How's Your Spiritual Appetite

16, May 2016

‘You have said, “Seek My face.” My heart says to You, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”’ Psalm 27:8 ESV

If you spend hours each day watching television and can’t find a few minutes for prayer and reading the Scriptures, you have a spiritual appetite problem—one that needs your attention.  David Brainerd, an eighteenth-century missionary to the American Indians, wrote in his journal:  ‘I withdrew to my usual place of retirement in great tranquillity.  I knew only to breathe out my desire for a perfect conformity to Him in all things.  God was so precious that the world with all its enjoyments seemed infinitely vile.  I have no more desire for the favor of men than for pebbles.  At noon I had the most ardent longings after God, which I have never felt in my life.  In my secret retirement, I could do nothing but tell my dear Lord in a sweet calmness that I knew I desired nothing but Him, nothing but holiness, that He had given me these desires and only He could give me the things I desired.  I never seemed to be so unhinged from myself … so wholly devoted to God.  My heart was swallowed up in God most of the day".   

In today's scripture, the psalmist felt the same way:  ‘I desire you more than anything on earth.  My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever … how good it is to be near God!  I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter’ (Psalm 73:25–28 NLT).  You can tell how spiritually healthy you are by your appetite for the things of God.

"Constructive Complaining"

21, April 2016

‘So Moses brought their case before the Lord.’ Numbers 27:5 NKJV

When you get a reputation as a complainer, people will begin to avoid you. There’s an interesting story in the Old Testament about the five daughters of Zelophehad.  Here was their problem. Their father had died in the wilderness before the Israelites entered the Promised Land. He had no sons to inherit his land, and the law didn’t allow women to receive it.  Consequently, without a father, brothers, husbands, sons or other men in their immediate family, Zelophehad’s daughters were left out completely. It wasn’t fair, but it was the law. So rather than complaining to others, the sisters presented their ‘petition for an inheritance’ to Moses and the leaders.  And when Moses brought their case before God, He agreed with the women and granted their request (see Numbers 27:1–11).  Now, what do you think the outcome would’ve been if they’d gone around whining to everyone and anyone who’d listen instead of going directly to those who could do something about it, namely Moses and God?  It’s doubtful they’d have obtained their inheritance. Understand this: God doesn’t reward complainers!  The sin of complaining angered Him to the extent He stopped an entire generation of Israelites from inheriting the Promised Land when they were standing on the very threshold.  You say, ‘Well, I’ve suffered an injustice, so who should I complain to'?  The Lord, the One who can do something about it!  The psalmist wrote, ‘I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare my trouble before Him" (Psalm 142:2 NAS). And that’s the best advice you can take!

Your Anger Is Doing Damage

07, April 2016

Your Anger Is Doing Damage

‘Do not be quickly provoked.’ Ecclesiastes 7:9 NIV

Angry outbursts are destructive in all relationships, especially in your home. Children are the most vulnerable to parental anger, and they mirror their parents’ behavior. We shape our children’s destiny by our words, behaviors and attitudes, and if they’re raised in a home that’s consistently high-volume, they’ll react similarly. Your outbursts are training your children to be hysterical and violent.  Soon everyone will be overreacting, flying into fits of rage and attacking one another. When you exhibit tantrum-like behavior, you’re acting out of a selfish need to get what you want, when you want it, in the way you think you ought to have it.  Please—for your family’s sake—start acting like an adult; exhibit self-control.  ‘Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises’ (Hebrews 6:12 NKJV).   Notice, you must have faith and patience. You may not be able to control what happens in life, but you can certainly control your reaction.  Whether it’s the anger a father brings home from the workplace, or a wife’s anger towards her husband, it can bring a curse.  Simeon and Levi harbored anger in their hearts and became vicious and vindictive murderers. Because of this, a curse came upon them, and the anger was passed down from generation to generation (see Genesis 49).  You must break the curse by resisting the temptation to let anger dictate your behavior.  In the words of James: ‘My dear brothers, take note … Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires’ (James 1:19–20 NIV).

