For the last few years teh big guys in Wall Street had been lining their pockets with commissions and bonuses and profits made on performing financial gymnastics and acrobatics with exotic and now everyone is admitting are toxic investments instruments.  Four investment managers in Wall Street became BILLIONAIRES in the last few years alone because of these toxic investments.

At this same time the so called credit ratings companies had been showering their blessings on the companies that were crafting and contracting these investment instruments in many creative ways and then in an about face these same credit rating companies are telling the world that all those financial acrobatics are simply junky maneuvers . Meanwhile they had profited handsomely from their fist position that partly allowed wall street to craft those toxic securities that make up a big chunk of the balance sheets of these failed banks and companies.

Who are the biggest losers in this sad game so far?

Who are now the greatest and biggest creditors and insurers in the world?

Give 3 or 4 sentences that would cover and summarize the actions of wall street and the reactions of the government to these whole man made financial tsunami. Winning summary will win $50. Contest ends Monday 9/22

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Part 1

All my phones ringing awakened me yesterday morning: the home phone, my cell phone and even the fax line were ringing. As if that was not enough, doorbell ringing was ringing too. It was too early thus the business office and phones were not answering. And it made some very nervous people decide to come directly to my home.

“What will happen to my pension and my money? You said Bank of America passed your grading system of the banks so I did not pull out my money on time. Now they are filing for bankruptcy,” screamed an older gentleman at me at my doorstep. I called him in the house, calmed him down, offer him coffee and asked him to repeat himself. Apparently he was a little disoriented and confused with all the financial news and got the news backwards about Merrill Lynch and Bank of America. He has substantial assets in B of A and yet has not heard from his broker at all for the last 9 months. As his Enrolled Agent/Tax Advisor I discussed and provided him with what I believed were best tax strategies related to his investments to provide him maximum cash flow every month. But I told him that professional tax and investment advices are given only by licensed finance professional. I only offer investment related advice in specific context related to my client’s overall tax strategies and financial education. Investment management practice that includes advising clients on their investment portfolio requires a license as does auditing or tax practices. They should be calling their brokerage firms not me. But I had always been available to them in previous years and been offering them advice in a few areas that in ways impacted their investments indirectly and it made them feel I was their investment advisor as well. I had very careful in the manner I gave tax strategies and financial education to my former clients so as not to be construed as giving investment advisory services – because I am not licensed to do that.

Habits die hard. My former tax clients call me all the time the whole year round asking anything from taxes, finance, business, loans, credit cards, real estate, stock markets, etc. Many have forgotten the letter I sent them at the beginning of the year advising them of my plan to close my Tax Practice. They have been calling me this whole month and I found that I could not very well simply turn a deaf ear on them. They are nervous and full of questions and understandably so. Unfortunately I could not give them answers they wanted to hear. They want me to assure them that their investments are safe and want to know the safe banks or brokerage to transfer to. No investment advisor can give such assurance especially at this time.

Some of these former clients are retirees who are 100% dependent on cash flows coming from their pensions and investments for their monthly survival. Fortunately they were willing to craft a lifestyle that was suitable to the size of each of their monthly cash flow. They adjusted their attitude regarding spending using credit, gave up illusions of buying vacation homes that they could not afford. Some of them actually sold their vacation homes and got rid of the second mortgage and time-shares expenses. They are happier living within their means than trying to keep social appearances.

However, their cash flows from their financial security with their simplified lifestyles are threatened by these man-made financial tornadoes and hurricanes. They want to know who should be made responsible for these messes. My heart fully goes out to them. I was glad to calm down this one man about the misunderstanding about Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. I only wish the problem was that simple – as simple as straightening out facts or news.

But this unprecedented financial crisis in our hands is real and of incredible magnitude that it behooves everyone to understand how we got here and what lessons can be learned and what should one be doing given his/her personal situation.

I personally resent and find it condescending the tone of government that somehow underestimate the ability and desire of the average America to understand how all these came about and want to know who should be held accountable and what lessons should be learned.

