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Sign up Today! It's FREE : Classifieds, Network and Advertise all for FREE!! Relocate-America.com ranks top 100 cities in its annual list
Apparently, there's just something about North Carolina. For the second year in a row, America's best city in which to live lies within its borders, according to Relocate-America.com's annual list.
This year, Charlotte, N.C., is in the top spot, the site announced this week. Last year's winner was Asheville, N.C., which slipped to No. 7 on this year's list.
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"North Carolina is very active on our radar," said Steve Nickerson, president and CEO of HomeRoute. "It continues to get a flood of interest from all over."
HomeRoute is the real estate firm that operates Relocate-America.com, a source of community information and real-estate resources for those who are relocating. Each year, the site ranks the top 100 places to live in the country.
Areas need to be nominated on the site in order to be eligible for the list; more than 2,000 were nominated this year, Nickerson said. Special efforts are made to prevent spamming campaigns from influencing the results, he added.
But the site's editorial team also takes into account an area's growth, its educational and employment opportunities, crime rates and housing options before granting it a spot in the top 100. Environmental highlights also play a role, with a city gaining points for good air and water quality or the strength of its recycling efforts, Nickerson said.
Home-price appreciation does get some consideration, however it's only one piece of the analysis, Nickerson said -- explaining why some struggling real estate markets in California and Florida, for example, still made the top 100. Areas that offer a comfortable climate and economic opportunity tend to be the most sought-after communities on the site, he said.
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• 10 Fastest Growing Real Estate Markets
• 12 Ways to Make Your House a Cash Cow
• 5 Cities With Biggest Decline in Home Values
Charlotte's diversity of housing options and home affordability were two of the reasons users nominated the city, Nickerson said. The city's strong economy, boosted largely by the banking industry, was another selling point.
Second on this year's list was San Antonio, Texas, which people praised for its cost of living, recreational opportunities and diversity, he said. Chattanooga, Tenn., came in third place, noted for its vibrant downtown and affordable home prices in the nominations.
Below are the top 10 cities in Relocate-America.com's 2008 list:
1. Charlotte, N.C.
2. San Antonio, Texas
3. Chattanooga, Tenn.
4. Greenville, S.C.
5. Tulsa, Okla.
6. Stevens Point, Wis.
7. Asheville, N.C.
8. Albuquerque, N.M.
9. Huntsville, Ala.
10. Seattle, Wash.
Read the full list at Relocate-America.com.
The firm also plans on releasing a coffee table book on the top 100 in the near future, Nickerson said. Proceeds will benefit American Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity, he added.
Amy Hoak is a MarketWatch reporter based in Chicago.
Copyrighted, MarketWatch. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of MarketWatch content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of MarketWatch. MarketWatch shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
The Truth About Money!
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Billions for the Bankers, Debt for the People
The Real Story of the Money-Control Over America!
by Pastor Sheldon Emry
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." -Thomas Jefferson
Americans, living in what is called the richest nation on earth, seem always to be short of money. Wives are working in unprecedented numbers, husbands hope for overtime hours to earn more, or take part-time jobs evenings and weekends, children look for odd jobs for spending money, the family debt climbs higher, and psychologists say one of the biggest causes of family quarrels and breakups is "arguments over money." Much of this trouble can be traced to our present "debt-money" system. Too few Americans realize why our founding fathers wrote into Article I of the U.S. Constitution: Congress shall have the Power to Coin Money and Regulate the Value Thereof.
They did this, as we will show, in prayerful hope it would prevent "love of money" from destroying the Republic they had founded. We shall see how subversion of Article I has brought upon us the horrors of which Jefferson had warned.
MONEY IS MAN'S ONLY "CREATION"
Economists use the term "create" when speaking of the process by which money comes into existence. Now, creation means making something that did not exist before. Lumbermen make boards from trees, workers build houses from lumber, and factories manufacture automobiles from metal, glass and other materials. But in all these they did not "create," they only changed existing materials into a more usable and, therefore, more valuable form. This is not so with money. Here, and here alone, man actually "creates" something out of nothing. A piece of paper of little value is printed so that it is worth a piece of lumber. With different figures it can buy the automobile or even the house. Its value has been "created" in the true meaning of the word
MONEY "CREATING" PROFITABLE
As is seen by the above, money is very cheap to make, and whoever does the "creating" of money in a nation can make a tremendous profit! Builders work hard to make a profit of 5% above their cost to build a house.
Auto makers sell their cars for 1% to 2% above the cost of manufacture and it is considered good business. But money "manufacturers" have no limit on their profits, since a few cents will print a $1 bill or a $10,000 bill.
That profit is part of our story, but first let us consider another unique characteristic of the thing - money, the love of which is the "root of all evil."
ADEQUATE MONEY SUPPLY NEEDED
An adequate supply of money is indispensable to civilized society. We could forego many other things, but without money industry would grind to a halt, farms would become only self-sustaining units, surplus food would disappear, jobs requiring the work of more than one man or one family would remain undone, shipping, and large movements of goods would cease, hungry people would plunder and kill to remain alive, and all government except family or tribe would cease to function.
An overstatement, you say? Not at all. Money is the blood of civilized society, the means of all commercial trade except simple barter. It is the measure and the instrument by which one product is sold and another purchased. Remove money or even reduce the supply below that which is necessary to carry on current levels of trade, and the results are catastrophic. For an example, we need only look at America's Depression of the early 1930's.
THE BANKERS DEPRESSION OF THE 1930's
In 1930 America did not lack industrial capacity, fertile-farm land, skilled and willing workers or industrious farm families. It had an extensive and highly efficient transportation system in railroads, road networks, and inland and ocean waterways. Communications between regions and localities were the best in the world, utilizing telephone, teletype, radio, and a well-operated government mail system. No war had ravaged the cities or the countryside, no pestilence weakened the population, nor had famine stalked the land. The United States of America in 1930 lacked only one thing: an adequate supply of money to carry on trade and commerce. In the early 1930's, Bankers, the only source of new money and credit, deliberately refused loans to industries, stores and farms.
Payments on existing loans were required however, and money rapidly disappeared from circulation. Goods were available to be purchased, jobs waiting to be done, but the lack of money brought the nation to a standstill. By this simple ploy America was put in a "depression" and the greedy Bankers took possession of hundreds of thousands of farms, homes, and business properties. The people were told, "times are hard," and "money is short." Not understanding the system, they were cruelly robbed of their earnings, their savings, and their property.
MONEY FOR PEACE? NO! MONEY FOR WAR? YES!
World War II ended the "depression." The same Bankers who in the early 30's had no loans for peacetime houses, food and clothing, suddenly had unlimited billions to lend for Army barracks, K-rations and uniforms! A nation that in 1934 couldn't produce food for sale, suddenly could produce bombs to send free to Germany and Japan! (More on this riddle later.)
With the sudden increase in money, people were hired, farms sold their produce, factories went to two shifts, mines re-opened, and "The Great Depression" was over! Some politicians were blamed for it and others took credit for ending it. The truth is the lack of money (caused by the Bankers) brought on the depression, and adequate money ended it. The people were never told that simple truth and in this article we will endeavor to show how these same Bankers who control our money and credit have used their control to plunder America and place us in bondage.
POWER TO COIN AND REGULATE MONEY
When we can see the disastrous results of an artificially created shortage of money, we can better understand why our Founding Fathers insisted on placing the power to "create" money and the power to control it ONLY in the hands of the Federal Congress. They believed that ALL citizens should share in the profits of its "creation" and therefore the national government must be the ONLY creator of money. They further believed that ALL citizens, of whatever State or Territory, or station in life would benefit by an adequate and stable currency and therefore, the national government must also be, by law, the ONLY controller of the value of money.
Since the Federal Congress was the only legislative body subject to all the citizens at the ballot box, it was, to their minds, the only safe depository of so much profit and so much power. They wrote it out in the simple, but all-inclusive: "Congress shall have the Power to Coin Money and Regulate the Value Thereof."
HOW THE PEOPLE LOST CONTROL TO THE FEDERAL RESERVE
Instead of the Constitutional method of creating our money and putting it into circulation, we now have an entirely unconstitutional system. This has resulted in almost disastrous conditions, as we shall see.
