how to buy a house buying your first house in 2011 advice help

how to buy a house buying your first house in 2011 advice help.

You know the old story: a guy is walking down the street in New York City. He goes up to a local and says, "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?" And the New Yorker replies: "Practice." It may be an old joke, but the concepts in it are still useful. If you want to buy a first home it’s a good idea to get directions from people who’ve been there, and it couldn’t hurt to practice.

Practice
"Don’t jump into buying the first home you see," says Stacie Zoe Berg, author of The Unofficial Guide to Managing Your Personal Finances (Macmillan, $15.95). "Go to open houses. Get to know the market. Investigate many neighborhoods, and if you’re going to buy a newly built home, look at a lot of different models," she says. "Don’t be afraid to play around, underbid, and see what the process is like. Practicing when your real money is not at stake is a low risk way to learn."

Remember it’s an investment
"The most important thing for someone buying a home to keep in mind is that it will likely be the biggest investment of their life," Berg says, "What often happens is that people get so excited about buying a home of their own that they forget they are dealing with real money. And the fact is that since most of the money being invested is borrowed, it’s not even their money."

"Another problem first-time buyers run into is that the amount of money that the lender qualifies them for might be more than they can afford to borrow," cautions Berg. "First-timers don’t know how tight it can get. They may borrow too much, buy too much house, and then wonder why they suddenly can’t afford groceries."

Get your credit in shape
"Make sure that your credit is in good shape before you start the process. If it’s not, get to work on it," says Berg. "Mortgage lenders determine what kind of loan you qualify for by using computrized credit scoring systems. The bottom line question to answer is how likely are you to pay back the loan. Any factor that brings your score down will be reflected in the cost of the loan to you."

Think about your down payment
Lenders generally look for a down payment that is twenty percent of the purchase price. So if your dream house costs $150,000, you need to accumulate $30,000 to make the down payment.

"If you can put down twenty percent, you eliminate paying Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)," says Berg. "PMI protects the lender if the borrower defaults on the loan. It’s usually required if you borrow more than eighty percent of the purchase price. PMI is an extra cost, and you want to avoid if you can."

What if you can’t put down twenty percent? There are low-money-down loan programs available. You must qualify for these programs and your mortgage rate may be higher. Your buyer’s agent (see below) should be able to help you find lenders with programs that are right for you.

The amount of time it will take to accumulate a down payment is different for each buyer. It’s a good idea to meet with a financial planner, as soon as you can, to create a program that will help you reach your goal.

Get pre-approved, not pre-qualified
"If you have a pulse you can probably get pre-qualified for a loan," says Ray Brown, co-author (with Eric Tyson) of Home Buying for Dummies (IDG Books, $16.99). "Pre-qualification means that you are ready and willing to borrow. But your ability to borrow has not been verified by the lender."

Brown recommends that buyers get pre-approved by a lender before they get serious about house shopping. "It’s a seller’s market in most parts of the country. If there are 5 offers on a new listing, having pre-approval can make your offer stand out," says Brown, who was a real estate agent for thirty years. "When you are pre-approved, it means that the lender has verified your financial status and they’re willing to lend you a specific amount. In essence you’re shopping with a letter of credit."

Get your team together
You will probably need to assemble a team of professionals to help you through this process. The four professionals you are most likely to work with are: a buyer’s agent, a mortgage lender, a certified home inspector, and an attorney.

Brown suggests that you interview the people for your team carefully. "If you don’t trust someone, don’t do business with them."

1. The buyer’s agent: "A buyer’s agent exists to make the deal fairer for you, the buyer. Their responsibility is to you, not to the seller," says Berg. "The seller’s agent, who may be the realtor with the listing, and may even show you the house, is obligated to give any personal information (your salary, pre-qualified loan amount) to the seller. Don’t tell your secrets to the seller’s agent."

Tips on choosing a buyer’s agent:
Ask the agent for an activity list that shows the properties they’ve sold in the last 12 months. The list should include property addresses, dates sold, closing prices, buyer’s names, and whether the agent represented the buyer or seller.
Check to see if they’ve been closing sales regularly throughout the last 12 months. If not, ask them why.
Check the geography. If the agent hasn’t bought or sold houses in the neighborhood you want, find a different agent.
Check closing prices. If you want to spend $200,000 and the agent’s lowest (or average) closing price is $500,000, you need a different agent.
Use the activity list as a reference list. Call at least two of the agent’s clients from one, six, and 12 months ago. Ask the buyers what they think of the agent. Do they think the agent got them a good deal? Was the agent responsive, reachable, and trustworthy?
Interview the agent. Make sure that they are a full-time agent and will be acting exclusively as your buyer’s agent and not as a dual agent (you and the seller).
If the agent wants you to sign a contract, don’t commit to more than 3 days. If the person is not aggressive enough for you or your personalities conflict, you want to be able to move on.

2. The mortgage lender: "There are as many kinds of loans now as there are flavors of ice cream at Baskin Robbins," says Brown. "When I started in the business, you could have any kind of mortgage you wanted as long as it was either a 15 or 30 year fixed rate. Now people are blown away by the choices."

Tips on choosing a good lender:
Interview lenders, just like anyone else on your team. A good lender will help you find the loan that works best for you and you should understand your options once you’ve spoken with them.
Ask your agent for a referral. You may not end choosing that lender, but it’s a good place to start researching.
Look for a lender that has a competitive spirit and ask them if they are willing to negotiate their fee schedule. With interest rates rising and fewer people refinancing, lenders may be hungrier for your business.

3. The certified home inspector: "The inspector checks to make sure the home is structurally sound and that everything is in working order," says Berg. "This is especially important with a newly built home, because if the inspector hasn’t written something down, then the warranty won’t cover it once you’ve closed."

Tips on choosing and using a home inspector:

Get an inspector that is a member of the American Society of Home Inspectors, the national trade organization that certifies inspectors. You can reach them at (800) 743-2744.
Make sure you hire a full-time property inspector.
Make sure that you get a foundation-to-roof inspection.
Be there, with your agent during the inspection. That way the inspector can show you exactly what the existing and potential problems are. This information can be essential in negotiating price.

4. The attorney: Real estate contracts are legally binding and can be confusing. If you ever have a legal question, contact an attorney. Before you sign contracts on a newly built home, or an existing home, have an attorney read the documents.

The tip of the iceberg
Like any major investment, buying a home requires time and research. "You can’t be expected to know everything about every aspect of buying your first home," says Brown. "And fortunately, you don’t need to know everything as long as you put together a team that does."

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Luxury Home for Sale in New Zealand

"One of New Zealand's most luxurious homes for sale - Price guide NZ$10M (approx US$5M)

Discerning architecture and a magnificent location have combined to produce a property that is so much more than simply a sum of its parts. A cliff top with sweeping views stretching from St Heliers in the south across the Hauraki Gulf to Coromandel and Great Barrier Island provides the site for a striking home that complements but never overwhelms its setting. Combined, the result is an impressive property that maximises its superlative location and architecture.

Set high on the cliff top between Milford and Castor Bay, the house keeps the bustle and noise of city life firmly at bay, and instead enjoys utmost peace, privacy and security on its three quarter acre site. While its 1000m² floor plan makes this a home of palatial proportions, thoughtful design has ensured its size never overwhelms.

Instead this is essentially a warm and practical home ideal for family life and entertaining whether on an intimate or grand scale. Architect Richard Priest has created a unique design that sweeps two wings of sumptuous living around a paved outdoor living area.

These are linked by spacious galleries opening directly to the courtyard lending a taste of the exotic to the property. The courtyard, with its outdoor fireplace, sheltered sitting and dining areas and 21 metre heated pool, complete with diving platform, overlooks a stunning expanse of sea and sky.

A fire-pit and spa with its own DVD add to the resort feel of this setting, and as darkness falls spectacular outdoor lighting ensures the atmosphere is retained. Inside, a choice of spacious living and dining areas, all enjoying expansive views, flow out to this courtyard.

Decorated in a tasteful and understated manner, no expense has been spared to ensure a luxurious lifestyle, with the kitchen and living areas equipped with the latest in technology and appliances. Under-floor heating throughout and several gas fireplaces ensure year round comfort.

The master suite on the upper floor is of truly grand proportions designed to provide a luxurious yet understated retreat - a perfect foil for the expanse of sea and sky on view. It includes a spacious bathroom and sitting room, and a cosy den perfect for relaxing with a good book or movie.

Its six bedrooms, five bathrooms and choice of living areas, including a games room, gym, sauna, beauty therapy room and office allows the option of accommodating extended family or guests in separate self contained areas."



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$75 million dollar beach house spanning three oceanfront lots in Cameo Shores Southern California.

selling your house without a broker in 2011 or use a broker to sell?

selling your house without a broker in 2011 or should you use a house broker to sell your house?.

YOU CAN SELL YOUR HOUSE without a broker -- and save yourself a ton of money in the process. But there are times when going it alone just doesn't make sense. You may need to sell fast, or simply not have the time to devote to selling your house yourself. In that case, a real estate broker is your only option. But don't just pick the first one who walks in your door and tells you selling your place will be a cinch. Here's how to find the best one.

First of all, you want someone who has a strong track record selling your kind of home in your neighborhood. Some brokers specialize in starter homes while others sell more trade-up homes. Put together a list of brokers by asking friends and neighbors for referrals. If you've lived in the area for a while you probably have a sense of which firm has the most market share. If you have time, attend a few open houses one weekend to see some brokers in action. You may be tempted to give your listing to a friend, but that can easily backfire since disputes with brokers are common.

