Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
The Elections are Over, now we heal towards change and recovery
We did our parts in spite of the risk even to our own self, safety and integrity. We placed everything on the line because some thing needs to be done. Yet, we were victorious, we were right and we have perservere. Today is a new world, it is time to unite, get over it and live towards the present and the future.
Over the so much uncertainties, challenges and opposition beneath the odds change has come to America and soon to be the world.
Change is about fundamental values. It needs to come from own individual self. Only when we start to forgive the people that had question us, attack us, mock on us because of our believes can we fully start to feel the healing of repentance. It is just a mere acknowledgement of saying it is done and we have chosen the right man to lead the change.
Never before did we see a president that was not afraid of ratings, off traditional politics and most of all the giants of corporate greed.
To people that have question me I say, I forgive you but I also hope that you will start to correct what mark you have done. There is still a time to help and together we can still work together in healing the wounds.
Should we both succeed, I will do my best in my remaining time and efforts to ensure that our ultimate goal of education and helping the limited income earner succeed. If it will take me once again to stand in the town halls and podiums like in the past so that we can bring the inspiration and motivation for hope start booking the slots.
Yes, faith has a deeper meaning in life and it is about living the ideals that we all believe on. And then we can say that we live in land of great opportunity, that anything is possible in the land of the dreams.
The Elections are Over, now we heal towards change and recovery
The Elections are Over, now we heal towards change and recovery
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Celebs supporting books through MSNBC Video
Thank you dear celebrities and great writers for acknowledging the importance of books as gifts. It came in the right timing that people need some value on entertainment amidst the economic uncertainties.
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=5de21085-60b1-4a03-b49a-f68b82803811" target="_new" title="Celebs Come Out to Support Books">http://img1.catalog.video.msn.com/Image.aspx?uuid=5de21085-60b1-4a03-b49a-f68b82803811&w=112&h=84" border=0 alt="Celebs Come Out to Support Books" width=112 height=84>
Celebs Come Out to Support Books
All rights and copyrights belong to the original video owners and MSNBC where video was uploaded.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
My simple pitch by Alex Esguerra
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Mr. President - Your Pitch Made Waves Tonight
Friday, February 20, 2009
Affordable Books for limited income earners, the business model
Affordable Books for limited income earners, the business model
Perhaps by merely opening your televisions today, live streaming videos on the internet or listening radio ads all you keep hearing is the same word "Affordable". Yes, I am experiencing the same with my little bit of tidbits smile and at the same time acknowledging my ego of simple saying, did I not tell them for the longest time.
10 years and counting has been a long time someone can use a branding word, find the time and traction to launch simultaneously, yet simply still be humble and proud about the social awareness it has created towards humanity. Yes, the truth deficts the realities of times, a recession similar to the great 1929 depression, a president of change, a tumbling financially challenges world but still have the obligation to tell the world to be compassionate, hope for the best, have faith and believe in God and the laws of attraction.
Like any e-commerce and web content traffic generated business, the simple business model of Affordable Books comes from the multiple revenue streams of online advertising. But wait, if you have not notice yet not all of you see is a paid advertising, some are my own choosing because of the social consciousness of the particular business or entrepreneur. On the other hand, for the benefits of the silicon valley valleywags, yes there are several applications with Alexandria that are now either on the market or the development stage. One good example would be our affordablebooks application now on mighty Facebook or www.ning.com
Supported by the big three's, www.google.com, www.yahoo.com and www.microsoft.com (don't forget www.live.com) the affordable will rise and show how human compassion, and equality impacts the new world of technology.
I remember the pre-dotcom age when my favorite search engines were still www.excite.com, www.exactseek.com and www.netscape.com Thanks to compatriots in Redmond and Seattle that the business model has finally been recognized. As it is said, at the end of the rainbow is a pot of gold which is now the global shift to online collaborative change.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Is "risk" a friend or foe especially in investment during bullish markets
For me, risks is an uncertainty for the fear of loss but it is there if we presume it as a loss then risk does not or will not exist, It is just like in the process of retail and the business model we use at Affordable Books. When buyers and competitors leverage on lower pricing to kill the smaller guy like us, the giants have the thinking that they have prevailed and created a more bigger opportunity for them. So a lot of the small independent sellers like us suffer and sometimes sadly think that the opportunity was not worth the effort all along.
