Archive for October, 2009
October 29, 2009 ·
The Bottom Line: Current Investment Outlook
As with all difficult times, it can be very hard to see glimmers of light in the midst of economic freefall. With the current trajectory of job losses, economic contraction, and government intervention into the economy, there are many people who are on the verge of giving up hope for a brighter future. The most important point to consider in this situation is that national policy is not within the circle of influence for most individuals. What this ultimately means is that we must focus our energy on the things that we can do within the political environment we live in.
Thus, our attention must shift away from the speed in which the economy is being nationalized and move toward the ways we can position ourselves to avoid personal financial disaster from said circumstances. We must proactively direct our focus off of the way financial markets are being manipulated, and shift in the direction of learning how we can structure our portfolio to avoid the market manipulation entirely.
Make no mistake that there are very difficult times ahead. The generations that were swept to wealth on the bull market of the last 25 years will soon realize that the fundamentals driving previous market rallies are no longer present. The notion of comfortable retirement may extend out of reach for ordinary workers who follow the dogma of savings and investment in the stock market, as returns disappoint and consumer prices skyrocket from government monetary policy.
As proactive, astute investors, it is the responsibility of all of us to structure our finances in such a way that our future is not dependent on the actions of a political movement. At the Financial Freedom Report, we recommend accomplishing this goal through investment in rental real estate located in sensible markets, financed by high- quality, long-term debt. By maintaining a keen focus on the actions that are within our sphere of influence, each of us can create a financial future that remains bright in the midst of chaos and uncertainty in the marketplace.
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October 26, 2009 ·
What’s In a Deal? – Pro-Forma Analysis of Platinum’s Hottest Properties
One of the greatest services that Platinum Properties offers (for free) is to deliver Pro-Forma analysis of pre-screened real estate deals. These Pro-Forma summaries are constructed using the Property Tracker software suite, and communicate a wealth of useful information about the deal in question. To demonstrate the power of this tool, let’s examine one of the low down payment deals in Atlanta.
In the upper part of the Pro-Forma, you will find the location of the property along with the bedrooms, bathrooms, and square footage. The summary also includes the estimated purchase price and market value, along with the estimated down payment. In this case, the house is a special deal where the investor can purchase for only $5,000 down with a “two-step close” that involves purchasing the property and then immediately refinancing it to get into the deal for much less down than is typical.
Other useful figures on the Pro-Forma are the estimated loan fees, closing costs, and rehab costs to get the property ready for renters. These items are added up to estimate the total cash requirement for the investment, and are displayed next to the cost per square foot and forecasted rent per square foot. As you move down the left hand side of the summary, you will see the forecasted monthly and annual rents, expenses, cash flow, and net performance.
One of the most important things to note is how Platinum Properties uses very conservative assumptions in constructing its Pro-Forma analysis. First of all, Platinum always incorporates the impact of vacancy in the rent income projections. Many other (and less ethical) sales organizations fail to account for the fact that finding new renters can sometimes take time, and will inflate the income forecast for their deals by neglecting to incorporate the impact of rent vacancy. Furthermore, Platinum only forecasts value appreciating at 6% per year, which is slightly below the long-term average rate of real estate appreciation. This is purposefully done to avoid presenting deals that are heavily dependent on appreciation, and is fully consistent with the Platinum philosophy of only investing in properties that make sense on the day you buy them.
Looking over to the right side of the Pro-Forma, you will see the estimated loan information, as well as financial indicators. The indicators provide a highly valuable barometer of the characteristics implicit in the deal. The first item in the indicators section is the debt coverage ratio, and demonstrates the extent to which net operating income for the property can cover the debt expenses. It is worth noting that this ratio has somewhat limited value, since it is highly influenced by the down payment amount. (More equity = less debt = better coverage.) At the Financial Freedom Report, we like to carry more vs. less leverage, since more leverage lets us invest our available cash in more deals.
The next two items on the Financial Indicators section are the Annual and Monthly Gross Rent Multiplier. What these numbers show is the ratio of the purchase price relative to the annual or monthly rent. The importance of this ratio lies in the fact that it demonstrates the extent to which the property produces an attractive amount of rent revenue. When this ratio is low, it means the property generates a large amount of revenue relative to its price, and vice-versa when the ratio escalates. We can clearly see that the price for this deal is seven times the annual rent revenue. Practically speaking, this is an attractive rent multiplier since it means that the gross revenue collections will be equal to the purchase price in seven years. Bubble markets frequently have Annual Gross Rent Multipliers in excess of 10, with some going above 15. Needless to say, we do not advocate investing in markets that produce cash at such a low rate.
