Forrrest Fenn’s 5 Million Dollar Hidden Treasure -- FOUND

Forrrest Fenn’s 5 Million Dollar Hidden Treasure -- FOUND

Dinar Recaps’ Original Story Post:  September 16 2019  LINK

A treasure chest hidden in the Rocky Mountains for a decade has finally been found

By Alicia Lee, CNN  Updated 12:28 PM ET, Mon June 8, 2020

There's a Treasure Chest Worth Millions Hidden Somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Searchers are dedicating their lives and savings to finding it

(CNN)Thousands of brave souls have ventured into the Rocky Mountains for the past decade, searching for a treasure chest filled with gold, rubies, emeralds and diamonds.

But that adventure has finally come to an end. The treasure has been found.

Forrest Fenn, the 89-year-old art and antiquities collector who created the treasure hunt, made the announcement Sunday on his website.

"It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago," Fenn wrote in his announcement. "I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot."

The treasure was found a few days ago by a man who did not want to be named, Fenn told the Santa Fe New Mexican. He noted, however, that the man was from "back East" and that he confirmed his discovery by sending Fenn a photograph of his newfound riches.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/07/us/forrest-fenn-rocky-mountains-treasure-chest-found-trnd/index.html

What Is Power In International Relations?

What Is Power In International Relations?

Global Meltdown, United States

By Vladislav B. SOTIROVIĆ 18/05/2020

 Power is the ability to make people, states, movements, organizations, or things to do what they would not otherwise have done. It is a matter of fact that politics is seen to be about might rather than right.

It can be said that, in essence, politics is power or in other words, the ability of some international actor to get desired results of his/her political behavior by using whatever instruments (legal or not, moral or not, etc.). In the very broadest sense of its meaning, power can be understood as the ability to influence the results of certain political/historical events, from the point of view to have or control power to do something on the arena of world politics and international relations.

The notion of power in world politics is usually attached to the nation-state and, therefore, power as an ability is prescribed to the country to direct its affairs but without the interference of other states or other international actors. As a consequence of such an understanding of the term, power in politics is, basically, very close term if not even the synonym to autonomy or independence.

Nevertheless, in academic literature, power in international politics is mostly understood as a relationship as the real ability to influence the behavior of other actors (states, organizations, movements, parties, persons, etc.) in a manner, not of their choosing. That is the reason why the term power over others is becoming more and more used as a proper one.

In other words, power in politics can be understood as a phenomenon that is exercised when one actor gets another actor to do something that, in fact, the latter would not otherwise have done. However, from the very practical points of view, distinctions exist between potential and actual power, relational and structural power, and finally between hard and soft power.[1]

Power is for sure a property of a structure what means that it is an ability to control the political moves and shape how things are going to be arranged of the others influenced by key factors through which one actor may influence another one or several of them at the same time (for instance, the relations between the USA and the rest of the member states of the NATO).

For decades, power in international relations has been seen through the prism of capabilities, and consequently, power as a phenomenon was understood either as an attribute or possession. From this point of view, power was often reflected in attempts to make a list of components of the power of a nation-state.

However, those components usually are seen, in fact, as the real capabilities of one actor to achieve its aim by using some sort of power.[2]  The focal capabilities of nation-states in direct relation to their potential or real power are the next five:[3]

Military capability: It is the question of how large military forces does one actor has, how many weapons and of what kinds of weapon, and of what quality? In other words, the greater the military capability of one actor taking into consideration all of these dimensions, the greater is its real political and military power in the international arena.

Many Great Powers reduce their army’s size when they get more sophisticated weaponry. The realist school understands the power in international relations almost exclusively attached to the military capacity of a nation-state. Military capacity is a basic force of power as it enables a state to protect its own borders, people and territory from external aggression but as well as to impose its interests across its borders by a policy of occupation and expansion.

From a very military viewpoint, the crucial factors are, therefore, the size of the army, its effectiveness in terms of morale, training, discipline, command, and its possession of the most advanced weaponry and equipment.

Economic resources: From an economic standpoint, the power of nation-state depends on how large is a GNP, how much nation-state is industrialized and technologically developed, and how much its economy is diversified? In other words, the weight of the nation-state in the international arena is closely connected to its wealth and economic resources.

We cannot forget that in practice, military power directly depends on economic development of the actor for the very reason that economic wealth enables nation-states (and other actors in international relations) to develop large military forces, possess sophisticated weapons, pay for the mercenaries or wage costly wars (for example, the US military intervention in Iraq in 2003).

