How to Become a Blogging Superstar

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How to Become a Blogging Superstar Posted: 01 May 2012 02:03 PM PDT Posted by neilpatel This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. Do you have what it takes to become a superstar blogger? While anybody can set up a blog…not everyone can take that blog and turn it into a world-renowned blog that ends up on Time Magazine’s best blog list or Ad Age’s Power 150. The bad news is that you need some pretty unique qualities to make it to the top. The good news is that just about everybody can learn those qualities. Let’s take a look at them… Superstar bloggers are insane Most superstar bloggers have one thing in common: they take risks. They take risks with their blogs and they take risks with their content. Your goal as a writer for your blog is to stop someone dead in their tracks nearly to the point that they can’t believe you just wrote what you just wrote... And they have to keep reading. This means you have to write headlines like How to Rank on the First Page of Google through Videos and 8 Simple SEO Tricks That Will Help You Rank Above the Fold and Increase Your CTR. But on a higher level, you keep on pushing the boundaries of what your blog can do. You wonder about the design of your blog…and can you make it work harder? You wonder about conversion and how you can triple it. You think about crazy ideas… Sure, not every idea will work. But that’s what separates a superstar blogger from your average blogger…they never give up. They keep trying and pushing and making everything they touch better. Superstar bloggers write and write and write You’ll never get away from this one because you have to write a lot to get better at what you do. What I mean by this is you need to write at least 1,000 words a day… Seven days a week. Some of that content won’t be that great. Some of it will be awesome and drive you a ton of traffic. Your quantity can suffer some time as long as your quality doesn’t. And another lesson about writing so much is that you will cast a wider net when you have more and more blog posts online for the search engines to index. There are currently about 3 billion searches a day on Google… This will ultimately lead to more visitors and subscribers. Superstar bloggers stick to their master plan Do you have a master plan? In Daniel Pink’s book Drive, he talks about the single sentence that defines you. He uses as an example where Carol Boothe Luce once said to John F. Kennedy, "A great man is one sentence. Abraham Lincoln's was 'He preserved the Union and freed the slaves.' What's yours?" What about you? What one sentence defines you? Here are some examples to get you motivated: A world traveler who speaks about entrepreneurship to foreign governments. North America’s greatest digital media strategist. A well-rounded political writer with a blog read by 25,000 people. Those may sound like pretty grand ideas…but remember…superstar bloggers are insane. They go big. But once that master plan is in place, you need to stick to it. You need to create the plan and then start working the plan. You won’t go anywhere if you don’t work the plan You have to ship. And don’t worry about perfection. Sure, you’ll want to make adjustments when you get feedback…but make those changes and keep pushing forward. Becoming a blogging superstar is a journey…not a finished goal.  Superstar bloggers are creative If you want to become a superstar blogger, then you need to come up with a way that you generate idea after crazy idea. That’s going to be hard because you will have to churn out a lot of content. What do superstar bloggers do to keep those ideas and creativity constantly coming? Here are six tips for breaking writer’s block from Darren Rowse: Change your environment – If you are struggling to be creative in your office, jump up and work from the kitchen. Or move outside. Spend a couple days a week working from a café or restaurant that doesn’t mind you being there for a while. Or work with a friend. Keep an idea journal – Whether you use a notebook and pencil or a free tool like Evernote, jot down ideas for content when ever inspiration hits you. Just write – Sometimes to jolt your creative system you need to simply write without an agenda. This is a great way to empty your mind of thoughts and ideas that have been percolating for quite some time. Read other bloggers – Become a master at reading a ton of other blogs. If you can manage hundreds a day, you will never be short of ideas. And remember to copy ideas down as you get them. Figure out needs – Use your readers’ needs as the starting point for your blog posts. What problems are they facing? What questions are they asking? Combine two unrelated ideas – A great exercise for generating ideas is to take two completely unrelated ideas and then combine them. For example, what kind of ideas can you create when you match blogging with Mt. Everest? Or what about digital marketing and The Simpsons? See how that works? Superstar bloggers are passionate If you look at bloggers like Seth Godin, Rand Fishkin or Ramit Sethi you’ll see that they love what they do. You can also see that they are also totally immersed in what they do. Are you totally immersed in what you do? It’s okay to start a blog and then learn 30 days down the road that you really don’t love the subject you are trying to write on. Maybe it was just a passing phase. What you need to do, however, is drop it fast and pick up something that you do love…because readers will be able to tell if you are not enthusiastic about your blog. They’ll sniff you out and you will struggle to grow it.  The godfather of passion, however, has to be Gary Vaynerchuk. His passion is obvious whatever he touches or speaks…it could be on his Wine Library TV or on stage or on one of the many videos that he shares through his marketing blog. He’s on fire and you can’t help watch him and get on fire, too. And this is why he is a superstar blogger.  