Interview brokers over the phone. A top broker will know your particular market, as well as the schools, taxes and local transportation. At least four to five years of experience is ideal, but someone new at the game may devote more energy to your sale and be more negotiable on the commission. They should have access to and use your area’s Multiple Listing Service (a database of all available properties that brokers use to find homes to show to buyers), and be willing to split their commission with another broker who brings a buyer to the table.



We don't put much stock in titles, but here's what they stand for: All real estate "agents" must be licensed by the state (requirements vary). They can take an additional test to become a real estate "broker," which means they can run their own office. A "realtor" is an agent or broker who is a member of the National Association of Realtors. That only means they promise to adhere to a code of ethics.

Of course you want someone who will give you a break on the commission. If yours is a seller's market, just tell brokers that if they want your listing, they’ll have to shave a point or two off their rate (that may not sound like much, but one percentage point amounts to a 33% cut in pay for the broker, assuming they will split a 6% fee with another agent). If it is a buyer’s market, you may have to be more creative to get a break. Many agents will give you a discount if you give them an "exclusive" -- that is, let them show the home for a couple of weeks without putting it on the MLS. That way the agent won't have to split the commission with another agent. If it is a very high-priced home, or if you are moving up to purchase another home through this same agent, you can usually get a break.

In some areas it's worthwhile checking in with a discount broker. An expanding field, these agents will take a flat fee or reduced commission to provide a lower level of service. Some will list your house on the MLS and handle negotiations with the buyer, leaving showing the home up to you. The problem is that other agents don't like to work with discounters so you may not get much traffic through your home.

If you go with a cut-rate broker, make sure they have a good track record.

When you've narrowed down your list, ask the top three contenders to come by your home. At the first visit they should interview you about your goals and expectations for the sale, present their qualifications and explain their typical approach. Ask for a copy of their typical listing agreement (usually boilerplate), to give you an idea of the terms you would be agreeing to. But if they ask you to sign right away, don't. Get the phone numbers of the last three sellers they've worked for so you can interview previous clients about their experience. Be sure to ask them if they would work with that broker again.

On a second visit, top brokers will usually make a formal presentation, giving you a detailed marketing strategy that describes their plans for advertising, open houses and marketing to other brokers. You should also get a suggested list price for your home (based on comparable sales in the neighborhood) and an estimate for the amount of time it will take to sell. Don’t be fooled into choosing the broker who gives you the highest price. Some brokers will set an unrealistic price just to get a listing.

You can't be sure you've found your sales agent until you actually sign the listing agreement. Some brokers will balk at the guidelines we recommend and you may need to alter the agreement a little. You want the right to take the property off the market for any reason, to switch brokers or cancel the agreement without penalty if you are unsatisfied with the broker's efforts. The agreement should be in effect 90 days and should only have a six-month period where you would owe this broker a commission if someone they showed the home returns to buy it later. The listing agreement also puts in writing the agreed upon commission, parameters for marketing your home and receiving offers. Your agent should agree to continue to show the property as a "pending sale property" on the MLS until closing.

All this may seem like a lot of work before you've even put your house on the market. But if you choose your broker wisely, the selling process should be fairly hassle-free. After the sale you may even feel like the agent actually deserves the fee.

the video below is from 2008 and might not apply now, where there was special offers in various us states like Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana.

Minneapolis Mortgage broker| rural guaranteed housing loan

The Guaranteed Rural Housing loan program is a government insured Single Family home loan program for low to moderate income borrowers looking to purchase a home in a rural development are. Up to 100% of the home's appraised value can be financed. Call us for details at 952-285-4319. We finance in Minnesota ONLY-although the program is available nationwide.



How To Select A Baton Rouge louisiana Real Estate Agent

"How to select a Baton Rouge Real Estate Agent with video tips on the home buying process. Real Estate Video blog explains how to buy a Baton Rouge House find homes in MLS"



Large 4 bedrooms home for sale in Fords, New Jersey (NJ) Real Estate

Large 4 Bedrooms Home in Fords, New Jersey. Very Quiet Cul-de Sac. Move Right in.

"Spacious and Spotless 4 bedrooms home in Fords, 2 baths bi-level located on quiet cul-de-sac. Coming with all conveniences, central air, lots of closet space and storage room. The current owners have spared no expense in many upgrades. Foyer with cathedral ceiling, formal dining room and living room. Eat-in kitchen has been upgraded. New hardwood floors, fresh paint & new oak railings. Large master bedroom. Central air & gas BB 2 zone heat!
Enclosed screen porch with cable. 2 car garage with openers. EZ commute,1/2 blk to daycare,blks to NYC bus,close Metro Park train station, all major hwy, shopping & schools. Just unpack"



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how to sell your house in 2011 best ways to make most money from house selling in this property market 2011???

how to sell your house in 2011 best ways to make most money from house selling in this property market 2011???.

You may be ready to move on to your next home, but is your home ready to appeal to its next owner? Have you gotten so comfortable in your home that potential buyers won’t be able to imagine themselves living there? Does that cozy reading lamp make the room look smaller, darker, and less inviting? Can you even remember what it was about your home that made you want to buy it?

As a homeowner preparing to sell your house, you’ve probably given a lot of thought to how much money you’d like to make on the sale, but not much on how to present (stage) your house for maximum appeal.

"A buyer knows in the first minute whether they’re interested enough to stay and look at a house," says Susan Bowman, a realtor in Marin County, California. "Staging can be a big help because most buyers can’t see through the clutter. I have a person who comes in and rearranges the furniture and creates focal points. Most sellers are overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin. If the seller invests a little in having someone come in and help them, they can probably add 10% - 25% to the closing price."

Bowman is a realtor in one of the hottest, dot.com-millionaire real estate markets in the country. This is a market where even a 2,700 square foot house, in need of a new roof and garage, can sell for over a million dollars. Stagers (also called designers and house organizers) can charge upward of $2,500 for their services in Marin County.

"I think that this kind of service pays for itself," says Bowman. "My stager, has lists of appraisers, charities and antique dealers who will take pieces on consignment. Naturally you get a write off for the charitable contributions. She also knows handymen who can help with small repairs."

It’s not unusual for a stager or a realtor to recommend that you put up to half of your furniture in storage. "When people live in a house they put pieces in places for fun or convenience," says Bowman. "It’s very hard for a buyer to imagine themselves in a place that is inundated with someone else’s history. A piano covered with family photos doesn’t present a very neutral canvas."

"The house may not look the way you would live in it, but it sets the stage for a much more attractive sale, " says Bowman.

If you’re interested in doing your own staging, Bowman makes the following suggestions:


Make the front doorway as attractive as possible.
Invest in a gardener to put redwood chips in flowerbeds. It gives them a finished look.

Ask yourself what attracted you to the house in the first place: ambiance, views, lighting? Make sure that aspect is highlighted so that it can appeal to the next buyer.

Replace all bulbs with higher wattage bulbs and leave the lights on. A bright house is more inviting.
Eliminate clutter. Take everything off the kitchen table and counters.
Remove Oriental and area rugs. While cozy, they tend to define usable space, which can inhibit a buyer from imagining their own furniture there.
Stay in a hotel for a weekend and let your realtor show the house.

To fix or not to fix
When preparing to sell your house, you may or may not be aware of conditions in your home that can affect your negotiating power. Having a pre-inspection done by a certified home inspector can give you the information you need to decide what you want to fix and what you don’t.



"Preparing to sell your house is all about being proactive," says Kathleen Kuhn, Vice President of HouseMaster Headquarters (www.housemaster.com), a home inspection franchising company in Bound Brook, NJ. "It’s not uncommon for a seller to be unaware of some of the defects of their house. They’ve been living with them for so long, they may not notice the problems. A buyer is going to try to negotiate two dollars off the asking price for every dollar of repair needed. If the seller has pre-inspected, they have more control and peace of mind."

It’s easy to imagine that a seller might not want to invest a lot of money in a house they don’t intend to live in anymore.

"If that’s the case, I think the seller might consider disregarding systems that are aging, but functioning as intended, and elect to fix things that are causing deterioration in the home," says Kuhn. "A leaky roof is going to continue to cause problems with underlying roof materials and increase the cost of roof replacement later. An aging furnace will just eventually die. It’s easier for a buyer to accept an aging system than a possible repair."

The home inspector doesn’t deal with the cosmetics unless they are potential repair issues. "A tree overhanging the roof may seem like a low priority or cosmetic issue, but it can create the likelihood of a roofing problem or carpenter ants," says Kuhn. "The inspector is not likely to get into the subject of whether you need a paint job. He’s really there to detect what you wouldn’t notice on your own."

"We recommend that the seller promote the house as pre-inspected," says Kuhn. "Sellers sometimes have the misconception that the inspection is just for them and they don’t want to share it with the buyer. When the seller makes repairs, and shows the pre-inspection and repair documentation to the buyer, the buyer can see the value of the repairs. This can affect the negotiation positively for the seller."

Remember, even if the buyer accepts the pre-inspection report, they still have the right to have their own independent inspection done.

Signing on the dotted line
You may not be required to have an attorney to complete the sale of your house. In some states a licensed realtor can fulfill that function. Your realtor can advise you of the law in your state. However, considering the speed and complexity of real estate transactions, especially in the hotter markets, you might be well advised to have an attorney review any legal paperwork you’re going to sign.