Modern technology with advanced industry is as well as expressions of economic wealth of a nation which gives political power in relation to trading and other partners. It is true particularly in those cases when national currencies are very strong and stable to the extent that other nations are using them as tools of international exchange.

Natural resources: It means, how much an actor has access to natural resources for the sake to support its own economic capabilities in general and in particular its military?

Population resources: The power of a nation-state very much depends on its population number what is of extreme importance for both national economy and military as a large population usually contribute to a larger military and labor force.

However, in this respect, it is necessary to respect a population’s age, gender, level of literacy, skills, health, and education as all of these factors have a direct influence on the actor’s economy, technological advantage, and military strength. Modern economic, especially industrial, development require mass literacy and certain levels of work-related skills.

Today, a higher-level of scientific and technical skills became a crucial requirement for national economic success. However, politically, it is a question is the population of nation-state united around its Government, or there are political, ideological, confessional, etc. cleavages which are threatening internal national cohesion?

Geographic features: The chief significance of geographical elements as land area, location, climate, topography, and natural resources, are always stressed by human geographers and geopolitics to be of extreme importance for the national power.

In other words, from a geographical point of view, it is important how large territory of a nation-state is, does it possess direct access to the sea/ocean, does the terrain of the state can provide natural defenses (mountains, marshes or rivers, for instance)? Finally, it is as well as a question do climate, geographic features, and terrain in general permit agriculture and strengthening a defense system in general?[4]

How Many Powers?

We can say that almost all forms of politics are about power and, therefore, politics as an academic discipline is usually understood as the study of power. Contemporary politics studies raise two focal questions concerning power: 1) Where power is located or who has it?; and 2) How many powers exist? That is the question regarding the changing nature of power.

G20-Sumit-2019The actors in international relations, especially those who belong to the Great Powers[5], can use capabilities in different ways in order to increase their political, economic, military or so influence on the others.

There are eight different and basic natures (types) of power used by actors in global politics and international relations but especially by those from the group of Great Powers in order to reshape World order:[6]

Hard Power: This is the ability of an actor (in fact, a nation-state) to influence another actor or actors by using threats or rewards. The actor using hard power is involving military “sticks” (punishment) or economic “carrots” (reward). The policy of hard power predominantly focuses on the use of economic sanctions, military threats, and even military deployment in order to coerce the compliance of others.[7]

Soft Power: This is the ability to influence other actors by convincing them by different means to follow or agree to certain norms, aspirations, and politics that produce the desired behavior. The term soft power is used in the studies of international relations to mark the use of economic, cultural, and diplomatic measures for the sake to attract and shape the actions of other actors toward the desired direction.[8]

Smart Power: The policy of smart power is to combine both hard power and soft power to reinforce one another in the international arena. In other words, the main instrument used by smart power is, in fact, compelling that is a tactic/strategy used to force an actor to make concessions against its will by combining military threats with economic/financial rewards.

Relational Power: It means the ability of one actor to influence another actor or several of them in a direction that originally was not of their wish and choosing.

Structural Power: It is an ability to shape the frameworks within which actors in global politics relate to one another. Therefore, the structural power used by the supreme actor determines how politics is going to be done for the rest of the group. Structural power operates through structures that shape the capacities and interests of actors in relation to one another.[9]

Compulsory Power: Such power allows the actor to establish direct control over another by implying military, economic or financial instruments.

Institutional Power: It is used when the actors exercise indirect control over as, for example, when states establish international institutions that work to their own long-term advantage and to the disadvantage of others (NATO, the EU, etc.).

Productive Power: This power is in essence inter-subjective power as it is the power that operates through the ability to shape an actor’s own traditional beliefs, values, or perceptions. Productive power is influenced by social constructivists, poststructuralists, and feminist thinking and works by defining the so-called “legitimate” knowledge and by determining whose knowledge matters.[10]

Closing remarks

Politics, either domestic or international, in essence, is a power that means the ability to achieve desired results by using different instruments and policies. The quest for power and influence are basic points of any politics. Power as a phenomenon was all the time central to studies of conflict and security.

Nevertheless, power is a very complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. From a purely academic point of view, power as a concept is extremely disputed as there is no agreed notion of power, only exist different rival notions coming from different schools.[11]

However, almost all schools in global politics and international relations agree that power has to be understood in terms of capability – an attribute which an actor (mostly nation-state) possess; relationship – the exercise of influence over other actors; and property of structure – the ability to control the political agenda and direct things to the proper direction.

To conclude, regarding global politics and international relations, power is “the ability to convince another state to do what it would not normally do”.[12] The first move of the state is to organize power domestically, and the second is to accumulate power internationally.[13]

Endnotes:

[1] Andrew Heywood, Global Politics, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, 210.