So the capitalistic behaviors is immediately "refocus and assess" the business risks and potentials towards viability. However, creatively speaking from an investment perspective point of view, we sometimes think that leveraging on lessening risks by just going towards big name brands might have good market returns after all. Unfortunately, the same capitalistic tendencies were the driving factors of the financial collapse of the system today. Instead of nurturing small and emerging small businesses who of course will not pose profit on the balance sheet, investors would rather niche on the brand giants who have the clout and backing of the system.
There are so many intellectual ways of measuring risks. Whether you are the traditional investor who measures on rates of return, gauging on how well a business is run either big or small can be a trend indicator towards profitability and viability. This is especially true when the service is personalized. The business ethics and consistency are always the same no matter what circumstance, thus the business is able to react to the different market prevailing conditions,
There are a lot of mega names in the business community today who are in trouble simply because of inflation, rising financial and debt obligations compensated with un-wise spending patterns, For some taking too slow might be an impediment but we would rather grow slowly with full control and a well run business model towards achieving solid returns.
After all, a founder is the epitome of the business as he/she had gone through so many variable cycles for the business. The one great rule over the years that I have personally learned is that sometimes we have to continue to focus and don't be misled especially as the other indicators show that there is absolute viability and profitability in the long term. Which investor are you? The emotional or the intelligent or both might help you make the decision to pursue or not.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
A Glimpse of the 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act
During the last recession of 1999, regulations were intiated which repealed the Banking Act of 1933. In this undertaking the banks were kept out of heavily being involved in securities and insurance.
If I remember correctly, this law was designed to restore confidence in the financial industry. The move was initiated to extend the opening of loans, investments to insurance. Of course some people debate abiout these initiatives until today including the respect to privacy act as consumer data were being exchanged. The needed ammendment was that consumers must then have been given the right to their personal privacy.
If you look at thrid world poverty stricken countries for example, people with bad credit resort to predatory lender practices such as money stores, finance stores and even payday loans. Today, the so called telecheck services cripples one's individual right to get a loan or even open a bank account because of such report made through computer inquiries aside from the normal consumer credit reporting agencies.
For all we know, much of this personal hardships by people are cause by enormous predaory practices of institutions creating the so called overdraft, non-sufficient fees and service charges. As a personal victim of the scheme I should know as this has given me a lot of struggles. What is suprising to note is that sometimes for a mere $1 you will be extremely penalized from $25 to $33. And of course if we understand the pyschological behavior of people, the said bad financial behavior as some gurus stated may have been caused by severe poverty stricken issues like an extreme medical condition, a job loss, a divorce or real life threatening issues. Of course, this is not to say that some people are really avoiding paying and or are habitual liars. But the question lies is how does a good financier, banker or lender really asssess one's consumer and credit behavior outside the numbers and boxes.
In such countries as mentioned above, there are even some form of discrimination if they are a minority or even based on the personal grooming when we meet potential lenders. Hardly, there are a few analytical thinking financiers who are really knowleadgeable on economics, pyschology or even sociology.
It is always about the numbers, the profits that will be generated or the magnificent potential of products that can be offerred to a potential client.
There are some insitutions who are supposed to be giving outright counseling on improving the financial picture of an individual or business. However, the reality is "time" will heal over and or is there someone that this person can co-sign for the loan.
So before we grill on trying to ask the question of where the bail-out money is sitting, is it being extended to people that need it, are the needed financing being disburse perhaps we should look into the standard accreditation processes. It is a mere basic saying that we can't solve problems if we don't find the root causes and then fix the problem from the roots.
Thus, we can start the forum of asking if we need another financial services modernization act pattern towards the people who are in the worst credit situation, jobless, unemployed and or with limited or no income.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Wamu becomes CHASE Bank, a new hope
As a special token to existing customers it is suprisingly giving a special savings offer of a 2.25% rate on money market savings for 90 days.
Good luck WAMU CHASE.