definition of recession

Our Economy

Today we are all witnessing one of the most troubling and uncertain times for global economic in history. While the current global economic crisis has most people wondering if things will get worse, some of us are already preparing for it. Keep reading and I’ll explain the definition of recession as well as some basics everyone should know.

Indicators of a Recession

The definition of recession involves an indicator known as the gross domestic product. This number measures how much is produced within a nation’s territorial boundaries. A drop in the GDP of less than 10% over a period of several months indicates a recession. A drop in more than 10% for a few years is called a depression.

The gross national product (GNP) measures how much a nation produces outside of its territorial boundaries and includes national companies who produce overseas. The GDP and GNP, theoretically, should be comparable. However economists are saying there is a bigger gap in these two numbers than ever before, indicating statistical manipulations.

Other economic indicators that seem to be manipulated these days are the consumer price index (CPI) and unemployment rates. The CPI calculates how much it costs to live for each person each year. By comparing the CPI with the average household income, you can determine how much people are struggling, or thriving, with making ends meet. Recently the government decided to remove two elements from the reported CPI numbers: food and energy. So, according to the government, we’re all doing very well financially as long as we stop eating and consuming energy. Yeah.

The unemployment numbers that are reported to the people fails to include a figure called the U6 number. This U6 number represents people who have been unemployed for so long they no longer qualify for benefits. According to the government, these people are no longer “unemployed” they’re “jobless.” If the U6 number was reported in the figures, our unemployment rate would double instantly.

Shapes of Recessions

Economists classify recessions by the shape of their curves when graphed. These types are: U, V, W and L. The L-shape recession is the most damaging as the economy crashes but doesn’t recover. U- and V-shape recessions both recover, with the U’s recovery being slightly more delayed than the V’s sharp rebound.

A W-shape recession is also known as a double dipped recession as you can see from the shape of its graph. This is what many economists believe is in store for us. A brief bounce back followed by a second recession.

Keep Learning All You Can

By educating yourself about the definition of recession, our economy, monetary systems and mechanisms behind it you can empower yourself to start protecting your financial future before things get worse.

how to survive in recession

Marketing Your Business During a Recession

So many network marketing home based business owners are really having to struggle with today’s saturated markets and challenging financial times. Learning how to survive in recession and still stand out from the crowd can sometimes seem an impossible task. However, by using these five brand attributes you can create a unique brand that will give you a great edge over your competitors.

How To Brand Your Business

I think one of the most overlooked aspects of marketing one’s business is developing a rock solid brand. People seem to make the assumption that if they’re a small business, a brand isn’t really needed. However, small or large, your customers will not automatically know who you are unless you tell them. Use this as a way to jump way above your competition.

Five Top Brand Attributes

1. Does your brand inspire people? If not you are failing to take advantage of the most important element in any brand. Think of Apple computers. This is an excellent example of how a brand inspires people, gets their attention and sparks up their imagination. All with a flash of a rainbow colored piece of fruit! That’s branding at its best.

2. Does your brand feature your uniqueness? If not your business will sink back into the wall with all the other generic brands. Stand out by showing people what is so unique about you and why your business is special.

3. Does your brand appeal to your leads? One of the best examples of what happens when a brand fails to appeal to the consumers is with Clairol’s 1979 branding campaign’s huge fail: Touch of Yogurt Shampoo. Do I need to say more?

4. Does your brand engender trust? Today’s consumers are much more savvy than ever before. Your brand has to carry a message of why you are to be trusted if you stand any chance of making a sale. The economy also plays in here as consumers are more careful about where they spend their money in tough times. But they do, still, spend their money so show them why they should send some your way by gaining their trust.

5. Does your brand show relevance to your leads’ lives? Does it answer how it will address their needs? Does it bring home the fact that you understand them and know how to help them? These are important questions to have answered within your business’ brand.

Financial Education

While learning how to survive in recession marketing and business branding campaigns, you are taking an important step in strengthening your business no matter what the economy is doing. The next step is learning how to protect your income and for that you really need to expand your financial education. Learn about our economy, monetary system and the mechanisms behind it to better insulate yourself from the effects.

effects of global recession

Different Types of Recession

In order to examine the effects of global recession we should first take a look at the various types of recessions that happen. Economists categorize recession by the shape of their curve. For example, there are V, W, L and U shaped recessions.

Recessions that are V and U shaped both go down and then recover relatively quickly. The V shaped recession’s recovery is sharper and comes sooner than that of the U’s. An L shaped recession is by far the worst as it goes down and stays down. Many fear this is what we are facing. However if we’re lucky the economists who are predicting a double dipped recession, or W shaped recession, will be right.

Recovery?