"I think it’s a good idea to have an attorney evaluate the purchase agreement before closing," advises Carol Cooper, attorney and Publisher of Lawyers.com (www.lawyers.com), a web site devoted to consumer and business legal needs. "Closing can become a complex process. Inspection report issues may need to be negotiated, and other legal matters may require a lawyer’s advice. Strange things can happen. I once bought a house and when I went to the closing the prior owner hadn’t finished moving out. She said she would finish the following week. My attorney asked me ‘what if she slips and falls, or sets the house on fire. You own the house. You would be liable. You need to set up an escrow account to cover that liability.’ I wouldn’t have known that and I am a lawyer. It was a real lesson in why you shouldn’t represent yourself."

No matter who represents you at any given point in this process, it’s a good idea to take a few minutes in the beginning, to look at your house with buyer’s eyes.

Housing Market Forecast Projection 2011

"That's the question that every wants to know the answer to. If you turn on the TV or read the newspapers you will likely see stories about the slow market, high unemployment, low consumer confidence and lack in demand for housing. The question is: What factors will affect you? And what should you pay attention to?

So the projection for 2011 is for foreclosures to increase and possibly peak which will likely result in housing values dropping another 7-10% before the end of the year. But we have record low interest rates this has been driven by the federal reserve and will likely continue until the job market improves.

Affordability is becoming very good and in some places it's less expensive to own than to rent. The market may bottom out in 2011 although values will likely stay down for the next 3-5 years before we start to see appreciation. It's going to be a slow process.

So what as home owners should you do? You have 2 options: stay or sell. If you do decide to stay in your house it would make sense to look at refinancing as interest rates are very low. If you are going to sell it would be better sell sooner rather than later as values are likely not to increase for the next 5 years.

Now for buyers, this is an excellent opportunity. You can purchase a property below market and get a low interest rate. Be sure to keep your mortgage affordable."



2012 - The Crash of the U.S. Housing Market? (could things get worse in 2012/)

"From Glenn Beck's Fox News Channel program on June 16, 2009 - a graph showing the upcoming crash of the United States housing market thanks to incompetent buffoons like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd who were told many times this was coming and chose to look the other way as hundreds of thousands of people were outright handed mortgage loans they had no possible way of repaying and had no business owning a home.

According to the forecast we've only seen the worst offenders hit the foreclosure mark so far. The next stage comes in 2010 - just prior to the midterm elections - when people who actually tried to pay on their homes will begin to fall into foreclosure -- with another group set to arrive there in 2011 just prior to the total collapse in time for 2012.

There's that date again folks -- 2012! Coincidence? Not likely!"

advice for moving house buying a new home best things in property market to do 2010 2011

advice for moving house buying a new home best things in property market to do!, one of the most tricky things you can do in life is moving home and buying a new house so i think these tips and tricks i have found on cnn.com could be invaluable to any house movers and buyers out there, they are a bunch of simple tips and tricks for any house movers but simplicity is usually key to stop you making any big mistakes when looking to move or buy and new house, and what you should and shouldn't be doing in that situation, especially with the current state of the housing market, any advice is worth looking for.

1. Don't buy if you can't stay put.

If you can't commit to remaining in one place for at least a few years, then owning is probably not for you, at least not yet. With the transaction costs of buying and selling a home, you may end up losing money if you sell any sooner - even in a rising market. When prices are falling, it's an even worse proposition.

2. Start by shoring up your credit.

Since you most likely will need to get a mortgage to buy a house, you must make sure your credit history is as clean as possible. A few months before you start house hunting, get copies of your credit report. Make sure the facts are correct, and fix any problems you discover.

3. Aim for a home you can really afford.

The rule of thumb is that you can buy housing that runs about two-and-one-half times your annual salary. But you'll do better to use one of many calculators available online to get a better handle on how your income, debts, and expenses affect what you can afford.

4. If you can't put down the usual 20 percent, you may still qualify for a loan.

There are a variety of public and private lenders who, if you qualify, offer low-interest mortgages that require a down payment as small as 3 percent of the purchase price.

5. Buy in a district with good schools.

In most areas, this advice applies even if you don't have school-age children. Reason: When it comes time to sell, you'll learn that strong school districts are a top priority for many home buyers, thus helping to boost property values.

6. Get professional help.

Even though the Internet gives buyers unprecedented access to home listings, most new buyers (and many more experienced ones) are better off using a professional agent. Look for an exclusive buyer agent, if possible, who will have your interests at heart and can help you with strategies during the bidding process.

7. Choose carefully between points and rate.

When picking a mortgage, you usually have the option of paying additional points -- a portion of the interest that you pay at closing -- in exchange for a lower interest rate. If you stay in the house for a long time -- say three to five years or more -- it's usually a better deal to take the points. The lower interest rate will save you more in the long run.

8. Before house hunting, get pre-approved.

Getting pre-approved will you save yourself the grief of looking at houses you can't afford and put you in a better position to make a serious offer when you do find the right house. Not to be confused with pre-qualification, which is based on a cursory review of your finances, pre-approval from a lender is based on your actual income, debt and credit history.

9. Do your homework before bidding.

Your opening bid should be based on the sales trend of similar homes in the neighborhood. So before making it, consider sales of similar homes in the last three months. If homes have recently sold at 5 percent less than the asking price, you should make a bid that's about eight to 10 percent lower than what the seller is asking.

10. Hire a home inspector.

Sure, your lender will require a home appraisal anyway. But that's just the bank's way of determining whether the house is worth the price you've agreed to pay. Separately, you should hire your own home inspector, preferably an engineer with experience in doing home surveys in the area where you are buying. His or her job will be to point out potential problems that could require costly repairs down the road.

from money.cnn

Home buying tips: How to buy a house

"First time home buyers have a million questions, and luckily, CNN financial editor and author Gerri Willis has a million answers. Here's what you need to know before you buy a home.

Keywords:
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Real estate closing and negotiating - Home closing tips

"If you're in the market to buy a home, you're in luck - prices are down. But you can still pay too much, including unanticipated closing costs. Gerri Willis, author of Home Rich and CNN personal finance editor, has tips to help you avoid paying more than you have to.

Keywords:
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how do you ask your boss for a wage raise increase more pay more money from work?

how do you ask your boss for a wage raise increase more pay more money from work?, The art of asking for more?, Negotiating a sweeter pay package requires finesse, a proven track record--and a bit of moxie.

These days you have two advantages when you go into your boss' office to ask for a raise: First, you have instant access to the best compensation intelligence around, thanks to the Internet. That goes a long way toward leveling the playing field between employers and employees.

Second, today's tight labor market has left employers scrambling to replace talent, and many would rather hand out raises than let valued workers quit. A study by the Financial Executives Institute reports that 52% of employers spend $20,001 to $50,000 to replace mid- to high-level executives who earn $70,000 to $150,000 annually, because of the high cost of recruiting, lost productivity and training newcomers.

"Assuming you're in good standing and held in high regard, there's absolutely no reason not to ask for a raise," says Jane Weizmann, senior human-resources consultant with Watson Wyatt. "That's especially true if your salary hasn't kept pace with the market."

Nevertheless, when it comes to winning a fatter paycheck and perks such as stock options and a signing bonus (if you're applying for a new job), old-fashioned negotiating still applies. After all, just because your salary pales next to those you see online doesn't mean you merit more dough--or that you'll get it. "You can't just go to your boss and say, 'Here's the data to prove I deserve a raise,'" warns Weizmann. You still need more ammunition--experience, proven performance and contributions--and a winning strategy. Here's how to proceed:

Enlist your boss in your efforts. "One of the most successful tactics I've seen is to enlist the support of a manager," says Michael O'Malley, author of Are You Paid What You're Worth? "You can say, 'I think I've been a good performer over the years, and I see what other organizations are paying. My pay doesn't strike me as right. Could this be something we investigate?' Very often a manager will go to HR and argue that salaries are off. If you're a good performer, they'll want you to stay."

Don't name your price. There's great temptation to blurt out a figure when you're asked what you want to earn. Don't do it. You may end up stating an amount far lower than what your employer is willing to pay. "Keep the numbers in the back of your mind while negotiating," explains Weizmann. Express your desire to earn a reasonable salary that reflects your skills and achievements, but don't get into specifics. If you're asked by a potential new employer what you earned at your last job, you may politely say that it isn't relevant or that you were underpaid.

Time your request. Most salary reviews occur after annual performance meetings, but that doesn't mean you have to wait to ask for a raise. Not surprisingly, the best time to request a pay hike is after you've accomplished a goal or achieved some notable success. "If you're having a good year, and you know that merit budgets aren't that big, it's sometimes good to politick ahead of time about your expectations," says O'Malley. "Then everyone will be aware that you expect more."

Ask for performance pay. Hewitt Associates recently found that in 2000, salaries of U.S. executives are projected to rise by 4.4%. One-time bonuses will leap by 16%, however. That's because many employers prefer to give incentive or performance-based bonuses, which can be linked to such things as profits or productivity. Raises permanently affect the bottom line.

Don't accept just any deal. If you've been a good worker, ask your boss to explain the reasoning behind a skimpy offer. Then set a target date to review the situation.

Don't be confrontational. "A company isn't required to pay you a competitive rate," says Erisa Ojimba, Salary.com's compensation consultant, who also writes a career-advice column for the site. So approach salary negotiations as a cooperative dialogue. Be confident and polite. If you don't get the results you want, you can always look for a new position. Don't threaten to quit, but at the same time, don't promise to stay. Remember, if you want more money, you may have to mine gold in some other hills.