It seemed not enough that the taxpayers are the ones who will be left holding the bag at the end of all these. The corporate executives are not the ones suffering from cash flow to pay their mortgages or put food on the table. They harvested millions of bonuses for all the financial gymnastic performances they did in the past years that built the pyramid of these investing instruments that were highly leveraged in ways only the financial scientists can understand their true values. It looks like we have not learned our lessons from the Enron debacle. Many of these investment transactions were recorded as off balance items to hide the nature of the debts like they did in Enron days. But we have learned from Enron that these can only stay hidden for a while. When the true value of assets is not there, the truth is bound to come out. The sad thing is that the consequences sometime do not fall necessarily on the right shoulders – the culprits’ shoulders.

 To be continued with:

1. The perfect Storm and The Zero Factor

2. What is America Left With?

3. What does this problem mean to you?

4. Any opportunities to be mined from this mess

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The worst that can happen is for parents to lose a kids and never know exactly why. There are many of these parents. These are attested by relative and friends  who also are puzzled why their friend or sister brother chose not  to live any longer without showing any signs of trouble.

Actually the signs are there. But oftentimes we are not attentive and present enough to recognize them.  When I was sharing my project to help kids and parents in the area of financial literacy training for their kids  4/10 parents lament that they do not have TIME to take the training,  let alone try to engage their children in the program I was trying to offer them.

Part of my standard answer is that if you as parents do not have time for your kids, then who do you expect to take the lead and time for the development of your children?   The psychologists, doctors,  pastors,  sports coach were helpful only after parents first took the time and effort to realize there was a problem and made the effort and time to bring the child to the right person who could help.

In all kinds of problems related to children the first and foremost part of the children is for the parents to give the children TIME and ATTENTION.  The good news is that there is actually a way to give all the kids the attention they need with out asking for a miracle to expand the hours in a day.

The Action Impact Team put on time, effort and resources to help parents protect their children from anything that could make them susceptible to suicide as a solution to a problem.  Specifically they came with this simple but powerful guide for parents.  It does not take away extra time from parents but in fact show parents that all it takes is a conscious effort for parents to direct what they already are doing to them  children in such a way that the children feel the parents are always there for them and will not doubt their parent are ready to hear them out anytime.

This strategy is coined as  G-I-V-E .  It is meant to make us feel that is the best and sometimes easiest solution is one of giving:

G - GREET and Meet: Talk to your children everyday and consistently. Grant them daily hello and warm but not intrusive hello, ask them how they are progressing or coping with that teacher, classmate or project.

I - INVOLVE  yourself with children school activities. Know their friends genuinely.

V - VALIDATE them anytime and all the time. Tell them they matter to you everyday.  Do not take any of their accomplishments of progress they made E

E - EMPATHIZE  Be a listening ear, take time to be fully present. Make them feel you are truly one with them in the moment, that you are their fully present, that they matter. Do not try to solve all your children’s  problem, your children’s hurts and feelings.  They do not expect it. They only expect you to understand them.

These GIVE-ing steps would go a long way, yet we often take for granted. They do not take any additional slice of our time. They actually would make little things we do become significant and healthy family traditions.

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It was not so long ago when a middle age woman decided she did NOT want to wake up to another day of extreme pain that no one fully understood and could do something about. She did not think any day would arrive to mark the progress of her condition. She was so fortunate in having the fullest support from her families: husband, son, parents, brothers and sisters, friends, pastor, other school parents, colleagues and neighbors. There was no one who knew of her condition who did not sympathize or empathized.  She had the fullest care from love ones. So what did she want?  What made her do it?

She had a unique set of pain and condition. She needed all the help to move but she could not be touched. The slightest touch of cold or warn air or of the softest cloth or cotton was incredibly painful. This added to her isolation and extreme frustration.

One sad thing she learned about the health industry is that the people who are supposed to help sick people heal cannot afford to be most enthusiastic, encouraging or hopeful in their communications with patients. They take the most conservative approach in determining what is wrong with a person seeking help. They are very conservative in ‘projecting’ positive health improvements. She found out the reason, WHY behind this attitude after her candid and off the record dialogues with people in this ‘CARING’ industry.

