Just a few weeks ago, they started cutting down the last bit of forest on our street. And with incredible speed, a $20,000 patch of land has been defaced with yet another pair of toothpick-and-pressboard mansions priced at almost $400,000 each.

Take a stroll through the neighborhood and it seems like a new building has sprung up on every half-acre plot. Drive out of town, and there's a new Target, a Wal-Mart, a Home Depot every other block... each one framed by two or three brand-new supermarkets. And where there was horse pasture five years ago, there are now rolling developments of Truman Show-style townhouses, each still exuding the tasteful flavor of vinyl siding and cheap but shiny brass fixtures.

A lot of people are getting rich, it seems, and getting rich faster. And the rich are getting richer still. There are more billionaires than ever before, and they have more money than ever before. Huge houses... 15-car garages... yachts like small ships... cars that cost US$1 million... all these are becoming commonplace... unremarkable...

In a little over 20 years — according to a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities — the after-tax income of America's wealthiest 1% has shot up 115%. The income of the top 20% has also grown, by 43%.

If you're not rich, though, things don't look so good. The income for middle-class households has only risen about 8% in the last 22 years. (And this in a time when most households now have two wage earners putting money in the pot.)

And that's what puzzles me as I pass those new tract mansions and strip malls: How do people pay for it all? How can an area that was already plastered with supermarkets and discount stores support a dozen new ones every six months?

After all, there must be some limit on how many sets of plastic storage boxes any one house can hold.

If you've ever run a business, you will have come face to face with that one pivotal insight: It is incredibly hard to earn a dollar. No matter what business you're in, once you've reconciled the gross receipts with your direct and indirect cost... taxes... salaries... benefits... rents... insurance, you sooner or later realize that eking out a profit of five, ten or fifteen percent is an ongoing struggle that never, ever lets up.

It's no different with Internet business. Because when everything's said and done, and the last dollar has been spirited out of the pockets of enthusiastic novice investors, each Internet business still faces the same challenge as their brick-and-mortar competitors: They have to sell something. At a profit.

And that's not quite as easy as it seems. For one, while the number of pimply-faced youngsters cruising for free porn and bootlegged grunge music from Napster.com may be well-nigh unlimited, there's just not enough prime customers surfing the web, willing to buy high-ticket items on impulse.

In fact, some of the most highly touted websites are having difficulty delivering the advertising impressions they guaranteed to banner buyers. Across the industry, Internet advertisers are hard put to break even on their efforts.

Taipan's philosophy is to ride profitable trends to the max... without losing sight of the cyclical forces that, from the beginning, contain the seeds of any boom's implosion.

For this year, James Passin's counter-cyclical picks have already yielded an average of about 40% gains for Taipan members... even Hurricane, his Kazakh oil play — long given up for dead — is back among the living.

For the dog days of summer, we have again compiled an issue full of great ways to stay high and dry as markets get bogged down.

But no matter what the summer may bring, rest assured that we'll keep you updated on the latest trends, both on this website, and on our new content portal at www.247profits com.

Good hunting!

J. Christoph Amberger
Publisher, Taipan

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