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The United States has developed a new weapon that destroys people but leaves buildings standing. It's called the stock market.

Can You Still Come up with money-making ideas?

Back in 80s and early 90s when I was grossing a million a year with my publishing firm, it was pretty easy to produce profitable publications. We had a circulation of nearly 40,000 and a very successful newsletter.  Now, nearly all of the ideas we came up with are being offered free on the internet.

The internet has been a boon and a challenge to entrepreneurs.  Some ideas, which still perplex me (such as Twitter & Facebook) generate enormous amounts of cash.  PayPal was another good idea, which reaped a huge bonanza for its founder.

Throughout the years, my ‘inner circle’ have brainstormed for ideas in which to make money without a lot of investment or government licensing hassles…it’s been tough as most everything is easily duplicated by others (the old 80/20 rule).

It does seem that schlock sells in America.  If something is stupid or outrageous, it has a market.  Like many mainstream companies, it’s easier to take an older, successful product and dress it up with a new twist as outlined in the story below! Also, check out the report on the underground economy.

Happy hunting.

New Monopoly Game Due for Release

Hasbro has unveiled the design of the new 75th anniversary edition of their classic board game, Monopoly, set to hit stores in fall of 2010. "Monopoly: Revolution Edition" is slick and round instead of dull and square, with debit cards and an ATM instead of paper money and a banker, clear plastic representations of the classic tokens (bye-bye, little boot!), and clips of popular songs (like Rihanna’s "Umbrella," Daniel Powter’s "Bad Day," and Beyonce's "Crazy in Love") that play after certain actions.

>>>NOTE:  I invented the Middle Class Squeeze game, but have yet to find a producer for it…would also make a good TV game show!

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Made in USA-New Database Links Consumers

If you’re like me, you’re tired of seeing our store shelves crammed with foreign made goods.  Have American-made goods faded into obscurity?  I’m also tired of seeing those profits going outside our country; no wonder why jobs have faded here.

Launched in July of ’09, there is a new free database that offers consumers a way of connecting with American manufacturers.  You can help recycle American dollars by buying USA at:

www.MadeinUSA.com

What does AIG stand for? “Ain’t I Greedy!”

As the economy tanks and unemployment jumps, the "underground economy" option is looking pretty good to many Americans.

Making Money in the Underground Economy…the Underground Capitalist

As more folks get squeezed by unemployment, taxes, and a rising cost of living, (inflation, thanks to our government) they seek alternative means of generating revenue.  The cost of starting a business is hampered by governmental costs and regulation and forget most franchises (buying a job) as they are too pricey for most.

There are many businesses one can start without much cost.  A mobile auto detailing business, window washing service, mobile locksmith, computer consultant, and more.

Of course, most folks immediately think of an illegal business such as drug smuggling, tobacco smuggling, booze or porn.  However, the mainstream person is simply looking for a way to generate money to pay their bills without the hassle of a full-blown business startup.

“Also invisible in the statistics are people who work off the books. No one knows the size of the underground economy. This year the Internal Revenue Service expects to collect $114 billion less than it should in taxes on legal but unreported activities. That would make the licit underground economy alone worth some $600 billion (equivalent to 10% of GDP). But economists and sociologists who've looked into it agree that it could be considerably larger, especially taking into account illegal activity. What's more, says sociologist Bruce Wiegand at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater, the underground also includes a lot of people who are making ) good money. Wiegand, author of Off the Books: A Theory and Critique of the Underground Economy, has been studying this phenomenon since 1979. ''The underground economy has differentiated and expanded,'' says he. ''It is moving up into the working and middle class and going global as well.”

The underground or "black" economy is rapidly rising, and the fault is mainly due to government policies.

Here is the evidence. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) released a report last week concluding that 7.7 percent of U.S. households, containing at least 17 million adults, are unbanked (i.e. those who do not have bank accounts), and an "estimated 17.9 percent of U.S. households, roughly 21 million, are underbanked" (i.e., those who rely heavily on nonbank institutions, such as check cashing and money transmitting services). As an economy becomes richer and incomes rise, the normal expectation is that the proportion of the unbanked population falls and does not rise as is now happening in the United States.