The doctors would rather say a person has only 6 months to live even if he/she ‘knows’ or feels the patient may have 2 years to live. The medical people express the worse things rather than the better possibilities because of the nature of our society:

                                            We are a litigious society.

If doctor A says patient X has a chance of living for 2 more years and then ends up alive only for 6 months, that situation invites for law suits! They would rather that: a miracle seems to have happen than looking like they were incompetent in diagnosing the patient’s condition.

This woman wanted the doctors desperately to tell her that she had a good chance of recovering from the paralysis that resulted from the unsuccessful surgeries. But they would NOT dare give her any sense of good news and it was frustrating. She refused to sue them for the unsuccessful surgeries. But she was tempted to sue them for mental torture, for refusing to be encouraging. “That is not the way the system works. ” she was told.  She continues to wonder how many people died because of the deficient care caused by fear of legal liabilities that might result from being very encouraging or by being optimistic in a patient’s prospect for recovery.

She wondered about this silently for quit sometime. She decided to share a part of her personal story that in the past she would leave out when sharing her personal story. Part of the reason is that she was afraid of what people would think of her. Second, she felt there was not enough time to explain the reason behind her action.  Third she felt it was not relevant. Now she is glad to have this opportunity to tell a part of her story with emphasis on that one moment of weakness to led her to act irrationally - One moment of weakness that unfortunately cannot be undone after one has the time to think about the consequences. This opportunity came to her door when she became a member of the Impact Action Team that decided to help bring greater awareness of Teen Suicide and how to prevent teen from ever trapped into considering suicide as a life solution. This Suicide prevention week and particular day gave her cause to do some serious reflection. Part of the reflection resulted in her decision to share her own story with the hope that it would help shed light into what things to avoid so that suicide is never an option in life problem solving.

Hello my name is Marie Angili. What follows here is part of my story. My hope and purpose is: if there is just one soul or two who would who would gather an insight into the complicated reasons behind suicide and share them with teens to help them understand this self destruction act, I will have succeeded in my purpose of sharing this part of my challenges in the past up to the present.

It was not so long ago when I was diagnosed with the rarest spinal disease known to man. It is sometimes known as the Japanese spinal disease because 98 % of people worldwide diagnosed with it were Japanese. I’m not Japanese thus I belong to the minority 2%. Surgery was the only remedy according to 3 doctors. Statistics showed only 13% of those who underwent surgery got any relief from it. Risk of complication was 15% , The statistics were not good but I went for it after I traveled to Japan to do due diligence. In the end, I became part of the 15% statistics of unsuccessful surgeries on spinal condition. I came out paralyzed on both legs and left arm. I was consistently told from the start that it was highly unlikely that I would ever walk again. Only 1 in 20 improved. I fought hard to reject the verdict. But even as I fought, this condition came to me at a time when:

1. I was totally clueless about serious health conditions, how medicine work, how to deal or manage pain.
2. Medical people would rather be pessimistic than optimistic in the prospect of someone’s recovery
3. I had witnessed and helped many people in different hardship situations except conditions of pain or situation of paralysis

Not only was I paralyzed in 75% of my body, the other part of me that could feel and move felt nothing but pain. I was this ball of lifeless parts and also this raging ball of pain that many people around me felt so helpless and clueless about. 

Even with the positive encouragement of families and assurances of prayers from all quarters not one could answer these questions?

1. Will this condition improve?
2. Will the next medicine prove to be effective?
3. Will this pain ever go away and leave me in ‘peace’ even if paralyzed?

Not only was I not given answers to these questions, the only question they have an answer for this - Will I ever walk again? And the answer was: Very Unlikely!

In their attempts of not wanting to give me false hope, all the medical people kept reminding me do this and would not give the answer that would have given me reason to bear the pain each day with meaning, the answer that would have prevented me from dropping into the bin of despair & hopelessness, the answer that would have made the difference when someone is making a choice between continuing with life or ending it.