Ask Your Boss for a Raise During the Recession

Top salary sites for working out how much you should be getting paid salary comparisons in the usa best websites to use

Top salary sites for working out how much you should be getting paid salary comparisons in the usa best websites to us, and to evaluate what you are worth, it can be a good idea to use a salary site, especially if you work in a high paying jobs field, as a salary site allows you to gauge your worth, by comparing what others are being paid in your field of expertise.

After discarding sites with unreliable information, difficult navigation and overly complicated pricing, we settled on the nine compensation sites that offer the most useful and accessible data for the widest range of people. The sites have distinct strengths. Some are better for beginners, others for people in certain fields--but all are valuable research tools. Here are our eight favorite free sites, listed in descending order, followed by one outstanding site that charges a range of fees.

SALARY.COM

Our No. 1 site offers the best of all worlds. With 1,100 job titles in its database, Salary.com is the powerhouse in the category, yet its streamlined design makes it a snap to use. Within two mouse clicks from the home page, the Salary Wizard search engine offers reports that include base pay and salary ranges for narrowly defined job titles in specific regions. Click again, and you get total compensation (including extras such as bonuses). Handy links let you see what you would make in various parts of the country or if you changed careers. Bottom line: This is the place to start your search.

AMERICA'S CAREER INFONET

Funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, the site covers more than 460 occupations, from oilfield roustabouts to motion-picture projectionists. If you're in an unusual industry or thinking about a career switch, it's a great resource. Salary data is just three clicks off the home page. Type in a job title for a keyword search or select a predefined "job family" from the scroll-down menu one click from the home page. We like the links to other information, including skills needed for each job, job market outlook and job postings listed by state and profession.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

This site is not perfect. We wish there were more charts to make the statistics easier to read. Limited salary reports cover just 254 jobs and offer only national median earnings. That said, the site's thorough job descriptions give rich detail about the nature of the jobs that are included and the education and skills needed for advancement, making it a good choice for entry-level and middle managers who are mapping out their next career moves.

ECONOMIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The site's search engine allows you to search by zip code or by state and city. Positions are listed alphabetically, not by industry, making it time consuming to obtain data for various jobs in a particular field. If you're willing to schlep through the entire alphabet, though, you'll find precise job titles that aren't often listed on other sites. For example, rather than a generalized listing for "doctors," we found reports for chiropractors, periodontists, pediatricians, dental ceramists (and their assistants) and on and on. Salary data are listed as averages, not as the more helpful ranges.

FUTURE STEP

This is the site for ambitious mid- to senior-level corporate executives. Futurestep, which is a subsidiary of the executive search giant Korn/Ferry International, presents tailored earnings "profiles" for each user who registers at the site. Registration, which involves the types of work-style and personality tests administered by recruiters or career counselors, took us about an hour. Questions covered career and salary history, career objectives, personality traits and work priorities. Twenty-four hours later, you log back in to your secure account to retrieve a personal earnings estimate of what you're worth. You'll also get feedback, with a detailed analysis (you're "analytical," perhaps, or "collaborative") and a list of the careers for which you are best suited. We thought the report was trenchant and helpful for those who don't mind revealing information about themselves and being put in a database to be considered for openings being filled by Futurestep.

JOBSTAR

This federally funded website is tailored to the California market, but its Salary Info link is a great tool no matter where you are. Placed on the home page, the link leads to roughly 300 industry-specific salary reports produced by professional organizations, publications or other niche websites. Think of the JobStar site as an online library to find professional groups nationwide, from geologists to graphic artists. But be warned: The quality of the reports varies greatly. Smart users will contact sources directly for more details.

WAGE WEB

If you're just looking for a quick hit of stats, Wageweb is very simple to use--but that's because there's so little free information there. The free reports for roughly 170 job titles are organized under eight broad categories (administrative, engineering, sales/marketing and so on) listed on the home page. For a $169 to $219 annual fee, members can obtain more detailed reports. However, since the data comes from Wageweb subscribers and others, pay figures for any one job may come from fewer than 100 respondents.

CAREER JOURNAL

If finding sophisticated career advice matters more than salary data, this site, run by Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, is for you. The site's best features are articles that give incisive tips on, say, negotiating for a raise. Although there are some salary reports from reputable sources, such as the Treasury Management Association Journal, we found other data to be inconsistent and sometimes just plain useless. Many reports, for example, didn't break down salaries by region. In fact, the regional profiles link to general news articles about jobs in various areas, but not to specific compensation data.

COMPGEO ONLINE

This site is not free. Plus it's so ugly, it's tempting to log off immediately. (Was it the cluttered graphics or the prison-green, brown and purple color scheme that drove us to distraction?) Nevertheless, middle- to senior-level executives willing to ignore the poor design and spend some money can obtain extremely useful data.

The $39 reports don't offer much that can't be found on a free site. But when we spent $299 for a legal salaries report, we received a nearly 50-page trove of information that's normally used by human-resources departments and recruiters, with ranges of compensation for precisely defined jobs in various cities and towns nationwide. It also documented average pay increases and compared salaries by region and in public and private sectors.

You probably should download a sample to see what kind of information you'll receive for your money. That's because the explanation of what's contained in the reports at different price points can be quite confusing. This site gives you a chance to peek at the kind of information employers get all the time--but if slogging through mountains of detailed data gets you down, you may not appreciate the opportunity.

looking for work in 2010 2011 how to maximise your job chances uk and usa american jobs market place

looking for work in 2010 2011 how to maximise your job chances uk and usa american jobs market place, Click through the clutter, Whatever your job, wherever you work, following these guidelines will help you get the most from your research.

Start big.

General salary sites such as those run by Salary.com and the Economic Research Institute are the best places to begin. These portals give instant access to surveys for hundreds of job titles and professions in many locations. Many of these inclusive sites also offer career advice and industry and job market overviews to help you put the salary statistics in context.

Use at least one niche site.

As you check out the general sites we discuss below, look for resource links to niche sites that focus on your particular career and industry. These provide even more precise pay figures and in-depth counseling. For example, one niche site, Law.com, posts several salary surveys, including one from the National Law Journal, which covers compensation for law school professors, public interest lawyers, law clerks and public defenders, to name only a few. That kind of detail is likely to be more useful than a salary report for "attorneys" or "lawyers."

Read job descriptions, not just job titles.

Titles can vary from website to website and company to company. You should search under professional categories and read job descriptions to identify the ones that apply. After all, your experience as a sales manager may be very different from the sales manager jobs included in a survey. (Tindillier says he couldn't find any listings for Webmasters on Salary.com, so he used earnings reports for Web security administrators, whose job description matched his experience securing Web servers with firewalls and protecting networks from hackers.)

Consult more than one site.

Cross-check three to five sites to be sure the numbers are in the same ball park. At least one of the sites should be specific to your profession.

Be honest about your skills.

All those dollar signs are worth little if you don't have the skills or experience to do the job that merits them. Look for surveys that are based on skill levels and set realistic goals for yourself.

Know your industry.

In the end, compensation surveys are averages. Salaries for, say, an accountant or an office manager can vary widely from one industry to another. To set a realistic salary goal before accepting your current job, order a salary survey for human-resources jobs in manufacturing firms in Salary Source.

using the internet to find jobs and get paid more tips and tricks and job help uk usa

Using the Internet to find Jobs and get paid more tips and tricks and job help uk usa, The lay of the land, The sheer volume of information on the Internet can be overwhelming, so it helps to understand how the compensation sites work and how they differ from one another before you begin clicking.

Free vs. pay sites.

Some salary sites charge users for compensation reports; others give away data for free and get revenue from advertising and fees from other sites. Plenty of the free information at sites like Salary.com, our No. 1 pick, is topnotch, especially for entry-level staff and middle managers. Executives, though, may find it worthwhile to shell out as much as $299, as we did, or even more at a site like CompGeo Online for the kind of sophisticated report that human-resources departments use to set pay scales.

Range of jobs.

Salary sites differ significantly in scope. The most useful ones generate reports for various ranks within each job category--from junior staffer to deputy manager to senior vice president--across a wide range of industries. Except for niche sites, those that cover a limited number of job titles usually lack detailed compensation information.

Search engines.

Better sites, such as America's Career InfoNet, give you more than one method to find the salary particulars you need. When you know what you're looking for, keyword search tools let you target relevant data quickly. If you're not certain which job title applies, pulldown menus of predefined job fields lead you to relevant facts.

Sources.

Salary sites obtain data from a variety of sources, including government labor statistics, company surveys and polls of professionals in the field. Although government stats tend not to be as current as company figures, they're usually more inclusive and far reaching.

The best sites let users know where their salary numbers come from--a valuable service that sheds light on how relevant and timely the information is. We preferred sites that rely on objective and extensive data from a variety of professional sources catering to specific industries to sites that rely on voluntary submissions for data, since this information may not be representative.

getting paid more money to work how to find how much pay you should really be getting from your employer

getting paid more money to work how to find how much pay you should really be getting from your employer, How to get paid more by looking at your pay!, you have to check what you are really worth to find out how much you should really be getting paid in today's job's marketplace.

For years, employers have refused to share salary data with their staffs. Now compensation websites are letting workers find out what they're really worth. (Hint: It may be a lot more than you think.)

