The victims of Bernard Madoff’s ponzi scheme have thus far received $530 million dollars in compensation.  The money is coming from the Securities Investors Protection Corporation, more commonly known as SIPC, and marks a record for the company.  While $530 million may sound like a lot, as you can imagine, that is just scratching the surface of the damage that Madoff created.  A court-appointed trustee has reported that 2,300 accounts have seen a combined total of $21.2 billion in losses.  SIPC has been authorized by congress to guarantee brokerage accounts for a maximum of $500,000.  Huge mess does not even begin to describe this ordeal, and you have to feel for everyone involved.  I’m sure we will continue to hear about this for quite some time.  Madoff, of course, is serving his 150-year jail sentence.  But don’t be surprised if you see him roaming the streets this Saturday…Madoff masks for Halloween are selling like hot cakes!  At about $40 a piece, maybe THAT money should go to the victims as well!  Fat chance.

I am so excited to be in Toronto this weekend train during my FREE no fluff all content event.  Now that the Bank of Canada has declared the recession as over, it’s your time to shine!  I will personally be there to invest in your future success, and all you have to invest is your time!  Some subject we will cover include:

•    Starting and growing a business in today’s post recession market.
•    How to evaluate Canadian and US real estate deals in less than 3 minutes.
•    How to brand yourself and your business.
•    Lean how to network like and with multi-millionaires.
•    Lean how I bought and sold and over 500 properties without using any of my own money.
•    Learn how to use social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Myspace and Google) to get more deals, exposure and larger profits.
•    Learn also how Apple computer became one of the best businesses in the world and see how you can apply it to your business and life.
•    Learn how to find real estate partners to fund your deals and how private money does not work.

You REALLY do not want to miss out on this opportunity!  The event falls on
Halloween, but don’t worry, we will have some treats for you!  Just for attending you will
get free gifts and if you bring guests, you are in for an even bigger treat.  Anyone who
brings more than two guests will have a sit down meal WITH ME at the event.  Anyone
who brings more than 5 guests will automatically be eligible to be a part of my new
Canadian Mastermind group.  Membership is valued at $15,000, but in reality, it is
priceless when it comes to you and your success.  SO DON’T MISS OUT!!  Make sure
to register right now.  I guarantee you a great time and information crucial to your success!
Can’t get any better than that, right?

REGISTER HERE

Commercial real estate in the United States is just not what it used to be.  Obviously, it has been greatly affected by the economy and foreign investors are making some smart business moves and taking advantage of this.  History repeats itself, and this happened almost 30 years ago when U.S. commercial real estate was beginning to get back on it’s feet.  While foreign investment in U.S. property is not ideal in the eyes of many Americans, it may help the struggling economy.   Not many of us are investing in commercial real estate today which is resulting in bargains for these investors.  Foreign investments are projected to reach up to $5 billion by the end of this year.  While this may be nothing compared to the 2007 property boom, it is certainly still a huge number that can help put commercial real estate back on the map.   It’s all about making deals, and making them consistently!

Click here to read a great article on the subject

The first-time homebuyer tax credit has literally opened many doors for people across America during this tough economic time.  It is clearly a great opportunity that not everyone can take advantage of, but there are some people who are not first-time homebuyers that are trying anyway.  The applications for the credit are a little too trustworthy for this day and time.  For example, there is no minimum age requirement for the applicants.  This has resulted in “applicants” as young as 4 years old.  In fact, there have been over 500 applicants under the age of 18.  And that’s just the beginning!  Treasury oversight officials say they have found 74,000 claims where they now have evidence of previous ownership, these credits were valued at $500 million.  They even reported at least 19,000 filers, which clocks in at $139 million, that hadn’t even bought a home!  Something is seriously wrong here.  As sad as it might be, the reality is, we need stricter rules when dealing with our government’s money.  Hundreds of thousands of citizens should not be able to even find a way to fraudulently take advantage the stimulus plan.  It is really too bad that it has come to this because the tax credit is not a bad idea.  You have to wonder if this new information will hurt the chances of the tax credit being extended.  As of right now, it ends on November 30, but there has been heavy talk about an extension.  I expect there will be a complete overhaul of the application process, if there is an extension.

Check out this article to find out more

The Obama Administration announced on Monday that they will be intervening into finance agencies in order to support low mortgage rates.  The program, which involves Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will help agencies finance mortgages for first-time homebuyers and develop rental housing.  This is the second attempt by the government to make owning a home for first time homebuyers easier.  Mortgage financing giants Fannie and Freddie will package mortgages made by housing agencies and sell them as bonds to the Treasury Department.  Unlike the $8,000 tax credit, there is no anticipated set cap or time on this plan.  They are waiting it out to see what the demand looks like.  This could be a good or bad thing, but hopefully people will take advantage of this.  It seems as though the government continues to tests the waters because no one really knows how to fix the housing market crisis.  I guess testing the waters is better than just jumping in.   Any progress is good, so lets hope this works.

