It’s everywhere! It’s in you, on you, and around you. And what you do with it makes a huge difference in your world. If you use it to your advantage, you can expect cash flowing into your life, great relationships, and vibrant health. However, if you are oblivious to its presence, you could be in big trouble and facing a downward spiral.

So, what is it that is everywhere and so life altering? It’s energy. Do you know how important the Law of Energy is in your life? It’s affecting you every single moment that you breathe. You can take it in and create great things with it or just ignore it. If ignoring it has been your habit, you just might want to make an immediate U turn in your behavior.

Recently a man told me, “Oh, I’ve heard about energy. I know all about that.” At that moment his business was anything but booming, his marriage was ending, and his bank accounts were busted. “Hearing and knowing about energy” didn’t help him at all. It’s how you are using this invisible, magical power that creates happiness in your life. It may be hidden from your eyes, but it is present literally everywhere in your life.

How do you use the energy ‘in you’, ‘on you’, and ‘around you’ to create some miraculous happenings in your life? Difficult as it may be to believe, even though the law of energy has a huge impact in your life, only small changes need to be made to begin seeing its beneficial effects. You can easily harness that great hidden power and use it to your advantage in every area of your life.

I say ‘hidden’ because you can’t see it. If we could see it, we would certainly be mindful to the energy that is flowing and when it is flowing right, everything else follows!

Let’s talk about the hidden power within you. The energy you put out from a soul level is what you think, say, speak, and feel. Napoleon Hill said it best in his book Law of Success. “You have a genius lying within your brain.” Wake up your genius and get it to work for you. The creative power of your soul will lie dormant until you take control of that genius in your mind. Then you will see immediate changes in your life.

What about the energy on you? Who would ever think that the way you look makes a difference in your success. It does make a big difference. The colors, textures, designs, fabrics, and accessories you wear either attract others to you or repel them on a vibrational level. Instead of trying to create an image to impress others, dress so that others can see the real you inside. When you dress according to how you radiate your energy, others see you – instead of your costume. Dress so that the ‘outside you’ reveals the ‘inside you’ to step into your power. When you do, others take you more seriously, you sell more products, have more customers, and attract empowering relationships. You are never as powerful as when you are being yourself.

What’s this around you energy? It’s your playing field. Where you live and work. That’s right. Energy flows into your home and office and the way you arrange your environment can make an immediate difference in the happiness of your family, the profits in your business, and the quality of your relationships. Is your sleeping direction attracting positive relationships? Are you attracting money with the current direction your desk is facing? Are the colors and objects in your home and office energetically bringing you customers? Donald Trump said, “If changing the direction of my desk can bring be another million, why not do it!”

A client of mine recently moved to San Diego because her life had taken a turn for the worse. She had been fired from her job, evicted from her home, and had just gone through a family crisis. She began to consciously apply the law of energy to her thoughts, feelings, and words. She stepped into her power by radiating to the world her true self by using energy principles from “Fashion for the Soul’. She also made some energy changes in her home and office to create a warm, friendly environment. Today she is in a fulfilling relationship, has a job which pays double that from which she was fired, is happily reunited with her family. Her life has completely turned around. All she did was to make a personal turn around in the way she was applying the law of energy in her life.

If you are not taking the best advantage of applying the law of energy in your life, it’s not too late to let Glenda Feilen put you on the fast track. No one can go back and make a brand new start, but anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. Contact Glenda today at www.ContactGlenda.com

The Excellerated/Money & You(r) Web site is undergoing rejuvenation today. We hope you'll come back soon to see our new look.

While you are waiting, please browse through the many informative articles located in our BLOG archives.

If you need assistance, please email info@excellerated.com or call our office at 619-224-8880.

Worldwide Schedule for our Excellerated Programs

February 21-24, 2008 Oceanside/San Diego, CA USA, Money & You
March 13 - 16, 2008 Houston, Texas, USA Money & You English
March 17 - 24, 2008 Shenzhen, China, Business School for Entrepreneurs (Chinese)
April 3 - 6, 2008 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Money & You
April 12 - 20, 2008, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Business School for Entrepreneurs

It is not that odd. We indeed live in a small world. The first person who started doing research in this area was Stanley Milgram. In his 1967 “small world experiment” the theory of the “6 degrees of separation” was born. This theory states that everybody in the world is connected via 6 steps (read: people). Several other studies between 1967 and today have proven that this is indeed the case.

