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Explained simply: READ EVERYTHING ABOUT THE 2008 WALL STREET CRASH
ALERT: all markets today are subject to manipulation for private gain.
"ON A LONG ENOUGH TIMELINE, THE SURVIVAL RATE FOR EVERYONE DROPS TO ZERO"
1) Allen Greenspan convienently and simply admitted that he "failed to come to grips with the power of popular culture and greed in the delusions of crowds as part of the "economic" model".
1a) Just to put the US trade deficit with the People's Republic of China in perspective. America's Growing Trade Deficit Is Selling The Nation Out From Under Us. Here's A Way To Fix The Problem--And We Need To Do It Now. (FORTUNE Magazine) By Warren E. Buffett Carol J. Loomis November 10, 2003 The trade deficit with the PRC was about $227 billion in 2009, and Microsoft's market cap is about $225 billion. So every year, the USA is doing the equivalent of packing Microsoft into shipping containers—every rack of servers, every line of code, every partner contract, every patent—and loading the containers onto a ship bound for the PRC.
2) Goldman Sachs Dominated Fraud: computerized front running using high-frequency trading programs. Wall Street commentator Max Keiser who invented and patented the program calls it rigged market capitalism: all markets today are subject to manipulation for private gain. High Frequency Trading (HFT) or black box trading, automated program trading uses high-speed computers governed by complex algorithms (instructions to the computer) to analyze data and transact orders in massive quantities at very high speeds.
3) S.Korea suspends Deutsche Bank brokerage unit on stock manipulation February 24, 2011
Gorden Geeko:
I don't throw darts at a board.
I bet on sure things. Read Sun-tzu,
The Art of War.
Every battle is won before it is ever fought.
Saturday, July 25, 2009 HFT And Goldman Sachs Boiling Point: NYT And Max Keiser
I want to know. Where are the Nightly News Network Reporters? 3000 people work at CNBC. Why aren't they reporting this information to us! This is why we use the net, which is the dominant paradigm for real information.
Gordon Gekko: When I get a hold of the son of a bitch who leaked this, I'm gonna tear his eyeballs out and I'm gonna suck his fucking skull.
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Gordon Gekko: If you're not inside, you're *outside*!
Gordon Gekko: You're walking around blind without a cane, pal. A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.
If you are reading this on the Educational CyberPlayGround - You are not a player!
Is Wall Street Picking our Pockets?
HFT: Even the NY Stock Exchange itself is acknowledging the HFT media campaign
BANKING SECRETS
Tax havens
"Once you become part of senior management," he says, "and gain international experience, as I did, then you are part of the inner circle – and things become much clearer. You are part of the plot. You know what the real products and service are, and why they are so expensive. It should be no surprise that the main product is secrecy … Crimes are committed and lies spread in order to protect this secrecy." "My understanding is that my client's attempts to get the banks to act over various complaints he made came to nothing internally," says Elmer's lawyer, Jack Blum, one of America's leading experts in tracking offshore money. "Neither would the Swiss courts act on his complaints. That's why he went to WikiLeaks."
Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous to WikiLeaks. “Well-known pillars of society will hold investment portfolios and may include houses, trading companies, artwork, yachts, jewellery, horses, and so on.” Blow the whistle on what they see as unprofessional, immoral and even potentially criminal activity by powerful international financial institutions.
Along with the City of London and Wall Street, Switzerland is a fortress of banking and financial services, but famously secretive and expert in the concealment of wealth from all over the world for tax evasion and other extra-legal purposes. The list includes "high net worth individuals", multinational conglomerates and financial institutions – hedge funds". They are said to be "using secrecy as a screen to hide behind in order to avoid paying tax". They come from the US, Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia – "from all over".
Clients include "business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates – from both sides of the Atlantic". "What I am objecting to is not one particular bank, but a system of structures," he told the Observer. "I have worked for major banks other than Julius Baer, and the one thing on which I am absolutely clear is that the banks know, and the big boys know, that money is being secreted away for tax-evasion purposes, and other things such as money-laundering – although these cases involve tax evasion." Elmer says his documents include all the back-up data held on Julius Baer's computer server in the Caymans at the time he was sacked, including accounts, correspondence, memos and resolutions dealing with 114 trusts, 80 companies, 60 funds and 1,330 individuals.