Although we hear plenty of chatter about recovery on the evening and international news outlets, most of us certainly aren’t enjoying any of its effects. It’s is true that Wall Street has seen a bit of a recovery but many experts are warning that this is just the middle of a double dipped recession. The really warning comes when they predict that once the economy starts to go back down, it’s going to go deep and long.

Signs of Worsening Economy

1. Increase in Unemployment – Take a walk down any Main Street in America today and you’ll see one boarded up business after another. Because small businesses provide over 80 percent of the jobs creation in this country as they start to go under so do the jobs.

2. Increase in Inflation – An increase in inflation means a decrease in your money’s purchasing power. Over the past 10 years your dollar has lost half it’s value. As long as the Federal Reserve, a privately owned international cartel, continues to print currency and devalue our monetary system this will continue to get worse until we reach the very frightening state of hyperinflation.

3. Increase in Poverty – The media doesn’t tend to give this unpleasant truth much attention but more and more people in this country are facing poverty and homelessness every day. While soup kitchens close for lack of resources, the number of hungry families grows exponentially. The most tragic aspect of this is the young mothers and children as well as the elderly are the hardest hit and most vulnerable.

Knowledge is Power

If you want to insulate yourself from the worsening effects of global recession the most important thing you can do is to educate yourself about finances, our economy, our monetary system and the mechanisms behind it all.

surviving the coming economic collapse

Tougher Times Await Us

There are very many industry experts warning us that the current economic recession is just a taste of things to come. If anyone has a hope of surviving the coming economic collapse, we all must take responsibility for our financial future starting today. Stepping outside the cubicle and becoming an entrepreneur is probably the most surefire way of protecting yourself. If you have any doubts about that, keep reading and I’ll explain.

Becoming an Entrepreneur

Becoming an entrepreneur right in the middle of a global economic meltdown may seem a little counterintuitive at first. However, if you are still lucky enough to have a cubicle to call your own, how much longer before you’re also another unemployment statistic? Six weeks? Four months? Tomorrow? We really can’t say and that is not what I call financial security by any means.

Consider this: more millionaires were made during the Great Depression than ever before. Also, there are more billionaires today than have ever been before. Notice the pattern? This is because economic crisis is, in truth, a simple scheme to transfer wealth from the majority of the working class citizens to the 2% that are the wealthiest and most elite in our world.

Stepping outside the box, or cubicle as it were, of the working class and taking your financial destiny in your own hands seems, to me, the most logical approach to surviving the coming economic collapse.

Three Great Start-up Businesses

Affiliate Marketing – This is one of the least expensive and most simple method to starting your own business online. However before you can start selling enough affiliate products to make any money you’ll need significant site traffic. This can take a very long time to achieve without the help of some experts. Consider outsourcing tasks like web design, SEO and writing to greatly speed this process up.

Pay per Click Programs – Many people make a great income from pay per click programs. The most popular of these programs is Google’s AdWords. Again your site will need fairly high and regular traffic before you can stand to make any money. Outsourcing may be the best option here as well.

Network Marketing – Network marketing remains one of the easiest ways for anyone to start their own business. It’s important to note that since the dawn of the internet, traditional MLM networks have been floundering and dying. There are more up to date and innovative methods such as the Top Tier networks and I’d strongly recommend looking to those first.

It’s Not Always Easy

It’s tough building your own business, trust me. It requires hard work, dedication and patience. But if you stick to your goals of surviving the coming economic collapse and seek out the right advice and guidance, it will all be well worth it in the end.

meaning of inflation

Define Inflation

The meaning of inflation and its causes are important elements to learn about in order to best protect yourself from the effects.  Inflation can mean the persistent rise in cost of goods or services from one year to the next.  It is the devaluation of our internal medium of exchange or simply the loss in purchasing power of the American dollar.  Continue reading to learn more.

Inflation Indicators

Two common economic indicators are used in determining inflation: the consumer price index (CPI) and the gross domestic product (GDP) deflator.  CPI means the average change in price on a particular set of products or services in a given period.  GDP deflator means price changes that occur in goods produced within our nation.  Both rates are necessary when arriving at our rate of inflation.  The rate of inflation helps us calculate the real interest rate and the cost of living when adjusting one’s wages.

Reasons for Inflation

A surplus of new currency – The more new money the Federal Reserve prints out and puts into circulation, the higher prices will rise for goods and services.  Therefore, it is up to them to monitor the total supply of currency being printed.  Inflation occurs to enable the total amount of economic output (GDP) to become equal to the supply of money.  Also, if the quality of goods and services provided should fall, inflation will result.

Increasing labor and production costs – Manufacturing costs have a tendency to go up on a regular basis.  Such costs are commonly the price of raw materials or workers wages as adjusted to meet the cost of living standards.  Whenever labor and production costs rise, the extra expenses are added into the price of the end products.

