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The Tuesday Report

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July 19, 2005

Written by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews

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Pentagon Busily Bartering In Massive Building & Refurbishing Effort

The Pentagon is about halfway to its goal of obtaining development agreements to build or refurbish 185,515 housing units by late September 2007.

It’s the largest such project since Congress first tapped the private sector to upgrade military housing in 1996. Private developers are being using to finance and construct the new housing, as officials at the Pentagon believe the private sector can do it faster and more cheaply than the government could.

Interestingly, the Pentagon is contributing no money to the various building and refurbishing projects. Instead they’re trading the use of their land (owned by the U.S. government) in the form of a long-term lease to major developers, who in effect become partners with the military.

For example, the Army has a huge development in Oahu with plans to refurbish and build 8,000 homes for armed services members and their families on the island. The new partnership with Actus Lend Lease, in which the Army has a 49% stake and Actus 51%, is called Army Hawaii Family Housing LLC.


Every Billionaire In The World Used At Least One Of These 9 Strategies

A most fascinating article on the above headline will be published in the September issue of The Competitive Edge newsletter. (See the following article for more information on this valuable newsletter.)

Three of the nine billionaire strategies incorporate, in one way or another, barter. If you are operating a barter business and want to get your clients truly excited and motivated to use the world’s most exciting and profitable business tool it’s time for you to take some action! Learn what the three strategies are and then point them out to everyone in your exchange, as well as all of the prospects you to talk over the next decade!!

Start right now...use The Competitive Edge—a most valuable marketing tool to build your business in addition to helping your clients build their wealth! Give Bob Meyer a call today for full details (949) 831-0607.


“What we have here is a failure to communicate!”

Years ago, one of the most visible people in the barter industry said the #1 reason why the industry wasn’t farther along in its development was due to a “failure to communicate” by those in the business.

This realization was the genesis of The Competitive Edge newsletter, now into its 18th year of publication. Trade exchange owners who use this powerful marketing and promotional tool are never guilty of “failing to communicate.”

As the owner of a trade exchange you must stay in front of your clients. Informing, educating, and inspiring them, because your clients’ bartering is a relatively small percentage of their overall business. So if you don’t keep their interest and enthusiasm for trade at a high level, you lose.

Your primary aim, like all other businesses, is to get your clients coming back for more. Every extraordinary business (and every trade exchange owner who wants to be extraordinary) knows that the customer you have, is a lot less expensive to sell than the customer you don’t yet have!

Want to take your exchange to a higher level? Use The Competitive Edge newsletter in your operation—it “sells” the many benefits of working through your trade exchange like nothing else!

To learn more about The Competitive Edge newsletter and how it can help build your trade exchange, click here.


Cheap Capital Drives Real-Estate Globalization

Investors are pouring money into real estate around the world as they look to diversify the geographic concentration of their portfolios. What’s different now is that it’s a two way street, money is going wherever the best values are found.

Countries in Central Europe are appealing places to buy real estate as their governments have clarified laws, reduced taxes, and become increasingly transparent. China is drawing more investment too.

And about 20% of the real estate transactions in the U.S. last year came from foreign buyers. In Europe, foreign real estate buyers account for as much as 50% of transactions, largely from closely neighboring countries.

Global investment in commercial real estate last year jumped 12% from a year earlier to about $457 billion.


Get New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!

You can obtain useful, informative ideas and contacts in every available back-issue of BarterNews.


Another Barter Triumph For Trump

An interesting story is developing around the $1 billion lawsuit filed last week by Donald Trump against a group of his Hong Kong investment partners.

The partnership took place back in 1994 when Trump was experiencing financial difficulties. At the time he held a 77-acre plot on Manhattan’s West Side that several Hong Kong investors purchased for $82 million, assuming $250 million in debt.

At the time, although Trump pulled his own money out of the deal he bartered for a 30% interest in the newly formed partnership by lending his name and expertise to the development.

The recent lawsuit revolves around the $1.76 billion sale of the subsequent building now on the property. Trump contends there were several higher priced offers to buy the property. The Hong Kong investors say no written offers were received higher than the selling price. Win or lose on the lawsuit, Trump’s skilled bartering efforts will mean a big payoff for him.