Since our money was handled both legally and illegally before 1913, we shall consider only the years following 1913, since from that year on, ALL of our money has been created and issued by an illegal method that will eventually destroy the United States if it is not changed. Prior to 1913, America was a prosperous, powerful, and growing nation, at peace with its neighbors and the envy of the world. But - in December of 1913, Congress, with many members away for the Christmas holidays, passed what has since been known as the FEDERAL RESERVE ACT. (For the full story of how this infamous legislation was forced through our Congress, read The Creature from Jekyll Island, by G. Edward Griffin or Conquest or Consent, by W. B. Vennard). Omitting the burdensome details, it simply authorized the establishment of a Federal Reserve Corporation, with a Board of Directors (The Federal Reserve Board) to run it, and the United States was divided into 12 Federal Reserve "Districts."
This simple, but terrible, law completely removed from Congress the right to "create" money or to have any control over its "creation," and gave that function to the Federal Reserve Corporation. This was done with appropriate fanfare and propaganda that this would "remove money from politics" (they didn't say "and therefore from the people's control") and prevent "Boom and Bust" from hurting our citizens. The people were not told then, and most still do not know today, that the Federal Reserve Corporation is a private corporation controlled by bankers and therefore is operated for the financial gain of the bankers over the people rather than for the good of the people. The word "Federal" was used only to deceive the people.
MORE DISASTROUS THAN PEARL HARBOR
Since that "day of infamy," more disastrous to us than Pearl Harbor, the small group of "privileged" people who lend us "our" money have accrued to themselves all of the profits of printing our money' - and more! Since 1913 they have "created" tens of billions of dollars in money and credit, which, as their own personal property, they then lend to our government and our people at interest. "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" had become the secret policy of our National Government. An example of the process of "creation" and its conversion to people's "debt" will aid our understanding.
THEY PRINT IT - WE BORROW IT AND PAY THEM INTEREST
We shall start with the need for money. The Federal Government, having spent more than it has taken from its citizens in taxes, needs, for the sake of illustration, $1,000,000,000. Since it does not have the money, and Congress has given away its authority to "create" it, the Government must go the "creators" for the $1 billion. But, the Federal Reserve, a private corporation, doesn't just give its money away! The Bankers are willing to deliver $1,000,000,000 in money or credit to the Federal Government in exchange for the Government's agreement to pay it back - with interest! So Congress authorizes the Treasury Department to print $1,000,000,000 in U.S. Bonds, which are then delivered to the Federal Reserve Bankers.
The Federal Reserve then pays the cost of printing the $1,000,000,000 (about $1,000) and makes the exchange. The Government then uses the money to pay its obligations. What are the results of this fantastic transaction? Well, $1 billion in Government bills are paid all right, but the Government has now indebted the people to the Bankers for $1 billion on which the people must pay interest! Tens of thousands of such transactions have taken place since 1913 so that by the 1980's, the U.S. Government is indebted. to the Bankers for over $1,000,000,000,000 (trillion) on which the people pay over $100 billion a year in interest alone with no hope of ever paying off the principal. Supposedly our children and following generations will pay forever and forever!
AND THERE'S MORE
You say, "This is terrible!" Yes, it is, but we have shown only part of the sordid story. Under this unholy system, those United States Bonds have now become "assets" of the Banks in the Reserve System which they then use as "reserves" to "create" more "credit" to lend. Current "fractional reserve" requirements allow them to use that $1 billion in bonds to "create" as much as $15 billion in new "credit" to lend to States, Municipalities, to individuals and businesses. Added to the original $1 billion, they could have $16 billion of "created credit" out in loans paying them interest with their only cost being $1,000 for printing the original $1 billion! Since the U.S. Congress has not issued Constitutional money since 1863 (over 100 years), in order for the people to have money to carry on trade and commerce they are forced to borrow the "created credit" of the Monopoly Bankers and pay them usury-interest!
AND THERE'S STILL MORE
In addition to the vast wealth drawn to them through this almost unlimited usury, the Bankers who control the money at the top are able to approve or disapprove large loans to large and successful corporations to the extent that refusal of a loan will bring about a reduction in the price that that Corporation's stock sells for on the market. After depressing the price, the Bankers' agents buy large blocks of the stock, after which the sometimes multi-million dollar loan is approved, the stock rises, and is then sold for a profit. In this manner billions of dollars are made with which to buy more stock. This practice is so refined today that the Federal Reserve Board need only announce to the newspapers an increase or decrease in their "rediscount rate" to send stocks up and down as they wish. Using this method since 1913, the Bankers and their agents have purchased secret or open control of almost every large corporation in America. Using that control, they then force the corporations to borrow huge sums from their banks so that corporation earnings are siphoned off in the form of interest to the banks. This leaves little as actual "profits" which can be paid as dividends and explains why stock prices are often depressed, while the banks reap billions in interest from corporate loans. In effect, the bankers get almost all of the profits, while individual stockholders are left holding the bag.
The millions of working families of America are now indebted to the few thousand Banking Families for twice the assessed value of the entire United States. And these Banking Families obtained that debt against us for the cost of paper, ink, and bookkeeping!
THE INTEREST AMOUNT IS NEVER CREATED
The only way new money (which is not true money, but is "credit" representing a debt), goes into circulation in America is when it is borrowed from Bankers. When the State and people borrow large sums, we seem to prosper. However, the Bankers "create" only the amount of the principal of each loan, never the extra amount needed to pay the interest. Therefore. the new money never equals the new debt added. The amounts needed to pay the interest on loans is not "created," and therefore does not exist!
Under this kind of a system, where new debt always exceeds the new money no matter how much or how little is borrowed, the total debt increasingly outstrips the amount of money available to pay the debt. The people can never, ever get out of debt!
An example will show the viciousness of this usury-debt system with its "built-in" shortage of money.
IF $60,000 IS BORROWED, $255,931.20 MUST BE PAID BACK When a citizen goes to a Banker to borrow $60,000 to purchase a home or a farm, the Bank clerk has the borrower agree to pay back the loan plus interest. At 14% interest for 30 years, the Borrower must agree to pay $710.92 per month for a total of $255,931.20. The clerk then requires the citizen to assign to the Banker the right of ownership of the property if the Borrower does not make the required payments. The Bank clerk then gives the Borrower a $60,000 check or a $60,000 deposit slip crediting the Borrower's checking account with $60,000.
The Borrower then writes checks to the builder, subcontractors, etc., who in turn write checks. $60,000 of new "checkbook" money is thereby added to "money in circulation."
However, and this is the fatal flaw in a usury system, the only new money created and put into circulation is the amount of the loan, $60,000. The money to pay the interest is NOT created, and therefore was NOT added to "money in circulation."
Even so, this Borrower (and those who follow him in ownership of the property) must earn and TAKE OUT OF CIRCULATION $255,931, almost $200,000 MORE than he put IN CIRCULATION when he borrowed the original $60,000! (By the way, it is this interest which cheats all families out of nicer homes. It is not that they can't afford them; it is because the Banker's usury forces them to pay for 4 homes to get one!)
Every new loan puts the same process in operation. Each borrower adds a small sum to the total money supply when he borrows, but the payments on the loan (because of interest) then deduct a much LARGER sum from the total money supply.
There is therefore no way all debtors can pay off the money-lenders. As they pay the principal and interest, the money in circulation disappears. All they can do is struggle against each other, borrowing more and more from the money-lenders each generation. The money-lenders (Bankers), who produce nothing of value, slowly, then more rapidly, gain a death grip on the land, buildings, and present and future earnings of the whole working population.
SMALL LOANS DO THE SAME THING
If you haven't quite grasped the impact of the above, let us consider a small auto loan for 3 years at 18% interest. Step 1: Citizen borrows $5,000 and pays it into circulation (it goes to the dealer, factory, miner, etc.) and signs a note agreeing to pay the Banker $6,500. Step 2: Citizen pays $180 per month of his earnings to the Banker. In 3 years he will take OUT of circulation $1,500 more than he put IN circulation.
Every loan of Banker "created" money (credit) causes the same thing to happen. Since this has happened millions of times since 1913 (and continues today), you can see why America has gone from a prosperous, debt-free nation to a debt-ridden nation where practically every home, farm and business is paying usury-tribute to some Banker. The usury-tribute to the Bankers on personal, local, State and Federal debt totals more than the combined earnings of 25% of the working people. Soon it will be 50% and continue up.
