The Ebay Powerseller Blue Print

The way I got started as a seller on Ebay was by selling some music equipment I no longer had any use for. I listed this equipment in an auction and I was amazed how quickly it sold. Unfortunately, for me I didn't have any more things lying around the house that I could sell.

Determined to sell more things on Ebay I turned to a reliable source who always came through for me since I was a child. You guessed right! It was my mother. I asked my mother did she have any items around the house that she wanted to get rid of. To my surprise she had some vintage Gucci and Louis Vuitton handbags that she no longer used and didn't mine parting with to help her dear son.

Needless to say these designer bags also sold quickly. I mean what woman doesn't want a vintage Gucci or Luis Vuitton bag? I took my mother to dinner and thanked her for allowing me to sell her stuff on Ebay. I was also very thankful because she assisted me in opening up my eyes to recognizing Ebay as a potential cash machine.

Predictably, I ran out of stuff to sell but I was undeterred. I began studying other Ebay seller's auctions. I focused specifically on the auctions of the people who were Ebay powersellers. I figured hey they must know a thing a two that the average Ebay seller doesn't know.

Two things that I noticed in my research were that these powersellers were selling brand name items at great prices and they never seemed to run out of them. My instincts told me that it was no way in the world that these sellers were buying and stocking all of these items. Based on this belief I began my journey to discover their secret to selling on Ebay.

After several months, I finally stumbled upon their secret. It was an incredible way of doing business called dropshipment. In short, dropshipment works like this. You don't have to stock any inventory or use any of your own money to buy the product. You simply copy the images and descriptions of the product you want to sell from the dropshipment wholesaler's website or catalog, markup the price for profit, and list the item on Ebay.

Once your Ebay customer has paid you would then forward the customer's name and address along with a payment through paypal to the dropshipment company for the product. After you have paid the dropshipment company for the product, what's left over is of course is your profit.

The dropshipment company then ships the product to your customer in your name. Now how easy is that? I thought to myself. You didn't have to stock any inventory, stand in line at the post office and you didn't need money to make money. All you had to do was list products on Ebay and sit back and watch the pour in!

I utilized dropshipping to sell all kinds of products from digital cameras to karaoke machines. After a short period of time I soon joined the ranks as an Ebay powerseller. So the lesson is this. You first need to be motivated to begin as a seller on Ebay and the best way to get started as a seller is to start by first cleaning out your closet, attic, garage or any other place where you store your unused items You know the items I'm talking about remember?

The items that you supposedly cherished and wholeheartedly promised to put to good use once you got around to it. But hey you and I know that you never got around to it. Don't worry I promise to keep this our "little secret" only after you've agreed to the following conditions:

Condition number one. You have to get out the dust rag and began to dust off these hidden treasures and prepare to sell them on Ebay.

Condition number two. You must register as a seller on Ebay. It is fast, simple and most of all free. To register as a seller, all you need is a debit or credit card and a checking account.

Also, don't forget to sign up with Paypal so that you can accept online payments for your auctions. When you sign up for your personal Paypal account, make sure you click on the link to upgrade to the Premier account. This upgrade will allow you to accept credit card payments.

And oh by the way Ebay owns Paypal and integrates it so well in its auction system that it makes buying and selling on Ebay as easy as A-B-C.

Condition number three. This is the final condition. Before the week is over, you have to list your first item for sale on Ebay or I'm going to reveal our little secret!

Always remember when you run out of things to sell, you can always use dropshipping to get you back in the ball game.

About the Author
Omar Johnson is an Ebay powerseller and the creator of the homestudy course "How To Make Money On The Internet While You Are Asleep"

EBay, the place to start.

Since starting our website the most frequently asked question has been: “What is the best online business for me to become involved in?” This question is asked by people that are looking to better their lifestyle by seeking to increase the income available to them and their families. It is a fair and honest question to ask and deserves a fair and honest answer.

Our answer to all people new to internet marketing is eBay. Whether you are seeking to make a couple of hundred extra each month or a full time business making $10,000 or more each month you still cannot ignore the benefits of eBay as the foundation for your online business.

Let us start by asking the simple question: “What are the things an offline, High Street, business needs to succeed?” Then compare this with an online business. To succeed in a High Street business you need the following:

- Stock.

- Professional display.

- Advertising.

- Sufficient trained staff.

- Clean and attractive premises.

- Adequate numbers of potential customers walking through your door.


These are just the basic things you need to avoid going broke like more than 50% of people that attempt to run a High Street business. As you read the above items try putting a price to them. Like $50K for stock, $50K each year to advertise, a lot of cash to train your staff, cleaning and presentation costs. All of this must be spent first to give you a chance of drawing customers through the doors.

Now let us look at eBay:

The cost to sell is minimal; it attracts millions of visitors each day at no cost to you. You do not need to hold stock and you can easily open an account with both eBay and Pay Pal.