Let’s also look at this theory from another angle, from a more mathematical one. Let’s assume that everybody has on average 250 contacts (professional and private ones). Each of these 250 contacts also has 250 contacts. If we conservatively assume that you know half of those people yourself then every contact of yours knows 125 people you don’t know yourself. This means that in the second degree you have access to 31.250 people. And that is were the real power of networking is: in the second degree. You don’t only have many more opportunities, you also have a bond of trust via your mutual contact.

This principle of the “6 degrees” that I call the “6 degrees of proximity” (if you can contact anyone in the world via only 6 people you are rather connected than separated, aren’t you?) can also be found on online networking websites like LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), Ecademy (www.ecademy.com) and Xing (www.xing.com). You don’t only see how many people you can actually reach in second degree, but also who these people are.

What is the value of this insight for me? That we can deal with each other in a different way on events, cocktail drinks, online networks and other networking functions. Too often participants of events don’t feel comfortable because they feel like having to “sell” themselves or their organisations (see the article in the previous issue about the difference between selling and networking). And because they don’t like someone else approaching them with this attitude they don’t want to radiate this themselves to others as well.

But if you know that the greatest value of the network is in the second degree, you can deal with people in a different way than “selling”. In your next conversation on a networking event, look and listen for what the other person can do for your network and your network for him. And the other way around: what the network of this person can do for you and you for his network. You won’t only discover more opportunities, but also have another kind of conversation and more enjoyable one !

PS: if you discover that you and the person you are talking to can help each other or can do business with eacht other, don’t miss this opportunity! You don’t have to exclude yourself and only think about the needs of your network instead of your own. However, by starting your conversation with this networking attitude, you can get another kind of conversation with surprising results!

Jan Vermeiren is the Networking Coach and author of the network book “Let’s Connect!” (soon also available on Amazon) and the CD “Let’s Connect at an event”. Jan and his team don’t only give presentations, training courses, workshops and personal coaching concerning networking and referrals, but also advice organisations how to stimulate networking at their events and how to integrate networking in their sales and recruitment strategy. The Networking Coach team works for large international companies like Alcatel, Delta Lloyd Bank, Deloitte, DuPont, EDS, Ernst & Young, IBM and SAP as well as for small companies and freelancers.

Go to www.networking-coach.com to get your FREE networking e-course and a light version of the book.

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."

Rebecca- age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."

Billy - age 4

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they g o out and smell each other."

Karl - age 5

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."

Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."

Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"

Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"

Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

"Lov e is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."

Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."

Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."

Cindy - age 8

"My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."

Clare - age 6

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."

Elaine-age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."

Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."

Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sis t er loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."

Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image)

Karen - age 7

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."

Mark - age 6

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."

Jessica - age 8

And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge.

The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked w ha t he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

"Nothing, I just helped him cry"

When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small prayer for the person who sent you this.

Heavenly Father, please bless all my friends in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! And may their life be full of Your peace, prosperity and power as he/she seeks to have a closer relationship with You. Amen.

Then send it on to five other people, including the one who sent it to you. Within hours you caused a multitude of people to pray for other people. Then sit back and watch the power of God work in your life.