I feel strongly about this because I am not an immature adolescent or a drift or someone who had had meaningless life before. Yet I somehow managed to land into to serious and desperate situation where I decided the best thing to do was to overdose myself and end all the pain, misery and meaningless burden of everyone who cared about me. Had I succeeded in not waking back to life, no one would have been able to explain why I did it. No one would have been able to reconcile what I did with who I was, with my family and with my beliefs & values. I valued life and I still do. Not only that, I also believe that life is not ours to end at anytime. Yet why did I attempt to end that which is given to me to live out?

A day arrived when pain spiked the highest, my physical therapist arrived late and handled my therapy session with little less gentleness. The same day I saw myself more clearly as unnecessary burden with no prospect of getting better. I saw my grade school son, squeezed in all the adjustments in household and family life that needed to me made for my sake. When he was a little rambunctious at school I was not there to help guide and calm him down.

These may not sound serious but they are enough to push someone who is already on the brink of wanting to end all things after long time feeling of nothing but heap of pain, helplessness, hopelessness and unnecessary burden.

For someone who had been near this brink and who had taken the leap albeit unsuccessful at it. (fortunately) I will say this: The most and best thing to feed someone with who is in difficult, delicate situation and is in danger of ending his/her life is HOPE.

I mean hope here to mean anything that will make the person feel that she is important. Hope here means the solution that exists for every challenge even if that solution is not clear yet at the time. Hope here means the meaning hidden in ones adversity. Hope here means the belief that whatever is one’s challenges is, she person bearing it is given the internal capacity to bear it for herself/himself and for the community at large. Hope here means that the person’s life is worth all the sacrifices of all the people around him/her.

For someone who had been there, I can say that there is no measure greater than HOPE and MEANING that can make the challenged person hold stead fast in the midst of all the pain, desperation and challenges.

All steps should be taken to help the person avoid feeling helpless, hopeless, extreme paid and feeling he/she is a burden to anyone. It cannot be helped that the person will feel rotten, sick, angry. They should never be left in isolation even when and if they refuse to talk.

All forms of communication should be used to engage the person constantly. They should be monitored both in their pensive and exuberant mood, especially when their mood is out of place.

If in fact attempt at serious suicide is always plan, then mine was the exception. I never planned ending my life. That serious day just came to make things simply overwhelming for me and I took what was available and accessible to me. I wonder how many feel victims of those moments when things simply felt too much and there was no one there to watch what you would do in those moments. Would this be called accident? Yes and No. Yes because there was no conscious and deliberate plan to do it. No is the sense that, at that very moment when the person decides to do it, he/she means really to do it. He/she doesn’t attempt it with the hope it is not successful. It is in this context that those momentary situations of overwhelming hopelessness and/or helplessness are dangerous. They are situations to be guarded against by those taking care of the loved ones or patients in these special situations.

I spoke few days ago with the Directress of a non-profit helping Pre-Teen Take care of themselves and their unborn babies during the pregnancy.  She shared that 20% of those the teens moms they take care of attempt suicide with 50% success rate. She learned from the unsuccessful ones that: overwhelming fear +shame; hopelessness; lack of self-worth were what made the girls feel it wasn’t worth going on with life. Based on these reasons, they revised their programs 5 years ago to reinforce:

Self-Esteem

Stronger and Communications between Parents and Teens

One year of Follow-up counseling after giving birth.

Other cultures are tougher and less forgiving than the western cultures to teenage pregnancy. When a teen gets pregnant in these cultures, she is expected to get married quickly. If not she and her child will be ostracized for life. Thus 90% of the teens who do not get married end up committing suicide. When I was in college I got involved in a religious community program that reached out to college students who got pregnant. I remembered very well the script I was trained to deliver to the students. As I recall every student we took in our confidential center went out more confident than they had ever been in their life.

The only thing we convinced them to believe is this:

God is the author of human Sexuality. Sex is one of the most powerful and beautiful things God gifted man with. God is very understanding and is the first one to understand and forgive the consequences when man/woman is less careful with the exercise of this gift. Even the result that comes from the less responsible use of sex is a precious thing called a new life. He wants you to take care of yourself and the baby.  He knows you can do it and you should and we are here to help you and show you how.” Then the girls stay in the “convent for unwed moms” until they give birth and fully able to decide what to do with their babies, whether to keep them or allow the nuns to look for adoptive parents.