About the Author
David McCarthy can be found at http://www.ayecasher.com/

How to make money blogging

There are two ways of making money blogging, one more profitable than the other. First of all, small business owners find a great advantage in the use of blogs that provide rich informational content and the opportunity for great marketing promotions. But let's take a look at how you can turn blogging into a profitable activity. There are two possibilities: you either get paid for allowing other business owners to advertise on your site or you can include the blog in one of the many affiliate programs that enjoy such a popularity on the Internet nowadays.

In case you choose to exploit the advertising potential of your blog, the best program to work with is Google Adsense; you'll get paid every time an ad on your site gets clicked, regardless of whether this action converts into profit or not. The logical question that may rise here is: how can you get more clicks for the ads on the blog? Don't think about clicking your own ads to make some more money; fraud clicks are a very hot subject in the business, and Google teams are very efficient at identifying them. Such dishonest practice could cost you dearly if you dare to use it.

You can increase the profitability of the ads on your blog by taking advertising into consideration when you design the site. For instance, the fonts and colors used for the ads should be only slightly different from the rest of the page, without standing out. Why? Because the more visible you make them, the more likely it is that they'll annoy the user, and the entire purpose of your blog is to get people to spend quality time on the page. Adsense is a program that displays only those ads that are related to the domain the blog tackles with, so that you cannot complain about too large a number of irrelevant visitors.

Last, but not least, you can use the blog as part of an affiliate program, which involves promoting the products or services of a specific business. For instance if you've got a blog dealing with diving, you can very well turn into an affiliate for a company that sells diving equipment. The amount of money you are supposed to get is usually part of the individual agreement you sign with the other party, and it usually depends on how well you manage to use the blog to actually convince people to purchase one of the products. Friendly links, special discounts, promotions and e-news letters are all part of an affiliate campaign that could turn a simple blog into a great revenue generator.

Make $50 billion like Madoff's

One way to be billionaire is by creating your own pyramid scheme. Your can suck money from fool rich investors.You can make billion from this fraud like Madoff. The Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme is hitting both individual investors like Senator Frank Lautenberg, owners of the NY Mets and the Philadelphia Eagles as well as major markets throughout the world. Even one of Steven Spielberg's charities has been exposed to the Madoff scandal.According to charges against Mr. Madoff, his firm paid off earlier investors with money from new investors, fitting the classic definition of a Ponzi scheme. It unraveled as markets declined and many investors who lost money elsewhere sought to withdraw money from their investments with Mr. Madoff.

Madoff’s victim lists:

Tremont Capital. Fund of funds. Lost "hundreds of millions".

Maxam Capital Management LLC. Combined loss of $280 million.

Fairfield Greenwich Group. The biggest loser may be Walter Noel’s Fairfield Greenwich Group

Fix Asset Management. Fix Asset Management, which had an account worth at least $400 million with Madoff Investments.

Kingate Management Ltd. $2.8 billion

Thyssen Family.

Ira Roth's family. Ira Roth $1 million

Sterling Equities. Fund controlled by Fred Wilpon, co-owner of the NY Mets, confirms it had money with Madoff.

Stephen Abbott, a San Francisco lawyer. and two siblings had several hundred thousand dollars invested with Mr. Madoff.

Unnamed European Funds of Funds Palm Beach Country Club.

Lawrence Velvel, "69, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, millions of dollars Loeb Family.

J. Ezra Merkin. GMAC LLC Chairman "suffered major losses from this catastrophe."

Norman Braman. Former Philadelphia Eagles owner

Richard Spring. $11 million

Members of half-a-dozen country clubs: more than $100 million combined

Bramdean Alternatives in the U.K. 9% of portfolio.

Banque Benedict Hentsch, Geneva-based private bank, $47.5 million.

Nomura and Neue Privat Bank.

Banco Santander. $3 billion EUR worth of exposure via its Optimal hedge fund unit and Banif asset management unit.

Unicredit. The Italian firm had unspecified amount with Madoff via its Dublin-based Pioneer alt-asset group.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Unspecified

Robert Lappin Foundation. $8MM foundation plus personal holdings.

BNP Paribas

Ira Rennert. Vicky Ward of Vanity Fair."Heavily, heavily invested."

Englebardt family of Los Angeles.

Stephen A. Fine, president of Biltrite Corp.

Avram and Carol Goldberg, former owners of the Stop & Shop supermarket chain

Helfman family of Miami Saul Katz, co-owner of the New York Mets.

Irwin Kellner, of Port Washington.

Carl and Ruth Shapiro, donors to Brandeis University, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Various Boston families:

Various banks

and more...

with totaling about $20-50 billion dolar.

MALAYSIA : PETROL PRICE

TODAY'S PETROL PRICE IS RM 1.80.GOOD NEWS.

