#i get that its probably pressure from big netflix or they got paid off or smth

[momotonescreaming]

I am once again thinking about a season 3 rewrite where it's the American government trying to open a portal underneath the mall, not the Russians

[karmies]

Netflix Affiliate Program Is Dead! Here Are 7 (Better) Options.

  So, you had a brilliant idea. You thought that you can promote Netflix as an affiliate and make money.   It is really a brilliant idea. Why wouldn't it be? Netflix is a very popular company that people trust.   Also, they have a great product. It's always amazing when you're helping people find products that they really love.   Back in the day, when Netflix just came out, they opened an affiliate program. It was paying $10 per referral, which was absolutely awesome considering how easy it was to promote it.   You could have just send people for a free trial, and they would eventually sign up. As you can imagine, Netflix has quite a good conversion rate.   When people were seeing the quality of the product, they didn't think twice about getting a subscription.   Unfortunately, Netflix closed down their affiliate program for obvious reasons. What are those reasons, you ask?   Well ... they don't really need you to tell people about Netflix anymore. Good reason ...   BUT don't panic! We made some research and found a couple of alternatives programs that you can promote. Some of them are even better than Netflix!   So, if you're here to see what those programs are and how to make money with them, you're in the right place! Let's jump right into the alternatives.   Netflix Affiliate Program Alternatives   Maybe you didn't know this, but there are a couple of better affiliate programs than Netflix. Better in what way?   Well, they are less competitive, so you will have an easier time getting commissions. Also, their product is good. Some of them even have more movies than Netflix.   BUT keep in mind that Netflix closed their affiliate program because they got too big. "OK George, you already said that". Yes, I did.   Because you should expect the following companies to take the same decision as Netflix and close their affiliate programs. Hulu, Netflix's arch nemesis closed their affiliate program as well. This happened in 2019 by the way, so not too long ago.   So, you should hurry up a little. No pressure, of course. But don't expect these programs to be around forever.   With that in mind, let's jump straight into it:   1. CBS All Access   You probably didn't know that CBS even operated an affiliate program. Well, they do. And it's not a bad one either.   As you can expect, they provide original content created by CBS.   You can get $9 per sale, which is nice. Also, there is a 10 day cookie period.   You can get paid once you reach $10 in commissions, which means you need to make 2 sales. That's understandable, because they don't want you to only refer yourself and get their streaming service for free.   You can sign up as a CBS All Access affiliate right here.   2. Amazon Prime Video   It makes sense that the biggest company on the planet offer their own streaming service. They even have an affiliate program which you can promote.   Amazon runs their very own "Prime Video" service, which is, in my opinion, better than Netflix.   The commission is just $3. But you get it once someone you refer signs up for a 30 day FREE trial. Even in the case they don't sign up for a paid plan, you still get the $3.   So, it's very easy to promote.   Also, who doesn't know Amazon? You will not need to do much convincing to get people to sign up for a 100% free trial.   In order to start promoting Prime Video, you need to sign up for Amazon Associates. You can do that here.     3. Sling TV   A less known streaming service, Sling TV offers quite a variety of channels. Users can watch ESPN, AMC and other such programs.   That's pretty cool if you target an audience that likes watching sports. That's actually pretty to do with Facebook ads (more on that later)   Sling TV users can also watch programs in more than 15 languages. Again you can target foreign language speakers with Facebook ads.   Also, the commissions can go as high as $20 per referral. The cookie duration is 30 days, which is always nice.   You should consider this one. It's very interesting.   You can sign up as a Sling affiliate right here.   4. ESPN+   Speaking of ESPN, they also have an affiliate program. It's perfect for people who watch sports and quite easy to promote.   The commission rates varies, but I understand they are pretty good. What's also good is that the cookie duration is 21 days.   Also, you can get paid via PayPal which is always a good option.   They host their affiliate program on the Impact network. You can sign up right here.   5. Fubo TV   Fugo is a sports streaming service, which I use myself. It's quite good if you're into sports.   The best thing about their affiliate program is that they pay up to $30 per referral, depending on which program your audience chooses.   The cookie duration is 30 days and you also get paid with PayPal. Very interesting option if you have a sports focused website or run ads to people who love sports.   You can sign up for the Fubo TV affiliate program right here.   6. Apple TV+   The most popular gadget company on the planet has its own streaming service. What a surprise, huh?   Apple runs quite a unique affiliate program. Meaning that their commission structure is kinda ... unique.   They pay 300% commission rates. Also, the cookie period is 30 days.   Unfortunately they don't pay via PayPal, so the only option to get paid is by bank transfer. Which is not optimal but not a big problem too.   Apple offers its users movies, songs, albums, apps and A TON of other stuff. Their affiliate program is interesting, to say the least.   As you can imagine, it's easy to recommend Apple to anyone. You can sign up as an Apple affiliate here.   7. AT&T TV   A very popular company, AT&T hosts its affiliate program on the Commission Junction network.   They offer a variety of TV programs from the U.S. Also, the affiliate program is quite good.   The commission rates is $50 per referral! That's really cool because it allows you to break even very quickly on your ads.   The cookie duration is 30 days and you can get paid once you make 1 sale. That's quite amazing to be honest.   You can sign up for the AT&T affiliate program right here.     Final Thoughts   Well, there you have it: 7 better alternatives to the Netflix affiliate program. Making money with affiliate marketing is absolutely awesome.   Some of these programs allow you to break even very fast on your ads. Which is the best way to do affiliate marketing.   If you want to learn how to run profitable ads to these affiliate programs, or any other affiliate programs I suggest investing in Super Affiliate System Pro.  You will learn how to run any kind of ad you can think of.   Don't give up and work your ass off! that's the shortcut to success in any business.   Related: Etsy Affiliate Program Macy's Affiliate Program Best Automotive Affiliate Programs Wayfair Affiliate Program Read the full article

[preciousmetals0]

Jobs on the Line; Peloton’s Doing Fine

Jobs on the Line; Peloton’s Doing Fine:

Wall Street’s Breaking Bad

This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

— Arthur Dent, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Indeed, it is Thursday, dear reader. And you know what that means … weekly unemployment claims and a market rally. (More optimistically, it’s also Reader Feedback day! Read on…)

The Labor Department reported 3.2 million new unemployment claims for last week. The seven-week rolling total now sits at a staggering 33 million. In case you wondered, that’s bad.

However, Wall Street managed to delude itself into finding a silver lining once again. Investors are keying off the fact that claims have fallen steadily for the past five weeks.

In other words, the labor market is bad and getting worse. But … at least it’s not getting progressively bad… (Or the amount of bad is not as bad as the amount of bad that we had two weeks ago.) Something like that.

So, either Wall Street has broken “bad,” or investors are so far into doublespeak that they can’t tell the difference anymore. Personally, I like Jim Cramer’s commentary on the situation: “At the end of the day, this action makes little sense.”

Cramer also went on to tell CNBC: “When we get Friday’s employment report it is going to be so bad that we’re going to be debating whether we’re in a serious recession or a depression.”

I don’t have Cramer’s confidence on this one. I believe Wall Street will shrug off tomorrow’s official jobs data from the Labor Department. Why wouldn’t it?

The market has shrugged at every other piece of apocalyptic economic data in the past two months. Why should tomorrow’s nonfarm payrolls report be any different?

