Phenom

2010
Manufacturer	EMBRAER
Model	PHENOM 100
Price	$2,800,000 AEDARSAUDBGNBOBBRLBZDCADCHFCLPCNYCOPCRCCZKDKKEEKEGPEURGBPGTQHKDHNLHRKHUFIDRINRJODJPYKRWLBPLKRLTLLVLMXNMYRNIONOKNZDPABPENPLNPYGRONRSDRUBSARSEKSGDTHBTRYTWDUAHUSDUYUVEBVEFZAR
Location	West Hampstead, UNITED KINGDOM
Condition	Used
Serial Number	185
Registration Number	OE-FHO
Total Time	350 Hours
Number Of Seats	6

The Real Estalker: UPDATE: Bill Gates

The Real Estalker: UPDATE: Bill Gates: SELLER: Bill and Melinda Gates LOCATION: Hobe Sound, FL PRICE: $6,600,000 SIZE: 9,458 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 7 full and 2 half...

Interesting reading on credit card information

The exploration into cardholders’ minds hit a breakthrough in 2002, when J. P. Martin, a math-loving executive at Canadian Tire, decided to analyze almost every piece of information his company had collected from credit-card transactions the previous year. Canadian Tire’s stores sold electronics, sporting equipment, kitchen supplies and automotive goods and issued a credit card that could be used almost anywhere. Martin could often see precisely what cardholders were purchasing, and he discovered that the brands we buy are the windows into our souls — or at least into our willingness to make good on our debts. His data indicated, for instance, that people who bought cheap, generic automotive oil were much more likely to miss a credit-card payment than someone who got the expensive, name-brand stuff. People who bought carbon-monoxide monitors for their homes or those little felt pads that stop chair legs from scratching the floor almost never missed payments. Anyone who purchased a chrome-skull car accessory or a “Mega Thruster Exhaust System” was pretty likely to miss paying his bill eventually.

Martin’s measurements were so precise that he could tell you the “riskiest” drinking establishment in Canada — Sharx Pool Bar in Montreal, where 47 percent of the patrons who used their Canadian Tire card missed four payments over 12 months. He could also tell you the “safest” products — premium birdseed and a device called a “snow roof rake” that homeowners use to remove high-up snowdrifts so they don’t fall on pedestrians.

Testing indicated that Martin’s predictions, when paired with other commonly used data like cardholders’ credit histories and incomes, were often much more precise than what the industry traditionally used to forecast cardholder riskiness. By the time he publicized his findings, a small industry of math fanatics — many of them former credit-card executives — had started consulting for the major banks that issued cards, and they began using Martin’s findings and other research to build psychological profiles. Why did birdseed and snow-rake buyers pay off their debts? The answer, research indicated, was that those consumers felt a sense of responsibility toward the world, manifested in their spending on birds they didn’t own and pedestrians they might not know. Why were felt-pad buyers so upstanding? Because they wanted to protect their belongings, be they hardwood floors or credit scores. Why did chrome-skull owners skip out on their debts? “The person who buys a skull for their car, they are like people who go to a bar named Sharx,” Martin told me. “Would you give them a loan?”

Some credit-card companies began using these and other discoveries to find new customers and to scrutinize existing cardholders. A few firms began sending offers to people who had registered for baby showers or weddings, for example, since data showed that getting married or having a child — in addition to making people buy lots of new stuff — often also makes them more responsible. Other companies started cutting cardholders’ credit lines when charges appeared for pawnshops or marriage therapy because data indicated those were signs of desperation or depression that might lead to job loss.

But on the whole, companies, including Canadian Tire, stuck to more traditional methods of managing risk, like raising interest rates when someone was late paying a bill, because they worried that customers would revolt if they found out they were being studied so closely.

“If you show us what you buy, we can tell you who you are, maybe even better than you know yourself,” said Martin, who now works for Wal-Mart Canada. “But everyone was scared that people will resent companies for knowing too much.”

Then last year, the economy blew up. Three things became obvious very quickly. First, all those extra charges that theoretically protected credit-card companies from losing money? Well, the worst-case models were way off, and some companies started hemorrhaging cash. Second, many of the predictions that card companies built around their understandings of people’s psyches were surprisingly accurate, even during an economic tsunami. And finally, when people start losing their jobs and feeling poor, it suddenly becomes very, very important to figure out how to persuade them to pay their credit-card bills.