Superstar bloggers interact with their readers You can not shy away from those who comment on your site. You need to jump in and thank every single person who comments. You need to engage them with questions and pick their brains for ideas on new topics. Run surveys on your site using KISSinsights or simply publish a post asking for new content suggestions. You should also run contests that reward your readers with gifts… letting them know how much you appreciate their support. When you create content that your readers really love and can relate to then you are on your way to creating a vibrant community who will support you for a very long time…both as readers and buyers. Besides, you want this community engaged so they share your content on the social web. Superstar bloggers are insanely focused You’ll kick butt in the blogging world if you can stay focused and organized. The very best of bloggers have a razor-sharp focus… They see the big picture and then use their self-discipline to stick to it. But they also don’t do it alone. They use productivity tools to help them stay focused and efficient. Here are 8 I recommend every blogger use: Zaarly – You can hire just about anybody in your area to do just about anything you need done. Want somebody to research for you? What about put a desk together? Batchbook – As your contact list grows, you’ll want a great system to manage it. Batchbook is a cloud-based contact management tool that can even handle your social media contacts. MailChimp – I’ll mention this in a later section, but you’ll want to create an email newsletter that looks professional and doesn’t cost a fortune. MailChimp can help you. DropBox – With this app you can access any document or file anywhere you want. Store a document on your laptop and it’s on your iPhone, too. Jing – This free tool allows you to capture images from the web, create arrows and boxes on those images and then post to your blog. You can also create videos and narrate on the fly… Rescue Time – This thing will easily save you 4 to 5 hours every week because it tracks what you do and helps you avoid distractions. Evernote – Clip a URL, selection of a page or the entire page into Evernote and then save for later. Great for recording ideas for future blog posts. FreshBooks – Once you start earning a living off of your blogging, you will definitely keep track of your income and expenses. This tool will help you do that without wasting your time.  Superstar bloggers understand their strengths and weaknesses Great bloggers know what they are really good at…and they know what they are really bad at. This helps them to see what they need to work on…or delegate to someone else…to help conquer their goals. This can include things like design, code or proofing. But you also need to learn how to give away those tasks that you don’t enjoy at all. Those are the tasks that rob you of productivity because you tend to procrastinate. And like I mentioned above, use a tool like Zaarly to delegate. Superstar bloggers use a variety of media In today’s world, copy is not enough. Google is learning how to index video and audio and giving you a wider net to cast for possible search terms. What you have to do is learn when to use each of these tools. For example, you need to ask yourself: When should you use text? As long as search is dominated by keywords, then this will make up the chunk of content you produce. But as you will see, you will also be combining medias. When should you use video? I’m a fan of creating short…anywhere from 2 minutes to 11 eleven minute…videos for tutorial type content. SEOmoz does this with their Whiteboard Fridays and Khan Academy has become famous though his use of video.  This also works well with video, especially with Google+’s hangout feature. Keep in mind that you should create a transcript to put on YouTube and your website for the skim readers and search engine spiders. When should you use audio? Audio works great for tutorials, but I’ve found that the best podcasts are those that feature two people talking make it way more interesting. Check out the Manager Tools podcast to see what I mean. Superstar bloggers diversify their income Superstar bloggers don’t rely on their blog to bring in all their income. In other words, you don’t rely on just one income stream. This means that you need to use your blog as a stepping stone to other ventures. This could be to books you sell and create like Darren Rowse does… or information products to sell like Timothy Sykes does. Maybe it’s to promote yourself as a speaker or the platform you use to promote your own conference. In addition, your blog will also become a magnet for joint ventures with other bloggers…something you must engage in if you want to expand your audience.  Superstar bloggers are thorough and original While in the early days of blogging…before there was so much competition…being brief was very important. Not so anymore. These days people want more than just a quick answer. They want a detailed, highly-researched post that will answer their questions completely. The worst thing you can do as a blogger is to provide a pat answer to a real problem. When it comes to creating content for your blog, the superstar method is to study your analytics to see who is coming to your site, when, from what source, where are they going, why they are there…and how to get them converted into subscribers. There is a huge audience online. This Edison report shows that more than half of Americans who are +12 or older are using social media… How do you tap into those people? You analyze the search terms…you study your Twitter analytics to see what gets shared the most...you look into why some posts get more comments than others…and then you create content that produces those kinds of results. Superstar bloggers are curious You’re probably thinking that superstar bloggers reach a certain point and then they stop learning. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. The bloggers that I’ve met who I consider superstars…people like Ben Huh and John Chow…are constantly reading, studying and looking for ways to implement and test their ideas. These are people who will try anything once. Your weirdoes… These are your 0.1%. And that’s going to be you. The thing about these guys and girls is that they are curious, restless and eager to know more. They are also some of the most humble people I’ve met, too, which is important. They never come off as arrogant or prideful. They want to learn from you no matter who you are…and they want to help you learn, too. Superstar bloggers are relentless From reading to writing and testing to tweaking…superstar bloggers never stop. Sure, they may take a short break just to get their bearings again…but they won’t be away from it too long. And when it comes to writing great content…each and every day they are creating posts that stick to the subject matter they are experts on. They don’t stray…and when it seems like they do they are always really good about tying the post back into their cornerstone content. And when it comes to their schedule…superstars are also very consistent here, too. You need to decide when you are going to post…and then stick to it! One more thing…if you want to become a superstar blogger you have to understand that success takes a long time. Trust me…I’ve been at this for over ten years…and one of the things that has kept me at it even when things get really difficult…is that I’m relentless and I stick to the master plan. Superstar bloggers are humble You can’t really be a life-long learner if you think you know it all. That’s why you need to remain humble and understand that you have so much to learn… It will take time and you will master certain aspects of blogging. You may become one of the best headline writers like Matt Drudge is…but you know you can always get better. That’s humility. Superstar bloggers are self-starters If you ever plan on working for yourself, then you better know that you will need to be able to manage yourself. What do I mean exactly?                  