The data was later seen by the Guardian, which found "details of numerous trusts in which wealthy people have placed capital. This allows them lawfully to avoid paying tax on profits, because legally it belongs to the trust"; the data also "[appeared] to include several cases where wealthy individuals sought to use trust money as though it were their own".
The documents include details of numerous trusts in which wealthy people have placed capital. This allows them lawfully to avoid paying tax on profits, because legally it belongs to the trust. In the same way, the capital can pass to heirs free of inheritance tax. The trust itself pays no tax, as a Caymans resident. The trustees can distribute money to the trust's beneficiaries but it is essential the trustees exercise their own control over the trust's assets. If not, the assets become once more the property of the person who sets up the trust- and may be taxed.
The Secret of Banking
Print your own money certificates
371 Swiss banks stand accused of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II.
This was suspected at the time by by U.S. Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau, who began investigating this collaboration. He found the Swiss were not alone. His archives reveal that both British and American bankers continued to do business with Hitler, even as Germany was invading Europe and bombing London.
This investigative film shows in detail the roles played by the Anglo-German banking clique. Key members of the Bank of England together with their German counterparts established the BIS, the Bank for International Settlement, which laundered the plundered gold of Europe. On its board were key Nazis such as Walther Funk and Hjalamar Schact The president of BIS was an American, Thomas McKittrick, who readily socialized with leading Nazis. Not only the BIS, but other allied banks worked hand in hand with the Nazis. One of the biggest American banks kept a branch open in Occupied Paris and, with full knowledge of the managers in the U.S., froze the accounts of French Jews. Deprived of money to escape France, many ended up in death camps.
When Pres. Roosevelt died in April 1945, Morganthau lost his protector and his crusade against the banks came to an end. He was further weakened when men in his department were accused of being Communists during the McCarthy era. This incredible story contains interviews with surviving members of banking families and Morganthaus investigative team as well as newly found archive material.
“A gang armed with guns can easily steal thousands. A gang armed with pens can just as easily steal millions - and the prison terms are shorter.”
Lawyers and accountants make up a tenth of the 52,000 population of the Cayman Islands, which are English-speaking, politically stable, in the US time zone, and with zero taxes. This British Overseas Territory with palm trees and luxury hotels, measuring less than 100 square miles, is the fifth largest financial centre on the planet. Tax Justice Network campaigners estimate that tax havens collectively hold more than $11.5 trillion. Some comes from tax avoidance. Each year the US may lose a total of about $100bn in potential taxes, France about $50bn, Germany $30bn, the UK between $20bn and $80bn - and the developing world loses up to $800bn in stolen capital. But in the Caymans, a prison sentence awaits anyone who discloses bank information.
WHISTLEBLOWERS
http://xrl.in/71jz This is the Cover Story for this January/February 2011 issue of the magazine, which goes out in hard copy to roughly 90,000 Chartered Financial Analysts across the globe.
The stories of whistleblowers rarely have a happy ending, primarily because the companies they report on do not implode but continue with their poor behavior and often prosper. Elmer's advice to anyone considering blowing the whistle is to plan ahead. “You have to have a very strategic approach,” he says. “You should not think about the moment of the whistleblowing but what happens to your family and friends and know that your lifestyle will change dramatically.” Moreover, he adds, “Financially, you have to be certain you can survive. In the United States, the False Claims Act, which was strengthened in 1986, covers cases in which bogus or inflated claims are filed for the payment of federal/government money (e.g., under a federal contract or federally funded program). The False Claims Act contains whistleblower provisions called “qui tam,” which allow citizens with evidence of such fraud to sue and recover the stolen money. As a reward for blowing the whistle, whistleblowers can recoup between 15 percent and 25 percent of monies recovered. But the False Claims Act doesn't cover tax fraud. A separate U.S. Internal Revenue Service whistleblower rule allows for those who expose tax evaders to be awarded a similar 15–25 percent of the amount recovered.
But there's a catch for would-be whistleblowers. Under the False Claims Act, although files are sealed in U.S. federal court for seven years, the whistleblower's identity eventually will be made public. Currently, the outcome for Dodd–Frank provisions remains to be determined. It's unclear whether the SEC will have any mechanism for disclosing the name(s) of whistleblowers or might be forced to provide such disclosures.