Ever wonder if you're being paid what you're worth? Your employer is unlikely to share meaningful salary data with you--and if you're like most of us, asking your colleagues what they make is simply out of the question. But now you can find out.
Dozens of Internet sites, from online job-hunting bazaars such as Monster.com and CareerMosaic.com to niche sites like one devoted to engineering careers, EETimes.com, offer some salary information. But the best online sources are sites that focus exclusively on compensation for hundreds of professions, from senior accountants to warehouse managers. These sites help you figure out what you're really worth on the open market--and they take much of the guesswork out of salary negotiations, whether you're dealing with your current boss or looking for a new job. "Having that knowledge means better bargaining, since the employee is no longer in the dark," says president of the salary site Online. To find out which compensation websites offer more help than hype, six MONEY reporters reviewed dozens of career sites, finally zeroing in on the nine specialized compensation sites that provide the most comprehensive salary and benefits data in an easy-to-navigate form. The sites we like best allow you to drill down into the numbers by specific job titles and by state, city, even zip code; most also give ranges for base pay and perks for a variety of titles on a career ladder, which can help you estimate future earnings potential. (For a more detailed explanation of our ranking of nine leading sites and their Web addresses, see "Scorecard.") Next, we asked career specialists how to use salary sites to get the best information as efficiently as possible. These experts also furnished negotiating techniques so you can use salary intelligence to your advantage think "The Art of Asking for More.

Finally, we talked to scores of people who've used these sites to bargain for fatter paychecks. Their experiences provide real-world testimony to the possibilities of negotiating pay and perks when you, and not just your employer, know what the market will bear.

for example, you could boost your salary by $20,000 and snag a $5,000 signing bonus plus stock options after working these things out. for example you could know that your eight years of Internet experience was especially valuable in the tight Dallas job market--but you had no idea just how valuable. "I was curious to see what people in my profession were making," he says. After logging on to Salary.com, you could discover that Webmasters in your area were earning a lot more than you was.

You will find that people don't understand how much money they're worth in this dodgy american economy at the moment. Without the ammunition from a online search, you never would have had the confidence to ask for the signing bonus and lucrative stock options you could receive from a new employer.

Y2k was 8 years early with the financial meltown of 2008 and american economy failing

Y2k was 8 years early with the financial meltdown of 2008 and american economy failing, do you remember back to the Y2k fear of 1999 were everything was meant to fail and not work as the clocks hit midnight into the year 2000?, well i think that this worry and fear was 8 years too early because by 2008 a lot of things did fail when it came to the economic meltdown and financial crisis, then obama came into office and said he would fix it but has not either.

i think people were just 8 years or so early with there fears for Y2k as a few years after banks did fail and the economy did crash.

"Y2K - Fear, Anticipation
As Americans Stockpile
For 2000
By Steve James
12-31-99

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fear of flying, fear of terrorism, fear of the Apocalypse or just plain fear of the unknown gripped many Americans in the waning days of 1999.

After celebrating their caviar hopes and champagne dreams on New Year's Eve, thousands of people expect to dine well into the new year on Spam, soup, dehydrated fruit and bottled water, perhaps huddled in dim light around heat generators.

Despite assurances by President Clinton's chief adviser on year-2000 issues that Americans were not gripped by a siege mentality or hoarding food and supplies, many were stocking up anyway, just in case.

Some fear that outdated software will prevent computers from distinguishing between the years 2000 and 1900, resulting in widespread malfunctioning of systems that control important functions such as air traffic control, defense, banking, utilities and government administration.

Lou Marcoccio of GartnerGroup Inc., a business technology adviser, cited a survey showing 70 percent of Americans planned to buy emergency items in anticipation of possible power cuts or food shortages. Sixty percent said they would draw money from the bank before Jan. 1, 15 percent said they would get alternative power sources, and 50 percent said they would fill car fuel tanks.

Emergency Survival Food Service was doing a roaring online trade in dehydrated meats, fruit and vegetables, not just to hard-core survivalists, who predict a Y2K breakdown of law and order, but also to ordinary families who just want to make sure they have two weeks' worth of food.

``The year 2000 computer bug is a major threat to our way of life,'' the Evanston, Ill.-based company said on its Web site. ''Computers can render our country vulnerable to an electronic Pearl Harbor, a surprise attack launched in cyberspace by an enemy state of terrorists. Food will become scarce and it will become a form of currency more powerful than money itself.''

Chief Executive Officer Steve Bernard, however, was a little less alarmist in a telephone interview with Reuters. ``What's the worst thing that can happen? Nothing. And then you can still eat the food,'' he said, adding that his company had shipped a $250,000 food package to a church group and a year's supply to two couples in Britain.

Millions of Americans were also stocking up the old-fashioned way, even if they were not suffering from what Long Island psychologist Leon Zacharowicz labeled ``millennial delusion'' -- a fear that something catastrophic or apocalyptic will happen as the year changes to 2000.

``We're selling every flashlight and every two-burner (propane) stove,'' said Mike Damico, manager of a Kmart store in Manhattan. At a nearby hardware store, Weinstein & Holtzman, New Yorkers were snapping up flashlights, batteries and propane stoves. Owner Jeffrey Hymowitz said he had sold more than 600 flashlights this month, compared with 75 normally.

The New York City Housing Authority sent letters to its 600,000 tenants urging them to stock up on food, water and batteries and develop an ``emergency plan'' to deal with potential blackouts or banking problems. Meals on Wheels, which distributes hot food to the elderly, has sent 45-pound care packages to 16,000 New Yorkers.

``I'm waiting for disaster,'' one shopper, Jay Wishner, told the New York Daily News. ``Do I have cases of food! Cases of rice, containers of water, canned ham and vegetables!''

Across the Hudson River in New Jersey, it was the same story. ``If nothing happens, I'm going to have a generator,'' said Frank Seidl, a Trenton fireman buying the emergency power equipment in West Windsor on a frigid day. ``If something does (happen), I'll have heat for my family.''

U-Haul International Inc., which operates a network of 960 propane stations across North America, reported a steady increase in propane sales in recent weeks and said sales were up 30 percent this week compared with the same week last year.

``It appears that people are concerned about the upcoming Y2K weekend and want to have their propane tanks topped off for their grills and heaters, just in case,'' said Richard Herrera, U-Haul's vice president for retail sales.

Several makers of processed food that stores easily said sales were up in the last months of 1999. Hormel Foods Corp., which makes Spam luncheon meats and canned Dinty Moore stews, said it was seeing signs of ``Y2K-related pantry inventory build-up'' which helped boost the company's fiscal fourth-quarter profits.

Fruit and vegetable canner Del Monte Foods Co. said it expected sales in the December quarter to be 1 million to 2 million cases higher than normal due to buying ahead of Y2K.

Spokesman John Faulkner of Campbell's Soup Co. said the company's soup shipments increased 2-3 percent at the end of Campbell's first fiscal quarter in December. He said Campbell had received requests from large-volume club stores for more 12-packs of soup, a request attributed to Y2K-related buying.

U.S. banks are packing their vaults with spare cash. Currency in circulation, at a record $589 billion on Dec. 8, has set new highs every week this quarter.

A spokesman for the Brink's security company, part of Pittston Co., said it had been working with the Federal Reserve and banks for over a year to handle the extra volume of money shipments. He declined to give details.

Fear of terrorism prompted the city of Seattle to cancel its New Year's party, and in New York, where some 8,000 police officers will be patrolling Times Square Friday night, officials denied rumors that they had bought 250,000 body bags and planned to use the ice rink at Madison Square Garden as a temporary morgue in the event of a terrorist attack.

Even as he announced a New Year's contingency plan for New Jersey's largest city, Newark, Mayor Sharpe James acknowledged the danger of scaring the public. ``The worst thing we can do is to make people think the sky is falling,'' he said.

Federal Aviation Administration head Jane Garvey took James' words to heart and will fly from Dallas to San Francisco on New Year's Eve -- to show there is nothing to worry about.

Airline ticket sales are way down due to public fears that air traffic control will be disrupted. In addition, airlines are taking a cautious approach. As a result, airlines have cancelled most of their flights over the Friday-Saturday year change. There will be only 45 airliners in U.S. skies at the stroke of midnight (EST), compared with an average of 5,500 to 6,000 military and civilian planes aloft on any given afternoon in the United States, the FAA said.

Psychologist Zacharowicz said it may be irrational, but fear of the millennium can be real to those he is treating. ``As you get closer and closer to New Year's Eve, people are talking more and more about their anxieties.

``But it's the extreme action -- that person building a bomb shelter -- that we have to be careful of,'' he told the New York Post."

from this site rense.com

money missing back in 2002 american recession could be predicted with economy faults

money missing back in 2002 american recession could be predicted with economy faults, could not the recent economic downturn of been predicted if you look back to articles from 2002 and further back there all kinds of signs that things were not right with the american economy, there were whistle blowers coming forward to expose the inherent faults and problems in the economy and machinery that controlled the money in america from big business to big banks.

but it was not until the whole system crashed in 2008 that people said oh look i think the system has crashed, but before the economy crashed people were saying everything is fine with the american economy and there is nothing going wrong, but if you looked below the surface and read between the lines you could see that there were things going wrong all over the place, but because these articles were seen as just separate incidents and not the big picture people would be dissociated from how it all added together to cause the big problems now being faced by americans with there economy in a bad state and president obama not being able to put a fix and solve these problems either.


this article shows that back in 2002 things were going wrong.

"Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins

They took huge professional and personal risks to blow the whistle on what went wrong at WorldCom, Enron and the FBI—and in so doing helped remind us what American courage and American values are all about.

