Aug

31

Should You Blog Anonymously?

August 31, 2008 | 2 Comments

If you’re hearing music & need to shut it off to watch the video click the Speaker Icon Here…

Some people want to be read and not seen. These people choose to blog anonymously.

I would not recommend this from a business perspective as our goal is to create an online presence with name recognition and build a loyal readership, build a subscription list and warm up our prospects for future business propositions and sales.

Personally, I always attach my name to everything that I write online, but there are instances when anonymity becomes a necessity.

For instance, corporate whistleblowers and political dissidents living under oppressive regimes have a right to be heard without getting fired, imprisoned or even killed!

2000, Zouhair Yahyaoui.

Take the case of a young internet journalist from Tunisia, Zouhair Yahyaoui. This journalist wrote an entry on his popular blog TUNeZINE asking the readers to voice an opinion. He asked them to vote on whether Tunisia was a “republic, a kingdom, a zoo or a prison.”

To us, this would seem a rather silly, but permissible display of the freedoms of speech and ability to express one’s opinions. Something we have all become quite accustomed to in this country. Unfortunately for Zouhair it was not so.

Soon after, he was arrested by six Tunisian secret police and dragged away from a local cybercafe. he was held without charges and tortured until he revealed his blog password. Then his blog was removed from the internet and he was held in a prison under appalling conditions until his death in 2005.

That would be a perfect example for the need to blog anonymously.

BlogSafer (anoniblog.pbwiki.com) is a guide for blogging in countries that have little to no freedom of speech. Countries like Saudi Arabia, China, Malaysia, Zimbabwe and others where others live in fear that the same thing can happen to them that happened to this young journalist in Tunisia.

Let’ be grateful we live in a country that, until further notice, allows us the freedom to write and to voice our opinions openly without the risk of loss of life and limb.. (Watch the video, we may not be as comfy as we believe ourselves to be..)

Until we can communicate freely once again Netrageouz thanks you for your visit. Please leave a comment before you leave!!

PS. If you haven’t signed up for our course yet, sign up now. Don’t let everyone else online gain a winning edge over you because of a lack of marketing know-how!

This is our non-committal, no-risk offer. You might just learn one ’special formula’ that turns your marketing into an overnight success. So sign up right now and you’ll be reading our piping HOT marketing tips just minutes from now!

To Your Success!
netrageouz sez

Dr Ana Hernandez, CEO Netrageouz.net
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Aug

27

Write A HubPage That Makes You Money

August 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I’ve been reviewing free marketing methods to see where I can get the most bang for my buck and by far one stands out above the rest ~ writing a HubPage.

If you’re relatively new to online marketing, you’re probably thinking:

“What the heck is a Hubpage Ana?”
“Why would HubPage marketing take priority over anything else?”

Well I’ll tell you why…

HubPage is a rich content sharing site, much like this blog site. However, unlike this blog it is far better in terms of getting ranked by the search engines.

HubPage is the perfect blending of a blog, press release and perhaps even video marketing; the harmonious blending of the best in available current marketing strategies combined in one place.

The best part of “HubPage” publishing is that it is currently getting great Google attention. And this is exactly what you need if you want to be found online.

When you publish your article on a HubPage, it can get ranked very quickly; thus, helping you make money online sooner than later. Also, combining the capsules they provide you for monetizing your HubPage using adsense ads, ebay and amazon can also bring you sales commissions for your writing efforts.

When you go to HubPage using the link below, you’ll see how easy it is to set up and manage all of the finer details that go into online marketing for making money.

HubPage literally walks you through the painful process to make it less difficult for you, as they did for me.

Step-by-step instructions get you signed up to the google adsense, ebay and amazon sights for your affiliate number. Then by simply providing the HubPage site with your affiliate number these services integrates beautifully within your article piece. Basically, HubPage creates beautifully graphic ads for displaying on your site. It just can’t get any easier than this!

Now let’s get YOUR account up and running… (Make sure you print out this page to use as a guide)

Create Your First Hubpage Account

Find a topic of interest that you want to discuss. It could be information about your product, service or any relevant subjects to provide your reader with great information.

Make it interesting so that they’ll want to learn more about you and read more of what else you write. Remember, you must make it both fun and interesting! You always want your readers to crave more information from you and to return to your hubs.

After you have created an account with “HubPage” log in and click on the CREATE A NEW HUB button.