The Takeaway: 

Let’s shift gears here and turn to a reemerging trend that could have a more direct impact on our trading habits over the next several weeks to months.

I’m talking about the return on the trade  war cycle.

Buried under the weekly unemployment claims headlines was this gem from MarketWatch: “Global Equities Rise on Trade Talk Hopes as More Jobs Vanish in the U.S.” (Well, that was the headline before MarketWatch changed it.)

Yes, trade talk hopes.

On May 1, President Trump said that he is considering putting the kibosh on the phase 1 U.S.-China trade deal in retaliation for China’s handling of COVID-19.

Trump doubled down on the China threat at a town hall meeting over the weekend. “Now they have to buy,” Trump said. “And if they don’t buy, we’ll terminate the deal, very simple.”

Today, news broke that Washington and Beijing have scheduled talks on the matter next week. This will be the first time that the two sides have discussed the trade deal since signing it in January.

And so, we find ourselves once again moving the needle on the Great Stuff Trade War Cycle chart:

If you followed this pattern last year, you probably made quite a bit of cash. I had more than a few Great Stuff readers tell me they made bank by following this pattern.

That said, things are a bit different this time around. We’re not in a bull market. We face a mountain of bad economic data. And we’re desperately dealing with a global pandemic. Given those external pressures, this may be a short-lived trade war cycle.

Regardless, Trump’s tilt toward China brings more volatility to an already volatile market. But you can use this volatility instead to your advantage instead of making decisions out of panic.

Hectic times beg for simple trading strategies, and we found what just might be the simplest strategy to follow: the 10X Switch.

Adam O’Dell is about to show you how you can use it to easily play both sides of the market swings — without buying or selling a single stock, option or bond.

The best part? You can reserve your spot to hear more for free. Simply click here.

(See, we told you Great Stuff gets you past the velvet ropes.)

Good: Viable Viacom

ViacomCBS Inc. (Nasdaq: VIAC) is the dark horse in the race for streaming-video dominance. The unholy union between Viacom and CBS holds a collection of content that includes Pluto TV, CBS, Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures and Showtime.

That dark horse status isn’t holding back ViacomCBS at all. The company blew past Wall Street’s earnings expectations this morning by $0.18 per share. Revenue, meanwhile, beat analysts’ targets by $100 million.

That’s not to say there weren’t problems. ViacomCBS’s ad revenue fell 19% year over year, and so did both earnings and revenue. However, digital-streaming revenue soared 51%, and film revenue jumped 11% on home-licensing deals (read: streaming deals).

The point is, if ViacomCBS wasn’t already on your shortlist for streaming video investment ideas, it should be. The real question is, if you read Great Stuff, why isn’t VIAC already on your radar? (I mean, we told you about ViacomCBS back in February.)

Better: Getting Down at P-Town

It’s official. I was wrong on Peloton Interactive Inc. (Nasdaq: PTON).

Well, sort of — I didn’t count on a global pandemic to force people to work and work out from home.

The company proffering stationary bikes with video subscriptions is making bank during the U.S. pandemic lockdown. This morning, Peloton said that first-quarter revenue spiked 66% to $524.6 million.

Earnings were still poor, arriving at a loss of $0.20 per share and missing the Street’s estimate by $0.02. But, for an expanding startup, that’s to be expected.

The real juicy news is that subscription revenue skyrocketed 92%, as the company’s “connected fitness” subscribers jumped 94% to 886,0000. Paid digital subs rose 64% on the quarter.

Peloton also raised its full-year revenue and subscriber count outlooks above Wall Street’s target.

What’s more, this trend may be stickier than most stay-at-home trends in the market right now. Imagine going to the gym while COVID-19 still floats around out there with no cure. No thanks.

So, do I still think Peloton sells overpriced bikes with the equivalent of a Netflix subscription? Yes.

Is that model going to work in the current and post-pandemic market? Yes, yes it will.

The fear-driven sentiment surrounding local gyms and going outside to work out could linger for months to a year or more. That fear will provide a heavy tailwind for PTON stock and the company’s bottom line.

Editor’s Note: Looking for a way to play earnings season? Just wait until you hear from earnings expert Chad Shoop… (Click here.)

Best: Testing, One, Two … Three?

We’re still months away from a viable vaccine for COVID-19, but Moderna Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA) has put the world one step closer to that goal.

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for phase 2 trials. The company plans to begin those trials with 600 patients very shortly. Furthermore, it’s already finalizing plans for phase 3 trials as early as this summer.

“We are accelerating manufacturing scale-up and our partnership with Lonza puts us in a position to make and distribute as many vaccine doses of mRNA-1273 as possible, should it prove to be safe and effective,” CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement.

I’ll be honest: This is the best news I’ve heard on the COIVD-19 front since this whole thing began.

Now, you’re probably wondering if you should invest in MRNA shares. I’m going to give that a great big “that depends.”

Way to be noncommittal there, Mr. Great Stuff.

Well … it does. Are you in or nearing retirement? Then stay away from speculative biotechs. Moderna itself said that it will “incur significant expenses this year” due to vaccine development. It should get most of that money back from grants and awards, but it’s still a risk.

If you’re younger in your investment journey, and your risk tolerance is high enough, you might give MRNA a shot. (Ha-ha … shot … I’ll see myself out.)

That said, for those of you into taking risks, wait for MRNA to pull back from today’s surge before you jump in. There will be some follow-through profit-taking from those who got in early. You’ll get a better entry price if you don’t chase today’s surge.

You yelled “Marco!” and it’s my turn to play polo — or something along those lines. It’s time for this week’s edition of Reader Feedback!

Boy, this week has everyone writing in … and it’s not just the “DO YOU HAVE MESOTHELIOMA???” ads that usually come through.

Nay, this week, Great Stuff readers are right on the pulse with all things China and trade wars. Seriously, I haven’t seen this many “anti-this” and “anti-that” email chains since the early 2000s… (Boycott the world — no, no, reopen the world! Go underground! Eat more broccoli!)

Keep it coming, dear readers! Write to us anytime at GreatStuffToday@BanyanHill.com. Now let’s dive in…

Imperfect Circle

Some cities are exposing their inner dictators by some of their actions. The federal government has been overly generous in helping the states deal with the enormous challenges created by this virus. Has it been perfect? Of course not. It’s government. I just hope and pray voters remember who did what in November.

— Andrew W.

Hey Andrew! Quick counter point, just for funsies: At many levels, the federal government’s inability to stay self-consistent is one of the enormous challenges that states are facing. Reopen now, reopen never — it doesn’t matter what the plan is if mixed messages and misinformation botch it either way.

That said, I am envious of the hope you hold for your fellow voters this November.

Warren Dumps

Just one question — who did Buffet sell all his airline shares to?

All the airlines he sold have similar charts, but selling a position the size he had any time in the last month should have caused an even bigger move, unless someone with VERY DEEP pockets was buying those shares.

— Gordon F.

Deep pockets, you say? JPow, it’s Buff Buff. My, what unlimited stimulus you have … maybe you’d be down with a little personal bailout…

I hate to break it to anyone wanting a juicy story. There’s no boogey man here. There’s no conspiracy. I know, the X-Files lied to me too.

Many people, new to the markets or otherwise, want to find something — anything — amiss whenever the Big Money is concerned. Warren Buffett didn’t go prowling the streets of Omaha looking for a back-alley airline stock deal, as fanciful an image as that might be.