Budgeting for Students

Why Budgeting is Important for College Students

The best and sometimes only way of controlling your spending is by maintaining a budget. This holds true for those who are working as well as students who are still to graduate from college. Regardless of whether parents give college students allowance or the student's work their way through school, budgeting still remains one of the essential skills that they would do well to learn.

Wondering why budgeting is so important for college students? There are several important reasons in answer to this question. First of all, budgets give students a more concrete knowledge of their economic situation. Secondly, budgeting helps students identify what a major chunk of their money of their money is going towards and it can help them cut back on unnecessary expenses and save their much-needed money.

Budgeting is also a great way for college students to show their parents or anybody else who may be funding their education that they can be trusted and know how to be responsible with their finances. More importantly, budgeting helps college students determine exactly what they can safely afford by way of monthly expenditure. This goes a long way in preventing the student from accumulating debt or overspending.

Basically, budgeting for college students is much the same compared to any other kind of budgeting. Keeping a written record is essential for college students who are maintaining a budget the same way as it is for everybody else. It is almost impossible to adhere to any budget that is only stored somewhere in your memory. It is important to make a written list of the various items you need to track including your earnings and other income as well as your expenditure.

Another fundamental budgeting rule that can be applied to any budgeting that is meant for college students is the need to prioritize. Knowing what your priorities are is vital for creating a sustainable budget. It is the only way of ascertaining that you will be able to meet your monthly requirements. Buying new clothes or new shoes every month is not as much of a priority as keeping aside sufficient funds for paying the house rent. Budgeting forces you to keep money aside for the more important essentials, before spending on luxuries and non-essentials.

Students who are lucky enough that are still being fully funded by their parents can still stretch their budget and make their money go far by refraining from being over-indulgent. Certainly a few occasional luxuries are to be expected but most of the time a lot of money is needlessly spent on stuff that can be absolutely avoided such as too many night-outs or weekly spa treatments. Another thing students can consider in order to increase their budget is taking up a part-time job.

Resisting the temptation of spending your personal loan at one time and being loyal to your budget will help you avoid falling into a debt trap.

Basics of Personal Budgeting

Personal Budgeting

Personal budgeting can be considered among the most critical and necessary life skills. The knowledge of budgeting basics is vital to your financial success. It is important to always track your earnings as well as your expenditure, whether you are doing financially well at the moment or whether you are struggling with your finances.

The first essential step of budgeting is really simple- write down the numbers. Let your starting point be the salary that you get in hand after paying tax. Budgeting does not make too much sense if you are unable to see the actual figures. It may be easy for you to figure out what your earnings are every month, but as you begin writing down the figures, you may be in for a shock when you physically see how much are you actually spending.

To get a better idea, you need to go ahead with the second step of the basics of budgeting – collect all your receipts and bills pertaining to car payments, credit card bills, house rent, house mortgage, groceries, utilities and insurance payment. First make a list of more important expenses and then list the non-essentials. Making a concrete list and actually looking at it is a bit like clearing up our vision as it helps you see exactly where your money is going. Usually the small items seem trivial enough to be ignored if you consider them individually, but when they are all added up the total amount can be substantial. You may be surprised at how much you actually spend o seemingly trivial things.

Now you can determine exactly what your major expenses are and where you tend to overspend. You certainly do not have to forego eating out completely. You can still continue indulging in all your favorite activities but what you could do is reduce the frequency. It is important not to impose rigid restrictions on yourself. If you continue treating yourself now and then you are more likely to stick to your budget. When making your budget, remember to factor in relaxation and recreation as well.

Building an emergency fund is your next step. As the name indicates, the money that you would deposit into this fund would be reserved only for unexpected situations and emergencies. Be very strict with yourself when it comes to withdrawing money from this fund. A one-day sale at your favorite department store does not quality as an emergency. Reserve that money for real emergencies only, such as a sudden illness, an accident or major car or house repair. It is these unforeseen adverse events that have the potential of busting your carefully planned budget so it is important to take note of them when chalking out your monthly budget.

In short, personal budgeting basics include collecting your monthly receipts and bill statements, listing down your total expenses and subtracting that figure from your monthly net income. Remember to make allowances for everyday requirements including gas, food and other miscellaneous expenses.

Basics of Personal Budgeting

Personal Budgeting

Personal budgeting can be considered among the most critical and necessary life skills. The knowledge of budgeting basics is vital to your financial success. It is important to always track your earnings as well as your expenditure, whether you are doing financially well at the moment or whether you are struggling with your finances.

The first essential step of budgeting is really simple- write down the numbers. Let your starting point be the salary that you get in hand after paying tax. Budgeting does not make too much sense if you are unable to see the actual figures. It may be easy for you to figure out what your earnings are every month, but as you begin writing down the figures, you may be in for a shock when you physically see how much are you actually spending.

