Written by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews

Municipalities Gets Creative...Exchange Advertising For Police Cars!

BarterNews has learned that several municipalities will be leasing cruisers (police cars) for $1 a year, in exchange for allowing the cars' hoods, trunks and sides to be used for advertising purposes—from companies such as supermarket chains, insurance firms, and hospitals.

Other News...

• We've talked about the incredible growth of frequent flyer miles as a currency, and then eBay's pushing its new currency—Anything Points. Here's the latest one...Starbucks is teaming up with Visa USA and Bank One launching the first-ever dual-purpose credit card for a retailer. It will function both as a prepaid cash card at Starbucks outlets, and as a standard credit card anywhere else. And users will accrue coffee credits!
  
  In short, every time a card holder spends money somewhere else, Starbucks will benefit. And the card holders won't have to wait long before their coffee credits kick in either, given that the price of a cup of coffee is far different than an airline ticket!
  
• A television show filmed in Hawaii is busy looking to partner with an airlines to fly their cast and crew to Hawaii, in exchange the show promises to provide tremendous exposure for the "partner."
  
• Fred Detwiler, President of Trade Exchange of America, a barter company founded in 1978 in Detroit, recently was written up in the Detroit News.
  
• Don Mardak, CEO of International Monetary Systems (OTCBB:INLM) was interviewed by CEOcast.com.
  
• Xraymedia continues to announce new media contracts. We first reported on their offering "barter blends" in the Tuesday Report about six months ago.
  
• The fight over media ownership (increasing and allowing TV ownership to reach 45% of the national audience, from the current 35%) isn't over yet. A House panel voted to block federal regulators from relaxing the limit on how many local stations a television network can own, by taking the action of wrapping an amendment into a $41.2 billion bill.
  
• Shipping of wine directly to consumers continues to make progress as UPS and FedEx expand services to many more states. UPS now makes deliveries to 31 states, up from 11, and FedEx now reaches 39 states.

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Tuesday Report archives?!

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The Barter Marketplace archives click here.

Artist Larry Bell Trades Artwork For Rent

In early issues of BarterNews we reported on artist Michael Whipple's trading endeavors. Later on, we related how hotelier and art collector Arnold Ashkenazy had amassed a 20,000 piece collection, valued at $20 million, through the astute use of barter. (Complete details are found in FastStart Barter Program I.)

We now take a look at artist Larry Bell, who has returned to Los Angeles after 30 years in New Mexico...he's tired of the commute. Rather than buying a house, Bell has decided to make a hotel in Venice his home. His "rent" will be paid the old-fashioned way—with his works of art.

Bell, a 64-year-old artist, was a key player in the groundbreaking 1960s movement dubbed Finish Fetish or Light & Space. He was among the first to have the tag "L.A. Look" attached to his work.

Extraordinary Revealing Report For Business Owners - Click here.

The following message was used to promote one's trade exchange. The exchange owner
sent this flyer/message out to every member....

Trade Is The Competitive Edge—Spread The Word!

We have begun co-publishing a monthly newsletter entitled The Competitive Edge that is a generic overview of barter in today's competitive marketplace.

In addition to providing the newsletter to you (our members) we have also begun a prospecting campaign using the publication. Each month we mail The Competitive Edge to businesses that would be an asset to our exchange, and follow up with phone calls.

Many trade exchanges have successfully used this newsletter, published by BarterNews magazine, to educate potential clients about trade and therefore attract new members. And we hope to have the same results here!

You can help us spread the word by providing some counter space or other conspicuous area to display The Competitive Edge to your clients. Waiting rooms, bookshelves, reception areas...wherever your customers have a chance to pick up a copy of the newsletter, they also will have a chance to find out more about bartering in today's economy.

Each month's issues offers new insights into the advantages of using trade and how it can improve a company's cash position. Every business owner will find the articles interesting and educational.

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

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

If you haven't read the current issue of BarterNews, get yourself a copy now! Orders are shipped the same day we receive them. (Click on Order Form)

Get New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!

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

• Nearly eight of ten U.S. lawyers surveyed by the International Bar Association believe the legal profession would benefit from the convergence of numerous laws across international borders. Money transmission and money laundering topped the list of legal areas that should be standardized, trade and investment, environmental protection, and terrorism and security also were picked by a majority of lawyers as areas that should be regulated globally.
  
• Have you signed up to receive a summary via e-mail of the Tuesday Report every week? If not, go to the top of this issue (right hand corner) and sign up!
  
• Small investors coming back into the stock market? Don't hold your breath. Retail activity is down over 50% in terms of volume. And if the past is any indication (the 1987 stock market crash) it will be awhile before the masses are investing again. Stock prices started rebounding after four quarters back in 1987, but the individual investor's activity didn't return to pre-crash levels for 17 quarters.

  But for the U.S. market to recover from the recent $8.4 trillion carnage, and get back to its total value of $17 trillion valuation in March 2000, it's expected to take nine years or more.

• Jagadeesh Gokhale, a recent consultant to the U.S. Treasury, and Kent Smetters, a professor at Wharton and a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research, wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal article that Medicare faces an imbalance exceeding $36 trillion and Social Security's imbalance exceeds $7 trillion. Both of these imbalances, totaling $43 trillion, dwarf the $3.5 trillion that the government officially reports as its current level of debt held by the public.

• India is a vast country with a billion people, but its economy is very small. Consider that its annual gross domestic product (GDP) is around $550 billion, which is less than the annual economic output of Los Angeles and Orange Counties in California.

• The Milken Institute, a nonprofit independent economic think tank, reports that the most downloaded report from its web site for 2003 is about creating capital.

• The American Legacy Foundation reports that 44.3 million people have quit smoking, no time parameters were given, however!

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