You’ll need to be able to kick yourself out of bed and get to writing when you would much rather sleep in on the rainy day. The thing about working for yourself is that you only make as much money as you work. If you’re not writing, then you are losing money. Being a self-starter is all about having ideas…and then putting them to work. If you can’t do that, then you will not become a superstar blogger. Superstar bloggers watch for trends If you really want to catch some traction with your blog…watch what is trending on Twitter and Google and then jump on that traffic. This is why blog posts that tie into current trends always get a lot of traction. For example, when Steve Jobs pasted away I wrote a post on the 11 Business Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Me. And I didn’t just do it for the traffic, but instead it allowed me to look back at all of the great things he helped me accomplish in life. That post got a lot of traction. Here’s another example. This is what is hot on searches as of this writing: You could write an article titled “How Amanda Bynes Getting Arrested Can Make You Filthy Rich.” You could do that with all of those searches. Keep in mind that trendy posts must relate to your readers self interest…in other words, you just can’t write a trendy post for the sake of writing a trendy post… You have to write about something your readers care about. Superstar bloggers find a common enemy This a great copywriter tactic that says you will engage readers if you choose an enemy that both of you hate. For example, very successful financial newsletters will play on fears that the government is out to get the money of the rich…and make the government the enemy. In SEO, Google or Microsoft is often played as the enemy…the big bad guys who wants to spy on everyone, play to their favorites and never give SEOs a break: Now I don’t suggest that your cornerstone content is all about you attacking this common enemy. That will get old quick. Superstar bloggers are not afraid to outdo another blogger For the most part the blogging community is made up of people who get along pretty well. So I’m not talking about doing something rude to someone else… I’m simply talking about taking their idea and making it better. Here’s what I mean. If I write a blog post called 10 SEO Trends You Can’t Ignore…then you can come along and write one called “10 SEO Trends That Will Drive Massive Traffic to Your Site in 45 Minutes”. When it comes to gaining attention, that strategy really works. Don’t be afraid to use it.  Superstar bloggers twist social media to their advantage Back in the day when blogging was the only game in town the way to get people talking about and sharing your content was through commenting on other blogs. This is what Pete Cashmore did with Mashable. He literally commented on hundreds of blogs a day. With the rise of social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook, commenting is still a successful strategy...but using these social media sites have become a major part of a successful bloggers arsenal. It all starts with creating great content that people love to share. And it continues with you sharing other people’s content, building a list of influencers you follow and interacting on a daily basis with your followers. Social media will help spread your brand across the web. Superstar bloggers build a list The real magic of the blog comes in with the list that you build from your growing audience. The more you blog the more traffic you will get… But that traffic is worthless if you don’t do anything with it. See, the email inbox is still a very private thing…and it’s a place that almost everyone still communicates. Friendstar came and went. MySpace has come and gone. And maybe Twitter, Facebook and eventually Google+ will go away when something new and better comes along. But through all of this email still remains. So if you want a way to communicate with your audience…then start building an email newsletter list. This gives those who sign up an exclusive relationship with you. And your conversion rates will be much higher when you market to the email list.  Superstar bloggers target their traffic One big mistake that a lot of beginning bloggers make is they try for the biggest audience. They may end up getting 1,000 hits a day to their blog…but not get more single subscriber or one single person to buy from them. How can that be? If the traffic is so high…they should be able to make at least one sale, right? Sadly it’s wrong. The problem with this approach is that quantity never outranks quality. If you have only 50 highly-qualified hits to your site you will more than likely have higher conversion rates than if you had 1,000. So know who your audience is and what they want…and then give it to them. Superstar bloggers are very personal You likely have one or two bloggers who you think are the greatest. And I’ll bet that one of the reasons that you like these bloggers so much is how personal they are. They blog every day about business and the world of content marketing, but it’s always in there…those life experiences that are very close to them…and how these experiences can turn into lessons to help you the reader. Chris Brogan is a master of this skill. If you look at his “Best Of” page you’ll see that a lot of that content is written from a personal perspective: It’s like he was writing just to you because he is writing like he is talking. He is very conversational. It is coming out so easy because he is passionate and informed about what he is talking about…but it’s in such a personal context that you can totally relate. Superstar bloggers stick to their brand While lots of superstar bloggers started off without really knowing their brand…they knew what they were really good at it…but they didn’t have a really good idea of their essence. But blogging eventually helped flesh that out. Johnny B Truant has created a brand of blogger misfit. His name alone tells you a lot…but then his avatar that’s branded on Twitter, Facebook and his blog tells you even more. He’s biting into an apple, which reminds you of Adam and Eve and the first sin. His brand is very distinct. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t create another blog and create another brand. Lots of superstar bloggers run two or more blogs…but each blog is branded very uniquely. Conclusion In a world where so many blogs are being published you need to know what qualities are necessary to rise above the crowd and stand out like a superstar. Fortunately you can look at current blogging superstars and follow what they did. What other qualities do blogging superstars have?  About the author: Neil Patel is the co-founder of KISSmetrics, an analytics provider that helps companies make better business decisions. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