[2] Richard W. Mansbach, Kirsten L. Taylor, Introduction to Global Politics, Second Edition, London−New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2012, 253.

[3] These five capabilities or the focal elements of national power are usually taken into consideration to rank nation-states within a global hierarchy especially those from the club of Great Powers.

[4] See more in [Paul Cloke, Philip Crang, Mark Goodwin, Introducing Human Geographies, Second Edition, Abington, UK: Hodder Arnold, 2005].

[5] Originally, in the 18th century, the term Great Power was related to any European state that was, in essence, a sovereign or independent. In practice, it meant, only those states that were able to independently defend themselves from the aggression launched by another state or group of states. Nevertheless, after WWII, the term Great Power is applied to the countries that are regarded to be of the most powerful position within the global system of international relations.

Those countries are only countries whose foreign policy is „forward“ policy and therefore the states like Brasil, Germany or Japan, who have significant economic might, are not considered today to be the members of the Great Power bloc for the only reason as they lack both political will and the military potential for the Great Power status.

One of the fundamental characteristics and historical features of any member state of the Great Power club was, is, and will be to behave in the international arena according to its own adopted geopolitical concept(s) and aim(s). In other words, the leading modern and postmodern nation-states are „geopolitically“ acting in the global politics that makes a crucial difference between them and all other states.

According to the realist viewpoint, global or world politics is nothing else than a struggle for power and supremacy between the states on different levels as the regional, continental, intercontinental, or global (universal). Therefore, the governments of the states are forced to remain informed upon the efforts and politics of other states, or eventually other political actors, for the sake, if necessary, to acquire extra power (weapons, etc.) which are supposed to protect their own national security (Iran) or even survival on the political map of the world (North Korea) by the potential aggressor (the USA).

Competing for supremacy and protecting the national security, the national states will usually opt for the policy of balancing one another’s power by different means like creating or joining military-political blocs or increasing their own military capacity. Subsequently, global politics is nothing else but just an eternal struggle for power and supremacy in order to protect the self-proclaimed national interest and security of the major states or the Great Powers.

As the major states regard the issue of power distribution to be fundamental in international relations and as they act in accordance to the relative power that they have, the factors of internal influence to states, like the type of political government or economic order, have no strong impact on foreign policy and international relations. In other words, it is of „genetic nature“ of the Great Powers to struggle for supremacy and hegemony regardless of their inner construction and features.

It is the same „natural law“ either for democracies or totalitarian types of government or liberal (free-market) and command (centralized) economies. About Great Powers, see more in [Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000, New York: Vintage Books, 2010; Matthew Kroenig, The Return of Great Power Rivalry: Democracy versus Autocracy from the Ancient World to the U.S. and China, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2020].

National interest is foreign policy goals, objectives, or policy preferences to be benefited by society. Public interest is basically a synonym for the national interest.

[6] World order can be understood as the distribution of power between and/or among Great Powers or other focal actors in global politics by different means establishing a relatively stable framework of relationships and behaviours in international relations. See in more detail in [Stephen McGlinchey, Rosie Walters, Christian Scheinpflug (eds.), International Relations Theory, Bristol, England: E-International Relations Publishing, 2017].

[7] NATO’s military aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999 illustrates how hard power works in the practice as the Yugoslav army stopped fighting primarily because of the threat of use of additional and more effective NATO’s strategy and military actions.

[8] As one of the effective instruments used within the framework of soft power is, for instance, the NGOs [Karen A. Mingst, Essentials of International Relations, Third Edition, New York−London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, 180−185].

[9] Garrett W. Brown, Iain McLean, Alistair McMillan (eds.), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics and International Relations, Fourth Edition, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2018.

[10] See more in [Sorin Baiasu, Sylvie Loriaux (eds.), Sincerity in Politics and International Relations, London−New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2017].

[11] See in more detail in [Stephen McGlinchey (ed.), International Relations, Bristol, England: E-International Relations Publishing, 2017].

[12] Steven L. Spiegel, Jennifer Morrison Taw, Fred L. Wehling, Kristen P. Williams, World Politics in a New Era, Third Edition, Thomson Wadsworth, 2004, 702.

[13] John Baylis, Steve Smith, Patricia Owens, The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, Fourth Edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, 100.

https://orientalreview.org/2020/05/18/what-is-power-in-international-relations/

5 Lies You’ve Been Told About Generational Wealth

5 Lies You’ve Been Told About Generational Wealth

Posted in Dinar Recaps Archives on 7/20/2019

By Pavithra Mohan

From TNT -- Ify: This Article explains why RayRen continues to say NOT to gift large monies but to Educate your children, grandchildren... Article on Generational Wealth:

Here’s what you have wrong about people who inherit money.
5 Lies You’ve Been Told About Generational Wealth

The markers of generational wealth are manifold, from the promise of a good education to the security of homeownership. Wealth begets further wealth, but not always through inheritance of assets.

