http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/RMRV/ProfitGuide/

Link THE DE-RAILING OF THE NEW ECONOMY

Now you can avoid the train wreck that's coming,and then get back on board at prices not seen since the 1980's.

What train? The gravy train. The "last train out." The train to automatic wealth. The train to easy street.

Dear Investor:

Last February, Dr. Gary North issued a warning about the NASDAQ to his subscribers. He said the NASDAQ was heading for a major setback. Less than six weeks later, on March 10, the NASDAQ peaked at 5040. Then it dropped over 33%.

Investors who ignored Dr. Gary North's warning...and stayed loaded up on tech stocks... got caught. For instance, an investor with $400,000 in NASDAQ tech stocks saw his net worth plummet by 35% - a whopping $140,000 - in April alone.

They're still hanging on, afraid to sell because of tax consequences or just plain embarrassment. They stayed invested in a market with a preposterous price/earnings ratio of over 200. Within weeks of Dr. North's warning, the NASDAQ's average P/E had fallen to 145 - still absurd, but closer to the inevitable reality. (The S&P 500's P/E is close to 26 - historically the highest it's ever been, even in the summer of 1929.)

Now whipsaw volatility...combined with the potentially market-clobbering "economic wild cards" described in this special bulletin...makes being naked in the stock market about as pleasant as being caught in a small boat on a stormy sea: You just want to throw up over the side, then hang on for dear life.

Just Look At The Numbers...

The NASDAQ dropped 4% in March, then 35% in April, for a total decline of 39% in just 2 months. It regained territory to 4013 on June 20th, but then headed south again. The financial roller coaster ride had begun.

Right now, the U.S. stock markets are in nothing less than total turmoil. In only four periods has volatility approached today's: 1929, 1937 (Roosevelt's second depression), 1974 (Ford's recession), and 1987.Even more unsettling, there are economic "wild cards" in play right now which threaten to wipe out a good chunk of your nest egg virtually overnight...unless you take steps to secure and preserve your hard-won wealth right now!

My, how things have changed in a few short years! In 1998, a new Silicon Valley tech start-up went public every 5 days, and the raging bull market created - on paper - 62 new millionaires every day.

But that's all over. The technology bubble has burst. Wall Street has put the brakes on dot.com IPOs, as investors wake up and begin to demand that an Internet company have at least some clear-cut prospect of making a profit before they invest.

In this Winter 2000 Special Economic Advisory, we will preview what's in store for investors this year and next...and outline specific strategies Dr. Gary North recommends for preserving your wealth in today's uncertain markets. These are practical, important steps you can take...starting today...to ensure a comfortable lifestyle and worry-free financial future for you and your family.

The Myth Of The New Economy

The "New Economy" is a myth. But it was such a compelling myth! It sounded so plausible. But it had one fatal flaw: the pace of change. New technology companies can only rarely lock in profits from their discoveries, and when they do, the Justice Department sues them.

That's when the companies show a profit. For the past three years, almost none of the New Tech companies have shown profits as high as Treasury bills.The rules haven't changed, despite what the "Who cares about profits?" dot.com crowd has been preaching. In the real world, and especially the stock market, the fundamentals always kick into place, sooner or later. In the case of the tech craze, it was just a little later.

Americans became spoiled. Young kids... investors, brokers, analysts, techies, and entrepreneurs...grew up in the world that had never experienced a market crash.Stock options made young computer geeks millionaires on paper even though they were still living in their parents' basements. IPOs for companies that were little more than "concepts" in a business plan made techie entrepreneurs into billionaires.

But the Internet isn't a revolution in profitability. It's just a tool, and businesses still have to follow the fundamentals of doing business - including, at some point, making money.

So, forget the new-age business gurus glorified in Fast Company andBusiness 2.0. The Internet has yet to come up with a profitable model for selling to consumers and, so far, the emperor has no clothes.

In the dot.com world, many consider Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos to be emperor, or at least king.Time magazine even picked him as their "Man of the Year."