Board of Directors

http://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/center-for-corporate-governance/Articles/assessing-the-boards-role.html?id=us:2em:3na:boddigest:awa:ccg:040516#

Time Management

"Manage Your Time, Manage Your Life"

Tuesday, 29 March 2016

'Walk in wisdom... redeeming the time.' Colossians 4:5 NKJV

One of your greatest possessions—is your next twenty-four hours. How will you spend them?  Will you allow television, pointless emails, unimportant tasks, your own impulses, the wrong people or other meaningless distractions to consume your day?  Or will you take control of your time and make today count?  Leadership experts say that focusing on the top 20 per cent of your priorities brings an 80 per cent return on your effort. So when you get up each morning, look in the mirror and say, ‘Today I’ll live my life according to God’s will, and give my energies to the things that help me fulfil it’.  The truth is, there’ll always be things vying for your attention. Advertisers want you to spend money on their products ... And have you noticed how people with nothing to do, usually want to spend their time with you?  Even your own desires can be so diverse and your focus so scattered that you aren’t sure what needs your attention first. That’s why you need to focus like a laser on your God-given purpose. Whatever you concentrate on, you give strength and momentum to. Your priorities determine how you spend your time, so set them prayerfully and maintain them carefully. Eliminate non-essentials. Those who tell you, ‘You can have it all’ are misguided. You can’t do everything you want to do, but you can do everything God wants you to do. You’ve got to choose! Success comes from doing the right things right, and letting the rest go. If you’re not sure what the right things are for you, imagine yourself looking back on your life years from now— which things would you regret not doing?

Dynamics and Challenges of Business Growth

Growth has traditionally been regarded by academics as the stage of the business lifecycle that follows market entry. Many small companies that were founded during the recent "age of the entrepreneur" have never made it to this next stage, usually due to stagnation or failure. To advance to the growth stage and stay there, all the challenges and changes caused by sustained growth must be well managed, which is no easy task.

Business growth is truly a two-edged sword. When it's controlled and well managed it has the potential of providing tremendous rewards to the managers and shareholders of your company. But when growth is poorly planned and uncontrolled, it often leads to financial distress and failure. Rapid growth for many companies is the only way to survive in highly competitive industries, such as technology, telecommunications, and E-commerce. These companies are faced with a choice of either acting quickly to capture additional market share and build brand recognition or sitting on the sidelines and watching others play the game. But do these competitive conditions justify unplanned and unbridled growth, where sound management, legal and accounting principles are disregarded? Certainly not.

Your business's need to grow must be tempered by the need to understand that meaningful, long-term, profitable growth is the by-product of effective management and planning. A strategy that focuses on sensible and logical growth dictates that a balance be created. You must achieve the organizational flexibility to quickly seize on market opportunities, adapt to changes in the marketplace and develop creative solutions for problems that arise within the context of a controlled and well-managed expansion plan. Failure to create this balance will result in a vulnerability to attack by competitors, creditors, hostile employees, and creative takeover specialists.

A commitment to properly grow your company will invariably trigger the need for management to undertake greater risks. These risks must be managed from a legal perspective. So, too, must the changes that your emerging-growth business is likely to experience in its structure, products and services, markets and capital requirements. Growth means that you'll be hiring employees, and they'll be looking to your company's top management for leadership.

Growth means that your management will become increasingly decentralized, which may create greater levels of internal politics, protectionism, and dissension over the goals and projects that your company should pursue. Growth means that market share will expand, calling for new strategies for dealing with larger competitors. Growth also means that you'll require additional capital, creating new responsibilities to shareholders, investors and institutional lenders Accelerated growth will mean that the risks and changes will occur with greater frequency and with more serious implications.

The requirements and restrictions imposed by the law that affect most business objectives and transactions will typically retard the rate at which your company can grow. The delays caused by legal drafting and negotiation of documents, filings with regulators and meeting statutory requirements, however, are unavoidable and a cost of doing business. Since the law is not likely to go away, take the time to learn the fundamental legal issues that govern your plans and strategies. The specific legal requirements will depend on:  the market segments and industry sectors in which your business operates;  the exact stage of your company's development;  your business's the current and projected capital needs; and  the types of barriers that your company must overcome to achieve its objectives.

Why Do You Want to Grow? A key question to ask is, "What is motivating my desire to grow?" For most entrepreneurs, it comes down to fear, greed or ego, as set forth below. Fear. This may be fear of the competition, technological innovation, becoming obsolete, becoming (or staying) unprofitable, losing key employees, rapidly changing marketing conditions, or just be a general fear of being left out or left behind as a company. These fears become the motivator to grow and remain competitive and viable.

