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SugarHouse Online Casino NJ is the most recent NJ online casino to join the herd, only getting its start in September 2016. It is owned and operated by Rush Street Gaming and the Pennsylvania-based SugarHouse Casino. However, it is the third online casino to join the Golden Nugget online gambling license along with Betfair Casino and Golden Nugget Casino itself.
SugarHouse strives to differentiate itself from the crowd of other online casino websites. To do so, they opened their proverbial doors with a staggering 227 games varying from video poker, table games and even a free bingo game as a bonus. They've made sure to offer an excellent bonus wagering requirements, a very visually appealing and user-friendly website design and a round-the-clock live chat.
The SugarHouse tag line really can say it better than anyone–More Games. More Rewards More Fun– You Deserve More! They were challenged with stepping up to the plate and competing with the other more established online casinos in NJ. However, they delivered by providing a generous welcome package and some amazingly, entertaining games.
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Variable Free Money Bonus
SugarHouse Online Casino NJ is unique compared to other New Jersey casinos in that it offers a variable no deposit bonus. To get this bonus, players have to begin by registering on SugarHouse NJ and verifying their email. Once done, you'll be taken to the "Prize Wheel" screen where you get one free spin. Depending on what you land on, you'll receive a minimum of $10 and a maximum of $20.
Although this might be low compared to other NJ casino's bonuses, what makes it stand out is that SugarHouse Online Casino NJ only requires you to wager the free money once before you'll be able to convert it to cash and be withdrawn. Keep in mind that you must make this wager on a video poker or slot game.
100 Percent Match Deposit
Use our bonus code 100MATCH with your first deposit to receive a 100 percent match of up to $100. If you're not sure you want to take up this match offer, then don't worry, you have 14 days to make your first deposit and receive the match bonus. Similar to the free money bonus, you are only required to wager it once before you can withdraw it. It must also be played on a video poker or slot game. You have the option to either activate the bonus right away to play with it or you can also bank it and safe it for later. Keep in mind that it will expire within 30 days of not using it.
How to Retrieve Sugarhouse Online Casino New Jersey Bonus
- Head to SugarHouse Online Casino NJ
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What We Loved About SugarHouse Online Casino NJ New Jersey Casino
- SugarHouse NJ is a favorite casino in Pennsylvania for good reason and they made sure to transfer all of their best qualities over to their New Jersey arm.
- There are plenty of promotions throughout the month to reward players that visit the site regularly.
- SugarHouse NJ Online Casino has snagged quite a few exclusive games from Konami, one of the best developers in the business.
- The low wagering requirements on the free money bonus make cashing out the bonus very easy.
- You can rest easy knowing that playing on SugarHouse is incredibly safe as it is licensed and regulated by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE)
- The fact that it is licensed under the Golden Nugget ensures that it is held to the same level of integrity and quality.
Advantages of Playing on SugarHouse NJ Online Casino
SugarHouse's selection of games is very competitive in New Jersey as you'll find many of your favorite classics, as well as a few new ones. Additionally, the mobile app is seen as one of the best on the market. This is especially with the advantaged filtering options that allow you to filter through games to find ones that fit your exact preferences.
Another key advantage of playing on SugarHouse NJ Online Casino is that the bonus terms and conditions are simply laid out before you. Including their unmatched wagering requirements that cannot be beat by any New Jersey competitors.
Sugarhouse NJ Online Casino Website
Sugarhouse Online Casino uses software designed by Rush Street Interactive, a branch of Rush Street Gaming–The owner of Sugarhouse Casino's land-based casino in Philadelphia. You can rest assured that Rush Street created a beautifully designed website. You'll find it to be very responsive and smooth running and you can play Sugarhouse NJ Online Casino's full version on most types of browsers.
Games Offered on SugarHouse Online Casino NJ
Slot Games
SugarHouse NJ has a wide selections of slot games–342 in fact. You'll find such hits as Golden Goddess, Wheel of Fortune and Cleopatra designed by IGT, as well as the classics from Konami, WMS, NextGen, Spin Games and Bally Games.
Slot bet minimums range from $0.01 to $250 for a single spin. Those that are on a budget will be pleased to find that most slots in fact cost less than $0.50.
Video Poker
Thanks to Spin Games and IGT there are four Video Poker titles, which is a little slim, but SugarGames Online Casino NJ ensures that they are of the highest quality:
- Jacks or Better
- Double Double Bonus Poker
- Five Play Draw Poker
- Double Bonus Poker
- Triple Play Draw Poker
- Bonus Poker
There are five roulette tables available on SugarHouse NJ Online Casino. One unique table is the three-wheeled roulette.
You have quite a few options when it comes to blackjack including single-deck blackjack, optional side-bets, multi-bet blackjack and of course simple, but classic stand-alone blackjack.
SugarHouse Online Casino New Jersey History & Successes
SugarHouse's brick and mortar casino got its start in 2006 when it became only one out of five casinos that were given a gaming license with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. It is located on a 22-acre site that used to be the Jack Frost Sugar Refinery in Philidelphia, which is where the name "SugarHouse" has its origins. In September 2016, SugarHouse Online Casino was started and became regulated under the state of New Jersey through the DGE. Although SugarHouse NJ Online Casino is still one of the youngest player in the New Jersey Online Casino Industry, it gives its players an immersive casino experiences.
Is SugarHouse NJ Casino Legal in New Jersey?
SugarHouse NJ is both fully licensed and legal within the state of New Jersey. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement is the one that oversees and regulates not only SugarHouse NJ, but all legal online casinos within New Jersey to make sure all players are safe and enjoying fair play. The New Jersey state law declares that players must be 21 years old to play online casino games in New Jersey for real money. It is also required that players must be within the state lines of New Jersey to access the real money games. To ensure that players are following the rules, SugarHouse uses geolocation to ensure that they are within state lines. If you do not reside within New Jersey, then you are still able to play online social casino games for fun anywhere in the country.
The NJDGE also seeks to ensure that New Jersey online casino players wager their money responsibly. New Jersey has put a law in place that ensures that all online casinos within the state must let players set limits on their deposit amounts and the amount of times they can deposit within a certain time period. To set your limits, simply head to "Set Limits" in your My Account tab.