But the fact is, Bezos is chasing a wild goose. His chase was funded by venture capitalists who use investors' hard-earned money to pay for what, so far, has been amonumentally losing proposition. It took investors a long time to figure this out. They finally did, this year. As I write this, Amazon.com stock is rapidly goingdown the digital rat hole, falling to under $25 a share off its most recent 52-week high of $113. Amazon carries $72 worth of debt for every active customer - which must be some kind of record. They are continuing to lose money big-time, to the tune of $122 million per quarter.

Amazon.com has never made a dime of profit - and the Street is waking up to this fact fast. The tech boom is bust, and the bubble has burst with a resounding pop.

The inspiring dream of the New Era is this: all those billions invested in Information Technology will pay off in the form of higher productivity. But if there is no higher productivity, then the whole thing is a fraud.

Dr. Robert Gordon of Northwestern University has provided persuasive evidence that there has been almost no measurable increase in productivity that can be attributed to the Internet and the massive computer spending of the last five years.

Dr. Gordon is not alone in his skepticism. Dr. Richard Grasso, head of the New York Stock Exchange, puts it most eloquently: "I'm a dinosaur, but trust me. Revenues and earnings do count. There are wonderful Internet companies whose business models will never make money. Ever. A lot of the dot.com world will soon be dot-gone." He also predicts U.S. stocks will not repeat the gains of the past 5 years.

Investment billionaire George Soros says: "We probably are in a bear market, only we don't know it yet." He is keeping many of his investments in assets that are easily converted into cash.

It's not your imagination: The roller-coaster market volatility making investors lose sleep at night is at an all-time high. The NASDAQ Composite Index has dropped 140 points or more in a single day just 15 times in its history...and 13 of those 14 times took place this year! And it is going to continue.

Why? As you can see by reading the newspaper, the current bear market cannot support a sustained rally. It's up one day; down the next. What pushes up the market on the good days? One factor is institutional investors: they rush to buy the declining market in anticipation of a rally. They have money to invest, and they cannot imagine that the stock market can fall, as it did in every other country in the last decade.

As a result, stocks have not retreated to a level that will foster a sustained rally. So what are Dr. Gary North's current strategies for preserving your wealth in today's bear market? For over a quarter of a century, Dr. Gary North has provided subscribers to his monthly newsletterRemnant Review with the tools to profit in today's new long-term market correction. He has safely guided his readers through every major period of market turmoil since 1971. Now he sets a safe, certain path in an era of uncertainty in which most investors quiver with fear.

His first recommendation is...

DR. NORTH'S MONEY-SAVING STRATEGY #1: "Bullet-Proof Your Portfolio

Dr. North has just written a new special report, 6 Ways to Bullet-Proof Your Portfolio Now. This must-have checklist for evaluating holdings can help you determine whether your stocks will be healthy in the coming market slowdown.

Actually, I shouldn't say "coming," because the beginnings of what will be an extended bear market are already here. Just look at the S&P 500 annual returns for the past 5 years vs. its performance today:

1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.58% 1996 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.96% 1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.36% 1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.58% 1999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21% 2000, first half . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -6% As you can see, the bear really isn't "coming" - it's here already. And you need to perform a portfolio check-up fast before more of your stocks drop and losses start to mount. Right now, we're watching NASDAQ and Dow bounce up and down daily. You don't want to be fully invested in stocks when the upward bounces stop and the downward bounces accumulate day after day.

In 6 Ways to Bullet-Proof Your Portfolio Now, Dr. Gary North shows you how to purge your portfolio of the stocks most vulnerable in bear markets - and make sure everything you own can weather the storm.

For instance:

