In an alarming trend that has many economists puzzled and many Forex traders happy as clams, the US Dollar has continued to slide down against all the other major currencies of the world. The US dollar has continued to lose value to the Euro (EUR), The Japanese Yen (JPY), the Swiss Franc (CHF) and the Canadian Dollar (CDN). Today’s loss has the US Dollar almost even with the Canadian Dollar, with the CAD trading at a bid of 0.9991 and ask of 0.9995 versus the USD. See the charts below for the US dollar’s performance versus the other currencies over the last year.

Meanwhile, oil prices climbed to new record highs on global markets Thursday, as concerns about limited supplies were heightened by a storm threatening Gulf of Mexico oil-drilling installations. New York’s main futures contract, crude oil for delivery in October, jumped 1.39 dollars to close at 83.32 dollars a barrel. The contract expired at the close. The price of New York crude oil has hit a series of record peaks in recent days, including Wednesday after the US Department of Energy stated crude oil reserves had tumbled last week, signaling possible global supply shortages.

What does all this mean to the average American, we’ll it means our dollars have less values and we will be paying more at the pump in the coming months. Added with the tumbling mortgage and housing markets and the lackluster performance of the US Stock Market, it looks like sure signs of a recession and apparently the economy isn’t in quite as good of shape as the White House and President would have us believe. Let’s not forget we have an incredible surmounting debt due to the fact we’re fighting wars in two countries at the moment which will be a huge drain on this countries resources.

While this all might sound like a gloom and doom scenario, the smart investors and traders are plying their best methods to find advantages in this spiralling US economy. While the picture may look bleak for people holding onto 401k’s and long term investments for retirement, those who are more liquid in their assets are taking finding incredible deals, particularly on investment property. Currency traders who hedge themselves against the US dollar are also experiencing sustained trading profits and daytraders are riding the panic buying and selling waves like Mark Richards rode waves at Hawaii’s North Shore.

In all major markets this is really a Bullish scenario and to survive you have to hit and hit hard and don’t look back. Bearish investors are biting their nails watching each days returns hoping their long term strategies work out but if you want to play with the big dogs you have to have more than a bark, you need to have a bite.

There is one person in this country of the United States who is the worst racist ever, he continues to set race relations back every time he opens his bigoted mouth, he appears like a ghoul at every uttering of the word “racial”, yet he hides behind the color of his skin and an imaginary Bible. If you haven’t already figured out who I’m talking about, it’s the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the most recent evidence of his bigoted mind were his comments criticizing Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for “acting like he’s white” when it comes to the case of the six young blacks who were recently charged with violent crimes in Jena, La. Here is a picture of this bigoted bastard holding the tool of his trade, “The Race Card“.

When he was running for president in 1984, Jesse Jackson was quoted calling Jewish people “Hymie” and New York City “Hymietown.” He promptly issued a “non-denial-denial” at the time, according to a story about the incident that appeared in American Journalism Review.¹

According to the World Net Daily, the government watchdog Judicial Watch released a report it says reveals condemning details about the intimidation and shakedown tactics of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition. The report entitled, “Jesse Jackson Exposed,” claims Jackson is “an extortionist who uses his influence as a civil rights leader to essentially blackmail wealthy corporations with absurd discrimination threats.” According to the report, Jackson publicly chastised Toyota for running an ad Jackson deemed “racist.” After Toyota pulled the ad, Jackson threatened to boycott the automaker to force it to launch a $7.8 million “diversity program.” Another expose of Jackson, Kenneth Timmerman’s book “Shakedown: Exposing the real Jesse Jackson,” goes back several decades, including details on Jackson’s ordination as a reverend. “I describe a two to three year process for earning that title,” Timmerman said. “Jesse Jackson got himself ordained two months after Martin Luther King was shot. It was essentially a ‘political ordination,’ a ’shotgun ordination.’ He did not go through the long procedure. He was not licensed to preach, as far as I could determine. I went to the church where he was ordained. He did not go through this two-year process. He never submitted himself to the authority of the church. He has never had a church himself, and he has been accountable to no one.” ²

Like lawyers chasing an ambulance, Jackson and his cronie Al Sharpton appeared today as crowds of ignorant people marched in protest of the juducial proceedings against the “Jena6“, a group of six young black males who are on trial for allegedly beating a white youth within an inch of his life. Their defense hinges on the fact that the white students had hung nooses in a tree on the schoolyard which ignited the beating. What I don’t understand is how on earth these people equate a juvenille prank of hanging nooses in a tree with an actual physical and violent attack where six men beat on one single man. Furthermore, if these “color talkers’ want to equate “the noose” or the “gallows pole” with black people, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there have been more caucasion people who were sentenced to death by hanging than blacks.