Mozscape Update: Our Largest Index Yet, 159 Billion URLs Posted: 01 May 2012 09:35 AM PDT Posted by AndrewDumont Over the last few months our engineering team has been working feverishly on a new index. Our crawlers were extremely successful, but, we ran into a few bumps in the road along the way. Those proverbial bumps shifted our expected launch date from the beginning of April... to today. It's not all bad, though. The new index went live today, and it's big. 159 billion URLs big.     That said, we learned an important lesson in all of this -- maybe bigger isn't better. Our community has voiced their opinion and we agree, consistent index launches are essential.   That's why we've made changes to dial back our crawlers to a manageable size in order to address the community's number one concern, releasing indexes on a reliable schedule. Our overarching goal is to increase index size over a long period of time, all while updating our processing architecture to maintain a reliable release schedule, starting with our next index that'll be launching in the coming weeks.   Before jumping into the juicy details of this index, I wanted to first point out that the other news (ahem) we announced today will play a large role in alleviating these delays in the future. Plans include both growing our team of engineers to solve these complex scaling problems and investing in the necessary computing resources to consistently produce a larger index. Money can't do everything, but it sure doesn't hurt when it comes to index consistency. :)   Here Are The Latest Stats 159,751,604,443 (159 billion) URLs 1,114,893,161 (1.1 billion) Subdomains 153,439,996 (153 million) Root Domains 1,768,519,682,804 (1.7 trillion) Links Followed vs. Nofollowed 2.47% of all links found were nofollowed 64.05% of nofollowed links are internal 35.95% are external Rel Canonical - 11.13% of all pages now employ a rel=canonical tag The average page has 82.90 links on it 71.75 internal links on average 11.15 external links on average A Few Caveats   I know, I know -- there's always got to to be a catch. So, the index isn’t 100% up-to-speed right off the bat. But it's close. In an effort to get the new index out, we had to make a few sacrifices. Namely, our Anchor Text call will still be indexing the old index when queried, meaning that if you request Anchor Text information it will be slightly dated. The legacy Anchor Text funnel will only hang around for 6 - 8 days from now, until we roll out a refresh to the index. Then, all will be back to normal.   What's This MozScape Stuff?   Finally, you may have noticed Linkscape's shiny new API pages and snazzy new name. The short of it is that Linkscape is now Mozscape, both to better scale our API naming conventions and to refresh the brand. Along with that refresh came a drastic increase in speed, bumping the API rate limit from one request every 10 seconds to 10 requests per second on the paid levels, some great case studies of folks using our data and a simplification of our pricing model. It's just the beginning of our big plans that we have in store.   Enjoy the updates, and if you've got any questions about the new index or Mozscape, drop me a line in the comments or via email. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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President Obama in Afghanistan: "It's time to renew America"