Data-driven psychologists are now in high demand, and the industry is using them not only to screen out risky debtors but also to determine which cardholders need a phone call to persuade them to mail in a check. Most of the major credit-card companies have set up systems to comb through cardholders’ data for signs that someone is going to stop making payments. Are cardholders suddenly logging in at 1 in the morning? It might signal sleeplessness due to anxiety. Are they using their cards for groceries? It might mean they are trying to conserve their cash. Have they started using their cards for therapy sessions? Do they call the card company in the middle of the day, when they should be at work? What do they say when a customer-service representative asks how they’re feeling? Are their sighs long or short? Do they respond better to a comforting or bullying tone?

“It’s really hard to get clean insights of a cardholder’s state of mind,” said Andy Jennings, the head of research and development at FICO, one of the biggest and oldest analytic firms. “The more subtle the insight, the more cleverness finding it requires. If someone pays for a big cable television package each month with their card, are they rich? Or does it signal they don’t have the sense to avoid products they can’t afford? If they check their balance three times a day, are they worried or uptight? We may look at 300 different characteristics just to predict their delinquency risk.”

If a credit-card company detects unsettling patterns, it might start cutting credit lines, raising interest rates or accelerating repayment schedules. (Companies are expected to withdraw $2.7 trillion of credit by the end of 2010, according to a March report from the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, a banking-analyst firm.) But the most useful information the card companies are deriving from their data are the insights that help them deepen their relationships with customers, particularly when a cardholder is going through a rough time. One of the strongest conclusions of the psychological studies is that cardholders are most likely to pay the bills of those companies with which they have an emotional connection.

“Today the goal is for customers to get a warm-and-fuzzy feeling from their credit-card company,” said Carl Pascarella, a former chief executive of Visa USA. “If we have a deep relationship with you over a range of products and experiences, if we trust each other, you’ll listen when we give you advice.”

***

It was the first day of training for Bank of America’s newest credit-card customer-assistance employees, and some of the 12 new hires sitting around the classroom were a little confused.

At another company, these employees — who earn about $35,000 a year — might be called “collection agents” or “at-risk account reps.” But at Bank of America, “our whole program is built around assisting the customer,” explained Ric Struthers, president of the credit-card division. “We call it assistance, because we’re here to find a solution.”

To see how one company transforms thousands of low-paid employees into telephone psychiatrists, I attended a day of Bank of America’s four-week training program at the company’s Delaware offices. (I was allowed to attend on the condition that I neither identify nor interview the trainees during the course.) At the front of the classroom, a poster explained the company’s “Customer Delight Model.” The trainees were supposed to “provide a delightful opening,” “employ delightful words,” “acknowledge and empathize” and “personalize with a POWER close.” They spent the morning discussing hypothetical cases, like a cardholder with twins whose husband announced he had fallen in love with another woman. He handed over divorce papers, had a moving truck outside and in short order took over the house and left the cardholder with two kids, only $400 a week and a ton of credit-card debt.

“I would tell her to castrate the man,” one trainee said to the others in her assigned group. “You know, Mel Gibson is getting a divorce, and what he’s doing to that poor woman, he should get his gut hacked up with a rusty knife. I would tell her to cut the husband where it matters, and then ask the new girlfriend what she thinks of what’s down there now!”

These were not, apparently, the “delightful words” that Bank of America had in mind. A much younger male trainee opined that there might be more delicate ways of handling the conversation.

“What do you know?” the woman retorted. “You’ve never been married! You spent your whole life on vacation! Why don’t you learn something instead of moving your mouth all the time?”

Score one for the power close.

As the class discussed how to talk to someone who has recently lost her husband or her job, a young man raised his hand.

“Uh, when we hear a story like this, how are we going to ask them for money?”

“We’ll get to that later,” the instructor, Sheri Roberts, replied.

Then the trainees listened to a recording of an actual call with a cardholder who was about $10,000 in debt, divorced and couldn’t pay her bills. The Bank of America representative was chipper and positive and after 10 minutes offered to cut the woman’s minimum monthly payments in half and drop her interest rate to 5 percent.

“Oh, my God,” the cardholder sobbed on the tape. “Oh, that would help so much. I’m not a bad person.”

“No, of course you aren’t,” the representative replied. “We’re going to figure this out together.”

