The health-wealth connection: a grassroots revolution in personal responsibility

The health-wealth connection: a grassroots revolution in personal responsibility

Health (Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)

 

Imagine a family that is facing some kind of a health challenge. The family has been spending $1000 per month on expenses related to health, such as medical care, health insurance, gym membership, exercise equipment, medications, and even groceries. However, the health challenge is getting worse. So, the family reviews it’s budget and spends $1500 the next month. Soon, the health challenge get even worse. Then, the spending on health is raised to $2000 per month, then $2500 per month, and with each increase in spending, the health challenge gets more and more severe.

 

What is the natural conclusion to make when reviewing this pattern? Is it to spend more on the same kinds of methods that have been disappointing? Or is it to be fully aware of the disappointing results of the prior methods and be open to new methods?

 

But what if it is not a single family, but a neighborhood? What if the neighborhood spends $100,000 per year, then $150,000 the next year, then $200,000 and so on, yet the results in terms of actual health are worse and worse? Then is the natural conclusion to increase funding for clearly disappointing methods or to explore a new approach?

 

What if it is a national government? What if the governments spends $1 trillion on health in a decade, then 1.5 and 2.0 and 2.5 in the following decades, yet overall health declines further with each increase in spending? Should spending be increased more for the same old paradigm or should new approaches be explored?

 

Historical government spending by major function in the United States from 1902 to 2010 (2008 estimate, percent GDP) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Notice that it may be much easier for an individual to alter personal behavior than for bureaucracies to alter their practices. If there is a huge increase in spending, but not a huge increase in funds available, then a huge increase in spending might naturally result in individual people being more open to recognizing disappointing results as disappointing and then changing their spending habits as financial challenges also begin to arise from their health challenges (and their chosen responses to the health challenges).

 

The average financial health and physical health of much of the developed world is declining. For instance, obesity rates are rocketing while average net worth per household is declining. (In the US state of Arizona, where I currently live, almost all real estate speculators are “upside down” on their mortgages, which means that their practice of gambling on borrowed money has decreased their financial “net worth,” sometimes accelerating them toward bankruptcy.)

 

Now, in the context of rising rates of financial crisis, rising rates of health crisis, and rising spending on disappointing health care methods, it may be intriguing that sources of information which are clearly established as lacking in competence are still considered credible by so many people. For instance, if the FDA publishes guidelines that are marketed as promoting health and preventing obesity, but there are clear indications that following those guidelines promotes obesity (and even prevents health), then those results establish the FDA guidelines as unreliable (at best) and also as either irrelevant or counter-productive. However, when the FDA later presents a slight revision, how is it that so many people are interested in what a discredited source says next?

 

English: Logo of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2006) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Here is a big part of why so many people still pay attention to the FDA. Briefly, we are dealing with a religious belief system of presumptive superstitions being followed by a panicking herd. Because there is a general culture of hysteria or panic or dis-ease, rational thinking is not to be expected from the individuals within the herd. If the FDA is perceived as an infallible god, then whatever god says will be given trust by the masses simply because they are in a panic. If god says to spend more on methods that also happen to be well-established as having no value or to be counter-productive, all that a panicking member of the herd is aware of is first the fact that god spoke and second the instructed action that god commanded.

There is no rational thinking involved. There is a state of panic or emergency and an automatic, hypnotic reflex by the terrified masses.

 

So, the FDA has no magical increase in scientific credibility as of today- no more credibility than decades ago when they began issuing the kinds of guidelines that have resulted in dramatic declines in over health and dramatic increases in health challenges, health care spending, and profits by mainstream health care providers. Consider further that the economic and financial challenges of households and nations cannot be from any other cause but disappointing choices. 

 

 

I may be over-simplifying when I emphasize personal choice as the primary or even exclusive source of results. However, it is a useful presumption.

  

Consider that if there was a lack of concern and foresight about risks (such as the danger of an earthquake or of driving a car), then, after a natural disaster or collision, one can recognize one’s own choices as having been part of the process that led to the results. This is not a matter of blame, for blame generally does nothing to improve the results of prior choices (unless there is also a lawsuit involved). In other words, if I reject the idea of personal responsibility, then we can notice that blame and resentment are natural consequences of… the CHOICE to reject the idea of personal responsibility, personal influence, personal power. 