1. Enter the title of your page. Make sure this is a keyword that you want to target or a keyword phrase that you want ranked on the search engines.

2. Next enter your tags or keywords. Enter at least 15 keywords or tags altogether.

3. Click Create.

4. Now add capsules. The capsules are located on the right site of your hub back office.

5. Make sure that you rotate text with images, and text with videos. This makes it graphically much more interesting. I will direct you to my HubPage as an example in a few seconds.

6 You will want to to add 3 to 5 images and/or 2 to 3 videos if you like for completion.

7. Now add capsule LINKS. Do not add to many links or it might be classified as a spamming site that redirects readers outwards only without providing quality and quantity. Try adding 8-10 links to other HubPage articles that you have created within the site or keep it to 3-4 outward bound links to your website or affiliate link. You can use up to 30 word description (long tail keyword titles) with your links. That’s a plus!

8. Now add the Amazon Capsule with books or products that relate to the topic you have discussed.

9. Before you submit the Hub for publication, go to the top of your page and you will see a capsule that has a TAB labeled “Summary Text”. This is where you will describe the topic of your hub in just a few sentences. When you describe your hub do not let the software calculate your summary automatically as this will pull one or two sentences from the beginning of your page. Take the time to write out the main purpose of this page as this is exactly what the Google Search Results will show up for your site. You want the person doing a Google Search to get what they need from YOU so write it out for them clearly in two sentences or three. Enter a 130 to 150 words description making it informative and short.

10. It’s super important to ask friends and business colleagues to leave you comments. Get a fan club going for yourself with friends and make new friends in the HubPage community so they will be informed when you have published a new hub.

Take a look at my site and you can join HubPage right from this site as well…

My Internet Business Hubpage My Internet Business A Candid Review of New and Existing Services.

Take this example and start writing out your own stories, always make it yours, make it unique and make it interesting.

And remember to submit everything that you write to www.digg.com, www.socialmarker.com and any other social bookmarking service that you use. Tell the whole world that you Hub!

Until we speak again I wish you great success online,

Netrageouz

PS. If you haven’t signed up for our course yet, sign up now. Don’t let everyone else online gain a winning edge over you because of a lack of marketing know-how!

To Your Success!
netrageouz sez

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Aug

21

Firepow Software Review by Netrageouz

August 21, 2008 | 1 Comment

As blogging and in particular blogging for profit becomes ever more popular with online entrepreneurs, we’re seeing new tools being developed almost on a weekly basis.

In this post I’m going to talk about one such tool: Firepow Blogging Software because I believe it might just be a cut above the rest in terms of it’s flexibility of use and overall effectiveness in accomplishing the three primary aims of blogging – creating a blog, managing it or maintaining it, and getting traffic to it.

It was hard to know where to start with this post because there are so many individual features of this software that could be mentioned.

To give you a brief overview of how it works…

Firepow is based on the Wordpress platform, and allows a user to install a fully customized and functioning wordpress blog with a few clicks of the mouse.

If you’ve used Wordpress before, you’ll know that one of the best things about it is it’s ability to be enhanced by third party plugins. You’ll also know that it’s not hard to get LOST in all the plugins and potential feature additions that CAN be made.

The first thing great about Firepow from my point of view is that they have done the plugin work for you. The best 50 or so plugins from around the web have been programmed into the software so as to be automatically installed when your blog is.

That’s a good feature, but it’s even better when you consider that while these plugins normally require manual fiddling to get installed, tweaks made to your theme CSS code and more – the software actually does that part for you too – so you click the button, and you have the function of that plugin added – VERY time saving!

The “Create” part of the process is also helped by the ability to create your own custom Wordpress theme completely from scratch, with more functionality than we’ve seen from free theme generators EVER before – not to mention the ability to create your own categories from scratch, automatically create the perfect permalink structure for SEO, and more.

Before even getting into the Wordpress panel of the site “Firepow” creates you’ve also got a site management tab where all your blogs can be managed from one place, an SEO tracking tool to monitor the search rankings of all your sites, and a task manager that tells you what needs to be done to maintain your blogs and when.

I dare say though that the best things happen once you’re actually IN the blog.

Here you have crazy abilities to make your post content better, easily being able to add relevant images, videos, or trackbacks (automatically building backlinks to your site) to your posts... and even that’s leaving a lot out.

