The World's Best Newspaper?

The UK's Daily Mail comes up with some of the very best news stories.

Here's one: academics claim 9/11 was 'inside job' Mail Online

It was the UK's Daily Mail which 'falsely' reported that former child star Mark Lester had allowed his son to share a bedroom with Michael Jackson.

However, the Mail championed the case of Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager who was murdered in a racially motivated attack in Eltham, London in April 1993.

The Mail broke with the establishment media consensus over the 2008 South Ossetia war between Russia and Georgia.

"The Mail accused the British government of dragging Britain into an unnecessary confrontation with Russia and of hypocrisy regarding its protests over Russian recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia's independence, citing the British government's own recognition of Kosovo's independence from Russia's ally Serbia." [35] (Daily Mail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The Daily Mail in Ireland.

The Daily Mail is the the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper.

It is very much 'on the ball' and produces some of the best news stories.

The publisher of the Mail is the Daily Mail and General Trust .

The Mail has the third-largest circulation of any English language daily newspaper and one of the highest in the world.[4].

The Mail is not owned by Americans or Jews.

Sometimes the Mail appears to contain establishment propaganda; but sometimes it spills the beans.

Tony Rennell, in the UK's Daily Mail, 6th August 2005, wrote about 9 11:

"Towers that fell ‘like a controlled demolition’.

"Planes that vanished then mysteriously reappeared, and crucial evidence that has been lost for ever...

"The plot by America’s military bosses was devilish in both design and intent – to fabricate an outrage against innocent civilians, fool the world and provide a pretext for war.

"In the pentagon, a top secret team drew up a plan to simultaneously send up two airliners painted and numbered exactly the same, one from a civil airport in America, the other from a secret military airbase nearby.

"The one from the airport would have military personnel on board who had checked in as ordinary passengers under false names. The one from the airbase would be an empty drone, a remote-controlled unmanned aircraft.

Another interesting Daily Mail story.

"Somewhere along their joint flight paths, the passenger-carrying plane would drop below radar height, and disappear, landing back at the airbase and unloading its occupants in secret.

"Meanwhile, the drone would have taken up the other plane’s designated course. High over the island of Cuba, it would be exploded in mid-air after broadcasting an international distress call that it was under attack from enemy fighters.

"The world would be told that a plane load of blameless American holidaymakers had been deliberately shot down by Fidel Castro’s Communists – and that the US had no choice but to declare war and topple his regime.

"This ‘agent provocateur’ plan – code named OPERATION NORTHWOODS and revealed in official archives – dates from 1962 when the Cold War was at its height.

"Four decades later, there are a growing number of people who look back at this proto-conspiracy and then to the events of 9/11 and see uncanny and frightening modern parallels.

"For Cuba, read Iraq... For the dummy airliner, read the Twin Towers in New York...."

(aangirfan: 9 11 Revealed - The Daily Mail)

Video made for the mock training exercise?

On 4 July 2009, the UK's Daily Mail newspaper has this headline:

Conspiracy fever: As rumours swell that the government staged 7/7, victims' relatives call for a proper inquiry

The Mail asks: which train did the four Muslims catch from Luton to London on the morning of the bomb blasts?

The three separate Tube explosions at Edgware Road, Aldgate and King's Cross occurred together at exactly 8.50am.

The official reports said the bombers got on the 7.40am train from Luton.

However, the 7.40am train never ran that morning.

It was cancelled.

Survivors pointed out the error.

The Government then changed its mind and said the bombers caught the 7.25 am from Luton, for the 35-minute journey to King's Cross.

It was due to arrive in the capital at 8am.

However, this train ran 23 minutes late.

It arrived in London at 8.23am, say station officials.

The three separate Tube explosions at Edgware Road, Aldgate and King's Cross occurred together at exactly 8.50am.

It looks as if it would be impossible for the 'bombers' to get to their different destinations in time.

Reportedly, it takes seven minutes to walk from the Thameslink line station to the tube station at the main King's Cross station.


Police say the four men were seen on the main King's Cross concourse at 8.26am, although no CCTV footage has ever been made public.

How had the men got there in three short minutes after getting off the Luton train at 8.23am?

Controversially, no CCTV images have been released of the alleged bombers actually in London.

There is a picture claiming to show the 'bombers' in Luton. In this Luton image "the quality is poor and the faces of three of the bombers are unidentifiable."

This photo is timed at four seconds before 7.22am.

The men would have had just three minutes to walk up the stairs at Luton, buy their £22 day return tickets and get to the platform, which was packed with commuters because of the earlier travel disruptions.


A video called Ripple Effect accuses Tony Blair, and elements of the Government, the police, and the British and Israeli Secret Services of carrying out the London Tube bombings.

It is alleged that the four British Muslims were tricked into taking part in what they were told would be a mock anti-terror training exercise.

The Ripple Effect video claims government agents set off pre-planted explosives under the three Tube trains and on the bus.

It suggests that the four Muslims were not on any of the Tube trains.

Dr Mohammad Naseem, the chairman of Birmingham's Central Mosque, says: 'We do not accept the government version of July 7, 2005. The Ripple Effect video is more convincing than the official statements.'

Naseem has said that the identities of the bombers were discovered by the police suspiciously quickly.

'When a body is blown up, it is destroyed. How is it that the identification papers found at the bomb scenes of these men were still intact? Were they planted?'

The Daily mail asks:

Why did the four bombers get return tickets to London if they were on a one-way suicide mission?

Why are there no CCTV images of the four together in London even though the city has thousands upon thousands of such cameras in public places?

Why did so many survivors of the Tube bombings say that the explosions came upwards through the floor of the trains, not down, as would be the case if a backpack blew up inside?

And why do no passengers on the London-bound Luton train clearly remember the four bombers with their huge rucksacks on that fateful morning?

There was a mock terrorist exercise going on in London that day.

Former Scotland Yard officer Peter Power said on BBC radio: 'At half-past nine this morning we were running an exercise for a company of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.'