 

Notice that now we are constructing our language around a presumption of personal responsibility or empowerment. If I blame the FDA for being incompetent, then I may struggle to reform them and oppose them and to promote some ideal of “bureaucratic responsibility” (which may be a fantasy or delusion) . I may find that such choices or investments (which arise from a rejection of personal responsibility and a religious practice of blaming others) to be initially very passionate, but soon frustrating and even exhausting. 

The basic disappointment in the results of my choices would remain. First, I followed the FDA guidelines and my health suffered (along with my finances). Then, I invested in reforming a bureaucracy and so my health and finances suffered even more.

 

Logo of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The symbol represents the American People sheltered in the wing of the American Eagle, suggesting the Department’s concern and responsibility for the welfare of the people. The logo is the department’s main visual identifier; the seal is now used for mainly legal purposes. The color can be either black or reflex blue. More information here and here. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

However, if I simply recognize my own disappointment at my own initial choice to invest in the recommendations (commandments, belief systems) of the FDA, then there is no blame in that. I was naive. I was operating from a state of confusion and hysteria and panic within an irrational herd. I might have even felt threatened and insulted if someone suggested that my infallible god be questioned in regard to scientific credibility. “What quack would suggest a review of actual results? This is my presumptive religion which I call science! I do not need to use rational thinking to review results! My infallible god, the FDA, has spoken. What other proof of scientific credibility could possibly be relevant?!?!” 

 

At the time, I might have viciously argued and defended and then condemned and ridiculed critics and even skeptics. “How can you be so arrogant and naive as to entertain any question of the divine authority of the FDA?!?!” In other words, I might have been operating from a state of confusion and hysteria and panic within an irrational herd!

 

 

So, what else is there to do? There is the alternative of studying some reliable results (some science), and then applying science to your health. 

 

In my own personal case, I had a major breakdown in physical health in which I lost the ability to walk and had a severe decline in neurological functionality. A western doctor would have called my condition “Multiple Sclerosis” and probably would have labeled it “incurable” (which simply means that the doctor does not have enough competence in the biochemistry and physiology of the human organism to understand and reliably treat the condition).

 

I had a full overnight recovery. My recovery immediately followed my choice to invest less than five dollars in purchasing a food that has been common for humans for over 10,000 years. 

 

You might be surprised at the very low cost of the recovery. Note that prior to my recovery, my physical condition (which was the natural results of my chosen behaviors) was severely limiting my ability to earn money. My expenses rose as a result of my health challenges (which were the result of my personal choices), which also resulted in my productivity and income declining.

I am grateful to have survived as well as grateful for the severe decline in health which cultivated a deep personal responsibility in me. When my health challenges climaxed, the ritual practice of blame (vilifying others and identifying myself as a helpless victim of the identified villain) was still a very real part of my life (and of my language). However, it was extremely obvious to me that blaming others had no practical value to me in regard to improving my health.

 

Government spending (Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)

 

Imagine if millions of people in the US who are so disabled that they are not contributing to the US economy and indeed are receiving government hand-outs were suddenly to have dramatic improvements in their physical health due to improved choices. Imagine the value that such a development could add to the productivity of the nation and the global competitiveness of the US.

 

Imagine if instead of pouring trillions of dollars in to mainstream medical methods that show decreasing effectiveness, individuals one by one began to invest in things like five dollars worth of a reliable remedy for multiple sclerosis? Imagine the vast improvement to their health. Imagine the vast improvement to their economic productivity and finances. Imagine if a simple choice to discontinue the rejection of personal responsibility could lead to a total transformation of humanity.

 

Next, imagine blaming a 2nd grader for not being especially competent in algebra, rocket science, and human physiology. Then, imagine investing trillions of dollars in the services of incompetent 2nd graders and then blaming the 2nd graders for the results produced by your investing in their services.

“They should be giving me better results! Those 2nd graders need to reform their system and stop calling algebra impossible or unsolvable and also stop calling immune system responses incurable or untreatable. They need to be more mature and more intelligent! Algebra problems can be solved by anyone competent in algebra! Health challenges can be resolved by anyone competent in physiology and biochemistry! Those incompetent 2nd graders are to blame for us investing naively in their incompetence!“

 

Ritalin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That may be precisely how critics of the FDA operate. The FDA is by now clearly established as having no credibility in regard to diet and health.

Maybe it is time to consider who has had credibility in those fields for the last century (while so many of us who have been panicking in irrational herds have been choosing to invest our attention elsewhere). Maybe it is time to explore dramatic improvements to health through dramatic declines in health spending (by re-focusing our spending on experts and methods that have a long-established record of reliable success). Maybe it is time to make new personal choices and challenge others to do the same, cultivating a grassroots revolution in the physical health and economic vitality of not just our household or neighborhood, but entire nations and even all of humanity.

