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These trends relate to the increasing cost of retirement which in turn is linked to longer life expectancy and the effects of a massive ageing population.

Firstly, as we know, most major employers are moving away from the final-salary pension schemes of old. The promises made by employers are proving to be very expensive to keep and as such, current corporate management is trying to lower or remove this burden.

The second major trend is the devaluing of state retirement benefits. Of course, this differs from country to country, but the trend is for pensioners to receive less, not more benefits.

Whilst the masses appear to be completely unaware of this trend, the clock to retirement age is ticking and each passing month without action is one less in which preparation can be made.

Suddenly, investors need to decide whether they want to focus on alpha or beta. For the lay person, this means either trusting in the skill of an investment management to outperform the market, or, relying on the market and investing passively in an index. This is a very difficult call to make.

Should an investor stick with the more traditional unit linked funds investing on the stock exchange and bond markets, or look to more adventurous areas such as hedge funds, property and commodities? Can an investor protect themselves from the potential swings in the market by diversification?

For those that wish to avoid the complexities and rely on a managed fund, choosing a manager can be hard to do. Even the legendary Bill Miller who had beated the S&P 500 for an incredible 15 consecutive years has just had 2 poor years in a row.

In fact, the average US mutual fund investor averages much lower returns than are possible. This is in part due to the unfortunate habit of private investors to jump onto an investment bandwagon and buy into hot funds at the top of the market. Some studies suggest that this causes most investors to earn a massive five percent less each year than the S&P 500 index.

Such mistakes are primarily due to a lack of understanding. Private investors often lack economic, business, political, financial or stock exchange knowledge – and this can prove to be very expensive. This – of course – is understandable. Not everyone has the desire or capacity to become an expert in economics or geopolitics. And yet, this is what these changes essentially require. At the most extreme, this may prove to be the difference between a prosperous or a poor old age.

All these things really prove is that the private investor needs to understand the stock exchange and it’s workings more and more – and that an ever greater number of people need to become private investors. This will be a massive change in how individuals are responsible for their own affairs.

Stuart Langridge is a financial advisor and personal finance columnist. He shows people why they need to invest on the stock exchange and why we all need to Invest on the stock exchange for a more comfortable retirement.

A good credit score is your key to the best deals during this uncertain financial climate. A decent credit score can win you the best rates for financial loans and can place you on that job that you have been wanting.

You can negotiate for bargains for almost any deal when you have a good credit score. A FICO score of at least 700 is considered a good one. For example, a 760 FICO score may translate to a very competitive 6.11% interest rate on a 30 year fixed three hundred thousand dollar home loan. Compare it to a deal if you have a score of 620, banks will give the same loan for 7.42%.

A very good credit score will provide you leverage to get what you need and want.

What a Good Score can Bring

When you have a score of 700 up creditors and lender consider you as a low risk borrower. Here are some of the perks that your good FICO can give you:

• Job Offers- Companies see a good credit score as a reflection of one’s overall character. A credit report may be pulled by employers as part of their screening process. It is not a favorable picture therefore when an Ivy League graduate goes out of the real world with a messy student debt. According to studies, financial stress affects the productivity of employees.

• Lower Interest Rates- this is true for credit cards, home loans, and auto loans. A 30 point raise in your credit score can save you a lot of money on those finance charges

• Insurance- Auto and home insurers evaluate an applicant’s credit score to study the risk of issuing a policy at a certain monthly premium. Trending has shown that people with good credit score tend to make lesser claim over the years. This can be attributed to good financial habits leading to more careful driving or paying house bills on time.

• Utility Service- Credit scores may affect how utility companies can consider waiving some of those deposits to avail of their service. Even cable and phone companies consider a good credit score as a lower risk for their business.

Using your Credit Score to Your Advantage

You deserve to utilize a good credit score to your benefit. If a card company calls you to offer a balance transfer for a lower interest rate, evaluate the offer first and see what the total picture is. If you know you have a good credit score, negotiate for the best deal that you can get.

Be savvy when dealing with credit card companies or other lenders who may be doing business with a lot of bad credit histories. A business will be more than willing to gain or retain their good client.

If you are shopping for the best rates, do not look for too long or too often. In some way, this will hurt your credit score since multiple companies will be pulling your report even if you’re just looking for one loan.