“Much of the transmission of wealth to the next generation goes through these earlier life processes, such as supporting children’s education, supporting their ability to purchase a home, or to get married,” researcher Fabian Pfeffer wrote in a recent study at the University of Michigan. “All of these—education, homeownership, marriage—in turn help you accumulate wealth.”

But the extent to which family money helps future generations retain and build on their wealth—or acquire financial literacy—is less marked than you might imagine. Here are some of the commonly held misconceptions about the beneficiaries of generational wealth.

1. Their Wealth Lasts Many Generations

We don’t have to look further than one Donald Trump to see how wealth can trickle down and set up future generations for success. But generational wealth is actually harder to maintain than America’s richest families might lead you to believe: About 70% of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation, and 90% do by the following generation.

One reason that happens is the next generation may not be equipped to manage the money they inherit. But it’s also that family wealth can be diluted as it is divided amongst children, especially if each has a different stance on how to invest or manage the family finances. (Think of the family jockeying on Succession.)

Some financial experts even recommend that—not unlike businesses—families come up with a “mission statement” to establish financial values and goals, in an effort to preserve wealth across future generations

2. Their Parents Talk To Them About Money

You might think parents with money share their financial know-how with their offspring. But that’s not necessarily the case. “Some parents don’t want their kids to feel like they have a huge landing pad or that they may not need to work,” says Emily Green, a financial adviser at Sallie Krawcheck‘s investment platform, Ellevest.

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

https://www.fastcompany.com/90372281/5-lies-youve-been-told-about-generational-wealth

Quotes On Life's Difficulties and The Power Of Words

Quotes On Life's Difficulties and The Power Of Words

Posted in Dinar Recaps Archives on 7/28/2019

​What is the difference in school and life? In school you are taught a lesson and then given a test. In life you are given a test and taught a lesson -- Tom Bodett

WHAT IS DIFFICULTY? Only a word indicating the degree of strength requisite for accomplishing particular objects; a mere notice of the necessity for exertion; a bugbear to children and fools; only a stimulus to men -- Samuel Warren

The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them -- Goethe

It has been the glory of the great masters in all arts to confront and to overcome; and when they had overcome the first difficulty, to turn it into an instrument for new conquests over new difficulties; thus to enable then to extend the empire of science - Burke

It cannot be too often repeated that it is not helps, but obstacles, not facilities, but difficulties that make men -- W Matthews

Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over us by the Supreme guardian and legislator, who knows us better than we know ourselves, and loves us better too. -- He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill -- Our antagonist is our helper -- Burke

The weak sinews become strong by their conflict with difficulties -- hope is born in the long night of watching and fears - Faith visits us in defeat and disappointment, amid the consciousness of earthly frailty and the crumbling tombstones of mortality -- E H Chapin

It is not every calamity that is a curse - and early adversity is often a blessing - Surmounted difficulties not only teach, but hearten us in our future struggles -- Sharp

To continue reading, please go to

https://www.brainyquote.com/

and

https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/difficulties-quotes

Thoughts Are Living

Thoughts Are Living

By Anna Von Reitz  Monday, May 11, 2020

“Shhh!” My Grandmother would say with some annoyance.  “Don’t you know that thoughts are living?  And words are powerful!”

She said these things often enough and with enough seriousness to impress them firmly in my young mind, even if I didn’t  fully understand what she was telling me at the time.

Yes, our thoughts contain life.  They derive from life and are alive.  Some thoughts are virtually immortal, while others, less substantial, are ephemeral. 

Once you realize this, your attitude toward thought and your responsibility as a thought-producer changes.

Suddenly, you start thinking about thinking— and about the quality of your thought output.

Am I just spinning a lot of lies and impressions and half-regurgitated media drivel around in my head, or am I concentrating on worthy things and solid information?

Thought quality is important in and of itself, but it is additionally important because thought forms the basis of emotion and emotion motivates action in this world.

Correct and solid thinking is the basis for right feeling and action, so if you have been drifting along in a daze letting the Talking Heads on TV or the corporate executives at George Soros’s Disney, Inc., do your thinking for you— snap out of it.

Your living thoughts are what create your world.

Think about what I just said.

You want a better, kinder, safer, saner world?

Think better thoughts. 

Put an end to the media monopoly on your brain power.  Turn the knob.  Push the button. Cancel the subscription.