These fears may also manifest themselves into specific growth strategies or influence what paths or new markets the company chooses to penetrate. Greed. The desire to be the biggest, the best, the market leader, the most profitable, the fastest growing, or the highest in profile within the industry can be a strong motivator. The focus is on increasing revenues and profits, maximizing shareholder value and maintaining very aggressive rates of growth.

Companies in this mindset are more likely to choose the capital markets or acquisitions as their preferred method of growth. Ego. This is a more dangerous strategy than being motivated by fear or greed. This type of company has a strong need and desire to be loved by its customers and its employees, even at the potential cost to its shareholders. It is very focused on building brand loyalty, long-term customer relationships, and strong vendor and distribution channels. It may have a larger marketing and public relations budget than its competitors and is more likely to be a media favorite and household name, even if it is not the darling of Wall Street.

These companies typically enjoy entering into strategic relationships with others and helping to build wealth and are more likely to grow through franchising, licensing, joint ventures or even multi-level marketing. The Challenges of Growing Too Quickly It's natural for a successful business to grow, but some small companies, flushed with early successes, try to grow too quickly. They launch new lines of business, expand into unfamiliar regions, hire layers of employees and sign expensive leases.

When growth is not based on careful planning and efficient use of resources, expansion can rapidly spin out of control. These signs of impending trouble can show up early or late in the process: The decision to expand is based more on instinct than on sound financial analysis, market studies or economic conditions. Servicing the debt, you assume to expand begins to consume the added cash flow. You find yourself becoming a stranger to key employees, who have been hired by someone else in the firm. Mounting overhead is squeezing other vital expenditures.

The expansion is generating more media attention or vanity satisfaction for the owner than net profit. Bureaucracy mushrooms: more memos, meetings, manuals, and buck-passing. Less business, service and decision-making. How to Evaluate Your Expansion Plans To protect your company from the dangers of unwise or poorly planned growth, run your plans through these checks. Consider the possibility that your company is expanding in too many directions at once, seeking too large a geographical market, too much market share and too many groups or types of customers with too many different products. Sticking to what you do best is often the surest route to growth.

Federal Express doesn't make hamburgers and McDonald's doesn't deliver packages. Carefully assess your motivations. Growth motivated by ego (you "must have" the target company), an excess of cash or an assumption that the company can carry a lot of debts rarely succeeds. Be sure your financial systems can handle the demands of the expansion. That means cash flow, receivables and payables, inventory management, benefits and pension plans, compensation and shareholders' plans. Be sure your current management structure is capable of handling the expansion. For instance, a hierarchical company in which managers have limited autonomy or decision-making responsibility may not be flexible enough.

RPH

The Word For Today

Friday, 4 September 2015
‎
"Wait" (Part  #1)‎

‘Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous…’ (Psalms 27:14 NLT)

It’s in looking back that we realize: 

1) God had something better in mind for us. 

2) We weren’t mature enough at that point to handle what we were asking Him for.   

We think we’re ready, but God knows when we are.   Over forty times in the Bible, we’re commanded to ‘wait on the Lord’.   Learning to wait is a test of maturity.   Scott Peck writes:  ‘Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with … It’s the only decent way to live.  ’ Waiting forces us to accept that we’re not in control.   It humbles us in ways we need to be humbled.   Consider the trapeze artist: for a split second, which must feel like an eternity, he or she is suspended in nothingness.   They can’t go back, and it’s too soon to feel the grasp of the one who’ll catch them.  They must wait in absolute trust.   You may be at that same point in your life right now.   You’ve let go of what God called you to let go of, but you can’t feel His hand catching you yet.   Moses waited eighty years for a ministry that lasted forty years—two-thirds of his life was spent getting ready! Jesus spent thirty years preparing for a ministry that would last three-and-a-half years.   From God’s perspective, your life isn’t measured by its length, but by its effectiveness and its impact for His kingdom.   So wait, and keep a good attitude while you’re doing it.   God won’t disappoint you.   Amen.

Chinese rushing into physical gold in huge volume as stocks crash

A simple truth;

Owning paper “Gold ETF’s” or “Gold Certificates” is like holding a receipt for a parachute

in a crashing plane.

Posted on 23 June 2015

The first signs of a rush to convert financial assets into physical gold in China have emerged with a spike in physical gold payouts at the Shanghai gold exchanges.