Safeguards have been devised such that multiple inquiries for home loans and auto loans will just be considered as a single inquiry if done in a fourteen-day span.

Maintaining a good credit score can be a tough task. A single decision error can drop you credit score by the tens or hundreds. To avoid that be careful with your dealings and read every fine print in any contract before signing.

The author of this article was Benedict Yossarian. If you have taken a loan out in the UK within the past 10 years it is quite possible it could be classed as an unenforceable loan agreement if any clerical errors have been made. Consumer Credit Claims can help receive financial compensation for these incorrectly drafted loans.

Forex: To trade or not to trade? Many are reluctant to associate with Forex trading because of its risks. Generally speaking, there are risks everywhere in our lives: May factories fails, not a customer May appointment if you open a store, stock market May crush, and if you are an employee, you get fired May undertaken during reduction. There are risks everywhere! The important question here is how you learn and maintain your own risk. So if you plan to participate in the Forex market, you have to learn risk management, instead of being terrified.

Picking Up the forex dealer right

One of the best ways to avoid unnecessary risks is to avoid fraud dealer.

Forex is a special market operations without centralized. Thus, unlike regulated futures, there is no central Forex market for buyers or sellers, therefore the price offered by different dealers Forex May vary widely. When you’re negotiating Forex market, you are totally relying on the integrity of the concessionaire for fair treatment.

Besides, you must select a right Forex dealer to avoid scams. It May be Forex dealers who are not legally regulated and perhaps investment scams, especially on the Internet. Be very careful about who you’re dealing with Forex and always check carefully on investment offers.

Stop order

The Forex market can move against you. No one can predict with certainty how the exchange rate will, and the Forex market is volatile. The fluctuations in the exchange rate between the time you place the trade and when you try to liquidate it will affect the price of your contract Forex and the potential profits and losses thereof. To avoid losing all your investment capital, you must have a pre-arrangement on your risk profile. A solid risk profile is limited forex dealer not to exceed the risk that you can not handle. For example, if you have 100000 to invest, you can say you’re willing to risk 10000 of this capital with the possibility of winning another 100000. This can be easily implemented by a fund manager so that your losses can be limited to 10% or 5% of capital invested.

Avoid excessive margin trading

Another way to manage your risks well Forex market is trade without overleveraged. Forex dealers offer high leverage* which in turn allows clients to trade more volume. Also, trade highly leveraged in May to increase your profit or your loss. It is high possibilities that are losing money more than he or she can afford a room for negotiation.

Forex can be extremely beneficial to a variety of people. It gives enormous leverage* rate, it gives incompatible liquidity of your money it gives to facilitate commerce on the Internet, and it can certainly give you a lot of money if you trade intelligently. Like any other business trade, if you’re new, the best advice you can get is to learn and practise more before you test your “wings”. Seminars, e-books, Internet, documents, video courses – all these are good for your loan. You can also test your skills on the free demonstration. After all, Forex trades 24 hours a day and it is always to make money on the market, so why not be patient until you’re quite ready for it?

The diversification in Forex trading

Diversification is another way to manage risks in Forex market. Trading a currency pair will generate little input signals. If you want to reduce your risk of Forex market, it would be better to diversify your transactions between different currencies.

Try trade at the same time on different pair of currency. Say you have a capital of $ 1000, instead of putting all your money in the long EUR / USD, you can split the money half long EUR / USD and GBD / USD ($ 500 each) that these two currencies are strongly correlated and tends to move in the same direction.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that knowledge is another key to managing your risk. Before arriving in Forex market, the best thing you should do is educate yourself. What drives the currency price trends? How to read data analysis? How to read indicators table? To find out details on how the currency price and how to trade foreign exchange in order to avoid unnecessary risks.

You come to this article probably because you are new to FOREX and the search for lectures on the Internet. To be frank, Forex can be very profitable but the risk is below is equally great. But what else in life does not present a risk? You can be fired from your job, a plant malfunction of May, stock market collapse of May, your boss May fugue with your salary, and hey! These are all risks. Learning in risk management is the key to managing your life.

Commerce intelligently, and get the maximum Forex – good luck!