SugarHouse Online Casino NJ Mobile Apps
SugarHouse Mobile app can be downloaded from both the Android and iOS store. It' mobile game variety is one of the things that makes SugarHouse stand out as it has more than 140 games available. This far exceeds most of SugarHouse NJ's competition making it a lead contender if you mostly enjoy playing online casino games on your mobile device. You'll find that all of the games run extremely smoothly with very fast loading times, making the gaming experience extremely enjoyable.
SugarHouse Online Casino NJ Loyalty Program
Many expert players believe it is the online casino's loyalty program that is the be all and end all of its success. Well, PlaySugarHouse.com follows its theme of providing more bang for player's buck. Their loyalty program is based on tiers and gives players an incentive to earn points through playing to get a chance to attain higher tiers. The more points that players earn the more chances they get to spin a prize wheel. The bonus money and rewards that can be obtained from these spins changes with the level of tier that a player is at.
A great aspect of SugarHouse's Loyalty Program is that you'll always know where you stand with a progress bar that lets players keep track of their progress within the tiers. At tier 7, you'll also unlock a VIP promotion calendar that holds exclusive bonuses and perks.
Banking on SugarHouse NJ Online Casino
Depositing and withdrawing on SugarHouse NJ is extremely easy and safe to do. It gives you plenty of options for both and uses the highest level of security possible with a 128 bit level encryption to make sure that your banking information is safe.
Depositing on SugarHouse Online Casino NJ
Depositing on SugarHouse NJ Online Casino couldn't be easier. There is a range of ways for transferring money into your account. Keep in mind that the minimum deposit is $10.
Here are the ways that you can deposit money:
- Visa, MasterCards and other credit cards
- Max $1000
- ACH/eCheck
- Max varies
- Neteller
- Max $2500
- Wire Transfer
- Max $50000
- Sugarhouse Prepaid Card
- Max $10000
- Online bill pay
- Max $500
- PayNearMe
- Max $500
Withdrawals on SugarHouse Casino Online NJ
To withdraw money you also have a range of options. Withdrawals typically take 2-3 days to be released. There are a number of ways you can do so, including:
- Neteller
- Cashout at Golden Nugget
- ACH/eCheck
- Sugarhouse Prepaid Card
- Check by mail
SugarHouse Online Casino NJ Customer Support
SugarHouse NJ Online Casino has a comprehensive Help Center that has an answer to any concern or question that you have. Make sure that you read through the FAQ, because it is likely that the solution to any issue you're having can be found there. However, if not then there is also a Live Help chat center. You can also email or call support. The toll-free number is (855) 752-9101.
SugarHouse is a unique in that it offers a welcome package unlike any other. Although the bonus itself is smaller than most other online casinos in New Jersey, it is set apart by the fact that it's wagering requirement is only set at 1x. This means it's as close to a 100 percent cashback deal as any other online casino in New Jersey has gotten. Although it is the new kid on the block, its gaming selection, promotional offers and user interface are not lacking, making it worth your time to try out.
The Review
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Welcome Offer 90%
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Support 90%
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Monday August 19, 2019
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IRS Top Tax Scams
Each year the IRS publishes the "Dirty Dozen" tax scams. The IRS notes, "Taxpayers should be on the lookout for tax scams using the IRS name. These schemes jump every year at tax time. Scams can be sophisticated and take many different forms. We urge people to protect themselves and use caution when viewing emails, receiving telephone calls or getting advice on tax issues."
The top four tax scams this year are identity theft, phone fraud, fake websites and "free money" refunds.
Published January 4, 2019
Previous Articles
Preparing for Filing Your 2018 Tax Returns
IRS Publishes 2019 Business, Moving, Medical and Charitable Mileage Rates
Required IRA Distributions by December 31
Protect Your Identity During the Holidays
IRS Reminds Employers and Business Owners of Upcoming Filing Deadline


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I am a modern languages teacher of many years' experience and was a deputy headteacher for 14 years. My career has been full of fun and success in the classroom. I took pleasure in developing many young teachers and supported the implementation of new and effective initiatives in the schools that I worked in. Then, for family reasons, I moved away from Scotland, back to England.
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We are delighted to welcome Samantha Brinkhuis to our IPMT practice today, 1 August. Based in Amsterdam, she joins us from De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. With extensive experience in both contentious and non-contentious matters, Samantha primarily assists clients with trademark, copyright and unfair competition matters. Her practice also covers trade secrets, media and entertainment law,
Tag Archives: IP transactions
M&A 2018 in Review and 2019 Outlook: IP in the mix
Around the globe and across a wide variety of industry sectors, our IP practice collaborated with our corporate and other practice areas of our firm to provide integrated legal services for our clients and friends on exciting, challenging, and innovative M&A transactions, and shared many successes throughout 2018. Once again, your transactions propelled Hogan Lovells to top
Real Estate Horizons: The Power of the Brand
Real Estate Horizons is a snapshot of key legal topics and market trends across the globe. This post higlights the importance of IP rights in this sector. With property developments increasingly focusing on experience and becoming "destinations" or lifestyle brands in their own right, branding has become an essential element of the development process. Therefore,
Monetizing IP in your M&A transactions: Hong Kong-Shanghai-Beijing seminars
Our international tax, corporate and intellectual property partners will hold seminars in Hong Kong (3 Sept.), Shanghai (4 Sept.) and Beijing (5 Sept.), with lively discussion on the monetization of your intellectual property (IP) in the context of M&A transactions. While IP makes up a high percentage of Enterprise Value (if not the majority in some industries!), it
Two steps forward and a look back – Global IP Outlook 2018
2017 was a year of widespread political, technological and legal changes; leading to lack of certainty and creating both challenges and opportunities for businesses in 2018 and beyond. We're here to help: we have published our second annual Global IP Outlook. The Outlook reflects on some of the major developments in intellectual property law and
Interview: Emerging issues in the connected cars and autonomous vehicles market are influencing SEPs and IP transactions
In this hoganlovells.com interview, partner Celine Crowson addresses the relationship between standard-essential patents (SEPs) and the connectivity technologies used in connected and autonomous vehicles (AVs). She discusses the increased exposure of automotive manufacturers and suppliers to litigation from patent aggressors, how new autonomous vehicle technologies influence intellectual property transactions, and challenges involved in setting telecom-related
Hogan Lovells strengthens global M&A and technology transactions practice with market-leading Northern California team of Climan, Flaum, Ross, and Brockland
We are delighted to welcome market-leading M&A partners Richard Climan, Keith Flaum, and Jane Ross, and IP and Technology Transactions partner John Brockland, who have joined Hogan Lovells. John Brockland focuses on strategic and commercial transactions involving the development, transfer, and licensing of technology and intellectual property assets. He has represented companies in a variety of
Asia IP Webinar Series, 25 April – Trademarks: Everything you always wanted to know about but were afraid to ask
Asia IP Webinar series: We are running a series of webinars in 2017 to help you stay up to date with Intellectual Property news and developments in the Asia Pacific region. Covering a variety of topics of interest, we will be kicking off our series this month with a look at the world of Trademarks.