Withdrawals of physical gold from the Shanghai Gold Exchange and Shanghai International Gold Exchange jumped 41 percent in the trading week 8-12th June from the previous week, while year-to-date withdrawals are up 20 per cent to an incredible 1,061 tones.

Massive rotation

To put that figure into perspective, that is higher than China’s entire last officially declared gold reserve. It represents a massive conversion of paper assets into bars of the precious metal.

The 8-12th June gold rush came before the Shanghai Composite began to sell-off late last week, quickly entering a bear market with stocks down more than 20 percent. How much paper gold trading has been converted into the physical stuff in this market collapse?

The shift into physical gold earlier this month looks like the smart money getting out ahead of the herd. But where else can Chinese investors park their cash in an emergency?

Their fear must surely be that another deluge of money printing will be the response of the authorities. Chinese inflation has already been epic since the global financial crisis and the money printing that followed, just go there and buy things to find out.

Bubble profits

Indeed the stock market bubble itself is a product of money printing. Investors wishing to protect themselves from the next blast of inflation, or actually to profit from it are buying gold.

How long before this begins to affect headline gold prices? Surely as the stock market tanks we will not have to wait until the next batch of figures confirms what was happening in early June.

http://www.arabianmoney.net/gold-silver/2015/06/23/chinese-rushing-into-physical-gold-in-huge-volume-as-stocks-crash/

ISM Manufacturing index increased to 53.5 in June

The ISM manufacturing index suggested expansion in June. The PMI was at 53.5% in June, up from 52.8% in May. The employment index was at 55.5%, up from 51.7% in May, and the new orders index was at 56.0%, up from 55.8%.

From the Institute for Supply Management: June 2015 Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business® 

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in June for the 30th consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 73rd consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business®.

The report was issued today by Bradley J. Holcomb, CPSM, CPSD, chair of the Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®) Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. "The June PMI® registered 53.5 percent, an increase of 0.7 percentage point over the May reading of 52.8 percent. The New Orders Index registered 56 percent, an increase of 0.2 percentage point from the reading of 55.8 percent in May. The Production Index registered 54 percent, 0.5 percentage point below the May reading of 54.5 percent. The Employment Index registered 55.5 percent, 3.8 percentage points above the May reading of 51.7 percent, reflecting growing employment levels from May at a faster rate. Inventories of raw materials registered 53 percent, an increase of 1.5 percentage points from the May reading of 51.5 percent. The Prices Index registered 49.5 percent, the same reading as in May, indicating lower raw materials prices for the eighth consecutive month. Comments from the panel indicate mostly stable to improving business conditions, with the notable exception relating to the oil and gas markets. Also noted is the negative effect on egg prices and availability due to the avian flu outbreak." 
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

Here is a long term graph of the ISM manufacturing index.

This was above expectations of 53.2% and indicates slightly faster expansion in June. Solid internals.

5Linx Scam

There is a huge buzz on the net about the MLM opportunity provided by 5Linx.

Some people say that it is quite legitimate while a few people profess it to be a scam.

We thought of performing extensive research on the opportunity provided by the company for the average Joe to make some good money on the net.

This article will review the opportunity provided by 5Linx.

5Linx is a telecommunication company that provides services such as VoIP services, cell phones, cable, Internet, and satellite services at extremely low costs.

The company’s headquarters is located in Rochester, New York, and they provide services to customers in the U.S. as well as 20 other countries.

Jeb Tyler, Craig Jerabeck, and Jason Guck, the founders of 5Linx, count more than 60 years of combined experience in the telecommunication industry.

The company, which was formed in 2001, is based on 5 pillars: Vision, Integrity, Freedom, Opportunity, and Success. 5Linx’s income opportunity presented through their MLM scheme has been creating quite a lot of buzz in the market since of lately.

5Linx’s cell phones are the best selling products of the company. Their digital home phone service provides unlimited long distance and local calling in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands.

Also, you get free unlimited land-line calls to 75 calling areas. The CU-3000 Videophone is the most popular product of the company which is selling at $249.95 right now.

5Linx Scam – Debunking the Claims

Becoming a 5Linx direct sales representative is easy. There are two levels to start with as a 5Linx direct sales representative: the first level has an enrollment fee of $99 and it is called Customer Representative (CR). This level will pay you only commissions on your sales, so no residual income whatsoever.