Kaupthing Icelandic Banking: This document contains a list of 28167 claims, totally 40 billion euro, lodged against the failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing Bank hf. The document is important because it reveals billions in cash, bonds and other property held with Kaupthing by wealthy investors and asset hiders from around the world, including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanly, Exista, Barclays, Commerzbank AG and a vast number of others.
2008 Tax haven banks in Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Swiss bank UBS and its alleged efforts to help wealthy Americans hide their money from the IRS through shell companies in Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein's veil of secrecy was pierced five years ago when the disgruntled technician, Kieber, downloaded the names of foreign citizens connected to the secret accounts. Arrests of several prominent CEO's on charges that had evaded millions of dollars in taxes. Kieber's Washington lawyer, Jack Blum, says Kieber should be considered a whistleblower and a hero, not a thief, for revealing how the super rich hid billions of dollars using the Liechtenstein bank. A former UBS private banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, has agreed to a plea deal and is reported to be cooperating with US authorities in bring charges against American citizens on tax evasion charges. The Liechtenstein bank, LGT, is owned by the tiny country's ruling family led by Prince Hans-Adam II. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5378080&page=1
2011 Banker Rudolf Elmer and whistle blower former employee of Swiss bank Julius Bär. "As a banker, I have the right to stand up if something is wrong [...] I am against the system. I know how the system works and I know the day-to-day business. I wanted to let society know how this system works because it's damaging society". He added that he had tried to approach universities with his data but that they had not responded. Likewise, attempts to attract the attention of the Swiss media had failed, with Elmer being dismissed as "a paranoid person, a mentally ill person". Elmer began to lose hope, "but then a friend of mine told me: 'There's WikiLeaks.' I looked at it and thought: 'That's the only hope I have to [let] society know what's going on.'"
1/19/2011 JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley won approval from Chinese regulators to form joint ventures in the country, potentially giving them a bigger role in China's booming securities business. The two firms are the latest global banks to win the right to team up with local players to underwrite stock and bond offerings in China. Eventually, the joint ventures will be able to sell stocks to Chinese citizens and institutions.
Commerce WithOUT
Conscience
Ethics vs. Institutional Corruption
Gordon Gekko
"The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy? It's the free market. And you're a part of it. You've got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I've still got a lot to teach you."
After 11 hours of accusations by members of the Senate Subcommittee on Permanent Investigations, people close to the bank said Goldman is mulling closing the SEC fraud-case chapter on the belief the firm's reputation, already damaged, might not endure a street fight with the Wall Street watchdog. The SEC on April 16 announced that it had sued the Wall Street giant on charges it misled investors about the details of a mortgage-securities deal in which billionaire hedge fund king John Paulson influenced some of the collateral used in the transaction and then bet against its performance. The SEC also sued Goldman mortgage trader Fabrice Tourre, who's been accused of concealing Paulson's involvement when marketing the deal to investors. The SEC filed its charges after months of discussions with the bank over the claims. However, sources said the agency pulled the trigger on suing the bank out of frustration for what it saw as Goldman dragging its feet toward a resolution.
HARVARD GRADUATES: CARL LEVIN VS BLANKFEIN
2/28/10 Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, pummeled Blankfein, chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Both are Harvard Law School Graduates.
Levin worked as an assistant attorney general in Michigan and general counsel for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission before being elected to the Detroit City Council and then winning a seat in the Senate in 1978. He is chairman of the Armed Services Committee as well as the investigations subcommittee and has led probes into unfair credit card practices, money laundering and the collapse of Enron Corp. Last year he made $174,000.
Carl Levin said. “You shouldn't be selling crap. You shouldn't be betting against your own customers.” “Your people think it's a piece of crap and go out and sell it,” said Levin, his reading glasses pushed to the tip of his nose, referring to Goldman Sachs e-mails in which traders spoke of selling securities to customers. “We're talking about betting against the very thing that you're selling, without disclosing that to your client.” “What do you think about your own people selling securities they think are crap?” the senator asked.
ALERT Goldman "Risk Factors."
The mere materiality of undisclosed information doesn't create liability for its omission; as opposed to a misrepresentation, the culpability of an omission depends first on a duty to disclose.
However: Section 11 of the 33 Act has been held to require that the issuer disclose information that might tend to deter an investor from purchasing. As I understand it, an issuer who doesn't comply with that obligation is liable, even if it admits that it hasn't complied. In other words, you can't just warn prospective purchasers that you've failed to disclose material information - you have to disclose. And, again IMO, it seems hard to argue that purchasers would not have wanted to know that the guy who secretly assembled the portfolio was shorting it.