 

 

So, I am not against the FDA. If people want to practice that religion and invest in that belief system, that is their choice. However, because the recommendations of the FDA are well-established as directly leading to the rising rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular illness, and so on, I may still comply with regulations that coerce me to support them financially, but I choose to discontinue compromising my health by being a blind follower of their religion of irrationality. At least until they adopt a rational and scientific approach, I will reject their guidelines as disappointing rather than reject personal responsibility by blaming them for the disappointing results of my past choices to follow their guidelines. 

 

I assert personal responsibility. I assert an interest in logic and rationality and science and therefore I adopt at least a skeptical orientation in regard to the assertions and claims made by organizations with no little or no scientific credibility, such as the FDA. I will assess the value of guidelines by reviewing the established results of following those guidelines. I will reject a panicked, hysterical presumption that any particular organization has any credibility whatsoever based on anything other than actual results. That is simply how a revolution in personal responsibility works.

 

 

credibility (Photo credit: moond_studio)

 

 

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my amazing new life

the simple secrets to an amazing life of happiness, health and wealth

secret #1: WHAT IS LANGUAGE? Language is a part of reality that is distinct from all of the rest of reality. Language is a specific category of human behavior. By language, I mean the entire realm that includes all symbols, codes, pretenses, claims, contradictions, falsehoods, nonsense, beliefs, controversies, arguments, and secrets. Outside of that definition of language, there are no such thing as symbols, codes, pretenses, claims, contradictions, falsehoods, nonsense, beliefs, controversies, arguments, and secrets. Those developments only form through the use of language. 

secret #2: WHAT IS LANGUAGE FOR? Language is simply a type of behavior used for influencing the attention, perception, and behavior of other people. It has absolutely no direct influence beyond that- like on the temperature or on the heat of the sun or on the speed of a car or of the rotation of the earth or the combustion of oxygen or the metabolic biochemistry of cells.

secret #3: HOW IS LANGUAGE RELATED TO AN AMAZING LIFE? Language is the source of amazing results as well as the source of the 3 claims that we use to inhibit our results: I couldn’t, I shouldn’t, & I wouldn’t. People can trade for happiness for resignation (“I couldn’t”). People can trade health for cynicism (I shouldn’t”). People trade wealth for pride (“I wouldn’t”).

The core 3 secrets:

secret #4: “What I couldn’t do” inhibits happiness. Happiness is a function of power. (Imagine something that someone has said “makes” them unhappy. Can the “source” of their linguistic claiming of unhappiness be framed as “I am unhappy because I couldn’t _______?”) People can trade for happiness for resignation (“I couldn’t”).

secret #5: “What I shouldn’t do” inhibits health. Health is a function of acceptance. (Imagine something that someone has said “makes” them unhealthy as in “makes me sick” or “makes me ill” or “makes me ill at ease” or “dis-eased” or “stressed out” as in “totally disgusting” or “completely unacceptable” or “just should not be!” Can the “source” of their linguistic claiming of illness or ill will or unwillingness be framed as “I am unhealthy because I shouldn’t _______?”) People can trade health for cynicism (I shouldn’t”).

secret #6: “What I wouldn’t do” inhibits wealth. Wealth is a function of freedom. (Imagine something that someone has said “prevents” them from being wealthy. Can the “source” of their linguistic claiming of their poverty be framed as “I am not wealthy because I wouldn’t _______?”) People can trade wealth for pride (“I wouldn’t”).

(Before you proceed to the experiment below, you might find the attached image of interest. As you read each emotional pattern of relating to something, notice if any particular pattern of behavior comes to attention as you review the various ways of emotional relating.)

Image via Wikipedia

Experiment:

part 1

list a few things that people can’t do. (it could be for any people or all people)

list a few things that people shouldn’t do. (it could be for any people or all people)

list a few things that people won’t do. (it could be for any people or all people)

part 2

Take the list of can’ts. If people took that list of claims of “can’t” and made them in to claims of unhappiness, how could they do that?

Take the list of shouldn’ts. If people took that list of claims of “shouldn’t” and made them in to claims of unwillingness or illness, how should they do that?