OR the crazy abilities to monitor your blogs success, like being able to split test the results of different posts, monitor your traffic through in depth reporting (utilizing Google analytics), monitoring your search spider activity, the popularity of your posts, the terms people are searching on your site, and more still.

I feel like I’m getting too sales-y in this post but I assure you even with everything that you’ve read here, I haven’t even really touched the surface of what’s going on inside of this thing called Firepow – heck we didn’t even get to the promotional tools.

The best thing I can probably do is tell you go to look at the darn thing yourself:

== >Get Firepow Now!! < ==
Oh and I could also tell you that if your into blogging and you don’t, you’ll probably regret it big time.

I hope you’ve found the information here of value and don’t hesitate to leave your comments on Firepow to share with others.

PS. If you haven’t signed up for our course yet, sign up now. Don’t let everyone else online gain a winning edge over you because of a lack of marketing know-how!

To Your Success!
netrageouz sez

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Aug

16

Recession Proof Retirement Income

August 16, 2008 | 1 Comment

From what I keep reading and hearing about in the news it’s been a grueling year with no signs of it turning around any time soon.

Layoffs at an all time high in the nation. According to our local paper, the Miami Herald the Florida jobless rate is now the worst in nation. Florida leads the nation in job losses as the state’s collapsing construction market fuels unemployment. In fact, our jobless rate just hit its highest point in 13 years last month.

Foreclosures, the skyrocketing prices on everything from gas to trash bags… it’s bad all over.

We’re nearly desensitized to the news of so many families drowning in debt, being kicked out of their homes in record highs. We’ve all heard these depressing facts over and over now for far too long.

Everyone is hurting, and nobody knows what to do to fix it. On top of it all, we’re going into an election where neither candidate makes me feel particularly secure about my future. Don’t you agree?

What you and I both need right now is cash in hand to ride out the financial storm and a proven, solid and sustainable system for putting more cash in hand for the future. Don’t you feel you need the security of knowing that you’ll be getting extra money and not from some ‘fly by night’ system that’ll be “dead” before you’ve even begun? I know I do!

You need a bomb-proof, bulletproof and recession proof income that’s going to stay steady and grow for when you need to tap into some cash.

Of course, I’m not able to promise you that it’s going to work for you because… I can’t make you

do a thing that you’re not driven to do for yourself. I’ve no idea how much money, time or energy you can put into securing your own future.

All I do know is, I’ll try my hardest and as your friend I’m opening a door for you to peek through. I hope you take the time to review this and hope to see you on the lighter, brighter side of the rainbow soon!

==> BulletProofRecession

PS – It’s easy to get a case of “recession depression”. Just brush it off ’cause no matter how bad the news say it is, the best way out is to go right through it as smoothly as possible…

==> ==> BulletProofRecession

I. MARKETING EXTRAS: BLOGS

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To Your Success!
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Aug

6

Who Else Wants To Learn How To Make A Living Online?

August 6, 2008 | 8 Comments

“So You Say You Want To Learn How To Make A Living Online?”

You’re wanting to learn how to build, manage & profit from your own successful online business using name branding to build credibility?

…”Well I think I can help you with that!”

I happen to have a biz opp that teaches you how to do things the right way, first time around so you’ll never have to go back n’ fix any newbie errors and marketing faux pas that ruin you online.

As icing, this opportunity comes with a complimentary subscription to my professional copywriting & online marketing newsletter teaching you how to generate ad copy that sells sand in the desert.

Discover the best home based business today and learn the proper ways to marketing online. You’ll be promoting products and services in the most ethical and professional manner possible. You’ll learn how to build a prosperous, portable online business you can depend on for years to come.

We will show you how to promote yourself online, how to name brand yourself, how to find the best methods to work from home, plus you will be introduced to the hottest home based businesses online and how to begin marketing this immediately even if you’ve never done so in the past.

Learn the hottest marketing methods used in the industry today. We teach you how to work with email marketing to create successful follow up email campaigns using autoresponders to automate this process for you. You’ll learn how to master the art of copywriting to create effective marketing & sales pieces for successful communication with your customers.

…”But this is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m just getting warmed up here..”

Today’s internet communications go much deeper than simple email promotions. We’ll be working with and showing you how to master cutting edge tips n’ techniques for maximizing your exposure through social networking, social bookmarking and many other viral methods o drive blazing traffic your way

… “Traffic that produces results!”