* Without proper risk management, this high degree of leverage can lead to large losses as well as gains.

http://www.autotradingfx.com

http://www.autotradingfx.com/articles/understanding-risks-forex-trading

Although honesty is generally taught as the best policy, I would propose that it is the only policy to follow in 99% of cases. The other 1% could be called “white lies.” How are you to know the difference, that is, when someone is telling the whole truth as opposed to a white lie? Here are some tips that will help you spot a liar.

There was an old Hollywood movie starring Charles Bronson as a buffalo hunter and Will Sampson as an Indian Chief. They are in a cave together, hunting the same killer white buffalo, when they engage in a conversation about truth. Bronson, known to the Indians as “the shooter” because he is a skilled hunter, has his version of the truth and the Chief has his. The Chief asks – “Tell me Shooter, what is the true truth?” I ask you the same question. For me, the true truth is the whole truth, no shading. What is it for you?

As we go about our interaction with each other, the white lie is employed more than any other form of communication with those closest to us. We are more apt to shade the truth in order to avoid hurt feelings or, when we know a person really well, we tell a white lie because we know they really don’t want the true truth. They have their version of the true truth and that’s the version they want to hear.

When we deal with strangers, telling a lie is easy because we likely will never see them again but what about that stranger we may see again? You need to decide if what you are lying about is worth what you will gain as opposed to the potential consequences if your lie is discovered. It is a personal decision. You need to be realistic with yourself. It is easy to become a compulsive liar and ruin your life. Under what circumstances are you willing to risk damaging relationships, reputation, and future opportunities. Ask yourself. Do the benefits of telling the lie outweigh the risks?

For example: A teen boy tells his parents he’s going to the movies with a friend but he’s really going to a concert with his girlfriend. Logically, the parents are going to ask what the movie was about and if he enjoyed it. Now, beforehand, the teen could Google a summary of what was in the movie; along with the climax so he can be ready for the questions. Such a young man may not consider the consequences if he is caught in the lie. He does not realize that his parents will be emotionally hurt by his lie and will take a long time before ever trusting him again. His lie has destroyed the parent-child relationship for a long time to come.

Telemarketing has taught us that it’s relatively easy to lie to someone over the phone because the sense of personal connection is very small. You can’t see them; they can’t see you. As a result, you are less likely to feel guilty and, therefore, give visual clues that you may be deviating from your normal behavior. If you were closer to the person physically, you would have a greater personal connection. Consequently, you would be more likely to reveal, in some way, that you are engaging in deceptive behavior.

The same reasoning applies to being close to a person psychologically. If you try to lie to your girlfriend or boyfriend, there are numerous psychological pressures. For example, you’ll think about what happens if you get caught, feel guilty about lying to someone you care about and it will be more difficult to focus on mimicking your normal behavior. This phenomenon is often called “liars’ remorse,” and it’s usually what people are talking about when they say a liar “wants to get caught.” Those closest to us know when we are lying and when we are shading the truth a bit.

Most strangers will not have a clue if you are an accomplished liar. It takes years, by the way, to develop a liar’s mentality. An amateur liar will not look you right in the eye when lying. They may touch their head with their hand, or hold their palms up as they spin the lie. These are both giveaways. An accomplished liar does the opposite. They look you in the eye, their hands at their side. An amateur liar will use the strongest adjectives and a voice level that are above normal pitch and speed. A friend of mine says – “I can tell when someone’s lying. They talk faster than I can listen.”

Most professionals employ specific tactics to catch liars. The cops will make small talk with you to establish what your “normal” behaviors are. When they get down to the serious subject matter, they look for cracks in that normal behavior. Polygraph machines work the same way. There are mental and physical drives that can be detected by skilled interviewers, as well as machines.

There are many more subliminal messages people send when lying. Do some research and learn what they are and how to avoid them.

Jim DeSantis

Jim DeSantis is a retired investigative journalist who is now a full time blogger. Grab Jim’s Free Report “How To Spot A Liar” (click here). No email is required. Visit Jim’s blog about the Workplace (click here) for more free information.

In order to secure that deserved job promotion, you often need to obtain a higher education level. One great way to do that is through online learning. You can even get Online Masters Degrees this way. This exciting and innovative means for professional and personal improvement can allow you to earn your desired graduate degree, to enhance your available career opportunities.