Guard your thoughts and train them.

Ask yourself— how did that “News” story make me feel?  What, if anything, did I gain out of it?

Does it give rise to anything desirable or comforting or uplifting or profitable? 

Your thoughts are living and your words are the personification of your thoughts.  They are the condensate of thinking, and they may stick in the mind of your grandchild —for good or evil— for decades after you speak them. 

If you put them down on paper or electronic media, your not-so-paltry words may outlast you by centuries. 

Here we are, in 2020, still reading Plato.

As everything on Earth is accelerating and the electromagnetic  fields are changing, you will notice a lot of odd things—- one of which is the speed with which your thoughts manifest as realities.

You will be thinking about a song, and moments or minutes later, it will be playing on the radio.

You will be worried about a debt, and the next call will be the debt collection agency.

You will think of your Sister, and at that moment, she will call.

And all of this synchronicity will be happening with increasing speed and strength of manifestation.

The things you dwell on and really concentrate your focus on will appear first as Thought-Forms.  At this stage, what you are creating is like a shadow or overlay on the day to day story line you are living.

It’s there, but it’s not totally materialized in your experience, because you are not raising —or lowering—your own pitch to interact with it. 

It’s like playing a song you want to hear on Station KNOW and keeping your own radio tuned to Station WBET.  The song you want manifests and plays but you don’t get to enjoy it.

Nonetheless, by focusing on what is good and true and useful and pondering on these things and day-dreaming about beautiful crystal streams and world peace, you draw these things into this reality.

Maybe as a result of your own limitations you won’t experience what you dream of and love and give your life force to, but other people and the planet as a whole, will.

And sooner or later the power of all our good thoughts made manifest, shines through. The collective energy of all our good thoughts wins,  and the world has no choice but to follow suit.

This is why we need to train ourselves to guard our thoughts —especially against useless, repetitive and negative programming by the Media Mouths.  See the YouTube video, “This is What Mind Control Looks Like. This is Project Mockingbird”.

This is also why we need to combine forces to dream together and choose to dream great things—- because thoughts are living and words like bricks, are enduring.

Many of you participated in the work of dissolving the Seal on Bardsey Island and the Great Palatine Seal in Rome.  That joint action changed the way energy flows around the planet and set the entire Continent of Africa free to live a richer, healthier, more abundant life.

This, in turn, makes Africa a better reservoir of life and source of energy for the whole planet.  It will no longer be limited or constricted as it has been in the past.  You helped accomplish that, just by sitting in your living room, thinking good thoughts of peace and liberation.

Want to do more?

Jerusalem has eight Gates, but some of the gates have been shut tight by stones and mortar since ancient times.  These same gates have been sealed spiritually for centuries.

This was done by Evil Doers in an attempt to gainsay the Living God, in order to prevent the True King from entering the city and to keep the Lion of Judah trapped inside.

Today, we will lay siege to these ancient evils and liberate Jerusalem.  Everyone stop a moment and see all eight gates of Jerusalem thrown open. 

It is dusk, early evening in Israel.

Instead of the Gates being shut, see in your mind’s eye, all eight Gates of Jerusalem standing wide open, and brilliant light pouring out from all of them, illuminating the surrounding countryside.

Feel a fresh wind flowing over the land. Picture sheets of gentle rain falling, washing away the dust, filling the streams and cisterns.  The parched land grows green again.  All is refreshed, open, breathing, alive, and peaceful. There is no longer any fear or threat of war, no longer any hatred or theft or unrest or sadness.

The Valley of Hinom has been cleansed, not with blood, but with love; the natural balance of Nature has been restored. All you can see or sense for many, many miles around is peace and joy and plenty.  Abundant life, abundant rain, abundant peace, and no fear or want of any kind. 

The olive trees sigh with relief.  The plums and cherries unfurl their blossoms.  The King of Kings walks the land and blesses it so that it will never know war or suffer again.

Feel the relief and the release of pent up energy.  All eight Gates are open at last.

http://www.paulstramer.net/2020/05/thoughts-are-living.html

Teenager, an Aspiring Detective, Returns $135,000 He Found

Teenager, an Aspiring Detective, Returns $135,000 He Found

The New York Times   Mariel Padilla  May 10, 2020

Jose Nuñez Romaniz was headed to the bank to deposit money so he could buy socks online for his grandfather when he came upon a large clear plastic bag filled with cash next to an ATM in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“When I first saw it, I kind of stared at it for a few seconds, not knowing what to do,” Nuñez said of his discovery May 3. “I was very shocked. I’ve never seen so much money.”