RESOURCES:

27-page PDF on Underground Capitalism

http://mises.org/etexts/underground.pdf

http://livesafely.org/financial-freedom/underground-economy-work-under-the-table/

http://diydollars.com/diy-life/the-underground-economy/

Don’t forget our Poor Man’s Recession Survival Kit…includes 100-page PDF on 45 Ways to Make a Living Without a Job.  To purchase, go to our site.

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Amazing Uses for WD-40

   Like the formula for Coca Cola, the recipe for WD-40 remains a closely guarded secret and it’s an American product, which can be found in three out of four American households.  A million cans of this useful product are produced each week.  Here are some other ways to use this product:

·        Clean dried glue from virtually any hard surface.  Simply spray on the spot, wait 30-seconds and wipe clean with a damp cloth.

·        Remove old decals in the same manner – spray, wait 30-seconds and wipe clean

·        Got stains in your carpet?  Spray, wait a couple of minutes, then use your regular carpet cleaner or gently cleanse with a sponge and warm, soapy water.

·        Use WD-40 to clean toilet bowls instead of expensive cleaners.  Spray into the bowl, wait a few seconds and clean with a brush; helps dissolve gunk and lime

·        Make your old BBQ look new again by spraying it liberally with WD-40.  Wait a minute or so and clean with a wire brush – use only when your grill is cool.

·        Renew faded plastic lawn furniture & bring back its shine by spraying onto the surface and wipe clean.

·        Keep wasps from building nests under your eaves by misting some WD-40 under all the eaves.  It will block the wasps from building a nest again.

·        Spray it on your fishing lures.  Not only will it protect the lures from corrosion, but it actually attracts fish by disguising human odor.

·        Remove burrs from your horse’s mane or tail without tearing its hair out or having to cut it off (my wife swears by this).  Just spray some on & you’ll be able to slide the burrs right off.

Get 2000 more uses for WD-40 at their site:  http://www.wd40.com/

More Ways to Use Duct Tape

   One of our favorite programs is the Canadian TV production, The Red Green Show (available on many US PBS stations).  One of Red’s (Steve Smith) favorite handyman tools is duct tape, which he uses in some pretty crazy ways.  Hey, if the women don’t find you handsome, at least let them find you handy!

·        Catch pesky flies by rolling off a few foot-long strips.  Hang them from rafters as flypaper.

·        Repair a vacuum hose which has cracked

·        Wrap holiday gifts with duct tape; don’t even bother with gift wrapping paper.

·        Repair a tail light; it will last until you get to the auto shop

·        Make a temporary roof shingle-just wrap strips around a sheet of plywood you’ve cut to size and wedge it into place.

·        Of course, all Canadians know this one…add life to a hockey stick by wrapping the bottom of the stick.

·        Repair a hole in your tent; stick on both sides of the tear.

Duct tape isn’t recommended (as some have thought) for removing warts & it’s not recommend for repairing dryer ducts.  You can visit the 3-M site for other solutions related to the large variety of products they carry.  (3-M is another US company which even has a link where you can submit your product ideas; unusual to say the least).

http://www.scotchbrand.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/ScotchBrand/Scotch/Solutions/Directory/?WT.ac=topnav_how-to

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News Briefs & Roundup

Job losses from Great Recession about to get worse

WASHINGTON – Job losses during the Great Recession have been huge and they're about to get bigger.

When the Labor Department releases the January unemployment report Friday, it will also update its estimate of jobs lost in the year that ended in March 2009. The number is expected to rise by roughly 800,000, raising the number of jobs shed during the recession to around 8 million.

The new data will help illustrate the scope of the jobs crisis. Analysts think the economy might generate 1 million to 2 million jobs this year. And they say it will take at least three to four years for the job market to return to anything like normal.

"It's going to take a long time to dig out of this hole," said Julia Coronado, senior U.S. economist at BNP Paribas.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100205/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy

Sidebar:  According to the Census Bureau, growth in home workers declined.  According to Sylvia Hewlett, president of the Center for Work-Life Policy, flex time employees usually work alternative schedules and from their own home but numbers show a drop since December of 2007 as more workers felt they needed to be at the office in order to demonstrate they were indispensable.

A unique feature of this recession is how damaging it has been to the nation's middle class, driving its members further and further away from the American Dream and, in some cases, directly into poverty.