Posted Sunday, December 22, 2002; 4:31 a.m. EST
This was the year when the grief started to lift and the worries came in.

During the first weeks of 2002, two dark moods entered the room, two anxieties that rattled down everybody's nerve paths, even on good days, and etched their particulars into the general disposition. To begin with, after Sept. 11, the passage of time drew off the worst of the pain, but every month or so there came a new disturbance—an orange alert, a dance-club bombing in Bali, a surface-to-air missile fired at a passenger jet—that showed us the beast still at our door.

In the confrontation with Iraq, in the contested effort to build a homeland defense, we all struggled to regain something like the more secure world we thought we lived in before the towers fell. But every step of the way we wondered—was this the way back? What exactly did we need to be doing differently?

And all the while there was the black comedy of corporate fraud. Who knew that the swashbuckling economy of the '90s had produced so many buccaneers? You could laugh about the CEOs in handcuffs and the stock analysts who turned out to be fishier than storefront palm readers, but after a while the laughs came hard. Martha Stewart was dented and scuffed. Tyco was looted by its own executives. Enron and WorldCom turned out to be Twin Towers of false promises. They fell. Their stockholders and employees went down with them. So did a large measure of public faith in big corporations. Each new offense seemed to make the same point: with communism vanquished, capitalism was left with no real enemies but its own worst impulses. It can be undone by its own overreaching players. It can be bitten to pieces by its own alpha dogs.

Day after day, one set of misgivings twined around the other, keeping spooked investors away from the stock market, giving the whole year its undeniable saw-toothed edge. Were we headed for a world where all the towers would fall? All the more reason to figure out quickly, before the next blow to the system, how to repair the fail-safe operations—in the boardrooms we trusted with our money, at the government agencies we trust with ourselves—that failed.

This is where three women of ordinary demeanor but exceptional guts and sense come into the picture. Sherron Watkins is the Enron vice president who wrote a letter to chairman Kenneth Lay in the summer of 2001 warning him that the company's methods of accounting were improper. In January, when a congressional subcommittee investigating Enron's collapse released that letter, Watkins became a reluctant public figure, and the Year of the Whistle-Blower began. Coleen Rowley is the FBI staff attorney who caused a sensation in May with a memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller about how the bureau brushed off pleas from her Minneapolis, Minn., field office that Zacarias Moussaoui, who is now indicted as a Sept. 11 co-conspirator, was a man who must be investigated. One month later Cynthia Cooper exploded the bubble that was WorldCom when she informed its board that the company had covered up $3.8 billion in losses through the prestidigitations of phony bookkeeping.

These women were for the 12 months just ending what New York City fire fighters were in 2001: heroes at the scene, anointed by circumstance. They were people who did right just by doing their jobs rightly—which means ferociously, with eyes open and with the bravery the rest of us always hope we have and may never know if we do. Their lives may not have been at stake, but Watkins, Rowley and Cooper put pretty much everything else on the line. Their jobs, their health, their privacy, their sanity—they risked all of them to bring us badly needed word of trouble inside crucial institutions. Democratic capitalism requires that people trust in the integrity of public and private institutions alike. As whistle-blowers, these three became fail-safe systems that did not fail. For believing—really believing—that the truth is one thing that must not be moved off the books, and for stepping in to make sure that it wasn't, they have been chosen by TIME as its Persons of the Year for 2002.

WHO ARE THESE WOMEN?
For starters, they aren't people looking to hog the limelight. All initially tried to keep their criticisms in-house, to speak truth to power but not to Barbara Walters. They became public figures only because their memos were leaked. One reason you still don't know much about them is that none have given an on-the-record media interview until now. In early December TIME brought all three together in a Minneapolis hotel room. Very quickly it became clear that none of them are rebels in the usual sense. The truest of true believers is more like it, ever faithful to the idea that where they worked was a place that served the wider world in some important way. But sometimes it's the keepers of the flame who feel most compelled to set their imperfect temple to the torch. When headquarters didn't live up to its mission, they took it to heart. At Enron the company handed out note pads with inspiring quotes. One was from Martin Luther King Jr.: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Watkins saw that quote every day. Didn't anybody else?

What more do they have in common? All three grew up in small towns in the middle of the country, in families that at times lived paycheck to paycheck. In a twist that will delight psychologists, they are all firstborns. More unusually, all three are married but serve as the chief breadwinners in their families. Cooper and Rowley have husbands who are full-time, stay-at-home dads. For every one of them, the decision to confront the higher-ups meant jeopardizing a paycheck their families truly depended on.

The joint interview in Minneapolis was the first time the three had met. But in no time they recognized how much they knew one another's experience. During the ordeals of this year, it energized them to know that there were two other women out there fighting the same kind of battles. In preparation for their meeting in Minneapolis, WorldCom's Cooper read through the testimony that Enron's Watkins gave before Congress. "I actually broke out in a cold sweat," Cooper says. In Minneapolis, when FBI lawyer Rowley heard Cooper talk about a need for regular people to step up and do the right thing, she stood up and applauded. And what to make of the fact that all are women? There has been talk that their gender is not a coincidence; that women, as outsiders, have less at stake in their organizations and so might be more willing to expose weaknesses. They don't think so. As it happens, studies have shown that women are actually a bit less likely than men to be whistle-blowers. And a point worth mentioning—all three hate the term whistle-blower. Too much like "tattletale," says Cooper.

But if the term unnerves them a bit, that may be because whistle-blowers don't have an easy time. Almost all say they would not do it again. If they aren't fired, they're cornered: isolated and made irrelevant. Eventually many suffer from alcoholism or depression.

With these three, that hasn't happened, though Watkins left her job at Enron after a few months when she wasn't given much to do. But ask them if they have been thanked sincerely by anyone at the top of their organization, and they burst out laughing. Some of their colleagues hate them, especially the ones who believe that their outfits would have quietly righted all wrongs if only they had been given time. "There is a price to be paid," says Cooper. "There have been times that I could not stop crying."

Watkins, Rowley and Cooper have kick-started conversations essential to the clean operation of American life, conversations that will continue for years. It may still be true that no one could have prevented the attacks of Sept. 11, but the past year has shown that the FBI and the CIA overlooked vital clues and held back data from each other. No matter how many new missile systems the Pentagon deploys or which new airport screening systems are adopted, if we can't trust the institutions charged with tracking terrorists to do the job, homeland defense will be an empty phrase. The Coleen Rowleys of the federal workforce will be the ones who will let us know what's going on.

As for corporate America, accounting scams of the kind practiced at Enron and WorldCom will continually need to be exposed and corrected before yet another phalanx of high-level operators gets the wrong idea and a thousand Enrons bloom. And the people best positioned to call them on it will be sitting in offices like the ones that Watkins and Cooper occupied. The new Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires CEOs and CFOs to vouch for the accuracy of their companies' books, is just one sign of what Cooper calls "a corporate-governance revolution across the country."

These were ordinary people who did not wait for higher authorities to do what needed to be done. Literature's great statement on unwelcome truth telling is Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People. Something said by one of his characters reminds us of what we admire about our Dynamic Trio. "A community is like a ship," he observes. "Everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm." When the time came, these women saw the ship in citizenship. And they stepped up to that wheel."

this article was from wanttoknow website and is from time magazine a i think

what went wrong with the american economy look back to 2002?

what went wrong with the american economy look back to 2002?, i think it helps to take a look back to see why things are wrong now with the american economy and the worldwide recession, not to get answers as such but there are clues in the past, which was missed in the past but will shed light on why things worked out the way they did with the american economy downturn and the financial situation.

these are just clues though and not direct answers i have found this interesting article about a estimated $3.3 trillion missing form the us treasury in or around 2002, this is a speculation article so also take with a pinch of salt as well.

"Estimate $3.3 Trillion
Missing From U.S. Treasury

By Buddy Grizzard
authenticpress.net
August, 02
4-7-6

While Americans worry about the disastrous effects on our economy of the accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom and elsewhere, an even larger accounting scandal has somehow escaped the public consciousness. According to estimates, the Department of Defense and the Department of Housing and Urban Development cannot account for over $3 trillion allotted to them by Congress, amounting to thousands of dollars of missing money for every man, woman and child in the country.

This story hasn' gone completely unreported. In a Jan. 29 article titled "The War on Waste," CBS News quoted Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as saying, "according to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions." The article went on to quote retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan, former commander of the Navy's 2nd Fleet, as saying that while President George W. Bush's 2003 budget proposal calls for $48 billion in new Pentagon spending, "with good financial oversight we could find $48 billion in loose change in that building, without having to hit the taxpayers."

One of the most knowledgeable and effective critics of this epidemic of fiscal mismanagement by our government is Catherine Austin Fitts, former managing director of Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read and former HUD assistant secretary in the first Bush administration. At HUD, Fitts worked to improve accounting practices before leaving the government to start Hamilton Securities, a firm which saved taxpayers billions by efficiently handling HUD mortgages. Now a resident of Hickory Valley, Tenn., and president of Solari, Inc., a community-based investment firm, Fitts writes in her article "The Missing Money Why the Citizens of Tennessee Are Working Harder and Getting Less"

"In June 2001 the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, under the leadership of Senator Fred Thompson (R- Tenn.), published its study, "Government at the Brink." The study describes the failure of federal government agencies to maintain reliable financial systems and/or to publish required independent annual audited financial statements. The President's initial 2002 budget (before increases for 9/11) proposed that approximately 85% of all federal appropriations be awarded to the very same agencies the Thompson study states either (1) fail to maintain reliable financial systems, (2) fail to publish trustworthy or, in some cases, any, independent certified financial statements (as required by law), or both." (Source Solari.com)

Later in that same article, Fitts's estimates of total financial adjustments by DOD to date make the story even worse. "Total undocumented accounting adjustments for reported periods for the Department of Defense [and HUD for fiscal 1998-2000] amount to a whopping $3.3 trillion, or $11,700 for every American. The Department of Defense has failed to produce independent audited financial statements since the requirement went into effect in 1995. HUD's Inspector General refused to certify HUD's fiscal 1999 financial statements."