IP in the mix: M&A Year in Review, 2016
Around the globe and across a wide variety of industry sectors, our IP practice collaborated with our corporate and other practice areas of our firm to provide integrated legal services for our clients and friends on exciting, challenging, and innovative M&A transactions, and shared many successes throughout 2016. We are grateful that these transactions propelled us as a
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We've recently released our Global bribery and corruption review — a guide to developments in anti-bribery and corruption regulation and enforcement. In it we review events, examine trends, draw on our work with clients, and project what might happen in 2017. The review looks at a number of regions, including the United States, United Kingdom,
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Industry sources estimate that more than $4 billion worth of deals in digital health have been signed globally this year so far, as pharmaceutical manufacturers look for "beyond the pill" solutions to medical problems, health care providers seek more efficient means to monitor their patients' wellbeing, and technology companies aim to commercialize their products and
US/Asia: Shih Hsin International Academic Symposium – US IP Law Practical Trends & Internet of Things
On 12 April 2016 speakers from our US and China IP practice will co-host the Shih Hsin International Academic Symposium which marks the 60th anniversary of the Shih Hsin University, Taiwan and the 20th anniversary of its Law School. HL attorneys and local law professors will provide a full-day seminar centred on recent developments in


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A few weeks ago i started to tackle the remaining big tasks associated with having this baby-- finding a pediatrician, attending childbirth classes and locating childcare. Finding a pediatirican was the first thing i really tackled. Current wisdom is that you should interview your pediatrician before your baby is born so that you have "chosen" your child's care provider.
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The next practice was also relatively close so i gave them a call and was able to schedule an appointment. The practice is just one pediatrician and his physician assistant. When it came time for my appointment i did internet research on what i was supposed to ask and consider when making my choice.
The appointment consisted of me mainly talking with the P.A. and reviewing a whole packet of information they had. The majority of my questions which focused on things like office hours, procedures, availability etc. and were answered by the P.A. Then it came time for me to meet the Doctor.
Basically the point of meeting the Doctor is to sniff him out. But it seems you can't just chat with him and make your decision; you have to ask pointed questions. The only questions i could find were things like "what's your approach to breast-feeding" and "how often do you prescribe antibiotics." The second question actually provoked a good response but to the first the doctor jokingly replied "Breastfeeding is evel, I only support formula-feeding." He then went on to tell me that he had been a la leche league educator going back 15 years so i think he's fairly knowledgeable.
I liked the P.A. a lot and the practice seemed very efficient and the Doctor appeared to really like kids but also be good at keeping things on track. So, he became our Doctor. It was just a difficult process to go through since we don't even have our baby yet, let alone really know what medical care he'll require.


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Good morning, campers! <–I've had waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much coffee this morning; this is why I'm not allowed to have it often.
Before I head on out to the ARTgarage for the day, I wanted to say hi to all the new subscribers! *waves*
much, and even if I did, it seems like y'all are quite the plane-ride away.
If you have questions about me; my art; Life, the Universe, and Everything; or something else, just ask.


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EPT Sochi
Festival Dates: March 20-29, 2019
Key Dates & Tournament Schedule
The full schedule, along with tournament structures, can be found here.
- EPT NL Hold'em National - Unlimited Re-Entries: March 21-24 - RUB 66,000
- EPT NL Hold'em Main Event - Single Entry Per Starting Day: March 24-29 - RUB 191,800 - ***RUB 150,000,000 guaranteed***
- EPT NL Hold'em High Roller – Single Re-Entry: March 27-29 – RUB 371,000
Please Note: All buy-in amounts are based on Casino Unit (CU) rate which is valued at 70 Rubles per CU.
The Main Event will be streamed online from March 26-29 in English and Russian.
As well as exciting action at the tables, all attendees can benefit from the following:
- Quick and easy dedicated Russian visa service – click here
- Free players' merchandise for all Main Event players
- The chance to meet Team PokerStars Pros
- Wide range of tourist activities (including night skiing and snowboarding – equipment is available to hire if you don't have your own)
- Bowling Competition with free soft drinks and snacks on March 26, from 10PM to 1AM local time
- 'Doctor Frankenstein' Escape Room activity. Book your time slot at the Welcome Desk
- Player Party with Elena Temnikova! Live Band Show starts at 11PM on March 23, with open bar from EPT players from 10PM
To view full details of how to buy-in to any tournament click here.
The license holder and operator of this event is Casino Sochi.
Casino Sochi
51 Estonskaya street, Estosadok Village, Sochi, Krasnodar region, Russian Federation
Dress code: Casual, but no sportswear.
Minimum age: 18 years+
NB: Must bring a valid government issued passport or ID to participate.
Important Visa Information
Please Note: To enter the Russian Federation you will need a visa if there is no international treaty between the Russian Federation and your country establishing a visa-free regime.
View the list of countries where a visa for Russia is not required here.
Feel free to email us should you require any help to obtain your visa - email@example.com.
Need a visa for Russia? Click here for a dedicated visa service for Russia – it's quick and easy to apply.
Travel & Accommodation
PokerStars Travel offers a wide range of accommodation options, including discounted rates, specifically for PokerStars players. PokerStars Qualifiers will automatically receive information within 7 days of winning a satellite detailing how to use their ticket or winner's package.
For accommodation information please visit PokerStars Travel. If you have any questions about accommodation contact PokerStars Travel or call +34 93 325 6777.