To get a better idea, you need to go ahead with the second step of the basics of budgeting – collect all your receipts and bills pertaining to car payments, credit card bills, house rent, house mortgage, groceries, utilities and insurance payment. First make a list of more important expenses and then list the non-essentials. Making a concrete list and actually looking at it is a bit like clearing up our vision as it helps you see exactly where your money is going. Usually the small items seem trivial enough to be ignored if you consider them individually, but when they are all added up the total amount can be substantial. You may be surprised at how much you actually spend o seemingly trivial things.

Now you can determine exactly what your major expenses are and where you tend to overspend. You certainly do not have to forego eating out completely. You can still continue indulging in all your favorite activities but what you could do is reduce the frequency. It is important not to impose rigid restrictions on yourself. If you continue treating yourself now and then you are more likely to stick to your budget. When making your budget, remember to factor in relaxation and recreation as well.

Building an emergency fund is your next step. As the name indicates, the money that you would deposit into this fund would be reserved only for unexpected situations and emergencies. Be very strict with yourself when it comes to withdrawing money from this fund. A one-day sale at your favorite department store does not quality as an emergency. Reserve that money for real emergencies only, such as a sudden illness, an accident or major car or house repair. It is these unforeseen adverse events that have the potential of busting your carefully planned budget so it is important to take note of them when chalking out your monthly budget.

In short, personal budgeting basics include collecting your monthly receipts and bill statements, listing down your total expenses and subtracting that figure from your monthly net income. Remember to make allowances for everyday requirements including gas, food and other miscellaneous expenses.

Oil Price Today.

Crude Oil
$45.77	▼2.21		4.61%
2:56 AM EST - 2008.12.12

Oil price today is $ 45.77 in world market. Good news for consumers like us, bad news for oil tycoons.

10 Steps to Ensure Your Success

1. SET YOUR GOALS

What do you want to accomplish? Do you want a new home? Do you want to save for your children's college education? A new car? You can have whatever you want, but you must want it enough to do the things that have to be done in order to get it. Set your goals, write them down and set a target date for reaching them. Set short-term reachable goals and long term higher goals, yet don't set them too high. This will cause you to become discouraged if you don't achieve
them.Work consistently towards accomplishing your goals each day, each week and each month until you reach your short-term goals. When you have attained your short-term goals, set them a little higher each time. Ultimately, you will achieve your long-term goals. Goal setting is a must in every area of life.

2. BE SELF DISCIPLINED

Get up early each day. Get ready for your job as if you were working outside your home. Have a list of all the things you want to accomplish during the day. This will give you an organized approach to each day.It's amazing how much you can get done using a "To Do" list.

3. BE SELF MOTIVATED
Set up a schedule and stick to it. Be Enthusiastic. Enthusiasm generates its own energy. Energy and good health are synonymous with motivated, happy people -- achievers.

4. BE ENTHUSIASTIC
Positive thinking will literally be your key to success. You have to convince yourself that you can succeed at whatever you desire,because you can.

5. DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BECOME DISCOURAGED

Remember... The more "No’s" you get, the closer to a "YES" you become.

6. SCHEDULE YOUR TIME WISELY

A schedule is your roadmap to success. If you have no direction, you'll travel in circles and ultimately never reach your goals. Plan your work then work your plan.

7. HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

Success is 90 percent attitude and 10 percent aptitude. Learn the art of positive thinking. You can do whatever you put your mind to. It's mind over matter. Your attitude will either guarantee your success or guarantee your failure. You're only a failure if you give up.

8. SET UP AN OFFICE AREA

Most direct marketers work from their own homes, but it is still essential to set up a specified work area. Take pride in your business to ensure your success.

9. HANDLE YOUR MONEY WISELY

Set up a written budget. Set aside a percentage of your business income to put back into your business. This is a must. Failure to reinvest your money will result in the failure of your business.

10. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

Get plenty of sleep, eat right and take some time to stop and smell the roses...Be Persistent... Persistence pays off... Don't give up... Most Businesses fail Just at The Moment They Are About To Succeed... Sales is one of the highest paid of all professions. "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."

Leverage On The Social Networking Sites:MySpace

Social networking sites such as MySpace,Facebook and Friendster are popular nowadays.Social networking has created new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people, and it now seems that social networking will be an enduring part of everyday life. We can also use social networks for advertising.

Techniques and steps needed in order to make money on MySpace:

1. Create a profile on MySpace.

Before you do anything else on MySpace, you will have to create a viable profile that will actually convince buyers one of two things: 1) you are another human being; or 2) that you are a serious, professional business. Either option is fine; however, you must clearly demonstrate either in your profile.

2. Advertise on MySpace.

This requires some start-up cash, but if you have it, it may be one of the wisest moves you make. This is especially potent if you already have a profile setup on MySpace. You can simply advertise, drive traffic to that page, add friends to your list, and then send them periodic bulletins, as if you were sending out mailings to a list.