THIS IS WHY BANKERS PROSPER IN GOOD TIMES OR BAD
In the millions of transactions made each year like those above, little actual currency changes hands, nor is it necessary that it do so. 95% of all "cash" transactions in the U.S. are by check, so the Banker is perfectly safe in "creating" that so-called "loan" by writing the check or deposit slip, not against actual money, but AGAINST YOUR PROMISE TO PAY IT BACK! The cost to him is paper, ink and a few dollars in salaries and office costs for each transaction. It is "check-kiting" on an enormous scale. The profits increase rapidly, year after year, as shown below.
These are a few taken from Arizona newspapers in January, 1979.
Valley Bank posts 49% gain in profits
Gains of 49 percent in net income and 51 percent in operating income were posted last year by Valley National Bank.
Those gains brought net income to $33,969,-000' in the year ended Dec..31 and operating income to $34,459.000. The year before those totals were $22,836.000 and $22,807,000 respectively.
Bank's profits rise 21%
Arizona Bank announced on Monday it had achieved a 21.2 percent increase in net income in 1978 over 1977. On the basis of operating income, excluding the 1977 sale of the Arizona Bank Building for $l,336,369, the bank said the increase was 43.9 percent.
Tostenrud said loans and deposits increased in the last year: Deposits 18.8 percent to $1.353 billion and loans 21.9 percent to $951 million.
THE COST TO YOU? EVENTUALLY, EVERYTHING!
In 1910 the U.S. Federal debt was only $1 billion, or $12.40 per citizen. State and local debts were practically non-existent.
By 1920, after only 6 years of Federal Reserve shenanigans, the Federal debt had jumped to $24 billion, or $226 per person.
In 1960 the Federal debt reached $284 billion, or $1,575 per citizen and State and local debts were mushrooming.
By 1981 the Federal debt passed $1 trillion and was growing exponentially as the Banker's tripled the interest rates. State and local debts are now MORE than the Federal, and with business and personal debts totaled over $6 trillion, 3 times the value of all land and buildings in America.
If we signed over to the money-leaders all of America we would still owe them 2 more Americas (plus their usury, of course!)
However, they are too cunning to take title to everything. They will instead leave you with some "illusion of ownership" so you and your children will continue to work and pay the Bankers more of your earnings on ever-increasing debts. The "establishment" has captured our people with their ungodly system of usury and debt as certainly as if they had marched in with a uniformed army.
FOR THE GAMBLERS AMONG MY READERS
To grasp the truth that periodic withdrawal of money through interest payments will inexorably transfer all wealth in the nation to the receiver of interest, imagine yourself in a poker or dice game where everyone must buy the chips (the medium of exchange) from a "banker" who does not risk chips in the game, but watches the table and every hour reaches in and takes 10% to 15% of all the chips on the table. As the game goes on, the amount of chips in the possession of each player will go up and down with his "luck."
However, the TOTAL number of chips available to play the game (carry on trade and business) will decrease rapidly.
The game will get low on chips, and some will run out. If they want to continue to play, they must buy or borrow them from the "banker." The "banker" will sell (lend) them ONLY if the player signs a "mortgage" agreeing to give the "banker" some real property (car, home, farm, business, etc.) if he cannot make periodic payments to pay back all of the chips plus some EXTRA ones (interest). The payments must be made on time, whether he wins (makes a profit) or not.
It is easy to see that no matter how skillfully they play, eventually the "banker" will end up with all of his original chips back, and except for the very best players, the rest, if they stay in long enough, will lose to the "banker" their homes, their farms, their businesses, perhaps even their cars, watches, rings, and the shirts off their backs!
Our real-life situation is MUCH WORSE than any poker game. In a poker game none is forced to go into debt, and anyone can quit at any time and keep whatever he still has. But in real life, even if we borrow little ourselves from the Bankers, the local, State, and Federal governments borrow billions in our name, squander it, then confiscate our earnings from us and pay it back to the Bankers with interest. We are forced to play the game, and none can leave except by death. We pay as long as we live, and our children pay after we die. If we cannot pay, the same government sends the police to take our property and give it to the Bankers. The Bankers risk nothing in the game; they just collect their percentage and "win it all." In Las Vegas and at other gambling centers, all games are "rigged" to pay the owner a percentage, and they rake in millions. The Federal Reserve Bankers' "game" is also rigged, and it pays off in billions!
In recent years Bankers added real "cards" to their 'game. "Credit" cards are promoted as a convenience and a great boon to trade. Actually, they are ingenious devices by which Bankers collect 2% to 5% of every retail sale from the seller and 18% interest from buyers. A real "stacked" deck!
YES, IT'S POLITICAL, TOO!
Democrat, Republican, and Independent voters who have wondered why politicians always spend more tax money than they take in should now see the reason. When they begin to study our "debt-money" system, they soon realize that these politicians are not the agents of the people but are the agents of the Bankers, for whom they plan ways to place the people further-in debt. It takes only a little imagination to see that if Congress had been "creating," and spending or issuing into circulation the necessary increase in the money supply, THERE WOULD BE NO NATIONAL DEBT, and the over $4 Trillion of other debts would be practically non-existent. Since there would be no ORIGINAL cost of money except printing, and no CONTINUING costs such as interest, Federal taxes would be almost nil. Money, once in circulation, would remain their and go on serving its purpose as a medium of exchange for generation after generation and century after century, just as coins do now, with NO payments to the Bankers whatever!
MOUNTING DEBTS AND WARS
But instead of peace and debt-free prosperity, we have ever-mounting debt and periodic wars. We as a people are now ruled by a system of Banker-owned Mammon that has usurped the mantle of government, disguised itself as our legitimate government, and set about to pauperize and control our people. It is now a centralized, all-powerful political apparatus whose main purposes are promoting war, spending the peoples' money, and propagandizing to perpetuate itself in power. Our two large political parties have become its servants, the various departments of government its spending agencies, and the Internal Revenue its collection agency.
Unknown to the people, it operates in close cooperation with similar apparatuses in other nations. which are also disguised as "governments." Some, we are told, are friends. Some, we are told, are enemies. "Enemies" are built up through international manipulations and used to frighten the American people into going billions of dollars more into debt to the Bankers for "military preparedness," "foreign aid to stop communism," "minority rights," etc. Citizens, deliberately confused by brainwashing propaganda, watch helplessly while our politicians give our food, goods, and money to Banker-controlled alien governments under the guise of "better relations" and "easing tensions." Our Banker-controlled government takes our finest and bravest sons and sends them into foreign wars with obsolete equipment and inadequate training, where tens of thousands are murdered, and hundreds of thousands are crippled. Other thousands are morally corrupted, addicted to drugs, and infected with venereal and other diseases, which they bring back to the United States. When the "war" is over, we have gained nothing, but we are scores of billions of dollars more in debt to the Bankers, which was the reason for the "war" in the first place!
BUT WAIT... THERE'S STILL MORE
The profits from these massive debts have been used to erect a complete and almost hidden economic and political colossus over our nation. They keep telling us they are trying to do us "good," when in truth they work to bring harm and injury to our people. These would-be despots know it is easier to control and rob an ill, poorly-educated and confused people than it is a healthy and intelligent population, so they deliberately prevent real cures for diseases, they degrade our educational systems, and they stir up social and racial unrest. For the same reason they favor drug use, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, abortion, pornography, and crime. Everything which debilitates the minds and bodies of the people is secretly encouraged, as it makes the people less able to oppose them or even to understand what is being done to them.
Family, morals, love of Country, the Christian religion, all that is honorable is being swept away, while they try to build their new, subservient man. Our new "rulers" are trying to change our whole racial, social, religious, and political order, but they will not change the debt-money economic system by which they rob and rule. Our people have become tenants and "debt-slaves" to the Bankers and their agents in the land our fathers conquered. It is conquest through the most gigantic fraud and swindle in the history of mankind. And we remind you again: The key to their wealth and power over us is their ability to create "money" out of nothing and lend it to us at interest. If they had not been allowed to do that, they would never have gained secret control of our nation. "The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender" (Proverbs 22:7).
Let us now consider the correct method of providing the medium of exchange (money) needed by our people.
INTEREST-FREE MONEY
History tells us of debt-free and interest-free money issued by governments. The American colonies did it in the 1700's and their wealth soon rivaled England and brought restrictions from Parliament, which led to the Revolutionary War. Abraham Lincoln did it in 1863 to help finance the Civil War. He was later assassinated by an agent of the Rothschild Bank. No debt-free or interest-free money has been issued in America since then. Several Arab nations issue interest-free loans to their citizens today. The Saracen Empire for bad interest on money for 1,000 years, and its wealth outshone even Saxon Europe. Mandarin China issued its own money, interest-free and debt-free, and historians and collectors of art today consider those centuries to be China's time of greatest wealth, culture and peace.