There are more than 2 dozens students around the world who I remain in contact with for 30 years.  I do not think anyone of them would ever understand how and why I did what I did from what they know about me.

My point here is this:  the kind of reason that drove me at that moment to reach out for dangerous amount of drug to take in is the most dangerous ‘force’ of all because, it was not expected, it was not planned, it did not show signs or symptoms-I did not threatened ever to do such a thing and yet I did it. I presented not warning at all.  For me this the most dangerous situation to guard. The good news is that the way to guard against is not something hard or unique thing to do:

“Simply never leave anyone in extreme pain alone. Isolation+extreme or unbearable pain+access to drug = open door to suicide.”

That I got it all out. I feel good about it actually. I am glad the opportunity to revisit and reflect again on my personal experience came at such a appropriate time like this world awareness day for suicide prevention

Humbly and gratefully

Marie

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You will find out that a child’s ability to speak up could be priceless. You will find out that your child’s ability to speak his mind and feelings could mean all the difference in his ability to be alive.

How does your child behave during family troubled times?  Does your child speak up? Do you care if he/she does or not?  You should and you must!

All the attention in local and national scenes are on the toll the downturn of the economy has on business and financial goals. The current housing crisis talks only of the loss of houses and other economic losses.  Not enough attention is given to the emotional and mental toll brought on homes, families and relationships with children.  Many children may appear normal but statistics show that many normal appearing kids were  actually silently crying for help and attention for many reasons. Many observations were made by research groups which showed that when cries for help and attention were ignored for a  long time, children especially teen sought release of their pent up helplessness in devastating forms.  One of these forms that teen took in the past and continue to take as shown by statistics was suicide - some of which were planned while others were not.  There is one suicide committed every 39 seconds.  By the time the adults ask the question -  WHY?  it is often too late to return lives lost due to silent cries that went unheard.

That is why a high impact action team under leadership of Ken MacArthur, the best selling author of the book titled “Impact”  decided to help:

a) inject greater awareness to this issue on teen suicide,

b) facilitate education in this area and

c) help direct resources to parents or groups in need of help and support  in combating this teen issue. This team is spreading the need to share solutions for this silent epidemic by forging on three prong approach.   On the awareness front our team wants to share to all parents that one of the big causes of teen suicide is Isolation.  This isolation is both a sign and a cause of problem leading to teen suicide. Thus we would advocate strongly that if there is one basic solution to bear in mind on this issue, it is to constantly ingrain in kids the need to always  SPEAK OUT in times of trouble - To NEVER HIDE under any trouble.  Our team believes in this strongly that we called our initiative

“Speak Up And Save Lives”

We strongly advocate in parenting that first and foremost ALL KIDS MUST SPEAK UP AT ANY TIME and ALL THE TIME when feeling in trouble.  There are distinct signs to look out for to know if children are struggling internally. More thoughts are offered at: www.SpeakUpSaveLives.org and details are found at: http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/teen_suicide.  There are many groups ready to listen in school, in churches and in the community. All that kids need  to be assured of is :  “To Simply  SPEAK UP!”.  But before children are able to do that in times of trouble, practice is necessary in everyday life.  Parents need to encourage this as a healthy normal behavior so that when they truly need to talk to someone, they would be able to do so without any difficulty. It could mean the difference between one life saved or lost.

The Impact Action Team has embarked to impact online and offline communities with education, collaboration and support through fund raising efforts. We invite all of you to join us.

Who Cares? The Impact Action Team Does! This is CARING beyond dollars and cents. It is caring in the center of hearts and sense.