There's one class of companies that is almost always less vulnerable in market downturns than almost all other publicly traded firms. Own more of these companies (and less of the others) and watch your portfolio volatility settle down to a comfortable level. Because of cheap labor overseas, local service companies have an edge over nationwide or global firms. For instance, if you sell information services over phone lines, a competitor with access to low-priced labor in his own country can undercut you in your own market. There are many English-speaking engineers in India, for example, who will work for 20 cents on the dollar. Keep a watch on how much money the companies in your portfolio earn. Are their earnings going up? Of the 500 best-performing stocks from 1953 to 1993, three out of four posted earnings increases averaging more than 70% in the latest quarter before they began their major price advances. There really is no such thing as "e-business" - business transacted purely over the Internet - because, at some point, tangible goods have to be packed and shipped. Companies that act as support centers for Internet sales - FedEx comes immediately to mind - get paid whether their dot.com customers make money on the sale or not. Make sure the companies you own have low p/e multiples but long track records. Such firms have historically survived economic downturns in the past, and will do so again. Value investing is out of favor today, but it won't be over the long-term. What Buffett did so successfully with Berkshire Hathaway is what wise investors will try to imitate when Greenspan's boom turns into Greenspan's bust: buy low and sell high. Don't borrow money to buy stocks. Reduce your margin debt to zero immediately. The guidelines for preserving your stock profits in the current market return to reality are outlined in Dr. North's 6 Steps to Bullet-Proof Your Portfolio Now special report. Read on for how you can get a copy sent to you absolutely FREE.

DR. NORTH'S MONEY-SAVING STRATEGY #2: Make Yourself "Lawsuit-Proof."

Recessions, depressions, crashes, corrections and severe economic downturns increase the number of desperate, crazy people in the world, making you more vulnerable to their attack.

Recall the suicide jumps of the great depression. Or talk to any psychotherapist - he'll tell you that when the stock market goes bad, the therapy business gets good.When markets go down, people get cantankerous, as they watch a large chunk of their wealth - which was strictly on paper - vanish into the ether. Consumer debt rises. Investors can't meet margin calls. Desperation sets in. Bankruptcy filings skyrocket. And lawsuits multiply at an alarming rate.

And that's what is happening in our nation right now. The average U.S. household owes $71,500, making us the biggest borrowers in the world. Meanwhile we save less than 5% of our salaries.

And did you know that 95% of the world's lawsuits originate in the United States? Or that during the last two major recessions, the number of lawyers in this country doubled?

For a quarter of a century, Dr. North has been giving his readers...in his books and his monthly financial advisory service, Remnant Review...proven methods for protecting their financial privacy - and their assets.In his new special report, Building Untouchable Wealth, Gary presents his best current strategies for shielding your assets from greedy government agencies, lawsuit-happy individuals, and blood-sucking lawyers.

For example, let's compare individuals with corporations. Individuals earn money, pay tax on the money they earn, and then spend what's left over. Corporations earn money, spend as much as they want, deduct the spending from their earnings, and pay tax only on the net earnings. A sweet deal. More important, an individual who is sued can lose every asset he has in a judgment against him.

But if you own a corporation and it is sued, your personal assets are judgment-proof. Even if the judgment is against the corporation you own, all the courts can touch is the assets of the business.Your personal wealth...stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and your house, car, and possessions ...are kept safe and secure.

The new limited liability corporation (LLC) is one of the best structures today you can take advantage of to protect your assets and reduce taxes.

An LLC almost offers all of the legal protection other corporate entities have traditionally provided - but at a fraction of the cost, complexity, and paperwork. You don't have to own an actual company with employees to establish your own LLC.

A corporation doesn't have to be a physical entity. It's actually just a few pieces of paper in a file somewhere. Almost anyone can create a perfectly legal LLC today - easily and inexpensively.In 1997, approximately 127,596 LLCs were incorporated in the United States. Using the simple LLC you set up for yourself, you can:

Reduce your stock costs. We'll show you why you should buy stock through the business, not individually (80% of the dividends you earn will be tax-free when you do this). Increase your deductions. Did you know that it's perfectly legal to make your child an employee of your home-based business? You pay him or her a "salary," which is 100% tax-free up to $5,700 a year each - $2,200 more than most CPAs think is the limit. As long as the child is under 18, there are no FICA taxes on his or her wages. Make more of your income tax-deferred. To shield even more of your income from Uncle Sam's clutches, you can put up to $2,000 a year of the money you pay your minor child in an IRA for him or her... and he or she won't pay even a penny of tax on that income! Best of all, you don't need to be self-employed to use these techniques. It applies to any small business, even a spare-time business you run out of your home. And the business doesn't even have to make a profit this year to qualify! Read Building Untouchable Wealth for the little-known facts on LLCs and other tax-saving, asset protection strategies Dr. North's readers have used for over two decades to keep their personal wealth out of others' hands. A copy is yours free for the asking. See the Risk-Free Request Form on page 23 for details.