People who earn Masters Degrees typically get higher pay, more challenging and interesting work, and growth potential of an unlimited nature. Online Masters Degrees can really help those seeking job promotions from within their current organization or from other prospective employers. They can also help those wanting to completely change their professional lives altogether. Online colleges offer both flexibility and convenience. Many have accelerated degree programs online. Most also allow students to pursue graduate degrees upon a part-time basis.

Online degree programs offer many advantages over traditional classroom-bound degree programs. You do not need to reside near a college or university when you can take classes online. Online graduate school programs are also great for those who have been out of school for some years. Getting back into an academic routine for school projects and class work should be easier, and fitting in with younger class members should become less of a concern.

Online course availability is also generally more convenient for those already working full-time or caring for families. Students can keep their day jobs or maintain other familial responsibilities by enrolling in evening or weekend course sections, when they must take courses that require their online presence at a given time.

Many excellent, accredited universities can be found online, offering many types of programs and areas for further study. Colleges and universities may supplement their traditional campus programs with online courses, or they may exist as online-only schools. Today, most traditional institutions of higher learning also offer some online learning options to remain competitive. Either way, you can obtain advanced degrees in business, nursing, health care management, information technology, education, liberal arts, or many other fields.

Financing any sort of college degree can be quite expensive, but your return on that educational investment is generally very good. Even though graduate tuition is typically much pricier than undergraduate tuition, you should remind yourself how many high-earning professionals have advanced degrees. Even at the graduate school level, you may still qualify for student loans, grants, and scholarships. You just need to check with your school of interest, since certain types of aid require certain qualifying requirements such as full-time student status. Many employers may also willingly pay for all or some of an employee’s higher education tuition, as part of a good company investment in its people and its organizational future.

Although many people believe that Online Masters Degrees are inferior to Masters Degrees that were obtained through traditional classroom settings, that assumption is not necessarily true. Excellent online programs can offer comparable opportunities for producing group work, utilizing both interpersonal communication and independent study. Additional self-motivation and self-discipline may be needed for students to complete a degree online, but the time management skills that they finely hone in the process can prove advantageous. Their high degree of comfort with cutting-edge Internet technologies can also prove advantageous. Online attainment of your Masters Degree can be both valuable and convenient for broadening your career horizons.

Phil Rogers is working two jobs, to support a wife and 4 kids. He’s trying to find ways to get his Masters Degree Online so he can pay off his Credit Card Debt. He is also considering taking a Online Project Management Course

The stock market is crashing. Government bailouts are rampant. The political climate is uncertain. Credit has all but disappeared for ready buyers if you can even find one. Yet, your dreams of retirement remain. What can you do? There is an answer that you may have overlooked. By understanding the power of an ESOP you could be well on your way to your retirement in the next 90 days.

An ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) is a tax-advantaged vehicle that enables you to sell your business to your employees. This program was established by Congress in 1974 and today there are about 12,000 ESOP owned companies. Many business owners have either never heard of an ESOP or have a misunderstanding of how it works. Here are some common misconceptions along with solutions to your dilemma.

My employees can’t afford to buy my company and they are not “ownership material.” In reality, an ESOP doesn’t cost your employees anything. The ESOP is created which buys your stock. Your employees are beneficiaries of the ESOP. The ESOP distributes stock to your employees’ ESOP accounts each year based on their percentage of the overall payroll. The employees continue to perform their regular duties and answer to management as they currently do. They do not have general voting power or control of how the company is managed. An employee’s ESOP account is like a free retirement account that they earn by loyal service to the company. When they retire or leave after becoming vested they take the value of their account with them. Many companies with “blue-collar” employees are ESOP-owned.

I want to retire in the next few years. Who is going to run the company? The beauty of an ESOP is that you can “have your cake and eat it too”. An ESOP allows you to create a definite exit strategy while letting you remain in the control of the company for as long as you like. As Trustee of the ESOT you continue to run the company as you do right now and you continue to draw a salary. You are still the boss even though you don’t own the company. Your goal will be to work yourself out of a job so you can begin your retirement. That is accomplished by either grooming one of your senior employees to take your place or by hiring a qualified replacement as a manager. That can happen within months if you’re anxious to leave or you can stage the transition over several years. The bottom line is that it is always your choice.