EVERYTHING ABOUT THE 2008 WALL STREET CRASH
which is the result of the The Commodities Future Modernization Act that allowed Toxic Assets aka "Credit Default Swaps", BIG OIL and BANKS and ENTIRE EXCHANGES to be removed from Government Purview. Plus Lax oversight by Gov't agencies and deregulation which produced the disaster on wall street. Contributions to Congress Campaigns pays them off. They are paid not to look! That is how this happens. Congress wasn't protecting the public they were helping the tax payer get ripped off.
So we are looking at a distortion of the process. The goldrush mentality of Society's Parasites (The Speculators. Why Banks and S&Ls went Bankrupt along with the Hedge Funds, the Trilateral Commission Bankers, the Big 4 Credit Rating Agencies Standard & Poor's, Moody's Corporation, and Fitch Ratings auditing firms are complicit in the malaise now sickening the global financial services sector. Topped off by another Trilateral Commission member and Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan who admitted he didn't figure into his model that people who weren't supervised would steal! Greenspan convienently and simply admits that he failed to come to grips with the power of popular culture and greed in the delusions of crowds as part of the "economic" model.
Gordon Gekko: Greed is good.
Lloyd Blankfein Goldman CEO is a sociopath. Goldman Sachs was sued on April 16, 2010, by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissionand is accused of fraudulently selling collateralized debt obligations tied to subprime mortgages. With Blankfein at the helm Goldman has also been criticized "by lawmakers and pundits for issues from its pay practices to its role in helping Greece mask the size of its debts."[8] Blankfein testified before Congress in April of 2010 at a hearing of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Movie Wall Street Lou Mannheim: "Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss."
Basic conclusions about Entrepreneurs: Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics [source]
- seem to worry equally about financial autonomy and/or a feeling of being motivated in their jobs.
- are worse at coming up with reasons they might fail
- don't care what other people think about them.
If baseball owners and players had only played the win:win game, but the integrity of the sport itself was tarnished
- ... that would have been a win : win : lose
- ... And without the Third Win, society will be, at some level, damaged.
PERILS OF THE "BOTTOM LINE" MODEL
- "Bottom Line" model where the ONLY thing that appears to matter is the money at the end of the day. Do you think MONEY is all that matters and HOW you make it is irrelevant?
- Successful businesses do not care about being "better people they want to be a RICHER people. Does Money Equal Happiness?
- See the Research on Happiness - Continuous register of scientific research on subjective appreciation of life.
World Database On Happiness - Mr. Schachter wrote a research note, which suggests that he still doesn't quite get the concept of serving customers first, and worrying about revenues later"
- You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
The Shareholder Value Trap
Can a public company satisfy shortsighted Wall Street investors looking for the next quarterly return and still build a company directed by long-term strategies? Some see the conflict in stark terms. You can build a company that serves customers or build a company that serves shareholders, but you can't easily serve both constituencies well.
2004 - In seeking venture capital investment, however, a company is hungry not just for cash but also for the venture firm's “reputation and access to a network of relationships – with customers, suppliers, investments bankers and other important constituents in the universe that the entrepreneur cares about,” Professor Hsu says. This may not be a startling insight to technology entrepreneurs who are familiar with venture capitalists. What Hsu's paper does, however, is provide “a scientific measurement” of the magnitude of this phenomenon. He found that offers from more reputable venture capitalists are three times more likely to be accepted by entrepreneurial companies and that, on average, these favored investors acquire start-up equity in the companies at a 10-14% discount. What Hsu discovered is that “a lot of money is left on the table” by the companies, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the pre-money valuation accepted by the companies. Less than half of the firms surveyed accepted their best financial offer. High-reputation VCs primarily syndicate with other high-reputation VCs." Affiliating with the right venture capital partner can certify the merits of a company to other parties, such as other investors.” These investors typically invest between $50,000 and $50,000,000 in new ventures. Review each site to determine what each firm likes to invest in. Source registration required.
- The Five Most Common Lies in Business
- Top 10 lies of Engineers
- Top 10 lies of Marketers
- The Top 10 lies of Venture Capitalists
- The Top 10 lies of Entrepreneurs
Startup Company Valuation Calculator
This is an educational and humorous multiple-choice quiz for estimating the value of an early-stage company.