P. S. Five is good, but more is better

The Importance of Business Rules
by
Behnam Ataee, CIO
Dream Warrior Design Group

Regulation is much more than consideration for laws of the land. It involves fine tuning and understanding the business and communication rules behind your E-Commerce startup. These rules are both formal and informal.
For instance, in the late 1980’s, I headed a team of designers and programmers in the creation of a concise, functional and user-friendly data management system.
Our client was a major corporate entity in its field of operation and they desperately needed to upgrade their data management process. We worked on the project for over eighteen (18) months.
By the time it was finished, I felt like a proud father. The outcome was everything promised and more. Subsequently, our code sat on the shelf for the better part of three years until it was ultimately implemented.
Unfortunately, what I had failed to realize were the facts facing me squarely in the face. The Corporate Culture (Organizational Behavior – Cultural Rules as a subset of Business Rules) of the end users did not approve of or want any change. Furthermore, this industry’s legal climate required testing measures far beyond anything that may be considered reasonable in any other business arena.
Most of these issues could have been accommodated within the information design process. For example, we could have (and on hindsight should have) created a user interface that would have been identical to the previous software they were so used to using. Our attempt at enhancing the usability had backfired.
While we asked for user input, we failed to involve those with “informal power” within this large organization or allowed them to test and provide feedback at intermediate points. Rather, the managers performed this function. Additionally, we could have (albeit with great difficulty) brought in State Officials to the process of development by providing constant updates and feedback.
This, as I learned subsequently, tends to increase the time of development by a small factor but decreases the approval process significantly. Ultimately, the project earned regulatory approval and was implemented statewide. Although over fifteen years old, the software is still in use today by one of the largest insurance companies in the United States.
As you can see, understanding the Environment (Regulations/Business Rules) is of paramount importance.
To create concise Business Rules for your E-Commerce, the first step is to ensure a clear understanding of your organization and the response to technology. Analyze the work habits of your company, this will tell you what level of automation you will need for your Web site. Next is your technical understanding, which will provide you with a measure of how much work should be outsourced or training considered. Then you must consider the financial rules you live by. Is your company experiencing Cash Flow issues? If so, you will want to consider when choosing your financial alternatives (i.e. having a viable E-Commerce site so that the funds are deposited into your account directly).
Another consideration is your privacy rules. Many privacy rules reflect a set of "fair information practices" first drafted in the 1970s. Although formulations vary, basic components are:
• Notifying the person (a.k.a. "data subject") that data is being collected.
• Giving the data subject choices about what is collected and how it may be used.
• Limiting what is collected, how it may be used and how long it is retained to what's needed
for the original purpose.
• Ensuring the data is accurate, which includes allowing the data subject to review the data
and make corrections.
• Providing reasonable security from unauthorized access or modifications and ability to
verify compliance through audit trails.
In order to combat SPAM (Junk Mail) on the Internet, please feel free to contact us at Dream Warrior Design Group to learn more.
When thinking of the regulation dimension of your E-Commerce, I strongly recommend that you
• Outline all important business practices particular to your sector that you wish to have implemented for customer dealings.
• Think of your own organization and its strengths and weaknesses. What is necessary
within the E-Commerce system and your organization to create synergy between the
E-Commerce system and your company’s culture.
• Find out about all relevant legal issues that may affect your business practice on and off
the Internet and ensure that the programmers implement these rules within your
E-Commerce system.
• Assign someone to continually keep track of the laws and regulations with regard to your industry and Internet. This person will have to be able to create effective and understandable documentation from which the programmers can modify the E-Commerce system.
• Adhere to and display the privacy rules within your Web site. You must also understand the consequences of your choices.

For example, if your Site clearly states that you will resell people’s information for profit, expect a lot less people to sign up for anything you have to offer.
Regulations (Example Company)
• Only Products that are drop-shipped by vendor are resold
• Vendors are paid weekly
• Immediate payment by customer
• All of our inventory should go through a fulfillment house
• A webmaster should be assigned to handle the site
• An accountant should be assigned to verify and certify payments to vendors
• Customer information is strictly private and for internal use
As you develop proper regulation, you must also pay attention to other dimensions of your developing E-Commerce business.
In order to do so, you must be able to define your company, your product or service, advantages and shortcomings of your offerings and most importantly your audience and target client.
There is a specific set of questions to address. Many of these questions will integrate with the answers you have already provided with regard to regulation.
Go back and look at your business, privacy and financial rules once you have answered the following set of questions:
Purpose Questionnaire:
• What are you offering?
• Who needs it? (target client)
• Who else is selling it?
• How are they selling it?
• Why your product/service and not your competitor’s?
• How would a customer feel while making a purchase?
• How would the customer feel after they have bought it?
• Who would the customer turn to after they have purchased your product?
Purpose Questionnaire (Example Company)
• We sell online pay per use videos, music, games and short animations.
• Our target audience is between the ages of 13 and 30.
• Our largest competitor is Apple Corporation (in music arena).
• The competition uses three sales models: pay per play/pay per volume/membership.
• We are much less expensive in all three areas and we provide more comprehensive content.
• Customer should be able to make the purchase with ease and without unnecessary page changes.
• We provide customers with the means to make the purchase part of their permanent collection
for a nominal fee, and the combination of two fees is still less than the competition for those
who purchase more than 30 songs.
• The customer is assisted in all stages so they can choose, find and download exactly what they seek.
• We have an outsourced customer service center which will be there to assist the consumer
with all their questions regarding download.
Now that the purpose questionnaire has been answered, let us see how the rules might change.
Regulations Modified (Example Company)
• Only Products that are drop-shipped by vendor are resold.
• Vendors are paid weekly.
• Immediate payment by customer.
• Implementation of a membership model is essential thus we will need a membership section
and discounted pricing for members.
• An In-House Customer Service Representative is necessary to handle membership issues.
• All of our inventory should go through a fulfillment house.
• A webmaster should be assigned to handle the site.
• An accountant should be assigned to verify and certify payments to vendors.
• Customer information is strictly private and for internal use.