Who is the buyer? That’s the great thing about selling to an ESOP. You don’t need a buyer. The ESOP is the entity that is created to buy your stock. You can create your exit strategy today by enlisting the help of Dynasty Capital Advisors. They specialize in setting up an ESOP and they take care of all the details.

Where does the money come from? Now we’re getting down to the real purpose of this article. Typically, specialized ESOP lenders would fund the entire transaction and you would get a big check at closing. One downside was that a portion of that check was pledged back to the lender to help secure the loan. One of the main benefits of an ESOP is that you can take that cash and reinvest it in stocks and bonds and defer the capital gains tax on your sale indefinitely. But, who wants to put their money in the stock market these days? And, since credit has tightened so much in the last year, it’s very difficult to find lenders who will fund 100% of the transaction. Financing is still available for a portion of the transaction depending on the collateral position of the company, but in most cases it’s more attractive for you to be the banker yourself and avoid all the red tape that goes along with dealing with banks these days. This structure allows you to collect the interest income rather than paying it to the banks.

Why should I finance the sale of my own company? Typically, if you were dealing with a third party buyer, it would not make much sense at all. It would be like loaning several million dollars to someone you don’t know and also giving up control of your company. But, with an ESOP, you still control the company, and by remaining in control you can assure that you get paid in a timely manner. You can structure the loan terms however you want, and if the company should have a bad month you have the ability as the lender to delay or defer a payment rather than risk a default on a bank loan. The biggest question to ask yourself is “What would I be doing with the money if I got cash?” If you are truly selling to retire you are likely going to put it somewhere safe to generate retirement income. You could put it in the bank and maybe get 5% interest, but banks aren’t doing so well these days as we have seen in the news, and the FDIC only insures accounts up to $100,000. By leaving your money invested in the company that you have spent a lifetime building, you know that as long as you are in control it is secured by something of value. And, by properly structuring your finance package to include trustee compensation, stock options, and other perks, your rate of return can exceed 30% rather than 5% at the bank.

How long does it take to set all this up? As the banker, you would avoid a great deal of time and expense by not dealing with an outside bank. Dynasty Capital Advisors will analyze your company, prepare a Feasibility Study for the ESOP, prepare all plan documents, coordinate outside professionals such as an independent valuation expert and the Trust attorney, and close the sale to the ESOP in less than 90 days.

Will I get my price? A sale to an ESOP is always at fair market value as established by an independent valuation. This means that you will receive the highest price possible that can be supported by factual data. You don’t have to deal with buyers who will try to beat you down on your price. Dynasty Capital will provide you with a valuation that will come within 5% of the final price for your review at no cost.

How can I find out if this is right for me? Dynasty Capital Advisors will prepare a Pre-Feasibility Study at no cost for you to determine whether an ESOP is right for your company. You will receive a free stock valuation to help you decide if the money is right. You will also receive an Investment Analysis that will show the benefits of financing the transaction. There is no obligation for you to explore the benefits of an ESOP transaction.

Selling your business doesn’t have to be an uncertainty that is dictated by a weak economy or the woes of Wall Street. By using an ESOP as your exit strategy, you can control everything from the buyer to the banker by eliminating both of them. And, you protect your employees at the same time while leaving your company in the hands of the people that have helped build it. This is a process that leaves you in complete control of every decision. Now you can design your retirement on your own terms without having to haggle over the price or play the games so typical in a business sale. Call Dynasty Capital Advisors today and find out how quickly you could be experiencing retirement freedom. For more information about how an ESOP could be the solution to your exit strategy, call Myron Goodrum, Vice President of Dynasty Capital Advisors at 603-785-4331 or email at mgoodrum@dynastycapital.com.

When people think of reducing energy from a product or service, you would also associate reducing the quality. Hotel chains around the world have rewritten the rules by using innovative ideas to enhance their hotels in a more cultured fashion. Whilst the style is turned up a notch, the prices are lowered partnership a result of the hotel saving money on their annual fuel bills.

Whether the changes they are making are small or big, everyone will benefit, from the consumer receiving lower prices, hotels having lower energy bills to the planet’s o zone layer. In fact, the only affected party is the energy companies who are not selling more fuel.