Your Daily Snapshot for Wednesday, May 2, 2012   President Obama in Afghanistan: "It's time to renew America" Yesterday President Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to meet with President Hamid Karzai and sign a strategic partnership agreement that will guide our future relationship with the country, and to speak about the return of our troops from Afghanistan. In a televised address, the President talked about the progress U.S. troops have made in the last decade, and how the end of two wars will allow us to focus on a new set of national priorities: As we emerge from a decade of conflict abroad and economic crisis at home, it’s time to renew America -- an America where our children live free from fear and have the skills to claim their dreams. A united America of grit and resilience, where sunlight glistens off soaring new towers in downtown Manhattan, and we build our future as one people, as one nation. Watch the President's full address to the nation. Check out a special photo gallery of President Obama's visit: In Case You Missed It Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog: President Obama Pays a Surprise Visit to U.S. Troops in Afghanistan After his meeting with President Karzai in Kabul, President Obama joined U.S. troops at Bagram Air Base and thanked them for the sacrifices they have made over the past decade of war, and paid tribute to their successes. White House Google+ Photowalk: Garden Tour This year, we invited photo enthusiasts and our followers on Google+ to join us for the first ever White House Google+ Photowalk. View a gallery of their photos. First Lady Michelle Obama: “I am humbled and inspired” First Lady Michelle Obama speaks at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Warrior Games. Today's Schedule All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). 8:30 AM: The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden host a Cinco de Mayo breakfast at the Naval Observatory 10:40 AM: The President arrives Joint Base Andrews 10:55 AM: The President arrives the White House 3:45 PM: The President participates in an Ambassador Credentialing Ceremony 4:30 PM: The President attends a campaign event 5:30 PM: The President attends a campaign event 7:00 PM: The Vice President delivers remarks at Lafayette College as part of the "Lives of Liberty" lecture series  Indicates that the event will be live-streamed on WhiteHouse.gov/Live Get Updates Sign up for the Daily Snapshot Stay Connected     Facebook Twitter YouTube Flickr Google+     This email was sent to e0nstar1.blog@gmail.com Manage Subscriptions for e0nstar1.blog@gmail.com Sign Up for Updates from the White House Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy Please do not reply to this email. Contact the White House The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111