3. Purchasing bulletins on MySpace.

This is another effective technique for marketing on MySpace. Rather than going directly through MySpace, you can find people who have large friends lists and ask them if they are interested in "selling" a bulletin to you. You can either write this bulletin as you would a solo ad; or you can use it to announce some contest, which is probably a better option.

4. Use private messages to make sales to individuals.

Private messages keep the tone somewhat more personal than a bulletin would. Additionally, you will want to use first names when communicating through messages.

5. Don't ever spam your friends lists.

Remember that commercial uses of MySpace are not exactly encouraged; however, they may be tolerated, provided that your efforts are not overt and disruptive. For this reason, you will want to remain low-key. Avoid getting flagged or reported.

Make Your Website Success

how to turn your website into online success:

• Make your site unique

• Attract new visitors and keep them coming back

• Prepare and submit to hundreds of search engines and directories
to be listed in the top search results

• Maximize your Web site promotion using meta-indexes

• Pull traffic to your site by implementing a personalized, targeted
e-mail campaign

• Develop an effective banner ad campaign to draw the right customers
to your site

• Use newsgroups and mailing lists to communicate with your target
market and build your reputation

• Hype your company in the media for increased exposure through
interactive press releases

• Increase company and brand awareness with webcasting and
rich media

• Use one of the most effective Internet marketing tools—links

• Find and use free promotion tools available on the Internet

• Develop your own affiliate or associate program

• Use permission and viral marketing effectively.

You Are What You Think About....

If you are anything like me you probably spend most of your day worrying or thinking about negative things in your life now.It's human condition that we concern about things that have gone wrong.We all know about positive thinking but still we struggle.Then how to control your thoughts?

• take time to write down everything you want or dream about having
• describe in words the person you want to become
• collect pictures of things that inspire you
• gather together all the music that uplift you
• read of all the books you can get hold of
• make notes to stick on your mirror or wall
• carry them in your purse
• put them in your dashboard
• Etc..etc..
• in other words surround yourself with reminders of positive things that inspire you to do something!

You get the idea!!!

“Governance Reform in Asia: Cultural Perspectives” Part 2

31. Inflow of foreign funds must also be overseen. One of the problems faced by unregulated investment in stock market is the massive and sudden dumping of shares when things look bad or are expected to become bad. The sudden outflow of funds will have a deleterious effect on a country’s economy.

32. Foreign holdings in any local company should be limited. This is especially so for banks and insurance companies.

33. Governments must be prepared to regulate free trade. Where necessary import duties and excise duties should be used to protect local industries.

34. Exchange rates need to be realistic. Free floats needs to be looked at with caution. Where possible fixed exchange rates may be adopted and currency trading be made illegal.

35. Whatever the policy adopted to cope with this worldwide economic crisis, reforms of governance must still be made to provide for efficient Government i.e. efficient bureaucracy. Efficient bureaucracy must mean minimal bureaucratic procedures.

36. Corruption is the bane of all countries. It cannot be totally eliminated. But it can be reduced if bureaucratic procedures are minimal and take the shortest time possible. Any delay must suggest corruption and investigations must be carried out.

37. Government requirements in order to gain approval of anything must be very clear and must be made known to the public. Where compliance is full there should be no delay in approvals.

38. Being business-friendly is necessary in order to maximise private sector contribution towards economic development. It is the duty of Governments to find out what complaints the private sector has and to remedy them.

39. Some of what has been mentioned regarding reforms of governance are not really reforms. And some of the others would be too late to prevent the effects of the financial crisis of America and Europe from hitting Asian countries. But they are necessary nevertheless. They may be able to reduce the impact and perhaps enable earlier recovery.

40. The countries of Asia will have very different problems depending on the stages of their development, their resources and how much they are hitched to the global financial systems. Those which have depended on foreign credit or have been involved in investments in foreign funds would suffer most.

41. On the other had those with large reserves in foreign currencies or have big savings may be able to reduce somewhat the impact of the crisis.

42. Whatever may be the impact of the financial crisis the judicious measures in the governance of the economy will still prove helpful. The important thing is to ignore old habits of imitating everything the rich western countries does. Asian countries must in fact initiate changes, including those to the monetary and financial systems.

43. Asians have always believed in the role of Government in regulating institutions. The world is about to view Asian practices and systems more positively. Asian countries must therefore make their voices heard. And this includes the small developing economies as well. It would be fatal for them if they allow, as in the past the rich and the powerful to devise the systems by which they must all function. In particular the banking system and practices need to be looked at from the Asian developing economies point of view and interest.

44. Governance is defined as the act, process or power of governing, As the situation surrounding government changes, there must also be changes to governance to cope with the new situation or surrounding.

45. What needs to be done may constitute reforms of governance.

46. But reforms are often constrained by the culture of the people involved. There is no doubt that Asians subscribe to different values even among themselves but more so between them and the Europeans.