Some chains have introduced small measures such as partnership recycling bins in their rooms similar to what we have at home, energy efficient light bulbs, waterless urinals, electrics which turn off when the room is vacated and some offer bicycle hire along with street maps for their guests.

These small measures may seem a novelty to some but over the business of 12 months, it will come to save the hotels thousands of pounds as well as aiding the worlds fight eco fight.

Other chains have taken larger measures having installed gardens within the complex to grow their own food for their restaurants, started recycling their grey water which would normally go to the sewer or even producing their own energy.

Some hotels in China have employed the locals to create most of their furniture which is helping their local community.

Make the most of cheap hotels by using comparison sites to find the best deals for hotel visits. Compare hotel quotes online instantly.

One of the most important yet grueling tasks which every business faces is preparing financial statements. With all the profits which came in, an increasing demand is sure to follow as well as increasing need to update current operations to fit into the growing demands. This is the primary reason why people often tax certified, licensed professionals when it comes to attending to financial planning. Among the most important part of such department are the bookkeeping services. This helps maintain the department well within the overall budget and helps note down discrepancies should they arise at any given time.

However, businesses need to be very strict in finding the right people to handle bookkeeping services. This particular task is crucial because it will handle all bank reconciliations, invoices, recording of expenditures, and payroll drafting. The bookkeeping services will become the financial bible of the company as it operates for another quarter or even on an annual basis. More than just finding the person who can do the job, the most important thing to keep in mind is to get the qualified person or people to handle the job.

When evaluating people for bookkeeping services, the first thing businesses should consider is the educational background and the training experience of these people. Educational background is necessary so that one can assess if the person is schooled with the basics as it pertains to accounting and bookkeeping. On the other hand, training is equally if not more important because this pertains to the actual work experience of the bookkeeping candidate. This would help gauge the actual expertise of the person in terms of doing the job itself.

Apart from hiring candidates, taxes firms catering to bookkeeping services is also an option. This can help cut down on the overall effort and expenses since the firm already has their own group of experts in the said field. tax mistakes is only needed to be done is to pay the firm per work output. But in choosing a bookkeeping firm, businesses should care to look at the firm’s portfolio to see how long it has rendered its services already and among which companies. Bookkeeping firms would usually provide potential clients with such portfolios and references to help them become convinced to avail the firm’s bookkeeping services.

Apart from expertise, it would also be wise to consider the actual personality of those who will render the bookkeeping services. After all, they would not just be there doing the job but they will also be doing constant coordination with various employees of the business. It is important that these people are flexible enough to face up to different employee personalities and clashes will not have to be evaded once they start working. Good bookkeepers are those who also have a knack for customer service because they can be expected to hold their ground despite stress and pressure. Moreover, these people will also be able to attend to the business’ clients should they have any concerns when it comes to various financial transactions which will be done.

Accurate Bookkeeping Services improves the ability of a firm to focus on business growth while simultaneously curtailing risks and costs. There are many firms offering outsourced bookkeeping services that work for small and medium businesses worldwide.

Are you a bad creditor and looking for the urgent cash loan to fulfill your financial requirements? It is not a big issue now. Lots of people are in the same situation and they have bad credit history. The reason behind bad credit history could be any but now bad creditors can take cash loan if their credit history are poor.

This is the good news for the bad creditors. They can apply for the bad credit payday loans and solve the money crisis problem instantly. The interest rate of the payday loans are very high and people having good credit rating can get loan easily and at low interest rate. On the other hand, bad creditors will pay extra amount in the form of interest rate. But, no doubt, payday loans are the best solution for the short-term crisis.

If you are looking for the payday loans with bad credit history, you must fulfill the requirements of the lenders. The requirements are mentioned below :

1) You must be employer and your salary not less than $1000.
2) You must have checking account and at least 18 year old.

The lender will never go to check your credit report and verify your employer. They only verify your employment. The payday loans are the urgent loans, so you will get loan within hours. Some companies offering payday loans online. You just fill the application form online and the lender will deposit the money same day in your checking account. Visit direct payday loans lender in your area or apply online to get quick cash loans.

