted to the idea of getting a pre-built, ecommerce-ready website so I signed up as an affiliate with one of the programs and began my online marketing training.
The offshoot was that quite a bit of the recommended promotional and Search Engine Optimization methods involved writing! So that is how I justified the divergence from my writing dream.
Well, I was in my glory as far as marketing and promotion went, but the downside was that the writing I was doing for my online business, though gratifying in its own sense, wasn't the traditional "writing for dollars" kind that I had originally been seeking. And I soon realized that writing for dollars for the "Internet Marketing community" wasn't something I was willing to do: too many writers were selling their services for $3, $5 and $10 an article and I wasn't willing to write for those amounts since I was earning substantially more than that per article for the content I was writing for local corporate clients.
I continued to build my online marketing business while strengthening my presence in the local community as a freelance writer.
Next blog entry: word of mouth exposure is great!
GT 176 days ago
Why Advertise?
My local freelance writing business developed by chance, without my own intentional effort.
One local client approached me for an ongoing project (which has since expanded, as previously reported here: the projects are now larger, more frequent and pay more than in the beginning).
Another local client (with connections to the first client) hired me to do a similar ongoing project (which has expanded and now pays more).
Other local clients have hired me for single or brief writing projects.
I have a major writing project coming up for another local client, starting in April for a couple of months.
All of this has happened, and I have not once advertised or publicized my writing services. Each client has learned of me via word of mouth. I consider myself fortunate because I know this is not always the case for struggling writers.
Here is the message I get from this experience: There is a need for dependable writers, and people who value quality are willing to pay for a good writer.
There are a number of qualified writers in our community. I don't really know why I have been given these opportunities, other than my willingness to fit the client's needs into my schedule, and my demonstrated ability to write well and to adapt my style to the needs of the particular client.
I would suggest that if you are a writer, there could be opportunities in your community that you are not yet aware of.
I have not had to advertise. Your situation may be different and you may have to do some footwork to either:
1) Let potential clients know you are available;
2) "Inspire" potential clients with some ideas of ways your writing skills and experience mught help their businesses or organizations.
GT
GT 171 days ago
Writing ... and MORE ... for Dollars
An interesting thing happened soon after I started doing regular writing projects for my first main client. Before long, it became apparent that they needed more than just the writing; they needed someone to coordinate the material for production after it was written.
I had experience with coordination and production, so it was a natural addition to my writing services, but it wasn't something that was intended in the original writing contract. So, that meant I could boost my writing rates! My value as a "consultant" or "contractor" had increased.
It looks like something similar may happen with another of my main clients.
My point in mentioning this is to point out that if you are a writer willing to expand your level of service to your clients, you may be able to increase your value and your rates.
Also, there may be areas that your clients could improve or expand their reach into their targeted markets that they have not yet thought about. If you can do some "visioning" for them along these lines and suggest some ways you might be able to coordinate such expansion for them - for an added fee - then you might be onto something new here!
Give it some thought. If you have a question about this, feel welcome to ask it here. I'll offer more insight or do my best to answer the question.
GT 169 days ago
Different Strokes
I have two primary (local) writing clients: one municipal and one institutional. Basically, I write newsletter content for each of them based on subjects they suggest or request.
With the main client, I do some research online and via email communication, but much of it I do with telephone interviews and the occasional one-on-one interview. And I attend meetings!
With the secondary client, it has developed that I do the interviews almost exclusively by email. I very much prefer doing it this way because I can then spell out (literally) my interview questions, and the subject can then review the questions and write down responses at their leisure.
That way, they can say EXACTLY what they mean, and when it comes to names, titles and other such references, they are usually pretty good at making sure they spell things correctly.
At my end, I do a good job of taking their details and crafting it all into an informative, entertaining article that profiles the person in a positive way.
The publishing schedule for these two clients is totally opposite as well. With the first, I have set specific publishing dates. With the second, their publishing dates are subject to the availability of the department that inputs and uploads the material to their website. It is sometimes months from the time I finish writing until the product of my effort is actually posted. But the good news is, I get to bill for my services once the writing is done. I don't have to wait for it to be published before I get paid.
I have a new client project starting in April that is substantially different from the above two projects. It's a once-a-year project that lasts until mid-June, so it may become an annual project for me. We'll see how it goes this first time!
GT 164 days ago
Writing for Dollars pays well ... but ...
I've spent several years getting to the point I'm now at with my local writing clients where I get paid fair commercial market value for my writing services. I can choose the customers I want, work from home, do the work when I choose, and I don't have to knock myself out to get it done.
Okay. Let me qualify that. If I was more diligent in planning ahead and starting each project early, I wouldn't have to knock myself out to get the work done. But I sometimes drag my feet (because I am my own boss and I work from home and I do the work when I choose to do it). And I sometimes find myself scrambling and quite stressed as deadlines approach! LOL
But that's my fault and it can be easily avoided. Next time, I'll do better. (Yeah, right. LOL)
So, now that I'm at that point where I enjoy all the benefits just mentioned, am I happy? Unfortunately, no. I have other aspirations now and I'm not so sure this form of freelance writing fits in with them.
I suppose one way to look at the problem is that I feel that I am always on the road to somewhere and although I reach certain points on my life map, I never get the feeling as though I have "arrived" yet. As soon as I achieve one thing I've already got my eye on something new or different or better.
I see people with regular careers who put in their days with no new challenges and all they're doing is marking the days until their retirement. I can't imagine doing that. In my opinion, there is ALWAYS something bigger and better, no matter what your job or profession or career is.
So, having achieved a certain level of freelance writing "success" I am starting to question how much longer I will keep doing it the way I am presently doing it. I'm sure I won't cut it out entirely, but I may start thinking about trimming back some of my local clients to allow more time and flexibility for other projects.
I'm not a quick decision-maker. It could be 2011 before I finally decide to make changes. Well see.
GT 161 days ago
Benefit of Writing for Dollars
Most of the writing I do for local clients is in the form of articles, features and profiles of people, projects, and locally relative news and events. This means that (like a news reporter) I get to talk to people and go behind the scenes to see things that the average person doesn't get to see.
Yesterday, I went out to do a few interviews and for one of them, I received the "royal tour" of a major new facility being built in the community. I was taken through the plant and got to see all the machinery and equipment and was given the lowdown on what everything does and how it all goes together.
On another interview I was given all the details on some new recycling programs and initiatives being introduced into our community. We actually have an a
ShaneRQR
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Very important point you make here.
I've been self-employed for a few years now and I can say that if you want to get stuff done, get used to failure. I think every one of my successes is built on about a hundred failed attempts. Maybe I'm a particularly slow learner, but it just goes to show what a bit of tenacity can get you. :)
ShaneRQR 170 days ago