Sochi International Airport is among the ten largest airports in Russia. Regular flights from Moscow arrive in daily; with a flight time of approximately two hours. Most major cities in Russia also serve Sochi. Transfers from the Airport to Casino will take about 30 minutes.
Flight to Russia and Moscow are available from almost all major international airports.
Cash Games
Cash Game sign up is Cash Game area sign-up desk. Speak with our staff if you have any questions at the event.
Please Note: All Cash Games will be played in Casino Units (CU).
Cash Game opening hours: 24/7
Other games available on request.
All cash games at EPT Sochi are organized, run and staffed by Casino Sochi. Please speak with Casino Sochi staff for cash game rules.


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I'll be honest, I got a little more excited than I should have to see this. When I found out that Kris had updated his Western106 Buzzfeed quiz, I immediately went in search of Danny to see if he made the cut. And he did! It took me no time to answer the questions as Danny might have to find him (first try!) and this final blurb on my character made me grin like crazy.
Kris, thank you for making this quiz! I can tell you really did your research, and it brightens my day to see that you've put so much effort into finding stuff on everyone's character and reading into each personality. And to everyone else, make sure you take the quiz yourself! It's very well done, so find who you're most like, and maybe try to find your character, too! I was most like Bonnie Sue, myself.
Thanks again to Kris for making this happen!


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The app that makes you fluent in Beijing addresses
Beijing Taxi Translator
What is it about?
The app that makes you fluent in Beijing addresses!
App Screenshots
App Store Description
The app that makes you fluent in Beijing addresses!
Taking a taxi in Beijing can be quite a hassle. Most taxi drivers don't speak English. Or to rephrase that, the majority of tourists and foreigners in the city do not know any Mandarin.
The Beijing Taxi Translator solves this problem. With over 1000 streets, hundreds of buildings and hotels and hundreds of other destinations the app will make anyone fluent in Beijing addresses.
And best of all – it works off line!
Create unique Taxi Cards for millions of destinations.
Let us say that you are going to 72 HongLian Road, and your attempts to pronounce the name doesn't impress your driver. Open the app, search for the street, add the street number or a crossing and in a matter of seconds you can display a Taxi Card with the address in Simplified Chinese and Pinyin.
If it is an address you visit frequently you can name it and save it to favorites and you can share it by SMS or e-mail. Should you be missing something you can add your own content and suggest it for the next update.
The material is sorted in the following categories. The whole database can be searched from the start screen.
* Streets
* Sightseeing
* Buildings & Landmarks
* Hospitals
* Transport
* International Schools
* Recreation
* Hotels
* Shopping
* Embassies & Business
* Residential
* All addresses in Simplified Chinese and pinyin.
* Works off line (Accept for the map function)
* Add street numbers or create Taxi Cards for crossings.
* Add your own content.
* Find destinations on map when online.
Who uses this app?
Expats, tourists, and anyone in Beijing that doesn't speak Mandarin or read Chinese.
AppAdvice does not own this application and only provides images and links contained in the iTunes Search API, to help our users find the best apps to download. If you are the developer of this app and would like your information removed, please send a request to [email protected] and your information will be removed.


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How to Discover Excellent Diamond Insurance
When thinking about how to locate great diamond insurance for your precious diamond jewellery, there are a few items you require to know about diamond insurance policies, and what they cover and never cover. It is a specialized sort of insurance coverage, and your insurance coverage agent may possibly not have all the information he or she requirements to craft a appropriate policy for you, so it's up to you to come armed with all the particulars you happen to be concerned about.
There are fundamentally 3 sorts of diamond insurance accessible, and these are Actual Cash Value, Replacement Value, and Agreed Worth. Actual Funds Worth signifies that your diamond will be insured at today's real market place rate for the diamond, irrespective of what you paid for it. Substitute Value means that the insurance company will pay up to a specific volume to replace the diamond. They might truly pay lees than the policy states, as they can frequently get a better substitute deal than you can. Agreed Worth is merely that you and the insurance company come to an agreement on the value of the diamond, and that is what they'll spend in the occasion of a reduction. This type is unusual, and if you can get it, jump on it! Most instances men and women are steered into Substitute Worth, but that should not be your first decision if you have 1. Try out for Agreed Worth, then Actual Funds Worth 1st.
Most diamond insurance polices are created as riders to your house owners or renters insurance. There is one much more significant thing to preserve in mind, especially as regards Substitute Value insurance coverage. Do not opt for the insurance coverage organizations appraiser when assessing the value of your diamonds. They operate for them, and you need to know that if they set the value of your diamonds at $15,000 and right after a reduction they uncover they can change the diamonds for $5000, which is what they'll do. Why that is substantial is that all this time you may have been having to pay premiums primarily based on $15,000, not $5000. Massive variation. Usually insist on an independent appraiser.
Obtaining excellent diamond insurance isn't all that difficult, but like something else when it comes to any sort of insurance coverage, you are going to want to be armed with the details so you won't overpay, or uncover yourself underinsured.


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21. Best of 2017
January saw us gearing up for our 2 year trivia anniversary! Before 2018 gets away from us, tune in for a look back on our top horror films of 2017.
Mix yourself a Slaughtered Lamb and tune in as Matt and Cat discuss the movies of 2017 you should see if you haven't already! Find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Podcast Republic, and more.
Cocktail Concoction: The Slaughtered Lamb
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour in the following:
2oz Bourbon
.25oz Triple sec
.25oz Absinthe
1 dash Peychaud's bitters
Stir for 10 seconds and strain into a chilled martini glass
Garnish with lemon peel
Films discussed within the episode: Split, Get Out, The Blackcoat's Daughter, The Void, Life, Creep 2, The Shape of Water


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UPLEVELING + EVOLVING: Why Your Biz Direction Changes as YOU Change.. And How to Fucking Deal.
It's been a long ass time since I sat down and wrote from the heart.
Why? Well I've been writing captions, writing content like a mofo, doing all the things to sell my programs.. reach my ideal client.. speak to their soul.. ya know, all that good shit your biz coach tells you to do.
But as I was doing all that the last few months.. I barely stopped to look up and see what was happening before my own eyes. (Or maybe I just didn't want to see it.)
I was fucking changing. Evolving. Metamorphosis.. the butterfly coming out of the weird little cocoon that protected it.