The second level has an enrollment fee of $499 and it is referred to as Independent Marketing Representative (IMR). This is the level where a marketer would be able to extract the company’s compensation plan to its maximum. This is where additional incomes, such as annual paid vacations, stock options, and other residual income sources, come in.

Even though the direct marketer will not have to coerce the customer to buy the best selling products of 5Linx, many direct marketers make the mistake of promoting the products to the wrong customers.

These customers are not highly targeted when it comes to selling the company products; this is why you should be careful in promoting the company products to the right customer. Then you won’t have any problem selling 5Linx products.

The more products you sell, and the more members you recruit to your team, the more money you will earn. You will earn commissions on the products sold by the members of your team too.

This is the beauty of multilevel marketing (MLM); becoming a top earner in the company is easy when you know how to sell to the right customer.

All in all, our extensive online research shows that 5Linx is a legitimate business opportunity and not a scam in any way.

YOU DON’T OWN WHAT YOU THINK YOU OWN

 

The truth I am about to show you is complicated by design. If something is complicated, people have a tendency to ignore it. If that is the choice you make in this instance, it would be a grave mistake because the following piece gives you definitive proof that you do not legally own any stocks, bonds, mutual funds, money markets, CD’s, ETFs etc. that you hold inside any typical brokerage or bank account, or in an insurance contract. This is simply the difference between “Good” money wealth like physical gold and silver (you hold it, you own it outright and it runs no counterparty risk) and “Fiat” money wealth like mutual funds etc. (you don’t hold it, you don’t really own it and it runs all sorts of counterparty risk).

Good money wealth is outside the system and therefore, much harder to confiscate. Whereas the most important market function of fiat money wealth is to easily and almost invisibly confiscate wealth through inflation and crisis. Transparency is the catch phrase used to justify many of the new rules and regulations in the Dodd Frank Act. But I suggest that the transparency they seek is for the central banks and not for the typical citizen. I say this because the legal ownership of almost every contractual financial instruments is, by design; complex, convoluted, distorted and opaque with one “Legal Owner” (Cede & Company) and many layers of “Beneficial Owners”, (brokerage houses, banks, hedge funds and insurance companies) until they finally list you as the final “Beneficial Owner” on the bottom of the heap of many beneficial owners. “Legal” ownership is defined as registered on the books of a company’s stock or bonds. “Beneficial” ownership is generally defined as encompassing the right to vote and dispose of the shares.

If you have the ability to buy or sell, receive dividends and proxies, your perception is that you own something, but legally, you do not. Chances are, when you bought that stock or bond from your broker, you did not go on the SEC web site to see if your name was registered as the owner. You most likely assume you own it since you paid for it and you get a statement with a list of your “holdings”. But your assumption is dead wrong because, unless you specified otherwise, when you signed the new account agreement and made that first transaction, you agreed that everything in that account would be held in “Street Name”. The SEC states, “Many brokerage firms will automatically put your securities into street name unless you give them specific instructions to the contrary.

Under street name registration, your firm will keep records showing you as the …"beneficial" owner, but you will not be listed directly on the issuer's books. Instead, your brokerage firm (or some other nominee) will appear as the owner on the issuer's books.” Here is the link to the SEC. http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/holdsec.htm and here is a link showing Cede & Co as legal registered owner of a particular stock. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1166390/000101996502000143/indy01h1_10k.txt Who is Cede & Company? They are a “nominee” of DTC created in 1996 to be the “legal owner” proxy for DTC.

“The Depository Trust Company (DTC), an operating subsidiary of The Depositiory Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Is the central securities depository in the U.S.” “DTC was formed in 1973 to immobilize securities in a central holding system” “Securities deposited at DTC for book-entry services are registered in the name of DTC’s nominee (Cede & Co.), so that DTC holds legal title to the securities vis a vis the issuer.” “DTC is a limited purpose trust company, organized under the New York State Banking Law, a State member bank of the Federal Reserve System”. DTC became part of the Federal Reserve system in 2010, so the Federal Reserve is now backstopping DTC.

http://www.dtcc.com/~/media/Files/Downloads/WhitePapers/Sevice_Restriction_September2013.ashx and http://www.newyorkfed.org/banks.html So according to DTCC and the Federal Reserve, DTC was created to “immobilize” securities in a central holding system. In other words, these companies were created to dematerialize securities (no more stock or bond certificates) and put them in one place where they are easily controlled. Because when securities are in one central location, ownership can be easily and invisably transferred as witnessed by Cede & Company ownership of almost every security on the planet and most likely, you never heard of them. Isn’t that illegal? CFTC 1.25 and CFTC 30.7, which are part of the new and margin account contract, make this legal.

