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Profit Perspectives 2000 and Beyond
As I am writing this, there are about 50 days left in 1999. And what a year it's been again.
The U.S. Air Force depleted its spare parts and maintenance inventory in a months-long bombardment of Serbia... leaving Bad Guy Milosevich--much like his brother-in-crime Saddam Hussein -- right where he's most comfortable...
Apple came back from the dead, putting a trendy-colored iMac on every trendy desktop -- upsetting and then upselling those of us who still care for a floppy drive...
Turkey and Taiwan were devastated by powerful earthquakes... (where are those Taylor shock absorbers for buildings when you need them...)
PokÈmon is teaching every red-blooded American kid between kindergarten and sixth grade how to deal, swap, trade--and if necessary cheat, lie, and bribe his classmates to get at the holographic Charizard...
...and Russia is picking up in the Caucasus what the Czarist imperialists couldn't finish a century ago. (Given that the last round of "Beat-up-the-Russkis" in Chechnya and Dagestan propelled a man like Joe Stalin from a Caucasian provincial to an international terrorist, it should be interesting who emerges from this latest round...)
And the Internet now officially has more e-commerce than porn sites...
In short:
Welcome to the Information Age. A boon to many... tragedy to many more.
Let's take a quick look at what's going on...
Booming...
A lot of people are getting rich, and getting rich faster. And the rich are getting richer. 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 the United States, still the richest of countries, the wealthy are doing quite well. 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%.
Barely treading water
But if you're not rich things don't look so good. The income for middle-class households has only risen about 8% in the last 22 years. (And this is while most households have become two-wage-earner households.)
If you're reading this, odds are you're in this category. Or perhaps, in the category of the already rich. If you are, there's good news. Despite the trends, there are more opportunities now than ever before to get rich -- or richer. More on this in a minute...
Sinking
Now, here's the bad news. And it's not just for Americans.
In that same time period, the income for the poorest 20% of Americans has dropped -- almost 10%. Global competition and an increasingly technology-driven economy have lessened the demand and the rewards for poorly educated or unskilled workers.
Worldwide, it's a disaster. Take a look at the chart...
 As you can see, the division between the richest countries and the poorest countries is becoming huge. According to the latest figures, almost 30% of the world's population (1.3 billion people) lives on less than US$1 a day! Estimates are that this year that number will rise to 1.5 billion, and could be 1.8 billion by 2015.
What's more, over half the world's population -- 3 billion people -- live on less than US$2 a day.
Technology and the information age are driving the wedge deeper and deeper. The gap between the rich and the poor will grow -- faster and faster -- as the Information Age brings unbelievable wealth and prosperity to some, and grinding, hopeless poverty to others.
Edens and wastelands. The question is:
Where will you be in this picture?
The good news is that it's completely your choice where you end up. It's easier than ever before to make money. A modest investment in the right company can yield a fortune in a few years. A few good investments, and there's no telling how much money you could amass.
The key? Information. Knowledge of what companies are likely to become the stellar performers of the next few years.
Granted -- it's not simple knowledge. Gaining it can take a lot of work... and some very smart people going after it. But if you have access to such a group, your chances of success grow remarkably.
Let me introduce myself. My name is J. Christoph Amberger, and I consider myself very fortunate to be involved with just such a group.
The group is called Taipan. Over the 11 years I've been associated with the Taipan Group, we've built a vast network of investment researchers and contacts. Everyone from scientists to inventors... demographers... meteorologists... genetic engineers... market analysts... lawyers... tax advisors... political analysts... finance ministers... and intelligence agents.
These people are all the cream of the crop in their fields. I'm not talking about pencil-pushing geeks. (Although some of our computer and technology geniuses are a trifle nerdy.) I'm talking about men and women who are dead serious about their niche in the world. People who have dedicated their lives to learning more than the rest -- and beating the trends.
Because that's how real knowledge is gained. And that's how real profits are made. That's how you get in when you should be getting in -- long before the media coverage begins and the crowd of armchair investors and institutions begin to swarm.
They're the ones who push the stock values through the roof. You want to be there first.
And what we say is sometimes unpopular. We don't care. We're not here to please anyone. And we particularly don't care about being politically correct. We care about facts. We care about opportunities. We care about how to interpret the facts in the context of the opportunity. And we care about our future.
Sometimes we're wrong about things... a company we had pegged to be a stellar performer dies, fizzles, or barely breaks even.
But with astounding frequency, the members of the Taipan Group team are dead on the money. (And every year, we give you an item-by-item breakdown of our recommendations for the calendar year. For Calendar Year 1999, we'll have all numbers in just in time for the February 2000 issue.)
But first, let me tell you a little more about what we see happening in the world -- particularly in the world of investing -- and why it's going to be more important than ever to have the absolute best information you can have.
Please read on...
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