Such conversations, credit-card companies say, happen all the time. Indeed, just days earlier I spoke to Donna Tiff, a 49-year-old Missouri woman. We were introduced through the Center for Responsible Lending, an advocacy organization that Tiff contacted after companies began hounding her about the $40,000 she owed on multiple cards.

“The phone would ring nonstop,” she told me. “I would get on, crying, and tell them I don’t believe in suicide, but I’m close. That I’m going to file for bankruptcy, and then you’ll get nothing.”

And then Tracey came along. She worked for a company that today is a subsidiary of Bank of America. Tracey had talked to Tiff several times and noticed that there was a mistake on her account — an automatic payment was going to be deducted twice from her checking account. If that happened, Tiff’s other checks would bounce.

“I told her, thank you so much for catching that,” Tiff recalled. “And then we talked for over an hour about my problems and raising kids. She was amazing. She was so similar to me. She gave me her direct number and said that I should call her directly anytime I had any questions or just needed to talk about what was going on.”

Over the next three years, Tiff paid off the entire $28,000 she owed Bank of America and spoke regularly with Tracey, she said. And the $12,000 she owed on other cards? Well, those companies didn’t have a Tracey. They never got fully repaid.

It’s a heartwarming story. Unless you’ve seen how people like Tracey are schooled in the art of bonding. What are the odds that the random customer assistant who dealt with Tiff would have so much in common with her and manage to strike such a close bond? I tried to call Tracey myself, using the information Tiff provided. But I was told she didn’t work there anymore.

One Bank of America executive acknowledged that Tiff — and the caller on the recording in the training course — probably could have cut her debt in half just by asking. Much of what they’re paying, after all, is fees and interest that Bank of America itself tacked on.

“Some cardholders are not as savvy as others,” said Tony Allen, a company spokesman, who added that the company tries to educate cardholders about their options. “I’m sure some people feel like we have conflicted interests and that we’ll only educate as much as it helps us get paid. But we take our responsibility seriously.”

I asked Tiff if she ever asked Tracey to write off the late fees and the interest charges.

“Oh, no,” she told me. “She was so kind to me. How could I ask her for something like that?”

***

If you ask credit-card executives about the current financial crisis, they’ll admit things aren’t good right now. But what really has them worried is what’s going on in Washington.

Just last month, President Obama invited 14 credit-card executives to the Roosevelt Room and told them he planned to ask Congress to outlaw “anytime, any-reason rate boosts and late-fee traps” and to increase scrutiny of the industry. A week later, the House passed the “Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights” by a margin of 287 votes. The legislation would force companies to give advance notice of interest-rate hikes, ban most retroactive rate increases and stop companies from issuing cards to people under 18 years old. And if that fails to become law, in 2010 new Federal Reserve Board rules will bar issuers from changing interest rates on existing balances in most cases. In other words, once you get a credit card, it will be much harder for the company to suddenly start charging you more.

The industry has responded by warning that interest rates will rise for everyone. Already, some issuers, including American Express, Bank of America and Citigroup, have started rejecting more card applications. You’re almost sure to get fewer offers in the mail, and the days of interest-free cards for six months (followed by soaring interest rates) are probably gone.

Despite their woes, it’s hard to feel sorry for the card companies. A survey conducted last year by Consumer Action, an advocacy group, revealed that the average penalty interest rate for cardholders who had missed a payment was 26.87 percent. And for years companies have also denied consumers the right to go to court by requiring arbitration, have aggressively marketed to college students and have adopted policies like “universal default,” which allows them to hike your interest rate if you miss a payment on a card issued by a completely different company. Some of their innovations, like cash-back rewards for unpaid balances, were designed to get cardholders to stop paying the full amount they owe.

Meanwhile, as they prepare for an uncertain future, the card companies are scurrying to find the next breakthroughs in credit-card psychology. Take, for instance, Capital One’s Card Lab, a festive Internet site that lets customers design their own cards. I ordered one with my son’s photo on it.

The site is interactive. If I indicate I don’t want to pay an annual fee, for instance, the Web site tells me I must pay a higher interest rate. If I want a low rate, the site tells me I can’t get any rewards points. In essence, the Web site offers a series of choices that determine the relative values I place on different options. Capital One can watch as I navigate the site, learning more and more about me. The industry doesn’t have to drop rats in a maze anymore. We’ve started going there on our own.