Brand Value: A brand's value is simply about the extent to which it can sell its goods and services at a premium price. Many marketers mistakenly attribute product quality, styling, service and reliability to a brand name's value, when all brand value ultimately comes down to is pricing power. Brand name value is the “most sustainable competitive advantage known to business.” The value of brand names, is a mix of some advertising, a lot of luck, and being in the right place at the right time.”Branding is an illusion an emotion the intangible emotional connections people feel they have with the brand. Nurtyre your brand's image, “the illusion” as, the image can be more valuable than the product itself. ~ Damodaran
Old-Boy Network's Power Exposed
KarmaBank.com
Activists Attack Companies With Revenue Depleting Boycotts - Hedge Funds Attack These Companies With Stock Crushing Short-Sales
Washington Post: "The Internet allows people to swarm and hit a company where it hurts most -- in their stock price."
Soon it could take more than a secret handshake to swing boards' decisions.
Cliques of well-connected businessmen can easily corrupt or distort corporate board decisions, but now a team of scientists say they can assess how much power old-boy networks have over boardroom meetings. "A well-connected lobby of a minority of directors can drive the decision of the board," say Stefano Battiston of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and co-workers. But they think that it is possible to predict the chances that a board will agree with the opinion of such a lobby. If this is so, the power of the lobby can be assessed and the changes needed to break its dominance identified. It all depends, say the researchers, on how many members of a board also sit together on other boards. It's a common situation. Almost 100 years ago Louis Brandeis, a judge in the US Supreme Court, spoke of a "financial oligarchy controlling the business of the country". Not much has changed. Directors and board members of large companies form a kind of social network in which many individuals sit with at least one other person on more than one corporate board.
"They Rule"
THEY RULE are the board members of Fortune 100 companies, and you can use this site to see the relationships between these companies. Click on "Add Company" and select a favorite, then click on the board table's "plus" sign and select "Expand" to see the names of that company's board of directors. Next, click on a board member's briefcase -- let's try Sam Nunn -- and select "Expand" again to view other companies on whose board that person sits. (Nunn also sits on the boards of General Electric, Texaco, and Dell Computers.) You can also click on "Load Map" to see the connections that others have suggested. Did you know that there are 72 guys named "John" on the boards of Fortune 100 companies? Or how few steps there are between Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard? Open Secrets
U.S. Sage Attacks Executive Greed
WARREN BUFFETT, the US investor whose folksy style masks one of the shrewdest minds in corporate America, used the annual gathering of his Berkshire Hathaway vehicle to launch a fierce attack on US executive greed and President Bush¹s planned tax cuts.
The shareholder meeting in Mr Buffett¹s home town of Omaha, Nebraska, which attracts some 14,000 "Buffeteers", is dubbed the "Woodstock for Capitalists" and is a fixture in the investment calendar. But this year¹s gathering at times seemed more like an antiglobalisation rally.
The second richest man in the world, Mr Buffett, known as the "Sage of Omaha", criticized plans for tax cuts that he said were designed to fleece the poor and reward the rich.
"I am not for the Bush plan. It screams of injustice. The main beneficiaries will be people like me and Charlie," he said, referring to the Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman Charlie Munger. Mr Buffett said the tax plan was equivalent to "us giving a lesser percentage of our incomes to Washington than the people working in our shoe factories".
He called on investors to rise up and revolt over colossal executive pay packages, saying in the past 20 years there had been "an enormous disparity in the rates of compensation between people at the top and people at the bottom, and a disconnect between people at the top and the shareowners who give them the money.
"Arise shareholders," he concluded, raising both palms skyward. Famed for his integrity and modest lifestyle, Mr Buffett paid himself $100,000 (£62,000) in salary and a further $300,000 in bonuses last year. He still lives in the grey stucco house he bought in 1956 for $31,500.
Berkshire Hathaway, the insurance-to-candy conglomerate that he chairs, would report record operating profits of $1.7 billion in the first quarter, benefiting from the strength of the insurance sector, he said. This was double the $818 million reported for the first three months of 2001.
Mr Buffett reported a "soft" performance of Berkshire¹s consumer businesses, citing weak consumer spending power, which he claimed was not fairly reflected in the figures for US gross domestic product.