High lending levels and currency devaluation – New currency is continuously printed to help pay the national debt.  This is especially true when banks loan out large amounts of money.  International lending and national debt must also be paid plus the total amount of interest resulting from such loans.  With the influx of new currency created, inflation will occur to balance out the total economic output with our total money supply.

Higher taxes – Inflation will certainly occur when the federal tax on various products increase.  It doesn’t matter whether the new tax was applied directly or not.  As suppliers bill us additional for goods, the extra costs are passed onto the customers.

Demand-pull inflation – A type of inflation that results when the demand for a product is much higher than its available supply.  Manufacturers and sellers are free to set prices on such goods until the both the supply and demand are equal.

Continue to Learn

The most important step we can all take today is to educate ourselves about the meaning of inflation, the mechanisms behind our economy and the truth about our monetary system and where it’s heading. Start learning more today so that you can protect yourself tomorrow.

reasons for financial crisis

Knowing When a Recession Has Struck

What are reasons for financial crisis?  Common indicators include news of the stock market falling or major financial institutions and insurance companies going “belly up.”  You’re likely to notice real estate values fall and hear about home foreclosures skyrocketing.  Most of all, unemployment is likely to rise with the news of business downsizing and laying off employees.

Some Thrive During a Recession

Consumers often feel they have little or no control of their financial well-being during a recession.  Those who suffer financially tend to react to the news with anger and pessimism.  Such folks have been conditioned to believe our money supply is totally gone, but they are not aware of the complete truth.

Some view the recession as a time to prosper rather than suffer.  It is the ideal time to buy precious metals, properties, and various tangible goods while the prices are at their lowest.  Hence, they’ll aim to stock up on all they can afford with a plan to resell goods at a large profit if and when a recovery does arrive.

Where Did Our Money Go?

Anyone engaged in a home-based business must have a basic knowledge of economics.  They must understand that our money is not totally gone, but it has transferred from the hands of those who spent too much when the economy was going strong into the hands of the smart marketers.

The transfer of money goes from consumers known as re-active people to another group, termed as the proactive individuals.  The reactive have spent most of their money when the economy was still going strong.  Little, were they aware that a recession would come nor do they understand reasons for a financial crisis.  Now they are in financial straits and too afraid to buy into opportunities.

The other group, the proactive consumers are the savvy marketers.  When they see an opportunity come their way, they will snatch it up without hesitation.  They put forth the effort necessary to promote and market their business online, ensuring the best chances possible of earning more money during the recession.

How You Can Earn More

When running a home based business, you can prosper during hard times.  Here are some suggestions in being proactive:  Think of what is abundant rather than what’s scarce.  Approach opportunity seekers with direct response marketing.  Determine your most perfect types of customers and offer them the best quality in your product or service they can buy for their money.

Overall, it’s important to detect the reasons for financial crisis while keeping up to date with what is currently happening with our economy.  This will ensure you of applying the most appropriate marketing techniques and making highly effective business decisions.

So check out this video and empower yourself to subsist in such a difficult economy.

recession facts

Preparation Can Go a Long Way in Protection

It is highly advisable to keep in tune with news concerning our economy and be aware of recession facts.  If you feel an economic downturn about to happen, forewarn other, but try not to create feelings of panic or fear among those you know.  Also, create useful strategies to help yourself and others protect their finances in case of hard times.  The sooner we aim to make ourselves recession proof, the better off we’ll be.

Cut Back Your Expenses

By finding ways to reduce your typical living expenses, you can set aside funds for emergencies or for paying off debts.  Think of ways to lower usage of utilities as electricity or gas.  Create leisure activities that cost little or nothing.  Pay off debts as quickly as possible, starting with loans containing high interest rates.  These things are feasible through a monthly budget.

Be Aware of Economic Indicators

Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) – The CCI is an indicator reflecting on attitudes and feelings consumers have about our economy.  It is a survey given in 5,000 US households monthly in attempt to collect data relating to business and employment conditions as well as total household income.  Spending habits and purchasing trends are analyzed too.  The CCI level is regularly monitored by various news sources.

The Job Market – Obtaining an overall observation on how the job market is doing can tip one off to an upcoming recession.  Reading or hearing multiple stories about companies downsizing and eliminating jobs is a typical indicator.  Reductions in manufacturers’ inventories, orders, shipments, and sales are additional factors published by the Census Bureau.

Housing Market – A recession can be detected in a declining housing market.  This may mean more homes in your area going up for sale, sellers reducing asking prices, or more unoccupied dwellings.  Other factors may be a surge in foreclosures or a halt in new construction.

Stock Market – If you have an interest in the stock market, this will truly serve as a reliable indicator.  You are more apt to keep up with changes in the DOW and business news in general.

Secure and Diversify Your Income

Strive to protect your present income as well as increasing it.  Become alert to signs that may pose as threats to your job security or potential losses in sales. Don’t rely solely on your main income, but be creative in inventing new ways of making money.