That's what "fitness Christie" was for me.
For those of you who don't know much of my background, almost exactly 1 year ago, I quit my 9-5 and almost immediately won a big-name fitness spokesmodel contest.. which launched my following in the fitness world and made me a fitness influencer literally overnight.
That cocoon was safe. It was easy. I got instant recognition and authority because I was affiliated with this company. And I did what was easy and seemed like the smartest thing at the time: capitalize on my instant fame, and my passion for fitness, and become a fitness coach (because I had set out to start a coaching business when I quit my 9-5.. without much of a plan mind you.)
But I was confused as fuck honestly. I had no idea what I was doing, and just thought that running an online business was as simple and easy as slapping some services on a website and calling it a day. I didn't know shit about sales, marketing, creating a community, writing bomb ass content that made people wanna buy and drool all over themselves.
I also thought having sponsors was the answer to everything. So false. It barely paid. And if ANYTHING, I was GIVING AWAY valuable advertising space by posting for them when I could have been posting my OWN shit and making money selling MY stuff, instead of somebody's tub of supplements. Ugh.
This was all super unfortunate for me because I was running out of savings, and I had quit my job.
At the same time, I felt this immense pressure to 'prove myself' and struggled with how to make myself 'more legit' in the fitness world (in my eyes this was going to solve my problems of not being able to close clients).
So I thought hey, you should be a bikini competition coach since you are really good at that shit.
I hated bikini competition coaching. I didn't want my business to depend on something that took away from people more than it gave. And plus, I realized that I couldn't run a business if I had zero brain cells from dieting (by this point I figured out how much WORK running an online biz actually is.)
I decided to stop competing and to become a fitness coach for people who just wanted to get fit for life.
Realized I was bored as fuck, felt SO MUCH RESISTANCE. Knew that I needed some god damn business skills. Invested in a business coach and literally fell in love on the spot with online business. I could not shut the fuck up about it.
I had also done a lot of research on high ticket selling, and taken a course on sales by this point. I got my first high ticket fitness coaching client, only to FINALLY have the realization that I actually hated fitness coaching. (Great timing, Christie!)
By this point I had already started my Facebook group as a creative outlet for me to talk about business coaching, but was literally shit-my-pants afraid to actually offer services. Despite the fact that I had been providing SO MUCH AMAZING VALUE and content out the wazoo for a month already. Back then, it was called Fearless Fitpreneurs ... and finally, after two weeks of soaking in my bathtub and praying to Jesus for the answers, it came to me.
Be scared and just fucking do it anyways.
I announced the shift in my biz / social media direction, and honestly, it got so much amazing traction that it blew me away. I also nabbed my first 1:1 coaching client at a cool $4,500. Which proved to me that my feel-good policy of give a shit ton of value to other people and help them, and in return they'll trust you and wanna buy from you, worked. Hallelujah!
Btw, totally had no testimonials except my own business at that time. I had just helped this guy so much by him implementing my suggestions, that he was ready to pay whatever I asked. I was fucking thrilled, but also quite naive at that time. I thought that the HARDER I worked, the more likely it would be that new clients would come to me. So:
I wrote content like a fucking machine on every online business topic I could think of.
I was stressed out, burnt out, and for no reason at all. Just because I thought doing more shit every day meant a better likelihood of clients finding me.
As a last-ditch attempt to cure my stress and get away from the pressure of it all, I booked a trip to Bali, where I spent the month of October.
I knew shit couldn't go on like it was, so I gave myself permission to earn nothing that month and just enjoy myself and only do things I enjoyed, like writing, going to the beach, and drinking mojitos.
Apparently, the realization at this level was that doing LESS and actually enjoying the fuck out of life is the best marketing strategy. I got on 10 sales calls and closed 2 at $5k for my 1:1 program.
It was revolutionary.
When I got back, I was in a horrible business funk. I thought I'd have this great epiphany, but honestly I felt more confused than ever. I wondered how I'd ever top $10k. I felt in my bones that there was yet ANOTHER FUCKING SHIFT about to happen (and in my head I'm going "Seriously, Christie, why do you have to change things up AGAIN!?). But I had no clue what it was.
That month I invested in a 1:1 coach at a cool $20k and didn't even shit my pants. I just knew that I needed to, and that this coach would help me see what I couldn't, and push me to do the scary shit.
Which she did.
I opened my FB group up to all types of online coaches / service providers, and changed the name to Find Your Fearless. It felt fucking relieving to not have the 'fitness' label stuck on me anymore. To be able to finally do what I had known I wanted to do SINCE I WAS IN MY 9-5 JOB.. which was to be an online biz coach that helped people leave THEIR shitty 9-5s and make a shit ton of money.
Ahhh, money.
At this point, I was no longer posting about fitness shit on my Instagram. I was posting about things like money mindset, and high value/high ticket coaching, and honestly UNFILTERING. I stopped giving fucks what people would think.
It brought me the most amazing community/clients who loved what I wrote.
And it brought me a fuck ton of trolls from my fitness following who had a very narrow, shallow mindset on the subject of money and online business. It was another signal that it was time to move on from fitness.. but it was so hard for me to let go.
Oh, and the other upleveled thing that happened? I decided within the span of 1 day to ACT on launching the course I thought I had to wait 2 months to launch, my Fearless Business Mastermind, for people who wanted to start their dream of their online coaching business but had no fucking clue how to start / were too afraid.
November? $15k month. Thank God I had decided to do the scary shit anyways.
Sold more spots in the Mastermind. Learned that I could actually just raise my prices as soon as I felt it was time / I was upleveling, and therefore my potential client levels were upleveling too. Raised my 1:1 from $5k to $10k and signed my first $10k client within 2 days.
And.. the finale.
I finally broke up with "fitness Christie" ... leaving the sponsor who had defined my business and honestly, my LIFE for the first year as an entrepreneur.
To be really honest, it felt like a breakup with the old me. And with the sponsor.. it was like a breakup with an old boyfriend who was amazing, who you loved, but who you knew you'd outgrown and just felt obligated to. An old boyfriend who you'd developed your entire life and identity around. And all of a sudden, you're left to figure out who you are on your own.
Breakups are hard. They make you think about who you truly are. Who you're going to become. Like jesus, what's scarier than that question: "WHO ARE YOU?"