In the wild west days, hanging were common for criminals, and many legendary outlaws such as Thomas “Black Jack” Ketchum were hung to death. In Salem, Massachusetts, nineteen supposed ‘witches’ were hanged at Gallows Hill in 1692. One defendant, Giles Cory, was tortured to death for refusing to enter a plea at his trial. Five others, including an infant, died in prison. Not a one of them was black. In the 230 year the period from 1735 to 1964 there were as many as 10,935 executions in England and Wales alone, comprising 10,378 men and 557 women. In 273 of the early cases, it is not possible to be totally certain from surviving records whether a death sentence was actually carried out or not. 32 of the 375 women executed between 1735 and 1799 were burnt at the stake.³

Let’s not forget the most prolific in current events, the hanging of Saddam Hussein. Last time I checked, he wasn’t black. Regardless of nooses hung in a tree there is a grave difference between a prank and six men beating one.

Jesse Jackson needs to shut his damn mouth for once and for all. And btw, for any of you wondering about the “Race Card”, it’s not reloadable or fundable by e-currencies. It’s only funded by hatred and bigotry.

¹ Exerpted From : http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/09/report-jesse-ja.html
² Exerpted From :http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50777
³ Exerpted From :http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/hanging1.html#stats

I’d previously blogged about the Webmoney payment system in two articles detailing their services and announcing the fact they now have a “Gold Based” version of their Webmoney purse available. You can read those articles from the links at he end of this post. I’ve clearly stated my positive opinion of the Russian based Webmoney. At the moment, Webmoney seems to be the most promising payment processor next to V-Money. Their security is unparalelled and includes a complete software based solution to access your account or you can access your account through the X.509 root certificate based web interface. The ease of use globally makes Webmoney a true contender. The fact it is not located in the United States yet their customer support is absolutely exceptional is just one example of why Webmoney is “superior money”.

Potential Webmoney users and/or merchants will have to be aware that Webmoney requires verification of your account either through their WM Passport system or by sending an SMS Text Message from your cellphone. The WM Passport service had previously been available only in Russian language on the website but I just checked their site before writing this post and I was amazed to see the WM Passport is now available in English language as well.

In my case, I chose to activate by SMS on my handset but I was having a problem dialing the Russian phone number that I was supposed to send the SMS to. The phone number was shown as follow…

+7 (916) 805-46-12

Well, I’m not used to dialing international numbers but I tried about three text messages (to 79168054612) and none of them seemed to be getting through. I decided to try to just dial that number and see if it was in service and if I was connecting. That’s when I figured out that if you are dialing on a US based handset you have to dial the plus sign in the number. Well, I have one Samsung handset with T-Mobile for my personal use and a Motorola handset with Verizon for my business use. I was perplexed with both handsets as to how you get the plus sign in the number. I’m no stranger to text messages, but this one had me stumped. Well, I logged into my Verizon account and found out I’d have to add another monthy charge and change my service plan to be able to send an international text message. Ok, Verizon was out, so I just dialed support on my T-Mobile phone (I love T-Mobile dial 611 for support), anyway, I got a very friendly support person that let me know that T-Mobile allows any account to send international SMS messges for .20 per message. He also told me to dial the plus sign, on almost any handset, all you have to do is hold down the number “0″ until the plus sign appears. Armed with that information, I had my webmoney account verified in 5 minutes. Awesome service by both T-Mobile and Webmoney!!!

To open a Webmoney account and have a look for yourself, their site is available at the link below…
http://www.wmtransfer.com/

Opening an account is free of charge rest assured, Webmoney is worth a look just to see all of the features they offer. Plus, they show their daily stats on their front page, and today’s were rather interesting…

Total registrations in WebMoney Transfer: 4 094 626.
15-09-2007: 73337 transactions, turnover 3 535 391 USD,
3796 new registrations.