47. In a Eurocentric world Asians tend to accept everything that came from the West i.e. from the Europeans as right and proper. It is difficult for Asians to reject what originates from the Europeans.

48. But that culture, that blind acceptance of the systems and ways of the Europeans must be modified, if not discarded.
49. What we are seeing today is the collapse of a very fundamental European institution, that of money and banking.

50. It is not enough to just tweak our present system of governance. It seems that we must be prepared for radical change. And Asian ideas must find a place in the development of these changes.

51. As the saying goes we have to go back to the drawing board. We have to question the system we have used for centuries. We have to consider redefining them, introduce new rules and regulations and provide for greater governance.

52. We may have to throw out the system altogether and devise a new one.

53. All these are not in our culture. But our culture must not stand in the way of necessary reforms, if it means saving our economies and our states.

“Governance Reform in Asia: Cultural Perspectives”

SPEECH BY
TUN DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
AT THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON GOVERNANCE:
2ND ANNUAL TOP EXECUTIVE FORUM ON GOVERNANCE
IN BALI, INDONESIA
ON 28 NOVEMBER 2008
--------------------


“Governance Reform in Asia: Cultural Perspectives”


1. When I accepted this invitation to speak on “Governance Reform in Asia: Cultural Perspectives”, the financial problem in the United States i.e. the sub-prime loans by United States banks seemed to be an American problem which had nothing to do with the rest of the world, and certainly not with Asia.

2. The international community was still talking about Globalisation, a borderless world and a free market. Countries, especially developing countries were being urged to change their ideas about political, economic and social management and policies so as to cater to the global village where trade and capital flows should be free and unrestricted, where foreign involvement in local affairs should not be considered as being against the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of independent nations.

3. Asians are culturally conservative and orthodox. They prefer to do things the way they had done in the past. But Asians also have an inferiority complex and believe that the Europeans are superior people with brilliant ideas and ways of doing things. The Asians subscribe to the Eurocentric world and would always try to emulate the Europeans.

4. Since the first contacts with Europeans some 600 years ago Asians had become accustomed to adopting European ideas about politics, economics and social systems almost without question. This has become a part of the Asian culture.

5. So when the Europeans came with ideas about globalisation, borderless world and free trade, the general tendency was to accept
and to adapt to these ideas despite Asian countries having achieved independence. Reforms of governance must be made so as to accommodate the new vision of the world as a global village, to make possible the free flows of capital and the sanctity of the unregulated markets.

6. But even as these things were being initiated the world came to realize that the American financial crisis was not going to be confined to America alone but would engulf the whole world. All the systems of the west seem to be crumbling. Not only are they not delivering the expected benefits that they seem to have done to the world’s economy in the past but they seem about to destroy it.

7. Since globalisation and a borderless world would actually give better access of the American system and practices to all countries, including those in Asia, the question arises as to whether we should carry out reforms which would facilitate America’s and the West’s financial and economic crisis spreading to our countries.

8. I do not think Asians would want to be dragged down by an economic and financial crisis not of their own making. If we do not want this can we slow down the reforms including reforms in governance so as to minimise the fallout from the crisis in the rich Western countries. Can we in fact introduce reforms which can protect us more effectively than whatever practices that we have in place now?

9. In other words should we be carrying out reforms of governance to facilitate globalisation and free trade as we had planned or have been urged to carry out?

10. We need to rethink. If we are going to initiate reforms in whatever field we need to know what is happening to the world today in these fields. In particular we need to understand banking and finance better. The understanding may help us avoid changes and reforms which may have been the cause of the financial crisis.

11. There is evidently something wrong with the world’s monetary system. The Bretton Woods agreement provided for gold to back currencies. But the rich countries decided to go off the gold standard. Only faith determines the value of currencies including the US Dollar which was designated the reserve currency.

12. Without gold the US Dollar has no backing at all. It is basically a useless piece of paper. Only the demand for the US Dollar to settle trade payments keeps the value of the US Dollar up.

13. It is doubtful if the United States knows how much US Dollar is in circulation in the world. Its very poor security feature also makes it easy to forge.

14. If the United States manages it finances well the faith in the US Dollar would be justified. But the United States owes the world an estimated 14 trillion dollars, an amount which it can never hope to pay. For years the United States suffers from twin deficits. And everyday the United States Government has to borrow 1 ½ billion dollars to finance its administration.

15. On the top of this the United States banks had not been prudent. Without caring about their assets and resources they have lent huge amounts of money to high risk borrowers, particularly for the purchase of houses. The earnings of the banks were based on the expected interest on these loans.

16. To securitize the loans they were bundled up and offered to insurance companies. It was thought that the risk would be taken care of by the insurance companies. The mortgage companies also acquired these loans.

17. What brought down the banks, insurance companies and the mortgage companies was the huge total amount of the loans. They run into hundreds of billions. When the risky non-performing loans became bigger than the good ones and the collaterals have no buyers the banks could not recover the loans. The insurance companies were also unable to pay the banks because of the huge sums involved. Neither could the mortgage companies.