Germany issued debt-free and interest-free money from 1935 and on, accounting for its startling rise from the depression to a world power in 5 years. Germany financed its entire government and war operation from 1935 to 1945 without debt, and it took the whole Capitalist and Communist world to destroy the German power over Europe and bring Europe back under the heel of the Bankers. Such history of money does not even appear in the textbooks of public (government) schools today.
Issuing money which doesn't have to be paid back in interest leaves the money available to use in the exchange of goods and services and its only continuing cost is replacement as the paper wears out. Money is the paper ticket by which such transfers are made and should always be in sufficient quantity to transfer all possible production of the nation to ultimate consumers.
It is as ridiculous for a nation to say to its citizens, "You must consume less because we are short of money," as it would be for an Airline to say "Our planes are flying, but we can't take you because we are short of tickets."
NO MORE BANKERS' PLUNDER
Under the present debt-usury system, the extra burden of usury forces workers and businesses to demand more money for the work and goods to pay their ever-increasing debts and taxes. This increase in prices and wages is called "inflation." Bankers, politicians and "economists" blame it on everything but the real cause, which is the usury levied on money and debt by the Bankers. This "inflation" benefits the money-lenders, since it wipes out savings of one generation so they cannot finance or help the next generation, who must then borrow from the money-lenders, and pay a large part of their life's labor to the usurer.
With an adequate supply of interest-free money, little borrowing would be required and prices would be established by people and goods, not by debts and usury.
CITIZEN CONTROL
If the Federal Congress failed to act, or acted wrongly, in the supply of money, the citizens would use the ballot or recall petition to replace those who prevented correct action with others whom the people believe would pursue a better money policy. Since the creation of money and its issuance in sufficient quantity would be one of the few functions of Congress, the voter could decide on a candidate by his stand on money, instead of the hundreds of lesser, and deliberately confusing, subjects which are presented to us today. And since money is, and would remain, a national function, local differences or local factions would not be able to sway the people from the nation's (citizens') interest. All other problems, except the nation's defense, would be taken care of in the State, County, or City governments where they are best handled and most easily corrected.
An adequate national defense would be provided by the same citizen-controlled Congress, and there would be no Bankers behind the scenes, bribing politicians to give $200 billion of American military equipment to other nations, disarming us, while alien nations prepare to attack and invade the United States of America.
A DEBT-FREE AMERICA
With debt-free and interest-free money, there would be no high and confiscatory taxation, our homes would be mortgage free with no $10,000-a-year payments to the Bankers, nor would they get $1,000 to $2,500 per year from every automobile on our roads. We would need no "easy payment" plans, "revolving" charge accounts, loans to pay medical or hospital bills, loans to pay taxes, loans to pay for burials, loans to pay loans, nor any of the thousand and one usury-bearing loans which now suck the life-blood of American families. There would be no unemployment, divorces caused by debt, destitute old people, or mounting crime, and even the so-called "deprived" classes would be deprived of neither job nor money to buy the necessities of life.
Criminals could not become politicians, nor would politicians become criminals in the pay of the Money-lenders. Our officials, at all government levels, would be working for the people instead of devising means to spend more money to place us further in debt to the Bankers. We would get out of the entangling foreign alliances that have engulfed us in four major wars and scores of minor wars since the Federal Reserve Act was passed, alliances which are now used to prevent America from preparing her own defense in the face of mounting danger from alien powers.
A debt-free America would mean mothers would not have to work. With mother at home, juvenile delinquency would decrease rapidly. The elimination of the usury and debt would be the equivalent of a 50% raise in the purchasing power of every worker. With this cancellation of all debts, the return to the people of all the property and wealth the parasitic Bankers and their quasi-legal agents have stolen by usury and fraud, and the ending of their theft of $300 Billion (or more) every year from the people, America would be prosperous and powerful beyond the wildest dreams of its citizens today. And we would be at peace! (For a Bible example of cancellation of debts to money lenders and restoration of property and money to the people, read Nehemiah 5: 1-13.)
WHY YOU HAVEN'T KNOWN
We realize this small, and necessarily incomplete, article on money may be charged with oversimplification. Some may say that if it is that simple the people would have known about it, and it could not have happened. But this MONEY-LENDERS' consPIRACY is as old as Babylon, and even in America it dates far back before the year 1913. Actually, 1913 may be considered the year in which their previous plans came to fruition, and the way opened for complete economic conquest of our people. The consPIRACY is old enough in America so that its agents have been, for many years, in positions such as newspaper publishers, editors, columnists, church ministers, university presidents, professors, textbook writers, labor union leaders, movie makers, radio and TV commentators, politicians from school board members to U.S. presidents, and many others.
CONTROLLED NEWS AND INFORMATION
These agents control the information available to our people. They manipulate public opinion, elect whom they will locally and nationally, and never expose the crooked money system. They promote school bonds, municipal bonds, expensive and detrimental farm programs, "urban renewal," foreign aid, and many other schemes which will put the people more into debt to the Bankers. Thoughtful citizens wonder why billions are spent on one program and billions on another which may duplicate it or even nullify it, such as paying some farmers not to raise crops, while at the same time building dams or canals to irrigate more farm land. Crazy or stupid? Neither. The goal is more debt. Thousand of government-sponsored ways to waste money go on continually. Most make no sense, but they are never exposed for what they really are, builders of "billions for the bankers and debts for the people."
So-called "economic experts" write syndicated columns in hundreds of newspapers, craftily designed to prevent the people from learning the simple truth about our money system. Commentators on radio and TV, preachers, educators, and politicians blame the people as wasteful, lazy, or, spend-thrift, and blame the workers, and consumers for the increase in debts and the inflation of prices, when they know the cause is the debt-money system itself. Our people are literally drowned in charges and counter-charges designed to confuse them and keep them from understanding the unconstitutional and evil money-system that is so efficiently and silently robbing the farmers, the workers, and the businessmen of the fruits of their labors and of their freedoms.
When some few Patriotic people or organizations who know the truth begin to expose them or try to stop any of their mad schemes, they are ridiculed and smeared as "right-wing extremists," "super-patriots," "ultra-rightists," "bigots," "racists," even "fascists" and "anti-Semites." Any name is used which will cause them to shut up or will at least stop other people from listening to the warning they are giving. Articles and books such as you are now reading are kept out of schools, libraries, and book stores.
Some, who are especially vocal in their exposure of the treason against our people, are harassed by government agencies such as the EPA, OSHA, the IRS, and others, causing them financial loss or bankruptcy. Using the above methods, they have been completely successful in preventing most Americans from learning the things you have read in this pamphlet. However, in spite of their control of information, they realize many citizens are learning the truth. Therefore, to prevent violence or armed resistance to their plunder of America, they plan to register all firearms and eventually to disarm all citizens. They have to eliminate most guns, except those in the hands of their government police and army.
TELL THE PEOPLE
The "almost hidden" conspirators in politics, religion, education, entertainment, and the news media are working for a Banker-owned United States in a Banker-owned world under a Banker-owned World Governments!
Love of Country and concern for your children should make you deeply interested in this, America's greatest problem, for our generation has not suffered under the "yoke" as the coming generations will. Usury and taxes will continue to take a larger and larger part of the annual earnings of the people and put them into the pockets of the Bankers and their political Agents. Increasing "government" regulations will prevent citizen protest and opposition to their control. Is it possible that your grandchildren will own neither home nor car, but will live in "government-owned" apartments and ride to work in "government-owned" buses (both paying usury to the Bankers), AND BE ALLOWED TO KEEP JUST ENOUGH OF THEIR EARNINGS TO BUY A MINIMUM OF FOOD AND CLOTHING while their Rulers wallow in luxury? In Asia and eastern Europe it is called "communism;" in America it is called "Democracy" and "Capitalism."
America will not shake off her Banker-controlled dictatorship as long as the people are ignorant of the hidden controllers. International financiers, who control most of the governments of the nations, and most sources of information, seem to have us completely within their grasp. They are afraid of only one thing: an awakened Patriotic Citizenry, armed with the truth, and with a trust, in Almighty God for deliverance. This article has given you the truth about their iniquitous system. What you do with it is in your hands.
AUDIT THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM?