The next item is the Capitalization Rate or “Cap Rate” as it is frequently referred to by realtors. The Capitalization Rate indicates the Net Operating Income as a ratio of the Purchase Price for a property. It is important to note that the Cap Rate does not incorporate the impact of debt servicing, and only shows the rate of operating cash flow you would experience with no leverage. (Did we mention that we love using leverage to increase the total returns of our investments?)
The next item on our list is the Cash on Cash Return. When investing in a flat or declining market, this can become one of the most important indicators for a deal. The reason for this is because it measures the annual net cash flow as a ratio of the total cash invested. Practically speaking, this shows the rate at which your initial investment will generate cash, with no value appreciation incorporated. In finance, there is a popular statement that “Cash is King” . . . that sentiment is no less true in real estate. It is also worth mentioning that if you can reduce the amount of initial cash invested while still maintaining positive cash flow, your Cash on Cash Return will rise dramatically. This happens because you are lowering the amount you need to invest in order to capture the rental income. Needless to say, we like this strategy quite a bit.
The last two items on the Indicators section is the Return on Investment (ROI) and the ROI with tax savings. This represents the total value you are capturing as an investor when looking at cash flow plus future appreciation in relation to the amount you initially invest.
This is the place where leverage has a BIG impact, because it lets you capture more appreciation for less initial cash. It is important to note that appreciation can be very volatile and is not captured until you sell or refinance the property. However, in the long term, a dollar of cash flow and a dollar of appreciation are the same money. Because of this, we like to look at the total ROI of our investments as the primary indicator of their long-term prospects. In this case, the extremely low down payment required catapults the ROI into the stratosphere with an astounding 77% return on investment after tax savings!
The final section that you will find is the key assumptions and comments. This is shown to be clear in the way that the Pro-Forma is built so that investors can judge the quality of the estimates for themselves. Thus, we have seen that the Pro-Forma is a very powerful tool for evaluating deals, and Platinum Properties provides it for free to prospective investors. By learning to read, understand, and act on the information contained within these summary sheets, investors can generate tremendous amounts of wealth that will allow them to realize their dreams.
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October 24, 2009 ·
No, the above title is not a typo. According this week’s Creating Wealth Show guest, John Stapleford, it is possible for ethics and public policy to have a direct correlation. Visit: http://www.jasonhartman.com/radioshows/. Stapleford is not only a senior economist for Moody’s Economy.com, professor emeritus of economic development at Eastern University and former director of the University of Delaware’s Bureau of Economic Research but is also the well-known author of Bulls, Bears & Golden Calves. This book provides clear guidance for identifying and discussing important ethical issues connected to an economy’s organization and public policy issues from a faith-based foundation. Tune in to this two-part series and discover the crucial reasons why the study of economics should not be disconnected from ethical concerns. Upcoming shows will feature: Pamela Yellen, founder and President of Bank on Yourself and John Stapleford’s closing episode to his two-part series on ethics and public policy.
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October 22, 2009 ·
Considering our nation’s current health care deliberations, you won’t want to miss this highly informative episode of The Creating Wealth Show. Your host, Jason Hartman, interviews Dr. Robert Nagourney, an expert in the health care industry as it collides with current political affairs. Visit: http://www.jasonhartman.com/radioshows/. Nagourney is the medical director of the Todd Cancer Institute at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, where he specializes in laboratory directed cancer therapy. Upcoming shows will feature: Pamela Yellen, founder and President of Bank on Yourself and John Stapleford, Senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
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October 22, 2009 ·
The Creating Wealth Show #105:
Propelling investment success using econometrics and
competitive analytics
In the one hundred and fifth episode of Jason’s extremely popular Creating Wealth show, he interviews David Savlowitz, the head of Competitive Analytics (CA), a niche full-service market intelligence firm. In this show, David explains the way that his firm uses a multiplicity of data to generate more robust information for their clients than can be obtained by the simplistic scorecards that are employed by most of the financial media. The methods that CA employs analyze supply and demand by using statistics, econometrics, predictive modeling, comprehensive research, and applied mathematics.