Honduras - Obama's maiden coup

TRUTH DELETED - Zionist ADL Censorship of The Internet

Speeding up: Attracting more visitors with content and community

We're well under way with our five-week educational series about speeding up your business in a slowdown, which we kicked off two weeks ago. This week, you'll hear tips from Jack Herrick, the founder of wikiHow.com, about attracting new visitors to your site. As we share more tips over the next two weeks about increasing your revenue potential and attracting more advertiser budget, we hope you'll leave comments with your own suggestions for growing your business. You can also follow the series at www.google.com/ads/speedingup.

Jack Herrick is the founder of wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. wikiHow is a wiki, which means that any visitor to the site can create or edit wikiHow articles. wikiHow is currently ranked as the 100th most popular site on the web by Quantcast, and receives over 16 million unique visitors each month. Today, Jack shares three of his favorite tips to attract visitors. We hope they'll help you come up with new ways to entice visitors to your sites as well.



Tip #1: Produce great content

The first tip is obvious, but it's also the most important. The articles on wikiHow vary widely in quality. We have some of the highest quality how-tos on the net, for example How to Hard Boil an Egg, and we also have some fairly ugly, unfinished drafts we call stubs. Interestingly, the high-quality articles don't get just a little more traffic than the mediocre articles, they get hundreds of times more. When you can produce the single best page on the Internet on any given topic, people will find it and share it with their friends. Don't settle for acceptable content, always strive to produce amazing content that your readers can't resist sharing.

Tip #2: Learn to share

My second tip is more counterintuitive. To attract more readers to your website, consider putting your content under a Creative Commons license so it can be widely distributed. Everything on wikiHow is under a license that allows other websites to publish and even modify or adapt our content for re-use on their sites. In fact, we have a button at the bottom of every article that allows webmasters to copy and paste the HTML right onto their site. Many webmasters are afraid to share their content, because they worry they will only be aiding competition. By sharing, what you are really doing is encouraging your competitors to provide free advertising for you. The more people who see your content on other sites, the more likely they are to eventually come straight to you.

Tip #3: Make your community a team

Finally, I'd encourage you to allow real collaboration on your site. Lots of websites try to create online communities. To use a basketball analogy, most online communities are just groups of individuals shooting freethrows alone. On wiki websites, people play together as a real team. Humans are hard wired to want to work in groups and collaborate. By allowing this to happen, you can create a passionate community of people that will build something bigger than any one person could accomplish on their own. And that will in time attract a large audience.

Hopefully Jack's tips will help you come up with some new techniques to attract visitors to your site. In addition to Jack's tips, here are a few extra resources focused on attracting more visitors.

• Learn the basics of Search Engine Optimization with Google's SEO guide.
  
• Submit your content so that Google can help you distribute it across Google Web Search, Maps, Product Search, iGoogle, and more.
  
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Forex News: China, Unemployment and Oil conspire against the Dollar

The US’s non farm payrolls are due out later on today and for all their trying, the US government has been trumped by a private firm in revealing these numbers.

The street expected about 360,000 jobs were lost, a nice decline and a sign that things might be getting better. However, ADP, the largest payroll processing service in the US, reported that 470,000+ jobs have been “removed from the payrolls” of the companies that ADP services.

Keep in mind that ADP does not service everyone – there are other services and many small businesses do the payrolls by themselves. So it is not out of bounds to think that this number, 470,000 will be higher. For the Dollar, a higher number can be damaging but it is not the only threat to the greenback.

Yesterday, China called for an open debate at next weeks G8 Summit on the viability of another global reserve currency being established. This is a blow to the US efforts to keep the debate out of the IMF and World Bank boardrooms, as they and Britain control the flow at those institutions.

The voices are becoming louder and the masking of their intentions are becoming less – China has now entered the point of no return, the point at which they have firmly committed themselves towards establishing a new world financial order, in which the Dollar is no longer king.

The Dollar fell on this news and the shock from ADP – ironically, the US stock markets rose late in the day. Forex Online traders and Forex chat rooms were abuzz with the news, however the US governments official stance is that ADP’s numbers are NOT official and do not necessarily reflect the non-farms payroll number.

And while the US stock investors seemed to gobble this up, those Forex online traders did not. And I say: good for them.

This is the story that does not die, and it won’t for a while. But as we see the US’s hopes for a second half recovery fading – we should look at the opportunities that are out there for us.

I am still bullish on the Aussie and I am starting to like the Canadian Dollar. As Oil prices rise, as tensions in the middle east drive that precious commodity up, I see opportunity knocking. And I hope everyone is there to answer the door with me.

Forex News: Words say Everything - Its how you read them that changes the meaning

I was going to write yesterday about how the pattern in which the calls for the dethroning of the US currency are made always has a follow up, half hearted retraction.

I did not, partly because it was obvious and partly because this story is getting old and tiresome as a re-run of a TV sitcom from the seventies. This, however, was the case yesterday as China’s Central Bank calmed the markets by declaring that their monetary reserve policy (and keep an eye on that word “monetary”) has not changed.

What they did not say was that they back the sovereign Dollar and love the idea that 2 Trillion Dollars worth of their assets are invested in the Dollar, but we will go back to this in a little bit.

Forex online junkies can recall not too long ago, when the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) met, there was a call by the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, to establish a global bond system through the IMF as an alternative to the Dollar. Later on he “clarified” his point by saying “in addition to” the Dollar.

Not too long before that, was the Russian Finance Minister in Italy making a comment about how the world needs a new reserve currency as the Dollar “has become debt weighted” and a day later the statement again was “clarified” by Moscow which said that the Dollar is and will be the primary Russian reserve for a while (specifically because the IMF bond will take a few years to implement – but not many actually realized that).

This pattern of jab and retreat has played out time and again, and it is because the knee jerk reaction to the Dollars vulnerability and the second world’s absolute resentment of the US has caused conflict in Central Banks around the world.

The fact is, even the retractions are not retractions. Let me go back to the word “monetary” that the Chinese Central Bank used, and let us look at some facts. Now, while their policy might not have changed, being that the proportions of their holdings were left intact, their reserve policy as a whole has shifted to include tangible assets. And thus, the dollar dump has begun…

China, which held over 2 Trillion Dollars in Dollar related Assets in January – about 50% of their reserves, has been using those dollars to purchase raw materials, natural resources and precious metals. In fact, China has gone on such a spending spree, they now accounts for nearly 50% of Australia’s natural resource commodity exports, one of the reasons why Australia is not doing so bad considering the rest of the world.