The Federal Reserve has never been audited by the government since it took over our money and credit in 1913. In 1975 a bill, H.R. 4316, to require an audit was introduced in Congress.
During the April, 1975 hearings, this author submitted a statement favoring the audit, as did many others. Due to pressure from the money controllers, it was not passed. No audit of the Fed has ever been made.
WHY HAVEN'T THEY TOLD YOU?
Why haven't they told you about this scandal - the greatest fraud in history which has caused Americans and others to spill oceans of blood, pay trillions of dollars interest on fraudulent loans and burden themselves with unnecessary taxes?
Who are "they"? "They" are most of the politicians of the two old parties and elected officials. Most "educational" groups like the League of Women Voters, the Heritage Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). All mainstream news services, such as the Associated Press and the United Press International. All mainstream daily newspapers, including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. All mainstream weekly "news" magazines, such as "Time" and "Newsweek." All of the above and more have been hiding the truth from you.
WHAT SOME FAMOUS MEN HAVE SAID ABOUT THE MONEY QUESTION
ALAN GREENSPAN: "In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. ... This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard."
PRESIDENT THOMAS JEFFERSON: "The system of banking [is] a blot left in all our Constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction... I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity... is but swindling futurity on a large scale."
PRESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD: "Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce".
CONGRESSMAN LOUIS McFADDEN: "The Federal Reserve(Banks) are one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever seen. There is not a man within the sound of my voice who does not know that this Nation is run by the International Bankers".
HORACE GREELEY: "While boasting of our noble deeds were careful to conceal the ugly fact that by an iniquitous money system we have nationalized a system of oppression which, though more refined, is not less cruel than the old system of chattel slavery.
THOMAS A. EDISON: "People who will not turn a shovel full of dirt on the project (Muscle Shoals Dam) nor contribute a pound of material, will collect more money from the United States than will the People who supply all the material and do all the work. This is the terrible thing about interest ...But here is the point: If the Nation can issue a dollar bond it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good also. The difference between the bond and the bill is that the bond lets the money broker collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20%. Whereas the currency, the honest sort provided by the Constitution pays nobody but those who contribute in some useful way. It is absurd to say our Country can issue bonds and cannot issue currency. Both are promises to pay, but one fattens the usurer and the other helps the People."
PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON: "A great industrial Nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the Nation and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the world - no longer a Government of free opinion no longer a Government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men". (Just before he died, Wilson is reported to have stated to friends that he had been "deceived" and that "I have betrayed my Country". He referred to the Federal Reserve Act passed during his Presidency.)
SIR JOSIAH STAMP,(President of the Bank of England in the 1920's, the second richest man in Britain): "Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits".
MAJOR L .L. B. ANGUS: "The modern Banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banks can in fact inflate, mint and unmint the modern ledger-entry currency".
RALPH M. HAWTREY (Former Secretary of the British Treasury): "Banks lend by creating credit. They create the means of payment out of nothing".
ROBERT HEMPHILL (Credit Manager of Federal Reserve Bank, Atlanta, Ga.): "This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial Banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the Banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied very soon".
This study on money is not copyrighted. It may be reproduced in whole or in part for the purpose of helping the American people.
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The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered. -Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Disclaimer: We do not advise anyone on financial investments, please consult a licensed professional before making any financial decisions. Our website is for research only.
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Federal Reserve and other financial regulators urged mortgage holders Tuesday to work with homeowners facing default to try to work out terms and help "preserve homeownership."
The statement from the Fed and other regulators comes amid concerns that as many as two million US homeowners may face foreclosure as interest rates are reset on adjustable-rate mortgages.
Companies servicing mortgages, including loans that have been bundled into securities, should try to "identify borrowers at risk of default and pursue appropriate loss mitigation strategies designed to preserve homeownership," the statement said.
"Significant numbers of hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages will reset throughout the remainder of this year and next.
"Many subprime and other mortgage loans have been transferred into securitization trusts that are governed by pooling and servicing agreements," it added.
"These agreements may allow servicers to contact borrowers at risk of default, assess whether default is reasonably foreseeable, and, if so, apply loss mitigation strategies designed to achieve sustainable mortgage obligations."
Loan service firms "may have the flexibility to contact borrowers in advance of loan resets," to work out payment arrangements and refer distressed homeowners to counseling services "that may be able to work with all parties to avoid unnecessary foreclosures."
The statement comes from Federal Reserve as well as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Thrift Supervision, the National Credit Union Administration and state banking regulators.
It was released after Friday's call by President George W. Bush for new measures to help avert a wave of foreclosures that could displace homeowners and hurt the overall economy.
Best And Worst U.S. Housing Markets
Matt Woolsey, 08.16.07, 1:30 PM ET
In Pictures: Best U.S. Housing Markets
In Pictures: Worst U.S. Housing Markets
By This Author
Matt Woolsey
In Pictures: World's Most Overpriced Real Estate Markets
World's Most Overpriced Real Estate Markets
In Pictures: Stunning Solar-Powered Homes
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A Message from the Ghost of General Patton....
ATTENTION!
To those whining, panty-waisted, pathetic Maggots, it's time for a little refresher course on exactly why we Americans occasionally have to fight wars.
See if you can tear yourself away from your "reality" TV and Starbucks for a minute, pull your head out of your flabby ass -- and LISTEN UP!!
Abu Ghraib is not "torture" or an "atrocity".
This is the kind of thing frat boys, sorority girls, and academy cadets
do to newcomers.
A little fun at someone else's expense.
Certainly no reason to wring your hands or get your panties in a wad.
Got that?
THIS IS an atrocity!
So Was This!!!
WHICH PART DON'T YOU GET?
Islam a peaceful religion???
Millions of these sons-of-bitches are plotting as we speak to destroy our country and our way of life any way they can.
Some of them are here among us now.
They don't want to convert you and don't want to rule you. You are a vile infestation of Allah's paradise. They don't give a s%#$ how "progressive" you are, how peace-loving you are, or how much you sympathize with their cause.
They want you dead, and think it is God's will for them to do it. And you think Bush and Cheney are your worst enemies?
Some think if we give them a hug or listen to them, then they'll like us... and if you agree? Then you are a dumb ass!
If they manage to get their hands on a nuke, chemical agents, or even some anthrax -- you will wish to God we had hunted them down and killed THEM while we had the chance.
Stop bitchin' about your damn Health Care, Social Security, Gas prices, and your measly 3.25% unemployment rate...and start worrying about you, your family's, and your friends' asses.
How many more Americans must be beheaded before you stop blaming Bush for all your troubles --
You've fallen asleep AGAIN, maggots!
And you may not get another chance!
DISMISSED!
The truth shall set you free!!
Most Popular Stories
TIPS ON PUMPING GAS
I don't know what you guys are
paying for gasoline.... but here in California we are also paying higher,
up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31
years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for
every gallon..
Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we
deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day
is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium
grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000
gallons.
Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the
ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their
storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more
dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the
afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In
the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the
gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays
an important role.
A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But
the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.
When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a
fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3)stages:
low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby
minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at
the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate,
some other liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being
sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less
worth for your money.
One of the most important tips is
to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this
is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty
space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks
have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the
gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service
stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated
so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.
Another
reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you
stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely the gasoline is being stirred
up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some f the dirt that
normally settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value
for your money.
DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!
WHERE TO BUY USA GAS, THIS IS
VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW. READ ON
Gas rationing in the 80's worked even though we grumbled
about it. It might even be good for us! The Saudis are boycotting American
goods. We should return the favor.
An interesting thought is to
boycott their GAS.
Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more
money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia. Just buy from gas companies that
don't import their oil from the Saudis.
Nothing is more frustrating than
the feeling that every time I fill-up the tank, I am sending my money to people
who are trying to kill me, my family, and my friends.
I thought it might
be interesting for you to know which oil companies are the best to buy gas from
and which major companies import Middle Eastern oil.
These companies
import Middle Eastern oil:
Shell...........................
205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco......... 144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil............... 130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway... 117,740,000 barrels
Amoco............................62,231,000 barrels
Citgo gas is from
South America, from a Dictator who hates Americans. If you do the math at
$30/barrel, these imports amount to over $18 BILLION! (oil is now $90 - $100 a
barrel
Here are some large companies that do not import Middle Eastern oil:
Sunoco..................0 barrels
Conoco..................0
barrels
Sinclair.................0 barrels
B P/Phillips............0
barrels
Hess.......................0 barrels
ARC0....................0
barrels
If you go to Sunoco.com , you will get a list of the station locations
near you.