Payday Loans Directly offers faxless and quick approval payday loans to the US citizen at low interest rate. Get more details on payday loans here http://www.paydayloansdirectly.com/

China realizes how business its export-driven economy has become, and is setting itself up as the powerhouse in a post-peak oil regional economy. The government understands that companies will reduce their orders for products from far-away lands during times of painfully high oil prices, and that the global economy will constrict as a result. So policy-makers are doing everything they can to implement an energy production system independent of forces outside China.

In the media, tag words such as “Conservation” and “Environmental Protection” are now spoken as frequently as “Harmonious Society”. But that’s mostly talk. If you read China’s business news each day, which I do, you will find a breath-taking development in the area of energy. The business press suggests a concerted effort to break away from procurement of insecure energy resources outside China’s control. Instead, the country is building energy self-reliance, with environmental protection getting the dirty end of the stick.

China isn’t building great walls to keep away the barbarians anymore. Outside the country, its oil companies are focused on buying up petroleum resources to give the Middle Kingdom a resource advantage as scarcity becomes more apparent. Inside China, industry is revving up oil infrastructure capacity and refining production to partnership domestic self-reliance. Much of China’s IPO (initial public offering) frenzy is aimed at gobbling up investment cash worldwide to buy access to commodities now, while it is still relatively cheap and freely available on global markets.

A Flattened Economy: Imagine a world in which energy prices are in the stratosphere, and the West’s addiction to oil helps flatten the global economy. Western countries are in a tailspin. The world economy is shrinking as high oil prices eat into disposable income once spent on items imported from China. Those same oil prices have screwed up the economics of international shipping. Sound unrealistic? Read this.

In China, unemployment would reach stratospheric levels if there were greatly reduced factory orders from the rest of the world. Today, perhaps 100 tax factory workers churn out products in China. What if 10% were without jobs? You would need energy to provide public works projects to keep those workers employed. You don’t want ten million out-of-work, hungry factory workers showing up at your front door asking for change.

A partial solution to this nightmare is to strengthen regional ties, since regional economies consume less energy than global trade. Can China exist in a regional framework while continuing to expand its domestic economy under an energy program focused on self-reliance? If you buy the notion of peak oil, it seems like the best bet. After all, most of the world’s consumers live in China’s neighbourhood. The Chinese economy is based on exporting manufactured goods. The buying must not stop.

Propping up the Greenback: Until recently, part of Chinese strategy was to hold Treasury Bonds issued by the US in the Chinese treasury as a financial tool. Purchases of these bonds helped the central government maintain a favourable exchange rate vis-à-vis the greenback for the yuan. Then came the made-in-America subprime fiasco, which led to crisis in the world’s capital markets and the partial collapse of the US dollar. It cannot have been lost on China’s central bankers that propping up the buck is an unsustainable long-term strategy.

As in the matter of self-reliance in hydrocarbon liquids, China will use its great energy to mitigate the problems it is facing. Expensive, scarce fuel means you need shorter trade routes, so China will certainly develop a land link through Myanmar (Burma) to the Bay of Bengal. This will greatly strengthen its hand in the regional economy. It’s a hop through Yunnan Province by rail, a skip to the coast in Myanmar, and a three day jump across the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta or Madras. Consider the amount of fuel saved by going through Myanmar to India rather than skirting all of Southeast Asia and travelling up the Straits of Malacca to India.

How will the investments of Western corporations fare as China focuses increasingly on a regional economy? Well, joint venture plants and factories will not be disassembled and repatriated to the investing nation. They will be utilized within China for China’s people.

The Great 100 Year Plan: The Chinese Government must be seeing parallels between the astonishing growth of its economy and the creation of Hong Kong. You build it, we keep it. You have set up our economy with your generous investments, built factories for us, given us your technology and knowhow to produce goods, and tutored us on oil refining and coal technologies plus solar and wind-power generation. You can go now. Thanks for coming, but we will keep the factories.

The post-peak oil global economy will have a new set of ground rules.

David DuByne is from the United States and is presently living and teaching Business English in Chongqing, China. He and webmaster Marc Hastenteufel are translating http://www.daveseslbiofuel.com , an English teaching web site devoted to bio-fuel and oil depletion, for those studying English around the planet into Mandarin Chinese.