In this show, Jason talks with David about the ways that Competitive Analytics uses comprehensive data analysis to drive prediction models for their clients. One of the methods that they frequently employ is an economic composite score that is based on a multiplicity of weighted indicators. When applying this methodology to the general economy, David’s model is predicting the bottom of the economic cycle in Q4, 2009 with a return to equilibrium by Q4, 2011. Furthermore, David’s models are forecasting a U-shaped recovery that will have an extended trough. This stands in sharp contrast to previous V-shaped recoveries that experienced an immediate “bounce back” from the market lows. The reason for this extended trough is because a significant adjustment needs to be made in order to equalize the debt-financed over-consumption that fueled the recent asset bubbles.
The unique part of David’s methodology is the fact that his team uses a very wide variety of input variables in an attempt to capture future items that may become big swing factors. He rightly understands the implicit danger that can be present within quantitative economics for people that do not fully understand the analysis. This danger stems from the fact that econometric analysis uses trends in the past to predict the future, and thus cannot anticipate the impact of events that have never happened before. The importance of this insight comes from the fact that rare events like September 11th, 2001, the Russian Financial Crisis, and the collapse of credit default swaps were never incorporated into any prediction models because they had never happened before.
Each of these events had an unfathomable impact on the marketplace that left people who were blindly following technical trends of the past absorbing unbelievable losses (or pushing those losses onto the taxpayer in the form of a government bailout). As a point of reference; the hedge fund “Long Term Capital Management” was the brainchild of Robert Merton and Myron Scholes. It made heavy use of econometrics to undertake highly leveraged arbitrage trades in the bond market, but nearly collapsed the financial markets after the Russian Financial Crisis in September of 1998. This became the first iteration of a “too big to fail” argument, and is being used as the precedent for the government bailouts of financial institutions that are currently being pushed on the marketplace.
This is not to say that quantitative analysis and econometrics are implicitly dangerous. It is simply to say that it is a tool . . . a very powerful tool that needs to be understood before it is used. When applied by knowledgeable professionals, it can generate valuable insights. When given over to pseudo-intellectual or short-sighted agents, it can become a tool of mass financial destruction as the algorithms become an item of blind faith that drives insane investment decisions. As with all tools, the result depends largely on how it is used. Thankfully, David keeps the scope and limits of his analytics in perspective. A strong dose of this perspective is highly advised for anybody that seeks to incorporate econometric analysis into investment decisions.
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October 19, 2009 ·
The Business of Life
By Douglas J. Utberg, MBA
Winners Take Action
The world that we live in is not short on information. In fact, the preponderance of information that we are constantly bombarded with can create a state of constant confusion that scares us into inaction. In the martial arts, this phenomenon is referred to as the “chattering monkey mind.” The key to success lies in filtering down to the useful information – and then decisively taking action.
This is especially important to remember since the preponderance of success and financial literature revolves around “systems” and “strategy.” This is especially true if you have ever suffered from insomnia and run across an “infomercial” on late-night television that advertises a “risk-free” system to make profits with “no money down.” It can certainly be fun to laugh at some of these marketing gimmicks, but even the best strategy in the world is completely useless unless you are willing to act.
Action involves incurring the risk of failure and criticism from friends and family. The factor that most financial books and infomercial systems tend to under-emphasize is the importance of taking the leap. The hitch is that the action must be guided by intelligent thought. Thought without action produces no results, because the strategies are never implemented. Action without thought is effectively the same as gambling, and only works if you are in exactly the right place at exactly the right time with exactly the right system . . . and even then, it may not work the next time you try it.
The proverbial “key” lies in being what Bill Fitzpatrick refers to as a “thinking person of action” . . . namely, somebody that thinks actively, absorbs information quickly, and acts decisively when the opportunity presents itself. In order to achieve this kind of coexistence between thought and action, it requires that your mind be constantly trained on thoughts of opportunities so that it is always ready to act.