“Card Lab is at some level an enormous real-time, ongoing experiment,” says Jack Forestell, senior vice president of marketing and analytics at Capital One. By observing people’s choices and then tracking how they use their cards, the company has learned who is more willing to pay annual fees and who wants airline miles badly enough to pay higher interest rates. “We’ve learned interesting things, like people are more loyal to cards that have their kids’ photos on them,” Forestell says.

What the card companies realize — and what legislation most likely won’t change — is that no matter how much we say we dislike credit cards, they’ve become an essential part of our lives. It’s really hard to rent a car without a card. Or shop online. Or buy plane tickets. Often, executives say, we are just looking for an excuse to use our cards, and so companies are becoming experts in figuring out which excuses we each most want to hear. They’ve let me transform my card into an expression of love for my son. They’ll let you tell yourself that charging a meal gets you closer to a free flight to Tahiti.

Before I left the Bank of America training session in Delaware, the instructor gave the class a little pep talk.

“You’re going to have some days when you help customers, and you’re going to walk out and feel really, really good,” she told them. “It’s O.K. to help people know that we are all working to make the world a better place. It’s O.K. to help them believe.”

Then she turned to the young man who had previously inquired about bringing up the indelicate topic of money with someone who had just lost her job, her house or her husband.

“We are the ones who let them know that there’s always a brighter tomorrow,” she told him. “That’s how we get paid back.”

Charles Duhigg is a business reporter for The Times.

Gaekwad!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaekwad_dynasty

Baroda State was a princely state in present-day Gujarat, ruled by the Gaekwad dynasty from its formation in 1721 until 1949 when it acceded to the newly formed Union of India.

office building

$1,500,000

Agent Report (1) 15433 N Tatum BLVD Phoenix, AZ 85032 $1,500,000 4902950 Comm/Industry Sale Active Type of Property: Office Building Ttl Apx Net Rnt Spc: 10,491 Ttl Apx SqFt Bldg: 14,024 Ttl Apx SqFt Land: 37,462 Lot Size Dimensions: 218' X 172' # of Buildings: 1 Total Parking Spcs: 56 Covered Parking Spcs: 27 Uncvrd Parking Spcs: 29 Year Built: 1999 Zoning: C-O Subdivision: Tract A, Verde Via Tax Municipality:Phoenix Marketing Name: Planned Cmty Name: Volts/Amps: Type of Property: Office Building Hun Block: 4800 E Map Code/Grid: L36 Cross Streets: NNEC Greenway & Tatum Directions: Tatum Boulevard just North of Greenway, East side of Street Public Remarks: Spectrum Court Professional Office Building Features a Central Location, Quality Construction & Convenience.

Features	Financial Info	Construction & Utilities	County, Tax and Financing
Building Type: Commercial; Office Stories: 2 Stories Interior: Finished; Security System Exterior: Corner Lot; Dual Street Ftg; Landscaping; Monument Sign Parking: Private Parking; Paved Parking Loading Facilities: None Ceiling Height: 8.1 Feet to 10 Feet Current Use: Office Use Restrictions: Currently Leased	Gross Annual Sch Inc: $0 Adjusted Gross Inc: $0 Other Income: $0 Operating Exp: $36,195.3 Net Operating Income: $0 Annual Elec Exp: $0 Annual Gas Exp: $0 Annual Ins Exp: $0 Annual Land Lse Exp: $0 Annual Landscape Exp: $0 Annual Legal & Acctg: $0 Annual Maint Exp: $0 Annual Mgmt Exp: $0 Annual Other Expense: $0 Annual Ownr Asoc Fee: $0 Annual Pad Fee: $0 Annual Rplcmnt Rsrvs: $0 Annual Trash Exp: $0 Annual Wtr/Swr Exp: $0 % Vacancy Allowance: 0 Owner Association: No Source of Fincl Data: Provided by Owner	Construction: Block; Stucco; Brick Roofing: Built-Up Floors: Concrete; Ceramic Tile; Carpet Fencing: Block Heating: Electric Cooling: Central A/C; Heat Pump Gas: Other (See Remarks) Electric: APS Water: City Franchise Sewer: Sewer - Public Roads/Streets: Asphalt/Blacktop; Dedicated Street; Sidewalk(s) Environmental: Other (See Remarks)	County Code: Maricopa Legal Subdivision: AN: 215-33-391 Lot Number: 0 Town-Range-Section: 3N-4E-5 Cty Bk&Pg: Taxes/Yr: $36,195.3/2012 Ownership: Fee Simple Total Owed: 0 Equity: $1,500,000 Assessment Bal Yrs: 0 Assessment Balance: $0 Down Payment: $25 Owner Wants: Owner May Carry; 1031 Exchange; Lease Reports/Disclosures: Seller Prop Disc Stm Auction: No