It is not that the Chinese have changed their monetary policy – the proportions might still be the same, however they seem to have changed their overall reserve policy – opting for things rather than paper.

Russia is also playing this game, only 1 year ago they had about a 1/3rd of their currency reserves in the US Dollar with the total reserves that they had estimated at around 800 Billion. Today, Russia still maintains about 1/3rd of their reserves in the USD, but their overall reserves have shrunk to an estimated 500 Billion.

Oddly enough, their Gold, Platinum and Silver holdings have increase by about 250 Billion Dollars – meaning that they have been diversifying their overall reserves with commodities – just like the Chinese.

What does this mean for Forex traders? It means simply that there is a target on the USD – and while the US’s creditors are trying to find a way out, they need to do so delicately so, as not to disrupt the value of the US on the Forex – a weak Dollar does them no good.

But, as they continue to “diversify” their holdings, keep in mind that more Dollars get added to the market system – watering down the value and inflating the currency. I would anticipate a 5-10% minimum inflation rate in the US in the couple of years – I personally think it could get even higher than that.

As the BRIC’s throw Bricks and then claim ‘it was an accident” the next day – the plans are in the works to dethrone the Dollar. It is coming, be prepared.

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Posted by Alex Kenin - AdSense for Mobile Applications Marketing

Another Chinese Call For Change seems to be working

This is like a bad dream that won’t go away from the US - another jab at the Dollar from China or Russia or someone else that has peeked its head into nearly every week of trading since the G20 meeting in February. However, this time around China was being more direct.

Instead of calling for a blatant ban on the Dollar, the Chinese are hurting the US currency by openly calling for an international sovereign alternative – alternative being the operative word. They never mentioned the Dollar, but that is what makes it so harsh. It is as if the Dollar is a non-factor, and at this point it might very well be.

While there has been no firm evidence of a massive selling of US money assets as of yet, the rate at which China, Russia, India and Brazil (known as the BRIC) have been buying precious metals and other permanent commodities is unprecedented. The US bond markets are yielding their highest in close to 20 years, a sign that bond holders are demanding more return for the risk involved.

The pattern seems to be the same as well, the countries blasting the Dollar seem to wait for the weekends to push their agenda and I have figured out why. Not too long ago I wrote about how the US was safe in this area, because it would take an act of the IMF and the World Bank to establish a global sovereign reserve, and these two agencies are essentially in the US’s control.

So the plan that they have is to start a viral campaign in which they put immense pressure on the Dollar through the Forex marketplace – by inciting and scaring investors to unload – by making the issues appear in the face of Forex online traders every single day so that it sinks in, “The Dollar is bad, the Dollar is evil”, and in my opinion, it’s been working to an extent.

The US needs to show the world that they have their spending and money management in control. I know that the last minute vote on fuel emission standards is not going to do much to build that confidence, considering that it will tax the states and consumers heavily – and hurt industry, and the fact that it narrowly passed after a 3am vote in which most of the dissenters left thinking the issue would be tabled for another time. This is not going to do it – and I know you will see the dollar suffer because of it.

I would also keep my eyes out for the US unemployment numbers towards the end of this week – I am sure they will be of much interest to those feeling like the end of the rocky road is near.

Are the Euro's days numbered?

So yesterday, the European Central Bank announced that they will be injecting a record 400 Billion Euros (that’s 613 Million USD) into the banking sector to spur lending by the devastated European Banks.

The financial meltdown started in the US with the investment banks taking advantage of lax laws governing certain assets. They grouped bad investments together and sold them as a unit of potentially high yielding securities – without properly disclosing the risks involved.

Now, many US banks purchased these assets and suffered, however the US government intervened and guaranteed these “toxic assets”, which enabled the US economy to begin the path to recovery.

The EU is different, they resisted helping the banks that made poor judgment choices by buying these assets, fueled by greed and the need for stellar returns. In fact, they were so exposed to these assets, that three of the largest banks in the Euro zone had more than 40% of their risk capital invested in these products.

The European Unions failing was that they did not rush to help. Many, including myself, believe that the US went too far with their assistance – some banks needed to fail as “failure breeds success” is the motto of the capitalist society. But, the government did do the right thing by unblocking the path to lending.

The Europeans, in all their hatred of anything American, took the total opposite approach. The Socialist societies which pride themselves on being there for those in need, became ultra-conservative and hardened their hearts towards the banks who made stupid decisions.

So we come to Wednesday, June 24th and the ECB is at the point of no return. Signs of life are flickering in the US, while the Euro Zone is at a standstill, falling deeper into a hole. So what does the Central bank do? The worst thing possible for the struggling Euro – they inject so much money into the system to break the non-lending cycle, that the traders panic and Forex Online bloggers come up with doomsday conspiracy theories about this was the last resort.

The European Union will be fine, but we are seeing that their monetary agreement, resulting in the Euro, might not survive. The problem is there is a large gap between rich states and poor states in the Euro Zone – and it is nearly impossible to please everyone all the time.

But, and this is a biggie, by doing what they did yesterday – by helping out when the big Western European Banks were in the most need, they sent a clear message to the Eastern Europena countries, whose banks have been suffering for nearly eight months with no reprieve, that they are not as important as the wealthier West.

So what impact will this have on the Euro? It got hammered yesterday and is in for a rough ride today. Please do not think for one minute here that I am now a USD fan, I am not by a long shot – but I will admit that the prospects for the Dollar, with all the issues hovering above its head right now, are much greater than those of the Euro.

Speeding up: Retaining your visitors with great user experience

Last week, we kicked off a five-week educational series about speeding up your business in a slowdown. This week, you'll hear tips from Ricardo Prada, a user experience researcher at Google, about designing for the user. As we continue to share tips about attracting more visitors, increasing your revenue potential, and attracting more advertiser budget, we invite you to share your own suggestions for growing your business by leaving comments on each post. You can also follow the series at www.google.com/ads/speedingup.