Help protect yourself and others during an economic downturn by building a support group.  Everyone you network with will be more inclined to share recession facts they’ve recently learned about.  As a team you can pool ideas on recession survival strategies with all others.

causes of current global recession

Tough Times All Around

Today it seems that around the world we are all in the same sinking economic boat. Understanding the causes of current global recession, inflation and currency devaluation is critical to beginning to take the steps needed to protect yourself. Keep reading and I’ll share some insight on the basics and how they can affect your life in the near future.

Inflation and Recession

A good place to start is to define recession and inflation. A recession is determined by an index known as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A nation’s GDP measures everything that was produced within that nation’s territorial boundaries. A nation is considered experiencing a recession when the GDP falls by less than 10% for a period of several months.

Inflation refers to the devaluation of a nation’s currency. This is caused by several factors discussed below. Although inflation is considered a normal stage of the “business cycle” it can be cause for concern when it occurs unexpectedly or at a significantly faster rate than predicted.

Four Factors

1. The most prevalent cause of inflation is an excessive printing of money. If not carefully controlled, currency production can occur at a higher rate than the GDP. This results in higher prices as the producers try to make up for the loss of the currency’s value. It is what is known as the demand-pull effect. It’s important to note that in the U.S. our government does not control the production of money. The Federal Reserve, a privately owned international institution with little interest in protecting the American people, is entrusted with this vitally important role.

2. An increase in labor and production costs will increase inflation and drive a recession along. As the cost of production rises so do prices. This serves to further devalue the currency. Any increase in labor costs is also passed down to the consumer.

3. A nation’s deficit will impact inflation and drive a recession as the nation tries to pay off its debt and interest payments. This leads to a significant gap in exports versus imports which is compensated for by again raising prices and increasing the consumers’ burden.

4. Taxes, whether direct or indirect, are another factor in economic disease. A direct tax is simply taken right out of the citizens’ hands while an indirect tax, for example on a specific product, is compensated for by the producer by raising prices.

It’s Not Easy Being a Consumer

Based on this information, is it any wonder that a nation’s government encourages consumer spending in times of financial hardship? Inflation and other causes of current global recession are simply a way of imposing hidden taxes on citizens. It has never been more urgent to educate yourself about the mechanisms in place and the ways you can protect yourself and your family.

recession proof careers

Small Business Ideas on the Internet

Would you be interested in four great recession proof careers that cost $500 or less to start? If so, keep reading. Making money with on the Internet has never been easier than or as foolproof as it is today. Whether you want to pursue network marketing or just an ordinary home-based business, you can start it with no trouble at all. For fabulous ways to make money, read on.

Marketing Online Today

Two basic essentials for building these small businesses online are a website or blog. Some web hosters offer servers that start out at a low monthly fee. Blogging sites, for example Blogger and Word Press, offer free blog hosting. Domain names run for as little as $10 – $15 per month, but there are hosting programs that will allow your first domain free of charge.

As easy or as promising the world of online marketing may seem, there really are no get-rich-overnight systems that will work for you. Unscrupulous online marketers advertise such programs hoping to take advantage of unsuspecting newcomers. Thus, when looking around for business systems and tools online, be very careful. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it most certainly is.

Four Easy Start-ups

Affiliate Marketing – Here is an opportunity to make money by promoting others’ products on your site or blog. The commission for each product sold is usually 50% or more. Simply choose products that pertain to your niche and ones you believe would attract visitors. Offer product reviews and relevant content that shoppers need to know on each. Affiliate links by themselves won’t sell these items.

Virtual Store Fronts – You can convert your site or blog into a store that sells products offered by a dropshipper. Simply take your customers orders, send that info to the dropshipper and in turn, the dropshipper will ship the sold items directly to your customers. Best of all, there is no inventory to purchase or stock on your behalf. Of course, you’ll want to sell items that pertain to your site’s or blog’s niche.

Develop Virtual Products – If you are highly skilled or experienced in developing a product others find useful, you may want to consider selling it on your own site. Such a virtual product may be an ebook, email training course or online coaching course.

Top Tier Marketing – Many of you who’ve tried MLM marketing before with no success may be too discouraged to try marketing again. Still, top tier marketing has been proven to be one of the most exciting and powerful approaches that have recently came along. Start up costs are greater than the other three methods, but with the community support and guidance from experts, your chances of success are greater. This system utilizes the “new rules of money” that are dealt with in our “new economy.” In fact this method is so effective, it’s rather hard to put a price tag on it.

It Takes Time

Top tier networks have been known to get one up and running instantly. Still, the other three recession proof careers demand a great deal of time and patience. Learning to use search engine optimization properly will help make your business profitable by bringing sufficient traffic to your site. Still, patience and persistence pays off. Dedicate time to your business on a daily basis and it will be successful.