President Obama, in his remarks to Senate Democrats on Wednesday, pointed out that the middle class was hurting even before the recession. "Part of the reason people are feeling anxious right now, it's not just because of this current crisis -- they've been going through this for 10 years. They've been working and not seeing a raise. Their costs have been going up, their spouses going to the workforce -- they work as hard as they can. They're barely keeping their heads above water. They're trying to figure out how to retire. They're seeing more and more of their costs on health care dumped in their lap. College tuition skyrockets.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20100204/cm_huffpost/450045

http://www.worklifepolicy.org/

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The Deficit: How to Protect Yourself

What do these budget deficits mean for you and your finances?

The federal government is expected to borrow $1.6 trillion this year, or about $15,000 for every household in the country.

Over the next 10 years it's expected to borrow a total of $8.5 trillion. And the government was already deeply in debt to begin with.

Deficits are certainly not always bad for the economy. And it makes sense for Uncle Sam to borrow heavily in a crisis, like now. But these figures are enormous. And they are expected stay big well down the road. The Obama administration forecasts deficits of $1 trillion in 2020. for important tips, go here:

http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/108748/the-deficit-how-to-protect-yourself?mod=taxes-advice_strategy

SIDEBAR

The average family can longer afford to support government debt!

Today, ALG President Bill Wilson condemned the U.S. House of Representatives for voting to increase the national debt ceiling by nearly $2 trillion, saying "the American people are under absolutely no obligation to borrow yet more money to pay for Congress' unsustainable level of spending that threatens the nation with true default."

"No family could sustain itself in such a manner, nor can any nation which robs from future generations to purchase temporary, illusory prosperity," Wilson explained. "It is both immoral and profoundly foolish."

Even college students, facing sky high (overpriced) tuition hikes have been forced to turn to college food banks to sustain themselves!

The final vote in favor of the debt increase was 217 to 212.

"The House has once again voted to kick the can down the road instead of bringing the nation's finances into proper order," Wilson said, adding, "The House has now voted to permanently shackle the American people to a mountain of debt that cannot be paid back, further pushing the nation along the road to financial Armageddon."

Moody's has warned that the United States' Triple-A debt rating could be in jeopardy "if the current upward trend in government debt were to continue and become irreversible.

www.getliberty.org

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That’s it for this week’s edition of the Poor Man Bulletin.  If you’re worried about the Mayan calendar prediction of the world’s end in 2012, do not worry, scientists say nothing will happen.

Yours for better living,

Bruce “The Poor Man”

http://www.poormansurvival.com

First, it was In God We Trust;

Then it was in Gold We Trust;

Then, it was in Oil We Trust;

Then, it became the Information Economy We Trust;

Then, it was the Credit Markets We Trusted…and finally, it’s

Back to In God We Trust!

--Bruce David

Is Hiding Your Social Security Number Worth It?

Consumers who have spent hours locking up their passports, shredding their billing statements and filing away their tax returns may soon learn they’ve wasted a great deal of time. Their efforts to shield themselves from identity theft by guarding their Social Security numbers are being undermined by government officials and social networking sites. More at:

http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/rip-offs/should-you-bother-hiding-your-social-security-number/?cid=1108

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Oh & by the way, Ed Begley sent me an email yesterday about the start of his new season… LET THE COMPOST FLY!

Actor and environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr. and wife Rachelle are back with new adventures, new friends and a to do list that would make Al Gore proud –

www.PlanetGreen.com

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Typical heavy handed government…fast food is next!

Several states and the District of Columbia are tracking down smokers who buy cheaper cigarettes out of their jurisdictions and have even begun tax-collection procedures that can end in liens put against the offender's property.

Ohio and Pennsylvania have been particularly aggressive in trying to collect money from smokers who dodge local tobacco taxes by purchasing cigarettes online, from Indian reservations or from states with lower taxes.

In the District, the Office of Tax and Revenue has mailed notices demanding that cigarette buyers pay the D.C. sales tax on their past purchases via the Consumer Use tax return - an order that, if ignored, can provide the legal basis to seize a person's home.  Read the rest of the story here…

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/19/dc-smokes-out-tax-scofflaws/

 Your Feedback

I hope you were tongue in cheek when you commented about the French not having a word for "entrepreneur". I am an entrepreneur in France myself and the government has recently made it much easier to set up a small business.  Some say the idea is to reduce the numbers of unemployed and also if we fail we’re not entitled to unemployment benefits….