Fitts added in an interview by email that the HUD inspector also cited $59 billion missing from HUD for fiscal 1999, but said that this is only the tip of the iceberg of mismanagement at HUD. "That report also indicated $17 billion missing from the opening balance; so that would be for fiscal 1998," said Fitts. "My understanding was that the $59 billion only referred to undocumented adjustments on the liabilities side of the balance sheet, and in fact the problems were greater on the asset side. HUD refused to disclose the undocumentable adjustments for fiscal 2000."

Investigative reporter Kelly Patricia O'Meara wrote about the scandal in the Aug. 10, 2001 issue of Insight Magazine. She quoted DOD Deputy Inspector General Robert Lieberman making the following remark before Congress "The extensive DOD efforts to compile and audit the FY [fiscal year] 2000 financial statements for the department as a whole and for the 10 subsidiary reporting entities like the Army, Navy and Air Force General Funds, could not overcome the impediments caused by poor systems and unreliable documentation of transactions and assets." (Source InsightMag.com)

O'Meara's article also quoted the January 2001 report "DOD Major Management Challenges and Program Risks" by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, saying "[The Pentagon] continues to confront pervasive and complex financial management problems⤠and has been on our list of high-risk areas vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement since 1995. To date, no major part of the department's operations has passed the test of an independent financial audit because of pervasive weaknesses in the department's financial management systems, operations and controls."

An additional problem with making the Pentagon fiscally accountable was exposed in a July 22, 1999 article in the New York Times by Tim Weiner, titled "Pentagon Defied Laws and Misused Funds, Panel Reports." Wrote Weiner "Congress says in a new report that the Pentagon defied the law and the Constitution by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on military projects that lawmakers never approved." Weiner quoted Rep. Jerry Lewis (R- Cal.) as saying that the Pentagon apparently believes "that it can even move money to a program Congress has closed down, maybe presuming, 'Oh, well, nobody will know.'"

"The Constitution is pretty clear on this," continued Lewis later in the article. "It says 'No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law.'" Added Weiner "The law and Pentagon procedures allow military officials to shift funds from one account to another, but not without telling Congress. They cannot finance programs Congress never approved, or use money for a purpose that lawmakers never intended. But they have done so for years, the committee's report and its staff members said." So what is being done to improve the accounting practices in the Pentagon?

According to Fitts and an April 18 item in the Potomac Tech Journal, the company credited with the $59 billion loss at HUD has been awarded the contract to redesign DoD's current business processes. Wrote Taylor Lincoln for the Potomac Tech Journal "Potomac-area firms American Management Systems and DynCorp have won slices of a $50 million to $100 million Defense Department financial management project for which IBM Corp. is the lead contractor, Fairfax, Va.-based AMS said today." AMS, along with subcontractors DynCorp and Lockheed, developed the faulty "HUDCAPS" financial software used by HUD.

It remains to be seen whether AMS and its partners will recover the missing money by installing new financial architecture for the Pentagon, or whether the missing money will be written off due to faults in the older system. However, Fitts says there are possible avenues through which we might recover the missing funds. "We need to identify where it went and get it back," said Fitts, "either through seizures or the creation of set aside claims. Unless we do so, we will find ourselves at the mercy of a group of creditors who are our creditors because they are financing us with the money they stole from our public and private pension funds."

Fitts⤠writings on the subject indicate she has little confidence in our government's ability to correct itself, without a complete overhaul of the way funds are collected and appropriated in this country. "I believe that the only way to ensure fiscal accountability is to create legal and/or trust or escrow mechanisms at the state and local level to condition payment of tax monies on compliance with the law," said Fitts. "The federal government is breaking the law as a matter of intentional ongoing policy. At this point, there needs to be a way to place sufficient control on the cash payments to require compliance with the law."

As Americans watch their 401-K programs evaporate in the current economy, and wonder if Social Security will be there for them when they retire, it seems that another cause for grave concern has arisen due to our government's lack of financial transparency and responsibility."

from this site rense.com

conspiracy theory to create global government true false or in the middle somewhere?

conspiracy theory to create global government true false or in the middle somewhere?, found this old conspiracy write up on a single page website from prison planet, i like it mostly because it has over a 100 years of history neatly put together on one page, not sure how much i believe in conspiracy theories but they do make interesting reading all the same.

this is not so much about money but money does make the world go round and so, money sometimes is tied up more things then we realise, you might not always see the links to money in actions in the world because they might be hidden, the recent conspiracy involving money involved the banks, for example the recent bank bailout.

well was the bank bailout a conspiracy or was it the result of a conspiracy and so the bailout was used to try and correct a conspiracy?, who knows, but what the bank bailout did cause was massive debt to be put onto tax payers, yet most of the banks seemed to carry on as usual making massive profits, probably for the bailout to be justified there would need to be a big bounce back from the current recession, as saving the banks was meant to save the economy, in the short term and the long term.

"TIMELINE TO GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

1891 - The Society of the Elect and the Association of Helpers - (also known as the "Secret Society,"), was created by Cecil Rhodes, Alfred Milner, William T. Stead, Reginald Baliol Brett, and Lord Esher, in London. Rhodes died in 1902, leaving the society, and his fortune, under the control of Milner, who established the Rhodes Scholar program. Good background here.

1910 - The Round Table - a periodical, first published by Milner's "Secret Society" for Britain's intellectual community. The writers, and those associated with the publication became known as the Round Table Group, and later, the Chatham House crowd. Comprehensive background.

1912 Edward Mandell House - published Philip Dru: Administrator,a novel describing how the world could best be governed by a benevolent administrator. House traveled in Europe in 1909, and met Woodrow Wilson November 25, 1911. Chronology: Met Sir Edward Grey (member of Milner's group) in 1913.

1913 - Woodrow Wilson, U.S. President - Edward Mandell House served as Wilson's campaign manager, and then as chief advisor. Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
Federal Reserve Act enacted - creating the first "central bank" in America. Paul Warberg, whose family controlled the Reichsbank in Germany, was the architect of the system.

1914 - World War I Begins - Wilson campaigned against U.S. entry into the war, then entered the war in 1917, one year before it ended.

1918 - Wilson's 14 Points - presented to a joint session of Congress on January 8. The document was developed by Colonel Mandell House and advisors known as the "Inquiry."
The League of Nations - first proposed in The Round Table, in December, in an article entitled The League of Nations: A Practical Suggestion, written by Edward Mandell House and Lionel Curtis, a member of the original Rhodes/Milner "Secret Soceity."

1919 - Paris Peace Conference - House is Wilson's chief deputy at the conference where he expanded his association with leaders of the Milner group.
Genesis of the CFR and RIIA - At a meeting on May 30, at the Majestic Hotel in Paris, Edward M. House, Lionel Curtis, Lord Eustace Percy, Harold Temperley, Herbert Hoover, Christian Herter, James T. Shotwell (Columbia), Charles Seymore (Yale), Archibald C. Coolidge (Harvard), were among 50 individuals who decided to create the Council on Foreign Relations in the U.S., and the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.
The Treaty of Versailles - signed June 28, ended the war and incorporated The Covenant of the League of Nations as the first 30 Articles - very much as had been proposed by House and Curtis.

1920 - League of Nations rejected by U.S. Senate - despite herculean efforts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Royal Institute of International Affairs - organized by the Milner group, housed at the Chatham House in London.

1921 Council on Foreign Relations - organized as U.S. counterpart to Royal Institute of International Affairs. John W. Davis, attorney to J.P. Morgan, was first president. Paul Warberg and J.D. Rockefeller were among initial funders. Began publishing Foreign Affairs in 1922. Described by Senator Barry Goldwater in 1979.

1925 - Mein Kampf - published by Adolf Hitler.

1929 - Stock Market Crash - Sets the stage for world wide depression, international response, and another war.

1930 - Bank of International Settlements - created in Basel, Switzerland. J.P. Morgan & Company, and others involved with the creation of the Federal Reserve, were among the founders.

1932 - Franklin D. Roosevelt - begins his presidency amid the great depression. "The New Deal" was formulated by leftist, Henry A. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture, and Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, who, as a Senator, supported Wilson's League of Nations. Hull began drafting a United Nations Charter two weeks after Pearl Harbor.

1933 - The Wilderness Society - founded by Bob Marshall, a socialist.

1936 - National Wildlife Federation - founded.

1938 - World marches toward war - A chronology of events leading to World War II, the event which gave rise to the United Nations.

1941 - FDR delivers "Four Freedoms" speech - (January 6), and the Atlantic Conference (August 14), embody the idea of disarming sovereign nations under international authority.
Declaration of War on Japan (December 8); Declaration of War on Germany (December 11).

1942 - Declaration by "United Nations" - first official use of the name "United Nations," suggested by Roosevelt. Chronnology of related events.

1943 - Moscow Conference - Articles 5 - 7 refer to "United Nations" and post-war permanent organization.
United Nations Association - created by Eleanor Roosevelt.