Beverly Hills Attorney Trades On Expert Skills

Marc Toberoff is an attorney who’s made a reputation suing big studios on behalf of TV-show creators claiming they’re owed money for movie rights. (The Writers Guild contract stipulates that the creator of a TV show retains the show’s movie rights.)

Toberoff’s latest contingency-fee payment revolves around an agreement to exchange his expertise for a “piece of the action,” when he successfully represents the creator of a TV show.

His most recent success regards the new movie The Dukes of Hazzard, which opens August 5. The film is based on the popular 1970’s TV comedy about two Southern buddies who drive around getting into trouble and outwitting some local buffoons.

Warner Bros., the studio making the film, settled out of court and paid the writers of the TV series $17.5 million for the movie rights. It’s believed to be the largest sum ever to arise out of a case involving movie rights for a TV show.


Now available ...BarterNews issue #64, get your copy now! Orders will be shipped within two business days of publication. Click on Order Form.

(If you are not sure if your subscription has lapsed, e-mail your name, address, and zip code to bmeyer@barternews.com.


American Factories Cranking Out More Products Than Ever

On Friday the Federal Reserve’s monthly report on the state of the manufacturing sector showed that industrial production rose 0.9% in June, the largest increase in nearly eighteen months.

American factories are running closer to capacity than they have in half a decade. In the past year we’ve seen growth in output of high-tech equipment, machinery, and aerospace products. Additionally, growth in the production of motor vehicles is up (expanding 8.5% in the last 12 months) as foreign auto makers have increased U.S. output to win market share.

Two trends are at play: #1) Continuing productivity gains in the manufacturing sector, i.e. more products are produced with fewer workers. #2) The growing global economy allows U.S. producers to expand production even as upstart factories elsewhere, like China and Mexico, build up market share.


First-Ever Housing Bust Warning By Major Wire Service

In our 25 plus years of research we’ve never seen a major U.S. wire service issue this type of warning, as Reuters did over the 4th of July holiday weekend...

“Whether it’s a national bubble or just pockets of regional froth, an end to the surge in home prices could inflict economic harm that would make the 2000 tech bust look tame in comparison.

“Even if the market cools in only those parts of the country that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan describes as ‘frothy,’ the U.S. has a serious problem.

“If prices were merely to level off, it could subdue the property-linked activity that has stimulated spending and job growth—crucial supports for the U.S. economy.

“Based on benchmarks from a recent International Monetary Fund study comparing the stock and housing bubbles, there are about 15 states that are vulnerable to a housing market correction. These represent about 35% of gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation’s economy...

“The IMF study found that while stock market collapses are more frequent, housing busts do a lot more damage.”


Every barter company in the world is listed on our web site, click through to our Global List of Barter Companies.


From The Past ...
BarterNews issue #55

“Direct Connect” Model Another Area of Concern For Barter Industry

Changes come from many angles. And the barter industry isn’t immune to such evolvement. A new forum that allows airlines, and others, to sell travel directly to corporations could prove to be a formidable and considerable competitor.

The new system, GetThere Inc., is a business-to-business travel marketplace and marks a significant shift in travel distribution. By selling direct, travel suppliers bypass traditional computer reservation systems which provide schedule and fare information, process bookings, and charge fees for each transaction.

Those fees can cost travel suppliers—airlines, hotels, and car-rental companies—as much as $50 to $100 a trip. Gadi Maier, CEO of Menlo Park (CA) internet travel company GetThere.com, claims selling travel directly can cut distribution costs by 80%.

The push toward more direct selling comes as corporations increasingly bargain directly with their preferred suppliers in exchange for discounts. And the more “direct and streamlined” the process becomes for Corporate America the less they’ll need outside assistance, be it expansive reservation systems or the services of barter companies.


Survey Shows Workers Taking Fewer Business Trips Than Five Years Ago

Robert Half Management Resources, a provider of temporary senior-level accounting and finance professionals, reports that the bleary-eyed business traveler is becoming a less frequent sight in airports and hotels across the country. Nearly half (48%) of employees polled said they travel for work less frequently compared to five years ago.