This is where you agree to hold all securities in “Street Name” and give your broker “Power of Attorney”. In addition, give up your legal rights to any security held in that account, which is why they can use your equity for their benefit and be classified as a beneficial owner. If they own almost everything in the world, why haven’t I heard about them? Because if you clearly understand that you are legally giving your wealth to the bankers, you might make a different choice, and that would not support their goals. So let’s take a look at the convoluted system designed for the banks by the banks.

It’s good to be King. First let’s look at DTCC’s organizational structure. DTCC is overseen by the SEC, Federal Reserve and the New York State Department of Financial Services, you can see in the flow chart below, that DTCC owns many subsidiaries. Those subdidiaries are “Clearing” houses, globally positioned to insure that almost all market transactions flow through DTCC. In this way, securities can be “immobilized” and secured in one central location, which is infinately easier to control than when individuals were the “legal” owners and held certificates outside the system. Who is DTCC?

According to Wikipedia “The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is a US post-trade financial services company providing clearing and settlement services to the financial markets. It also provides central custody of securities. DTCC was established in 1999 as a holding company to combine The Depository Trust Company (DTC) and National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC). User-owned and directed, DTCC provides clearance, settlement, and information services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, unit investment trusts, government and mortgage-backed securities, money market instruments, and over-the-counter derivatives. It also manages transactions between mutual funds and insurance carriers and their respective investors. In 2011, DTCC settled the vast majority of securities transactions in the United States and close to $1.7 quadrillion in value worldwide.”

Who has legal title to all of those financial instruments held in custody? Cede & Company, which is a private holding company owned by DTC, which is owned by DTCC, which is “owned by many companies in the financial industry, with the NYSE being one of its largest shareholders. Securities brokers, dealers, institutional investors, depository institutions, issuing and paying agents and settling banks use the DTC, but individual investors do not interact with it.” So all the usual guys; Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citi etc. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dtc.asp Confused? Sorry, but it’s about to get even more convoluted though I’ve tried to make it simple. This link takes you to the paper prepared by Yale Law which examines custodial ownership of financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, money markets, mutual funds etc.

http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/cbl/Wilcox_streetname.pdf From the Yale paper; 12.2 “LEGAL” VS. “BENEFICIAL” OWNERSHIP OF STOCK (1) Legal Ownership There is a variety of rights which are incident to share ownership, including the right to vote, the right to inspect a company’s books and records, and the right to dissent from a merger and demand appraisal. Whether one may asset these rights depends on the nature of one’s ownership interest. In Delaware, as in nearly every other jurisdiction, these rights belong solely to the “legal” owner of the stock. A company’s share register sets forth the legal owners of that company’s stock. The legal owners of the stock are commonly referred to as either the “registered” owners of the shares, because the owner’s name appear on the company’s share register or, where there is a record date (e.g., for voting or dividend purposes), the “record” owners, because they legally own the shares on the record date.

Legal owners often hold share certificates that represent their ownership interests in the company. (2) Beneficial Ownership The largest “legal” owner of most public companies’ shares is The Depository Trust Company (“DTC”), the world’s largest securities depository. DTC registers its shares on companies’ share registers under the name “Cede & Co.” DTC is owned by its “participants,” which are the member organizations of the various national stock exchanges (e.g., State Street Bank, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs & Co.). Although DTC is the legal owner of the shares in its vaults, it has no “beneficial” interest in them. “Beneficial” ownership is generally defined as encompassing the right to vote and dispose of the shares. Shares “legally” owned by DTC are “beneficially” owned by its participants (if they hold for their own investment accounts) or its participants’ clients.

Shares deposited at DTC-or otherwise registered on a company’s books in the name of an entity other than the beneficial owner-are said to be registered in “street name.” The following is a flowchart from the above Yale Law piece. I’ve done my best to simplify it so you could see the truth, though there may be many more beneficial ownership layers, you will always be on the bottom. As you can see in the above flow chart as well as the links provided, Cede & Company is the “Legal” owner but they allow you to have the benefit of buying and selling and they pass dividends and proxies through to you as the “Beneficial Owner”, so in your mind everything is A OK.