Hi, I'm Ricardo Prada. As a user experience researcher here at Google, one of the things my colleagues and I are responsible for is making sure that Google websites are efficient and fun to use so that visitors keep coming back to them. I'd like to share three tips we think about daily as we do our jobs. Ultimately, they all fit into our guiding principle: if you focus on the user, everything else will follow.



Tip #1: Design for the tasks that visitors complete on your site.

Think about tasks on your website first and layouts second. It's tempting to want a flashy design that exercises your CSS skills, but remember that vistors come to your site with specific goals in mind, like reading your essays, or checking out your collection of sports photos. Write down the top three tasks your users might want to accomplish on your site, and design to make those tasks quick and efficient.

Tip #2: Use ads as potential exit paths, not interruptions.

Ads should complement your site, not distract from it. The most natural place for a user to evaluate an advertisement is after they've completed their goals on your site. Instead of interrupting your user's main tasks, try to offer ads as potential exit path for users who were probably ready to leave anyway by placing them at the end of completed tasks.

Tip #3: SEO - only if it makes sense.

Only do search engine optimizations that benefit your users. For example, page titles that are relevant to the page content make it easier for your visitors to understand what your articles are about. On the other hand, there are lots of sneaky strategies out there for improving search engine rank. Most of those don't work anymore, and they might actually harm your site's reputation.

Additional Resources:

• Our Help Center has more suggestions about where to place ads.
  
• The Google Webmaster Tools team shares their design and content tips.
  

Posted by Talia Brodecki - AdSense Product Marketing

Make or Break Moment for the Greenback

With all the talk lately about the dethroning of the US currency as the premiere reserve investment for sovereign countries, the debate is about to get a stark reality check.

This week, the US is doing its best to auction off a whopping 106 Billion Dollars in new debt, in a bond auction and what Forex online blogs and street traders are looking for is how quickly they sell. There is no doubt that it will sell out, but the questions are, who will be doing the buying? And, how quickly will it be sold?

The US auctions typically has a short life, with most of the debt going away even before the official gavel is dropped down. However, it has been a sobering sign for the US Treasury that in recent auctions, it was been more difficult to get rid of the debt, to the point that yields on the bonds and notes have hit record highs as if the buyers are saying that the investment is more risky than others and therefore you need to pay us for assuming that risk.

Another telling sign of the recent sales is that when the Federal Reserve, the Central Bank of the US, sees that the Treasury auctions are not selling out in a timely manner, the Fed buys the debt. This is equated with just plain printing money and diluting the value of the dollar, as the money used to buy the debt extends the treasuries credit line with the Fed.

The Fed is responsible for setting monetary policy such as interest rate levels and balancing the valuation of the dollar in relationship to other currencies. The US Treasury is responsible for the actual management of money. Yet, recent legislation has broadened the Fed’s scope of jurisdiction and it is easier for the Fed now to “loan” the treasury money.

Now, Forex traders are not stupid – we were all brought up learning that paying your MasterCard with your Visa is not a smart policy of money management – yet this is essentially what the US is doing.

China, Russia, Brazil and India – fondly known as the BRIC nations met last week and came out vocally for a new reserve currency alternative – and they did so by specifically mentioning the policy of printing money that the US is employing now. The statements they made make sense, how can they ensure the value of their investment if there is seemingly a conscious policy to water it down?

To correlate this to other investments, take the Ford Mustang. This year the Ford Motor Company is coming out with a limited edition (only 45 cars) of the Mustang to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the car.

Now, each car is unique and a throwback to the old style with modern bells and whistles and is already being bid up to over 200,000 USD per car. If Ford were to make hundreds of these cars, the uniqueness of the product will be devalued and would water down the investment value of the car. This is what the BRIC’s are afraid of.

So, this brings us to the auction this week. Considering that the primary buyers of the debt in past years have been the BRIC nations, what is their interest going to be in the record breaking bond issue this week? Are they going to put their money where their mouth is or will they succumb and continue to buy like heroine addicts in need of a fix?

I am not speculating on the outcome, I truly don’t have a clue. But, I do know that if they stick to their principles, the Dollar is in for a rough ride – and if they do not, the USD seems like a good investment in the short term.

A little perspective please - Internal Polls in the US showed that Obama’s Honeymoon is Over

So with President Obama’s popularity waning, I thought I would take this opportunity to correlate the issues facing America right now and its affect on the all mighty Dollar.

As Forex online traders (and offline) we live and die, profit or lose, based on the Dollar, so this fine Tuesday morning in the latter part of June, 2009 is a great opportunity to reiterate that you cannot believe just words and that real knowledge truly is power in our business.

Yesterday internal polls in the US showed that Obama’s honeymoon is over. His social policies are unpopular and receiving criticism even amongst his own political party.

In his first six months as president of the largest economy in the world, he has virtually nationalized the banking sector, the auto industry and is now trying very hard to do the same to the healthcare industry, as I mentioned yesterday.

His Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, has been trolling the world giving speeches meant to boost the confidence that the investing world has in the Dollar’s value – and has been laughed at during these speeches in China, and most recently in Italy this past weekend.

North Korea is warmongering, Iran is blaming the US for their political unrest, Al Qaeda is threatening to use Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal on the US (should they get hold of it), Russia and China are openly calling for a new reserve currency on a daily basis and Brazil has removed the dollar as the primary currency used in trade with other countries. et, all the while we read reports that the economy in the US is rebounding and that things are getting better – well we need to look at these numbers to see just how good it is getting.

Monday, the US announced that the numbers of people on welfare have risen at the fastest pace since the recession began and are now at levels unseen since Bill Clinton’s presidency. Last Thursday they said that unemployment was at its highest rate in the US in over 30 years – hitting over 10% in 1/5th of the 50 states that make up the US and that interest rates are at the highest levels in close to a decade.

Let’s focus on these rates for a minute and how important they are – the interest rates set mortgage rates and personal loan rates – meaning, people looking to buy big have to pay more – and they are not buying and this is causing a trickle down effect.

Last week, the US government auctioned off 160 Billion Dollars worth of Treasury Bonds and Notes, and for the most part it was a success – even with the highest rates in years. But look closer, the record debt sale that went on saw the US Federal Reserve (a.k.a. THE central bank) as the biggest customer for these bonds.