Let’s break this down.

Big-time investors like Buffett’s Berkshire don’t just dump $4 billion in stock all at once. They do it carefully, bits at a time over a period … to market makers, other big investors, retail investors and banks. And Berkshire and its subsidiaries started last month.

I’m not privy to the exact methods, but Big-Money investors do this for exactly the reason you mentioned: to not tank the market all at once … and to not hurt the prices that they get for that sold stock.

Is Buffett willing to get a bad deal on hundreds of millions of airline shares? When a single-penny difference means losing billions? And risk even more portfolio upheaval at a time like this? I say nay nay.

(A shill! A shill! They got to him!)

Sure.

Ooh, I’ve Been Dirt, and I Don’t Care

I read lots, but put my money in dirt (real estate). I know where it is and how much it will make me. — Tim P.

You know how much it’ll make you?! Tim, your crystal ball — give it here!

I joke, but there is one serious leg-up that real estate has over equities right now.

Yes, home showings will slow and/or stop. And going through the buying process is a pain in non-pandemic times. (Though, I’ve seen quite a few rental listings using the “See it solo!” method, which gets my industry-disruption Spidey senses tingling.)

But here’s the difference: With stocks, you can check Robinhood every second of the trading day and watch the dizzying price changes.

You can … but it’ll drive you bat-flu crazy. Well, most of the market is glued to the screen anyway. And as investors’ positions whipsaw, so do their reactions, and the vicious cycle grows through rally, bust and boom again — often within mere hours.

Irrationality breeds irrationality, and the equity markets are filled to the brim with it right now. Real estate? Not to the same neck-breaking extent. Just imagine if your house had a ticker on it and you could see it make 500-point moves like the Dow every day.

If you wrote in and I didn’t get to your email, it may be because you cursed too $%^*@#$ much. I still appreciate your email, even if we can’t share it publicly.

Got more on your mind? So do I, so let’s get writing. Send us an email at GreatStuffToday@BanyanHill.com.

That’s a wrap for today, but if you still crave more Great Stuff, check us out on social media: Facebook and Twitter.

Until next time, be Great!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Editor, Great Stuff

[goldira01]

Wall Street’s Breaking Bad

This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

— Arthur Dent, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Indeed, it is Thursday, dear reader. And you know what that means … weekly unemployment claims and a market rally. (More optimistically, it’s also Reader Feedback day! Read on…)

The Labor Department reported 3.2 million new unemployment claims for last week. The seven-week rolling total now sits at a staggering 33 million. In case you wondered, that’s bad.

However, Wall Street managed to delude itself into finding a silver lining once again. Investors are keying off the fact that claims have fallen steadily for the past five weeks.

In other words, the labor market is bad and getting worse. But … at least it’s not getting progressively bad… (Or the amount of bad is not as bad as the amount of bad that we had two weeks ago.) Something like that.

So, either Wall Street has broken “bad,” or investors are so far into doublespeak that they can’t tell the difference anymore. Personally, I like Jim Cramer’s commentary on the situation: “At the end of the day, this action makes little sense.”

Cramer also went on to tell CNBC: “When we get Friday’s employment report it is going to be so bad that we’re going to be debating whether we’re in a serious recession or a depression.”

I don’t have Cramer’s confidence on this one. I believe Wall Street will shrug off tomorrow’s official jobs data from the Labor Department. Why wouldn’t it?

The market has shrugged at every other piece of apocalyptic economic data in the past two months. Why should tomorrow’s nonfarm payrolls report be any different?

The Takeaway: 

Let’s shift gears here and turn to a reemerging trend that could have a more direct impact on our trading habits over the next several weeks to months.

I’m talking about the return on the trade  war cycle.

Buried under the weekly unemployment claims headlines was this gem from MarketWatch: “Global Equities Rise on Trade Talk Hopes as More Jobs Vanish in the U.S.” (Well, that was the headline before MarketWatch changed it.)

Yes, trade talk hopes.

On May 1, President Trump said that he is considering putting the kibosh on the phase 1 U.S.-China trade deal in retaliation for China’s handling of COVID-19.

Trump doubled down on the China threat at a town hall meeting over the weekend. “Now they have to buy,” Trump said. “And if they don’t buy, we’ll terminate the deal, very simple.”

Today, news broke that Washington and Beijing have scheduled talks on the matter next week. This will be the first time that the two sides have discussed the trade deal since signing it in January.

And so, we find ourselves once again moving the needle on the Great Stuff Trade War Cycle chart:

If you followed this pattern last year, you probably made quite a bit of cash. I had more than a few Great Stuff readers tell me they made bank by following this pattern.

That said, things are a bit different this time around. We’re not in a bull market. We face a mountain of bad economic data. And we’re desperately dealing with a global pandemic. Given those external pressures, this may be a short-lived trade war cycle.

Regardless, Trump’s tilt toward China brings more volatility to an already volatile market. But you can use this volatility instead to your advantage instead of making decisions out of panic.

Hectic times beg for simple trading strategies, and we found what just might be the simplest strategy to follow: the 10X Switch.

Adam O’Dell is about to show you how you can use it to easily play both sides of the market swings — without buying or selling a single stock, option or bond.

The best part? You can reserve your spot to hear more for free. Simply click here.

(See, we told you Great Stuff gets you past the velvet ropes.)

Good: Viable Viacom

ViacomCBS Inc. (Nasdaq: VIAC) is the dark horse in the race for streaming-video dominance. The unholy union between Viacom and CBS holds a collection of content that includes Pluto TV, CBS, Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures and Showtime.

That dark horse status isn’t holding back ViacomCBS at all. The company blew past Wall Street’s earnings expectations this morning by $0.18 per share. Revenue, meanwhile, beat analysts’ targets by $100 million.

That’s not to say there weren’t problems. ViacomCBS’s ad revenue fell 19% year over year, and so did both earnings and revenue. However, digital-streaming revenue soared 51%, and film revenue jumped 11% on home-licensing deals (read: streaming deals).

The point is, if ViacomCBS wasn’t already on your shortlist for streaming video investment ideas, it should be. The real question is, if you read Great Stuff, why isn’t VIAC already on your radar? (I mean, we told you about ViacomCBS back in February.)

Better: Getting Down at P-Town

It’s official. I was wrong on Peloton Interactive Inc. (Nasdaq: PTON).

Well, sort of — I didn’t count on a global pandemic to force people to work and work out from home.

The company proffering stationary bikes with video subscriptions is making bank during the U.S. pandemic lockdown. This morning, Peloton said that first-quarter revenue spiked 66% to $524.6 million.

Earnings were still poor, arriving at a loss of $0.20 per share and missing the Street’s estimate by $0.02. But, for an expanding startup, that’s to be expected.

The real juicy news is that subscription revenue skyrocketed 92%, as the company’s “connected fitness” subscribers jumped 94% to 886,0000. Paid digital subs rose 64% on the quarter.

Peloton also raised its full-year revenue and subscriber count outlooks above Wall Street’s target.

What’s more, this trend may be stickier than most stay-at-home trends in the market right now. Imagine going to the gym while COVID-19 still floats around out there with no cure. No thanks.

So, do I still think Peloton sells overpriced bikes with the equivalent of a Netflix subscription? Yes.

Is that model going to work in the current and post-pandemic market? Yes, yes it will.