Nuñez, 19, a criminal justice student at Central New Mexico Community College, said that after the initial shock had worn off, he took a picture of the bag. He said he noticed a tag on the outside of the bag that said it contained $60,000 in $20 bills. The police later counted an additional $75,000 in $50 bills. “It never passed through my mind to keep any of it,” Nuñez said Saturday.

Nuñez first thought about calling the toll-free number on the Wells Fargo ATM but instead dialed 911 because he didn’t want it to seem as if he had been stealing, he said.

After calling the police, he put the bag in his car and moved it so someone else could use the machine. He then called his mother to tell her he was going to be a little late coming home. Two police officers arrived within minutes, took the bag and took Nuñez’s statement and information. He said his parents expressed amazement and disbelief when he recounted what had happened, even after he showed them the picture.

“I’ve seen a lot of stuff in 21 years, but this was unique and refreshing for the department and city,” Officer Simon Drobik, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said Saturday. “I think this is the biggest amount of money found in Albuquerque and returned.”

Gilbert Gallegos Jr., another spokesman, said it appeared that a Wells Fargo contractor had intended to put the money in the ATM but had mistakenly left it on the sidewalk.

On Tuesday morning, Nuñez was in Phoenix buying materials for his parents’ mattress business when Drobik called.  “He asked me how was it to be a hero in the town, and at first I didn’t know what he was referring to,” Nuñez said. “But then he started telling me about a ceremony to honor me. He wanted me to take my family there and meet the mayor and the chief of police.”

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://news.yahoo.com/teenager-aspiring-detective-returns-135-163432794.html

Don’t Count on Me

 Don’t Count on Me

Dennis Friedman  |  April 28, 2020

I DON’T THINK I can do it. I know it’s the patriotic thing to do—support our local businesses. But I don’t see myself visiting local restaurants, movie theaters or department stores for a quite a while.

After they lift the stay-at-home order, I’m not rushing out to my favorite restaurant and ordering a grilled chicken avocado wrap with a kale salad.

I don’t care if the waiter is wearing a protective mask and gloves, and if I’m sitting six feet away from the next table. It’s going to take some time before I feel comfortable being around strangers in a social setting.

I know some people think the economy is going to take off when the current safety measures are lifted, but I have my doubts about a V-shaped recovery.

I believe there are too many people like me who will err on the side of caution—and simply aren’t ready to visit the gym, book a flight or sit down at their favorite bar.

A recent Associated Press poll found an overwhelming majority of Americans favor stay-at-home orders as an important way to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

Moreover, many individuals will be reluctant to spend money because of the economic hardship they’ve endured during the shutdown—and especially so when U.S. household debt is at a record $14 trillion.

With Americans reluctant to spend, the economy may have a hard time bouncing back. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, consumer spending accounts for almost  70% of economic growth.

The key to an economic rebound is getting consumers to a place where they feel comfortable spending again. If businesses focus on the health and safety of their customers, that’ll help somewhat. Having a vaccine to combat the virus would, of course, do the trick, but the earliest that’ll happen is next year.

In the meantime, everybody has an opinion about how and when we should proceed in reopening the economy. But they fail to realize that the ultimate decision is going to be made by the consumer—you and me. Right now, I’m not ready to visit any nonessential businesses.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://humbledollar.com/2020/04/dont-count-on-me/

California County Launches Snatch-And-Grab Program

California County Launches Snatch-And-Grab Program

Notes From The Field By Simon Black   May 8, 2020  Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico

Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, your finances, and your prosperity… and on occasion, poetic justice.

Ventura County, CA to hire dozens of Covid spies

19 residents of Ventura County, California have died so far from Covid. That’s 0.002% of the population.

Most places would consider this a rounding error. But in Ventura County, it’s 19 too many.

So the county government has now launched a ‘contact tracing’ initiative to hire 50 investigators, and perhaps more later, to track down people who might have Covid, “immediately isolate them,” and then “find every one of their contacts” to isolate those people as well.

They also state that, if someone has Covid and is living in a home with other family members, “we’re not going to be able to keep the person in that home. . .”

This is a mass surveillance apparatus that effectively amounts to a snatch-and-grab. You get a knock at the door and are forcibly removed from your home and taken away from your family because some county bureaucrat traced you to someone who might have the virus.

It’s like “pre-crime”, but even more ridiculous… I mean, look at the words they’re using-- it’s up to the government now to decide who gets to stay in their own private property with their families.

Click here to watch it yourself.

Seattle City Councilmember calls for nationalizing Amazon

Kshama Sawant is a member of the City Council of Seattle, and a proud Socialist.