As you can see, your purpose has a direct effect on the business rules.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments

Dream Warrior Design Group
Telephone: 818.610.3316
7131 Darby Ave Suite 203
Fax: 818.475.5144
Reseda, CA 91335 http://www.dreamwarrior.com

Copyright Dream Warrior Design Group, Inc. 1993 - 2006

Rules Rule
Whether you know it or not, whether or not you wish to admit it, or verbalize it; you operate by business rules. Most times, these rules are so embedded into the business process that most people do not notice them. But they are always there.

It is your primary responsibility to create a written list of these rules and make sure that your team of designers knows what these are and follows them. How your site is designed and programmed is directly impacted by your business rules.

Some examples are:

• Your Privacy Policy
• Your Return Policy
• Credit Card Processing Procedures
• Your Sales and Marketing Approach

Perception is e-Reality

Your Web site is your e-Reality. Users of Internet and World Wide Web know you by your Web presence. Your perception is based solely on the quality of the site. In order to have your e-Reality create an optimum perception, you should consider these key factors:

Menu Design

Your information design is primarily reflected in your menus. Give your customers what they want as quickly as possible. Make sure you don’t force them to click more than three times to get where they want to go (or to what they want to buy).

Color

Design with dramatic colors. You can make compelling choices for setting a mood and still ensure that there is as much contrast as possible, otherwise the reader will develop vision fatigue. You do not want to irritate or tire your visitors in any way. Colors change appearance on different monitors and different platforms, so what looks cool and calm on one monitor may be bright and glaring on another. Especially if your designer is using a PC to design your site, remember that most often (if monitor is not calibrated to print color) windows based software will display everything 10 to 20% darker and 5 to 10% more saturated than it really is so it is important to view your color designs on different computers before saying ok.

Remember: KEEP IT SIMPLE!!

Graphics

Flashy and bold graphics can be a real eye-catcher, but you should avoid large flash graphics as much as possible. You don’t want too much of a good thing. Again, they tend to tire visitor’s eyes or create a distraction from your message.

Layout

Remember, the first thing that a customer sees matters most. It is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL that all important elements you wish to communicate show up in the first screen. Do NOT force your customer to scroll down to get to where they want to go. It is also highly recommended to make sure that the customer does not have to scroll more than a single page length.

Precision systems

Precision is not a word that is often used when your original site concepts are considered. Most people seek to use the traditional solutions for site initiation and propagation. They put up a shopping cart and get down to the business of promoting the site.

Understanding the Viability of your site (how well will it responds to traffic and future expansion plans) is as important as anything you can do for your e-business.

Make sure that your site is modular and the design of the modules and the site are based on precise mathematical models that can optimize your revenue streams and optimize your site for maximum numbers of revenue streams.

To find out more about our patented mathematical models for flow optimization, contact us at Dream Warrior Design Group.

Words to Key Into

• Write up every possible word someone might type into a search engine. Imagine you are new to the subject, not knowing the main words that apply and consider what would be entered.
• Do keyword research. Find out how many people search for every single one of the words you came up with every single day. Choose the ones you want to focus on in your content and keyword placement on your webpage.
• Look over your competitors keywords.
• Repeat steps 1-2 on every page of your website.

