Bait and Switch

In retail sales, a bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the party putting forth the fraud lures in customers by advertising a product or service at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute is. 

For some reason, this rule does not apply to real estate. Agents can show on a beautiful home on their realty website for a affordable or cheaper price in order to entice potential buyers to contact them. However, usually what will happen is that the home will be "just sold". This was a common occurrence in China and it also happens in the United States. It just goes to show that if there are no laws to prevent something, people will attempt to take advantage of it.

Welcome to fascism

Mussolini  said that fascism was "rule by corporations". It seems that the United States is headed towards that direction as well. The Supreme Court struck down some key provisions of landmark campaign finance legislation in a move experts agree paves the way for more corporate money to enter the political system.

In a 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, the Court's majority threw out sections of the legislation that bans corporations and labor unions from funding some political advertisements. Corporations and unions may fund those communications out of their general treasuries, overturning earlier rulings that had divided individual and corporate expenditures into different categories. The politicians are already basically making decisions on behalf of these huge corporations who give them huge donations and now they are not limiting the amounts that can be contributed. With that it seems like our country will be run with the interests of the corporations. and possibly a country heading towards fascism.

Shown in the right we have some "warning signs". Notice how we already have some of the "early warning signs of fascism". Corporate power is protected and obsession with national security. The citizens of the United States need to take back the government and make our opinions heard to our congressmen so they are acting for the people instead of allowing corporations to run the country.

Euro in trouble?

There have been rumors that the Euro was going to take over the US Dollar as the global currency. However, with the entire issues that Greece is going through, I'm not sure if it can be dependable as a global currency. I think this squashes any ideas of people wanting one world currency or even seeing an Asia currency.

Even though the euro is wondrously convenient for travelers and international businesses, there's one catch: Fiscal discipline is up to each participating country, and Greece has not been disciplined. It is running a deficit of nearly 13 percent of total output, more than four times the nominal limit for countries using the euro. Its national debt is almost double the permitted limit. With its credit rating sharply downgraded, Greece must pay a stiff premium to finance that deficit. Since the Euro is shared across countries, Greece does not have the control to print more currency as it wishes, which is what other countries such as what occurs in the U.S. and China. Also other countries such as Germany seem to be ignoring Greece and acting as if it is not their problem.

If there is one world currency or an Asian currency, we would most likely have many issues similar to what is mentioned. From a world economic standpoint, I hope that this all gets resolved since another economic fiasco would cause a huge effect on the world economy.

Lobbyists affecting legislation

Many people have indicated that Obama's speech sounded like a broken record with promises he made during his campaign. I cannot say I would put a lot of blame on him as a lot of the decision making is at the congressional side. With all the lobbyists from the healthcare industry and the banking industry making campaign donations, no wonder it takes forever for any of bills to be passed. The only things that seem to be easy to pass are laws to wiretap terrorists or anything against terrorists. The reason for that is probably because terrorists do not have lobbyists.

If terrorists threw campaign money at these politicians, maybe even those kinds of laws would be difficult to pass. (Note: That was a sarcastic statement.)

Undeveloped Haiti continues to suffer

It is always devastating when such a huge earthquake hits and destroys buildings. However for a country that is underdeveloped and has a lack of infrastructure already, it is even harsher. It seems like the latest estimation is 50,000 dead. Based from the pictures I have seen, the city of Port-au-Price has been almost completely demolished. With no equipment to dig through the rubble, it seems that even more people will die as they are buried awaiting for help and equipment to arrive. Currently, people are using their bare hands to dig through the collapsed buildings.

Aside from the earthquake of 8.0 magnitude, it seems Haiti has not have had any breaks lately. Aside from their political instability, they have had many environmental concerns. Most of their land has gone through soil erosion. Before its independence, Haiti exported more wealth to France than the combined total of France's other overseas dominions. The value of its exports even exceeded that from the North American colonies to England. It is in this past that Haiti's land degradation has its roots. Haiti is located on the western third of the island of Hispaniola. Although 50% of the country's land surface produces agricultural crops, only about 10% is suitable for irrigation and mechanized farming. Much of Haiti's agriculture takes place on steep slopes where, each year, farmers abandon about 15,000 acres of land to erosion. In addition, they were hit with a huge hurricanes in 2004 and 2008 that further stripped 98% of its forest cover due to deforestation and caused flooding throughout the country.

Please help out and donate some money to help the cause. Be careful of any scams as in this world it is unfortunate that people will take advantage of a the sympathy from people. Some of the places to donate are as follows:

• Americares 
• Unicef 
• Doctors without borders 

Google Pulling Out of China?

I realized that so far my posts seem to be anti-america so I wanted to write a post to indicate that its not all bad in the U.S. of A. There are great things such as freedom of speech which still is an issue in certain countries such as China. Upon coming across this article in the NY Times, Google’s Threat Echoed Everywhere, Except China, I applaud that Google is trying to follow the scope of its mission statement: to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Google was heavily criticized for appeasing the Chinese government's demands to filter out any news that may be seen as making China look bad (since the Chinese are very adamant on not losing face) or possibly instigating any revolution. After Google endured a cyber attack in which originated in China and believes that the purpose of the attack was aimed at certain Chinese human rights activists, Google claimed that it may leave China. This includes the Chinese search engine as well. In fact, the news of a potential exit was also hidden to the Chinese people. Hopefully with such a stand in free speech and with no censorship, this will open the eyes of the Chinese government when it loses a huge multinational company and along with that the jobs that many local Chinese citizens benefited from.

Hopefully I will be able to return to China after writing this post. Good thing I am back in the United States now.

Bank CEOs: Sorry for risky behavior, bad decisions

I love how the bank executives on Wall Street are claiming that regret their risky actions and bad decisions that put this country in the bad situation it is in but still defend that they should get their bonuses. It seems like just empty words to me. It is similar to when Bernard Madoff was sent to jail after tricking people out of billions of dollars but stated, "I cannot adequately express how sorry I am, I am here today to accept responsibility for my crimes." I bet he wasn't sorry when he was collecting all that money. I guess these people are only sorry after they get caught and causing the millions of other people much hardship.

Taken from Yahoo News - Sorry for risky behavior

Wall Street executives said Wednesday they underestimated the severity of the 2008 financial crisis and apologized for risky behavior and poor decisions. They also defended their bonus and compensation practices to a skeptical commission investigating what caused the collapse.

Maybe if they were really sorry, they'd give the bonuses to the government as a way of saying thanks for not going out of business like Lehman Brothers.

Ways to Make Money

In the United States now, the biggest fad it seems is to make money from writing blogs. With the economic downturn, I see many links on the internet now that say, "Ways to Make Money" or "How to make money by Blogging." I'm still amazed by the occasional "Rags to Riches" stories that we hear about just from doing simple things on the internet, although the chances of that occurring are pretty slim.

In China where blogs are banned or at least restricted, the biggest fad seems to be selling things on their version of ebay called Taobao. Its become extremely popular that it seems that everyone is doing it. I've had friends quit their jobs just to sell things on Taobao. Other creative ways have been playing video games, especially those role playing games such as World of Warcraft. People would create a character and either develop it to be powerful or obtain weapons in order to sell the character online or sell the weapon. It really has become a phenomenon in China.

With the average income of a Chinese citizen at 3000 to 5000 RMB a month (that is around 450 USD to 700 USD), it seems that just selling things online or playing a game on behalf of someone makes a net income of more than that. Its pretty sad what the average income is there.

Regardless of where you are, the existing regulations and how developed the economy is, there are ways to earn money as long as the time and effort is put into it.