We believe you care as deeply as we do. Please join us at:  www.SpeakUpSaveLives.org

Marina F. Dean /  MarieTheDean

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Before I share the homework submitted by Jimmy to, let’s review the contest again:

For $50K  a  Social Studies ran a high school wide contest where every student from freshmen to graduating class was eligible to submit an entry:

Contest was to submit a summary of the world history from 1820 to present in no more than 50 words. I do not know about you but this is one of the toughest assignment I’ve ever seen.  I would not have been able to answer this even with 500 or 5000 words let alone 50 words maximum.  Every word in that 50 word maximum homework would be a very expensive word, don’t you think? Anyway let us count how many words are there in Jimmy’s entry:

“The 19th century belonged to England and Europe.                                (8)

The 20th century belonged to USA and North America.                        (9)

The 21st century belongs to China and Asia.”                                              (8)

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” OF Course!”  I  exclaimed when I was told the answer.  (That is a whopping $2,000/word. )

This case caught my attention because of two things:

1.  It involved security issues and I was called to weigh on it.

2. The homework sounded more like economics than history to me.

3. It touches on issues that need to be brought into the radar screen of families.

I touched very briefly on these issues in the article on Ironies. If you came here through the sign up page, you will receive in next email  a short discourse on the financial implications of this in the western world in both short and long terms.

Thanks for following Jimmy’s answer.

Please sign in and leave your comments.

Marina Foyos Dean,

Founder of Agaahanview

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I lived 3 months every year in the convent with the Belgian nuns who were first missionaries who managed to reach the northern most  part of the Philippines.

At that time any one with fair skin, long nose and blue eyes were called by us, the natives  as: “Americanos” - the americans. These ’strange’ people were from a great country called America, we were told.

This concept had been reinforced by almost everything in our experience as a nation, even in the lives of girls like me in the convent:

We were told the americanos speaks English and so we must learn and train in English

When I was in grade school, our daily school routine started with something american. We recited the American anthem/recited the American pledge of allegiance every morning ceremony in school.   This continued to college where basic college subjects in liberal courses  included american history & literature .

The convent which I thought were owned by the americans was housing hundreds of girls during and after the school year. I was one among those taken cared by the nuns during school vacation.  While I was taken cared of, I was also trained in many things like speaking English.

One of the major activity in the convent teaching and learning how to cook and bake all kinds of things that can be produced from corn mill , wheat and flour. These three food items were not found in any native home.  These were referred to us as the food of the Americanos. Being too young to know more about genetic science … I believed what I was told:  “These kinds of food are that babies in America eat to  grow to taller with longer nose,  colored eyes and yellow hair.”  I  remember not caring about longer noses  but I was fascinated with how eye color can be other than black and how to grow taller because I did not particularly like being always the smallest inc lass or in group or shortest in a line.

All of us love the foreign food but we did not want to grow funny long noses.  We used this reason to refuse a certain kind of ‘rice food’  called “Bulgar.”  Nothing would take the place my native aromatic  sticky red and while rice as our staple food.

But with the power of patience and training, the nuns had us eating all these foods  after a  year.

The girls would miss all these food when they go home that they couldn’t wait to get back.  Fortunately for me,  I would find these same food supplies at home.  My father was a community leader whom the early community missionaries chose to be trained to become a catechist teacher.  As part of their wages, they would be paid in kind with these food supplies.  Life was great generous to my family.

I learned later who exactly was supplying the convent with these food on a regular basis., when  I  took over someone else’s work in the warehouse.  I was amazed on my first day to see incredulous stacks of food from floor to ceiling.

There were Sacks and sacks of flour, corn mill,  wheat,  boxes and cans of milk. butter oil and peanut butter, cheese, medicine …. with each type of container labeled as :

Donated by the GOVERNMENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

WOOOOWWWW …  was all I kept saying to myself as I surveyed the overflowing warehouse.

What  a truly generous government that country has…

“That is one country and one government I wouldn’t mind calling my own or being under.” I proclaimed wistfully ….

Now … Is it FATE … or COINCIDENCE … or DESIGN that,

that same  government and country become my own as I became a citizen of this country a dozen years or so ago???

I felt so PROUD and GRATEFUL on that day I pledged consciously (not by routine)  my allegiance to this country as an adult (not as a grade schooler) to become one of its citizens.

I am still am proud and grateful … BUT ….

The irony is that I had been getting disillusioned more and more lately with what is going on in this country.  I travel internationally and I cannot defend somethings that are happening here:

1. This government’s response to Katrina was embarrassing and inexcusable to say the least.

2. This Iraq war had been needlessly prolonged …

3. The country spending a almost a Billion dollar everyday for this war  and shaving the same amount or more billions of dollars in EDUCATION and robbing our children of their rightful future.  How is this making the future safe for our children?