Promote for Growth

• Next you will need other websites linking TO you. You should do some research! Sit down and map out all the various ways customers get to you. Brainstorm every possible topic that may relate to your topic without competing. From here, you can define where you want these links to come from.
• Contact the owner of the site and offer to include their link on your site in exchange for putting your link on their site. You could even make your offer more inviting by having an affiliate link from their site to yours so they make a commission on sales that may come as a result of their link referral. Make sure your designer is using proper link management techniques. Often, if the links are not properly managed, the two links (from you to them and vice versa) may cancel each other.
• Another way to get links back to your site is by writing articles and submitting them to article submission sites. This approach could have a viral effect since your article would be available for posting content on other websites too.
• When you post in forums, be sure to include a signature line that includes your link to be displayed after your post. By having your link in the signature line, you receive yet another link back to your site.
• Create your own blog. In your blog, include your website link. You can also include your autoresponder subscribe form here as well.
• While we are on the subject of blogs, as long as you are going to have people visit there, follow all the same rules for search engine visibility there. Use targeted keywords in writing your content. Be sure you have placed your keyword strategically on the page. Link from
your website to your blog and vice versa.
• Find blogs that interest you in any topic and post relevant comments to those blogs. Always include your signature line with your URL so any time you communicate online, your website URL is included.

Trackers find the Prize

Ensure that your ISP has powerful statistical analysis tools for your site. You should employ analytical sites as much as possible. There are many such sites for further analysis of strengths and defects of various sites, please email us for information (cservice@dreamwarrior.com).

Intelligence and surveillance

Keeping track of what your customers and competitors are doing. Understanding their viewing trends is essential. Market intelligence can be the difference between leadership and being a follower in any given market segment.

Super-leveraging

Beyond leveraging your customer base as a source of referrals and using your promotional materials as a source for new customers, there is super-leveraging.

Super-leveraging describes the process of using your potential customers’ gateway interactions to make them a customer. For example, you can exchange your customer list with other businesses that can use you as a gateway.

To learn more about the process of recognizing and methods for using gateway interactions please feel free to come and visit us at Dream Warrior Design Group’s Web site.

Dream Warrior Group
Telephone: 818.610.3316
7131 Darby Avenue #203
Reseda CA, 91335
http://www.dreamwarrior.com

Copyright Dream Warrior Group, Inc. 1993 - 2008

Then one day, a fat kid shows up at the playground. While everyone knows it’s a private playground and admittance is strictly controlled, no one knows where the fat kid came from or how he got in. Nonetheless, the fat kid’s there.

Then the fat kid walks over to the teeter-totter and sits down. The fat kid’s end of the tetter-totter slams to the ground as the other end skyrockets up; tossing all those on the high end off. The name of the fat kid is risk.

DON’T BLAME THE FAT KID
THE ROLE OF RISK IN FREE MARKETS

When the dot.com bubble burst in 2000, it was the largest collapse of a speculative bubble since the Nikkei, Japan’s stock market, crashed in 1990. The Nikkei had plummeted from its high of 38,957 down to 7,607, dropping 80% over thirteen years and setting in motion deflationary forces still in effect today.

It was the unexpected return of deflation that spooked Alan Greenspan and US central bank kreditmeisters to open up the floodgates of credit in 2002. After the Great Depression receded, central bankers had come to believe that unlimited fiat credit had forever banished deflation. But Japan proved them wrong.

When Japan’s economy continued to succumb to deflation during the 1990s, Japan’s central bank desperately slashed its interest rates to zero in 1999. But even this radical infusion of cheap credit couldn’t reverse the cancer-like deflation eroding the Japanese economy. US monetary authorities, however, believed Japan had done too little too late.

In 2002, the US Federal Reserve Board of Governors wrote:
We conclude that Japan’s sustained deflationary slump was very much unanticipated by Japanese policymakers and observers alike, and that this was a key factor in the authorities’ failure to provide sufficient stimulus to maintain growth and positive inflation… we draw the general lesson from Japan’s experience that when inflation and interest rates have fallen close to zero, and the risk of deflation is high, stimulus–both monetary and fiscal–should go beyond the levels conventionally implied by forecasts of future inflation and economic activity.”

Ten years after the Nikkei collapsed, the US dot.com bubble also collapsed and Alan Greenspan and the US Federal Reserve were to get their own turn at the wheel of fortune. Perhaps they were right, perhaps Japan had waited too long, perhaps stimulus—both monetary and fiscal—beyond the levels conventionally implied by forecasts of future inflation and economic activity would produce better results.