This means simply that the US bought their own debt and is paying a larger price for it as well. And it is specifically this information which have brought Obama’s numbers down sharply – it’s one thing to preach fiscal discipline and take over industry after industry in the guise of showing them fiscal discipline – yet it is completely another thing to put into practice something entirely different.

And this is where the US is right now - they are not practicing what they preach and as we saw in China, Italy, France and Germany, the US is being laughed at when they tell people that an investment in the US is a good investment right now.

We might hear the pundits telling us that everything is great in the US of A, but looking at it logically, the use of the Dollar as a long term investment tool is not looking that smart anymore.

We have seen on the Forex and watched online as the dollar has dipped and has lost value – the DAC index is off nearly 30% from its highs – this says volumes about the Dollar – no matter how much they try to show us that all is ok in the USA.

Be careful – and if you were like me, watch down under – their Dollars are looking pretty good in comparison.

Another lesson in Trading - Watch the Aussie this week

In a demonstration of what the Forex markets have been about lately, instant gratification, the dollar rose against the most currencies in what was seen as profit taking from the traders’ venture into risk appetite late last week.

Forex online Traders are hoping for some sign that all will be well this coming week when the US Federal reserve meets and this has hampered volume on Monday, as trading was extremely light, about 1/3rd less than what it normally is.

It seems that when there is nothing to report, the Dollar has a good day and analysts make excuses such as profit taking using big words like risk aversion. Don’t be fooled, the Dollar went up today because stocks got hammered, and this is the clearest most consistent indicator in the Forex market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 200 points as the US business community is becoming more afraid of the changes that President Obama is seeking to bring. With the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) sobering up the healthcare debate with an estimate for over a trillion dollars that will be needed to overhaul it, the healthcare and medical and banking sectors got destroyed.
And as I try to do regularly with these entries is show everyone how to trade – more specifically, what news to trade on. If you missed Monday, don’t worry, Wednesday will be much of the same – I have not decided on Tuesday yet as it seems likely that a bounce is coming, but gloal events such as Iran and North Korea might change that.

Coming as a pleasant surprise to the Forex trading community was news from Germany that its business sentiment was higher. Being that the German banks are in dire straits and that the EU’s largest economy is in the worst shape it has been in since reunification in the early 90’s, I don’t want to see poll numbers – look at the real numbers and stay away from the Euro for a bit until they become clearer.

The place to be still in my mind is the Aussie, the high yields and the rising price of oil will help sustain the currency as the economy down under goes through some rough times. The Canadian Dollar as well looks like a good buy as well to me, but I am not as enamored with it because of its proximity to the US. The auto maker issue is still weighing heavily on the economy and you will see an spike in unemployment – which might offset the jump in commodity prices.

All in all, this will be a week of waiting – nothing really will happen until Wednesday’s fed meeting and so we wait. And while we do so, we try to make a quick buck – good luck.

Default font size increased

As a follow-up to last week's launch of font size controls, we'd like to let you know that we've just increased the default font size for AdSense ad units. This change will affect your ad units if you haven't yet customized your font sizes, or if your ad units are set to 'AdSense default font size' -- you'll notice that the text in your ad units is now the equivalent of 'medium' instead of 'small'. We decided to make this change based on publisher feedback and our testing, which showed that this increased font size improved performance.

If you'd like to change the font size in your ad units, you can do so on an account-wide basis or by individual ad unit -- just follow the instructions listed in our Help Center. Again, we recommend testing these new font size options with your existing customizations to determine which combinations perform best on your pages.

Posted by Arlene Lee - Inside AdSense Team

Speeding up: the basics and Analytics

Today, we're kicking off a five-week educational series about speeding up your business in a slowdown. We'll be revisiting the basics of online publishing to help you grow your business, and we'll share tips about using AdSense and other Google products that you can apply to your business now. In the coming Thursdays, you can look forward to tips for making your site more user-friendly, bringing in more visitors, increasing your revenue potential, and attracting more advertiser budget. Along the way, we invite you to share your own suggestions for growing your business by leaving comments at the end of each post. You can also follow the campaign at www.google.com/ads/speedingup.

In today's post, you'll hear from Avinash Kaushik, Google's own Analytics Evangelist, about the importance of understanding your traffic, analyzing how your site performs, and using data to make decisions. Here are a few small to mid-sized ideas that -- in Avinash's own words -- can add up to remarkable results for your website. They're all things you can do today with free web analytics tools, like Google Analytics.



Idea #1: Discover what content and traffic sources keep people coming to your site again and again.

How many times does a visitor have to visit your site to be considered valuable? Use the Visitor Loyalty report in the Visitors section of Google Analytics to pinpoint the visitors who come to your site that many times or more. Put that data into an advanced segment and apply that segment to your core reports to understand things like where these valuable visitors come from and what content they consume. You can then use this information to optimize how you acquire new visitors and the content on your site for loyal visitors.


Idea #2: Figure out which pages to improve on your site.

Many people ask the question: "How do I know which pages on my site to improve?" Take a look at the Top Landing Pages report in the Content section of Google Analytics. This report tells you the first page people see when they enter your site. Sort this report by bounce rate. Bounce rate measures how many people come to your site, only see one page and leave right away (or as Avinash calls it: "I came, I puked, I left"). Once you identify which of your top landing pages are not able to get a single click from your visitors you know which pages need to be improved.


Idea #3: Find out where AdSense performs best on your site.

If you've linked your AdSense and Analytics accounts, the Top AdSense Content report in the AdSense section of Google Analytics will tell you where on your website AdSense ads get the most clicks. This is a win-win for your business and your customers, as it helps you identify what type of content to produce more of based on what content people are most interested in as well as where people most often click on your AdSense ads.


If you haven't already, link your AdSense and Analytics accounts in order to take full advantage of what Analytics can offer. If you don't yet have an Analytics account, you can sign up today.

Additional Resources:

• Read more from Avinash at his blog, Occam's Razor, which has more tips like the above and additional ways to use Visitor Loyalty metrics, or on the Official Google Blog.
  
• To learn more about using Analytics on your website, visit Conversion University.
  