As long as the system is working properly, you’ll never know the truth. But the advantage of a “Central Counterparty” having custody of almost every financial instrument, particularly in the fragile global economic environment, should be crystal clear. If the Federal Reserve needs to stop market trading, there is only one button to push. And as of 2-10-2010, the Federal Reserve is back stopping the $1.7Quadrillion derivative market. Here is the link to the Financial Stability Board’s establishing DTCC to control global derivative contracts.

http://www.financialstabilityboard.org/publications/c_140416f.pdf Here is a link that positions DTCC to control all global collateral including cash and gold. “Collateral Transformation” means create derivatives which is already 25 times greater than the global GDP. (Now I’m scared) http://www.finextra.com/finextra-downloads/newsdocs/CollateralMGMT_WhitePaper.pdf “In financial markets, collateral is broadly interpreted but typically includes cash, securities and, at times, commodities such as gold.” “Collateral transformation is another form of collateral optimization. It allows firms to exchange collateral that may not be acceptable due to credit, liquidity or other reasons with collateral that is considered acceptable. For example, a firm that is required to pledge cash as margin but has only securities on hand may use collateral transformation to exchange these securities for cash to meet the margin requirements.

There are many different mechanisms to transform collateral, including stock-lending, repo transactions and structured deals.” Good, everything in one place, owned by guys that pushed the entire globe into financial crisis because you gave them power of attorney over your collateral and now they can transform it. The following quote is from Fed Commissioner Bart Chilton at a risk management conference. Chilton asks, “Why is it that nobody went to prison for what took place in 2008? After all, according to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), the Captains of Wall Street took advantage of lax, or non-existent, rules and regulations that created the chaos. The answer is direct. Nobody violated the law.” Of course, legally, there needs to be additional tools to protect those Captains of Wall Street in case too many investors decide to “run” at the same time. DTC Chills and Freezes: “The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Bulletin to help educate investors about the effects of chills and freezes on an investor’s ability to hold and trade securities.

A “chill” is a limitation of certain services available for a security on deposit at The Depository Trust Company (“DTC”). A “freeze,” formally referred to as a “global lock,” is a complete restriction on all DTC services for a particular security on deposit at DTC.”

http://www.sec.gov/investor/alerts/dtcfreezes.pdf I hope you can see the truth, IF YOU DON’T HOLD IT, YOU DON’T OWN IT. At this point we’ve covered everything but cash. No worries, legally, that’s been taken care of too through Dodd-Frank. It’s called “Bail-In”. The Bank of International Settlements published the template of how, what you think of as your deposits, are legally classified as unsecured loans, can be converted into stock in a failing bank over the weekend. If too many people yell, they’ll honor deposit insurance, but the FDIC will contribute what they would have taken from your account. Of course the FDIC only has $40Billion to insure $10Trillion, but no worries the Treasury is backstopping them in that case. Here is the link to that template http://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt1306e.pdf The following is the bar chart on what that conversion looks like. Still confused? Of course you are, that’s the goal. Because then you stay put and vulnerable. This is contractual wealth.

Complex, opaque and not written for your benefit. So here is the bottom line. I know it’s hard to wrap your brain around the complex, convoluted and opaque mechanisms that have been put in place for the benefit of the banking system. This started in 1913 and is coming to conclusion now.

Everything…EVERYTHING is in place for the final wealth transfer, so when do you want to know about it? All of the markets are being blatantly and admittedly manipulated so that you participate in a way that keeps you in the system until they are ready to let you know that you own nothing. Today you can take your wealth back. If it costs you taxes, fees or penalties, that’s cheap compared to what it will cost you when the next looming financial crisis strikes.

As much as I pay attention and understand, it is doubtful I will know the day before the next crisis hits. Technical signals are screaming even as they try to drown them out with manipulation. Do yourself and your family a service, take back your contractual wealth and convert it into real wealth; physical gold and silver. The central banks have been doing that since 2008 leading to a severe shortage in the physical market. One day soon, when you see the truth and want to convert, you might not be able to do so. So I strongly encourage that you make that choice today.

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