In 2002 as the US economy contracted in the wake of the dot.com collapse and slid into recession, Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve Board moved decisively and quickly, slashing US interest rates to 1 %; and the crisis of deflation feared by Greenspan and the US kreditmeisters did not materialize—but another crisis did

ALAN’S GARGANTUAN BLUNDER

Although 1 % credit from the US Federal Reserve staved off a potentially lethal wave of global deflation in 2002, monetary and fiscal stimulus beyond the levels conventionally implied by forecasts of future inflation and economic activity caused a collapse of credit markets that is today threatening the underpinnings of credit-based finance and global capital markets; and, it did so by inadvertently banning market risk for five years.

Between 2002 and 2007, risk went into hiding as central banks flooded the markets with cheap money; allowing capital flows to mask losses while boosting asset values to record levels. Billions of dollars of central bank credit translated into trillions of dollars of leveraged bets creating bubbles in all asset classes—real estate, stocks, commodities, and bonds.

But global market risks, temporarily hidden by cheap credit, have now reasserted themselves with a vengeance. With many AAA rated bonds now suddenly worthless, buyers of Wall Street’s now suspect wares have deserted the credit markets in droves. The rush for returns has been replaced by a rush to safety, reflecting the sentiment penned by the 19th century humorist Mark Twain:

I am more concerned about the return of my money than the return on my money.

Risk is back and no matter how often the playground supervisor tries to reassure us, we know the playground is no longer safe. Even the big kids are getting hurt. The fat kid’s back and so is the whiff of deflation.

RISK IS IN THE HOUSE

LIBOR’s getting high
As central bankers try
To calm the markets down
But risk is back in town

Risk is in the house YO!
Risk is in the house

Credit lines are drawn
Where’s the money gone
Spreads are growing fast
Markets sucking gas

Risk is in the house YO!
Risk is in the house

Triple A means squat
Commercial paper rots
Monolines are down
‘Cause risk is back in town

Risk is in the house YO!
Risk is in the house

Risk is going ‘round
Can you hear the sound
As tranches hit the ground
‘Cause risk is back in town

The bubble bloated assets of the kreditmeisters, e.g. real estate, stocks, and bonds, are now about to disappear into the maw of the bankers’ resurgent balrog. Deflation, an increasing cycle of decreasing demand, is now again waiting in the wings.

In the coming months and years, safety will command the market’s highest premiums. Traditionally cash and government securities, these havens will prove to be wanting in the troubled times ahead.

…the US Treasury’s 10-year Note lost 20% of its value compared to an ounce of gold since August 20 [sic 6 months]
Gary Dorsch, Global Money Trends Magazine, January 2, 2008

Fiat credit, fiat money, fiat government IOUs will offer but temporary shelter in wealth’s flight to safety; and, as deflation follows in recession’s wake, the Kreditmeisters’ stimulus-- monetary and fiscal--beyond the levels conventionally implied by forecasts of future inflation and economic might well deliver us into even more dire circumstances.

In these times, playing with money is the same as playing with fire. The leverage of debt-based fiat money has yielded multiple returns in the past. In the future, the dangers of doing so will be obvious. The precious metals—gold and silver—the very antithesis of fiat money will offer both the greatest leverage and the greatest safety in the days ahead.

Note: I will be speaking at Gold Standard University Live in Dallas, TX, February 11-17 presented by Professor Antal Fekete. This is a unique opportunity to hear Professor Fekete who is an expert on gold and its role in monetary matters. Some scholarships are available. Details are available at www.professorfekete.com .

Darryl Robert Schoon
www.survivethecrisis.com
www.drschoon.com

The preferred diet of most Davos attendees is a fusion inspired composition of individual, government, and corporate debt combined with a free-market frisee of lax regulatory oversight held together by a roux of central bank credit that dissolves instantly when paired with matching counter-party risk.

The January 2008 gathering in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum is similar to the 1957 meeting in Palermo, Sicily of American and Sicilian Cosa Nostra crime families who met to discuss mutual problems and opportunities. The notable difference being that those in the Cosa Nostra live outside the law; while those at the World Economic Forum in Davos make them.

Those in Davos, however, share with the Cosa Nostra a common problem—the success of both depends on inherently unstable systems. The Cosa Nostra model is based on violence and greed which is both its strength and weakness. Capitalism, the source of wealth for those in Davos, is based on greed and leveraged debt, a combination as powerful and effective as the system of the Cosa Nostra—and just as unstable.