Seth's Blog : Is catastrophizing effective?

Is catastrophizing effective?

Often, our instinct is to make the current bump in the road far more urgent than it actually is. It focuses our attention and rallies those around us to take immediate and deliberate action.

After all, if this is the big one, of course we should drop everything and deal with it.

Missing from this equation is the cost of dropping everything. The short-term herk and jerk that is delivered by an organization that responds to those that amplify problems into catastrophes inevitably leads to poor performance in the long run.

Employees who do this ought to be counseled to cut it out. It's not what we hired you to do. Bosses who catastrophize are often hesitant to admit it, though, and if you work for one, it's going to continually hurt your ability to do your best work.

And non-profits who catastrophize to meet their next funding goal inevitably sabotage the very work they set it out to do in the first place, all because it's an easy way to raise some extra money.

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Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

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• Contrary Indicator Alert: Greenspan Says U.S. Stocks ‘Very Cheap,’ Likely to Rise
• Bank of Spain Confirms Foreigners Dump Spanish Bonds; Spanish Banks Foolishly Load Up
• I'm Swapping Some Gold for Silver

Contrary Indicator Alert: Greenspan Says U.S. Stocks ‘Very Cheap,’ Likely to Rise Posted: 01 May 2012 11:21 AM PDT Bloomberg authors By Steve Matthews and Tom Keene report Greenspan Says U.S. Stocks 'Very Cheap,' Likely to Rise Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said U.S. stocks offer good value and are likely to rise as corporate earnings increase over time. "Stocks are very cheap," Greenspan said today at the Bloomberg Washington Summit hosted by Bloomberg Link, citing "a very low price-earnings ratio." "There is no place for earnings to grow except into stock prices," said Greenspan, who served as Fed chairman from August 1987 to January 2006. Another valuation metric, known as the Fed model because it was derived from a July 1997 report from the central bank, shows U.S. equities are close to the cheapest level ever relative to debt. The technique compares the earnings yield for stocks with Treasury rates. Fed Model Idiocy The Fed Model has been discredited so many times and in so many places, that Matthews and Keene should both know better than bring it up. For a discussion, please see Why Is Bad Advice So Common? The general idea that stocks are "cheap" offers more further ground for intelligent debate, but I strongly disagree and said so recently in Misty Water-Colored Memories, Dirt-Cheap Stocks, and Patient Opportunism Finally, history shows Greenspan to be one of the biggest contrarian indicators in history. Greenspan is a Contrary Indicator After warning about irrational exuberance in 1996, Greenspan embraced the "productivity miracle" and "dotcom revolution" in 1999. Mid-summer of 2000 Greenspan fell in love with his own analysis and was worried about inflation risks. Shortly thereafter the Greenspan Fed embarked on an incredible campaign slashing interest rates to 1% in panic over deflation. Greenspan is now trumping up the idea that credit conditions are like 1998. I talked about this in No Greenspan, Conditions are NOT Like 1998. On May 21,2006 Greenspan said housing prices won't fall nationally. That prompted me to write Greenspan Predicts Housing Bust. History shows Greenspan was worried about Y2K problems (slashing interest rates and adding fuel to the dotcom bubble). Y2K went off without even minor glitches. In 2001 Greenspan pleaded with Congress to adopt Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut. Greenspan's rationale was the government would run huge $5.6 trillion surpluses over the subsequent decade after the cuts. It's right here in the Testimony of Chairman Alan Greenspan Before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. Senate January 25, 2001. In 2007 Greenspan was worried about inflation. How did that work out? Greenspan on the Daily Show Towards the end of that Interview with Jon Stewart Greenspan admits he and the Fed did not know what they were doing and blamed it on "human nature". Indeed! And that is why the Fed is always chasing its tail, and why Greenspan is wrong again today. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Bank of Spain Confirms Foreigners Dump Spanish Bonds; Spanish Banks Foolishly Load Up Posted: 01 May 2012 10:26 AM PDT Anyone with a clue is dumping Spanish bonds, and the investment community in Germany, France, and Italy is doing just that, as Spanish banks foolishly lever up on risk. Via Google Translate, please consider Bank of Spain confirmed that foreign capital flees Spanish bonds The weight of foreign capital in the total of Spanish government debt has declined considerably in the first three months of the year, rising from 50.48% at end-2011 to 37.54% last March. At the same time, the Spanish bank increases its exposure to domestic bonds to record highs of more than 170 billion euros. 62 Billion Euro Leakage in Last 3 Months In the last three months the international portfolio in bonds and letters of the State has suffered a leak of nearly 62 billion euros from 281.439 billion euros down to 219.601 billion euros at March 31. Spanish banks increased their exposure to a record of 170.611 million euros, 29.16% of the total compared to 16.93% representing the end of December. Specifically, the weight of the debt portfolio of the state of Spanish banks has six consecutive months of gains, especially since last November with the purchase of more than 100,000 million. This has been fueled largely soothing the open bar of liquidity held by the European Central Bank (ECB), which granted a billion euros of credit to a 1% interest that has helped Spanish banks invest in bonds. LTRO "Helped" Spanish Banks? Notice that absurd reference to "help" in the last paragraph above. There was "help" alright, help by ECB president Mario Draghi to allow German, French, and Italian banks to dump Spanish debt hand over fist to fools in Spain. If one thought bureaucrats could think, one might think this was Super Mario's plan from the beginning. Certified Crackpot Plan Who should pay for the idiocy of loading up on Spanish debt once it implodes? The answer of course is the banks and the bondholders. But No! Harvard Economics professor Martin Feldstein has hatched a certified crackpot plan to force risk onto taxpayers. For details, please see Ludicrous Proposal by Harvard Economics Professor to Force Taxpayers to Buy Spanish Bonds; Mish's Five-Point Alternative Proposal Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

