Pity your poor editor! As you might know, all the Q Wealth consultants are experts working day in, day out in their respective fields. We don’t employ ‘writers.’  So sometimes it’s hard to get articles out of people for specific deadlines. They are simply too busy taking care of their clients and businesses. Nonetheless, we believe that the quality of the wealth creation, asset protection and offshore banking information here makes it all worthwhile. You are getting real know-how and experience from real self-made millionaires – nothing less.

That’s why we owe you an apology. We wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, but we were just too busy tying up loose ends on other deals before the holidays to update the blog here. So we hope you had a great Christmas with your loved ones, and we wish you infinite Health, Wealth and Happiness in the New Year!

Currently, we’re busy on a new five part course entitled Secrets of the Super Rich. This is an updated and vastly improved version of our previous 12-part course, covering in five modules:

1. Offshore Banking Made Simple – by Peter Macfarlane
2. Introduction to Asset Protection and Estate Planning – by Peter Macfarlane
3. Health, Wealth and Wisdom – by Richard Cawte
4. How to Build Wealth Online and Offshore – by Thomas Bolther
5. The Coming Shift in Power and How to Prosper From It – by Richard Cawte

The best part of all, dear readers, is that we will give you this course absolutely free. No cost, no obligation. No free trials or credit card numbers required. The only condition is that you sign up to receive our periodic Q Bytes free email newsletter. How to get it? Just come back here in early January and it will be available on our new index page. Our designers are working on this new homepage as I write.

On another topic, I’ve talked before about Gold Price Manipulation – and why you should buy physical gold rather than ETFs. Buying physical gold has become somewhat difficult of late, so I am busy tying up details of a deal exclusively for Q Wealth subscribers that will allow you to buy gold and then hold it in safe deposit boxes you control, completely anonymously, with easy access from North America and Europe.  Details of this program allowing you to buy gold coins offshore will be announced shortly to our subscribers.

2009 sees us with a hectic travel schedule too, getting out on the road to meet our members. At the end of January we’ll be meeting some clients at our VIP Asset Protection event in Panama City. Panama is easy to reach especially for our North American readers, who might like to escape the cold for a few days to make some serious progress in building new offshore business and banking strategies. Then at the end of March, join your editors for a high level, intensive two-day course in Bantry, Ireland on offshore wealth building. The Ireland event will appeal especially to our UK and European members. I can’t speak for the weather in Ireland in March, but they tell me the Hotel is excellent and a dose of Irish hospitality can’t go amiss. At both events there will be time to sit down for both one-on-one meetings and informal cups of tea or maybe even a Guiness with Richard and Peter.

During 2009 one of our main focuses here will be helping our clients not just to survive the coming recession, but to prosper. I talk about the ‘coming’ recession, because although we are in the midst of a recession already, it’s going to get a lot worse yet. Then again, bad news and good news are different sides of the same coin. There are going to be numerous opportunities to thrive, prosper and create wealth using secure offshore asset protection and banking structures during 2009. As Thomas Bolther says, it is not products, services or goods that create wealth, but ideas. Ideas are the capital of the wired world. And you can generate ideas from anywhere. It’s an inspiring thought I believe, and inspirations are indeed what makes life matter. Stay tuned to Q Wealth Report with your annual subscription and 2009 could be your best year ever! Don’t miss out.

Just when the mainstream media were trying to persuade us that things might be getting better again, comes the news of the world’s largest ever Ponzi scheme run by the now infamous Bernard Madoff, who (forgive me) “made off” with $50 billion. More victims are coming forward every day. Isn’t it incredible that some of the biggest banks in the world can be scammed?

Well, yes and no. It appears that City and Wall Street financiers had not had found the time to read our page on Due Diligence for Offshore High Yield Investments. On that page we have a 5 point offshore due diligence checklist that could, by all accounts, have saved investors millions in this case. For example, Madoff paid out returns in good times and bad, without ever explaining how he was making the money. As we’ve always said, beware of secrecy – something may be the best investment in the world, but if you don’t understand how it works, you will most likely lose your shirt. And that’s just what all these bankers, plus a lot of individuals and charitable foundations, have just discovered to their cost.

