HOW TO GET RICH LIKE WARREN BUFFETT AND RICHARD BRANSON

Streets of Monaco Yacht.

1. Warren Buffett.

Economist John Kay calculates what would happen if Warren Buffett had a fund manager.

The fund manager would deduct charges from the profits on Buffett's investments. (who's paying for all those yachts?)

How much of Buffett’s $62bn would the fund manager end up with.

The answer is that the manager would get $57bn.

And Buffett would be left with only $5bn.

"This assumes an annual fund management charge of 2 per cent, and a performance fee of 20 per cent of gains – the norm in the hedge fund industry."

On 18 November 2011, The Financial Times asks who's paying for all those yachts?

If you give your savings to an investment manager, there will be hidden charges, fees and other deductions.

Abramovich yacht

The Financial Times reports that the boss of an investment management firm gave a presentation to UK government officials.

This boss provided a real-life example of what happened when a UK private investor put £70,000 into a pension fund, back in 1994.

Over the next 15 years, the stock market rose by 66 per cent.

This should have meant a gain of £46,000, making the pension fund worth £116,000.

But, in 2009, the investor was told his fund was worth just under £70,000.

His £46,000 had been eaten up by charges and fees.

FT Money has revealed that "personal pension funds on sale today can take 39 per cent of a final fund value in charges, over a 25-year period."

David Norman, the founder of TCF Investments, suggests that investing £100,000 in the average UK equity mutual fund over 20 years will generate a sum of £227,695, assuming 7 per cent growth.

But, £159,272 will be deducted in various charges. (who's paying for all those yachts?)



2. RICHARD BRANSON

Northern Rock is a bank that was taken over by the British government at a cost of £ 1.4 billion.

It is now to be sold to Richard Branson.

Branson's Virgin Group will spend only £50 million in cash to get hold of the bank.

(Northern Rock cash used to fund deal)

According to the Financial Times, the government will get £747 million.

But, a third of this will come from Northern Rock itself.

"Virgin Group is injecting only £50m of cash alongside a similar amount from little-known Abu Dhabi fund Stanhope Investments, and close to £260m from US financier Wilbur Ross..."

There is talk of asset stripping by Branson.

Wilbur Ross used to work for the Rothschilds.

(Financier who got Northern Rock rolling - FT.com)

GOLD $700 AN OUNCE; SHORT SELLING; US-UK ATTACKS ON EUROPE

A. "Gold could drop to $700 an ounce."

Gold is currently around $1,671 per ounce.

(Gold bugs beware - the bubble is finally bursting)

According to Mark Williams, of Boston University’s School of Management:

"The last bull market for gold ended in 1980, when prices fell by 60 per cent.

"For 20 years after, owning gold was dead money.

"In 2011, the bubble is popping again."


B. At Global research, on 29 September 2011, Ellen Brown has written:

Financial Warfare: "Sheared by the Shorts". How Short Sellers Fleece Investors

"Why did gold and silver stocks just get hammered, at a time when commodities are considered a safe haven against widespread global uncertainty?

"The answer, according to Bill Murphy’s newsletter LeMetropoleCafe.com, is that the sector has been the target of massive short selling...

"A bear raid is the practice of targeting a stock or other asset for take-down, either for quick profits or for corporate takeover...

"When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September 2008, some analysts thought the investment firm’s condition was no worse than its competitors’.

"What brought it down was not undercapitalization but a massive bear raid on 9-11 of that year, when its stock price dropped by 41% in a single day...

"When done on a large enough scale, short selling can force prices down, allowing assets to be picked up very cheaply.

"Another Great Depression is the short seller’s dream, as a trader recently admitted on a BBC interview.

"His candor was unusual, but his attitude is characteristic of a business that is all about making money, regardless of the damage done to real companies contributing real goods and services to the economy..."


C. Dr. Webster G. Tarpley, at Global Research, 3 October 2011, has written:

Europe Must Fight Back Against US-UK Speculative Attacks

According to Webster Tarpley:

1. The US and UK are carrying out economic warfare against the Eurozone.

2. The problems of the Eurozone are being axaggerated.

3. The aim is to divert attention away from the problems of the USA and UK.

4. "London and New York are exporting their own derivatives depression into the EU, using credit default swaps, corrupt credit ratings agencies, and their entire panoply of financial dirty tricks."

5. The USA and UK want to be able to buy up assets in the Eurozone at bargain-basement prices.

6. The Anglo Americans want to destroy the Euro.

"The dollar is now so weak and unstable that it can only survive through the downfall of all the alternative currencies."

7. "If the speculation persists, certain forms of capital controls and exchange controls would be in order."


8. What Europe Must Do

A. Liquidate Zombie Banks; End Too Big to Fail.

About a dozen of the top European money center banks are clearly insolvent.

They must be subjected to bankruptcy proceedings, and their derivatives wiped out.

B. 1% Euro-Tobin on All Financial Transactions.

A 1% Euro-Tobin will serve to subdue speculation in general, and particularly to bridle the activities of the hedge funds.

C. Universal Cancellation/Freeze of Derivative Debts.

D. The most dangerous kinds of derivatives need to be permanently prohibited.

E. Raid the Ratings Agencies — Reports have surfaced in the United States that credit ratings agencies have engaged in insider trading by giving speculators advance notice of their attacks on US Treasury bonds.