The study shows that many firms are capitalizing on less-costly communication channels, such as webcasts and video conferences to facilitate project management and information sharing between remote parties.

Paul McDonald, executive director of Robert Half Management Resources, cautioned that while virtual interaction might save time and money, it often cannot replace the value of a handshake.

“Meeting with clients or vendors in person, even if it requires occasional travel, strengthens business relationships by encouraging open dialogue on critical issues,” he stressed. “Face-to-face discussions allow for more direct communication, enable participants to pick up on each other’s nonverbal cues, and reduce the potential for misunderstandings.”


Give A Gift To A Friend Or Associate. If you know someone who might benefit from this newsletter, feel free to forward it to them! (See the “box” at the end of the newsletter for the forwarding service.


Here & There...

  • International Monetary Systems (OTCBB:INLM) announced that its total revenue for June shattered all previous records. The company had gross income of $580,000 for the month, which represented an increase of 48% over the same period in 2004.

    “This record-breaking June sales volume,” CEO Don Mardak observed, “is further testimony to the speed at which our company is growing and successfully integrating the operations of our last three acquisitions.”
  • Bentley Commerce (OTCBB:BLYC) has appointed Anna Taylor as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Bentley she served as district manager for Knowledge Learning Corporation, a major education corporation that operates over 2,000 centers nationwide.

    Robert Schumacher, Bentley Commerce’s President, has been appointed to the position of Chief Information Officer. Schumacher will focus on building company awareness and manage its public and investor relations, advertising, and marketing support.

  • The world’s fastest-growing ad market today is Russia, where spending is expected to jump by more than 30% this year...up to $5 billion. Ad spending growth in the U.S. and Europe is expected to grow at 4% annually.

  • Have you signed up to receive a summary via e-mail of the TuesdayReport every week? If not, go to the top of this issue (right hand corner) and sign up!

  • With crude oil hitting $60 a barrel and commodity prices soaring, it’s hard to make a convincing argument that inflation is completely under control. But Bill Gross, the chief investment officer of Newport Beach (CA)-based Pacific Investment Management, the world’s largest manager of bonds, says that “next year, disinflation will ultimately triumph over reflation.”

    Gross is defying conventional wisdom by predicting the Federal Reserve will stop its rate-increase policy and start cutting borrowing costs.

  • Harvard economics professor Richard Freeman says even if science and engineering workers end up representing just a small portion of the total work force in China and India, these countries are so populous that they can have a very large footprint.

    First-year entrants into China’s science and engineering Ph.D. programs rose six-fold from 1995 to 2003, putting China on pace to produce more doctorates than the U.S. in these fields by 2010.

  • Brilliant investment bankers? One wonders when reading about the pay package Morgan Stanley’s Board of Director’s provided to recently-named co-president Steve Crawford. Although he began his new position March 28, on July 1 Morgan Stanley announced that Crawford had resigned. So for his 15 weeks on the job he earned $53,000 an hour—assuming he put in an average 40-hour week.

    Crawford was provided with a guaranteed $16 million a year, for two years, and the package said he could just walk away with the whole amount if he left the position by August 3. (The incredible package was designed to ensure management stability during a search for a new CEO.)

  • Russia eliminated its inheritance tax last month negating one of Karl Marx’s policy planks. (The third policy plank of Marx’s Communist Manifesto is taxation of all inheritance.) The move comes after January’s decision by the government of Sweden, the birthplace of the modern-day welfare state, to eliminate its estate tax.

    The Swedes like the Russians believe that the tax is unjust and economically counter productive; so does Argentina, Australia, Canada, India, Mexico, and Switzerland.

    (The U.S. now has the distinction of imposing the most onerous death tax in the industrialized world—seeing the federal estate-tax rate at 45% on every dollar above a $1.5 million exemption.)


We welcome your comments, questions, and observations.
? Copyright BarterNews 2005. Redistribution of BarterNews content expressly prohibited without the prior written permission of BarterNews.

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