The fear-driven sentiment surrounding local gyms and going outside to work out could linger for months to a year or more. That fear will provide a heavy tailwind for PTON stock and the company’s bottom line.

Editor’s Note: Looking for a way to play earnings season? Just wait until you hear from earnings expert Chad Shoop… (Click here.)

Best: Testing, One, Two … Three?

We’re still months away from a viable vaccine for COVID-19, but Moderna Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA) has put the world one step closer to that goal.

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for phase 2 trials. The company plans to begin those trials with 600 patients very shortly. Furthermore, it’s already finalizing plans for phase 3 trials as early as this summer.

“We are accelerating manufacturing scale-up and our partnership with Lonza puts us in a position to make and distribute as many vaccine doses of mRNA-1273 as possible, should it prove to be safe and effective,” CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement.

I’ll be honest: This is the best news I’ve heard on the COIVD-19 front since this whole thing began.

Now, you’re probably wondering if you should invest in MRNA shares. I’m going to give that a great big “that depends.”

Way to be noncommittal there, Mr. Great Stuff.

Well … it does. Are you in or nearing retirement? Then stay away from speculative biotechs. Moderna itself said that it will “incur significant expenses this year” due to vaccine development. It should get most of that money back from grants and awards, but it’s still a risk.

If you’re younger in your investment journey, and your risk tolerance is high enough, you might give MRNA a shot. (Ha-ha … shot … I’ll see myself out.)

That said, for those of you into taking risks, wait for MRNA to pull back from today’s surge before you jump in. There will be some follow-through profit-taking from those who got in early. You’ll get a better entry price if you don’t chase today’s surge.

You yelled “Marco!” and it’s my turn to play polo — or something along those lines. It’s time for this week’s edition of Reader Feedback!

Boy, this week has everyone writing in … and it’s not just the “DO YOU HAVE MESOTHELIOMA???” ads that usually come through.

Nay, this week, Great Stuff readers are right on the pulse with all things China and trade wars. Seriously, I haven’t seen this many “anti-this” and “anti-that” email chains since the early 2000s… (Boycott the world — no, no, reopen the world! Go underground! Eat more broccoli!)

Keep it coming, dear readers! Write to us anytime at GreatStuffToday@BanyanHill.com. Now let’s dive in…

Imperfect Circle

Some cities are exposing their inner dictators by some of their actions. The federal government has been overly generous in helping the states deal with the enormous challenges created by this virus. Has it been perfect? Of course not. It’s government. I just hope and pray voters remember who did what in November.

— Andrew W.

Hey Andrew! Quick counter point, just for funsies: At many levels, the federal government’s inability to stay self-consistent is one of the enormous challenges that states are facing. Reopen now, reopen never — it doesn’t matter what the plan is if mixed messages and misinformation botch it either way.

That said, I am envious of the hope you hold for your fellow voters this November.

Warren Dumps

Just one question — who did Buffet sell all his airline shares to?

All the airlines he sold have similar charts, but selling a position the size he had any time in the last month should have caused an even bigger move, unless someone with VERY DEEP pockets was buying those shares.

— Gordon F.

Deep pockets, you say? JPow, it’s Buff Buff. My, what unlimited stimulus you have … maybe you’d be down with a little personal bailout…

I hate to break it to anyone wanting a juicy story. There’s no boogey man here. There’s no conspiracy. I know, the X-Files lied to me too.

Many people, new to the markets or otherwise, want to find something — anything — amiss whenever the Big Money is concerned. Warren Buffett didn’t go prowling the streets of Omaha looking for a back-alley airline stock deal, as fanciful an image as that might be.

Let’s break this down.

Big-time investors like Buffett’s Berkshire don’t just dump $4 billion in stock all at once. They do it carefully, bits at a time over a period … to market makers, other big investors, retail investors and banks. And Berkshire and its subsidiaries started last month.

I’m not privy to the exact methods, but Big-Money investors do this for exactly the reason you mentioned: to not tank the market all at once … and to not hurt the prices that they get for that sold stock.

Is Buffett willing to get a bad deal on hundreds of millions of airline shares? When a single-penny difference means losing billions? And risk even more portfolio upheaval at a time like this? I say nay nay.

(A shill! A shill! They got to him!)

Sure.

Ooh, I’ve Been Dirt, and I Don’t Care

I read lots, but put my money in dirt (real estate). I know where it is and how much it will make me. — Tim P.

You know how much it’ll make you?! Tim, your crystal ball — give it here!

I joke, but there is one serious leg-up that real estate has over equities right now.

Yes, home showings will slow and/or stop. And going through the buying process is a pain in non-pandemic times. (Though, I’ve seen quite a few rental listings using the “See it solo!” method, which gets my industry-disruption Spidey senses tingling.)

But here’s the difference: With stocks, you can check Robinhood every second of the trading day and watch the dizzying price changes.

You can … but it’ll drive you bat-flu crazy. Well, most of the market is glued to the screen anyway. And as investors’ positions whipsaw, so do their reactions, and the vicious cycle grows through rally, bust and boom again — often within mere hours.

Irrationality breeds irrationality, and the equity markets are filled to the brim with it right now. Real estate? Not to the same neck-breaking extent. Just imagine if your house had a ticker on it and you could see it make 500-point moves like the Dow every day.

If you wrote in and I didn’t get to your email, it may be because you cursed too $%^*@#$ much. I still appreciate your email, even if we can’t share it publicly.

Got more on your mind? So do I, so let’s get writing. Send us an email at GreatStuffToday@BanyanHill.com.

That’s a wrap for today, but if you still crave more Great Stuff, check us out on social media: Facebook and Twitter.

Until next time, be Great!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Editor, Great Stuff

[themoneybuff-blog]