We don't have Grammar or secondary schools.  Children go to 'College' from 11 to 15/16 and then ‘Lycée’ till 18/19.  Those not clever enough for lycée usually go towards a more practical education or apprentiship.  The first year of university is rubbish because anyone who has a baccalaureate at the end of lycée can go on any course they want. The exams at the end of the first year weed out the no hopers and from the second year onwards real students can get down to serious work.

The health system does function well but there are one or two cracks beginning to show.  Also if you have a very, very rare illness that is not on the ‘list’ it’s not easy to get the treatment you require within the system.

My husband works under the Ministry of Culture in a monument, he’s not a civil servant himself, but the ones who work with him are supposed to carry out orders to the letter, that is their function. The system is not at all up to date on the ideas of good leadership so there is a lot of misunderstanding and  there is a hell of a lot of waste.

It’s only in the last couple of years that house owners could ‘remortgage’ their properties, I don’t think the idea caught on.

A lot of the ordinary people being declared bankrupt here were in debt because they weren’t earning enough to live on, nothing to do with expensive lifestyles, big cars etc.  They just borrowed to pay the household bills.

That’s my view on things here.  I’m not an economist or anything.

Angela

Well-Paying Jobs-Our Biggest Export

Our Precarious Prosperity

   Since the late 1980s my op/ed pieces blasting Wall Street policies of offshoring US jobs have appeared in USAToday, the Wall Street Journal, Crain’s and other business publications.

Decades of sinking real wages for the middle and working classes and increasing disparity between rich and poor, have left Americans more economically polarized than ever before.  Wall Street has shown utter disdain for the consumer class.  The government hasn’t done much better and this has led to…

The federal deficit for this year alone is four times last year's record. The official US debt is exploding. Bill Gross says it will be 100% of US GDP within 5 years.

At 100% of GDP...even mainstream economists believe the situation will be irreversible...interest payments will be more than the US can afford.

Obama may have been handed the keys to GM…but the old jalopy is worn out. The French say the whole US economic model is ready for the junkyard.

China has the biggest pile of Treasury bonds in the world – $768 billion of them. That’s 768 billion reasons to worry. Because each T-bond is denominated in dollars…and while everything else is going up, dollars are going down. Yesterday, the dollar touched a new low against the euro for this year – at $1.42.

Tim Geithner is in China, hat in hand, like a major debtor called into the bank president’s office. Geithner, of course, has no choice. He has to go…and defend the USA.

The US government is less concerned with protecting foreign lenders than it is with getting the US economy back to its old E-Z money ways. Cheap money is what people want. Cheap money is what the feds are trying to give them.

And now, the “French model” for managing an economy is the envy of the world. At least, that’s what you might think if you read The Economist.

What’s the ‘French model?’ It’s a system where the state meddles heavily in the economy. Health care, education and public transport are all government enterprises. And political cronies, rather than entrepreneurs, run key businesses.

Heck the French don’t even have a word for “entrepreneur,” as George W. Bush pointed out.

It seems to work fairly well. The health care system functions fairly well – while taking a smaller percentage of GDP than in the US. The trains run on time (except when there is a strike). Grammar and secondary schools are probably better than in the US; the universities are probably worse. And many of France’s private businesses are world leaders.

Despite an effort by mainstream TV news to report ‘positive signs,’ things are not getting better for the average American.  You can’t fix the economy by overspending – we must get people back to work before they will buy anything major again…if you have cash right now, you can name your price on many things including cars and homes!

The rest of us will, out of necessity, become even more frugal…which in itself, is not a bad thing.  Affluenza has afflicted Americans for many decades.

So what do you do?  The man or woman on the street; perhaps with kids to feed and the need to keep a roof over your head?  Try these suggestions.

Start from where you are.
Keep informed.
Connect with others.
Support local businesses, politicians, non-government organizations (NGO's) that help.
Write letters to make corporations more accountable.
Research your company's pension fund investments.
Promote biking, walking and public transportation.
Simplify your life and consumerism.
Develop new "health and wealth" indicators for your city.
Create and support stakeholder businesses that draw on the region's resources.
Strategize to take away the "person" status of corporations

Protecting Yourself in Times of Deflation

Bruce David, the PoorMan

http://www.poormansurvival.com

Link for free bonus reports at end of article

We are now battling deflation ... and it is potentially a much greater financial storm threatening our economy, our wealth, and even our way of life.

