Many folks wonder why I’m not panicking about the deficit and why I’m not predicting hyperinflation soon.

Check out the below article and I think you will feel better.

Link: A Relative Perspective

BusinessWeek – Local residents joke about the real estate market in Omaha.  “We didn’t get invited to the party,” they say, “and we don’t have a hangover.”  The proof:  Prices slipped less than 1% in Nebraska’s biggest city last year, compared with an 18% drop for the U.S.

Now Omaha looks poised to tromp the U.S. on the upside.  While responsible lending practices and a dearth of speculation have supported the market in recent years, jobs will make all the difference in the future.  Unemployment in Omaha hovers around 4%, less than half the national average.  Last year Omaha added 2,700 new jobs as the U.S. lost 3 million.  The continued strong prospects for job growth in Omaha means prices should rise faster than the U.S. average.

Meanwhile, high-tech companies are flocking to the Omaha area, which boasts an abundance of land and power, an extensive fiber-optic network, and a favorable tax regime.

Here’s Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein with more antidote medicine to overcome the News Media Negative Virus.

This is must see viewing from the CATO Institute:

“…for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” – Winston Churchill

This is another chart that puts things into perspective:  No depression and the stock market is still underpriced today.

(Via Carpe Diem)

First Trust - While some forecasters look for a rising jobless rate and more housing foreclosures to kill off a nascent recovery, we believe the panic is over and a V-shaped economic recovery is underway.  It is in its earliest stages, which means plenty of economic indicators have yet to turn positive, but the signs of a strong bounce off the panic lows are all around us.

As this unfolds in the months ahead, the stock market should rise back to its pre-panic levels.  It took seven months for the Dow to fall from 11,000 to 6,500, and it is very possible that it could go back to that level in the same seven months.  However, this would be unprecedented.  A more reasonable forecast is that it takes until mid-2010 for stock prices to rise back to levels last seen in September 2008.

Bloomberg – Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., the third-largest U.S. life insurer by 2008 sales has bought gold for the first time [in] the company’s 152-year history to hedge against further asset declines.

“Gold just seems to make sense; it’s a store of value,” Chief Executive Officer Edward Zore said in an interview following his comments at a conference hosted by Standard & Poor’s in Brooklyn.  “In the Depression, gold did very, very well.”

Northwestern Mutual has accumulated about $400 million in gold, and Zore said the price could double or even rise fivefold if the economy continues to weaken.  Gold gained 10 percent last month, the most since November.

In over 2500 years of economic history, never has a bear market not been followed by a bull market.  So why do people think otherwise today? 

Instead their fear should be directed at those who believe taxing people that create jobs will lead to more job creation.  If you believe this, I have some oceanfront property I want you to buy in Wahoo. 

Get the picture!?

History is littered with tragic examples that prove my point: 

Take Spain in the late 1400’s.  Back then Jews were among the wealthiest members of Spanish society.  Spain’s rulers saw the Jews’ wealth and claimed it as their own by confiscating everything they could get their hands on.  Most of the Jews left Spain and set up shop near modern day Turkey in the Ottoman Empire.

Actions have consequences so what happened next is no surprise. 

The emerging empire went on to experience never-before-seen levels of prosperity while Spain was plunged into an era of financial devastation.

“But Roland,” you say.  “What does this have to do with my finances today?” 

Everything!

See, what we are experiencing in the present day can be seen one of two ways:  1.  The opportunity of a lifetime (for those who understand what is taking place and know how to take advantage).  2.  Or, it’s the beginning of long decline of personal struggle for those that do not. 

Your choice.

Some people will come out of this recovery with more profits than they could have imagined while others will be forced to adjust to a much lower standard of living – i.e. learn the rules and play to win. 

Recessions are fun to study but not to live through so our job is to help as many people as we can get through this in the best shape possible. 

If it’s been awhile since you last attended our seminar series, now is as good of a time as any to visit us again.  The only cost to attend is your time and what you will gain is greater piece of mind, which may be the best investment there is today.

Life insurance is a key player in any financial plan for those who need it until their living estate puts them in a position where they no longer need the coverage. 

In other words, life insurance is designed to provide to your beneficiaries, if you die, that which you will provide if you live.  Most of us live to see our beneficiaries grow to financial independence, at which time you no longer need life insurance.

Plain and simple:  Life insurance has nothing to do with any type savings plan and has only one purpose – to replace income. 

If something were to happen to you or your spouse and there is no loss of income, there is no need for life insurance. 

But on the flip side, if the income from you or your spouse is a necessity then you better have life insurance.

Simple isn’t it?