18. The main reason why all these things happen to the United States is because the introduction of numerous high return financial instruments had diverted investments from the real business of producing goods and services to investments in these financial instruments, which include risky loans, secured debts, collateral debt obligations, swaps, derivatives etc etc. Most people don’t even know what they are.

19. The free market also contributed much to the financial crisis. The theory is that markets can regulate themselves. When prices go down because of oversupply, production would be reduced and prices would recover. Governments should leave the markets alone.

20. But markets are about making money, maximising profits. The greedy soon found that shortages and oversupplies can be artificially created and manipulated. By creating an artificial shortage the prices would go up and the seller can make a high profit. When an oversupply situation is created by repeated selling, prices would fall. At that stage the goods could be bought and delivered to the buyers when prices were high, through yet another artificially created shortage.

21. That was what happened when currencies were traded.

22. Seeing what has happened to the United States and Europe should we carry out reforms of governance to enable all the systems and practices in those countries to be freely applied in our countries, in Asia. Although traditionally Asia would follow Europe, should we stick to this tradition, the Asian culture even though if may bring disaster to us.

23. I think we should think very carefully. Opening borders can result in the crisis of the United States and Europe assailing our countries. Yet we still need to deal with these powerful economies.

24. I am not competent to suggest the reforms needed in the circumstances. Asian countries have a need to make adjustments to the realities of the globalised world. We cannot isolate ourselves. In fact our growth had depended on the wealth of the Americans and the Europeans providing us with good markets.

25. If we allow them to go under or we do something that would destroy the economies of these countries we would lose the lucrative market. And we would also lose a source of capital.

26. We cannot simply shut our countries to these collapsing countries in order to protect ourselves. But we can be selective in how we accommodate them based upon the role we play in relation to them and on the basis of our economy.

27. The countries of Asia which have been most affected are those which succumbed to the easy money offered by the many financial instruments created by the brilliant minds in the financial industry in America.

28. On the other hand those which are too poor to invest in these high return instruments via the hedge funds or directly are not much affected.

29. The reforms of governance needed must therefore be selective in character. Whatever may be the reforms, there can be no doubt that Governments must come back to regulate and to supervise. It will make the free market less free perhaps, but that is a small sacrifice to make in order to minimise the effect of this unprecedented economic meltdown.

30. Bailouts must be regulated so that they adhere to legitimate banking practice. Insurance companies and other funds, including pension funds, must be subjected to Government initiated rules and supervision so as to reduce exposure to high risk investments.

Happy Banker's Month

Historical Facts

1. The first Malaysian coin and currency note was issued by Central Bank of Malaysia on 12 June 1967.
Click here to read more.

2. The first modern bank was founded in Italy in Genoa in 1406; its name was Banco di San Giorgio (Bank of St George).
Click here to read more.

3. The name bank derives from the Italian word banco "desk/bench", used during the Renaissance by Florentine bankers who used to make their transactions on a desk covered by a green tablecloth.
Click here to read more.

4. Monte dei Paschi di Siena 1472 - presently, the oldest surviving bank in the world. Founded in 1472 by the Magistrate of the city state of Siena, Italy.
Click here to read more.

5. The concept of banking was introduced in the 18th century BC. In Babylon at the time of Hammurabi, there were records of loans made by the priests of the temple.
Click here to read more

6. Famous bankers or famous people that have contributed to the banking industry:

1. Alexander Hamilton ( January 11, 1755 or 1757 - July 12, 1804 )
2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt ( January 30, 1882 - April 12, 1945 )
3. John Pierpont Morgan ( April 17, 1837 - March 31, 1913 )

Interesting Facts

1. The gemstone Morganite was named in John Pierpont Morgan's (JP Morgan: April 17, 1837 - March 31, 1913) honour. He was an American banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time.
Click here to read more.

2. Which colonial government issued its currency in our country, Malaysia?
Click here to read more.

P/S-This is email i got from jobstreet.Banker's month?never heard before.Are bankers should celebrate in this month?Certainly not now because many banks are hit by financial turmoil that created by themselves.Should bank be bailed out? i like the slogan "bailout people not bank!!"

Straits Settlements 1 Cent Coin

Currently,in my collection i have a coin from British Straits Settlement.This coin is in very good condition.This is a 88 years old coin from the colonial era in Malaya.This coin is minted in 1920.The Straits Settlement is a settlement in the Straits of Malacca which included Penang,Malacca and Singapore.
Head:STRAITS SETTLEMENTS 1920 1 CENT
Tail :GEORGE V KING AND EMPEROR OF INDIA

I intended to sell this coin for around 50 ringgit Malaysia(RM 50) including posting cost.I prefer a Malaysian buyer.All who interested can comment here.