The Five Things You Need to Achieve Your Financial Goals

Given the enormous differences in the financial situations of different people, its easy to buy into the idea that those different stories have very little in common. After all, what exactly does a well-funded investor making his first millions have in common with a single parent with three kids trying to keep the rent paid? While those differences might be important, when I hear those stories, what I look for are the similarities. Their external situations might be really different, but the things that drive those people internally are actually quite similar. In fact, I would argue that there are really only five things that you need to have to achieve your financial goals, regardless of your financial state. They are things that everyone has access to, should they choose to do so. These five elements are present in virtually every financial success story, whether its someone making minimum wage and trying to pay off a student loan or someone trying to make their first million. Here are the five key ingredients I feel everyone needs to succeed at their financial goals. Of course, these ingredients largely hold true for almost every type of goal. Self-Evaluation This is the starting point for setting and achieving any kind of goal. You have to look at yourself and ask two absolutely vital questions: what do I have and what do I want. What do I have? To set any sort of realistic financial goal, you need to start with a realistic picture of where you are at. What are your assets? What things do you possess that have any value? What are your various account balances? What are your debts? What responsibilities and obligations do you have? Do you have a spouse or children or others that rely on you? What skills do you have? How can you apply those skills to make money? How much spare time do you have? What is your health like? Do you have the energy or capacity to work harder? At the same time, you have to have a firm grip on what you want. What is your goal? When do you want to achieve that goal? Is that goal challenging but still within the realm of reality (for example, I might have some sort of career in basketball, but Im never going to be an NBA player)? Is that goal deeply meaningful to you, or is it something someone else wants for you? You cant run a race if you dont know what your starting point is. You cant win a race if you dont know where the finish line is. So often, people take off running without even knowing where the starting line is or the finish line is and they wonder why they cant finish the race. While you might be able to come up with quick, trite answers to all of these questions, the truth is that all of these questions deserve some serious self-reflection, and those questions will lead to more questions. You need to really understand yourself, what you have, and what you want in order to be able to establish a worthwhile challenging goal for yourself, and thats going to take some self-reflection. There are a lot of different methods that people can use for self-reflection. I find journaling to be very powerful. I constantly turn over questions like these when Im journaling and they consistently move me toward better goals and better understanding of who I am, what I want, what I need, and what I should be doing with my time and energy. Whatever method you choose, I encourage you to set aside some time each day to really think through these questions. What do you have? What does your life situation really look like? What do you want out of life? How does all of that translate into some powerful goals that you can actually achieve that will equate to a better life? Planning Planning takes the output of a bunch of self-reflection and turns it into actionable steps that can take you from what you currently have to what you want to have. In other words, planning addresses the question of how do I get from what I have to what I want. Lets say you did some serious self-evaluation of where youre at and what you want and youve decided that a big healthy financial goal for yourself is to achieve debt freedom in three years. The first question you should ask yourself is what can I do this year that will help me achieve that big goal? Maybe its something as straightforward as paying off a quarter of your debt balance, because if you do that in a year, youre going to find it easier and easier to go faster and faster because interest isnt accumulating. This might include some other big step like getting a new job or moving to a less expensive apartment. Okay, then ask yourself what can I do this quarter that will help me achieve those end of the year goals? You might come up with a list of things here. They might be things oriented toward cutting back on your spending, like cutting your cable subscription. You might set a three month goal of getting your resume up to speed and applying to ten jobs that match you well. Maybe a three month goal is to find a cheaper apartment and move, or to find a roommate. Youll probably have a few you should have at least one for every goal you have for the year. Then, what can I do this month that will help me achieve those quarterly goals? Maybe youll simply make a great resume and get it uploaded in a bunch of places. Maybe youll cut your cable. Maybe youll do a serious search for a roommate. Maybe youll clean out your closet and sell off some of that stuff. Maybe youll give yourself a strong thirty day challenge, like cooking all of your meals at home, that will both directly save you money and help you build a skill going forward that will keep saving you money. Great, so what can you do this week to make those big goals for the month a reality? You might look for alternate ways to watch the two or three shows that youre keeping cable around for. Maybe you can ask a friend to look at your current resume and suggest improvements. Maybe you can ask five friends whether theyd be interested in being roommates. Maybe you can make a real meal plan for the week, get all of the ingredients in one shopping trip, and make all of your meals. That leaves us with one final question: what can you do today to make those week-long goals a reality? Just pick two or three things. Make a meal plan and a grocery list and head to the grocery store. Find your resume and send it to a good friend asking for advice on updating it. Call up a friend and see if theyd be interested in being a roommate. Each day, ask yourself to come up with two or three things that you can do today to make those week-long goals a reality. Then, do them. Make them a priority. Get them done before you flop on the couch to watch Netflix or look at your phone. Each week, do a bigger review. Make sure you finished up (or made good progress on) your plans and goals for the week, and set new ones for the next week. If its the start of the month, do it for the monthly goals. If its the start of a quarter, do it for the quarterly goals. If its the start of a year, do it for the yearly goals. (I do this on Sunday morning, usually.) Thats what planning is all about. Youe got your goal, so what does that break down to? Keep breaking it down until its some short tasks on your to-do list for the day, and then keep coming back to the goal asking yourself whats next. There will come a time with a lot of financial goals where there isnt something active to do, and thats fine, as long as youre not actually letting down your big goals by not doing anything. Thats when some of the other elements below come into play more than ever. Self-Control You have to be able to stop yourself from fulfilling desires, because desires are endless. You will always want something. There will always be a treat that you desire or that you think you deserve. This isnt easy. Our own internal voice makes it difficult. The pressures of society make it difficult. The nudging of our social circle can make it difficult. Yet it can be overcome. I think there are different answers to these problems for everyone, and so I cant always comment on what might work for you when it comes to figuring out self-control over the things you desire. All I can really point to is what worked best for me. First of all, I started evaluating literally everything I spent money on. Did I really need this thing? Was there a lower cost version that would have met that need, if there was a real need involved? If it was just fulfilling a desire, did I really get anything lasting out of that purchase? For many months, I went through every single credit card statement and every single bank statement and every single receipt and asked myself those questions about every single purchase. Every time I ever feel even a little out of whack financially, I go back to this and walk through those statements, asking myself those questions. But these things are so small! I would often think this very thought about a little splurge. Surely a dollar here and a dollar there cant make a difference, right? Its so tiny! Well, a pebble is tiny, too, but you cant expect to walk a marathon with a pebble in your shoe. With every step, the pebble will rub against your feet and eventually you arent making any progress any more. The next thing I did is that I started strongly questioning every desire. Every time I wanted to buy something, I would ask myself why I wanted to buy it. Why? What purpose did it serve? Would I get any lasting enjoyment out of this? Couldnt I get a similar pleasure out of other things I had available? Was this just something I was buying to make myself feel better about something else in my life i.e., retail therapy and wouldnt I be better off just addressing that something directly? What I found is that an awful lot of my desires were justified by the weakest and silliest and flimsiest of reasons, reasons that would fall apart very quickly if I allowed myself to question my reasoning. (Thats important, and Ill come back to it soon enough.) So, if I got into a routine of always questioning the reasoning for a purchase and I was willing to allow myself to recognize the silliness of some of my impulses, the number of non-essential purchases would just drop through the floor. If youre familiar with Buddhism, youll probably recognize this as having a lot in common with the eightfold path. Theyre both driving at the same thing: desires are often the source of a lot of misery in our lives, whether we fulfill them or not. Figuring out that most of our desires are pretty useless nips them in the bud and eventually kills them off entirely. Self-control is a challenging thing and sometimes youre going to fail. What happens then? Grit Grit is the fourth essential ingredient you need to achieve financial goals. Its a willingness to recognize your mistakes and learn from them. Its a willingness to pick yourself up when life knocks you down. Its getting back on board with a plan when something knocks you off of it. The reality is that at some point during your progress toward your financial goal, something is going to happen that knocks you off your gameplan. It can be something completely out of left field, it might be something you should have planned for, it could even be your own foolishness. Whatever it happens to be, it either strongly tempts you or it knocks you completely off your game. Youre no longer cruising right toward your destination. You might feel like that destination is in doubt. You probably feel frustrated. You might feel ashamed. Its awful. Trust me, Ive been there. Many of us have been there. The question is whether or not youre willing to pick yourself up and keep moving forward toward that goal. If youre not willing to do that, then you dont have grit. Youre not going to achieve major goals in life if youre not willing to stand back up when things dont go perfectly. According to the wonderful book Grit by Angela Duckworth, there are four key elements to grit: Step one: Identify a burning passion. Step two: Practice it with commitment. Step three: Find inner purpose in your work. Step four: Persevere when things get hard. If you have a deeply meaningful goal, you have that burning passion and inner purpose. If you have a plan that youre reviewing and working toward daily, you have that commitment. What about perseverance when things are hard? Ive found a couple things that help here. First, automate as much of your plan as you can during the early stages. That way, when things go awry later on, much of your plan will just keep on trucking when your focus is elsewhere. Set up automatic savings plans and automatic contributions to retirement. Second, have an emergency fund that you can tap when things go sideways. My preferred method for this is to set up a weekly automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings account $10 or $20 or whatever you can afford. Then, just let it roll. When an emergency strikes, tap that emergency fund first. Youll find that a lot of emergencies just melt away and dont actually hurt your progress. Finally, think about what went wrong and incorporate what you learn into some revisions to your plan. Why did things get out of whack? That takes you right back to the self-reflection part of the equation. Reflect deeply on what went wrong and what needs to change to ensure that you dont make that mistake again. Youll likely alter your plans, at least a little, and thats a good thing. Theres just one final ingredient. Patience Most personal finance goals are marathons rather than sprints. The goal youre aiming for is years and years down the road and there are times when it seems impossibly far in the distance. Patience is the key to success in those situations. You have to be able to accept that the big success you want wont happen tomorrow or the day after. Rather, it only happens after a long sequence of little successes, many of which will basically be invisible to you in terms of your day to day life. This is very hard for humans. Were genetically predispositioned to not think in the long term. Rather, were short-term thinkers. We think about the day ahead and the week ahead and perhaps the month ahead, but beyond that, it gets kind of nebulous. It becomes this vague sense of the future. Sure, well do things that we know we need to do now because they are necessary for future endeavors, but unless its a really clear direct payoff, most of us will procrastinate or not worry about it. The urgent almost always trumps the important. So, how can you help yourself be patient when it comes to a long-term goal? One good method is to look at the little successes that youre achieving due to marking off those short-term daily and weekly goals. How many days this month did you eat at home? How many of your weekly goals did you knock out? Those are the metrics you should be looking at. Focus on those things and the big goal will become an inevitability. Another strategy is, as suggested earlier, to automate as much of your financial plan as you can. That way, during the long stretches where your patience is being tested, much of your plan is on autopilot and doesnt require any active decision making. A final technique, one that works particularly well for me, is to constantly refresh that long-term vision. On a very regular basis often weekly I think about my long-term goals and what my life will be like when I achieve them. I intentionally dive deep into my goals and try to visualize what some aspect of my life will be like at that point. Ill imagine Sarah and I, slightly older, camping in the Shenandoah National Forest. Ill imagine myself writing a novel somewhere. Ill imagine myself feeding a grandchild a spoonful of baby food. For me, its those details often unique ones that keep the overall goal alive and help me maintain my patience. Final Thoughts Self-evaluation. Planning. Self-control. Grit. Patience. Those are the elements of success no matter what your financial situation might be and no matter what your financial goals might be. If you bring all five of those elements to bear in order to improve your financial state, youll find that your goals move from being impossible pipe dreams to being achievable (though still challenging) ambitions. Good luck! Read more by Trent Hamm: https://www.thesimpledollar.com/the-five-things-you-need-to-achieve-your-financial-goals/