We’ll show you everything you need to know about choosing the proper web hosting company that’s right for you from the start! It’s crucial that you learn how and where to properly establish a web presence. Do it once, do it correctly. Saving you months of hard repetitive work to rebuild it the right way.

If you want to master the art of how to make all of the money online that you desire while working from home, if you want to be shown how to do successful follow-up email campaigns, if you want to be handed a virtually hands free marketing system with 365/24/7 access to professional sales assistants that close all your sales (and get paid only IF they close the sales for you, not before), if you want to work closely with professional online marketers and copywriters that can make all of the difference in your ability to achieve success even if you just want access to a virtually complete turnkey marketing system, then look no further. We have it here.

An offer you that’s guaranteed to fulfill all of your lofty goals while moving you closer and closer towards a future in making money at home using the internet.

Interested? Visit Netrageouz.net

… “What are ya’ waitin’ for? Get there & get on with your intentions to succeed online!”

PS. If you haven’t signed up for our course yet, sign up now. Don’t let everyone else online gain a winning edge over you because of a lack of marketing know-how!

To Your Success!
netrageouz sez

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Aug

6

So Much For Privacy and The Freedom of Choice

August 6, 2008 | 2 Comments

Ok. I thought to keep my topics separate, but my passion for BOTH medicine and marketing makes it irresistible to keep from voicing out on the loss of human rights in America.

Sifting through medical journals today I stumbled upon “Physician’s Practice” July/August 2008 Ed.. Begrudgingly I blog on the disturbing trends in the invasion of our privacy as a sign of greater things to come.

So what would YOU do if your boss came at you- measuring tape in hand- and reported YOUR waistline readings to the Federal Government?

This may be a good time to dust off the old running shoes, eh?…

We could ask our friends in Japan how it’s going. This is currently their reality. The Japanese government launched a nationwide campaign to thin the waistlines of it’s 40 to 75 year olds in attempts at lightening the collective poundage of the country a total of 10% by the year 2012, and 25% by 2015

The penalties for failure will likely fall on employees by wage penalties to self insure their overindulgences. So what if this were the case for us Americans?

“Talk about overindulgence and midline bulge!

But this is a topic for another post altogether. BOY, do I have things to say about that!!

In a close second for most disturbing article, I regret to report the trend showing disregard for a prospective employees’ privacy in regards to their medical records, and then some!

Some employers it seems are asking job APPLICANTS to waive their rights to medical privacy before they are even CONSIDERED for employment.

Here’s the wording of a waiver that a North Carolina reporter exposed:

“I, __(Joe/Joanna Apllicant)___, hereby authorize and permit the release of any authorized representative of (Said Employer) and any and all records but not limited to the following; credit information and records; medical records; employment information, including wages and benefits; driving records and accident or incident reports.”

We know that credit and financial information is a common request as it’s used to determine the prospect’s level of maturity and responsibility, But Medical Records Too?!

I’ve posted a radical video clip on the loss of basic human freedoms. So if you can handle still more ruffles in your feathers see Retirement Cashflow Solutions Page

Until we speak again, hang on to your rights!!

PS. If you haven’t signed up for our course yet, sign up now. Don’t let everyone else online gain a winning edge over you because of a lack of marketing know-how!

To Your Success!
netrageouz sez

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Aug

4

Internet Marketing Disasters: The Rambo Approach

August 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Whenever you’re reading a sales page, blog or forum post it’s wise to remember that nearly everyone has a sales pitch going and is trying to get you to buy something.

Just that simple.

The actual process used may be subtle and delivery of a sales message almost subliminal. It can come in the form of information or mere suggestion.

Over time, the subject distills deep in your subconscious only to surfaces at some point in time as a ‘must-have’ buying decision. This decisive clarity may then seem a spontaneous decision, yet it could have taken a dozen exposures to create your newly discovered need. The moment this shift takes place, a sales recommendation becomes the ‘no-brainer’ buying decision. And this concludes the evolution of creating a decisive buyer so the selling transaction can occur online.

Interestingly, I’ve observed that quite unlike the offline world, online marketers often act as if they’ve stumbled straight out of a scene shot in the wild, wild west. Much too many people trying to market like drunk cowboys drawing pistols n’ sprayin’ bullets, gunshot style. No particular target!

With no aim and no target, strewn messages thrown at anyone within reach is soon becoming a norm. The fictional ‘all-in-one’ market that accepts nilly-willy messages randomly received. Despite the lack of sales evidence, our ‘fictional’ marketer chases over the rainbow looking for the pot of gold a ‘guru’ promises imminent. “Come on, Really?l!