• See great ways to use AdSense and Analytics together by watching this video.
  

Posted by Talia Brodecki - AdSense Product Marketing

Livin' La Vida Loca Down Under

I have spent so much time talking about the US and Europe lately, that I have almost neglected my favorite currency, the Aussie. So I will try to avoid ranking on Obama and Brown and Trichet, while I put a plug in for the down under dollar and go back to my love relationship with the potential this currency has.

The Australian employment report that came out overnight brought about another rise in Online Forex AUD Trading, almost across the board (The Yen had a strong day too). While the key change in employment payrolls was much better than most Forex Online traders expected at almost unchanged levels, the internal numbers could spell trouble.

The numbers showed full time employment falling sharply and part-time employment rising sharply, which is normal in a recession when most of the world’s industrialized nations are dealing with a 10% jobless rate. However, you do not want this to continue long term.

As well, the unemployment rate surged to 5.7%, still far below the global average – but nonetheless worrisome as the number keeps going up. This number matches the highest level seen in Aussieland since late 2003.

But here is why the currency is strong: The AUD continues to find strength as bonds have not managed to rally and equities stormed back into the close yesterday in the US after a steep intra-session sell-off.

The background theme for Aussie strength is the idea that the global recovery, led by China, is underway. I read an article in the Wall Street Journal just this morning about the levels at which the Chinese are buying commodities, which is bringing about serious questions of its sustainability.

If this trend slows in the near future, which I do not think it will (and I will explain this below), the Aussie could be in for a very sharp adjustment lower across the board. Chinese trade numbers are still off sharply for both imports and exports on a year over year basis.

Now, while the vaulted WSJ might believe this trend will burst eventually, sooner rather than later as they said, I am finding it difficult to swallow. Here is why: The Chinese have been consuming commodities at an alarming pace for their building, this is how they are stimulating their economy. But back in March I wrote about how the Chinese are also buying up commodities using US Dollar (Yes, I know I promised I but cannot resist mentioning the Greenbuck) while at the same time making public calls for a change in the global reserve standard.

Essentially, China is swapping Dollars for tangible items – and while the WSJ uses the import and export figures to assume that their consumption has to end – I am looking at their 2 Trillion Dollar reserves and saying, they are swapping paper for copper and oil and gold and iron because right now, there is not option other than the dollar – except real stuff.

So have no fear, the Aussie will be here – trust me on this.

Font size matters

Since February, you've been able to change the font faces of your ad units. We're now happy to announce the launch of a related feature you've been asking for -- the ability to change the font size of the text in your ad units. You can now select from small, medium, and large font sizes for ad units on pages in Latin-character languages. Just like with the current font face options, size options appear in every account but will only be applied to ad units on pages primarily in Latin-based characters for now.

The font size you choose will be applied to the body of the ad, with the title scaled appropriately. In order to fit the ad text correctly, the actual font size will vary for each format size, font face, and user-specific settings such as browsers and operating systems. In addition, some formats sizes currently have very limited room, so the font size application will be most apparent in cases where the number of ads appearing in your ad units varies automatically in order to maximize your performance. Here's an example of what the three font sizes could look like in a 336x250 large rectangle:


Your ads are currently set at the default size for AdSense, which is the equivalent of 'small'. You can select a new font size on an account-wide basis in the Ad Display Preference section of your My Account tab, or on an individual ad unit basis for new and existing ad units.


If you're creating new ad units, you can choose between the AdSense default font size, your new account-wide font size (if you've selected one using the instructions above), or a separate size. To update existing ad units you've created using the Manage Ads feature, visit the 'Manage Ads' page under your AdSense Setup tab. Any font size changes you make on an individual ad unit basis will be maintained even if you change your account-wide default in the future.

Also, a bit of advance notice: soon, we'll also be changing the default font size across AdSense in ad units from 'small' to 'medium'. We've heard from some of you that the current font size can be too small, and our testing also showed that slightly larger font sizes improved performance. Any ad units set to the default font size will automatically be updated to display the larger setting. If you'd prefer to stick with today's font size, you can set your desired font size as 'small' across your account.

We encourage you to combine these new font size options with the other customization options in your account to test the optimal layout for your pages. We're excited about this launch, and we'll be sure to follow up with another post to let you know once the default font size has been changed.

Updated to include an example of each of the three font sizes

Posted by Amy Wu - AdSense Product Manager

A lesson for us all, not to say I told you so

I’m beginning to believe that I have some psychic ability. In yesterdays post I spoke about the “spin” that the Americans and the press took on the Russian Finance Minister’s comments backing the dollar.

And, as if he read the posting himself, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed with me and sent shockwaves through the Forex world.

Actually, what Mr. Medvedev said was that there was a strong need for another currency reserve that the world can turn to. Now, many saw this as a contradiction to what his Finance Minister said, but make no mistake, what Alexi Kudrin had said was that the Dollar will be the Reserve currency for some time to come. He did not say, “I believe in the Dollar”, he did not say “I love the Dollar”, he did not say that he wants the Dollar. What he said was practical as “right now there is no option other than the Dollar for countries looking to park their funds someplace”...

The arrogance of some who believe that they can manipulate the system, and manipulate exchange rates by twisting words to their advantage is becoming ridiculous. The Forex Online traders look for quick snippets of information before trading, and are usually hasty in assuming – and what happened on Monday was the Dollar shot up, without traders listening to what was said but rather reading a quick sentence “Russian FM backs Dollar as Primary Reserve” – this is the problem when you do before you think. Because the very next day, all those Forex Online traders got burnt after Medvedev clarified the Russian position.

The key to trading the Forex, and I have said this over and again, is to be informed. You cannot rush to judgment and jump to conclusions, you need to watch out and be thorough.

Warren Buffet, Rupert Murdoch and George Soros did not become rich from buying on rumors, they made (and still make) their fortunes based on knowledge, research – and well thought out strategies.

It is time for the Forex online community to do the same or, we risk turning our very liquid market into the volatile entity that the Stock market is – where everything hinges on nothing and things happen for no reason.

The “bitch fight” going on between the US and Russia

Yesterday, the Russian Finance Minister reaffirmed Russia’s belief in the Dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency – in what seemed to be quite a surprising quote.