All of this information is available from the Department of Energy
and each is required to state where they get their oil and how much they are
importing.
But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of
gas
buyers.
It's really simple to do.
Now, don't wimp out at this
point.... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of
people!!
I'm sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you
send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)...and those 300 send it to at
least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) .. and so on, by the time the message reaches
the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION
consumers !!!!!!! If those three million get excited and pass this on to
ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been
contacted!
If it goes one level further, you guessed it ..... THREE HUND RED
MILLION PEOPLE!!!
Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. How
long would all that take?
"Significant house price declines constrain options for consumers," says MBA Chief Economist Doug Duncan, of the tightening of credit in home mortgage lending. "Credit markets today on the securitization side have simply stopped other than [Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE - news - people )] and [Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM - news - people )]. Investors have to regain confidence in mortgage related assets; otherwise much of the market is going to be illiquid."
Taking a deeper look at specific markets also helps explain the numbers.
The Wild West
In Southern California, speculative buying in Los Angeles and San Diego has helped the region become one of the hardest hit by foreclosures. While both posted year-over-year price gains--2.9% in Los Angeles and 0.2% in San Diego--the condo market in both places fared worse: up only 0.7% in L.A. and down 1.4% in San Diego.
In this market, these numbers should be welcomed. But when you look at the area's sales volume, things aren't so rosy.
Between 2000 and 2005, Los Angeles saw average spring season sales rates of 13,000 and 15,000; in San Diego, those numbers over the same time period were between 4,200 and 5,200, according to Radar Logic, a housing analytics and research company.
By the spring of 2006, prices and sales were plummeting. And this spring, sales in Los Angeles were under 5,000 and in San Diego transactions climbed just above 2,000.
This is due to skittishness brought on by the weak housing market.
"It's psychologically hard to take a loss and people will hold on to [a house] longer and wait for the market to stabilize before they sell," says Kermit Baker a senior research fellow at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. "There's no sense that we're near the bottom here in terms of the market beginning to recover. The question is how much stickiness will we see on this downward trajectory."
New York Housing
Understanding which markets are the stickiest--or most resistant to downward pricing thanks in part to robust sales--has a lot to do with understanding what kind of money fueled the run-up of the last five years.
Take the New York metro area, where the $557,500 median home price increased 6.3% last quarter.
"Activity levels in Manhattan are still elevated... Long Island is continuing to slip, but at a modest amount," says Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a New York-based real estate appraisal and consultancy firm. "In [Long Island] the upper-end market was the market of choice for speculation and tear downs. In [New York City] the market is more closely aligned with Wall Street and bonus compensation."
Where the money comes from dictates stability. Markets where new development was fueled by flippers and investors are more volatile because such buyers are more likely to take out risky loans and to walk away from a property when the market sours.
Not so in the Big Apple. "In New York City … new development was fueled by second home buyers and primary home buyers," says Miller. "There's still a lot of product coming off the conveyor belt, but fortunately the market demand has been there."
Midwest Markets
When you turn your gaze to the Midwest, the issue becomes where the money is not coming from. Based on MBA calculations, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan account for 8.7% of the nation's loans but account for 20% of all loans in foreclosure nationwide. The reason this is happening is because people are losing their jobs and leaving the area.
And this trend should continue into next year.
"We expect another two to four quarter of modest rises in delinquencies," says Duncan. "And foreclosures lag one to two quarters behind that."
Existing Homes Sales Drop
Some Tax Saving Strategies You know it is true, but very few people know how to halt this huge drain on their life’s blood.
You are taxed when you earn money. You are taxed when you spend money, you are taxed when you invest your money, then you are taxed when you die!
This article will give you enough knowledge to cut your taxes by 30-40%!
Think about it. Many investors do not use the correct entities to conduct their real estate activities and therefore pay more tax than they would otherwise have to.
Most investors buy and own properties in their own name, opening themselves up not only to increased taxes but also fortune-stealing lawsuits and other liabilities.
Even when a real estate investment is successful, too large a percentage is paid out to the government in gains taxes.
Let’s look at some possibilities:
How would you like to be able to add $200-$1,000 per month, every month, to your paycheck, starting with your next pay check?
How about eliminating 15.3 percent in taxes from most of your self employed income, flips and rehab deals?
Eliminate the taxes on your capital gains while pulling out tax free cash, which you cannot do with a 1031 Exchange. Any cash that you take out with a 1031 is called boot and is immediately taxable
Learn to use your IRA as a source of tax free capital to skyrocket your asset building program. I don’t care what your broker or banker says, the IRS says you can use your IRA or other retirement plan to buy real estate. Details at http://ARealEstateIRA.com
Eliminate the expense and delays of probate of your properties and reduce estate taxes when you die. Probate is a mystery to most people. It is an expensive, time consuming process whereby the court makes your last will and testament public, giving creditors and would be creditors a last shot at collecting from you before your assets pass onto your heirs. Probate can cost upwards of 7% of your Gross estate. That might not sound like much, but the problem is with the word gross. That means that if you have a property you bought recently for $400,000, no money down. You would have to pay 7% or $28,000 on a property you had no equity in! If a creditor or would be creditor does come out of the woodwork with a claim against your assets, they could be tied up for months or even years. Simply putting your properties in a land trust will prevent the need to probate your real estate upon your death. Your heirs will bless you!
All it takes is a bit of knowledge about how the tax system really works and an understanding of the laws of money.
Fortunately, there are a couple of things you, as a real estate investor can do immediately to slice your tax burden substantially.
Treat your real estate investment activities as a business, even if you only pursue it part time and take all of the deductions and expenses you are probably overlooking but are entitled to by law.
Be sure to use the correct entities in your business for maximum asset protection and to minimize taxes. Here are some of the business expenses allowed by the IRS for real estate investors operating out of their homes:
Home office expenses
Travel expenses (vacation or business trip, the difference is huge!)
Employment of family members including children
Auto expenses
Entertainment expenses
Family medical expenses
Retirement plans
You are probably taking some of these deductions now, like the auto expense or entertainment write offs. However, you are leaving money on the table, hundreds of dollars per month if you do not use all the tax loop holes you can.
For instance, I bet there are not too many real estate investors who have an IRA plan tied to their business. This is a huge sink hole that could shelter thousands of dollars from taxes each year which can actually be used to finance your real estate investments!
Do you employ your children in your business? The IRS has given the green light to employing kids as young as 7 in your business, assuming the work is appropriate and the pay is competitive with pay for the same work in your area.
The proper business entity
The proper business entity issue is a sleeper, an expensive and dangerous one. The LLC has become a very popular business entity in recent years. However, if you have an active real estate business; flipping, rehabbing, etc. It is costing you an extra 15.3% in extra taxes! These are self employment taxes which an S Corp would avoid while still retaining the pass through aspect as well as the asset protection aspect of the LLC.
If you are flipping properties or buying properties to rehab and sell, you run the risk of being classified as a “Real Estate Dealer” as opposed to an investor by the IRS. This is serious as you will no longer be able to write off the property’s depreciation, sell on an installment contract or use a 1031 tax free exchange. The answer, in this case too, is to use an S Corp to handle all of your flips or rehabs. This way, if the IRS characterizes the companies activities as a dealer, it will be the S corp and not you personally, that will get hit with the restrictions.
Then there is the Land Trust, a whole subject to itself. Putting your property into a land trust not only provides protection against probate as we noted before, it also gives bullet proof asset protection against creditors, law suits and judgments.
Believe it or not, it also shields your capital gains profits from taxation including the recapture of depreciation when you sell your property!
Once these additional expenses are realized and correctly documented and the proper entities are employed it is likely that you will show a loss in your real estate operations, especially if you are a new investor.
This loss can be written off against the income from your regular job or self employed earnings, resulting in an increase in your net take home pay of hundreds of dollars each month, enough to make a real difference in your lifestyle.
By- Bill Young
The Best Way To Generate Free Targeted Website Traffic
If you have a website or you promote someone else's' website as an affiliate, you need to drive traffic to it.
Without traffic, you won't get visitors. And without visitors, you won't make money, sales, get subscribers, etc. What good is a website without any traffic? And if the site is getting traffic, what good is it if it's not targeted traffic?
There are many ways to drive traffic to your site, both free and paid. But we are not going to talk about paid traffic right now. That is a totally different topic and could take hours to cover.