F. Debt Moratoria Now for Crisis Economies.

Countries, like Greece, Portugal, and Ireland need to declare an immediate, unilateral, and total debt moratorium on all international financial debt.

G. Europeanize The European Central Bank.

The ECB must be taken permanently out of the control of secret cliques of unelected and unaccountable bankers and subjected to the democratic control of representative political institutions.

H. €1 Trillion For Infrastructure.

I. 40 Million New Productive Jobs for Full Employment.

J. End Afghanistan, Libya, Kosovo, and Other Military Meddling.

Foster a development community of sovereign states which would embrace Europe, Russia, Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of the world.

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ARGENTINA VERSUS THE USA

Argentinian model Naomi Preizler

If you buy a BlackBerry in the USA, it will most likely have been assembled in Asia.

If you buy a BlackBerry in Argentina, it will have been assembled in Argentina.

One of the main reasons for the Economic problems in the USA and Europe is that jobs have been moved to Asia.

Argentina is trying to protect its workers, according to The Economist

In October 2011, Brightstar, a multinational manufacturer, will begin assembling BlackBerrys in Argentina.

Argentinian workers will assemble the pieces and put them in local packaging.

Making BlackBerrys in Argentina will be more expensive than making them in Asia, but it will give jobs to Argentinians.

The policy of the Argentine government will cut foreigners' share of Argentina’s mobile-phone market from 96% in 2009 to a forecast 20% by the end of 2011.

Argentine's president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

Argentine manufacturers have been booming.

Argentina now imposes more 'trade limitations' than any country except Russia.

Argentina cannot raise tariffs, because it belongs to the Mercosur customs union.

But Argentina has various tactics it can use to limit imports.

The Argentine government is planning to limit total foreign landholdings to 20% of the country’s territory.

It is planning to stop any individual from acquiring over 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres).

In the October 2011 election President Fernández is expected to be re-elected.

Big US corporations like cheap labour.

US hourly wages are $33.53.

(Average hourly take-home pay for US workers was $23.03. Social insurance expenditures add $7.90 to hourly compensation and benefits paid by employers add $2.60 per hour for a total labor compensation cost of $33.53.)

US hourly wages are about the lowest in the developed world, way below those in Norway ($53.89), Denmark ($49.56), Belgium ($49.40), Austria ($48.04), and Germany ($46.52).

Big corporation would rather pay $1 per hour rather than $33

Argentinian model Floppy Tesouro

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury.

At Global research, on 25 September 2011, Dr Roberts explained that one of the main reasons for the economic problems of the USA and Europe is the moving of jobs to Asia.

America and Europe: Saving the Rich and Losing the Economy

In the last 10 years:

1. The US lost 54,621 factories.

2. Manufacturing employment fell by 5 million employees.

3. The number of larger factories (those employing 1,000 or more employees) declined by 40 percent.

US factories employing 500-1,000 workers declined by 44 percent.

According to Dr Roberts:

"It is US corporations that move their factories abroad...

"Half of US imports from China consist of the offshored production of US corporations...

"In China as of 2008, total hourly labor cost was $1.36...

"A corporation that moves 1,000 jobs to China saves saves $32,000 every hour in labor cost...

"These savings translate into higher .... executive compensation, not in lower prices for consumers who are left unemployed..."

It's not just factory jobs.

"The high speed Internet has made it possible to offshore many professional service jobs, such as software engineering, Information Technology, research and design."

Meanwhile, the US government allows in each year one million legal immigrants and an unknown number of illegal immigrants.

GOOD NEWS ON USA'S ECONOMY

The problems of the economy in the USA, and elsewhere, are easy to solve.

Think of France facing bankruptcy in 1789.

The problems of France in 1789 would have been solved if the rich had paid their fair share of taxes.

In 1789 France was the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful state in Western Europe.

Today, the top 600,000 people in the world control 85% of the world’s wealth.

Between 2002 and 2007, 65% of all income growth in the United States went to the top 1% of the population.

The rich can afford to pay more tax, and still go shopping in the malls.

Of course, France would not have got into a mess in 1789 if it had avoided stupid foreign wars.

There is a lack of demand for products, because the rich have grabbed most of the wealth.

http://retank.blogspot.com/ alerted us to the fact that: Well-To-Do Americans Are Getting More Benefits Than The Poor

1. Poor Americans get Federal welfare checks, food stamps, and unemployment benefits.

The cost of these is LESS than the $1-trillion in tax breaks awarded annually to middle- and upper-class Americans.

2. Professor Suzanne Mettler, in The Washington Monthly, points out that tax break for the rich add to the deficit.

She writes that "the most expensive of these subsidies shower their largest benefits on the most affluent Americans...

"Beneath the surface of American government lurks a system of social programs for the wealthy that is consuming the federal budget."

3. Tax breaks represented 7.4% of GDP in 2008, up from 4.2% in 1976.

Social Security amounted to 4.3% of GDP in 2008; Medicare and Medicaid, 4.1%.

4. Vested interests profit from the tax break policies.

These vested interests include the real estate, health care industries and the nonprofit foundations.

Real estate sector giving to political campaigns rose from $43 million in 1992 to $138 million in 2008.

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aangirfan: THE GLOBAL ELITE AND THE SUPPRESSION OF DISSENT