Alliance Investment Group

Tell The Children You're Sorry by Clyde Harrison

In just one generation the United States went from the world’s largest creditor to the world’s largest debtor.  Washington’s plan to cure the credit crisis is to borrow our way out of debt.  This fool hardy plan as been tried in the past by other countries. It has never worked. Though our current elected officials believe they are smarter and give better speeches, it won’t work this time either. Most of the people reading this have had a loan in the past, possibly a home or auto loan.  You know that when you add the interest, it takes a long time to pay off and may double the total cost.

The Congress, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury have borrowed over two trillion dollars this year for the stimulus, the bail outs and cash for clunkers.  How much is a trillion? One trillion is sixty three thousand miles of one dollar bills – a tremendous, colossal amount of money!  Our children will be paying the interest on this debt for the rest of their lives.  Our children will send more of their hard earned dollars to the government, leaving them less to spend improving their lives and the lives of their children.  We’re stealing their futures.

How can we halt this corrupt mismanagement of our country so our children have the better life we all hope for them? My suggestion to stop the madness is two new laws.

First New Law: Lawyers can’t hold any political office.

Lawyers are taught in law school, when there is a solution to a problem they stop getting paid.  Instead of solution based careers, like all the rest of us, lawyers are driven by a never ending supply of paper and endless proposals, but no solutions. Lawyers are the ones that gave us the few million word tax code that no one understands. Lawyers have given us big city schools that are dysfunctional day care centers. Graduating students who do not possess the knowledge to compete in today’s world labor market. Lawyers gave us mountains of regulations that cost a fortune to comply with and protect no one. All enforced by the FED, FDIC and the SEC who make Inspector Clouseau look like a genius. With their results to date, letting lawyers run the country would be Einstein’s definition of insanity.

Second New Law: Political Donations Must Be Anonymous.

If political donations were anonymous McCain-Feingold would be declared a colossal failure and that would be an understatement. This law would be designed to reduce the cost of pay to play or the price of buying a politician.

Politicians who appear on the news always say their donors do not give them money for special access, favors or laws to benefit the donor. They donate because they like the recipient’s policies. They don’t want special treatment. If they are both telling the truth, which only a fool believes, this wouldn’t change if the donations were anonymous.  If you didn’t know the source of the money there wouldn’t be any special favors. Pay to play would disappear

I believe if we adopted these two laws, in a very short period of time we would get off the road to bankruptcy and diminished futures for our children and get back on the road to America’s greatness.

The Greatest Transfer of Wealth in History by Clyde Harrison

The US and G-7 are rapidly becoming far less important and command far less control in the world economy. The emerging world and G7 are still coupled but that will change in a few years. In order to make an accurate forecast, one must determine what has already happened that will effect the future.

When you make an investment, what you own is an opinion. This is mine.

In the 1950’s the US was the world’s largest creditor. Japan was beginning to industrialize with South Korea soon to follow. Europe was rapidly rebuilding. During the next 50 years Europe, followed by the US, became more and more socialistic. Equal results for unequal efforts defies the laws of nature. Socialism always has and always will continue to fail.

The US went from the world’s largest creditor to the world’s largest debtor. In 1977, the US federal budget was $300 billion. In 2007, it was $3 trillion - 10 times larger. Leverage is as toxic on the way down as it was intoxicating on the way up. Today we owe $4 trillion to the rest of the world. Much of the world doesn’t want any more treasury bills so they have started sovereign wealth funds to buy real assets. This is the largest rotation of wealth in world history. The Jeanie is coming out of the bottle and it won’t look like Barbra Eden. Greenspan bailed out long term capital by printing, Y2K by printing, NASDQ bubble by printing, and housing by printing. Now the Greenspan put is being exercised. It’s being put to the taxpayer.

Governments and Central Banks are Incapable by Clyde Harrison

God gave me the ability to recognize the obvious, some common sense and a sense of humor to stand the first two.

The one trend in place is the overall advance of mankind. It began when we emerged from the cave.

The world is going through a dramatic change. The world has discovered capitalism. China and India are transforming their economies from poor agrarian economies to industrial powers. The effect of these changes will be felt for years.

One of my favorite quotes is, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.” Today in order to teach a man to fish, you need two fishing licenses, a state boat sticker, OSHA approved life jackets, EPA approved weights and hooks, you pay a park fee, obtain a fire permit to cook the fish and an EPA permit to dispose of the waste. Thanks to the government, fish you catch costs 8 times as much as the fish you purchase in the supermarket, caught overseas.

Ten Worldwide Mega Trends and "The Right Stuff" by Steve Carr

Things are changing, BIG TIME. We may not understand it completely, but we sense it all around us. We know it in our "gut". We are also confronted with it day after day in the evening news and on the front page of our morning newspapers.

And these changes are HUGE!!!! They're inescapable. The only question of real significance is, "WHAT IS CAUSING THIS TIDAL WAVE OF CHANGE AND HOW CAN WE PROTECT OURSELVES AND LOVED ONES THROUGH IT ALL?"

This report will explore the forces at work in today’s challenging economic climate and what we can do as a result. As you will read in the last segment, we believe these factors are in place for at least the next few years. We also believe the “antidote” is "The Right Stuff".

Moose Market by Clyde Harrison

One of my favorite quotes is, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.” Today in order to teach a man to fish, you need two fishing licenses, a state boat sticker, OSHA approved life jackets, EPA approved weights and hooks, you pay a park fee, obtain a fire permit to cook the fish and an EPA permit to dispose of the waste. Thanks to the government, fish you catch costs 8 times as much as the fish you purchase in the supermarket, caught overseas.

George Washington said, “Government is not eloquence, it is not justice; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master.”

When I started in the investment business 35 years ago, the Golden Rule was “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” In a few years it was corrupted to, “He who has the gold makes the rules.” Today it has been totally corrupted to, “He who makes the rules gets the gold.”

The definition of politics is the advance auction of goods that have not yet been stolen.