President Obama’s plan is the talk of all media everywhere. Many are non believers and are criticizing the president and his treasury secretary for spending too much money and having too vague of a plan. The plan has already promised to create or help put 3.6 million Americans to work by the end of 2010. The plan also speaks to tax cuts for the middle class and tax credits for individuals purchasing a home in 2009 or an American car. Despite what it promises to do and what it will actually deliver, the President stands behind his plan 100% and believes that it will take time but will work.

However, there is one idea that got my attention simply because it seems like it would work.

There has been talks of boosting the market by offering a special incentive called “no capital gains” for securities purchased before 12/31/09. This would create an urgency and reinforce people’s confidence in the market. There would however be some exceptions to the proposed idea, but it could boost small business purchase decisions and help the market to a faster recovery.

As we all know, times change and so does the world around us. Every 4-6 years new cycles start in the national and global economy, these cycles are neither good or bad, simply different and create opportunity for those that understand markets and can anticipate the changes to come.

In 1999, the emerging market was real estate, few people saw it coming early and chose to jump on the bandwagon. Some of the traces that indicated the boom that was to come were as follow.

- Government involvement: The White House encouraged banks to lend money to minorities.

- Banks created more options for borrowers and became creative with their loans, from stated income to 110% loan to value loans.

- Customer spending was increasing: more people realized that their equity was increasing and tapped into their homes to get rid of debt, instead of paying it off

These were simply a few of the signs of what was to come. Those that jumped on opportunity got wealthy from it, those that chose to wait and wait and wait until it was a sure bet, became known as the reason why the market crashed.

It is important to look for signs in a changing economy, and to act on those opportunities early.

As the market crashed, the emerging market of foreclosures and services to help prevent foreclosures emerged. There was also opportunity there, however of much shorter time frame.

In the next few months, keep an eye out on signs/hints to make sure you don’t miss out on emerging opportunities. Look for new bills signed, new laws put in place, new restrictions, new tax cuts, new bailouts, new trade agreements, it could be anything and everything you hear.

If you find it, then take a chance.  A small risk for a great reward.

It seems as though many economists are saying that our country is at the verge of bankruptcy. The banking system is about to collapse and cause our nation to go under, taking other nations down with it.

I am not an economist, nor do I have all the answers or solutions to this problem, but I can say certain things because of some common sense that is factual.

By bailing out banks and the private sector, we are simply trowing money away, as we are simply delaying the inevitable.

Mistakes must be paid for by serious losses from those that put us here to begin with, and got rich while doing it.

Think of it in simple terms, the more money we spend that we don’t have the more we have to pay back, simply like when you get a car loan. You must pay back the money plus interest, the only difference is your car payments end after 5 years, this doesn’t. We have almost tripled the deficit of the country in less than a year in bailouts and stimulus packages. If we continue, we will go bankrupt and drag  other countries down with us.

In simple terms, if you borrow $100,000, and then put $100,000 in the bank, you have $100,000? Well, not really, you have no money. So the more money we borrow to survive without fixing the root cause of the problem, then we are simply delaying what is meant to happen but are going in debt while doing it. Taxpayers, you will pay for all these bailouts for as long as you live and these stimulus packages are not free money, they are simply an advance on your taxes.

The true cost of this will be more than double what you receive.