WHEN SYSTEMS FAIL

Unstable systems can function for years without serious problems. But over time, unstable systems will always break down. We are witness to such a systemic failure today. Global credit markets are slowing and contracting. The capitalist system responsible for economic expansion and wealth is in disarray.

Debt, in capitalist systems, is a wondrous device. That is, until it can’t be paid back. Under capitalism, credit fuels expansion but it does so at a cost. As capitalism expands, credit becomes debt and the greater the expansion, the greater the debt.

EXPANSION BEGETS DEMISE

Capitalism’s fatal flaw is apparent only in its later stages. As capitalism matures, its inherent systemic instability manifests. The very expansion of capitalism sets in motion its demise. The Achilles heel of capitalism is its perpetual need to expand.

Only perpetual capital expansion can create sufficient capital flows to service and retire previously created debts, the amounts of which are always increasing because of the accruing compound interest being charged. While any slowdown is cause for worry, a contraction bodes far worse.

FEAR IN DAVOS
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

One year ago, the mood at Davos was one of quiet, almost smug, confidence. The on-going economic expansion appeared to be endless, the profits of investment bankers skimmed off the top of productive enterprise was greater than ever. Private equity, the investment banker’s equivalent of flipping real estate, was the hottest game in town.

It is no longer. Today in Davos, the scent of Armani is now mixed with the acrid smell of anxiety produced by falling markets and uncertain futures. Concern has replaced confidence. The major phernome in Davos today is fear.

WHEN WEST MEETS EAST

A year ago, the confidence of those gathered in Davos was based on the belief that if an economic slowdown occurred, it would be offset by (1) the expansion of Asian economies and (2) the ability of global markets to decouple from slowing American demand. Both assumptions have proved themselves wrong.

The recent expansion of Asia was made possible by the debt-based consumption of American consumers. Now that America’s consumers have run out of cash and credit, the economies of Asia—China, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. will slow. When capital markets slow, you know what happens; and, if you don’t, you soon will.

WHEN CREDIT MEETS SAVINGS

As capitalism expanded from the west to the east, western bankers hoped their success would be repeated. They were wrong. Asians responded to the new paradigm and their new found wealth by saving, not spending.

Western bankers were dismayed by this unexpected reaction. If Asian economies continued to save instead of spend, it would slow the expanding juggernaut of capitalism; and if capital expansion slows, like bicycles, capitalism doesn’t do as well at slow speeds.

CHINA AND GOLD

As western bankers run out of markets to exploit, leaving behind tapped out and overextended borrowers, e.g. consumers, governments, corporations etc., it was hoped Asia would provide the new horizon needed for capital markets to expand.

Asia instead will be a conundrum to the west. Not the surrogate state, militarily and economically, that Japan is in danger of becoming, China will prove to be less amenable to the western bankers hoping to economically colonize the last great prize of imperialism’s global puzzle.

While Chinese spend, they also, as do most Asians, save. They are currently holding $1.2 trillion in foreign savings—and this ingrained tendency to save will not give western bankers the acceleration they need to keep capital markets expanding as western markets contract.

At Davos, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director of the IMF, urged emerging economies with sound balance sheets to run fiscal deficits in order to offset a slowdown by US consumers. Will Asian economies choose to encumber their balance sheets in order to save the west’s capital markets? It is not likely.

Asians, in times of fiscal stress, prefer the safety of gold to credit and debt; and, although gold is no longer viewed as a mainstream investment in the west, gold still retains its traditional appeal in the east:

In Caishikou Department Store, a popular physical gold dealer in Beijing, more than 100 people lined up to purchase bullion for the Lunar Year of the Mouse on Nov. 22, the first trading day of the products. More than 200 kilograms of the gold bars were sold within 1.5 hours. Moreover, the total subscription amounted to two tons.
Xinhua, January 19, 2008

Gold will be the choice of Chinese seeking safety and profit in the coming year. India, another large emerging Asian economy, values gold as much, if not more, than China. This does not bode well for bankers in the west.

Davos will not be the same next year. If you’re planning on going, be sure to take some air freshener.

Darryl Robert Schoon
www.survivethecrisis.com
www.drschoon.com

Note: I will be speaking at Gold Standard University Live in Dallas, TX, February 11-17 which is presented by Professor Antal Fekete. This is a unique opportunity to hear Professor Fekete who is an expert on gold and its role in monetary matters. Details are available at www.professorfekete.com .