Take the list of won’ts. If people took that list of claims of “won’t” and made them in to claims of poverty, how would they do that?

part 3

list a few things that you have ever said “make” you unhappy. (complaints/blame/justifications)

list a few things that you have ever said “make you sick.” (rationalizations)

list a few things that you have ever said “prevent” you from being wealthy (excuses)

part 4

Take the above list and explore some alternative claims in language using the following forms or templates. List at least 2 answers for each item on your lists that you consider to be realistic and relevant answers. You can include some silly answers (why not?), but only count answers that you actually claim to be realistic and relevant toward your minimum 2 for each item.

If I could, how could I ______?

If I should, when should I _______?

If I would, why would I _______?

Related articles

• Babel No More: Inside the Secrets of Superhuman Language-Learners (brainpickings.org)
• If there’s a connection between linguistics and other sets of symbol systems (losthighwaytimes.com)
• We May Be Less Happy, But Our Language Isn’t (scienceblog.com)
• Millionaire Mindset Secrets – 7 Secrets of Wealth Creation Released (prweb.com)

the secret to safe prosperity

The purpose of this communication is to introduce you to an opportunity to experience a breakthrough in prosperity as well as in clarity. I promise that, by the end of reading it, you will be grateful for having read it- even changed forever. I am grateful for the clarity that brings me to share this introduction with you, and I am also grateful for your interest in this opportunity which is temporarily available to benefit us enormously, if we are willing.

Simply, there is an immense transfer of wealth emerging. Of course, there is always a shift in wealth toward particular recipients and away from particular sources. In particular, what we are in the midst of in recent years is a shift in an unusually large amount of affluence flowing away from an enormous number of people toward a relatively small number of beneficiaries. This is a transfer of distinctive opportunity, as well as distinctive urgency.

The practical difference is vast between adjusting promptly to the emerging shift or neglecting to adjust. Enormous and easy gains are temporarily available and, once the fastest portion of the shift is complete, those who have neglected to adapt will in many cases be financially ruined.

Next, I’m going to give a few simple examples. Let’s start with one of the most obvious economic developments of recent human history: the rise of the affluence of North Americans.

This chart shows the relatively small but notable advance toward economic prominence of North America from the year 1800 to 1900, followed by the huge advance from 1900 to 2000 toward uniquely disproportionate affluence. The graphics are not statistically precise, nor even close approximations, but only extremely rough estimates for illustrative purposes. However, I do not expect the basic trend would be disputed by anyone.

The simple point of this chart is that North America went from being an emerging market to a developing market to a well-developed market and finally to the leading regional “superpower” in the world. In other words, the percentage of the world’s resources controlled and owned by the North American population has ballooned in recent centuries, especially since the rise of the oil industry in Texas as early as the 1860s.

In contrast, the percentage of the world’s population that inhabits North America has not changed very much in the last few centuries. However, North America went from global distinction in the export of agricultural commodities to global leadership in fuel extraction and refining and then to global dominance in things like the technology of war (nuclear missiles and satellite networks and the internet and so on).

But what is the future of this trend? The trend toward a greater and greater portion of global affluence being controlled by North Americans may have already ended.

In fact, as North America has been gaining in global affluence, it has also come to lead the world in borrowing (indebtedness). While it took centuries for the singular economic dominance of the North American global empire to develop, the recent rise to 50% of global affluence could very quickly fall to 30% or even 10%, as has been the case of many prior empires of singular global dominance.

Note for comparison the last 30 years of the price of the Japanese stock index, which fell by 2/3 from late 1989 to 1992:

I show the chart of Japan’s stock market because Japan also rose to distinct economic prominence in the 20th century. At the time of it’s peak prominence, it had similar affluence to Germany, another leading nation in the manufacture of automobiles. Only Japan and Germany were anywhere close to the disproportionate affluence of the USA.

What if the USA experiences a decline similar to the decline for the last two decades in Japan? How would that compare to the Great Depression?

As shown on the prior chart, 20 years after the peak of the Japanese stock bubble in the late 1980s, prices are nowhere close to a new high. Stock prices in Japan are currently dropping back toward the price levels of the early 1980s.

However, as shown below, stock prices in the US took only 25 years to recover from the 1929 peak to a new high in 1954. Given the current economic situation of Japan, there is no sign of a pending recovery to new all-time highs in the next 5 years to produce a 25-year recovery, as was the case with the US previously.

Japan’s disproportionate percentage of global affluence has never returned to the peak levels of prior decades and shows no signs of recovery, as new emerging powers such as China and India gain in relative economic prominence. So, if the next few decades for North America are anything like they have been for Japan recently, that would be obvious as an enormous decline in the singular global economic dominance of the USA.