“How can you be speaking to no one, while expecting to sell to everyone?”

For helpful suggestions on how to market like an authority figure, read Internet Marketing At Its Worse- The Rambo Approach

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Aug

4

What Is Money? The Economic Rape of America, Chapter 1

August 4, 2008 | 1 Comment

David Icke Speaks Out And Explains What Is Money…

Jim Rogers Speaks On The State Of Our Economic Recovery…

Meet Jim Rogers:

Jim Rogers, CEO Rogers Holdings: Commodities Bull Market Will Last Another Decade or Two

Graduate from Yale University with degrees in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University. He became a Wall street legend when he and George Soros founded the Quantum Fund. After his career as hedge fund manager & investor, he now periodically teaches finance at Columbia University, and appears regularly on the CNBC Cable Network.

Barely 3 Years After The Revolutionary Film “The Secret”, America & The World Faces Its Worst Financial Crisis in Decades. Is the Law of Attraction Just Hype? Why – if the Law of Attraction is being used by millions – did America just face its worst job crisis since 1974, and a crumbling economy? Found Out What The 11 Forgotten Laws Can Do For Yur Life in Times Like These…

“Abraham was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.”
~ Genesis 13, verse 2

“The definitions, or descriptions, that have been applied to money are legion. They range from those which carry the implication that [the love of] it is the root of all evil to those who regard it as manna from heaven. Some have argued that it does not matter, others that it matters too much. Money has been described as a political, or sociological, phenomenon, as a mechanism, as a mirror, as a religion, as a myth, as a means of communication which reduces complexity and as a distortion which increases it, as the curse of the miser and the elixir of the spendthrift, as a means to all ends and as an end in itself, as barren and as all-powerful, as inert or neutral and as “the drink which stimulates the economic system to activity,” as the tool of social progress and as an obstacle to it.”
~ S. Herbert Frankel, 1977

To properly understand the extent of the Economic Rape of America, how it is being perpetrated, and who does it, we need to understand a few things about this curious thing or phenomenon we call “money.”

ANDREW CARNEGIE’S EXPLANATION

“I suppose everyone who has spoken to or written for the public has wished at times that everybody would drop everything and just listen to him for a few minutes. I feel so this morning, for I believe that a grave injury threatens the people and progress of our country simply because the masses – the farmers and the wage-earners – do not understand the question of money. I wish therefore to explain “money” in so simple a way that all can understand it.”

So wrote Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate, around the turn of the century – I guess. I have an undated 28-page booklet by him called “The A B C of Money”. The booklet is not copyrighted, so I shall quote from it extensively. First, Carnegie explains why “money” comes about and what it really is.

In “primitive” societies barter develops because some people have things that others want, and some people do certain things better than others. Specialization and division of labor occur. One person becomes a shoemaker, another a farmer. The farmer exchanges ten bushels of wheat for a pair of shoes. Both parties gain from the transaction. It would take the farmer five times as long to make a pair of shoes, compared to the shoemaker, and it is not even practical for the shoemaker to attempt to grow his own wheat.

As society develops, someone gets the idea of becoming a “barter specialist” and opens a store. His store becomes a center for barter. Spontaneously, in every society, some article becomes the “basis-article“ that turns out to be most convenient for exchange and for expressing the value of other articles. In Pennsylvania that article was wheat; in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina it was tobacco. There was a saying, “As good as wheat.” Tobacco remained a basic money in Virginia and its neighboring colonies for nearly two centuries.

Our modern word “pecuniary” comes from “pecunia,” the Latin word for “cow.” Our word “fee” comes from the German word “Vieh,” meaning cattle. In several societies cattle spontaneously came to serve the function of money. In other societies salt, silk, dried fish, feathers, stones, cowrie shells, beads, cigarettes, cognac, whiskey, sheep, goats, and horses have been used as money. The early American settlers used the “wampum,” a form of shell, to trade with native Americans.

Now back to Carnegie:

“… [I]n all cases human society chooses for that basis-article we call “money” that which fluctuates least in price, is the most generally used or desired, is in the greatest, most general, and most constant demand, and has value in itself… An article is not first made valuable by law and then elected to be “money.” The article first proves itself valuable and best suited for the purpose, and so becomes of itself and in itself the basis-article- money. It elects itself.