[digital-strategy]

https://ift.tt/2PVgtaN

The path forward for premium media is seemingly clear: Put up a paywall.

Digital advertising is a duopoly-dominated mess; any print or broadcast cross-subsidy you might have is declining at one speed or another. Your loyal core digital readers may be only a tiny fraction of that big “monthly uniques” number you put into press releases — but some of them are willing to pay for what you do. Reader revenue is relatively reliable, month to month or year to year, and it’s at the center of media company plans for 2019 and beyond.

But how many paywalls will people really pay to click past? It’s worked for The New York Times; it’s worked for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. But does it work for local newspapers? Metro dailies? Weekly or monthly magazines? Digital native sites?

The data thus far isn’t super encouraging, and that’s the world that New York magazine and Quartz walk into with their just-announced paywalls. New York’s was announced yesterday:

New York Media is now joining other publishing companies or individual publications that have recently added paywalls, including Bloomberg Media, The Atlantic and the Condé Nast magazines Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Wired.

Subscriptions for the New York Media sites will cost $5 a month or $50 annually. For $70 a year, the company will include a subscription to New York magazine, the onetime weekly that started publishing every other week in 2014.

The pay model, which will allow readers a number of stories free before shutting off access, will go into effect the last week of November, according to the company, which would not specify a date for the change.

Quartz, the business news outlet recently purchased by Japan’s Uzabase, made its move this morning:

The Quartz membership is an education in the global economy that’s written to equip you to make more informed decisions at work, in your investments, and in life. Each week, we take you outside of the news cycle to provide analysis, context, and insider insight about one of the players or phenomena that’s upending global markets and rewriting the rules of business. You can read the first installment on our race toward a cashless future (and who wins and loses in it) today. The exclusive new content published every day is designed to deepen the expertise of leaders, and help those aspiring to leadership get ahead in their careers without stepping out of them. Membership — which costs $14.99 per month, or $99.99 for the first year as a special limited-time founding offer — also brings you the ability to engage directly with Quartz’s journalists via conference calls, and join events with other members.

Even news omnivores won’t pay for everything

Both New York and Quartz have been real standouts in terms of digital strategy. New York has made content verticals work far better than most legacy media companies and built an agile editorial voice that really works for the web; Quartz has been a leader in mobile-first thinking, platform-specific strategy, and new interfaces for content discovery and consumption. Between the two, I’ve probably read 100 of their stories in the past month. They’re really good!

But are they $50 a year good? Or $100 a year good? To go alongside $120 a year for The Atlantic, $90 a year for The New Yorker, $420 a year for Bloomberg, $60 a year for Slate, $50 a year for Medium, debitum ad infinitum?

To be fair, these paid products offer substantially different value propositions, mixing content, membership, and experience. Quartz is keeping its main output free to read and making an interesting education-and-networking play that makes sense for a business site; New York is building a paywall that can flex open or closed depending on a reader’s predicted propensity to pay; The Atlantic is mostly offering a premium experience while leaving the main site open; The New Yorker and Bloomberg offer relatively traditional meters allowing a set number of articles a month.

But only 16 percent of Americans say they are willing to pay for any online news. If someone’s first digital subscription is to the Times or the Post — how many are willing to pay for a second, or a third, or a fourth news site? Especially if that second or third site costs as much or more than their favorite national daily?

To frame it another way: There’s a segment of the population that can grudgingly be convinced to pay for a news site, out of some mix of consumer reward, civic duty, and peer pressure. But that second or third subscription requires a level of devotion that can be hard to sustain in a digital environment where the links come at you from every direction.

Are you Netflix or Seeso?

Or allow me a metaphor: Netflix and Amazon have convinced many millions of people to pay for streaming video. But how many of those people think: That’s not enough, I need more? If The New York Times is Netflix and The Washington Post is Amazon (of course) — are these premium national publishers Seeso? Filmstruck? DramaFever?

One complicating factor is that the line between magazines and daily news used to be much more clearly drawn. What you got from a print subscription to The New Yorker or The Atlantic was distinctly different from what you got from the local daily — in timeframe, in editorial approach, in format. But premium magazines’ expansion online has typically been in a newsier direction. Real-time reactions to Mueller news; breaking news from Capitol Hill; columnizing off the latest outrage — these are things can now appear at any of a dozen quality domain names. Wired does great writing about technology, of course — but is it so distinct from what other sites offer that its value remains as clear as it used to be? The Atlantic had a lot of scoops in the last election cycle — but is breaking campaign news something it’s really going to be better at than the Post?