We can compare the 1929-1932 decline of 89% in the US stock market to the 66% decline from 1989-1992 in Japan. Given the speed of the decline in the US, I suggest that US stock market investors were even more willing to purchase excessively over-priced stocks than investors in Japanese stocks by 1989.

I also assert that most of today’s investors in the US are even less concerned about investment security than investors in Japan in 1989 or the US in 1929. US speculators today demonstrate with their investment behavior an overwhelming faith (a blind faith) in the future of the US economy, plus the interventions of the Federal Reserve, the US government in general, and, in particular, “socialized” insurance schemes like the FDIC (as well as the Social Security Administration, FHA, etc etc etc).

By the way, I could list extensive data comparing the stability of various US markets today with 1929 (when US stocks began a fall of 89%) or 1987 (the year in which the US stock market fell 29% in one day). I could also compare the stability of US real estate trends or of borrowing trends or of the prior acceleration of the overall affluence of the US economy relative to the rest of the world.

Consider that what is really odd though is not just what the data would show. What is odd is that the vast majority of investors have never explored how to specifically measure or even vaguely approximate the risk of their investments. Their confidence in the US economy, the FDIC, the Fed, the SEC, and the US Government is so incredibly high that they borrow huge amounts of money to invest in real estate, then paycheck after paycheck dump money indiscriminately into the US stock market and accounts with banks whose finances they have never studied. In other words, most people do not even consider what I am inviting you to consider. By the way, they probably never will.

Most people- at least in the middle class of North America- have a very limited sense of personal responsibility for the results produced by their own financial choices. The herding masses leave it to the government to assess and approve the financial risk of various investments, various banks, various insurance companies, and so on.

They want the government to protect them from financial risk and rescue them from danger as well as save them from personal consequences for their actions. They are unaware that they are gambling on their investments, with increasing confidence each time governments announce a new program for the average taxpayer to bail out the average taxpayer. 

Now, all of that was the first set of “simple” examples. Let’s simplify even further.

Imagine an investor named Mr. J.P. Lee. He has earned huge amounts of money speculating on real estate and dumping money indiscriminately paycheck after paycheck into many popular stocks, especially in the high technology industry, just like so many of his neighbors. Mostly from “flipping” real estate, his net worth has grown in only 10 years from 1 million yen to 60 million yen.

He is extremely confident in the economic future of his nation and in the government and in the insurance industry and so forth. He does not even think “can the insurance company actually fulfill the promises that they are making me in this contract?” He just presumes that because the insurance industry is regulated by the government, insurance companies must be very safe.

He presumes the same things about banks and about savings and loan institutions, which he knows are also insured by taxpayer guarantees. He is not especially concerned about personal responsibility for his own investments because he has faith in the nationalized social security insurance program and the pension plan from his prior work in the insurance industry.

He is 45 years old. It’s the end of 1989.

By 1992, in only 3 years, his Japanese stock market investments are down over 50%. His real estate portfolio has gone from a net positive equity of 30 million yen at the peak to 10 million yen now. He still owes 200 million yen in mortgages.

However, remember, he has tremendous confidence in the future of his government and the various investment markets and he has never heard of the “deflation” of the Yen currency from a credit bubble, so when he reads about it online, he thinks “I don’t know what deflation is, and if it was important, I’m sure that the media or the government would handle it for me and then let me know that it is already handled.” The chairman of the Japanese central bank says that it is patriotic to keep investing in stocks and keep speculating in real estate on borrowed money, and Mr. Lee is a proud military veteran, a direct descendant of the Samurai class, so he keeps holding his old investments that did so well in prior decades.

Year after year, the government proposes incentives and rescue packages. Year after year, people get excited, support the latest proposed solutions, then eventually blame the latest politicians, then get angry at some new executive scandal, then get excited about the next proposed solutions and elect some new politicians to go for it one more time again and again.

By 2010, he’s 65. He has been trying to come out of a forced retirement, but the job market in Japan is… not what it used to be. He lives in a tiny government-subsidized urban apartment complex, for which he is very grateful. He’s facing bankruptcy.

His positive equity in real estate did not recover back to 30 million yen after 1992 and instead it then went to a negative equity of being upside down by 80 million yen. He does not have 80 million yen left in his stock market portfolio.