Gas station for sale

$1,273,000

Agent Report (1) 2340 E UNION HILLS DR Phoenix, AZ 85024 $1,273,000 4926816 Comm/Industry Sale Active Type of Property: Gas Station/C-Store/Car Wash Ttl Apx SqFt Bldg: 4,862 Ttl Apx SqFt Land: 63,655 Lot Size Dimensions: 240 x 270 # of Buildings: 2 Total Parking Spcs: 30 Covered Parking Spcs: 0 Uncvrd Parking Spcs: 30 Year Built: 2003 Zoning: C-2 Subdivision: TBD Tax Municipality:Phoenix Marketing Name: Planned Cmty Name: Volts/Amps: Type of Property: Gas Station/C-Store/Car Wash Hun Block: 18600 N Map Code/Grid: L33 Cross Streets: NW Corner Cave Creek and Union Hills Directions: Public Remarks: Gas Station with 3,360 sq ft, C-Store and 1,500 sq ft car wash**Island has 9 double pumps**Closed fot two years and damage HVAC and stolen copper**

Features	Financial Info	Construction & Utilities	County, Tax and Financing
Building Type: Commercial Stories: 1 Story Interior: Finished Exterior: Other (See Remarks) Amenities: Other (See Remarks) Parking: Public Parking Loading Facilities: None Ceiling Height: 10.1 Feet to 12 Feet Traffic Count: 35,001 to 50,000 Current Use: Automobile	Gross Annual Sch Inc: $0 Adjusted Gross Inc: $0 Other Income: $0 Net Operating Income: $0 Annual Elec Exp: $0 Annual Gas Exp: $0 Annual Ins Exp: $0 Annual Land Lse Exp: $0 Annual Landscape Exp: $0 Annual Legal & Acctg: $0 Annual Maint Exp: $0 Annual Mgmt Exp: $0 Annual Other Expense: $0 Annual Ownr Asoc Fee: $0 Annual Pad Fee: $0 Annual Rplcmnt Rsrvs: $0 Annual Trash Exp: $0 Annual Wtr/Swr Exp: $0 % Vacancy Allowance: 0 Owner Association: No Source of Fincl Data: Unknown	Construction: Block Roofing: Built-Up Floors: Vinyl/Composition Fencing: Block Heating: Heat Pump; 2 or More Units Cooling: Central A/C Gas: None Electric: APS Water: City Franchise Sewer: Sewer - Public Environmental: None	County Code: Maricopa Legal Subdivision: TWO BROTHERS INC AN: 213-20-382 Lot Number: 1 Town-Range-Section: 4N-3E-27 Cty Bk&Pg: Taxes/Yr: $30,415/2012 Ownership: Fee Simple Total Owed: 0 Equity: $1,273,000 Assessment Bal Yrs: 0 Assessment Balance: $0 Down Payment: $1,273,000 Owner Wants: Cash Only Reports/Disclosures: None Auction: No

Pending in Carefree

Click to view listing(s)

$5,000,000

A little Doom and Gloom to brighten your day

Does China Plan To Back The Yuan With Gold And Make It The Primary Global Reserve Currency?


By Michael, on June 4th, 2013 What in the world is China up to? Why are the Chinese hoarding so much gold? Does China plan to back the yuan with gold and turn it into a global reserve currency? Could it be possible that China actually intends for the yuan to eventually replace the U.S. dollar as the primary reserve currency of the planet? Most people in the western world assume that China just wants a "seat at the table" and is content to let the United States run the show. But that isn't the case at all. The truth is that China doesn't just want to compete with the United States. Rather, China actually plans to replace the United States as the dominant economic power on the planet. In fact, China already accounts for more global trade than the United States does. So what would happen one day if China announced that it was backing the yuan with gold and that it would no longer be using the U.S. dollar in international trade? It would cause a financial shift so cataclysmic that it is hard to even imagine. Most of those that write about the "death of the U.S. dollar" usually fail to point out that China is holding a lot of the cards as far as the fate of the dollar is concerned. China owns about a trillion dollars of our debt, China is the second largest economy on the planet, and nobody uses the dollar in international trade more than China does except for the United States. Up until now, China has had to use the U.S. dollar in international trade because there has not been an attractive alternative. But a gold-backed yuan would change all of that very rapidly.