I'm Swapping Some Gold for Silver Posted: 01 May 2012 01:36 AM PDT Roughly one year ago (April 27, 2011 to be precise) I wrote Taking Silver Profits - Swapping Silver for Gold I have held physical silver and gold investments continuously for 5 years, and on and off before that. Today I cashed out of silver, trading it for an equal dollar value of gold. For the sake of full disclosure, my physical precious metals holdings are now entirely at GoldMoney and I have an affiliate relationship with them. As a result of that relationship, I will likely be back in silver soon, but in small amounts, and hopefully at decreasing prices. If silver crashes, I will consider switching a considerable percentage of my gold for an equal dollar value of silver. Given the unstable nature of parabolic and hyperbolic spikes, I believe the price of silver is highly likely to revisit the low $20's at some point.I see no point in chasing silver higher here. Moreover, except for pure speculation, I see little reason to even hold silver in this spike. Both gold and silver seem susceptible to a pullback, but especially silver because of the unstable nature of its advance. For now, I will take my chances with gold. Silver never got to the low 20's. Perhaps it does and perhaps it doesn't. Since gold was roughly $1500 and silver roughly $46 at the time I made the swap, It's fair to say I am happy with the trade. I did about 1/3 of what I would like to do. Bear in mind this trade is not a recommendation. Indeed, I think I am early. If so, and if silver makes an excursion to the low $20's (perhaps even the mid-20's) I am likely to swap a lot more. If not, and silver blasts higher, I am back in. As noted above: For the sake of full disclosure, my physical precious metals holdings are now entirely at GoldMoney and I have an affiliate relationship with them. If anyone wants information about GoldMoney or investing in physical gold and silver in general, please Email Mish Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

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