By Craig Floyd

Since it is Memorial Day soon, I just have to say “Thank you” to the thousands of Americans who have died or placed themselves in harm’s way defending my freedom. To those men and women and their courageous families, I honor you and am humbled by your sacrifice. On several occasions I have had opportunity to be in places when there was a program held to honor those people. One such service was at Bunker Hill, another was at Arlington Cemetery, the Punchbowl Cemetery in Honolulu and various funerals where veteran servicemen were honored. Each of these places the flag was raised, taps or the national anthem played, men in uniform saluted and I was humbled and brought to tears. We live in a blessed nation where we can choose our own destiny. Working hard and serving others are mottos that have brought us to be the great nation we are today. I am proud to be an American citizen and am grateful for all the blessings I have because of people who were willing to give the ultimate sacrifice.

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By Criag Floyd

A recent article that advertised unknown ideas for retirement talked about the concept of qualified accounts that are used by the government to encourage saving money especially for the low to moderate level income bracket. My understanding of these concepts, for those of us who rely on others with more experience, is that if I give the money to the government using qualified plans then I lose control of my money that I earned. Rules and regulations, which are common in any government opportunity especially concerning money, control how much I can contribute and when I can take it out. My money is placed in the stock market in various places that can move up or down with the emotional financial tide. They also charge interest and taxes when I take the money out to use it. How is that fair? I’m not so sure that I want the government involved with using my money. How often do we get a tax return that includes the interest the government owes us for keeping our money for the year? I want to use a retirement plan that gives me the money when I want it, without charging interest or taxes, and that I have control over and can withdraw when I want to use it. I found something that gives me this control in whole life insurance policies that are set up correctly with people who have done it before. It works and gives me the freedom to save, pay interest to myself, withdraw, and never go to a bank for a loan. Try It!!!

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by Jason I. Henderson, Ph.D.

How much of what you we hear in mainstream media is simply misleading at best or simply not true?  I have felt this way about reports on the economy for a very long time.  What am I, probably to most people and unknown, but I am not alone, there is a growing chorus of financial gurus, experts, investigators etcetera that are speaking out in unison that something is not right.

A rather recent addition to that chorus is the chief investment strategist and perma-bull at Charles Swab, Liz Ann Sonders.  She recently said “…there has not been a dollar added to the U.S. stock market since the end of the financial crisis by retail investors and pension funds….”  So where is it coming from?  In short; buybacks.

David Haggith has published an article that delves further into where the money is coming from that has given credence to the press saying we are in a bull market since 2009.

Whether you think David’s analysis is true or not you have to ask yourself, “What is my back up plan if by chance he is correct?”  I know the vast majority (>97%) of Americans would answer in the affirmative that they believe there is going to be another financial catastrophe like 2007-2008.  Likewise they want/wish that what happened last time will not happen in the coming catastrophe.  But when pushed to answer “what are you doing differently that will prevent what happened last time to you from happening again” they have no answer.  The time has come to wake up and look for a solution.  Look around this website, there are some great solutions.

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The Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen and President Obama are meeting today in an emergency meeting.  If that is not alarming enough, that meeting is also including Vice President Biden.  There is an important article you should read which covers the following:

1. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors just held an “expedited special meeting” on Monday in closed-door session.
2. The White House made an immediate announcement that the president was going to meet with Fed Chair Janet Yellen right after Monday’s special meeting and that Vice President Biden would be joining them.
3. Immediately after Monday’s special meeting, the Federal Reserve also posted an announcement of another expedited closed-door meeting for Tuesday for the specific purpose of “bank supervision.”
4. A G-20 meeting of finance ministers and central-bank heads starts in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, too, and continues through Wednesday.
5. Then on Thursday the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund meet in Washington.
6. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta just revised US GDP growth for the first quarter to the precious of recession at 0.1%.
7. US banks are expected this coming week to report their worst quarter financially since the start of the Great Recession.
8. The press stated that the German government will sue the European Central Bank if it launches a more aggressive and populist form of quantitative easing, often called “helicopter money.”
9. The European Union’s new “bail-in” procedures for failing banks were employed for the first time with Austrian bank Heta Asset Resolution AG.
10. Italy’s minister of finance called an emergency meeting of Italian bankers to engage “last resort” measures for dealing with 360-billion euros of bad loans in banks that have only 50 billion in capital.

The article is right here.

I do not have a crystal ball, but it does not take a Ph.D. in meteorology to say it is going to rain when there are very dark clouds on the horizon moving in your direction with the appearance of light and dark streaks from the bottom of the clouds towards the ground.

Like the article says, something is going on.  Private contracts are where you should have your assets.

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