She recently took to Twitter to criticize Amazon, one of the most popular whipping boys of the Bolsheviks:

“The super-rich are out of touch with the reality they inflict on the majority of humanity. They will ruthlessly extract the price of this pandemic recession from workers, unless we fight back. #TaxAmazon.”

When a Twitter follower under the handle @KarlMarxJunior suggested, “How about #NationalizeAmazon?” Sawant responded:

“Yes, corporations like Amazon need to be taken into democratic public ownership, to be run by workers for social good. We will need militant mass movements, strike actions at workplaces, to begin to fight to win this. Because it will be a political strike against billionaires.”

Click here to see the Twitter thread.

Undercover cops arrest women for working from home

Recently we told you how police departments in many cities across the Land of the Free were adopting new policies to NOT arrest people for petty or victimless crimes.

The idea was to keep jails from being overcrowded petri-dishes which would spread Covid-19.

And some Texas cities were among those easing up.

But not Laredo, Texas.

Officers received an anonymous tip that two women were committing a heinous crime: doing nails and eyelashes from their homes.

In an undercover sting operation, police officers caught the two women attempting to market and sell their services.

Police charged the women for a violation of the lockdown order, and held them in jail on $500 bond each.

This is the new criminality in 2020: women painting nails in their own homes.

Cities with strained budgets are wondering how they are going to get through the economic devastation caused by the lockdowns. Revenue is drying up.

And THIS is how cities use their scarce resources-- to stake-out and arrest women for giving pedicures.

Click here to read the full story.

Nashville Mayor wants to hike property taxes 32% in “crisis budget”

The “crisis budget” plan of the mayor of Nashville is to cut spending, and raise taxes.

Now that the hard times have hit, governments will take more, and give you less.

Nashville was overspending and racking up debt in the best of times. And now that the economy is locked down, the city expects to miss out on $470 million of tax revenue over the next year or so.

For homeowners, that means a property tax increase of about $625 per year on a $250,000 house.

“In the end, hard, hard decisions have to be made," the Mayor said. “Everybody is sacrificing in this budget.”

But it’s hard to see where the city is making sacrifices.

The new budget doesn’t lay-off any city employees, and in fact increases spending from last year by $115 million.   Click here to read the full story.

To your freedom & prosperity, Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/california-county-launches-snatch-and-grab-program-27746/ 

The Psychology of Money

The Psychology of Money

Jun 1, 2018 by Morgan Housel

Let me tell you the story of two investors, neither of whom knew each other, but whose paths crossed in an interesting way.

Grace Groner was orphaned at age 12. She never married. She never had kids. She never drove a car. She lived most of her life alone in a one-bedroom house and worked her whole career as a secretary. She was, by all accounts, a lovely lady. But she lived a humble and quiet life. That made the $7 million she left to charity after her death in 2010 at age 100 all the more confusing. People who knew her asked: Where did Grace get all that money?

But there was no secret. There was no inheritance. Grace took humble savings from a meager salary and enjoyed eighty years of hands-off compounding in the stock market. That was it.

Weeks after Grace died, an unrelated investing story hit the news.

Richard Fuscone, former vice chairman of Merrill Lynch’s Latin America division, declared personal bankruptcy, fighting off foreclosure on two homes, one of which was nearly 20,000 square feet and had a $66,000 a month mortgage.

Fuscone was the opposite of Grace Groner; educated at Harvard and University of Chicago, he became so successful in the investment industry that he retired in his 40s to “pursue personal and charitable interests.” But heavy borrowing and illiquid investments did him in.

The same year Grace Goner left a veritable fortune to charity, Richard stood before a bankruptcy judge and declared: “I have been devastated by the financial crisis … The only source of liquidity is whatever my wife is able to sell in terms of personal furnishings.”

The purpose of these stories is not to say you should be like Grace and avoid being like Richard. It’s to point out that there is no other field where these stories are even possible.

In what other field does someone with no education, no relevant experience, no resources, and no connections vastly outperform someone with the best education, the most relevant experiences, the best resources and the best connections? There will never be a story of a Grace Groner performing heart surgery better than a Harvard-trained cardiologist. Or building a faster chip than Apple’s engineers. Unthinkable.

But these stories happen in investing.

That’s because investing is not the study of finance. It’s the study of how people behave with money. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. You can’t sum up behavior with formulas to memorize or spreadsheet models to follow. Behavior is inborn, varies by person, is hard to measure, changes over time, and people are prone to deny its existence, especially when describing themselves.

Grace and Richard show that managing money isn’t necessarily about what you know; it’s how you behave. But that’s not how finance is typically taught or discussed. The finance industry talks too much about what to do, and not enough about what happens in your head when you try to do it.