This was at least what the American spin on this was, and when the major newspapers reported it they used this spin. The fact is, what Alexi Kudrin said was that “the Dollar will continue to be the primary reserve currency for some time”, and if you listen to the audio of how he said this at the G8 meeting, it was almost a conciliatory tone – as if to say “there is nothing we can do about this right now, as much we would like to, but……..” .

The fun part of all this is that after the American media spun this off as a positive for the Dollar – and the Dollar rose in kind, today, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev commented that the world needs new reserve currency options, signaling in plain English, yes English, what the media refused to focus on – Russia is looking to diversify their reserves and lose the Dollar.

The “bitch fight” going on between the US and Russia is spilling over into all areas, from political alliances involving the Korean and Iranian issues, over to finance – where an American makes a statement and a Russian debunks it. It is probably frustrating for Forex online traders, although I myself have been quite entertained by the whole situation. Carry on boys…

The key here is to not just believe everything you read, if you don’t hear it yourself, and listen to what you are hearing, you might just not get the whole story. It is nice to say that the Dollar will be around as the leader, Forex Online bloggsters know however, that it is not just what you say, but how you say it. Keep your ears posted.

Local currency reports for nine more countries

Following our launch of Euro reporting for publishers in five European countries, we're happy to announce that local currency reports are now also available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, and the UK.

If you're located in one of these countries, you can now update your account to display earnings in your local currency. After you've updated your account, any earnings generated from advertisers paying in currencies other than your local currency will be converted daily. If you receive payments in your local currency, this means that there also won't be any additional conversions at the end of the month. However, you can still choose to receive payments in U.S. Dollars or change your payment method at any time.

Before enabling local currency reports in your account, we recommend downloading and saving copies of your past reports in U.S. Dollars for your records. You can then update your account by signing in to AdSense and clicking the link in the green prompt on your Reports Overview page. You'll be asked to review and agree to a new set of Terms and Conditions. Unfortunately, we're not able to interpret the meaning of changes in our legal documents for publishers -- if you have questions or need legal advice on interpreting the new Terms, please don't hesitate to contact your attorney.

We'll be requiring this change in the future, so we recommend updating your account to report earnings in your local currency soon. You can find answers to common FAQs associated with these new local currency reports in a recent Inside AdSense blog post -- all references to 'Euros' in the post now also apply to your local currency. In addition, detailed information about these new reports can be found in our Help Center.

Posted by Arlene Lee - Inside AdSense Team

Note my Forex Online Comments!!

In January of last year, specifically the 15th of the month, I wrote about the fate of the carmakers in the US. Specifically, I spoke about the urgent need to let them fail – to not prop them up and create a situation in which they are “owned” by the government.

The fact that no one listened to me is not important here, but what is, is that the policies of the government in Washington, highlighted by the announcement of a car Czar whose job it is to oversee the auto industry in the US, not to mention a pay Czar who is tasked with ensuring companies do not overpay executives, have planted the seeds for the demise of the capitalistic society that created enormous growth and wealth in the world.

There is something that has bothered me about the American people and the American economy as of late. With all the money being spent by the government, one has to ask where it’s all coming from. And aside from a few news mediums and some conservative commentators who would attack any decision and so can be labeled as partisan, no one is doing it.

The fact is that all this money that is being printed and all the oversight jobs being created to regulate industry is not good for the long term prospects of the currency.

Put an exclamation point on that: free markets should be free. It should not be the government which intervenes to save the world from corporate disasters. Helping citizens is one thing, providing food or housing needs is important – but handing over billions of dollars to companies in the name of helping citizenry is a legal form of robbery, and will have enormous impact on the value of the all mighty Dollar.

The nature of a free market is that it can live and die by its own hands – as it can by the success of a competitor or the failings of its own products – these companies, especially the Automakers, lived large and fast and I believe they should be allowed to crash.

Doing what we can to save them will only affect the long term prospects of the country’s standing. Online Forex traders know this to be true, as last week they killed the dollar – and all the data coming out that says that the US is on a recovery path means nothing, because it’s becoming more apparent that what is being shown is what they want us to see.

Online Forex blogs this weekend were littered with talk about the value of the Dollar. With yields going up, mortgages are expensive – with gas going up, energy is expensive – people need to save in order to pay their core bills.

Watch the retail numbers this week and you will see what I mean. And watch the Forex, EUR/USD and USD/JPY specifically – the decisions Obama is making will come to haunt them and I believe that this process started last week.

Do you really think the US will dilute their power in the IMF, knowing that it could hurt them financially in the long run?

Russia made a statement from its Central Bank that they will begin to diversify their reserves, totaling around 400 Billion US Dollar in value, by liquidating some of its US Dollar based assets in exchange for IMF issued bonds. Now, if this were to be taken seriously, rather than political banter meant to rock the financial world, Russia would have to explain a few things. Forex online traders,(while this did affect the trading a bit) need to look at the hard facts before jumping ship on the USD, and take the Russian declaration for what it is - just a hype, nothing more.

First, the US is issuing over 2 Trillion Dollars of new debt in 2009, and they already have closed to 11 Trillion already issued. Of Russia’s 400 Billion in reserves, only 30% are in actual US Dollar securities - cash and bonds - so even if Russia were to diversify their dollar holdings, the 120 Billion US Dollars they are holding would not even crack the surface of the overall US debt market. Second, and this is the most important one, at last check, the IMF does not have the authority to issue bonds just yet. While they are talking about it, it has not been implemented yet, so if Russia were to swap their dollars for IMF backed securities, they first need the IMF to implement the program, which as anyone familiar with large bureaucracies knows this could take years upon years.

Now, just today, the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) announced that they too would like to diversify and buy IMF bonds. But here is the real deal - the IMF is governed by countries with “voting rights” in the IMF, and this is the breakdown: Brazil has a 1.38% say, Russia has a 2.69% say, India has a 1.89% say and China has a 3.66% say. The US holds a 16.77% say in what goes on in the IMF – they have so much power there, that anytime the Chairmanship comes up, it is the US which has the pick to fill the vacancy.