We are locked into thought patterns that were formed during our compulsory attendance at life’s, “School of Hard Knocks”. In places where we already have one of these thought patterns installed, it is almost impossible to learn anything new. The new idea can not get into the place where it will fit because that place is already occupied. For example, sometimes we try and merge the old pattern with the new into an unhappy marriage. The old ideas are often locked in place by pain or painful emotion, giving one a mindset that seems to be carved in stone. In areas where we have one of these grooves in our thinking we can not learn, grow or change. We try to overlay our old ideas on the new ones without fully examining and discarding the old ones first. When we get under stress we either revert back to the old ideas and patterns or we become paralyzed with indecision, because the two ideas can not be reconciled.

For example; if school was arduous and stressful there will be many areas that inhibit our success in business and life later on.

Example 1: Joe was teased unmercifully at school as a youngster. This ruined his concentration, made him very unpopular and his grades suffered. Of course that earned him a beating from his dad who believed that you can and should try to knock some sense into children’s heads. In later years, whenever Joe had to study something he felt scared and humiliated before he even began to study it. He concluded he had an unsolvable study problem. With this conclusion he limited himself to work that required little or no book learning. This put a considerable cramp in his lifestyle. He had to depend on others for many things, for example accounting. This in itself would not have been so bad, but he felt inadequate to even oversee the work. This left him at the mercy of unscrupulous accountants and employees. Working hard but not succeeding eventually Joe gave up being in business and took a job where he did not have to deal with any of headaches.

Example 2: Mary had a fear of offending others that stemmed from an abusive childhood where any hint of self willed action was severely punished by her overprotective parents. This resulted in her having a very shy and timid personality. Mary would take no action that she thought might cause an upset. She opened a flower shop with 2 employees whom she relied upon to make all the decisions for her. This worked for awhile, but they also made decisions about how much they should be paid and were rather generous with the flowers to the point the shop rapidly became insolvent. Mary observed what was going on, but could not make herself say no to them. Fortunately she married a fellow who could and did say no. This action helped reverse the situation. However, Mary felt dreadful when her employees became upset, therefore causing her to nag her husband for being so harsh with the employees. Of course this made him feel she did not appreciate his efforts to save her bacon and their marriage suffered. Her driving need to liked and safe from attack made her quite incompetent to lead or even allow another to lead in a decisive manner. Ironically, due to her obsessive desire to placate others she alienated the one person who loved her the most and was most important to her happiness.

Example 3: Colin through his successes as an athlete had learned that you can always succeed if you just overwhelm the opposition with more effort and forcefulness. This worked very well in sports, but was not as successful selling insurance. When he saw he was not reaching the level of success he desired he worked harder and harder, longer hours, pushing himself more and more. As he did this he became more and more forceful with his customers causing them to avoid him as much as possible. Colin refused to quit because he KNEW he could do anything if he just worked hard enough and put more effort in it. Eventually he suffered a heart attack and was forced to quit.

What do these people all have in common?

In each of the examples described above, none of these people could change. Their fixed ideas prevented them from learning and successfully making a change. Their ideas were so engraved they defied inspection, besides they had worked before, so they were “givens”. A “given” is an idea one does not inspect because it is so much a part of one’s thinking that one never even considers it. You just KNOW its right. In any area where one can not seem to grow or improve, despite heroic efforts, it’s most likely there are a crop of “givens” that need to be found and inspected.
This original text and more can be found in the book by Enid Vien titled, In Search of the Golden Nuggets

Dynamis Coaching and Clearing

Dynamis coaching and clearing is based on the idea that you really do know what you are doing and thinking, you’ve just simply buried the knowledge. In times of stress, loss or moments of anguish you came to some conclusions and probably learned some lessons that are no longer appropriate to the circumstances. From these conclusions and lessons you formed principles to operate by. They probably worked for you at the time, but in examining them you will find they are definitely working against you now. They have become blocks, barriers, or invisible ceilings. They’ve become so much a part of your operating principles that you can’t put your finger on them. Part of the function of a Dynamis Clearing Practitioner is to help you find, uncover and re-examine those old lessons, conclusions and “givens”.

www.dynamism.org