This report describes 20 flaws, biases, and causes of bad behavior I’ve seen pop up often when people deal with money.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-psychology-of-money/

Origins of Greed and Fear

Origins of Greed and Fear

Jan 31, 2019 by Morgan Housel

Greed and fear control everything in investing.

There is no amount of growth that can’t be destroyed by an investor’s temptation to grab too much of it. And there is no opportunity so appealing that it will catch the eye of someone who refuses to look.

But greed and fear aren’t always character flaws. People with the best intentions and ethics fall for their temptation. The two traits evolve from something innocent: the amount of confidence we have that our actions influence our outcomes. Figuring out how much of what you do influences what you get requires calculating odds in situations where accurately knowing the odds is impossible.

The problem happens when convenience masquerades as a calculation, and you cling to the most comfortable odds by thinking opportunities are more, or less, in your control than they really are. This form of greed – which has nothing to do with bad ethics – is pervasive. And this form of fear is innate. But they are powerful. They apply to investments, businesses, industries, and countries. Confronting them just once can make or break a career. And while greed and fear are typically seen as opposites, they share an origin.

There is a natural cycle where innocent analysis evolves into greed, turns into denial, then confusion, then fear. It often drops you off where you began, with the lesson you think you learned from experiencing fear setting up your next meeting with greed.

Here’s how it happens.

Part 1: Greed

Greed begins with the most innocent idea: You deserve to be right.

The decisions you’ve made. The decisions you’ll make. The worldview you hold. The strategy you use. It’s hard to wake up in the morning and look in the mirror without telling yourself that you can make good decisions. Nothing would get done if people doubted themselves all day. This is especially true if you’ve had past success in education and work.

And you deserve to be right because you’ve put so much effort into developing your views and decisions. You went to school for years. Passed hard tests. Did hard thinking.

Put in long hours. No one wants to hear they went through that grind and still don’t deserve to be right. And deserving to be right means you should be rewarded for being right. Effort equals reward. That’s how the world works, isn’t it?

Escaping this thinking is not easy.

It’s hard to make it through the day admitting you don’t know how the world works. So no one does it. The humblest of people use simplified stories that guide their belief in cause and effect. And it’s agonizing to rewrite your worldview, or your investment strategy, or your business model, from scratch after years of effort. So people become good at clinging to views even when they’re built on flimsy evidence.

Views that we insist are right and deserve to be rewarded are often tied to the random chance of our past experience. The investor who happened to be born in the 1930s was ravaged by high inflation in the 1970s.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/origins-of-greed-and-fear/

19 Things Your Suburban Millionaire Neighbor Won’t Tell You

19 Things Your Suburban Millionaire Neighbor Won’t Tell You

By Len Penzo

That’s right. Although having a million bucks isn’t as impressive as it once was, it’s still nothing to sneeze at.

In fact, Kiplinger reports that in 2019 there were 7,698,765 millionaire households in the United States alone.

That’s a lot of people, people. And the odds are one or two of them are living near you.

Heck, one of them might even be your neighbor. In fact, the odds are very good that it is your neighbor.

But, Len, you don’t know my neighbor. That guy doesn’t look anything like a millionaire.

Well, guess what? Your suburban millionaire neighbor called (oh yeah, we go way back) and the two of us had a nice little chat.

Here’s a few things he shared with me but apparently doesn’t want to tell you. (No offense, I’m sure.)

1. He always spends less than he earns. In fact his mantra is, over the long run, you’re better off if you strive to be anonymously rich rather than deceptively poor.

2. He knows that patience is a virtue; the odds are you won’t become a millionaire overnight. If you’re like him, your wealth will be accumulated gradually by diligently saving your money over multiple decades.

3. When you go to his modest three-bed two-bath house, you’re going to be drinking Folgers instead of Starbucks. And if you need a lift, well, you’re going to get a ride in his ten-year-old economy sedan. And if you think that makes him cheap, ask him if he cares. (He doesn’t.)

4. He pays off his credit cards in full every month. He’s smart enough to understand that if he can’t afford to pay cash for something, then he can’t afford it.

5. He realized early on that money does not buy happiness. If you’re looking for nirvana, you need to focus on attaining financial freedom.

6. He never forgets that financial freedom is a state of mind that comes from being debt free. Best of all, it can be attained regardless of your income level.

7. He knows that getting a second job not only increases the size of your bank account quicker but it also keeps you busy — and being busy makes it difficult to spend what you already have.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://lenpenzo.com/blog/id1151-19-things-the-millionaire-next-door-wont-tell-you-2.html