So far, we've discussed how to protect your hard-earned gains from stock market volatility and frivolous but dangerous lawsuits. But what about the money you've set aside for the most important part of your life - the part where you get to sit back, relax, and enjoy the hard-won fruits of your labors - your retirement?

Watch out! While Dr. North predicted the current bear market with relative certainty, there are a number of hidden factors - "wild cards," he likes to call them - that can dramatically unbalance the economy in either direction at short notice...and that even the most successful market watchers are powerless to predict. Just one of these can produce unexpected big market moves at any time.

What are these wild cards? War is the most obvious example. And there are at least half a dozen "flash points" around the globe where war could break out at any moment.

Did you know, for instance, that Red China has openly stated it will launch nuclear weapons against America if we aid Taiwan? An internal Chinese government document, published in major Asian newspapers - but not in the U.S. - reveals China's detailed plans to invade Taiwan.China is openly aggressive in their military stance. Chinese experts have been seen in Pakistan's newest missile plant, which is a copy of a Chinese design. And Beijing is actively helping Libya, North Korea, and Iran improve its weapon systems.

The U.S. is committed to Taiwan's defense, and is even now sending additional Navy ships to the area. China, meanwhile, has built a major military base of operations in the Bahamas, just 70 miles from Florida, and is in possession of nuclear weapons 100 times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They are the only major power in the world that still has an active offensive biological weapons program - and theirs is massive.

Unlike the U.S., the leaders of Communist China believe they can win a nuclear war. They have even said they're willing to sacrifice 100 million of their own people to achieve such a victory. Remember the Chinese think differently than we do; a nuclear war, in their eyes, could solve their own overpopulation problem.And whenever war breaks out, it usually effects the market - dramatically. For example, right after America and its allies launched their attack on Iraq in the Gulf War, the Dow jumped 4.6% in a single day.

In a moment, you'll see what some of the other wild cards are - and how Dr. Gary North can help you prepare for the worst economy that can happen (while ensuring that you continue to profit in the best that can happen).

But first, take a look at...

DR. NORTH'S MONEY-SAVING STRATEGY #3:Make Big Real Estate Profits From Distressed Properties.

In most parts of the country, real estate prices have been going up over the years. But there are signs we are at the top of the pattern. As the market continues its downward slide, real estate will become the new area of opportunity to buy great assets at a bargain and watch them appreciate.

For decades, Dr. Gary North and his associates...including the two men who helped famed real-estate author Robert Allen in his "No Money Down" techniques, John Schaub and Jack Miller...have been making almost obscene profits buying distressed properties.

In a new special report, Making a Killing in Real Estate, Dr. Gary North shows you how he and others make money with real estate all the time. It's easy, and there's no reason why you shouldn't be sharing in the profits too!

Many of Dr. Gary North's students have put these principles into practice, with spectacular results. Years ago, Dr. Gary North's publisher, Bill Bonner, got interested in what Gary was writing about real estate investing. Today his properties worldwide include a collection of mansions in historic downtown Baltimore and an actual castle in the countryside of France!

If you've never invested in real estate before, now is the time to consider your first investment property. A good way to find a modest, affordable income-producing property is to drive around your neighborhood. Those properties that have FOR SALE signs in front of them week after week aren't selling, and the owners are ready to negotiate. Dr. Gary North's report will also tell you how to get on lists to be notified of upcoming property auctions where you can pick up distressed properties for pennies on the dollar.

Some of our readers, for one reason or another, don't want to become involved directly in the real estate market. So in his Making a Killing in Real Estate report, Dr. Gary North also covers REITS (Real Estate Investment Trusts)...his favorite vehicle for profiting from real estate without direct ownership of properties.

With a REIT, you buy shares of a professionally managed portfolio of real estate properties. So instead of hassling with tenants or fixing toilets, you just sit back and collect nice, clean profits. Buying a REIT is as easy as buying a stock. And they're just as liquid.