And without a doubt, the Chinese government has already been very busy promoting the use of the yuan in international trade. In a recent note, John McCormick of RBS Group stated the following...



Financial crises in the US and Europe mean the world needs a new, more stable global reserve currency, and trade in RMB is growing rapidly. In the FX market, for example, our figures show that volumes are now worth around USD 5-6 billion daily – double what they were a year ago.



A number of factors suggest that the Chinese authorities want to make RMB internationalisation happen by 2015.

For China, having a global reserve currency is not just about economics. It is also about power.



McCormick ended his recent note this way...



China’s new leadership faces a number of problems. The country’s economy is slowing and, although we would expect the rate of GDP growth to pick up a little, it is unlikely to be a steep rebound.



But promoting RMB as a global reserve currency, with all the economic benefits that will bring in addition to exerting more political influence on the global stage, clearly remains high on their agenda.

Similar sentiments were echoed in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal...



Beijing is undertaking a long, gradual campaign to establish the yuan as a more market-oriented, international currency. China's State Council, or cabinet, said in a statement this month that the country would draft a plan to allow the yuan to become fully convertible. Meanwhile, the People's Bank of China is guiding the currency higher and set the median point of its permitted daily trading band last week at the strongest level ever.

We don't hear much about these sorts of things in the western media, but the convertibility of the Chinese yuan is a very big deal. Up until recently, the yuan was only directly convertible into dollars and yen. But now that is rapidly changing. So far this year, the Chinese government has entered into currency convertibility agreements with Australia and New Zealand.



So instead of having to change yuan into U.S. dollars to trade with Australia and New Zealand, now China can cut U.S. dollars completely out of the process.



But right now there is nothing that really gives the Chinese yuan a significant competitive edge over the U.S. dollar. If Chinese authorities truly want the yuan to end up replacing the U.S. dollar as the primary reserve currency of the planet, they need to do something that will make the rest of the world want to use it.



And they could do that by backing the yuan with gold. In fact, there are persistent rumors that China has been busily preparing for that.



For example, the Economic Policy Journal recently pointed out that Dr. Pippa Malmgren, the President and founder of Principalis Asset Management who once worked in the White House as an adviser to President Bush, is claiming that China has plans to turn the yuan into "a hard, gold-backed currency" that will have a distinct competitive edge over the rapidly depreciating paper currencies that the rest of the globe is currently using...



The most interesting piece of the puzzle is that the Chinese have emerged as the biggest buyers of gold, mainly off-market. They want the yuan to emerge as a hard, gold-backed currency in a world where everyone else has chosen to inflate and devalue.



The recent bilateral currency deals with Australia, France, Russia and Singapore, and many others, reflect this desire to displace the USD as the world’s reserve currency.



It may be an interesting and long race between the Chinese reaching for convertibility and the Western central banks straining credibility.

Other analysts are also fully convinced that the goal of the Chinese is a gold-backed yuan. The following is what money manager Stephen Leeb told King World News recently...



Countries have been battling each other in order to cheapen their currencies. The problem with a cheaper currency is that commodities cost more. So China has decided to opt for a higher currency.



The move in the yuan overnight was one of the most significant upticks I have seen. Like I said, the yuan moved to an all-time high. The yuan has advanced roughly 5% against the US dollar in just nine months. China also imported over 200 tons of gold for the most recent month. That is an extraordinary number. At that rate that’s over 2,400 tons of gold per year on an annualized basis.



This simply speeds up the point at which China will be the largest gold holder in the world. China saw gold come down and they didn’t just buy on the dip, instead they bought as much as the market would give them. And, again, you see the yuan going up so that is making the price of gold even cheaper for the Chinese.



It’s only a matter of time before the Chinese back the yuan with gold. This will push the yuan front and center as a key element in terms of being part of the world’s reserve currency basket. China gets the message. They are doing whatever it takes to establish their dominance in the world, particularly in the commodity arena. Their currency is flying and they are importing as much gold as they possibly can.

And without a doubt, China has been hoarding massive amounts of gold. Everyone agrees on that. But what nobody knows is exactly how much gold China currently has stockpiled, because China is not telling anybody.



One recent estimate put China's gold reserves at more than 7,000 tons of gold, but it could potentially be far higher than that. When China does finally tell the rest of us how much gold they have, they will probably be just a move or two away from checkmate.