So, back to free traffic. Some ways of getting free traffic to your site is by Search Engine Optimization, surfing for traffic, or getting it passively.
SEO takes time and a lot of work. When you join sites that are surf for traffic sites, you have to look at other members' sites in order to earn advertising credits for your site to be displayed when another member is surfing.
The only problem with this is that although the traffic is free, it is not targeted. Everyone who is a member only surfs for the credit and very rarely even looks at the site, they just minimize their window on their PC and multi-task. So, the traffic is crap and worthless.
Now, let's talk about the best way to get free targeted traffic. It's called Instant Buzz. Instant Buzz is a service that gives you advertising credits as you surf the web like you normally would. What you do is download the toolbar for free, it only takes a minute. Then, you set up your ads in the members area. And bam, you ads are being displayed on other members' tool bars as they surf.
You can also put Instant Buzz ads in emails that you send to your friends. These are called mail space ads. And your ad will get displayed in other members' emails. The last thing you can do is put a hyperspace ad on your website which will help you refer other members.
When you refer other members, you will also get a percentage of the credits they earn which will go towards your ad credits.
If someone likes your ad and is interested in what it says, then they click on it and end up on whatever site it was that you were promoting. Now that's targeted traffic! And it was free.
So make sure you visit the link in the resource box to start driving targeted and quality traffic to your website today. It will only take you a couple of minutes to start bringing visitors to your site.
Resource Box Text:
To download this free tool or get more information about Instant Buzz,
visit http://www.InstantBuzz.com/r/?starnesholdings
The 10 States with the Most New Home Plans*
1. Texas
2. Florida
3. North Carolina
4. Arizona
5. Georgia
6. California
7. Colorado
8. Ohio
9. Pennsylvania
10. South Carolina
*According to study of new-home communities by Move.com
Charlotte, North Carolina
If you’d like to be in the mountains or at the beach in less than two hours, Charlotte is a great location — equidistant between Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Asheville, N.C. In fact, if you live in Charlotte, you can reach about half the nation’s population within just one hour in a plane or one day in a car, according to City-Data.com.
Because Charlotte is the center of the largest consolidated rail system, it’s transformed into a major distribution and transportation hub, adding to its reputation as a regional financial center (home to Wachovia and Bank of America). An inland port facility and foreign trade zone also make the city appealing to foreign companies who want a U.S. presence. The Charlotte area also has attracted several large contractors that do business with the nation’s Defense Department.
The average resident is 32.7, and the median household income is about $47,000. More than 55 percent of residents are white, while 32.7 percent are black.
In 2005, the average new or previously owned house cost $159,900. The median property tax then was $1,765.
Today, new homes are priced from $107,000 to $350,000, with a smattering more priced up to more than $1.1 million. That bottom price will net you a three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,100-square-foot single-family home near I-85 in West Charlotte. For about $200,000, you can pick up a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath, 2,200-square-foot home in the pedestrian-friendly, neotraditional community of Ayrsley, in south Charlotte. The upper end can get you a four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath, 4,000-square-foot home near the Mint Hill section of southeastern Charlotte.
North Carolina House Bill 725
In North Carolina, legislation has been proposed that would prevent anyone from taking title to a property “subject to” existing loans and liens. (The North Carolina state attorney general’s office has, according to Bill Bronchick of Legalwiz.com been the driving force behind this legislation.
Bronchick says that the North Carolina AG’s office claims to have received “hundreds” of complaints from people who were damaged by defaulting investors who purchased properties “subject to” existing deeds of trust, and then did not keep their loans current after the sale. He goes on to say that, while this occasionally happens he finds it very hard to believe that more than a few complaints have been filed.
Fortunately, the proposed bill died in committee during the last session of the legislature, but we’ve been advised that it will be brought up again, so we’ll discuss it here.
This bill is targeted at the investor who would buy a property from a troubled homeowner “subject to” the existing loan. It would also require that the investor get express written permission from the lender to acquire the property subject to. This is not likely to happen.
If an investor can take title to a property subject to the existing loans, cures the default, and gets the troubled seller some cash - that’s a win-win proposition. If that option is shut off, investors will now need to pay less for the house and finance 100% of their purchase with a hard money loan. So in the end, it is the poor homeowner in default who takes the hit, not the investor.
An odd point is that licensed real estate agents would be exempt from this law. In other words, such agents could act as principals and take title to foreclosure properties subject to, and resell them. They could also force investors to employ them to carry out such transactions.
Hmmm! Do you smell something funny in the air? We do.
The fundamental problem here is that we have state governments interfering with free markets. There is no doubt that financial predators have been violating existing laws as they take advantage of people in financial distress. They use deception, forgery, and outright fraud to carry out their schemes.
Once again, these are criminal practices, and there are already laws on the books to deal with them. We do not need state governments to abrogate or limit the rights of property owners and investors to develop solutions that best suit the objectives of each.
We do not want to see honest and ethical foreclosure property investors, or the people they seek to help, trampled in a stampede of self-righteous politicians.
The foregoing information does not constitute legal advice, nor does the reading of this information create an attorney client relationship with the reader. For proper application of the information contained in these articles, you are advised to seek the assistance of an attorney whose practice emphasizes landlord-tenant law.
Texas Senate Bill 629
This law amends Texas law to define lease/option contracts as “executory contracts”. This means that if an investor contracts with a tenant to occupy a property with an option to purchase it later, a sale has actually occurred.
Therefore, the investor loses any ownership tax benefits until the tenant exercises his option to purchase it. He cannot use a 1031 exchange, or get the capital gains tax rate when the tenant does exercise his option. In other words, according to Texas SB 629, the investor who leases a property to a tenant, and offers the tenant an option to buy it at a later date, has sold the property even though he hasn’t.
In addition SB 629 says that you cannot transfer a property unless you have title to it. This absolutely eliminates the possibility of doing a wraparound lease option deal.
Foreclosure : The Process
North Carolina offers two methods of foreclosure:
1. by filing a lawsuit seeking foreclosure.
2. by conducting an out-of-court foreclosure sale under the terms of a power of sale clause in a deed of trust.
In the event the lender elects to foreclose by filing a lawsuit, it will try to get a default judgment. Once the lender gets a judgment, the court clerks for the Superior Court have the power of the judge to appoint commissioners to make the foreclosure sale, receive the reports on the sale and confirm the reported sale. They may order the execution and delivery of a deed to the property. The clerk may also issue a writs of assistance to evict any occupants, provided ten days' advance notice is given to such occupants.
Deed of Trust Foreclosure
In North Carolina, a deed of trust foreclosure has several unusual features. First, there must be a preliminary hearing as to whether to foreclose or not. Interested parties must receive notice of the hearing. The clerk of the court, not the judge, holds the hearing. Afterward, a notice of the foreclosure sale must be given; then the sale is conducted. A deposit must be made at the sale. After the sale, however, a very unusual procedure called an upset bid exists. An upset bid consists of making a higher bid than the foreclosure bid within a set time, which will cause the property to go through a resale, which may happen again and again! After the final sale, the sale is reported to the court clerk.
Preliminary Hearing
Under North Carolina law, a lender or trustee who has the power of sale under a deed of trust may foreclose it by following a statutorily prescribed procedure. At the outset, a hearing must be held before the court clerk (not the judge) to determine whether the foreclosure should take place or not. Notice of the hearing must be served in the manner in which a lawsuit is served, or by certified mail, return receipt requested, or, if no other process to give notice works after diligent effort, then the notice of the hearing can be posted in a conspicuous place on the property that will be foreclosed on.
Notice of the Foreclosure Hearing
Notice of the hearing must be sent to the borrower, anyone who owes money or could owe money on the loan and every person who has a recorded claim or lien on the real estate that would be affected by the foreclosure.
The notice must describe the real estate, give the name and address of the current lender, describe the nature of the default, state whether the loan has been accelerated and mention any right the borrower has to pay to cure the default.
The notice must state that the borrower has the right to appear before the clerk of the court at the date and time specified and show cause as to why the foreclosure should not be held. The notice must state that the borrower does not have to appear, and that failure to attend does not preclude the buyer from trying to cure the default or buy at the foreclosure sale.
The notice should warn the borrower that the foreclosure buyer will be entitled to possession as soon as the foreclosure buyer accepts delivery of the deed to the property. The borrower is further advised to keep the lender informed as to the borrower's latest address to aid delivery of copies of any subsequent foreclosure notices.