4. I did not know what to say when the Japanese reiterated the criticism of the Chinese government of California — the state that spends and maintains 5x for its prison system than its school system! If that is not pathetic and insulting,  then I do not know what is.

5. We run a war in Iraq where we are losing precious lives as our field soldiers are being shot.  As if this is not enough shooting experience of a nation,  we have schools where kids can decide to make as shooting ground or battle ground.  Where is war being waged?  It seems to be everywhere.

6.  California contributes  around 1/6 of this countries economy and all it can achieve in it school is the is bottom six  in rank of schools in all 50 states?

7. We lecture China on human rights yet we go to them to borrow all the cash we need.

8. The Chinese hold all our debts (IOUs) in safe and vaults while we are left holding all the credit  in our hands and pockets.

9. We send to China all our factories and they are more than happy  to line up to assemble things for us,  while we line up for unemployment line while we hopelessly assemble resumes

10. The Chinese middle class is rising while US middle class is  sinking.

11.  It has a White house that houses it leaders while tens of thousands are losing their house and homes everyday.

12. It has leaders who’ve been talking of economic bailouts to stimulate national economy. It is not enough that they are quite late even in their band aid solutions, all they know what to tell people to do is go out and  SPEND… something that is not usually  in the best interest of most people and families.

13. It is interesting that in a country with so much knowledge there is so little enlightenment.  Even the presidential contenders who are supposed to epitomize leadership is barely talking of any actionable solutions to economic bust like this housing market melt down.

14. Children and adults are asking what kind of veteran benefits will the government grant to everyone who is going through these daily economic war everywhere in almost every aspect of American life:

Housing war in foreclosure and bankruptcy, the investment war in the stock marker, the food war in the grocery stores, the gas war in the pump, the credit war with the banks, the education budget war, the unemployment war, the painful ‘war’ of trying to keep in tact a family being ravage with all these economic upheavals affecting the homes …

These are just a few of the sad ironies of the government I loved dearly to call my own at one time …. but recently are giving reasons for its citizen to wonder whether it has a clear direction at all.

But what gives me hope are a few kids I encountered and others I heard of who are making heroic moves to help their families cope with the economic turbulence that are shaking, tearing, uprooting and breaking families across the countries.

It is in them that I am pinning my hopes this country will firm up on its knees on the right things to do with right priorities, right leadership ….

It starts from taking stock at home, who we are and where we are and where are we going with all the stuff happening around us. It includes recognizing the ironies in these events,  the truth to be learned and lived by so that we can build again as a true government that the young in this country and other countries can envy and proudly look up to.

If your children were to ask you what is going on what would  you say and would you be prepared to say it?

Please share your thoughts …

Dedicated to bringing Financial enlightenment to communities

one child, one family at a time,

Marina Dean

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Glenn and Elsie are a retired couple who lived, rented and moved out from San Francisco. Two traditional people who worked hard and believed and practiced religiously the old fashion lifestyle of hard work, frugality and regularly savings for 35 years was their biggest accomplishment. They placed all their money in money market accounts. The banks never thought to give them better advice or education on smart savings.

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They lived the war which they said was declared by Alan Greenspan on the Saving Community.

They see war in the gas pump

Road rage now is not about impatience in the high way or about a driver cutting on another. War now is at the gas pump. They are fighting the war with their feet. The walk to their church to hear mass everyday. 25 minutes each way.

The rage is on the continued squeezed on consumers ravaged pocketbook by the insanely profitable oil companies;

The rage is on the continued downward squeeze on the ordinary lifestyle of ordinary people hit the most by the war on the gas pump.

The rage is on the policies of this government that still has its balls at the grip of the oil producing countries;

They see war in the grocery stores where food prices are rising like helium balloons

They see war in their saving accounts:

They painstaking saved through their hard working years no matter what:

They suffered during the tech boom and housing bomb when Alan Greenspan in his infinite wisdom had kept the interest low. They thought they would finally get a break when the man finally retired. They thought they would finally see a little up tick in their savings account after he was gone. No such luck.