Best Wishes, Doug
Please feel welcome to subscribe by
following the link below:
www.BusinessOfLifeLlc.com
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October 15, 2009 ·
As always, our purpose at The Creating Wealth Show is to provide the cutting-edge information necessary to “create wealth” in today’s economy. Many of our listeners are interested in learning more about profiting from various business opportunities, we are now adding this “track” to our list of sought after real estate and financial experts. Here to help us launch this new track is Dan Sullivan, co-founder of The Strategic Coach®. Visit: http://www.jasonhartman.com/radioshows/. As an international organization offering practical thinking tools and support, Dan Sullivan has structured his company to help individuals create the personal and professional future they want. Dan’s strong belief in the power of the entrepreneur is evident in all areas of Strategic Coach which works to help entrepreneurs reach their full potential in both their business and personal lives. He is author of over 30 publications, including The Great Crossover, The 21st Century Agent, Creative Destruction, and How The Best Get Better®. Upcoming shows will feature: Dr. Adam Nagourney, expert on cutting-edge cancer therapies, Pamela Yellen, founder and President of Bank on Yourself and John Stapleford, Senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
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October 15, 2009 ·
Patrolling the Plastic: Keeping Track of the Consumer 
Credit Market (From the Chart Store Weekly Chart Blog for the week ending July 10, 2009)
Analysis of the total consumer credit outstanding shows that the last 10 years, the total consumer debt outstanding as a percentage of disposable personal income has rounded the hump from its all-time high, and is retreating downward. The recent credit market disruption has left many people deleveraging their debt positions, and is pushing this index down further. Unfortunately, the average amount of consumer credit outstanding is still very high relative to the average of 17.5% from 1959 to 1994. Much of the economic expansion in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century was based on debt-financed consumption.
The resultant debt bubble has compromised the ability of many families to continue with their prior spending habits. In practical terms, this means that a prolonged period of adjustment is very likely as consumers slowly move toward a sustainable equilibrium of credit that is nearer to the historical average. This period of adjustment is very likely to result in a downward shift in spending patterns, as well as the observed level of prosperity for the average consumer. Prudent investors should position their portfolios so that they control assets like entry-level rental housing that will be in demand by people who are adapting to the reality of living more modestly.
Non-Dollar-Based Assets Will Rock Your World (From the JasonHartman.com blog)
We’ve been talking a bit lately about how, in our humble opinion, the dollar is poised for a headfirst plummet off a very high cliff. When it does, get ready for the cloud of dust slowly rising up into the sky, just like in the Roadrunner cartoon when Wile E. Coyote makes yet another serious error in judgment.
It doesn’t take much pondering to arrive at the conclusion that a good place to be when the currency crashes is – drum roll, please – OUT of that currency. You need hard, tangible assets. Like commodities? Yes, but probably not what you think. Running out to buy gold and silver is better than Wall Street stocks and bonds, but you can still do much, much better if you turn to income property investing.
After all, what is a structure on land besides a collection of basic commodities like copper, wood, brick, etc? We call it Packaged Commodity Investing™, and this is one (perhaps the only way) to survive the coming fiat currency implosion with your wealth intact. Can you imagine actually being able to create wealth while others around you, especially those who stayed in stocks, are being turned into paupers overnight?
People will still need a place to sleep at night and you will own the pillows. This is how to position yourself to become wealthy in the future. Own something of real value, like real estate. Companies come and go with frightening regularity off the stock market indices. Terra firma beneath your feet? It’s probably going to stay.
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October 12, 2009 ·
Fiscally Fit: A Check-Up for Your Financial Fitness
1. What is the best way to avoid future market bubbles?
a. Gold . . . lots and lots of gold.
b. A survival bunker isolated on 30 acres in the woods, surrounded by barbed wire.
c. By directly controlling universally needed assets.
d. By only investing with the “good” fund manager.
2. How does big government relate to big business?
a. Government works for us, and will stop those corporate pigs from cheating the little guy.
b. Government regulations shield big businesses from competition by increasing barriers to entry for new competitors.
c. Big Business has no influence on government now that the Republicans are out of power.
d. It doesn’t matter because all of the jobs in America are being outsourced to China.
3. What causes sustained price inflation?
a. Increases in demand from a hot economy pulling up prices.
b. Increases in the money and credit supply creating more dollars chasing fewer goods.
c. Big Oil, OPEC, and Corporate America.
d. Evil HMOs increasing the cost of health care.
4. What is the principal risk of econometric technical analysis?
a. There is no risk if you know what you’re doing.
b. The risk that your friends and relatives will become jealous of your success.
c. The risk of no government assistance if you are not associated with Goldman Sachs.
d. The risk of excessive reliance on quantitative models that do not have the ability to predict highly disruptive events that have never happened before.