But the truth is as entrepreneurs.. we're shifting SO FREQUENTLY that we absolutely HAVE to ask ourselves this question. Because if we DON'T.. we risk moving out of alignment with our true purpose.
AKA if I had decided to continue forcing myself to be a fitness coach/posting about fitness.. I NEVER would have explored and found my TRUE PASSION of online business and marketing.
And like yes, I never would have made a fuck ton of money in the first 3/4 months.. but I also wouldn't have the fucking incredible opportunity to CHANGE MY CLIENT'S LIVES. To watch them get their first clients at $2100. To quit their jobs. To uplevel as HUMANS. To see their mindset on money and business and just LIFE shift into the stratosphere.
So ASK yourself the scary "who are you" question.
Because you're going to be upleveling and changing (especially if you're in your 20s).
Which means your BUSINESS will also be upleveling and changing. This is why it's SO incredibly important to stay in tune with your desires, what you feel drawn to/called to do, and to FOLLOW THAT without worrying about what people might think of that change.
And literally, every single shift that I listed above, as hard and scary as they were, resulted in the most incredible fucking results. Every single time.
SO EMBRACE THE UPLEVELING AND EVOLVING. Get ready for a fucking ride.


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He and She: Bedtime Buggy
He: "Good night, love." She: "I don't [ptui!] think so!" He: "What's the matter? Not sleepy?" She: "No! Because you haven't saved me yet! You're supposed to be my rescuer!" He: "And what am I supposed to be rescuing you … Continue reading
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As seen in the local flower shops and ice-cream stores, laydylike sheer pastels reign supreme this spring. They epitomize femininity and project the fresh romanticism of young love. Add a touch of flair to your nails thanks to these refreshing pastel nail colours for spring.View Post
The fashion world is not limited merely to the shops we find on our local streets and the images that can be found in popular fashion glossy magazines. Fashion is now a huge part of the television industry. In this article, we take a look at some of the most popular fashion shows out there....Continue reading


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Once upon a time . . . I decided to write about fictitious capital and the term 'extend and pretend'.
At a friend's NYE party he voiced confusion about the way capitalism values things. I replied that this meant he had a good grasp of the current situation. For those at the party concerned about their house prices, superannuation, pensions, investments, etc., our conversation wasn't very reassuring. They preferred the story where you work hard, save, invest and can rely on the system to reward you. Yet, like many, they worry this is a fading illusion. Nevertheless, what choice do they have, but to keep going and imagine things will be OK?
'Extend and pretend' has become a popular way to describe the current situation in Greece, where the nation's debts cannot be repaid, so their lenders extend loans, provide more loans, and pretend they'll get their money back later. This popular fiction is supposed to defer greater economic crisis and collapse, by putting off dealing with reality until sometime in the future. More generally 'extend and pretend' is the motto of 'late capitalism' in the face of a growing range of existential crises.
The 'extend and pretend' story of Greece is a tale of democracy. You know the one – people vote in elections, they're represented by politicians, and citizens get a say in government policies. Most likely, since you're reading this blog, you also understand there's a ruling class and corporate power is greater than that of any parliament. This was clearly demonstrated last year, when the hope and disappointment of the Syriza government revealed how state forms, elections, and popular votes can be subordinated to finance capital and 'market forces'.
A popular tale of capitalist institutions is that economic decision making is 'technical' or 'administrative', rather than political, as if class struggle wasn't at the heart of social history. In the 'birthplace of democracy', we saw how a nation's future rests on the country's credit rating and the demands of financial managers. The façade of democracy was exposed, as the impossibility of national governments deciding economic policies without the consent of 'the market' became clear.
Whose script . . ?
In 2008, the near-collapse of the global financial system was overcome through the conversion of bank debts into government debts and the implementation of austerity policies in many parts of the world. After being rescued with taxpayer's money, the banking bosses voted that financial discipline was now required from the governments and people who'd saved them. This tragedy saw Greece in the spotlight, as a series of austerity measures was enforced, so new loans could be provided to 'keep the country afloat', even though there's no way the mounting debts can ever be paid back. Austerity shrunk the Greek economy dramatically. Tens of thousands of businesses closed down. More than a million people lost their jobs and half of all young people are unemployed. Welfare benefits and government services have been slashed – poverty is widespread.
Last year, when Syriza won the national elections and formed a new anti-austerity government, it was made clear that their election wouldn't be allowed to interfere with the economic policies being prescribed by the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Instead they were commanded to execute further cuts – in order to get more loans, just to make the nation's debt repayments. Then, in a national referendum, Greek voters rejected austerity. But in a vicious plot twist the financial institutions forced the closer of Greek banks and created a more severe economic and social crisis. The government's resistance was broken and they agreed to deeper budget cuts, continued privatisation of government assets, more job losses, and an ongoing social disaster.
For many parts of the world this is a familiar story. When 'the market' decides that discipline is required, we witness the structural adjustment programs or 'shock therapy' prescriptions of the IMF, World Bank, ECB, etc. Again and again, people and governments are called on to demonstrate their subservience to capital, or face the consequences.
Fictitious capital
Like the fables of capitalist democracy, I have long found it annoying how those who write economic theory tell stories about 'fantasy scenarios' to explain the unreal worlds they describe. However, when we explore fictitious capital; 'all that is solid melts into air'. Fictitious capital includes credit, shares, bonds, speculation and various forms of money, whose value is based on imagined future earnings. Banks and other financial institutions sell these claims to future profits, generating and accumulating more fictitious capital. When banks loan out more money than they possess, they create fictitious capital. Most of the lending done by banks is to other banks and financial institutions, buying and selling fictitious capital to each other – making bets with each other about whether the price of this capital will rise or fall in the coming days. The narrative of this fiction is constructed by means of a balancing act performed by the most powerful governments and banks, as fictitious capital is continually invented as a symbol of confidence in the future of capitalism.