They see war in the Bank:

The bank that enjoyed investing the money of the savings of these people while the small guy stood beside the bank. Now that the banks proved they were not smart as the public thought they were, they get another punched from Alan’s Predecessor who decides to bail the banks by printing more money – sending yet again the value of the savings of these people further down in the dog house.

They see war in the banks and mortgage industry.

An industry that took care more of their commissions than in explaining to them the possibility of them not being the pay for their refinanced house come 36 months later should any important factor in their financial landscape should shift like the stock market should tank or their savings depleted or should one income earner gets downsized.

They see war incorporate America whose pursuit of greater bottom line by more productivity cost them their jobs and issued force retirements:

More responsibilities for the same or lesser pay or through more unemployment in the mainland so more employment could be sent to foreign land. This couple can and still wanted to work but they were seen as too costly in their health care cost.

 

With all the above, I see myself having to craft more and better strategies in our continued argument that it pays to save regularly. SAVING is one big component in our curriculum. We have dozens of lesson plans,activities, games and contests in this area:

I am sure we will not have parents argue against us in our message of creating and reinforcing healthy financial habits like SAVING. But are prepared to deal with open discussion regarding the merits and demerit of time on SAVING. We will discuss condidly with children parents :

TIME AS AN ASSET IN SAVING;

TIME AS ON THE SIDE THE SAVERS;

TIME AS AN EXPONENTIAL FACTOR IN SAVING;

OPPORTUNITY COST OF EVERY SAVING STRATEGY;

Because of our encounters of older folks who saw their savings value dwindled dramatically because of inflation that they did not prepare for, We are adjusting some of our Lesson Plans on SAVINGS to integrate and put equal emphasis on e the discussion on pros and cons of traditional savings, Inflations and Risk Management.

For me I see the worst war in IGNORANCE; The best weapon is ENLIGHTENMENT or Education - Continuous Education, Education from the Institute or University of Life. This blog and the site that it is a part of is only a small DOT in the huge online Learning Space. It is a safe place for everyone to share their thoughts including venting at our economic situations.

It is often said:

“Little knowledge is dangerous”

“Ignorance is costly”

“We may not afford the rising cost of school tuition fees;

But can we afford the greater cost of ignorance?”

See the next post on: “Of Ignorance and The Real Estate Bubble”

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WHY? Not only because of conflicting agendas in Washington, the lack political will power but also the complacency of the public. We are all partly responsible for the lack of financial knowledge and skills of our children after they go through our K-12 system:

Because we continue to allow it to stand that way.

Like the congresswomen said: “No One Cares! People believe what we tell them.” Not enough people care!”

And even if there are people who say they care, they do not really care ENOUGH to go the extra miles to do what it takes to get their concerns noticed and get things moved or started!

We at AgahanView is starting a movement by inviting everyone to raise their hands and say to the same congresswoman :

“WATCH ME! I CARE!”; ask others to join and say “WE CARE!”. If we start and not give up and continue to join hands, forces and voices - pretty soon we will have WASHINGTON LISTENING to us. We will be able to put them on notice: that if they do not start doing what is right for and by our children and their children, we will boot them out there! And they better believe us.

Meanwhile we need to do our part. For after all it is also our belief that the primary party responsible for the education of our children is the parent. We as parents cannot provide or give what we do not have. So the first steps we offer to parents in the AgahanView community is Financial Parenting. This blog is only one of several places that AgahanView uses to discuss and provide Financial knowledge & skills to parents and children.
All topics and issues talked, discussed and shared in this blog are subject matters directly or indirectly related to the 12 domains of finance covered by the comprehensive financial curriculum for K-12 offered by Agahanview. Children and parents can avail of this finance education without spending one penny in tuition fee through the ompany’s scholarship program. This program is there for the taking for any and all motivated parents and families. For more details visit the site www.eflad.com.

This blog discusses the same subject matters in a less formal way and unlike our main site NO MEMBERSHIP is required to join any discussion and sharing of ideas. Don’t hesitate to register a username and share your 2 cents at anytime on any to the topics.

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