Seems like quite a few people are opening Webmoney account these days. As a footnote, I assume most of the people reading this post are aeware that Webmoney now offers a “gold backed” purse called Webmoney G. Thumbs up !! Below are two of my previous articles on Webmoney.

• Webmoney E-Currency Review
• Webmoney Goes Gold

If you’ve followed this blog for the last year and a half, you’d know we’ve always been supportive of the E-Gold payment system, but after recent dealings with E-Gold and GS&R (their parent company), our opinion of this money transmitter has become jaded. Since the US Department of Justice’s indictment of E-Gold on money laundering charges, it’s become a reality that these charges are not unfounded and that the creators of E-Gold, Dr. Douglas Jackson and Barry Downey are shady individuals and quite possible personally involved in the alleged fraud regarding E-Gold’s operations.

The reason I’m writing this article is a recent block put on our advertising account for no apparent reason. The E-Gold account in question has never accepted any funds except for payments for advertising. Given that information it would seem assinine that E-gold has placed a block on an account with no suspicious activities.

To begin with, I placed a telephone call to E-Gold’s support regarding the blocked account and I had the displeasure of dealing with a very, very nasty person who refused to listen and continued to talk over me stating that I would have to email E-gold support regarding the issue and that they would send me details on recovering my account. I was told I would have to furnish an electric bill or some other proof that I am the account holder. I responded to this crude person stating that E-Gold/Omnipay already had my correct personal information on file. Omnipay required a user to confirm their “snail mail” address prior to making out-exchanges. Additionally, my bank account was on file with Omnipay due to the fact I’d out-exchanged to bank wire a few times before they were shut down by the DOJ. I asked this rude support person, “What difference does an electric bill matter if you already have my phone number, snail mail address and bank account?” but the response I got was this shrew hung up on me. So I sent the support email to E-Gold on Thursday and as of today, Tuesday, I have yet to hear back from them.

E-Gold is located in Melbourne, Florida and despite the continual misinformation that they are Nevis based, that in itself is a bold faced lie. While I was speaking to E-Gold support, I stated that they could easily look up my name in the Volusia County property appraisers office and see that I’m the owner of the home listed as the snail mail contact in my E-Gold account. Anybody living or working in Melbourne, Florida would be quite aware that Volusia county is the next county up the coast from Melbourne and I would think that a person’s homeownership being listed in a government database might be sufficient proof while a copy of an electric bill could easily be forged by somebody with access to a scanner, Photoshop and a printer. All my bills are paid by automatic withdrawl, I have no paper bills. Seems the folks at E-gold are definitely a step behind and after my dealings with them I have to agree that they are operating a questionable operation and are worthy of the accusations levied against them.

While there was only $100 left in my E-Gold account and I’m also well aware of the simplicity of sending and receiving money from a blocked account (go read Talkgold forums, there are plenty of scammers doing it all the time over there), I refuse to use improper channels to recover my funds.

I urge anybody reading this article to liquidate your E-Gold accounts as soon as possible because there has baan a rash of people contacting me through Code4Gold forums regarding E-Gold blocking their accounts and allegedly confiscating their funds. Which brings up another good point that a friend mentioned to me. What exactly becomes of funds in blocked accounts that are never recovered? It would seem this is a quick and easy way for E-Gold to pinch money the money for themselves. I wonder how much money E-Gold has pocketed over the last few year from scammers’ accounts who could not or would not provide the necessary information to unblock their accounts?

As for Dr. Douglas Jackson, all the blogging and whining he’s doing right now isn’t going to change the fact that E-Gold will eventually be shut down and it’s principals repremanded. The E-gold system is/was a very unique and very innovative system which is why so many free minded people embraced and heralded it. Granted, E-Gold as a wonderful concept, however, they blew it. Greed and ignorance allowed E-Gold to become a favorite tool for scammers and E-Gold collected the profits from those people while turning a blind eye to the law.

The internet community needs to be warned of the shady dealings at E-Gold against account holders who have actually been doing legitimate business through this money transmitter and payment processor.