The right to receive a notice of hearing may be waived, but only if the debt is over $100,000 and the waiver is in writing and signed in the presence of the witness. When such written waivers are delivered to the court clerk, the clerk may skip the hearing on whether the foreclosure should take place or not.
The Hearing
The clerk will hold the hearing. During the hearing, the clerk will consider evidence as to whether the debt exists, whether a default has occurred and whether the lender has the right to foreclose. If the clerk answers those questions in the lender's favor, he or she will authorize the foreclosure. Either side may appeal the clerk's ruling to the judge within ten days. (This is likely to be fruitless.)
Notice of Sale - Contents
The notice of sale shall describe the loan instruments. It must identify the original borrowers as they are shown in the deed records within ten days prior to the posting of the foreclosure notice. If someone other than the borrower owns or claims ownership of the property in an instrument that has been recorded, then such a person must be mentioned in the notice of the foreclosure sale.
The notice must give the date, hour and place of the sale, provided such date, hour and place are consistent with the state law regulating such sales. (More details will follow on the sale itself.) The notice must describe the property and state the terms of the sale and that the property will be sold subject to taxes, special assessments and any other terms required by the deed of trust, which must be specifically described.
Notice of Sale - Posting and Publishing
The notice of the sale of the real estate must be posted at the courthouse door for 20 days prior to the sale. In addition it must be published once a week for two successive weeks. The two ads must be published at least eight days apart. The last ad cannot be published less than ten days before the sale. The notice of the sale must be mailed first class mail at least 20 days before the sale to the borrower and any other owner or record title or lien claimant at the address last known to the trustee or the lender. The notice must further be sent to anyone who has taken the time and trouble to record a request for copy of notice in the statutory form as follows:
In accordance with the provisions of G. S.. 45-21.17(5) request is hereby made that a copy of any notice of sale under the deed of trust (mortgage) recorded on____________________20____, in Book____, page ______ records of _____________ County, North Carolina, executed by _____________ as trustor (mortgagor) in which _________________ is named as beneficiary (mortgagee), and ____________________ as trustee to be mailed to ____________________ at the following address ____________________.
Signature: __________________________
If the sale is made to someone other than the lender, or if the lender resells to a good-faith buyer and such a buyer holds the land six months, then a person who did not receive a notice of sale loses the right to challenge the foreclosure. To challenge the sale, the party must post a bond equal to what the lender is owed on the loan against the property. The bond is irrevocable, pending the final decision of the court.
Time of Sale
A sale shall begin at the time designated in the notice of sale, but never on a Sunday and always between the hours of 10 a.m. and
4 p.m. The sale may be continued or postponed. However, a postponement may only be for good cause, such as bad weather, an excessive number of competing sales, illness or another good reason. The postponement must be announced at the time and place the regular sale would have taken place. A notice of the postponement must be posted on the courthouse door, and be given orally to each party who is normally entitled to notice of a foreclosure sale. The notice has to state the hour and date to which the sale is postponed and the reason for the postponement and it must be signed.
Place of Sale
The property must be sold at the courthouse door in the county where the land is located, unless the deed of trust provides for a different location. If the deed of trust gives the trustee the authority to designate a place of sale, then the place of sale will be the place the trustee designates on the notice of sale. The deed of trust may require a cash deposit at the sale and set the amount. If the required cash deposit is not specified in the deed of trust, then the trustee holding the sale may require the highest bidder at the sale to pay a cash deposit not to exceed 10 percent of the bid up to $1,000, and 5 percent of the amount by which the bid exceeds $1,000. If the high bidder fails to make the deposit at the sale, then the trustee may immediately re-offer the property for sale to any bidders.
Report
A preliminary report of the sale must be made to the court within five days after the sale. The report must give the name of the borrower; the lender; the date, time and place of the sale; recording information about the deed; the name of the foreclosure buyer; the price at which the property was sold and the name of the person making the report.
Proceeds of the Sale
The foreclosure sale proceeds should be used to pay off the costs of the sale, the taxes on the property and any special assessments. Next, the money goes to pay the balance due on the loan, and then to creditors in order of their seniority. Anything left over goes to the borrower, or his or her estate. A special proceeding is available to contest the distribution of the sales proceeds.
Upset Bids
One of the most intriguing features of North Carolina law is the upset bid on real estate sold at foreclosure. Even after the sale, a potential buyer can come in and make an upset bid. An upset bid is an increased bid whereby a bidder offers to buy the real estate previously sold at foreclosure for an amount exceeding the reported foreclosure sale price by 10 percent of the first $1,000 and 5 percent of the amount over $1,000 of the old foreclosure bid. Such a sum of cash, or a cashier's check, must be deposited with the clerk of the Superior Court, within ten days after the clerk receives a report on the old foreclosure sale. The clerk may also require a bond in the amount of the upset bid price, minus the cash deposit. The clerk may then order a resale of the property.
Resale Under Upset Bids
When the clerk offers the property for resale due to the deposit of an upset bid, then the notice of the resale must be posted at the courthouse door for 15 days prior to the sale. A newspaper ad must be published once a week for two successive weeks before the sale. Eight days must separate the two ads. The last ad must be run no less than seven days before sale. A notice of the resale must be mailed to each party. The sale will take place in the same manner as the original sale. Once again, a high bidder will emerge, who may well be the person who put down the upset bid deposit. The entire resale may be done again and again as often as upset bids are submitted!
Final Report
A final report on the sale and the disposition of the proceeds must be given to the clerk by the person who held the foreclosure sale, within 30 days after receipt of the proceeds of the sale. The final report should show what part or parts of the property were sold. The clerk must audit the report and record it. A copy of the notice of sale or resale, and an affidavit of publication should also be recorded. At this point, the sale is final. Special procedures exist to validate foreclosure sales well after they took place when the proper procedures were not complied with, or the trustee was also the lender.
Injunctions
It is possible to enjoin a foreclosure sale in North Carolina.
Deficiency
A lender may not sue for a deficiency if the loan that went into default was for the purchase price of the real estate. However, in other cases a lender may sue for deficiency, but the borrower has the right in a deficiency suit to prove the reasonable value of the property as a defense or offset to the lender's claims. The borrower is not restricted to forcing the lender to credit only the foreclosure bid against the property; the borrower can instead assert and prove the market value of the property as an offset to a deficiency suit by the lender.
Foreclosure Process in California
is a procedure created by the California state legislature and is contained in the Civil Code of California, Section 2924.
The non-judicial foreclosure process is the most expedient and cost effective approach to avoid protracted and expensive litigation in the courts.
WHAT IS THE FORECLOSURE PROCESS?
The non-judicial foreclosure process is used instead of filing a lawsuit in court to retrieve the amounts owed to a lender with a secured loan under a Deed of Trust. The process follows procedure as set forth in the Civil Code of California. Based on the code, there are specific time frames and the costs are limited by law. This makes the non-judicial foreclosure the best economical method for a lender.
1. Notice of Default / Reinstatement Period
Foreclosure proceedings start with a Notice of Default (NOD). The document is recorded at the request of the lender by the trustee and is recorded in the county in which the property is located. The recording of Notice of Default gives "Constructive Notice" to the public.
After the recording of the Notice of Default, in the state of California, the borrower and junior lien holders are given proper notification and the borrower has 90 days to bring their account current. This period is referred to as the Reinstatement Period. This time period may vary in other states where we practice.
2. Notice of Trustee Sale
If the borrower does not reinstate their account within the 90 day period, the lender will authorize and instruct the Trustee to record the Notice of Trustee Sale (NOS).
After 21 days of the recording of the NOS, a foreclosure sale can take place at public auction. The property may be sold to a third party bidder or revert back to the lender for a specified amount.
Bidders are required to bring cashier's checks or money orders to the sale in an amount equal to or higher than the lenders opening bid. The auctioneer will qualify each bidder and the successful bidder will have to tender full payment at the sale.
The Notice of Trustee's Sale is recorded at the County Recorder's office in the County where the property is located. It contains the date, time. and place where the auction will take place. This notice has to be published in a adjudicated newspaper in the city where the property is located. The NOS is also posted on the property as a requirement of law.
3. Disbursement of Funds
After the sale auction is completed and if the property sells to an outside third party bidder, all funds owed to the lender/beneficiary will be prepared for immediate payout . If the property reverts to the lender/beneficiary at the sale, a Trustee's Deed Upon Sale will be issued and the lender will have ownership to the property securing the debt.
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