In today's bear market, REITS are an increasingly attractive alternative to stocks. From January to June 2000, the S&P 500 return was -1%. By comparison, the NAREIT Public Equity 100, a leading index of the REIT market, gained 15.13% for the same period.

But wait. Dr. Gary North suggests holding off taking big positions in REITS - at least for a little while. Reason: The more the Dow drops, the more attractive REITS become. In a bear market, liquidity dries up all around, and you can get the best deals on real estate.

And will the market drop much further? We're in a bear right now, but how low will the Dow go? Will we see a full-blown recession? It all depends on...

Watch For...The "Wild Cards."

These market shockers can send your personal net worth into a nosedive, literally overnight.

Although the fundamentals of the Old Era are kicking in and restoring sanity, there are a few "wild cards" you have to factor into account to ensure your long-term survival in the financial markets.A wild card is a factor that effects the economy in a significant way but is impossible to predict. Dr. Gary North's safe, successful, conservative approach is to calculate worst and best-case scenarios for each wild card situation.

He then implements investment strategies that preserve your wealth should the worst-case scenarios play out, while taking advantage of growth opportunities if the disasters don't come to pass. Either way, you win.

One "wild card" you already know about: Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan.

"With the stroke of a pen, he can send the value of your stock portfolio dramatically up or down, dictate how much you can buy with a dollar, and influence whether you keep your job or not. And now he's telling anyone smart enough to read between the lines that they'd be wise to sell stocks - and soon."

The important thing to realize is: As the great roaring bull of the past decade is about to come crashing down, and the wealth boom you depended on is about to close, Mr. Greenspan is not going to save us.

The Fed Chairman has made it clear that he wants the market to come down in order to cool off consumer spending and fend off inflation. And he will not act to extend the stock market boom now, since a rally hurts his efforts to slow growth.Last year, the Fed hiked interest rates six times. Now, Greenspan is under pressure from incipient inflation, a low unemployment rate, and rampant consumer spending to hit the brakes even harder.

Consumer spending is growing at its fastest pace in 17 years - an annual rate of 8.3%. The consumer price index rose in the first quarter of this year at an annual rate of 5.8%. And the Employment Cost Index - driven by higher benefits costs - is growing 4.3% annually.

Continue to count on more - and bigger - interest rate hikes by Greenspan whenever the threat of more inflation rears its head. Business Week predicts, "A few more turns of the screw appear quite likely. Until overall financial conditions, including those in equity markets, tighten sufficiently, the Fed's work will not be done." Rising interest rates make it more costly to borrow money, and more difficult for corporations to finance growth. That can cut into corporate profits, in turn driving stock prices lower.

The Insiders Behind The Market

Another "wild card" you may not know about - but should - is a little-known group called simply the President's Working Group on Financial Markets.

Mr. Greenspan, as Fed chairman, is a member. The other three members are the chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the SEC chairman.According to a report from the U.S. General Accounting Office, the role of the Working Group is to "coordinate regulatory responses to various market events that have arisen."

In other words, this small, almost never talked about group of presidential advisors - appointed, not elected - guide the White House in almost every major financial and economic decision ever made.And you hardly ever read about them in the newspaper or hear about them on CNN. Talk about the power of anonymity!

For example, the Working Group was instrumental in preventing the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management. If you remember, LTCM lost - on August 21, 1998 - half a billion dollars in investments gone bad in a single day.

The Working Group ultimately arranged a bailout for LTCM to the tune of $3.6 billion in new equity from LTCM's primary trading counterparties. It was the first time in U.S. history that the "too big to fail" doctrine was used to ensure the survival of a single financial services organization other than an insured depository institution.

The Working Group's main motivation then - and now - seems to be to forestall market corrections while the President who appointed them is still in office - and while they still hold their respective positions.

Why is this so bad? Because a handful of people are artificially manipulating the market. So a real bear may be hidden from the public's eyes until it's too late.Lulled by an artificially manipulated market that appears rosy, investors load up on stocks, going into big margin debt to buy. You'd be surprised at how much speculation is funded with credit cards or home equity loans, with people risking assets they can't afford to lose in pursuit of elusive stock market gains.