Answers: 1) c, 2) b, 3) b, 4) d
Explanation of Answers
1) What is the best way to avoid future market bubbles?
Market bubbles result from large numbers of people flooding an investment simultaneously based on speculation that the values will continue to climb, even in the absence of supporting fundamentals. It is pleasing to assume that one can find a “good” fund manager who will anticipate these bubbles and avoid them, but the numbers clearly show that outperforming the market on a sustained basis is extremely rare, and that those who do so may only be “coin flippers” who happened to guess correctly over an extended period of time.
Controlling universally-needed assets such as rental housing helps individuals to avoid bubbles by decoupling from financial markets with cash-producing physical assets. Gold represents an inflation-stable medium of exchange (i.e., a constant value currency), but it does not produce regular cash flow, and is therefore dependent on the whim of speculators for its market price. Finally, survivalist isolation may be attractive to some people, but is not the first choice for most investors. Thus, it becomes necessary to find ways for avoiding market bubbles without totally exiting from society.
2) How does big government relate to big business?
Government regulations impact the cost of operation for business entities. As the government increases regulations, it makes things increasingly difficult for new businesses to grow, thus shielding large business entities from competition. The circle closes when the business entities spend on lobbying politicians for legislation that further protects them from competition. In this way, big business and big government become two sides of the same coin, standing in the way of innovation and growth.
3) What causes sustained price inflation?
Changes in commodity prices can create temporary spikes and troughs, but the way that overall market prices establish equilibrium depends on the level of output, the amount of money in the economy, and the velocity with which that money circulates. A spike in the price of one commodity cannot move prices in the entire marketplace unless that price spike significantly contracts production. The only way that prices can increase in a sustained manner is for the government to continually expand the amount of money in circulation at a rate greater than the productivity improvement of capital and labor.
4) What is the principal risk of econometric technical analysis?
Technical analysis can be a very powerful tool, but it lacks the ability to predict future rare events that have never happened before. The reason for this is because econometric algorithms are based on market movements in past years. These models frequently do a fantastic job of modeling normal market gyrations, but cannot incorporate the impact of events that have never happened before. Because of this, over-reliance on technical analysis leaves investors susceptible to the impact of rare events that cause massive market disruptions.
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October 8, 2009 ·
At the end of 2008, Sara informed me about an REO property in Indianapolis that was built in 2004, and available from the bank for a very attractive price. The only hitch was that the property needed some rehab and repairs. (Go figure – owners who get foreclosed on don’t always take the best care of their houses.)
In this case, the agreed-upon price from the bank was $57,000. To finance this deal, I worked with a mortgage broker from Wells Fargo that was referred to me by Sara. Since this was a low dollar loan, 20% down plus closing costs only came to $12,000 that I needed to bring to the table at closing. The bank sent the documents via overnight express and I signed them in the presence of a notary public, then returned them with the cashier’s check.
At this point, the area specialist became my best friend and greatest asset in closing the deal. (Her name is Angela, and if you do business in Indianapolis, I highly recommend that you talk with her . . . she regularly goes above and beyond the call of duty to get the job done.) Not only did the she help me to line up a property inspection and homeowner insurance, but she also put me in contact with contractors to do the rehab work, and stopped by the property during the rehab to keep tabs on the progress. My experience with Angela and all of the other people involved was so positive that I have subsequently decided to pursue another deal in the Indianapolis area. (Repeat business for all of the parties involved!)
Once the rehabs were completed, it was time to contract with a property management firm and rent the property to tenants. This is yet another way that the Platinum network created value for me . . . The property management company offered a rate discount to customers from Platinum, because of all the referrals that have come in from Jason’s organization.
The net result of all this work is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house that rented out for $1,050 per month on a 12-month lease. The total cost including rehab and repairs was $69,000, and my monthly mortgage payment (including tax & insurance) is a whopping $460.57 per month. This results in a 1.5% rent to value ratio, and quite a bit of monthly cash flow. (In keeping with Jason’s “Refi Till Ya Die” strategy, this cash flow can be used to refinance the property and pull out cash for investing in more properties.)