Mr Buffett said Berkshire had accumulated investable cash or "float" of $42.5 billion, up from about $37 billion a year ago. The conglomerate owns a diverse range of companies including Geico, the sixth largest auto insurer in the US, and General Re, a leading reinsurer.
Last Friday the company announced plans to buy McLane, a wholesale grocery distributor owned by Wal-Mart, for $1.5 billion.
When asked about the increase in dubious litigation in the US, Mr Buffett acknowledged the problem but seemed more concerned about the growing number of plaintiffs with a genuine grievance against a US corporation.
resources
Not for Profit isn't Against Profit, but exactly the opposite is true.
"If you choose to work in the nonprofit sector, you're not taking a vow of poverty, but you are saying you're motivated by something besides how do I make the most possible money," said John Vogel, a professor of nonprofit management at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. "The chief executive officer's salary does send a signal. It does say what kind of organization you are, what you value, what you care about."
How to Recruit Smart People
Lifestyle proclivities represent a profound new force in the economy and life of America. How to keep members of the creative class: a fast-growing, highly educated, and well-paid segment of the workforce on whose efforts corporate profits and economic growth increasingly depend. Members of the creative class do a wide variety of work in a wide variety of industries---from technology to entertainment, journalism to finance, high-end manufacturing to the arts. They do not consciously think of themselves as a class. Yet they share a common ethos that values creativity, individuality, difference, and merit. Find Large Cities Creativity Rankings.
Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide By Sabrina I. Pacifici and Donna Cavallini
Small Business Loans
Fast Upfront can help you get money for your business. We offer Small Business Loans and Business Cash Advances based on your future credit card receivables. This is similar to an unsecured loan that is given out even if you have bad credit.
Leadership Is Confusing as Hell
Definition of Crowd Sourcing
The act of taking a job traditionally performed by an employee and outsourcing it to an undefined group of people on a project-by-project basis, in the form of an open call. Firms wishing to follow this model could encourage employees to set up a company with 10 or more colleagues, and buy back their services as and when needed.
Do the right thing.
It will gratify some people and astonish the rest
~ Samuel Clemens
How to Make Money on the Net by Chris Brogan
- Grow bigger ears (listening) – the best way I've found to help people make money via the web is to “listen at the point of need.” The idea is that people are offering up their interests and requests and desires via the social web every day. If you have what they need, there are opportunities to get into the selling cycle on the spot, instead of waiting.
- Be protective of your community – this is how Oprah succeeded. She grew a community around content that was helpful to the people consuming it, and then she attracted sponsors who wanted access to those people. She then stayed fiercely in between the two groups, making sure her community was always protected, and that sponsors had access on her terms only. Own the relationship, own the money.
- Add more value than promotion – selling is often heavy-handed and based on wanting to close. The real winners are relationship-minded people who make not only the first sale, but all the subsequent sales thereafter. By giving your community much more value (more content, more things they can use) than just promoting your stuff, you win longer term sales relationships.
- Promote and recognize others – in selling and marketing, we talk too much about ourselves. People want to be seen and recognized. Use your platform to point out the good stuff that would appeal to the rest of your community. Mention them. Talk about your customers more than you talk about yourselves.
- Be clear on your ask – when you finally have a hard ask, a request for a sale, then be very clear about it. Don't ever sidle up to the sale. Never let there be a confusion between your goodwill efforts and your direct need for a sale. Never flinch about it, and never make it a mushy mix of community warmth and indirect sales requests. Just like relationships, short and clear is better than long and convoluted.
THE SCIENCE
OF HAPPINESS
The Science of Happiness
[... Scientists say they can actually measure happiness. Neuroscientists are measuring pleasure. They suggest that happiness is more than a vague concept or mood; it is real.
What makes us happy?
According to psychologist Professor Ed Diener there is no one key to happiness but a set of ingredients that are vital.
- First, family and friends are crucial - the wider and deeper the relationships with those around you the better.
- It is even suggested that friendship can ward off germs. Our brains control many of the mechanisms in our bodies which are responsible for disease.
- Just as stress can trigger ill health, it is thought that friendship and happiness can have a protective effect. According to happiness research, friendship has a much bigger effect on average on happiness than a typical person's income itself.
- {England} One economist, Professor Oswald at Warwick University, has a formula to work out how much extra cash we would need to make up for not having friends. The answer is 50,000.
- Marriage also seems to be very important. According to research the effect of marriage adds an average seven years to the life of a man and something like four for a woman.
