Now more than ever, you can appreciate the need for comprehensive investment education. All of a sudden, fifty percent of your nest egg has disappeared— and the bad news? There never was a plan for income generation. Ouch!

Dwelling on coulda’s, woulda’s, and shoulda’s isn’t going to rebuild your portfolio. Attempting to become proficient in the speculation of the month will do little to decrease the long-term pain. Casting blame on government regulators and Wall Street scam artists does little to grow retirement income.

There are at least three things you can do to protect yourself now, and throughout your more quickly approaching than you realize retirement years:

(1) Actively support income tax code replacement surgery, be it Flat Tax, Fair Tax, or a combination; (2) actively support a Social Security reform plan with smaller mandatory contributions, higher guaranteed benefits, and trustee managed income …

The purpose of IBOR is to protect financial markets and to create self-sufficient investors who produce economic growth instead of government deficits. IBOR standards create transparent financial markets, regulate speculation, and protect retirement portfolios. Here’s a sampling:

Section One: Product Transparency. All investors have a right to see precisely what securities are inside any investment product by accessing real time information that includes names and cost-based allocation percentages.

Section Two: Regulation and Education.

Section Three: Protection from Speculators. Investors have a right to protection from risks added to portfolios without their control, knowledge, or permission.
Naked shorting, index fund ownership of large share positions, and all naked option transactions would be prohibited.

Section Four: Controls of Hedge Funds.

Section Five: Brokerage Account Statements. Investors have a right to account statements that: 1) help manage asset allocation targets, 2) report realized gains and losses, 3) track …

Despite what you might be hearing about a global recession, consumer capitalism is alive and well in China. And it’s still fueling growth. Take a stroll through Beijing’s trendy Wangfujing area, a quick walk south of Tiananmen Square or the six-story Shin Kong Place in Beijing’s Dawanglu area, and you’ll find more than 100 top international designer brands on sale, including Prada, Gucci, Bvlgari, Dolce & Gabbana, and others. While you’re on the prowl, don’t forget Xidan Market, which the locals prefer. It’s also bursting at the seams from countless stores, fashionable-clothing shops and, of course, the ubiquitous and ever-present Starbucks (SBUX). In contrast to other global markets, like the Ginza, Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive or London’s Oxford Street, for example, where a heavy silence hangs over the once-bustling ...

In addition to current market conditions, investors in health care are increasingly focusing on the growing political rhetoric surrounding broad-based health care reform emanating from Washington.In a recent address to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle cited key lessons learned from previous attempts to overhaul healthcare by the Clinton administration back in 1993. These included timeliness of action, lack of transparency and complexity of process.In an effort to address these previous stumbling blocks, the Obama transition team has been actively seeking grassroots feedback from ordinary Americans across the country in community-held meetings during the month of December on problems with the current health care model.Daschle identified high administrative costs in U.S. health care as a major issue and referred to the "complexity, marketing costs and insurance overhead that result from our market-oriented healthcare ...

President-elect Barack Obama said Saturday that an analysis of his stimulus proposal found that the capital infusion could save or create as many as 4 million U.S. jobs by 2010, nearly 90% of them in the private sector.

Obama previously estimated that his estimated $800 billion strategy for winching the American economy out of its year-long recession could save or create 3 million jobs, but the new study has found that the actual number would range between 3 million and 4 million.

The analysis was submitted by Christina Romer, head of Obama’s council of economic advisors, and Jared Bernstein, the economic advisor to Vice President-elect Joe Biden. The analysis directly follows an official government report showing that U.S. employers slashed more than half a million jobs in December, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.2% and bringing the number of jobs lost last year to 2.6 million — the worst showing since

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President-elect Barack Obama yesterday (Thursday) named Mary L. Schapiro – a strong proponent of protections for individual investors – to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when his administration takes office next month, the biggest of three nominations with potential financial crisis implications.

And in the latest addition to his Obamanomics plan, the president-elect has also proposed a massive stimulus package of as much as $775 billion over the next two years as part of a historic infusion that’s aimed at overhauling America’s infrastructure, schools, broadband networks and energy use, a Congressional source told MarketWatch.com yesterday.

But making the Schapiro nomination official was considered a key move. In its Thursday morning issue, Money Morning reported that Schapiro had been chosen and that an official announcement would be made later in the day. And that’s just what happened.

Obama named

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Here is a very interesting story about a Hong Kong-based English language school and its very wealthy founder. This article isn't specifically about New Oriental Education, but it gives you some accurate insight on how lucrative the English tutorial business is in Asia.

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Are you a customer coming back to Trade-Ideas after some time off? Could have been with another set of tools; getting more education; raising more capital - we won't ask any questions. Instead here's a guide to help you so you don't skip a beat. It comes straight from a IM session:

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