Part 1 of 2

PUT THIS post in the “Investment Health” category; in fact, the self-help guru, Tony Robbins, refers to his warning about the economy and stock market as a system “going on a detox” by flushing through the debt upon which America has been binging.

What does Tony Robbins know about the economy?  Well, he’s a smart guy, but in this case, he reports that it’s his connections to the financial gurus — many, his clients — that give him the insight and conviction to present these two videos, above and below.

These people warned him before the 2008 economic meltdown and are doing so again. In the video, Tony lays it out and suggests we do some homework to prepare.

I thought his point of view was compelling enough to offer it to my readers, so go at it, and do with it (the information) what you will.

Part 2 of 2

DR. ANN Kulze underscores that one of the most powerful health investments you can make is to buy and eat healthy food. Much of the time, it’s cheaper than the processed manufactured food that is so well packaged and preserved.

And if you include the health benefits of “real” food, which include NOT getting sick, the value of healthy eating is a slam dunk over the alternatives that the mega supermarkets and restaurants offer.

One little known fact is that there’s a direct correlation between restaurant eating and being overweight. Alternatively, the correlation also holds between preparing your own food and not being overweight.

Here are some of Dr. Kulze’s tips for healthy eating:

1. Beans and brown rice. Some healthiest food is also the cheapest.  Beans contain many nutrients, fiber and protein.  (The long-lived Blue Zone people thrive on them.) A serving can cost as little as 12 cents.  Whole grains like brown rice are a good complex carb, and – get this — $2 can serve 16 people.
2. Learn to value nutrients rather than calories.  We don’t  need more calories.  We do need more nutrition.
3. Buy in volume/bulk. Individually wrapped stuff cost much more than buying in bulk, and the wrapping contributes to environmental degradation given the energy required to create it, and the landfill that must absorb it.
4. Buy what’s local and in season because such food is cheaper, fresher, healthier, and better for environment.  A lot of carbon dioxide is spewed into the air by trucks or planes hauling food a thousand miles to your local grocery store.

In this video, Dr. Kulze gives tips for how to eat healthy while on a budget:

If you have any tips for eating well on a budget, please share them with us in the Comments section below.

Related posts:

1. 5 Healthy Eating Nutrition Tips — Watch Video
2. The Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 – Food to Live By (Watch)
3. Sunday Special: An Inconvenient Truth about Our Food — Watch

One Women Knew and was Shut Down

THIS FRONTLINE report is so good and relevant to your understanding of what has stood behind, or between, you and your financial health that I’m compelled to share it.

This is a story of how one woman, Brooksley Born, who saw the ominous signs of what would culminate in a financial meltdown, was shut down by the powerful interests that profited by the status quo, irrespective of the dangers.

Watch the hour-long retrospective which aired recently on PBS’s Frontline.

Related posts:

1. TARP Inspector: Financial System May Now Be In A “Far More Dangerous Place” (VIDEO)
2. The Debt Crisis and the Health of the American Political System

Moral hazard (tails you loose, heads I win) has increased and “is far more dangerous today than a year ago.” Neil Barofsky, TARP Inspector

Click here to view the embedded video.

It would seem they’re on the banks side, cause:

1. Banks have been allowed to get bigger than before the crisis, thus insuring that they’re even more “to big to fail” now than before the financial crisis;

2. The big banks have been allowed to buy other big banks, thus reducing competition and the number of banks in the system;

3. Despite the trillions of tax payer funds (and money borrowed from the Chinese) invested, loaned and guaranteed to the banks, it has not improved liquidity (availability of credit);

4. The level of risky investments banks make — the very thing that sunk the economy — has not abated; and

5. The bonuses, whether measured by amount (still multiple millions for many), or how earned (creating short-term profits with potential long-term losses), have not been restructured.

Say what!? Yep, it’s true.

Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general who tracks the historic bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”) is interviewed in the video above by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund.  Mr. Barofsky makes it clear that he is intent on demanding transparency from all quarters — including the U.S. Treasury. His next audit is due in October.

In the video he makes these observations:

1. He found hundreds of banks capable of tracking their use of the TARP money – despite claims by the U.S. Treasury that the task was impossible.
2. If the purpose of the TARP rescue was to increase lending, it has failed.
3. The U.S. financial system, now dependent on bigger and fewer banks, is shakier than ever.

I hope this riles you up a bit… quite a bit!  Know that it’s very important to a lot of Americans, as evidenced by the TARP web site’s popularity — 26 million hits!

Do stay tuned to this issue.

(A note about a term: In the video, money is referred as being “fungible“, meaning that any unit of money is easily exchangeable with another unit of money.  The Treasury’s claim that the TARP money is not able to be tracked comes from this concept, a claim that Mr. Barofsky has proven to be false.)

Related posts:

1. The Warning: How the Financial Crisis Could Have Been Averted
2. H1NI Swine Flu Expert Opinions on Video
3. SuperFreakonomics – Eat Kangaroo! (Video)