In fact, he does not have a stock market portfolio anymore. When he did, he never had anywhere near 80 million yen in it either.

He never thought, when signing his mortgages: “what will I do if the Yen credit bubble deflates and my real estate drops in value by 50% or more? How will I come up with the money to pay off these mortgages?” He had bought a book from a TV ad about flipping real estate and the book did not mention anything about any of this.

Also, the insurance company he used to work for is now out of business. They got involved in insuring some sub-prime mortgage securities in the USA and went bankrupt in 2008.

So, his life insurance policies have been canceled, plus his health insurance. His pension fund fell 80% from the two-decade Japanese stock market decline and then in 2008 was apparently embezzled by a government bureaucrat who was supposed to protect the pension fund from embezzlement. However, that information is dangerous to mention, so please pretend that you did not just read that.

It is safe to openly say that the government accused some former employees of the insurance company of causing the demise of the pension fund, but the accused were let off with only a civil fine of a billion Yen, which is a fraction of what they were accused of taking. This all happened during the massive central bank rescue program of the insurance industry. A lot of money changed hands very quickly and the records of the transactions unfortunately were all lost in what was reported as a terrorist bombing.

Mr. Lee trusts the mass media in Japan because he went to public school and there he was taught to trust the mass media in Japan. Also, his parents trusted the mass media in Japan, so why wouldn’t he trust them?

Every day, he watches the TV news, sometimes seeing that same old advertisement about flipping real estate. The sexy young lady on TV says that the future of Japan is going to be better than ever before because of the last two decades of dropping prices and corporate bankruptcies and economic de-stabilization and rampant corruption. He says to himself “I like the way she laughs.”

Now, what about that lady on TV? She is 30. What else did you want to know about her?

Yes, she is married. Why do you ask?

Oh yes, of course: her newest husband is that one famous investing guy. He is 45 and he made A LOT of money selling books about flipping real estate, which helped bring buyers in to the real estate market while he was selling out of his real estate investments.

He also exited Japanese stocks in 1989, noticing that the “relative strength index” for Japanese stocks (shown on the middle chart above) was not making new highs by the late 1980s. He looked for stocks that were a better opportunity as indicated by their RSI levels, among many other indicators and statistical correlations that he studied diligently.

So, in the early 1990s, he invested in the US high tech stock sector and the stock market of Mexico. He made immense gains, especially in Mexican stocks: 2,588% (shown here as compared to a popular US stock market index: the S & P 500).

In 1999, he shifted out of US tech stocks to oil. His oil investments rose from $11 in 1999 to over $140 by 2008.

He also diversified into a US stock sector for companies that mine gold and silver (HUI). That made well over 1000% from 2000 to 2008.

He read this article in 2007: http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_05/hunn072107.html

So, after reading that, he began to sell out of commodities and stocks, investing in things like the US Dollar foreign exchange market and US treasury bonds, which rose dramatically in 2008. Then he read this one by the same author in 2008: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/redpill_info/message/491

So, he also took some positions “short-selling” the US stock market and made 100% on that as the market dropped more than 50% in about 15 months. He read this update in early 2009: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/redpill_info/message/592

After making 70% in 3 weeks as indicated in that article, he went on to make a few hundred percent in the next several months in FAS and BGU. Today, August 11, 2010, he made 12% on TZA in a single day.

He hopes that all the people reading this stay in their real estate investments and stock market investments. He hopes that they remain confident in their government and the central bankers at the Federal Reserve and the insurance industry and of course the real estate market. He hopes that they focus on sports and sitcoms and personal dramas and Alex Jones and do not consider the future of the singular economic dominance of North America.

He does not just hope, though. He is confident, because he is monitoring the relevant data closely, and indeed he is investing directly in the hopefulness of you, dear reader. He has spent a lot of money advertising in the US mainstream media, plus political lobbying and making campaign contributions through a few US companies that he owns. He was one of the designers of the tax credit for first-time homebuyers. On a related note, his book sales on flipping real estate, after weakening sales in Japan in recent years, have also been doing very well in the US, with sales of the book especially strong right after the initial announcement of the tax credit.

In fact, our old friend Mr. Lee (the one who used to work for the insurance company and who grew his first 1 million to 60 million in only 10 years) has an autographed copy of an old Japanese edition of the book which he bought in 1992, which he recently sold on e-bay to someone in the US for $3, which at current exchange rates is close to the price he originally paid in Yen. It was one of the best returns on an investment that he has made in the last few decades: – 5%.

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