One of the most important aspects to the “Complete Solution” offered by Platinum Properties is the properties that you do not see. The reason the properties you don’t see are so important is because Jason’s team frequently fields requests for low-quality deals that are rejected before their clients ever see them. The diligence and steadfast dedication exhibited by the team at Platinum Properties allows investors like myself to view an assortment of high-quality deals, without enduring the hassle of sifting through all of the “dogs” in hopes that somewhere in the pile of average and unremarkable deals there lives a diamond in the rough. By filtering the deals before they are presented to clients and investors, the team at Platinum provides a valuable service that saves an untold amount of time in research for potential investors. The best part about this process is that I am now free to spend my research time focusing on a few good deals, instead of sifting through pages and pages of marginal deals, resulting in a higher quality for all of my transactions.
The bottom line is that this entire deal would not have been possible without the network of contacts and local experts from Platinum Properties. Jason’s team has done the legwork to find high-quality people and properties in the targeted markets. Furthermore, they have pre-screened management companies to streamline the process of getting the properties occupied by tenants. Thus, the team truly creates a “Complete Solution” for real estate investors.
For more information on implementing this strategy, visit www.JasonHartman.com.
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October 5, 2009 ·
We don’t mean to scare you – well, actually we do. The words above were spoken by President Obama at a recent press conference. Ouch. Does that mean the U.S. economy is a car with a bone-dry gasoline tank still rolling slightly from 233 years of inertia?
Maybe?
A better analogy might be the economy is a car with a bone-dry gasoline tank still rolling slightly from 233 years of inertia heading off a cliff! What can we, as law-abiding citizens, expect when our government continues to bankrupt itself and devalue our currency? Seriously. The federal government is a Ponzi scheme that makes Bernie Madoff look like a piker.
Here’s a glimpse into the future after the dollar collapses:
1. An explosion in prices as Americans scramble to buy basic necessities.
2. Sparse grocery shelves and long gas lines.
3. Failed businesses and a breakdown in commerce as long-term transactions vanish due to worthless currency.
4. Rampant crime and unemployment.
5. Disappearing government services.
Sound like fun? What can you do to protect your wealth? The simple answer is to own income- producing property. It’s the only investment liable to have any value when the fiat currency collapses.
The time to act is now. There may still be time before the greenback dies as the major player on the global currency market. But there may be less time than you think. Wall Street is already coming apart at the seams from greed and incompetence. Make it a point to explore history’s best bet when it comes to investing. Platinum Properties Investor Network offers free educational services for any investor interested in weathering the coming storm. Check us out at www.JasonHartman.com.
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October 1, 2009 ·
Within the lexicon of business terminology, there is a popular phrase entitled “too big to fail” that is frequently used to describe large industry players that are kept afloat by the government when they are faced with financial ruin. The theory behind these bailout initiatives is that liquidating a major industry player will result in a total market collapse. These claims are very difficult to substantiate, since the government frequently uses this rationale to justify its arbitrary actions, but never seems to allow one of these failing ventures to go into liquidation like a normal business.
In practice, the “too big to fail” phenomenon exists to perpetuate vested interests by artificially maintaining the status quo. Unfortunately, this phenomenon also applies to political movements as well. When individuals or movements are viewed as “historic” or “symbolic,” there is frequently a sentiment that it is “too big to fail” and that any level of incompetence or power obsession must be overlooked to avoid failure for the favored parties.
What we have seen is that attempts by government to manipulate the market frequently create much larger problems than those that were originally set to be “solved.”
In these situations, there is an endless litany of excuses that serve as the convenient justification for the expansions of government power that are necessary to protect businesses and individuals that are deemed “too big to fail” by the powers-that-be. Ultimately, we will find that the price of this massive government power grab is paid by the producers that make the country run. As these initiatives compound on top of one another over time, the ranks of the producers will contract as fewer people find it profitable to engage in business. Similarly, the ranks of the idle masses will rise as the number of people seeking free entitlements expands.
It is inevitable that a ”breaking point” will be reached at some time in the future where the burden foisted on the backs of the producers will be too great for them to bear. The optimal situation would be for a political reversal to happen before that point comes, so that the wanton damage being inflicted on the country by the power obsession of its leadership is stopped. In the interim, prudent investors should seek to pursue strategies that will allow them to profit from the government irresponsibility so that their wealth will not be totally destroyed before control of the government is returned to more responsible hands.
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