How did Madoff get away with this? Because if people see others flooding in to an investment, they assume it must be good. We call it following the sheep.

CNN, interestingly enough, just prepared their own 5 point due diligence checklist, that puts much the same ideas in a different way. For example, their first rule is “Don’t invest in anything you don’t understand.” Very good advice. I would recommend you go and read that too.

There will be a lot more like this. I am convinced that there are numerous other Ponzi schemes out there, being run by supposedly respectable institutions and individuals. Not to mention the internet based High Yield Investment Schemes known as HYIPs. Ponzi schemes work great while people don’t ask for their money back. In good times, people just roll over and re-invest the returns, so the supposed returns are nothing more than numbers on a spreadsheet.  In bad times, people try to redeem – and a run on the Ponzi scheme leads to its collapse. If news reports are to believed, that’s exactly what happened in the Madoff case.

So if you have your money invested in any scheme you don’t understand or have even the slightest inkling of a doubt about, get your money out now before it’s too late. If in doubt, go back and re-read the due diligence checklists linked to above.

In other news, Ecuador just defaulted on its bonds. The markets had been expecting this for some time, but yesterday it was finally confirmed. Gary Scott, an international investor who spends much of his time in Ecuador, when asked whether this was good or bad, answered:

This is a question much like, “Is the US federal $800 billion bail out, good or bad?”

The answer is yes and no.

First, remember that Ecuador defaulted on bonds once before in 1999.   Everything fell apart. Bank’s shut down. The country ran out of gas.  Times were terrible.

The country remained a great place to live. The cost of living collapsed. Help was easy to get. You could buy real estate for a song. So the answer to “Is this good or bad?” depends on who you are, how much money you have and where it is invested.

Gary showed pictures of smiling potato farmers, people who won’t be directly affected by the crisis, telling us that “the smiles won’t go away.”

Of course, this doesn’t just apply to Ecuador. Ecuador defaulted yesterday, but who knows wat country will default tomorrow, or when the USA will default on Treasury bonds. Probably those who really suffer more from these devaluations are the ones living in ’sophisticated’ financial service based economies like the USA and the UK. Devaluations aside, people will carry on eating, smiling, living… and they will need places to live. Things like real estate have an intrinsic value that cannot be taken away by devaluations, defaults or financial crisis.

And there are some great bargains around right now in offshore real estate. Of course, there’s little chance of mortgage financing, so you need to pay cash. Then again if you have even $20,000 cash there are some great bargains around just waiting to be snapped up. More on this in the next Q Wealth Report – so if you are not already a member, sign up today!

Q Wealth is with you – your reliable guide through the offshore maze, in good times or bad. Remember, our aim is to help you not just survive the recession, but prosper! For Q Wealth readers, the default in Ecuador is very much good news.

Update:  Catherine Austin Fitts asks:

And we are to believe that one guy could run a brokerage and money management firm with two sets of books and siphon off $50 billion? And no one knew?

This is the financial cover story equivalent of the yarn that a few devout Muslims hijacked two planes that hit skyscrapers that then magically collapsed leaving their passports and a copy of the Koran sitting on the sidewalk.

So…who has the $50 billion?

Hmmm…

by Peter Macfarlane for The Q Wealth Report

I’m pretty attuned to financial and economic news, being a writer on offshore banking and asset protection matters. I’m well aware of the declining dollar. So I’m probably not as easy as most people to shock. But something showed up in my inbox today that really made my jaw drop. Today I received a guest article from Olivier Garret of The Casey Report, that he sent over to be posted on my offshore banking blog. It showed some startling statistics, based on a new report out from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The 2008 Bailout has cost the US government so far $8.5 trillion. At the rate we are going, says Olivier, this will be in double digits – double digits in trillions that is – before the end of this year.

Of course, figures like this are way beyond most people’s comprehension… which is no doubt the reason the US government got away with this in the first place. So, it might be interesting to put this in context. That is where my jaw really dropped, when I read the said article.

If we add up in today’s inflation adjusted dollars, the total cumulative cost of all of the major wars and government initiatives since the American Revolution, they come to $8.1 billion. That’s right, less than the total cost of this year’s bailout.