We take one step further…

The country becomes more and more populous, the wants of the people more and more numerous. The use of bulky products like wheat and tobacco, changeable in value, liable to decay, and of different grades, is soon found troublesome and unsuited for the growing business of exchange of articles, and they are therefore unfit to be longer used as “money.” You see at once that we could not get along today with grain as “money.” Then metals proved their superiority. These do not decay, do not change in value so rapidly, and they share with wheat and tobacco the one essential quality of also having value in themselves for other purposes than for the mere basis of exchange. People want them for personal adornment or in manufacture and the arts – for a thousand uses; and it is this very fact that makes them suitable for use as “money.” Just try to count how many purposes gold is needed for, because it is best suited for those purposes. It meets us everywhere. We cannot even get married without the ring of gold.

… We have proceeded so far that we have now dropped all perishable articles and elected metals as our “money”; or, rather, metals have proved themselves better than anything else for the standard of value, “money.” But another great step had to be taken…

When I was in China, I received as change shavings and chips cut off a bar of silver and weighed before my eyes in the scales of the merchant, for the Chinese have no “coined” money. … [Y]ou can well see how impossible it was for me to prevent the Chinese dealer from giving me less than the amount of silver to which I was entitled…

Civilized nations soon felt the necessity of having their governments take certain quantities of the metals and stamp upon them evidence of their weight, purity, and real value. Thus came the “coinage” of metals into “money” – a great advance. People then knew at sight the exact value of each piece and could no longer be cheated, no weighing or testing being necessary.

Note that the government stamp did not add any value to the coin. The government did not attempt to “make money” out of nothing; it only told the people the market value of the metal in each coin, just what the metal – the raw material – could be sold for as metal and not as “money.”

But even after this much swindling occurred. Rogues cut the edges and then beat the coins out, so that many of these became very light.

A clever Frenchman invented the “milling” of the edges of the coins, whereby this robbery was stopped, and civilized nations had at last the coinage which still remains with us, the most perfect ever known, because it is of high value in itself and changes least… Although one would think that in coined metal pieces we had reached perfection, and that with these the masses of the people could not be cheated out of what is so essential to their well-being – “honest money” – yet one way was found to defraud the people even when such coin was used.

The coins have sometimes been “debased” by needy governments after exhausting wars or pestilence, when countries were really too poor or too weak to recover from their misfortunes. A coin is called “debased” coin when it does not possess metal enough to bring in the open market the sum stamped upon the coin by the government. There is nothing new about this practice, which always cheats the masses. It is very, very old.

Five hundred and seventy-four years before Christ the Greeks debased their coinage. The Roman Emperors debased theirs often when in desperate straits. England debased hers in the year 1300. The Scotch coin was once so debased that one dollar was worth only twelve cents. The Irish, the French, German, and Spanish governments have all tried debased coin when they could wring no more taxes directly out of their people, and had therefore to get more money from them indirectly. It was always the last resort to “debase” the coinage. These instances happened long ago.

Nations of the first rank in our day do not fall so low. I must pause to make one exception to this statement. I bow my head in shame as I write it – the Republic of the United States. Every one of its silver dollars is a “debased coin.”

When a government issues “debased coin,” it takes leave of all that experience has proved to be sound in regard to money. Sound finance requires the government only to certify to the real value possessed by each coin issued from its mints, so that the people may not be cheated. Every time the government stamps the words “One Dollar” upon 371 1/4 grains of silver, it stamps a lie; disgraceful, but, alas! too true, for the silver in it is worth today not a dollar, but only seventy-eight cents.

Another delusion about money has often led nations into trouble – the idea that a government could “make money” simply by stamping certain words upon pieces of paper, just as any of you can “make money” by writing a note promising to pay one hundred dollars on demand. But you know that when you do that, you are not making “money,” but making “a debt”; so is any government that issues its promise to pay.

And there is this about both the individual and the government who take to issuing such notes on a large scale: they seldom pay them.

The French did this during their revolution, and more recently the Confederate States “made money” at a great pace, and issued bonds which are now scarcely worth the paper they are printed upon. Every experiment of this kind has proved that there can be no money “made” where there is not value behind it…

But I am now to tell you another quality which this basis-article of metal has proved itself to possess…

The whole world has such confidence in its fixity of value that there has been built upon it, as upon a sure foundation, a tower of “credit” so high, so vast, that all the silver and gold in the United States, and all the greenbacks and notes issued by the government, only perform eight percent of the exchanges of the country.

Go into any bank, trust company, mill, factory, store, or place of business, and you will find that for every one hundred thousand dollars of business transacted, only about eight thousand dollars of “money” is used, and this only for petty purchases and payments.

Ninety-two percent of the business is done with little bits of paper – checks, drafts. Upon this basis also rest all the government bonds, all state, county, and city bonds, and the thousands of millions of bonds the sale of which has enabled our great railway systems to be built, and also the thousands of millions of the earnings of the masses deposited in savings-banks, which has been lent by these banks to various parties, and which must be returned in “good money” or the poor depositor’s savings will be partially or wholly lost.

The businesses and exchanges of the country, therefore, are not done now with “money” – with the article itself. Just as in former days the articles themselves ceased to be exchanged, and a metal called “money” was used to effect the exchanges, so today the metal itself – the “money” – is no longer used.

The check or draft of the buyer of articles upon a store of gold deposited in a bank - a little piece of paper – is all that passes between the buyer and the seller.

Why is this bit of paper taken by the seller or the one to whom there is a debt due? Because the taker is confident that if he really needed the article itself that it calls for – the gold – he could get it. He is confident also that he will not need the article itself, and why? Because for what he wishes to buy the seller or any man whom he owes will take his check, a similar bit of paper, instead of gold itself; and then, most vital of all, everyone is confident that the basis-article cannot change in value…

… The question is, How long could you get people to take these slips for dollars?

How soon would some suspicious man suggest that you were issuing too many? And then these slips would lose reputation; people would begin to doubt whether you could really pay all the dollars you promised if called upon; and from that moment you could issue no more.

Just so with governments: All can keep their small change afloat, although it may not contain metal equal to its face value; and it is a poor government which cannot go a little further and get the world to take something from it in the shape of “money” which is only partially so…

Every nation has had eventually to recoin its “debased” coin or repudiate its obligations, and go through the perils and disgrace of loss of credit and position. In many instances the “debased” coin never was redeemed, the poor people who held it being compelled to take the loss.

… Upon the solid rock of gold as our basis-article we have built up the wealthiest country in the world, and the greatest agricultural, manufacturing, and mining and commercial country ever known. We have prospered beyond any nation the sun ever shone upon. In no country are wages of labor so high or the masses of the people so well off. Shall we discard the gold basis, or even endanger it? This is the question before the people of the United States today.”

All the above quotations are from Andrew Carnegie’s The A B C of Money. The following section is partially based on “The Biggest Con: How the Government is Fleecing You” by Irwin A. Schiff.

THE FUNCTIONS OF MONEY

According to Schiff, “Money, like the wheel, was one of mankind’s most important inventions… Because of the development of money, which facilitated and accelerated the exchange of goods and services and made specialization and division of labor possible, productivity increased and thus living standards rose. The sounder a nation’s money, the more efficient would be its economy and the faster would its standard of living grow.”

Sound money performs four basic functions:

1. It serves as a standard of value or a unit of account. At present the U.S. Dollar still performs this function. When we see something priced at $10 we have an idea of its value and how that value compares to the value of something else. Companies keep their accounting records and issue their financial statements, using the dollar as unit of account.

2. Money serves as a medium of exchange. As Carnegie and Schiff explained, money facilitates exchange. The U.S. Dollar also still performs this function. There are several reasons why the dollar is still used as a medium of exchange:

* “Legal tender laws” that say we must accept the dollar;

* “Everybody” uses the dollar – banks, shops, everybody;

* Ignorance of the true nature of the dollar;

* Confidence in the dollar.

* Most other currencies lose their value even faster than the dollar – in comparison the dollar seems “strong”;

* Most Americans spend their money as fast as they get it, so they don’t notice its loss of value from day to day;

* Habit;

* Anyone who attempts to introduce an alternative currency is branded a counterfeiter and criminal.

3. Money provides mobility of value. Because of our superb communications, the dollar can be wired almost instantaneously to any part of the world – value being “transported” from one place to another. Money also makes it possible to obtain value in the present in the form of a loan or credit, and to repay the value in the future – another aspect of mobility of value.

4. Money serves as a store of value; it makes it possible to “transport” value into the future. Because of the rapid rate at which the dollar loses its value, it no longer serves as a store of value into the future. Every month the dollar loses some of its value. As we shall see in Chapter Four, the loss of value is considerably greater than “measured” by government statistics, like the consumer price index.

