You Sleep When You Die

The iconic Alan Greenspan once said to the American people, “tap your home equity.” What he was really saying was to borrow against your home because your home is your personal bank. So use your ‘bank’ to get more money. Refinance! Consolidate your bills! The problem, of course, was all of the hidden clauses that allowed the real banks to raise your interest rate later and basically steal your home from you.

It might not come as a shock to know that Alan Greenspan changed his stance on the housing market after the bubble burst. If you guessed that the largest category of real estate loan loss for U.S. banks is mortgage loans, you’d be wrong. Lenders wrote off $31 billion in home equity loans and home equity lines of credit last year. That’s more than the losses on primary mortgage loans!

Thanks for your questions! Remember, get your questions about advertising, business, the economy and more answered every Wednesday by posting comments to blog posts or on Twitter via #askjz.

“Value added taxes (VAT) discussions have been around for years but seem to have been resurrected with the recent burgeoning U.S. deficits. Many countries around the world use them. Do you think they make sense in this country?”

Hardly a day has gone by in recent memory when I’ve turned on CNN or picked up The Wall Street Journal and haven’t come across at least one story about China. Are you really surprised? At 1.33 billion people, China has the world’s largest population. With a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of $7.8 trillion, China has the second largest economy in the world, following only behind the U.S. I don’t know about you, but those numbers alone are enough to cause me to sit up and take notice. In business terms, it reeks of a hostile corporate takeover!!

Thanks to Jim Maxfield and @HarilaosMichael for providing two of last week’s top questions. Remember, get your questions about advertising, business, the economy and more answered every Wednesday by posting comments to blog posts or, better yet, on Twitter via #askjz.

“Jordon, give us your business perspective on the U.S. debt issue.”

“I’ve been following what people like Robert Prechter and Marc Faber have been saying about the world economy. What’s your take?”

Every one of us has a Reticular Activating System (RAS) in our brain. RAS is an area of the brain that helps us transition from “relaxed wakefulness” to “high attention.” Because RAS puts things on our awareness radar, it plays a vital part in our ability to achieve goals. Get it? Making your million dollars. Plant it in your head NOW…deep in your RAS.