There's no clear distinction between capital which is 'real' and capital which is fictitious. As this becomes more widely understood, capitalism appears as precarious and crisis ridden to governments, banks, and corporate bosses as it does to us. Because people around the world have resisted paying for the current crises and have intensified their struggles against capital, the imagined gains from fictitious capital must be postponed for longer and longer and the promise of future profits must be renewed again and again. With little belief in the long-term viability of their accumulated wealth, capitalist gangs fight each other in destructive turf wars, intensifying the crises of capitalism and destroying the basis for continuing expansion and growth. As crisis intensifies, the main source of new capital is the continued fiction conjured up in the finance sector. Today, global trade in actual goods is only a tiny fraction of the trade in various forms of finance capital and the mass of fictitious capital circulating in the money markets, futures exchanges, and so on, is far greater than ever before. The market value of such capital is a creation of supply and demand factors which are manipulated for profit in a global story-telling contest. As fictitious capital has become the engine of production and capital accumulation, the whole system is increasingly precarious, reliant on continuing confidence in a concocted system, tottering from crisis to crisis.
Money talks . . . shit
There remains a popular fable that money has to be earned, even though the rich tend to be born with their wealth and/or steal it. The value of money is another fiction, fabricated by the world's central banks and commercial financial institutions. A central bank introduces new money into the economy by purchasing bank deposits, bonds or stocks or by lending money to other financial bodies. Commercial banks borrow money and then multiply this money by creating interest bearing loans (most of this money exists only as a book-keeping entry). These loans are then considered to be among the bank's assets. Since the GFC, China, USA, Britain, Japan and the Eurozone have created an estimated $12 trillion of money which didn't previously exist. This money may appear to offer a reliable measure of wealth, yet many of us are familiar with how the value of money can fall (like the Australian dollar) or totally disintegrate (e.g. in Germany during the 1920s or Zimbabwe in 2008 when the inflation rate was estimated at 231,000,000% – yes 231 million) and how access to your money can disappear overnight (e.g. in Argentina 2001, Iceland 2008, Cyprus 2013).
Last year, annual inflation in Venezuela hit over 140 percent. According to the country's Central Bank, the lion's share of this was caused by currency manipulation (deliberate attacks on the value of Venezuelan money) as part of an 'economic war' to bring down the country's socialist government. Currency manipulation and speculation, rigging and betting on the 'value' of money, is the largest market/scam in history, estimated at a couple of quadrillion dollars per year (that's two million billion dollars). As discussed below, the institutions dominating this multi-trillion-dollar-a-day trade are able to stage-manage the way they play with money as a form of sophisticated criminal theatre. Yet, in his latest book, Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism, Professor David Harvey sounds a warning about the growing destabilisation of money, arguing that; "The rise of cyber moneys, like Bitcoin, in some instances seemingly constructed for purposes of money-laundering around illegal activities, is just the beginning of an inexorable descent of the monetary system into chaos."
Harvey details a range of illegal activities that are crucial to capitalist appropriation, including robbery, cheating, and swindling, along with a range of 'shady practices' such as price fixing, Ponzi schemes, falsification of asset valuations, interest rate manipulation and money laundering, while arguing; "it is stupid to seek to understand the world of capital without engaging with the drug cartels, traffickers in arms and the various mafias and other criminal forms of organisation that play such a significant role in world trade." Yet, if we are to explore and try to understand the lawless underworld, we shouldn't neglect how the global finance industry is constructed by and for criminal activities, and what this could mean when considering the potential collapse of the monetary system.
My favourite TV show last year was the second season of Fargo. This fiction revolved around a criminal gang war in the 1970s, and its impact on two families and two communities. The final episode opens with a roll call of all the bodies that have piled up around Fargo and Dakota over the previous episodes. The big city crime 'Syndicate' has come out on top and their hitman, Mike Milligan, has seemingly made every correct step in advancing through the bloodshed. He avoids the slaughters and takes out those who stand in his way, but when he gets back to base, hoping to become the new territory's top dog, he's instead promoted to the accounting department. "This is the future," his crime boss tells him. "The sooner you realise there's only one business left in the world, the money business, just ones and zeroes, the better off you're gonna be."
There once lived some . . . banksters
Many people have a traditional view of banks – we deposit money, they loan money, and make investments. Yet, when we get angry about their fees, charges, and obscene profits, we often complain 'they're robbing us'. This criticism is fairly accurate – commercial banks are corporations that steal money. Their theft is part of the more widespread 'legal crimes' of robbery and exploitation at the core of capitalism. As well, banks and bankers are often involved in a whole range of illegal criminal undertakings.
From popular fiction we know Swiss banks have long been a favoured repository of capital from illicit activities. The role of these banks in laundering Nazi loot and their complicity with the holocaust is legendary. More recently, banks in so-called 'tax havens' or 'countries of financial secrecy', such as the Canary Islands or the Bahamas, are regularly reproached for hiding away ill-gotten gains. Some readers may also recall the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) which collapsed in the early 1990s. BCCI was the seventh largest private bank in the world and a nest of corruption, money laundering and other secretive activities. In a report on the bank's failure, John Kerry (at the time US Vice President and currently Secretary of State) explained; "BCCI's criminality included fraud by BCCI and BCCI customers involving billions of dollars; money laundering in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas; BCCI's bribery of officials in most of those locations; support of terrorism, arms trafficking, and the sale of nuclear technologies; management of prostitution; the commission and facilitation of income tax evasion, smuggling, and illegal immigration; illicit purchases of banks and real estate; and a panoply of financial crimes limited only by the imagination of its officers and customers."
A long, long, time ago . . .
The collapse of BCCI was much like the fall of Australia's legendary Nugan Hand bank in the 1970s. After this bank's collapse, a Royal Commission found it was involved in money laundering, illegal tax avoidance schemes, and widespread violations of banking laws. The bank was also implicated in drug smuggling, illegal weapons deals, and providing a front for the criminal activities of the US Central Intelligence Agency.
Before the GFC, the US Savings and Loans (S&Ls) crisis of the 1980s and 1990s was the greatest bank collapse (described by many as a 'robbery') since the Great Depression. By 1989, more than one thousand S&Ls had failed, effectively ending what had once been a secure source of home mortgages. Many S&Ls were engaged in criminal practices, fraud, false accounting, forgery, and dishonest conduct as deliberate commercial policy. In 1996, the US General Accounting Office estimated the total cost of the S&Ls collapse to taxpayers at more than $132 billion.