We are talking here about (in descending order of cost):

• The Second World War
• The all-time budget of NASA
• The Vietnam War
• The Iraq War
• The New Deal
• The Korean War
• The Korean War
• The First World War
• The Savings and Loan Crisis
• Afghanistan/GWT
• The Marshall Plan
• The Gulf War
• The US Civil War
• The American Revolution
• The War of 1812
• The Louisiana Purchase

Yes that’s right folks, you add together the cost of everything on the above list and the total is still less than the money the US government has spent on this year’s bailout.

Wow, is all I can say. I knew things were pretty bad, but doesn’t that just put it in context? (As an aside, it’s interesting too to see how much the Iraq war is costing in comparison to other wars) If you want to read this all in more depth, take a look at the original article at the link above.

If this doesn’t make you feel any too comfortable about your investments in US dollars, I’m not surprised. If this doesn’t demonstrate we are in for very hard times ahead, then what does? The time for preparation is now. It’s time to build security and wealth offshore for your family, and for many the time has come to ditch the US, the UK and other economies that are so dependent on the current financial system… instead, it’s time to do something new, something that really creates value, something that will not just protect you but will make you prosper in the coming years, living the international lifestyle of your dreams.

We live in a world of information overload. You need a reliable guide, that won’t feed you the mass media hype. That is what we do here at The Q Wealth Report, the leading private newsletter on offshore banking and wealth creation. Join us now and don’t miss out on this essential information just for the minimal price of a subscription!

As with any generation, our kids are our hope for the future. But having just posted over on my private offshore banking blog some more doom and gloom about the wild machinations in the commodities markets and the likelihood of a default on US Treasury bills, I thought I might cheer up Q Wealth blog readers with something more positive!

Our kids might be getting bored with watching TV. That’s good news. I just received the first issue of a thought provoking new newsletter from Vera Verba called Individual Virtue, which describes itself as “The Journal of Courage, Honesty, Self-Respect & Achievement.”

According to Individual Virtue, an intellectual called Clay Shirky has come up with a new theory: Cognitive Surplus. Cognitive means related to thinking; surplus means extra. Get to the point, you are saying. Well, here’s the idea…

Following the Second World War, America had something truly new – millions of people with free time on their hands. In other words, masses of people with idling brains: A cognitive surplus.

So, what did people do with all of this new free time? They watched TV… for many hours, nearly every day of their lives. Collectively, Americans watch 200 billion hours of television per year.

But this, reports Clay, is beginning to change. There are a number of reasons to think that he may be right, but Individual Virtue gives you his example:

I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD. And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen. That seems like a cute moment. Maybe she’s going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever. But that wasn’t what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables. And her dad said, “What you doing?” And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, “Looking for the mouse.”

Here’s something four-year-olds know, and I can vouch for this based on my own kids: Media that’s targeted at you, but doesn’t include you, may not be worth sitting still for.

If Clay is right, and if people do finally pull themselves away from their flashing images, the consequences could be staggering. Those 200 billion hours of TV watching are equal to the creation of 2,000 Wikipedias, every year. Think about that for a moment.  This cognitive surplus is huge, even if only one quarter of us cut back on our TV-watching and do something half productive.

How will this little girl spend her time as she grows up? What if she spends half of her cognitive surplus doing something productive with that mouse, rather than sitting like a zombie in front of a TV? And what if her peers do the same? There are going to be some big changes happening. Very positive changes.

Doing something is almost always better than doing nothing. On the other hand, if you do nothing, you are – and remain – a zero, a non-event.

Looking to the future, what results can we expect from this cognitrive surplus? How can you as an individual harness this power, either for investment purposes or in your life? These are the kinds of questions we answer in each quarterly issue of The Q Wealth Report. If you are wary of signing up for a product you are not familiar with, please note that we now have a “try before you buy” promotion where you can instantly download a free sample back issue of The Q Wealth Report. Simply enter your email address in the box in the sidebar now and benefit also from a free subscription to Q Bytes, the best of Q Wealth in your inbox!