On one hand, it’s unfair to lump this class of premium paid products together — each will succeed or fail on its own merits, both editorial and strategic. A business publication like Quartz will likely have an easier time of it than a more general-interest outlet like New York. But I think it is a fair question to wonder how far down the Paywall Solution can filter through the editorial ecosystem. Local newspapers have already hit this roadblock: While the Times, Post, and Journal build subscriber bases in the millions, most metro dailies have struggled to go far into the five figures. Only two non-national papers — the Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe — have more than 100,000 paying digital subscribers. Aggregation theory holds that, in a frictionless marketplace, the Internet tends to aggregate power in the hands of a few large players. That’s benefited Google and Facebook — and, on another scale, the Times and the Post. What about everyone else?

I mused about this idea on Twitter yesterday, and here are some the responses I got — keeping in mind that people who follow me on Twitter are necessarily Very Unusual News Consumers:

I’m sorry to hear about this. I read New York Mag at work; I adore The Atlantic. I already pay for WaPo. I don’t want to pay for every site I frequent online

— Lebanexican (@Lebanexican) November 12, 2018

This. There’s only so much I feel comfortable paying for services that are not essential like food/clothing/shelter is.

I ♥️ news, but if I have to choose between my utility bill and the six subscriptions/recurring donations to news orgs I currently have… 🤷🏽‍♀️

— Wendi C. Thomas (@wendi_c_thomas) November 13, 2018

I think about this quite a bit from a consumer perspective. I do NYT but not WaPo, New Yorker but not Wired/Atlantic. ESPN but not The Athletic. If I let it, I could be nickel and dimed to death with subscriptions.

— Dan_Rowinski (@Dan_Rowinski) November 12, 2018

Especially if they all cover the same things/people/topics. There's a lot more value that can be unlocked when outlets selling subscriptions offer something truly unique & different. That's how the subscription model bring a host of new voices to the fore (IMO).

— Terrell Johnson (@terrellwrites) November 12, 2018

Icksnay on the aywall-pay. Will simply read other content sources — sorry NYM.

— Al Poochini (@alpoochini) November 13, 2018

I get to read ten articles a month on various news sites. Sometimes only one or two articles per month before I'm shut down. I'm not going to pay for news, but it does mean I don't get to check the primary source when I'm reading commentary about something.

— Missus Bennet (@poornerves) November 12, 2018

You can't subscribe to everything. I appreciate @NewYorker's version. There are occasional "must read" stories there that someone I follow links but not enough for me to replace one of my newspaper subscriptions when choosing what to buy.

— Jane (@Poeia) November 12, 2018

Or….it makes it harder for everyday people to discover the great words from the honkers of our time, I wouldn’t have read Ta-Nehisi Coates “Reperations” essay of a paywall had stopped me, or much Ta Nehisi at ALL. Pros and cons, happy to see some people getting some pay for wrk

— Elliott Troy (@AngloGyptian) November 12, 2018

Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, NYT, Economist, New Yorker, The Athletic, Spotify. I like Slate and NY Mag and VF but at a certain point it's enough. Rather go without than pay for more

— Daniel O (@DanOfromNYC) November 12, 2018

exactly. for me it just means i don't read the stories. they should just use ads to pay the bills. or i just reset my browser if I really feel like reading it

— The Count (@Alan87374847) November 12, 2018

Hmmm… I read a ton of content from all of these sources. But I only have subscriptions to @newyorker and @TheAtlantic. I have just been helping myself to free NYMag copy, just because I could. I fully expect to pay up now!

— Chris Daly (@profdaly) November 12, 2018

I'm happy to pay for WaPo and 7 other newspapers (not including the NYT) as well as The Atlantic and The New Yorker. I want to support the sites I rely upon. But I realize I may not be typical.

— Jeri Dansky (@JeriDansky) November 13, 2018

Illustration by

Louis Richard

used under a Creative Commons license.

via Nieman Lab

[furynewsnetwork]

LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST:

By: Paul Meekin

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” – Confucius

On July 12th during a national day of action I saw a chatroom of peers light up with support, providing numbers for congressmen and senators to call and demand they support the regulation. It was a forgone conclusion that Title 2 was good, and ISPs were evil. I was about to chime in with my own views, but my co-workers reminded me rocking the boat in such a way is bad workplace politics.

So, thanks to my passive aggressive nature, I decided to explain the situation here.

Title 2, in a nutshell, treats internet traffic (Bandwidth usage) like a utility; Preventing Internet Service Providers from speeding up or slowing down connection speeds from businesses to consumers – just like the water company won’t charge you extra for good shower pressure.

Additionally it prevents ISPs from prioritizing their own content by creating a ‘fast lane’ on their servers for their own ‘stuff’.

Put in place by The Obama administration and the FCC in 2014, Title 2 designed to ensure ‘fairness’ on the world wide web and the Trump administration and current FCC chair Ajit Pai oppose it.

You’ve probably read that that Title 2 guarantees a ‘free’ and ‘open’ Internet. For example Comcast is legally prohibited from blocking the ports that allow you to download illegal movies and porno from BitTorrent, and prior to Title 2, they tried to do just that. And Verizon was recently caught throttling Netflix data as a ‘test’ too.

It’s also argued Title 2 exists because most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have a monopoly in a given area; In Podunk Iowa or Minnetonka Minnesota, Comcast may be your only option, thus allowing them to do whatever they want regarding data speed and content blockage without a free-market solution to keep them in check.

ISPs like Comcast and AT&T argue revoking Title 2 doesn’t eliminate the ‘open’ internet. They argue Title 2 is unfair – limits the market, hurts jobs, and in a decidedly Bernie Sanders-ian move, prevents companies that use the most Bandwidth from paying their fair share.

Additionally, it prevents them from offering cheaper, lower-speed options to the disadvantaged.

The issue is more complicated then various “Support net neutrality!” campaigns would lead you to believe. Most people barely understand what Title 2 even is, but are happy to pick a side and throw full-throated support behind it – and that includes libertarians and conservatives who are against Title 2 primary because democrats are for it.

Billion dollar companies like Facebook and Netflix and Google are using their immense influence to encourage their users to fight against other billion dollar companies….without quite explaining the complexities of the issue.

This creates confusion and a team sports mentality. In sports, I don’t care if you root for the Patriots and don’t know what a weak-side zone blitz is. But Title 2 isn’t sports, and the last time everyone so blindly chose a side and demonized the other, Donald J. Trump was elected President.

We need to be knowledgeable about the issues. Especially ones as complex as this. And being knowledgable requires leg work beyond copy and pasting a post you saw on Reddit.

Being knowledgable also requires diving into the logistics of Internet infrastructure, which is messy and complex. John Oliver will tell you it’s boring. I’d tell you John Oliver doesn’t have a computer networking degree and I do, and that HBO GO probably uses quite a bit of Bandwidth they don’t want to pay extra for.

Title 2 is ultimately a question of infrastructure.

“Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly. ” – Roger Ebert

It’s also question of backbone. The Internet’s backbone is an amalgamation of wires inter-connected to form a ‘trunk’ line. It’s not a trunk in that it’s a single, thick, line of cable, but rather a trunk in that most all Internet data flows these specific lines.

For example, to access this story, you clicked this link, that click went out, connected to a line, connected to a series of routers, which connected to the server(s) The Libertarian Republic rents, which pulled this specific story, and then the servers did the whole thing in reverse to get it to you. Likely in less than five seconds.