It was announced Monday that The New York Times is officially cutting 100 more newsroom jobs through buyouts or layoffs.  Newspapers are struggling, I’m pretty sure that is no longer a secret.  It is an incredibly difficult situation in this day and age.  Everyone can get news on the internet for free, why pay for something you can get instantly without charge?  And now, when you throw in environmental awareness, why use paper when you don’t need to?  The New York Times has to rely solely on advertisers, and they are just not there as much as they were in the newspaper heyday.   Newsroom staff have recently taken a 5% pay reduction after 100 jobs were cut in 2008.  The pay cuts were made in hopes that there would no longer be a need for more layoffs.  Now, 100 more people are considered statistics.  You have to begin to wonder what the future of newspaper is really looking like.  This problem is not exactly reflective of the economy.  In fact, online news outlets have seen visitation rise 7% just in the last few months.  People are still reading the news, many are probably even more interested during these times.  Even if the economy was strong, people are still going to be smart with their money.  It is common sense, why pay for something you have for free?  Online news outlets are updated 24/7, if big news breaks at midnight, you can read about it minutes later, you no longer have to wait for the next day.  The fact is, by the time the paper actually arrives in your hand, most of the news is old.  Of course, there are people that find leisure and solitude in reading the paper, but is that enough?  The paper may have lost, and is certainly losing it’s mass appeal, but news is not.  All business learns to move with the times, it will happen organically.  But, as of now, it is incredibly unfortunate to continuously hear such awful news coming from the newspaper industry.

That is if you hold an oil partner co-branded MasterCard.  Several of these card holders are suddenly finding their cards to be unexpectedly declined.  An undisclosed amount of cards, issued by Citibank, have been closed.  The bank issued a statement simply saying that they “decided to close a limited number of oil partner co-branded MasterCard accounts.”  They are still accepting applications for cards, promising rewards, so they have not completely shut down the idea of the cards; unlike the move they made with Home Depot.  Citibank shut down the chosen cards on Wednesday, but did not send out letters until Monday, leaving many card users confused and stranded.  Unfortunately, there is no law that prevents banks from closing down credit accounts unannounced, and card holders can do nothing about this because closing at their discretion is stated in the fine print on the agreements.  It is no secret that Citi is having problems in this economy, these card closures are a reflection of that.  This is an unfortunate situation for the bank and card holders, and unfortunately these people will now have a closed credit card on their credit report.

So I’m sure by now almost everyone has heard about the “balloon boy” story. If not, last week a homemade balloon was “accidentally” released into the sky.  Sounds pretty innocent right?  Well the twist was that the family’s 6 year-old son was believed to have snuck inside before it was released. All of the major media outlets fixated their cameras on the skies over Fort Collins, Colorado.  This went on for quite some time with the balloon reaching up thousands of feet, and everyone’s heart sinking just thinking about such a young boy up there all by himself.  Once the balloon finally came down, there was no boy inside.  People speculated that he had fallen out, so a huge search was under way.  To make an even longer story short, they found the boy was hiding in the attic of their family home.  Accusations started accumulating towards the family on whether or not this was actually real.  The family appeared on the reality show “Wife Swap” a while back, and it was revealed that the father has been wanting his own reality show for quite some time.  So it became obvious that this family was media hungry.  The suspicions kept growing, and just yesterday it was admitted that the whole thing was a HOAX.  It was recently discovered that the father of the boy, Richard Heene, has been planning this media stunt for weeks. It was all an effort to create national awareness of the Heene family in hopes that their pitched reality T.V. show would be picked up.  Right now, it does not seem as though a reality show will be in their near future. Instead, this family is now faces multiple charges.  This story is so bizarre, and to think that even Denver International Airport was temporarily shut down while the balloon was up in the air, you can only imagine what other damage this caused the city and major media outlets.  I can’t stress enough, please be wise and honorable with your business plan.

Read more on this story HERE

This week J.T. will be hosting an amazing 2 hour workshop FOR FREE!  Are you a real estate investor, entrepreneur, network marketer, or maybe even an executive?Have you been wondering how people find money and partners in today’s rough economic times?  Banks are not lending so, many people write it off and believe that finding these things is impossible in this market, but they are wrong!  You can make these economic times the most profitable time for you!  J.T. Foxx has created a 2 hour workshop specifically geared toward making this happen for you.  It will help you fill in that missing link you have been searching for in your business.

Some things J.T. will cover:
1) Where do you find money partners in real estate or business
2) How to network like and with multi-millionaires
3) How to brand you or your company to get noticed more
4) How to develop a powerful 29 second presentation to get people to invest and believe in whatever you are trying to do.
5) How to persuade and influence people and have them chase you instead of the other way around
6) Learn to make a super great first impression no matter who you meet.
7) Learn what kind of business can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential business. 
8) Learn on how to dominate the mind Google.
This is a RARE opportunity that you CANNOT miss out on!  Take control of your business life, don’t let these economic times take control of you.

Don’t wait, register TODAY.  The event will be held in Oakbrook on Wednesday October 21st from 12:30 p.m.- 2:30 p.m.  Can’t make it during those hours?  We will also be holding the workshop from 7 p.m.- 9 pm.  No excuses!  Let’s make this happen for you!
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER