THE DALY SHOW

Folks, Time To Choose

This is a posting over at JohnDalyLive about the economic choice you need to make for our leaders.

Conference On Global and Green Economy

I am emceeing a big event in Las Vegas November 17 and 18 at the Las Vegas Hilton.  Here’s a video to explain it all.  If you’re looking to jump start your business in this new economy and go green, this is the place to start.  You will also have a chance to network with companies from around the United States and around the world while also being a part of the International Congress of Business Professionals.  I was enticed by their strong educational programs that will train and re-train workers and executives in this new world.  I’ve written many times here that the economy went through a tectonic shift in the past two years.  Those who understand it and are educated to navigate the wreckage and the opportunities will thrive in the next few years.  I think this is one place to start.

Preparing For Economic Earthquake

Get Ready.  The ground is shifting.  In this post at JohnDalyLive, I have put together a piece that should be a guide for this new shift in our economic, political, and social landscape.  Please give me your thoughts.

Avoid Being A Recession Weenie

This is a posting about not taking the recession lying down. There are opportunities out there. I’ll tell you about one unique and emerging business opportunity – the reverse auction. If you want to see it now, go to www.imarketinggenius.com. And you can see a bunch of successful internet marketers I’ve interviewed at www.realmoneyshow.com. Otherwise, read on and let me explain what’s happening with our new economy.

LAS VEGAS, NV (February 16, 2009) – There’s a great story about Ronald Reagan during the 1980 campaign – a time of another recession.

Jimmy Carter was President and was unable to jump-start the economy. Reagan was trying to jump-start his campaign. So, he told a crowd, “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.”

Academically, it was wrong. Politically, it was brilliant.

Ronald Reagan knew the American people wanted action. More importantly, Ronald Reagan touched an attitude of the American people that said I’m not going to take this lying down.

We need to start thinking that way today. We need to stop playing the victim. We need to thrive, not just survive.

Understand that this recession, as horrible as it might seem, is also a time of opportunity for many.

Sure, jobs will be lost for good. Our economy is changing drastically. We’re in the final throes of a manufacturing economy that began in the late 1800s. We’re now in a service economy buffeted by the Information Age. Companies are either evolving or going under.

The economic term, espoused by Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, is creative destruction. Schumpeter introduced the theory in the 1950s, but it seems more relevant today. Many businesses can’t compete in this new age without a merger, bankruptcy, or bailout.  Even management guru Peter Drucker saw this coming. He said, “The corporation as we know it is unlikely to survive in the next 25 years.”

My recent conversations with many corporate executives – off the record – confirm this trend. One banking executive said the recent layoffs “are an excuse to trim the fat.” An IT manager told me, after he laid-off ten percent of his work force, “I could have kept them, but my orders were to cut back.”

Not very reassuring to folks depending on a job. So, how do you make sure you don’t lose your job?

You work for yourself. You become an entrepreneur. And now is the time to be an entrepreneur on the internet.

Look what’s happening. Retail sales are down overall, but online sales are up. Granted, the percentage of internet sales is down year to year, but compared to sales at brick and mortar stores, internet sales are doing fine.

The next crash in the real estate market is on the commercial side. Analysts are predicting a massive downturn and stores going out of business. It only makes sense.

Read Christopher Anderson’s book, The Long Tail, which tracks the phenomenon of the growth of internet sales. Products can reach more people at a much less expensive cost.

Ann Seig, a well-known internet marketer, says, “The time is ripe.” She recently noted that the first commercial during the 2009 Super Bowl was for Avon. “The key phrases were: ‘I can’t get fired. I can’t get laid off. It’s my business.’ If a network marketing company is willing to pay $3 million for 30 seconds of air time, this should tell you something.”

Let me offer some ways you can, to quote President Obama, “turn this crisis into an opportunity.”

Over the past couple of years, there have been numerous internet marketers who have found ways of making money on the web while still working from home. You can see interviews I’ve conducted with them at www.realmoneyshow.com.

Another ground-breaking idea I recently discovered is called a reverse blind auction. Go to www.johndalyauction.com to see what it’s all about. In short, it’s an auction where the price of the product goes down. That’s right, it goes down. Unlike places like Amazon, the price goes up with every competing bid.

How does the price go down? You, as the consumer, buy credits for 80-cents a piece. Each time you use the credit, the price drops 25-cents.

There are three types of auctions. Again, go to www.johndalyauction.com to see a more in-depth look at these auctions.

One is the Express Auction where you can buy the product immediately if it hits the price you want. You lose the chance to buy the product, though, if someone else buys it first at a higher price.

The second auction is a Zero Auction. The person who is holding the bid at the lowest price gets to buy the product.

The third auction is a Unique Auction. After a specified time, the person with the lowest unique bid – the only one with that lowest bid – gets the product. It could be as low as 90% off the retail price.

A word about the products: if you look at the auctions, you will see the products are all brand names. You won’t be seeing someone selling their old, stinky sneakers. And those products are delivered to you.

Do I make money on this? Yes. Remember the credits. People buy those credits from me for 80-cents with 25-cents going to reduce the price of the product in the auction. The remainder — 55-cents – stays with me.

If you want to look at one of these franchises go to: www.imarketinggenius.com.  If you have any other suggestions to avoid being a recession weenie, let me know.

New Business Model and Landscape

This is a posting about the new way to shop. For guys, I don’t think it will be a big deal. For women who have made the shopping trip an art form, things might be changing. Give me your thoughts.

LAS VEGAS, NV (February 9, 2009) – Each day I drive past a huge warehouse-like store with everything to remodel your home that was once part of the chain store The Great Indoors.  It’s empty now.  No customers.  No employees.  This vacant behemoth is a sign of things to come.

The Great Indoors seems more like the Great In Doubt – when it comes to retail stores.

It’s happening all over. Read any local newspaper. Stores are shutting quickly; stores tied to major chains.

Talk to any commercial realtor and they’re bracing for a horrible 2009. One realtor told me, “If you thought 2008 was bad, wait until you see the commercial market this year.”

However, people will still need to buy clothing or appliances. If we have 10% unemployment, that means 90% are still working and need to keep living.

But these consumers will be looking for the best buys – and I don’t necessarily mean the chain store. I mean they’re going to be forced to go online.

And online, I may have found something that will fill the gap – and I don’t mean the clothing store.

I’m talking about a reverse auction. It’s being introduced to the United States from Europe by a German company called Dubli. I have a Dubli site you can view at www.johndalyauctions.com

In short, it’s an auction where the price of the product goes down. That’s right, it goes down. Unlike places like Amazon, the price goes up with every competing bid.

How does the price go down? You, as the consumer, buy credits for 80-cents a piece. Each time you use the credit to check the current price, the price drops 25-cents.

There are three types of auctions that will be fun for the serious shopper.

One is the Express Auction where you can buy the product immediately if it hits the price you want. You lose the chance to buy the product, though, if someone else buys it first at a higher price.

The second auction is a Zero Auction. The person who is holding the bid at the lowest price gets to buy the product.

The third auction is a Unique Auction. After a specified time, the person with the lowest unique bid – the only one with that lowest bid – gets the product. It could be as low as 90% off the retail price.

A word about the products: if you look at the auctions, you will see the products are all brand names. You won’t be seeing someone selling their old, stinky sneakers like you might on e-Bay.

And those products are delivered to you.

Do I make money on this? Yes. Remember the credits. People buy those credits from me for 80-cents with 25-cents going to reduce the price of the product in the auction. The remainder — 55-cents – stays with me.

If you want to look at becoming a franchisee go to: www.imarketinggenius.com.

The upside is that the internet markets directly to the consumer and gives the consumer exactly what he or she wants. Internet marketing also allows the manufacturer to have lower packaging and inventory costs. So, prices of products will be lower.

The downside is that going out shopping might mean a trip to the computer.

New Media Trend: The Financial Perp Walk

This is a posting to warn you that the financial tsunami is not here yet. I base my findings on the Madoff scandal, some conversations with developers on the Las Vegas Strip, and a recent 60 Minutes story that has the banking community buzzing. In other words, brace your sweet butts. You want uplifting? Sorry, not here not today. But you won’t get this from too many other journalists or analysts.

LAS VEGAS, NV (December 16, 2008) – In the TV biz, we talk about getting video of the “perp walk.” Perp is short for perpetrator; the criminal, the bad guy. The actual walk is the ceremony where the perp is paraded out in handcuffs by police to either go to court or lock-up.

It’s like the perp’s first sentence – even before he’s convicted. The injustice of the perp walk is that a perp could be found not guilty but the searing image of the perp parade stays in the public’s mind.

The perp walk has purpose for the media and police. For the media, it gives us the video we need to tell the story easier. For the cops, the shame of such a stroll could sometimes get a suspect to cooperate. Many times, the cops really don’t have to walk them in front of the cameras.

My prediction: expect more perp walks for the crooks in the financial industry. There will be more perps to walk. And an angry public always loves a parade.

The Bernie Madoff story is only the beginning. The fund manager lost $50 billion in what he even called a ponzi scheme. In short, Madoff took money from new investors and paid off old ones. The lousy economy finally revealed his chicanery.

Madoff was the former head of NASDAQ who either outwitted or was in bed with SEC regulators. His story will reverberate throughout the financial industry and the regulation aftermath for decades to come.

Here’s another injustice. Madoff didn’t perform a perp walk. He had enough money to be released on bail. However, he’ll get his ten minutes of perp walk fame soon.  (Editor’s note: After this was posted, Bernie had his version of a perp walk in front of cameras.  There was some pushing and shoving and some tight security since there appears to be death threats against Bernie.)

What struck me about the coverage of Madoff: the descriptions of Madoff by friends and colleagues. He was such a nice guy, they said. We would have never thought he could do this. Those are similar sound bites you hear on a newscast about the guy who has just killed his wife and kids.

In some respects, Madoff did the same. He killed many retirements of elderly folks. He killed careers of his family and colleagues, many of whom will be going to prison for putting investors into Madoff’s funds. Some of these advisors put all of their investors’ money into Madoff’s funds despite clients demand for diversification.

So what does the Madoff case mean to you?

Let me mix two metaphors. Madoff is the canary in the coal mine that is really a tunnel and before we see that light at the end of the tunnel we need to walk through a lot of toxic air. And still that light at the tunnel’s end may be a locomotive heading our way.

How’s that for a confusing metaphor? Trust me, that’s a simple description compared to what’s been done to the financial industry. In short, folks, the worst is not here yet.

In fact, Madoff is a low-level criminal in all this. He’s the equivalent of the burglars who broke into the Watergate. The Nixons, Liddys, Haldermans, and Erlichmans right now are untouchable and sitting on Wall Street.

I wrote about this in September in a column called “All Running For Cover.” This was my take on why the original bailout bill failed to pass Congress the first time. I quoted the then-director of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, who raised an issue that seemed to be ignored. He said.

“Ironically, the intervention could even trigger additional failures of large institutions, because some institutions may be carrying troubled assets on their books at inflated values,” Orszag said in his testimony. “Establishing clearer prices might reveal those institutions to be insolvent.” From the Washington Post 09/25-08

In other words, Orszag was saying these financial institutions are not telling us the truth about what is really on their books. The good news is that Orszag has been tapped as Obama’s Budget Director since then, so we should get more honesty out of this Administration.

I think Orszag’s comments proved correct over the past few months. Look at what happened once the TARP passed. Treasury was going to buy up all those toxic assets – those mortgage backed securities and the phony insurance instruments called credit default swaps. But then Treasury switched course. Instead, they would just invest in these financial institutions. Why?

My guess is this: those toxic assets had lost so much value that many of those institutions would fail immediately and the entire banking system might have collapsed. My other belief is there was so much criminal activity in these financial institutions that we’d be walking so many of these crooks in front of cameras there would be no one to run the financial system.

Am I accusing the financial industry of criminal activity? Not yet. I don’t have the proof or the financial expertise. No one does. But it certainly smacks of a cover-up on the part of the current Treasury Department to take care of the guys on Wall Street in the name of saving our banking and financial system while many of us lose our homes.

Look what’s happened since the bailout money has been issued. Citigroup nearly failed despite all the money from TARP. None of those institutions are lending that money. Why? My belief: the infusion pales compared to the enormous losses on the books of the past five years.

Just yesterday the Fed announced it is buying up long-term credit and those toxic mortgage-backed securities – the same thing the TARP was supposed to do. Notice the media dwelled on the historic cut in interest rates. They missed the important part of the story. Those cuts mean nothing unless banks loan money – and right now they won’t.

Frankly, who can blame them? Why would you lend anyone or any business any money in this environment? Underpinning the economy is the consumer who is tapped out: no credit cards, no equity in the house, and possibly no job.

We have a friend who is a local banker. She told my wife yesterday if someone wants a loan for more than $200,000 it will be an act of God. Low six-figure loans are not going to jump-start our economy.

Sunday’s 60 Minutes piece on the economy has spooked many local bankers. Go back and watch it. (Make sure you’re sitting down and if you drink have a double.) Experts told 60 Minutes the same thing I’m saying. The wave of mortgage failures so far is nothing compared to what 2009 portends.

I have a unique perspective living here in Las Vegas. We lead the nation in home foreclosures. One reason is we had so many speculators coming in and buying investment homes at the height of the bubble. The second reason is this is the land of opportunity where everybody from all over the country either wants to visit, work, invest, or live.

As a result, the nation’s economy comes to us. Las Vegas will be the first to recover since we were the first to go into recession and once the economy improves more folks will come here to spend their money on fun times: it will be cheaper and easier than travelling overseas. That good news, however, is possibly years away.

Why do I say years away? I hear one thing from many of the brilliant minds behind Las Vegas that I have near heard before: confusion. They don’t know what to expect. They can’t see the future. It’s way too cloudy. As a result, many projects will remain idle for 2009. Others will fail. This is something we never imagined here.

Let me throw in a caveat here. Steve Wynn is about to open Encore, his new resort next to his Wynn Resort on the Strip. They cater to the ultra-wealthy who are apparently immune to this downturn — unless they call Bernie Madoff an advisor.

Still, when I see so many other business leaders who cater to the middle class customer shake their heads with fear and doubt, it frightens me.

So, let me warn you again. Protect yourselves financially. Hold out as much cash as you can. If you’re going to default on your home, talk to your mortgage holder or bank about another arrangement or a short-sale.

And protect yourself physically. People who are not normally criminals may be desperate in these times. With the homeowners left on your block form a solid Neighborhood Watch Program. Remember the elderly who will be the most victimized.

But remember, above all, the words of Mother Teresa, be kind. Be kind, even when you watch the perps walk.

Good Economic Sense That Should Hit Campaigns

This is a posting about some pearls of wisdom from a smart friend who reads and another who has been to China.

LAS VEGAS, NV (May 4, 2008) – In my book, I talk about mind filters when you consume news and information. These filters are solid ideas. When correctly embedded into your thinking, they will parcel out the garbage from the campaigns.

This was written in this week’s Kiplinger Washington Letter.

That’s why blaming trade pacts for lost jobs misses the mark. Closing trade paths won’t help. Opening routes to training will.

Special thanks to Aundrea Beach-Greco for sending this to me.

Granted, I’ve been saying this for years. Knight Kiplinger said it more gracefully and efficiently. But this is information grounded in economic fact. The more economic barriers we raise, the more layoffs and higher prices we suffer.

The only candidate who even mentioned job re-training was John McCain. But that was in Michigan where Romney beat him.

Folks, it’s all about education. I don’t mean just our kids. It’s about re-training adults for the new jobs of the new century. That’s why I launched Real Money Show to help people start online businesses. That’s why I’m also an officer for one of the top wealth management companies.

Anyone who tells you those manufacturing jobs are coming back is lying to you. I just spoke recently to Gary Murphy of Arisa Global, an outsourcing company with contacts in Asia. Gary tells me that the next China is either Vietnam or Taiwan. Notice, it’s not the United States.

Without education and re-training, the rest of the world is going to keep growing financially – without us. The Twentieth Century is gone. Sure, the American consumer has fueled the worldwide economy. And yes, the downturn is caused by our lack of spending. But in the future, the world economy won’t necessarily need us. All those other emerging market countries will have money to spend in years to come – because they have jobs and we have debt.

Check out the companies that have seen recent stock gains. They all have exposure to foreign markets.

The bottom line is this. We’ve become lazy. Maybe this isn’t germane, but I seem to notice more fat teens than before. I don’t necessarily mean the morbidly obese youngsters. No, I see kids with middle aged paunches, love handles, and cellulite.

That tells me how unhealthy we are physically and mentally. And if one of our presidential candidates doesn’t start telling the truth, we could be in for a quick fall.

By the way, John McCain might have scored economic points for mentioning re-training in Michigan. But he, along with Hillary Clinton, fell on the economic smarts scale when they both called for a gas tax holiday. Again, a lazy idea. Give us something small now – a tax break – that we’ll have to pay for later – more money to re-build crumbling roads and bridges.

New Book: Bad Money by Kevin Phillips

This is a posting recommending a new book, Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism by Kevin Phillips.

LAS VEGAS, NV (April 21, 2008) – I usually read a book first before I recommend it. But this is a book, I believe, you need.

Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism by Kevin Phillips. It’s on Amazon.

Why recommend this before I read it?

I’ve read Phillips other books. The best is American Theocracy. It’s a warning of a failing American civilization. Phillips compares the U.S. Empire to the fall of the Roman, Dutch, and British Empires. We’re doing the same things: extreme religious leaders hinting at Armageddon; dwindling energy resources; over-extending our foreign policy reach; and piling debt.

Is he right? I say yes. However, with awareness like this, we could alter our demise. But know this: Phillips, in American Theocracy, indirectly predicted the credit crunch – two years ahead of time. The book was published in 2006. He said a downturn in the housing market could leave millions “in financial jeopardy not seen in generations.”

He also quotes Churchill who said “the seeds of imperial decay and national ruin” follow “the swift increase of vulgar jobless luxury.” I tend to think that the majority of us are fat, happy, and stupid. My antidote: a sweeping program of education for everyone about the new economy and the Information Age.

Phillips is harsh about the current and past policies of both presidents named Bush. He also points the finger (maybe he gives the finger) to the oil and automotive industries. He believes the War in Iraq was an excuse to keep them afloat. If you can find me an argument against that, I’d like to hear it.

Before you think Phillips is a raving liberal Democrat, he’s a Republican strategist.

If you read Bad Money before I do, please leave your review in the comments section below.

A Defecating Dog, Political Candidates, and The Media

This is a posting about the week which saw a controversial debate, a not-so surprising investigation into the media being duped by the Pentagon, a defiant doggy act – and what you can do about two out of three.

LAS VEGAS (April 20, 2008) — Our puppy Nike was obviously angry. My wife and I were gone for five hours at a charity event. He was left in the portable kennel for five hours. When we returned, he went outside to pee. But then he ran upstairs and pooped in the bedroom; not in one area, but three different spots.

He’s a smart dog. He got his point across. But he also understood our anger. He hung his head and stayed stationary in a “time out” position. Hours later, he remained a model of good behavior.

We need to do the same – show our anger — with our elected officials and the media. But we also need to realize they are like pets: they have their own specific agenda and they’re not really aware of what’s going on with us. Too often we’re apathetic owners of this country we claim to so dearly love.

Let’s look at the Democratic debate last week. First, understand it was a TV debate. That means it needs to be entertaining and lack substance. So, I don’t have any problems with the questions to Barack Obama about what he said about angry people clinging to guns. I have no problem with people criticizing him for his less than stellar responses. I have no problems with him being asked about the stupid questions about whether his psycho pastor loves America or why he doesn’t wear a lapel pin.

My problem is that the debate was lopsided against Obama just as I thought some of the earlier debates were lopsided against Hillary Clinton. Why wasn’t Hillary grilled on her now former operative Mark Penn and his connections to a Colombian trade deal?

I’m a big fan of Charlie Gibson. So, I was disappointed in his performance as an entertainer more than a journalist that night. I doubt we would have seen that performance from the late Peter Jennings. George Stephanopoulos’ performance doesn’t surprise me. He’s not a journalist; he’s a political operative. We know this and he once worked for Bill Clinton’s White House.

(For the record, I have met and spent time with both Gibson and Jennings. I have never met Stephanopoulos.)

Here’s the point. Watch these debates for entertainment only. Don’t let these silly versions of reality game shows help you decide who to vote for.

As I write in my book, television is good for two things: immediacy and emotion. Depth of issues is something you get from books and websites using experts.

Like lax pet owners, we seem to forget the mounds of crap shoveled to us by George Bush that made us vote for him in 2000. We elected an intellectual lightweight who we thought he’d be a good guy to have at a backyard barbeque. We’re not deciding who our neighbors are. We’re electing a commander in chief who will have the fate of our jobs and our lives in his or her hands.

You need to reprimand both the candidates and the networks for their behavior. Did we really get any answers to Social Security, Medicare, the War in Iraq, immigration, energy independence from this debate? No. Frankly, any debate between Barack and Hillary is a waste. They agree on most issues, so it comes down to an ugly popularity contest.

Now let’s look at the New York Times investigation of the TV networks use of military experts who are controlled by the Pentagon and the Bush Administration.

My take: any general or military expert who helped push the WMD argument to get us into war should be banned from appearing on network TV. We’re fining networks for showing some skin on TV. So why wouldn’t you push a worse punishment for smart people who knowingly deceived the American public about going to war that has led to the deaths of four thousand troops? Frankly, I would prosecute them.

Many of these retired generals had jobs with defense contractors. They clearly put their own economic principles ahead of their duty to the United States people.

Again, I have no problems with their opinions. My anger is two-fold. One, they never disclosed that they were getting their talking points from the Pentagon. Two, they never disclosed they were working for defense contractors bidding on government contracts.

And the networks are as much to blame. They never vetted these so-called experts. Why? It’s to easy not to do that. That takes time and money. And if they found someone who’s an independent thinker, then that person won’t have access to the White House.

Again, TV is not an information medium. It’s an entertainment medium. Its main goal is to get ratings and if being a propaganda tool brings in ratings and dollars, the media will do it.

Watch CNBC. They no longer disclose what conflicts the guest analysts have with certain stocks they’re discussing. They were quite vigilant a few years ago after the Enron and Martha Stewart scandals. But not now.

And if CNBC was that worried about the truth why wouldn’t they have fired Jim Kramer of Mad Money. Two days before the collapse of Bear Stearns he yelled that Bear Stearns is fine. Kramer’s not on for his stock picking; he’s on for ratings. He’s an entertainer. Would you pick stocks or set up your portfolio based on that show? I hope not. (Some disclosure: I work for BNY Mellon Wealth Management. See how simple disclosure is.)

The same is true about the political debates. Why would you decide who to vote for based on this artificial, lack of substance debates on TV?

This is why you need to be the most important journalist in your life. You need to question everything you hear on TV news. Everyone has an agenda. That’s not to say there isn’t good information, but you need to be less accepting of its total veracity. And you need to realize that networks are cutting corners, so you’re not necessarily getting the best trained and most experienced journalists.

Again, please read my book. (Blatant disclosure: Yes, I’m trying to sell my book.) If not, then the media and the politicians will continue pooping on your bedroom floor.

Bitter Flap Misses The Solution

This is a posting on the non-sense between the three presidential candidates about Obama’s recent comment about small town Americans. Frankly, they’re all missing the real issue – education. Also there’s a shameless plug on my part at the end.

LAS VEGAS, NV (April 14, 2008) – The bitter statement is a prime reason of why we need campaign season cut to three months. The candidates start saying benign things to hit the emotions of small cliques of voters.

The latest niche of voters is small town, Church-going Americans in the rust belt. Barack says they’re “bitter” because of the unfulfilled promises of politicians past. So they “cling” to guns and religion.

First, he was speaking to a bunch of elitists in San Francisco. What did you expect? An Elmer Fudd impersonation: “Wet’s go and shoot us some wabbits.”

Second, in my opinion, he was right on. I think many people in these areas felt left out of the economic boom of the previous years while they continue to pay now that the economy has dropped. Many of them turn to church and guns. Many of them resent the immigrants who come in and take their job. Many of them blame foreign countries like China and India. Many of them – now – blame George Bush.

After all, President Bush and the Republicans convinced these folks to vote for rich-folk tax cuts and other benefits which they haven’t seen.

Barack’s assessment, in my judgment, is right. I’m amazed there isn’t more rebellion or anger in these communities. They’re losing their homes while Bear Stearns gets bailed out.

John McCain and Hillary Clinton are grasping at straws. How can they call Obama an elitist? Instead, they’re taking a page from Karl Rove and they’re playing the religion card. It’s too predictable. This episode will only backfire on them.

Still, I have some problems with Barack. First, he should have used the term “some” or “many” or “a small majority” rather than making it a blanket statement about all people in small town America.

Second, he hasn’t offered a solution. Neither has Hillary. Both Democrats conveniently blame NAFTA, Mexico, and China. Johnny Mac has at least hinted at the solution, but when he mentioned it in Michigan, Mitt Romney handed him his political butt.

The solution is education.

Workers need to be re-trained. They should not be told their jobs are coming back. Those manufacturing jobs don’t exist unless they want to relocate to Ho Chi Minh City.

However, there are new jobs out there – for the newly trained. Education tax credits should be at the top of every candidate’s list of give-backs to voters. Programs to lower the cost of education and to expand the reach of education to small communities hit by job outsourcing are a must.

But no one is talking about it – with the slight exception of McCain three months ago.

If you get the ear of any of the campaigns, tell them this.

However, instead of relying on the government and our one-note, dissonant presidential candidates, though, take matters into your own hands.

For example, on this site here, you can connect to Real Money Show where dozens of internet marketers have programs that have made people millions by selling products and services throughout the world.

Shameless plug? Sure. But the more educated you are, the better chance of surviving and thriving in today’s Internet world.