The ‘backbone’ is the space between TLR’s servers and whatever server you use (Comcast, AT&T, Cellular).

Who owns the backbone? Not who you’d think. Companies known as ‘Tier 1’ providers ‘own’ the backbone. There’s only a few of them: Level 3 communications, Telia Carrier, NTT, Tata Communications, and GTT are the Tier 1 providers – they have the wires and chords and power sources that ‘run’ The World Wide Web.

So if you think about it like a highway, ‘Tier 1’ providers are responsible for every freeway in the country because they own all the cement.

Major companies like Google, Netflix, Facebook, and others negotiate with ‘Tier 1’ providers directly – paying a toll based on Bandwidth usage (not speed), among other technical factors – to be let on the highway.

Tier 1 providers traditionally support Net Neutrality because it doesn’t affect them. Just like a construction company doesn’t *care* about what the speed limit on the highway they’re building is. As long as you pay the toll to use the road they build and maintain, they’re happy.

That’s backbone. The crux of Title 2 – and Net Neutrality – is the rib-cage – or to use the highway metaphor – the off ramps.

As I’m sure you’ve seen, rib-cages and off ramps are far more complex, delicate, and specific than backbones and highways.

And this is where ISPs come in. Companies like DirectTV and Comcast are the guys connecting us to the backbone. They negotiate with Tier 1 providers for access, then build out their own infrastructure in cities, suburbs, and rural communities. This is known as ‘last mile’ infrastructure.

‘Last mile’ infrastructure, is a logistical and financial nightmare. In much the same way an off-ramp must include stop lights, merging lanes, and other more complicated infrastructure, as does ‘Last Mile’ infrastructure as it spiders out from the backbone into homes and businesses in rural and urban communities.

Think about how expensive – and inefficient – it would be to build a paved road out to Middle of Nowhere, Montana to serve six houses in four different locations. Now imagine that the longer that road is, the less pavement you have to work with, and the road becomes thinner as you go.

This is known as denigration of signal – the further out from the backbone you go – the weaker the Internet will be – there’s less space on the road. Now imagine that road needs to serve Mac Trucks, 18 wheelers, clown cars, Greyhound buses, sedans, and pickup trucks. Coming and going, 24 hours a day – and the cars on the road are increasing every.single.day.

Now imagine rush hour on that road.

Now imagine it’s illegal to ban 18 wheelers from that road, or charge them a toll in exchange for widening it because they already paid the highway guys , and your own company trucks aren’t allowed to use the side ramp to get where they need to go faster.

Oh, and no speed limits allowed.

…You can almost see where the ISPs are coming from.

“I don’t believe in the no-win scenario,” – Captain Kirk

So you can see why ISPs have a dog in this fight, but what’s the fight actually over?

In a nutshell, because ISPs control so much of the most difficult infrastructure, they want more control over the services they provide: They want the right to charge for faster speeds, prioritize content as they see fit, and throttle and charge companies who use most of the bandwidth for the privilege.

Especially as it pertains to streaming services like Netflix Instant – which caused a massive spike in worldwide bandwidth usage – and cut into TV and Cable subscriptions – which, ironically, most ISPs bundle with their Internet packages.

So cable TV subscriptions dwindle as streaming gets more popular, putting more stress on Comcast’s servers due to the increased network load, while at the same time slashing ISPs’ cable profits – and by the very nature of Title 2, ISPs can’t do anything about it.

If Comcast wants to charge a service fee for Netflix bandwidth to the consumer (or to Netflix) they can’t. If they want to launch their own video streaming service and offer faster speeds if you sign up in conjunction with Internet service – like they could with cable or telephone service – they can’t.

ISPs would also enjoy the ability to block certain kinds of packets – including those from P2P services like BitTorrent or even UseNet, where a majority of online piracy sharing of illegal movies, games, and pornography takes place. Comcast got in trouble for doing this pre-Title 2.

Meanwhile, those companies using the bandwidth think it’s unfair they’d need to negotiate twice. They already paid the Tier 1 provider. Already paid for services. Why should they be charged extra for having a successful business?

Netflix is changing the world – why should it be punished for innovating while Comcast was busying twiddling its thumbs with Cable TV and land-line telephone service?

Title 2 makes sure all services are treated fairly on the Information Super Highway. If ISPs can block BitTorrent data, why can’t they block Netflix or Hulu, the entirety of the ‘Dark Web’  or websites they deem to be ‘fake’. Heck, Comcast could block any news coming in that’s negative about them.

See what I mean about this being confusing?

Thus, it’s a custody battle between the Intolerable force of the Government vs. the Unconscionable desires of big-business ISPs. The American people are the kids in the middle who know, deep down they’re going to get fucked in the ass either way.

Who do you want to fuck you in the ass, America?

“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” – Ronald Reagan

Right now, it seems the American populous would prefer the long, bloated, semi flaccid phallus of the federal government do the fucking, as pro-freedom rhetoric from companies like Google is parroted by the social media masses.

It’s shocking how eager people are to echo sentiments from these companies without even a little bit of research – not that the people trying to convince you care much about educating you. To Google, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and Netflix it’s not about you or your freedom or your open internet.

It’s about their wallets.

You think Google and Twitter, who routinely play left-wing favorites when it comes to advertising on YouTube and ‘verified’ statues on Twitter, care about free speech and an open internet?

Of course they don’t. If they did, Milo Yinnapolis would be verified. Philip DeFranco and Dave Rubin and Prager University wouldn’t be in a constant battle for Monetization on Youtube. YouTube wouldn’t have asked their creative community to endorse Hillary Clinton en-masse.

(It’s also a government regulation puts more power in a Federal government that previously shut down the multi-million dollar online Poker industry and happily uses the Internet spy on American citizens.)

But ISPs are no prize, either. They’re making billions of dollars as it is now, and after their ISP Privacy data win, look to gain much more based on the sale of private browsing data.

They also provide your telephone, your television, your home security, and Internet, often semi-forcing you into paying for services you don’t want or need because they’d be cheaper that way (can you say ‘Triple Play’?). They have said they want to throttle and block certain kinds of data. Comcast tried it and got caught.

If Title 2 is repealed they will limit your access to certain kinds of data and charge companies that use the most.

Allowing ISPs do to whatever they want regarding Data Speed when they’re the only providers in many areas is a very scary proposition. And to be honest, I thought Libertarians hated speed limits?

It’s a slippery slope, as they say.

The reason I’m writing this – even after Net Neutrality had its 72 hours of press coverage and we’re onto different and other things now, is because there is so much confusion and frustration when it comes to explaining it. To understand it – and the positives and negatives of Title 2, you need to understand how this all works first – at least a little bit. And most people aren’t interested in educating you. They’re interested in your blind support. So when it comes up again – and it will – you, and I, can point to this article so we at least have a somewhat informed jumping off point.

To reduce this issue to memes and catch phrases and tweets is a joke. To say what it could do without explaining how it works is negligent. To make it a left vs right issue is asinine.

I am dreadfully weary of what ISPs could do to my data, what they could charge me for, and what they could block me from. The fundamental point of the internet is that you can get on from anywhere in the world, and it’s the same for everyone. If the Internet changes based on your ISPs policies, that’s a problem.

So, yeah, I support Net Neutrality and Title 2…For now. But unlike most everyone else, I had to think about it first.

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