Then the crash hits - and investors lose a fortune. There's a "ripple effect" throughout the national economy. Spending slows. Profits dry up. People get laid off. Real estate and stock values plummet.

Suddenly, people who thought they were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars on paper end up holding nothing but worthless assets in their hands while their very real debts loom large. The big players like LTCM may get a bailout, but you and I do not.

There are many other signs that things are headed even more bearish. Here's an interesting graph that compares the climb of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1920 -1929 against the climb of the Dow from 1990-1999. The pattern is nearly identical. Coincidence? It's another wild card that's hard to predict.

Right now, the S&P is selling at an unheard of 26 times earnings. Historically, any time the S&P has a p/e of 22 or higher over a 10-year period, you will make only about 5% a year return by holding stocks. This was calculated on a historically average dividend return of around 4%. Today yield on the S&P500 is only 1.07%. So over the next decade, returns on the S&P 500 may be even less than 5% a year!

One thing's for certain: Many of the symptoms of our current bubble economy - mass delusion, irrational exuberance, wild excess and mania - are well documented throughout market history. And every time the bubble bursts, great amounts of wealth are lost. The "smart money" on Wall Street sees the handwriting on the wall, and they're quietly abandoning ship like the crew on the Titanic.

After 18 years in a row of 32% average returns on his values-based Tiger Fund, Julian Robertson announced he was closing up shop. A few months ago, two highly regarded money managers left Soros Fund Management following a double-digit performance drop. Michael Price, who made a name for himself buying broken-down stocks at cheap prices for Franklin Mutual Advisor fund, quietly slipped out of the market in 1998.

More recently, Joe Galli, Amazon.com's president (under Jeff Bezos), resigned - just 13 months after coming on board. Citing "personal reasons" for his departure, Galli walked away from nearly 4 million stock option shares that could have been worth a billion dollars. His resignation came one day before the company was to report earnings for the quarter. Coincidence? You decide.

These folks wouldn't seek shelter unless they knew a storm was coming. Will the market crash? Probability is 50% and climbing. Will the current slow-down continue? You can bet the farm on it.

To sum up, the long bull is over, and we are settling into an extended bear, especially as far as technology is concerned.

Anything overvalued during the New Era insanity is going to come crashing back to reality. And reality, not hype or the temporary investor insanity of the last 2 years, will rule in the near-term future.

Dr. Gary North has a 30-year-record of making sense and profit out of major market shifts before they settle and during the period after. Now his recommendations on how to bullet-proof your portfolio and pick the new winners for the "new old economy" are here. He can show you how to make sure your portfolio has the right stocks, losers to sell now, and little-known gems - safe but profitable - to buy now.

-- Danny (Double@dip.con), February 18, 2001

Answers

Be sure and click-through on the link to the next page for even more exciting information, including GN's extensive background & qualifications.

-- Danny (is@Manny's.nicer.brother), February 18, 2001.

"Dr. Gary North has a 30-year-record of making sense and profit out of major market shifts before they settle and during the period after."

I'd like to see some support for that statement. Didn't Mr. Scary Gary lose a ton of money on buying gold in the 80s? And didn't he also lose more money when he tried to refurbish a defunct nat'l gas well on his property in the 90s? There's a line from the novel "The Hot Rock" that describes guys like that well: I'd trust him with my sister all night alone, as long as she didn't have a dime on her!

-- (Weeble@wee.ble), February 18, 2001.

Wasn't Gary the one who was so sure the end of the world would come on 01/01/00, and tried to convince everyone else about it?

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), February 18, 2001.

Dr. North is probably like most phD's... a maroon,,,

but Americans are likely headed out to the woodpile for the ass kicking of their lives.....my ass is already tingling with just the anticipation of watching.

A wise man understands how little he knows...

-- Will (righthere@home.now), February 18, 2001.

GN has yet to break even on the gold he bought 21 years ago.

-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), February 18, 2001.

Gary North = lying cocksucker.

-- Barry South (GNIABFI@GNIABFI.COM), February 22, 2001.