Already, the destruction of American wealth over the past 18 months alone is of historic proportions — a stunning $20 trillion has gone up in smoke. But it's not over yet ...

Corporate America is not putting its money where its mouth is ... in fact, just the opposite is true ...

• Directors and officers of public companies SOLD $353 million worth of their own stock in April — that's the fastest pace of insider selling since this bear market began.
• Insider sales outnumber buys by a huge 8-to-1 margin! Why else would they so aggressively dump shares ... unless they're convinced NO lasting recovery is coming any time soon?

• A third wave of devastating foreclosures is still intensifying, with more than four million home loans worth $717 billion now in distress — UP +60% from a year ago.
• Commercial real estate is just beginning to roll over. On top of the $800 billion in residential real estate losses recorded already, banks may suffer almost $700 billion in additional losses on commercial loans too before this crisis is over.

Overview of Deflation

In economics, deflation refers to a general reduction in the level of prices below zero percent year-on-year inflation. Deflation should not be confused with a temporary fall in prices; instead, it is a sustained fall in prices that occurs when the inflation rate passes down below zero percent.

In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the annual inflation rate falls below zero percent, resulting in an increase in the real value of money — a negative inflation rate. This should not be confused with disinflation, a slow-down in the inflation rate (i.e. when the inflation decreases, but still remains positive).  Inflation reduces the real value of money over time, conversely, deflation increases the real value of money.

Currently, mainstream economists generally believe that deflation is a problem in a modern economy because of the danger of a deflationary spiral.  Deflation is also linked with recessions and with the Great Depression. Additionally, deflation also prevents monetary policy from stabilizing the economy because of a mechanism called the liquidity trap.

Because the price of goods is falling, consumers have an incentive to delay purchases and consumption until prices fall further, which in turn reduces overall economic activity - contributing to the deflationary spiral.

Since this idles capacity, investment also falls, leading to further reductions in aggregate demand. This is the deflationary spiral. An answer to falling aggregate demand is stimulus, either from the central bank, by expanding the money supply, or by the fiscal authority to increase demand, and to borrow at interest rates which are below those available to private entities.

Deflation is generally regarded negatively, as it causes a transfer of wealth from borrowers and holders of illiquid assets, to the benefit of savers and of holders of liquid assets and currency. In this sense it is the opposite of inflation (or in the extreme, hyperinflation), which is a tax on currency holders and lenders (savers) in favor of borrowers and short term consumption. In modern economies, deflation is caused by a collapse in demand (usually brought on by high interest rates), and is associated with recession and (more rarely) long term economic depressions.

Some economists believe the United States may be currently experiencing deflation as part of the financial crisis of 2007–2009. Consumer prices dropped 1 percent in October, 2008, largely due to a steep decline in energy prices. This was the largest one-month fall in prices in the US since at least 1947. That record was again broken in November, 2008 with a 1.7% decline. In response, the Federal Reserve decided to continue cutting interest rates, down to a near-zero range as of December 16, 2008.  Some economists believe over the next two years deflation in the United States may lead to a deflationary spiral that could bring the U.S. into the next Great Depression.  Economist Nouriel Roubini predicted that the United States would enter a deflationary recession, and coined the term "stag-deflation" to describe it.  It is the opposite of stagflation, which was the main fear during the spring and summer of 2008.

This double- edged sword favors those with an income, who do not own toxic or negative assets. People with steady jobs like Government Officials, Police, the Military, Teachers, and people who own debt free businesses, running at a profit.  All you need to do is to save, rather than spend, and slowly join this group of people who should be able to invest in the new cheaper homes on the market, and even stocks that will bottom out in price at some stage.
 
So how do you start benefiting from Deflation?
 
Make sure you simply save, and go bargain hunting. Life will feel like you can afford that large house, because the price yesterday has dropped to the price of a small affordable house today. The key is a having a steady income, whilst you save to invest in real assets that will become undervalued, considering experts admit property has been overvalued by as much as 40- 80% in some countries like the UK, Spain and the USA.

Be as liquid as possible and debt-free.  Save cash, silver and gold whenever possible. Click on the URL I set up to grab two free PDF reports on Deflation and Gold and Silver ownership.

Also, I updated our site this week to add more resources on legitimate work-at-home sites.  Click on the JobResources at: http://poormansurvival.com 

Get two FREE PDFs-Deflation Report+GoldnSilver

http://tinyurl.com/deflation-gold

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