Scammers!!!

Scammers Three months ago, a hard-working friend entrusted me to advise him about an investment opportunity where an investment manager had been calling him frequently to invest in his double-digit "guaranteed" returns strategy. I was amazed that after Madoff, Petters and the likes, Ponzi schemes were still thriving!
The company is Oxford Global Partners and the scheme is still describe under allegations, but the investment opportunity had all the attributes of a Ponzi:
- Returns are “guaranteed”
- Clients sought after are hard-working people who are not financially savvy
- The setting is made to impress: They were the new tenants of the Van Dusen Mansion, and they chose the name “Oxford” to sound like a well established long-timer
- They boasted about state-of-the-art technology that helps them trade foreign currencies
- They supposedly found a loophole in trading currencies in Jordan for double-digit returns

Well, I am so happy that my friend did not invest (hopefully my advice was a factor). The company is making the news today and over $15M already disappeared. Check this Star Tribune article.

Inc or LLC?

More Positive Signs

New homes sold at an annualized rate of 433,000 in July 2009, which was way beyond analysts' forecasts and was up 9.6% from the previous month. This comes in conjunction with an uptick in home prices. All signs of a potential "faster-than-expected" recovery.

Finally!!! An Upswing