STATE, RELIGION, AND MONEY

Many of the original American settlers were religious rebels. In England and Europe they had been persecuted for practicing “illegal religions.” For example, William Penn, the famous Quaker who gave his name to Pennsylvania, was prosecuted in England for preaching an “illegal religion.”

The American settlers wanted to be free to practice the religion of their choice. They certainly did not want the state to dictate to them what their religion should be. Our Founding Fathers established the principle called “separation of church and state.” The state has no business interfering with people’s religion or dictating what their religious beliefs should be. This principle has been repeatedly upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. This is why prayers are not allowed in state schools.

Now stretch your imagination.

Imagine that the original American settlers were “money rebels” rather than religious rebels. They had been persecuted for using the money of their choice. They came to America to achieve monetary freedom. People had an inalienable right to use the money of their choice. Our Founding Fathers established the principle of the “separation of money and state.” The state had no business interfering with people’s money or dictating to them what their money should be.

Not so long ago, in Russia, atheism was the “state religion.” Other religions were declared illegal. People practicing the religions of their choice were persecuted.

At the time of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress considered decreeing the death penalty for anyone who refused to accept the “lawful money” - Continental Dollars – they issued. That is where the expression “not worth a continental” comes from.

Today, in America, the paper dollar is the “state money.” There are “legal tender laws” which essentially decree that people must use the paper dollar as money and other kinds of money are illegal. People who use the money of their choice are persecuted, prosecuted, and jailed. The members of the National Commodity and Barter Association use gold as money. During the past few years their branches across the country have been raided by armed government agents. Their gold, equipment, and records have been confiscated; their members persecuted, prosecuted, and jailed…

Hans F. Sennholz, author of “Age of Inflation”, was asked in the context of currency reform after World War II in Germany, what he would do if he had the power to reform the currency. His reply:

“When pressed for his proposal for a currency reform, this writer must confess that he would have conducted the simplest reform of all. He would pass no reform law, seek no conversion or parity, and offer no government cooperation. He would merely cease and desist from interfering with the inalienable rights of man. In particular, he would immediately restore all economic freedoms and repeal all legal tender laws. The freedom to trade and hold gold, the freedom to use gold in all exchanges, and the freedom to mint coins would bring forth the ideal currency to which all others would repair.”

Alex Jones has a few things to share about our political system of hierarchy…

WHAT THEN, IS MONEY?

In this report the term “money” will be used to refer to whatever people freely choose to serve as their medium of exchange. The term “fiat money” will be used to refer to what people are forced by government decree to use as medium of exchange. The Latin word “fiat” means “let it be done.” The U.S. dollar is fiat money. (Similarly, in Russia atheism was the “fiat religion” people were forced to adopt by government decree.)

The term “currency” will be used to include all the items people use in practice as a medium of exchange. It includes money, fiat money, checks, drafts, bonds, etc. I will use the term “currency supply” (where most people say “money supply”) to refer to the total currency in circulation.

In a free market people choose their money. There is competition between different kinds of money. Over time, people come to prefer and use as money that which best fulfills the functions of money outlined above. Historically, people have chosen gold and silver as money. The Bible is replete with examples.

It is quite possible that monetary theorists, such as C.H. Douglas (Social Credit), Sylvio Gesell (The Natural Economic Order), Henry Meulen (Free Banking), and E.C. Riegel (Private Enterprise Money), will devise forms of money that will prove superior to gold and silver. In a free market all such “advanced moneys” will have the opportunity to prove themselves. However, as workable money, only gold and silver have passed the test of history.

“I deny the power of the general government to making paper money, or anything else a legal tender.”
~ Thomas Jefferson

“The terms ‘lawful money’ and ‘lawful money of the United States’ shall be construed to mean gold or silver coin of the United States.” (12 USC 152) “Legal tender is quite different from lawful money. In no U.S. law are Federal Reserve notes declared to be “lawful money.” Lawful money is that money described in the Coinage Act of 1792 and in Article I, section 10 of the U.S. Constitution: gold and silver… the only money the Supreme Law of the Land allows states to make legal tender.”
~ Tupper Saussy, 1980

This completes our reprint of Part One The Economic Rape of America, written in 1992 by Frederick Mann.In the future, we will reprint the second chapter where he reveals paths that have led up to the current destruction of our US dollar.