- The second vital ingredient is having meaning in life, a belief in something bigger than yourself - from religion, spirituality or a philosophy of life.
- The third element is having goals embedded in your long term values that you're working for, but also that you find enjoyable.
Psychologists argue that we need to find fulfillment through having goals that are interesting to work on and which use our strengths and abilities.
Measuring Happiness
The leading American psychologist Professor Ed Diener from the University of Illinois, says that the science of happiness is based on one straightforward idea:
"It may sound silly but we ask people 'How happy are you 1-7, 1-10? "And the interesting thing is that produces real answers that are valid, they're not perfect but they're valid and they predict all sorts of real things in their lives."
One type of measurement even tries to record people's levels of happiness throughout the day wherever they are. Ecological momentary assessment uses hand held computers. The person being quizzed is bleeped and then taken through a questionnaire.
"The measures are not perfect yet I think they are in many ways as good as the measures economists use," said Professor Diener.
It is a remarkable claim. Simply by asking people, we have a measure of happiness that is as good as the economists' measure of poverty or growth.
And if true, governments could be judged by how happy they make us.
An adviser to the Prime Minister, David Halpern, told us that within the next 10 years the government would be measured against how happy it made everybody.
Power of happiness
NYT $$ But Will It Make You Happy?
August 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/business/08consume.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
CONSPICUOUS consumption has been an object of fascination going back at least as far as 1899, when the economist Thorstein Veblen published “The Theory of the Leisure Class,” a book that analyzed, in part, how people spent their money in order to demonstrate their social status. “The one single trait that's common among every single person who is happy is strong relationships". Unlike consumption of material goods, spending on leisure and services typically strengthens social bonds, which in turn helps amplify happiness. Scholars contend that experiences provide a bigger pop than things is that they can't be absorbed in one gulp, scholars have found that anticipation increases happiness. Over time, that means the buzz from a new purchase is pushed toward the emotional norm. We stop getting pleasure from it. Scholars have discovered that one way consumers combat hedonic adaptation is to buy many small pleasures instead of one big one.
Elizabeth Dunn - spending money on experiences makes you happier than spending it on plain old stuff.
Thomas DeLeire - Marriage increases happiness. Spending on leisure activities appeared to make people less lonely and increased their interactions with others.
Sonja Lyubomirsky Paying for experiences gives us longer-lasting happiness is that we can reminisce about them, researchers say. Trips aren't perfect but we remember them as perfect.
Happiness seems to have almost magical properties. We have not got proof, but the science suggests it leads to long life, health, resilience and good performance.
Standard of living has increased dramatically and happiness has increased not at all Professor Daniel Kahneman, University of Princeton.
Scientists work by comparing people's reported happiness and a host of other factors such as age, sex, marital status, religion, health, income, unemployment and so on. In survey after survey involving huge groups of people, significant correlations between happiness and some other factors are repeated. At the moment scientists cannot prove causation, whether for example people are healthy because they are happy, or whether people are happy because they are healthy. However, psychologists have been able to identify some very strong links. According to Professor Diener the evidence suggests that happy people live longer than depressed people. "In one study, the difference was nine years between the happiest group and the unhappiest group, so that's a huge effect. "Cigarette smoking can knock a few years off your life, three years, if you really smoke a lot, six years. "So nine years for happiness is a huge effect."
Richer But No Happier
Happiness researchers have been monitoring people's life satisfaction for decades. Yet despite all the massive increase in our wealth in the last 50 years our levels of happiness have not increased. "Standard of living has increased dramatically and happiness has increased not at all, and in some cases has diminished slightly," said Professor Daniel Kahneman of the University of Princeton.
"There is a lot of evidence that being richer isn't making us happier"
Scientists think they know the reason why we do not feel happier despite all the extra money and material things we can buy.
- First, it is thought we adapt to pleasure. We go for things which give us short bursts of pleasure whether it is a chocolate bar or buying a new car.But it quickly wears off.
- You can't take a grouch and make him giggle all the time Professor Martin Seligman, University of Pennsylvania
- Second, its thought that we tend to see our life as judged against other people.
- We compare our lot against others. Richer people do get happier when they compare themselves against poorer people, but poorer people are less happy if they compare up.
- The good news is that we can choose how much and who we compare ourselves with and about what, and researchers suggest we adapt less quickly to more meaningful things such as friendship and life goals.