1944 - Bretton Woods Agreements - created the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Henry Morganthau delivered the closing address. (Background and conference details.)
Dumbarton Oaks Conversations - produce the draft recommendations for a United Nations organization. The U.S. Team, led by Edward Stettinius, included Alger Hiss (communist agent), Ralph Bunche, Leo Pasvolsky, and Grayson Kirk. Overview of the meeting.

1945 - Yalta Conference - (February) reached agreement on U.N. draft recommendations and set the date for U.N. conference. Germany surrenders (May 7).
U.N. Charter - signed June 26, in San Francisco. Ratified by Senate (89-2) July 28.
International Court of Justice - established in The Hague.
August 6, & 9, atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Japan surrenders (August 14).
UNESCO - created in London, November 16.

1946 - U.S. joins UNESCO - Julian Huxley, president of the Eugenics Society, and author of "The New Divinity", first Director. Socialist Joseph Needham, appointed Director of Natural Science.
World Health Organization created.

1947 - World Federalist Association - founded in Asheville, North Carolina
World Federalist Movement - founded in Switzerland.

1948 - IUCN Created - by Julian Huxley, in Geneva. Headquarters in Gland, Switzerland The U.S. Government, and several agencies are members.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights - adopted by U.N. General Assembly
Environmental Education - concept introduced to the U.N. by the IUCN.

1949 - UNESCO Publication 356 - "Toward World Understanding."

1951 - The Nature Conservancy - organized.

1959 - United Nations Development Program - evolved to maturity.

1960 - Temple of Understanding - organized in New York. Dr. Robert Muller on Advisory Board.

1961 - Freedom From War - State Department Publication 7277, setting forth U.S. disarmament policy in favor of U.N. peacekeeping.
World Wildlife Fund - organized by Julian Huxley and IUCN.

1964 - Wilderness Act of 1964 - and how it came to be.
UNCTAD - United Nations Conference on Trade and Development established.

1968 - ECOSOC Resolution 1296 - directed by Dr. Robert Muller, establishes "Consultative Status" for NGOs (non-government organizations). Lucis Trust among first NGOs accredited.
Club of Rome - organized, and published Limits to Growth.

1970 - First Earth Day - founder, Gaylord Nelson. Another view of Earth Day.
World Conference on Religion and Peace - opened headquartrs at the U.N. Center. Held conference in Kyoto, Japan, was accredited by ECOSOC in 1973.
Environmental Protection Agency - created.

1971 - RAMSAR Treaty on Wetlands - signed in Ramsar, Iran. IUCN driving force behind RAMSAR.

1972 - Clean Water Act - passed by Congress. Wetland definitionexpanded by lawsuit brought by National WildlifeFederation, resulting in "Tulloch"decision in 1993. Tulloch overturned in1997.
WorldHeritage Convention - adopted by UNESCO. TechnicalReview.
EarthSummit I - First U.N. Conference on Environment. Maurice Strong Conference leader.
James ParksMorton became dean of the Cathedral of St. John theDivine in New York City.

1973 - CITES Signed - (March 3 - Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). IUCN and WWF driving force behind CITES. Endangered Species Act - became U.S. law.
U.N. Environment Program - launched with Maurice Strong first Executive Director.
Trilateral Commission - formed, most participants also members of Council on Foreign Relations.
UNEP's Regional Seas Program - expands environmental outreach. Survey of U.S. participation.

1975 - Belgrade Charter - Global Framework for Environmental Education. Promoted by NAAEE

1976 - HABITAT I - adopts U.N. policy on land. William K. Reilly and Carla Hills signed for U.S.
Federal Land Policy Management Act - adopted.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - becomes international law.
UNIFEM - created to promote womens' rights.

1978 - Global Taxation - first proposed by James Tobin. Current status.

1979 - U.S. MAB - (Man and the Biosphere Program) launched by agency agreement with UNESCO.
First World Climate Conference - held in Geneva, Switzerland.
World Core Curriculum - introduced by Dr. Robert Muller, through the Robert Muller Schools.
CEDAW - (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) adopted by the U.N. General Assembly.

1980 - World Conservation Strategy - published jointly by UNEP, IUCN, and WWF.
MacBride Commission - (International Commission for the Study of Communications Problems. Report: Many Voices, One World. Chaired by Sean MacBride. Early efforts to control communications.
Brandt Commission - (Independent Commission on International Development) chaired by Willy Brandt. Report: North-South: A Program for Survival linked economic equity to development and was beginning of "sustainable development" concept.

1982 - Palme Commission - (Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues). Report: Common Security: A Blueprint For Survival linked security to development. Chaired by Olof Palme.
World Resources Institute - organized with help from Russell E. Train. Gustave Speth first director.
World Charter for Nature - precursor to the Earth Charter.
U.N. Convention on the Law of the seas - which created the International Seabed Authority.

1985 - U.N. Convention on Ozone Depleting Substances - adopted in Vienna, Austria.

1987 - Montreal Protocol - converts voluntary Ozone Treaty into international law.
Brundtland Commission - (World Commission on Environment and Development). Report: Our Common Future, which defined "sustainable development". Chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland. Members included Shridath Ramphal and Maurice Strong.
Institute for Global Communications - created by the Tides Foundation to facilitate NGO communications.

1988 - Global Forum on Human Survival - held in Oxford, England. Co-sponsored by the Temple of Understanding and the U.N. Committee on Parliamentarians and Population, chaired by James Parks Morton. James Lovelock was the featured speaker.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - created by WMO and UNEP.

1989 - Berlin Wall falls - (November 9), USSR begins to disintegrate.
Convention on Rights of the Child - adopted by the U.N.
Climate Action Network - created in Germany to promote climate treaty.

1990 - Global Forum on Human Survival - held in Moscow, hosted by Mikhail Gorbachev, and Javier Perez de Cuellar, chaired by James Parks Morton.
World Summit for Children - held in New York; adopted Plan of Action.
Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) - created by Bella Abzug.
International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) - created at the invitation of the U.N.,to advance Agenda 21 at the local level.

1991 - Caring for the Earth - published jointly by UNEP, IUCN, and WWF.
Stockholm Initiative on Global Security and Governance - origin of Commission on Global Goverance.

1992 - Commission on Global Governance - established. Willy Brandt, with the blessings of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, appointed Ingvar Carlsson and Shridath Ramphal (IUCN president) as co-chairs.
Global Biodiversity Strategy - published jointly by UNEP, IUCN, WWF, and WRI.
U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) - Rio de Janeiro. Chaired by Maurice Strong. Produced: Agenda 21; Convention on Biological Diversity; Framework Convention on Climate Change; Statement of Forest Principles; and the Rio Declaration.
U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development - created to advance Agenda 21.
Earth Council - created in Costa Rica by Maurice Strong to coordinate global implementation of Agenda 21 through "National Councils" on Sustainable Development.
National Religious Partnership for the Environment - outgrowth of Temple of Understanding's "Joint Appeal."
The Wildlands Project - published by Dave Foreman, co-founder of Earth First!. Project seeks to convert half of America to wilderness.

1993 - President's Council on Sustainable Development - created by Executive Order No. 12852 to implement Agenda 21 in America, co-chaired by WRI president, Jonathan Lash.
First Meridian Conference on Global Governance - held in Bolinas, California.
World Conference on Human Rights - in Vienna.
Green Cross - founded by Mikhail Gorbachev.
BIONET - created to promote Convention on Biological Diversity.

1994 - World Trade Organization - formed at Uruguay round of GATT negotiations.
U.N. Conference on Population and Development - in Cairo

1995 - World Summit on Social Development - in Copenhagen.
Commission on Sustainable Development - met in New York.
Fourth World Women's Congress - in Beijing. Documents.
State of the World Forum - San Francisco, hosted by Mikhail Gorbachev and Maruice Strong.
Our Global Neighborhood - final report released by the Commission on Global Governance.
Analysis - of Commission report.
Global Biodiversity Assessment - released by UNEP. Coordinated by Robert Watson.

1996 - U.N. Conference on Human Settlements (HABITAT II) - Istanbul. Community Sustainability, U.S. HUD's report to the conference. Instanbul Declaration on Human Settlements.
Campaign for U.N. Reform - organized to lobby for global governance.

1997 - Al Gore's report - to the U.N. at Rio +5. A broader view of Agenda 21 implementation.
Kyoto Protocol - Adopted in Kyoto, Japan. Converts voluntary climate change treaty to binding international law. On-site reports.
International Conference on Environment and Society - sponsored by UNESCO in Thessaloniki. Survey of environmental education movement.
1998 - International Criminal Court - created in Rome. On-site reports from Rome.
International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) - created to lobby for U.N. gun control.
U.N. Climate Change Conference - in Buenos Aires.

1999 - Charter for Global Democracy - consolidates recommendations of Commission on Global Governance into 12 principles.
World NGO Conference - held in Canada to promote plan for "The Peoples Assembly."
U.N. Climate Change Conference - in Bonn.

2000 - Earth Charter - final draft.
NGO Millennium Forum - New York, precursor to "The People's Assembly."
UNDPI/NGO Forum - August 28 - 30, New York (to strengthen "Civil Society" in UN operations)
Millennium Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders - August 28 - 31, New York
State of the World Forum - September 4 - 10, New York
Millennium Assembly - September 5 - 8, New York
Millennium Summit - September 6 -8, New York".

i found this on a single prison planet page website prisonplanet