Inflation and Taxes

The twin tower threats of “Inflation and Taxes” are the dynamic forces that destroy wealth and undermine fundamental economic opportunity.

The American federal government spends more than it takes in in tax revenue.  Today, the US Senate begins debate to raise the legally authorized debt ceiling by 15% from 12.4 Trillion Dollars to 14.3 Trillion Dollars, an increase of $1.9 Trillion in two years!

$1,900,000,000,000.00

Washington covers this spending gap through two methods:  it borrows dollars and the federal reserve “prints” dollars.

The US government has increased debt in the last two years by $3.62 Trillion – an increase of approximately 39%.

The federal reserve has increased the money supply in those same two years by $1 Trillion - essentially printing money.

The Economist magazine in 2009 wrote:

“Having spent a fortune bailing out their banks, Western governments will have to pay a price in terms of higher taxes to meet the interest on that debt. In the case of countries (like Britain and America) that have trade as well as budget deficits, those higher taxes will be needed to meet the claims of foreign creditors. Given the political implications of such austerity, the temptation will be to default by stealth, by letting their currencies depreciate.”

No matter how you look at it, this is destructive.  Every dollar that the federal reserve “creates” out of thin air reduces the value of an existing dollar.  The dollar has already lost 95% of its buying power since the federal reserve was created in 1913. 

The long term implications of the increase in debt, and the interest payments necessary to service that debt will require the federal government dramatically reduce spending, increase taxes, or devalue the dollar.  If current attitudes in washington prevail, there are no signs of future reductions in spending.  More likely are continued runaway spending.

That leaves the twin tower threats of inflation and higher taxes.

In 2005, 32.6% of all adult Americans paid no taxes (zero).  Today, that is estimated to have increased to approximately 50%.  This will force Washington to collect more taxes from the increasing minority of citizens who are actually taxpayers.

Is there any doubt about the risks of the twin tower threats of inflation and taxes and the subsequent destruction of wealth and economic opportunity?

The risk and the threats are very real.

Greg Watson

Would you like to know who the Top 5 sites are who are sending 280,261 people to watch your competitor’s video?

Video is one of the hottest new viral marketing tools that we use to drive traffic to our websites.  For every video that we create for use on one of our websites, we also create a second version that we publish on YouTube.  If you can create a unique and entertaining video, it quickly can acheive a viral marketing effect as friends share it with their friends.

YouTube is giving you the referrer stats to your competition’s top referrer’s …

John Reese recently sent me an email message with an interesting competitive research tool that allows you to look at how your competitors are doing – and more importantly know who the TOP 5 referrer sites are to your competitor’s videos.

YouTube has just added a new "referrer" statistic on all of their Video Pages … if you look directly below a video, you will see a tab labled "Statistics & Info" (see image to the left) … click on that tab, and it shows the Top Five websites that are sending traffic to that video …

Once you have clicked on the Statistics & Info tab, you can see a list of the Top 5 sites linking to this video.

What does this mean?

If you have any competitors who have videos posted on YouTube, you can immediately see the Top Five websites that are sending traffic to *THEIR* videos … great competitive information on who actually is driving traffic to your competition … those five websites then become great resources that you can target.

In the video stats example above, would you like to know about a site that sent your competitor 200,746 clicks to their video?  Over two hundred thousand people watched their video from that site!  That is a fantastic piece of competitive data to know!
 
Possible ideas that you can use to target those five websites:

• offer them custom videos (created by you of course) that they can use for their sites …
• offer them a free copy of your products for them to review …
• if you have an affiliate program,
• contact them about reviewing your product and offer to set them up with an affiliate account.
• if you have the ability to offer them a higher commission rate, give them a premium commission …
• offer them custom unique articles on their topics (with a link back to your website of course)

Why are these five sites so valuable? 

Because these are sites that are driving REAL traffic …

How else could you use this information? 

You can review these five sites and see if they have Google AdSense on them … and if they do and you do any AdWords PPC (pay per click) advertising, you could do a site specific ad buy through Google and buy ads on that specific site thus diverting traffic from your competition to your site.  And did you know that with a few special techniques that you can actually buy Google AdWords ads on a specific URL?
 
And of course, if you have any videos of your own posted on YouTube … log into your account and disable the display of these stats so that your competition does not use your referrer stats against you … like you are going to do to your competition  …
 

If we were to compare the size of the small business economy with the rest of the world, the US entrepreneurship and small business economy would rank third in the world behind the US medium and large business economy and Japan.

The size of the US small business economy would rank ahead of Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.

Entrepreneurship and small business represents the best of the driving forces that have sustained the US economy, jobs, and wealth preservation while other segments of the economy have struggled with outsourcing, commodity inflation, and international competition.

The quote is from Anais Nin:

We don’t see things as they are.  We see things as we are.  
                                                               Anais Nin (1903 – 1977)

How we see things is critically important!  Our marketing message must reflect how our target customer base perceives themselves and the environment that they exist within. 

Most marketing messages fail not because the product is itself bad or wrong for the market - in fact, it may very accurately reflect "how things are" and be a perfect solution for our customers needs – but rather the message fails because it does not resonate with our prospective customer base.  Simply, the message does not reflect how our customers "see things are."  Thus the very customer that our product or service may be perfect for does not see it that way.

Are you crafting your marketing message based on facts about how things really are?  If you are, you are likely missing a sigificant part of your market – because your message is not resonating with them "as they see things are."

The changes that are occuring now under President Kibaki are exciting and the outlook for the future of Kenya has never been brighter.  While that view might be expected from those of us that truly love Kenya, it is also showing up in the mindset and character of the populace of Kenya.

While I would normally talk about GDP and economic growth or the effects of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, the IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Act, or fiscal and monetary policy.  It was far more interesting to see social proof of the citizens outlook for economic growth and opportunity.

Social proof came from the most unlikely source.  Google monitors search activity by region, by country, and by year.  Currently Kenya ranks #1 in the world for searches on the search phrase "Entrepreneurship" … an interesting statistic demonstrating social proof of interest in entrepreneurship in the country of Kenya.  In the picture below details Google Trends search results for 2007 searches for the phrase "Entrepreneurship." 

So is Kenya the hotbed of entrepreneurship?  Perhaps not, but it demonstrates that hope and dreams of a passionate citizenry!  It was a honor to have the Kenyan Amassador in our home.  He and his wife reflect the values and opportunities that make the future bright for Kenya.