So with this, let me ask you in Forex Online land: do you really think the US will dilute their power in the IMF, knowing that it could hurt them financially in the long run? Considering that the US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, is a former IMF head, even with all the changes that Obama has been making, I doubt highly that you will see IMF debt issues anytime soon. Power begets power, and while the US is in financial straits, I doubt they will readily give up some of that power if it will end up hurting them even more down the road.

My Forex Online Views on Current Market Situation

I have spent several days now talking about the largest economy in the world, the US, and criticizing the economic policy choices that have been made there. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal came out with an article that essentially justified my position. The article, written by Bill McGurn - a most respected financial columnist - focused on the claim that the Obama administration has “saved or created” a certain amount of jobs as a result of the stimulus.

The focus is not necessarily on what that number is (Obama puts it at 150,000 so far, and wants to add an additional 600,000 to that category), what is important is the fact that there is no way to tell how many jobs were “saved” as a result of the stimulus – it’s an arbitrary number and the media has fallen for it, time and again.

Another smokescreen the administration has put up was the reporting of the job numbers. When Obama talks about “creating” jobs, he does not tell you that a person, who was unemployed from a job paying him $100 per hour for example, is now on the government roles as a “temporary” worker, making $9 to $15 per hour. So while the numbers of the unemployed are going up at a slower pace now, it’s not like the Obama policy has managed to turn water into wine…

OK, I am done with the US for now. Shift to Germany, and the banking problems that the IMF declared yesterday to be dire. What would happen if these banks became insolvent? Would the IMF move to save them? If so, what would Latvia do? As all you in Forex Online land may know, Latvia has been pondering devaluing their currency in order to offset their debt, while EU officials have been coaxing them into not doing so. The Eastern Bloc nations of Europe have been hit particularly hard by this recession, and the EU has not come to their rescue, neither has the IMF.

Germany, the largest economy in Europe, is having issues - banking issues - that resemble Bear Stearns and Citigroup scale problems, and all of a sudden, the IMF and EU wake up and are now talking about “helping” out – the world is fair, you know?

Two messages that this sends to the East is that, 1) you don’t matter as much as the wealthier nations in the West and 2) while we are all in a partnership here (economic one based on the Euro) we are all not equal, not at all.

Forex online traders need to watch this closely, because if Latvia does devalue, which I suspect they will, it will have a ripple effect on the Swiss Franc, the Krona and the Crown. Forex traders should keep an eye out for EU economic news, and watch the IMF as they watch the German banks. it could prove to be an early warning sign of pending downtrends.

US Debt is getting more Expensive for the Taxpayer while the US digs itself in deeper

News came out yesterday that shows the US Treasury Bonds yields are going up at a record pace. Well, these yields are not fixed and are set on an open market based on demand - the more demand, the less the yield and vice versa.

For the US taxpayer, it means that the price of funding their enormous debt (11 Trillion Dollar) is becoming more expensive (a lot more…) and if the trend continues, it will inevitably have a stark impact on the value of the dollar.

Just think, for every 100 Dollars the US borrows, it now needs to pay back 104.35, for every 1,000, it needs to pay back 1043.50, for every million, it needs to repay 1,043,500, for every Billion, the cost is 1,004,350,000 and for every Trillion the number is 1,004,350,500,000. Translate that into the 11 Trillion Dollars that the US is in the hole for, and you’ll get an annual interest rate of 47,855,500,000 US Dollars. I’d say we have a bit of a problem here…

If you take that staggering number of almost 48 Billion Dollar payment, and divide it among the 350 million US taxpayers, it totals about $178 per person – to pay back the principle, it would cost almost $32,000 per person – more than average annual wage for an American. So the question on the minds of Forex online traders is “how is this going to work if the US does not devalue their currency to offset these costs?”

Keep in mind that this week the US is auctioning off another 65 Billion Dollars in debt. Considering that the cost is getting higher for them right now, this only adds to the problem. The issue is beginning to overtly affect the way in which the US’s leading lenders, namely China, view the US.

A leading banker in China was quoted recently as saying in a cynical manner that the US should start issuing their debt in Yuan, the Chinese currency, rather than dollars. While this was an obvious joke, my mother always taught me that within every joke lies some semblance of truth.

With the US now owning 60% of General Motors and after the Supreme Courts decision to delay the sale nearly 70% of Chrysler, one has to wonder who really owns it. If the US taxpayer is in hock to China for more than 2 Trillion Dollars (a liability of $5,714 per person) while owning 50 Billion Dollars worth of GM (an asset of $157 per person) – do the math.

The trading in the Dollar has picked up in the past two sessions, as Forex online traders and Forex blogs predict a US recovery – but I ask you here, look at the numbers yourself and decide whether a recovery is indeed “just around the corner”.

And one last thought, if it were, the US GDP would need to swell to 48 Trillion Dollars for it to do so, and that would only pay off its obligations in 10 years. The US GDP currently stands at 12 Trillion - Just something to think about.

More countries go Western Union

Good news! We’ve expanded Western Union Quick Cash as a payment method to 7 new countries: Barbados, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nepal, Uruguay, and Vietnam. If you live in any of these locations, you can now sign up to receive your AdSense payments from your local Western Union agent. With Western Union, you’ll receive your earnings sooner, since you won't have to wait for checks to arrive in the mail or clear at the bank. Plus, AdSense won't charge you a fee to use this payment method.

Please keep in mind these important points:

• Payments will continue to follow our normal payment schedule and will be available for pickup at your local Western Union agent the day after they're issued.
  
• You'll need to present a government-issued ID that matches your AdSense payee name when picking up your payment. If you need to update or correct the payee name listed in your account, please follow the instructions in our Help Center.
  
• Right now, only individual payee names can receive payments by Western Union, not businesses.
  
• Payments must be picked up within 60 days of issue or they'll expire and be credited back to your account.
  
• Payments will be made in US dollars, but depending on your local Western Union agent, they may be picked up in your local currency.
  

These instructions will help you to sign up, and our Help Center has more info about picking up your payments and other countries where Western Union payments are currently available. We're working towards making this payment option available to publishers in additional countries, and we'll be sure to announce any updates here on the blog.

Posted by Deborah Chang - AdSense Payments Team