Free Web Tools From Jeff Alderson and Charles Kirkland

I have just found this cool site.It is cool and I knew you would want to see it too. There's nothing like some serious SEO to juice your sites and experts Jeff Alderson and Charles Kirkland have created software for you to do just that. It's even free. You can download free software from this site to boost your SEO ranking.You can get :

Blog Link Finder to:

• Identifies Wordpress blogs with the 'nofollow' tag in the comments field in ANY niche you choose
• Saves you time and effort from searching for blogs manually to leave comments on and building backlinks
• Shows you the Page Rank of each of the individual blog posts itself and home page of the blogs
• Displays the Alexa ranking of each blog (so you know what's the amount of traffic the blog receives)
• Tells you if you have left a comment previously on the blog so you can track your link building efforts with much ease.
• Allows you to save your findings and results for more effective tracking/analysis in the future.

Affiliate Promo Page Generator to:

• Creates your affiliate promotional pages just by following some step-by-step instructions.
• Includes templates for the following promotional tools: Text links, Email Ads, Signature Ads, PopUp Ads, Image Ads, Articles & PPC Ads.
• Add your affiliate link to the 'Powered By Affiliate Buzz' message at the top of the page.
• Automatically embed the affiliate links of your affiliates into the promotional tools with just a click of the mouse!
• Provides your affiliates with ready made promotional tools that they can instantly use for their promotional efforts.
• Make your affiliates WANT to promote your products because of the wide array of tools you provide

Link Popularity Checker to:

• Display Page Rank & Alexa rankings for hundreds of sites you enter.
• Reveal number of backlinks for each websites from 6 different sources including Google, Yahoo, Ask, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Alexa.
• Display the number of pages in your sites indexed in Google & Yahoo search engines
• Allows you to spy on your competitors with just a few clicks of the mouse
• Saves you time and keeps track of your SEO and link building efforts
• Ability to save your results in excel sheet for deeper analysis.

You can get it all here:

7 Essential Skills To Wealth Creation

I stumble upon this from one's of Adam Khoo landing page for his products:

Adam Khoo said:

These are seven essential steps, each one representing a wealth creating skill that all self-made millionaires possess and practice...

• Step 1: Adopt the Million-Dollar Mindset
  
  Millionaires see learning experiences, where Mister Ordinary sees failure. The moment you adopt the beliefs and habits of a millionaire, your perception of the world will change completely and you will realize that there are money-making opportunities everywhere and everyday around you.
  
  Amazingly, these are opportunities that you were once quite blind to!
  
• Step 2: Set Clear Financial Goals
  
  Wealth never happens by chance. It always begins with a clear goal in mind. At one point of time in their life, millionaires always make a decision to become rich. However, whenever I ask most people what their financial goals are, I often get a blank stare. This is a major reason why they will never achieve any level of wealth because they have no clue what it is. Unless you have a specific figure to focus on, you will never be able to develop a strategy to achieve it.
  
• Step 3: Create A Financial Plan
  
  Once you have set specific financial targets of how much you want to earn and how much money you want to accumulate, you can then develop an effective plan to achieve it. Goals by themselves are nothing but pipe dreams. Only when you create a plan, have you made your goal a possibility. The moment you start taking action on your plan, your dream becomes a reality.
  
• Step 4: Massively Increase Your Income
  
  After developing their financial plan, most people tend to become initially disheartened. They look at their plan and realize that with the amount they are earning and saving right now, it will be decades before they see any big money.
  
  It is therefore important that you learn how to accelerate and turbo-charge your financial plan by taking steps to massively increasing your income.
  
• Step 5: Manage Your Money & Reduce Expenses
  
  Many people think that by increasing their income, their wealth will automatically increase. Unfortunately, increasing income is only one side of the wealth equation. After all, there are people who earn $2,000 a month who are broke and there are those who earn $20,000 who are still broke. The reason is because when we don’t manage the money we earn, our expenses will always rise to our level of income, wiping out any surplus we have!
  
• Step 6: Grow Your Money at Millionaire Returns
  
  By increasing your income and reducing your expenses, you will find that you will be able to accumulate a surplus of funds that you can use to help you build your fortune. You need to do this because, no matter how hard you work and save, you will never be able to create phenomenal wealth unless you learn how to put your money to work for you. Through the power of compounding, you will be able to take small sums of money and build it into huge returns over time.
  
• Step 7: Protect Your Fortune
  
  There is no use working hard to build your personal fortune only to see it all taken away from you. There are many people who have taken decades to build their fortune only to see it wiped out by an accident, unforeseen illness or through an unexpected lawsuit.
  
  Self-made millionaires engage professionals like insurance advisors, lawyers and accountants to help them build a financial fortress so their wealth is protected from potential creditors, plaintiffs looking to sue and the government who may take away a big chunk of your wealth through a whole range of taxes that you may not have even heard about.

Extracted from http://www.secretsofself-mademillionaires.com/