What we do know is that China is importing absolutely enormous amounts of gold right now even though China is also the number one gold producer on the planet.



According to Reuters, more than 223 tons of gold was imported into China from Hong Kong in March. That smashed the previous record of 114 tons in December.



Overall, Chinese imports of gold from Hong Kong tripled in 2012, and the final number for 2013 is going to absolutely smash what we saw in 2012.



Obviously something is happening.



China is massively hoarding gold at the same time that it is trying to substantially raise the international influence of the yuan.



It doesn't take a genius to see where all of this is headed.



If China does decide to back the yuan with gold and no longer use the U.S. dollar in international trade, it will have devastating effects on the U.S. economy. Demand for the U.S. dollar and U.S. debt would drop like a rock, and prices on the things that we buy every day would soar. At that point you could forget about cheap gasoline or cheap Chinese imports. Our entire way of life depends on the U.S. dollar being the primary reserve currency of the world and being able to import things very inexpensively. If the rest of the world (led by China) starts to reject the U.S. dollar, it would result in a massive tsunami of currency coming back to our shores and a very painful adjustment in our standard of living. Today, most U.S. currency is actually used outside of the United States. If someday that changes and we are no longer able to export our inflation that is going to mean big trouble for us.



So keep an eye on China, and look out for any news about the yuan.



It won't happen next week or next month, but eventually we could see China back the yuan with gold.



When that happens, it is going to be a complete and utter financial disaster for the United States.

Nice jet

 $995,000

Year	1992
Manufacturer	BEECHCRAFT
Model	BEECHJET 400A
Price	$995,000 AEDARSAUDBGNBOBBRLBZDCADCHFCLPCNYCOPCRCCZKDKKEEKEGPEURGBPGTQHKDHNLHRKHUFIDRINRJODJPYKRWLBPLKRLTLLVLMXNMYRNIONOKNZDPABPENPLNPYGRONRSDRUBSARSEKSGDTHBTRYTWDUAHUSDUYUVEBVEFZAR
Location	Mc Lean, Virginia
Condition	Used
Serial Number	RK-52
Registration Number	N709EL
Total Time	5560 Hours

 Rohr Thrust Reversers, Air Conditioning, Dual Bleed Air Cabin Heating, Complete Anti-icing and De-icing, Super Soundproofing, Logo lights, RS Wing Ice Inspection Light, Dual Avionics Master Switch, Cockpit Relief Tubes, Honeywell Mark V EGPWS w/windshear detection, ELT, Flight Hour Meter, Dual ADC 850D Air Data Computers, Dual Collins AHS-85E AHRS, Dual Collins CDU-5000 control/display units.

Seven chairs done in Soft Dove White Leather in an aft four-place club and forward three-place club arrangement with an aft belted lavatory seat. High gloss cherry wood veneer cabinetry. Forward left-side upright refreshment cabinet and baggage coat closet combination with CD player, water, one gallon prepco, dual cup dispensers, overboard drain, work surface, storage drawer, with four decanters and divided ice chest on bottom. Dual Pyramid cabinets with dual drawers and removable ice chests. Dual aft tables. Cockpit and aft cabin partitions with sliding doors. Digital cabin instrumentation on forward right-side partition. Polarized windows. Aft right side baggage area.

New paint in 4/2012. Matterhorn White with Aristo Blue, Marlin Blue and Tibetan Gold Metallic stripes.

Dinner in the Sky at Hotel Cipriani, Venice

Dinner in the Sky at Hotel Cipriani, Venice

Good Cave Creek Home

$2,650,000

 This home truly stands alone as a private estate with the highest and best views in the Cave Creek/Carefree area. It is a SW contemporary that features endless 360 degree views of the entire valley, city lights, desert, and mountains. It is secluded with a gated private drive and sits on 20 acres (two parcels). The 2nd parcel (APN 202-18-069) also has an approved building site. Additional features include a lap pool, spa private hiking trails, indoor racquetball court, elevator, and a great floor plan for entertaining. This home and setting are so unique that it must be seen to be appreciated.

1991 MD87

Newly Converted Full VIP MD87 at a large discount

 

$9,000,000

29,600 hrs

36 Passenger interior complete with Full bedroom and shower. 2400 NM range.
Pick your exterior color and take delivery. Stunning aircraft. Wont last long.
$5 Million discount over previously sold comparable aircraft