Sense amongst Madness - Wit amongst Folly

Too good to miss – a handy guide –

Step 1- Borrow the 5% minimum down payment on a credit card or from a family member…….Step 2- Take advantage of the 5% cash-back mortgage offered by almost all of the big banks…….Step 3- Buy the house you want. Make sure it includes granite, stainless steel, and double the space you really need…….Step 4- Once the deal closes, pay back the down payment with the cash the bank gives you as their thanks for signing up for a lifetime of debt servitude. Enjoy your new home (which is actually just a rental as we know that a home without equity is just a rental with debt).

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Google is joining Citigroup and Mastercard to set up a mobile payment system that will turn Android phones into a kind of electronic wallet, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The new technology, which is in its early stages, will allow consumers to wave their Android phones in front of a small reader at the checkout counter to make payments, the Journal reported.

Sounds exciting! Oh, there is more…

The planned payment system would allow Google to offer retailers more data about their customers and help them target advertisements and discount offers to mobile device users near their stores, the sources told the WSJ.

Maybe some people would find that ‘not exciting.’

I have been reviewing different opinions on the economy and trying to decide where things are going.

One point of view is the Uber-Inflationist, which hold the US Federal Reserve has pumped so much money into the system that through Quantitative Easing (QE2) that a crash is not far off, followed by rampant inflation, far in excess of anything we have previously experienced, culminating is a complete reset where the US $ is reset to zero and all debt, would be wiped out.

This is a plausible scenario, since the US FED is indeed pumping money into the economy, and one presumes Canada is as well, at an unprecedented rate. Which is certainly cause for concern, and the long term effects, to the extent they are known, (Post War Germany for example) are disastrous. The run-up in gold would tend to confirm some investors are thinking along these lines.

As Charles Hugh Smith points out, if that were true, we could all max out our credit cards and in effect money would be worth nothing, and we wouldn’t have to wait for a crash, it would happen now, since everyone would be in the thrall of believing money has no value, and expectations would self-fulfill.
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One of the most Frequently Asked Questions, is what can I do for my website to get onto Google? The short answer is, get links from other sites, get a blog, and add content often. Yes it is a huge amount of work and its going to take a long time – but you have a small business so you know what that is about right?

Instead of writing the whole thing out myself, here are links to others that have put things together much better than I could.

SEObook has put together a great set of resources on promoting your website on a shoe string. I would recommend his book as well as SEO for Dummies.

Google Engineer Matt Cutts has more tips and info here.

The other classic resource, from about 10 years ago is Brett Tabke’s article Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone – 26 steps to 15k a day.

Yes it really does work! Not that it’s a cakewalk tho – SEO for dummies is 450 pages and heavy going, but if you read, absorb and put into practice what they say, it might take a year or 2 of pretty hard slogging, but you will get on the first page of google, have thousands of people coming to your site again and again and make a lot of money.

A fascinating look at the Elite and an examination of how firm their grip on the status quo is from Charles Hugh Smith.

Turns out there are quite a few people who want things to stay exactly the way they are. A surprising number of different groups actually – which is better than just a few.

The Elite would like to keep everything as is – for now at least. Never underestimate a Black Swan event where something totally unpredictable changes everything, like 9/11, the rise of the Internet, Google, or Facebook. Or, maybe… a vegetable seller in Tunisia.

Paradoxically, the firmer the Elite keep their grip, and the more they control, the more likely they are to lose everything in a chance event.

We live in a time when “authenticity” is equated with those things or those people who are forthright in their brokenness and messiness, while stable, happy people are sometimes looked upon with skepticism, as if their lack of apparent problems makes them phony or untrustworthy. Our jadedness leads us to a sort of self-reinforcing stasis of raw brokenness, because this is what we believe. This is what we know. But what we really need are models of goodness & virtue in our lives… figures of hope who can motivate us out of the cycle of dreary cynicism.

Another Year offers a great example of such people–a happily married, flourishing couple who love people in need but don’t pander to them. They stand firm in their principles without condescending to those struggling around them…

From Andrew Sullivan

Following up on my recent post on Commenting Online, the Vancouver Sun reports on the growing trend of legal action against online comments. Seems that just because you are ‘online’ doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want!

Hotels incensed by critical travel reviews have threatened legal action, commenters on a newspaper’s website have found themselves sued, and anonymity is fast-disappearing as a safeguard for loose-lipped and libellous online comments.

“In posting things online, [a lot of people] often have this illusion that they are anonymous,” said Bryan Baynham QC of the commercial litigation group at Harper Grey LLP.

“The reality is that there is often information identifying you.”

Read more:

Mass psychology has a massive influence on the public’s perception of various asset classes like housing and the stock market.

It has been instrumental in the creation then destruction of every asset bubble we’ve seen through history.
Canada is in the midst of a housing bubble. The public has flocked on mass to real estate over the last ten years.

Why?

Watch this video for the answer. It all goes back to how people think, act and react to the news around them.

If you are interested in a simple explanation of current economics, I would highly recommend the Financial Insights blog

Here is some great contrarian advice for bloggers from Anis Shivani is the author of Anatolia and Other Stories (2009). And come to think of it, great advice on living a creative life.

1. Disobey the system
2. Ignore Publicity
3. Shun Crowds
4. Seek Unemployment
5. Converse only with the Classics
6. Refuse Recognition
7. Don’t Pursue a Niche
8. Aim for Zero Audience
9. Accept Failure
10. Think Small

Details and full article here

One of my favorite blogs, The Satorialist, a fashion blog by Scott Schuman in New York. A satorialist, is a person interested in sartorialism, which is an interest in matters of or relating to the tailoring of clothing.