The regular exposure of bank criminality includes the recent guilty pleas by four major global banks to manipulating the foreign money exchange market. They joined three other major banks shown to be involved in the same crime. These charges stem from an agreement by the banks not to commit more offences, after the 'Libor scandal' of 2012, involving the fraudulent manipulation of interest rates by a whole range of prominent financial institutions. Meanwhile, those who've closely followed the GFC and its aftermath will appreciate that the above examples are just the tip of an unfathomable criminal-banking iceberg.
The GFC also made clear that corporate criminals usually have the power to avoid charges and convictions. While the myth of a fair legal system, where law enforcement ensures goodness prevails, still holds some currency – it's also commonly understood that the wealthy are protected and there's 'one law for them and another one for us'. The stories of 'equality before the law' and 'criminal justice' are now worn-out deceptions, evidenced by popular culture, where police, politicians, judges, and corporate bosses are regularly portrayed as crooked characters up to their necks in crime & corruption. Even though the poor are still more likely to be considered a 'criminal class', the fact that the most serious crimes are committed by the rich and powerful is increasingly understood. Yet, banksters don't go to prison; instead the cells are reserved for their victims.
A factory of broken dreams . . .
Since the GFC and global recession began, there's been a series of movies about the banking and finance industries (e.g. Wolf of Wall Street, Margin Call, Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps, The Big Short), often highlighting the crimes of banksters. In January, I went to see the latest of these – The Big Short, which is based on a 'true story' about the GFC.
Part of the film is set in a financial traders convention, appropriately held in Las Vegas, where the financial market is compared to a casino. Yet, what the movie could have made clearer was that for the major players, just like in a casino, 'the bank always wins' – for those deemed 'too big to fail' there was no serious risk of losing. These 'players' can gamble on almost anything, including betting on the failure of loans, the collapse of currencies, countries, other financial institutions, and even the bankruptcy of their own client's. Leading up to the GFC, major finance corporations like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase, created fraudulent pyramid schemes, sold them to investors, and bet they would fail.
I used to be a keen punter with some knowledge of how the gambling industry was used to swindle people and launder the proceeds of crime. So I based my selections on various theories about how racing was corrupt and the races rigged. Today, the revenue from the 'legal' gambling industry is estimated to be around $US500 billion per year. While illegal gambling turnover is believed to run into the trillions of dollars. Yet, this is nothing compared to the hundreds of trillions of dollars' worth of bets on various fictional accounts of the future and the assorted ways of measuring these fictions. Despite its weaknesses, The Big Short was disturbing, especially if you have a lot of money in a bank, financial institution, pension fund, etc., since it made a strong case that this money was all on the gambling table, and at any moment you could lose everything to the villains who run the game.
Another disturbing movie, from 2010, is the academy award winning documentary Inside Job. This film centres on the systemic corruption of the United States by the finance industry and what the filmmakers term the 'biggest bank heist in world history' – the theft of trillions of dollars, leading up to and during the GFC, by those in charge of the major financial institutions. As the film makes clear, this robbery was facilitated by a revolving door between the banks and the higher reaches of government, where bank/financial corporation CEOs become government officials, creating laws convenient for their past/future employers. To indicate how pervasive this revolving door is, we only need to consider the involvement of banking, securities and investment firm Goldman Sachs in the governments of USA, Nigeria, Egypt, Spain, Czech republic, Italy, Sweden, and the appointment of their directors as heads of the Bank of England, the Bank of Greece, and the European Central Bank. And let's not forget the current Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was previously the chair and managing director of Goldman Sachs Australia.
As Inside Job explores, during the GFC, the financial system froze up and it appeared the global economy may come to a halt, after investment banks Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns and Merrill Lynch all collapsed. Yet, after the 'biggest bank robbery in history', the commercial banking sector was bailed out of the situation they'd created with trillions of dollars of money from national governments. Then, those who'd profited most from the crisis were put in charge of reforming the finance industry 'to ensure a similar collapse didn't happen again'. The result was larger and more powerful financial corporations conducting 'business as usual'. Meanwhile many other businesses went broke, global stock markets dropped, and housing prices crashed, resulting in evictions, foreclosures and mass homelessness. Tens of millions of people lost their jobs and unemployment skyrocketed. Poverty rose and wealth was redistributed on a massive scale from workers/poor to the rich. Having bailed out the banks, governments around the world cut back expenditure, unleashed austerity programs, and normalised a prolonged crisis, which continues to this day.
Some readers may recall another popular documentary, from 2005, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, which gave some forewarning of the practices behind the GFC.
Enron was the seventh largest corporation in the US – buying and selling energy, running energy services and gambling on energy prices. Enron turned the energy industry into a casino, betting on the price of energy – while controlling the supply and creating a phoney energy crisis, involving rolling blackouts in California. For years, Enron always seemed to win – but this was a lie constructed using phoney accounting and falsified bank records/financial statements. The company's fictitious earnings allowed them to publish imaginary profits, in order to maintain optimism in the firm and sustain a rising share price, while losing billions and getting deeper into debt, until the whole house of cards came crashing down. The CEOs cashed out their stocks, while the price was still high, and made off with the loot. Billions in investor, government, pension, and retirement funds disappeared.
Leading financial institutions assisted Enron's deceptive practices, helping to design their fictions and profiting from them. Financial analysts at the time argued they didn't understand how Enron was making money – "you just had to have faith in it." When Enron went bankrupt (at that time the largest ever US corporate bankruptcy and widely described as the 'corporate crime of the century'), the same people who'd received generous offerings from the firm were expected to investigate the company for fraud. Nearly every US Senator and member of the House of Representatives involved in the committees investigating Enron's collapse, or the conduct of Enron's accounting firm, had received donations from one or both companies.
Who pays the piper . . . ?
At the centre of the GFC was a crisis of debt and value. As the financial system went into meltdown the experts of finance and economics were at a loss to explain or calculate the value of shares, money and assets. They repeatedly exclaimed that the crisis was 'too complex', that they 'lacked reliable data'; they didn't know what had happened or was happening. This is a huge problem for the system, as it requires measuring processes and values that result in common activity for capitalism. Importantly, debt couldn't be accurately valued. It became clear that trillions of dollars' worth of loans were not going to be repaid – so most were 'rolled over' (becoming 'new' extended loans). Since then, debts have continued to grow faster than economies, with families, companies and governments borrowing an estimated $57 trillion more than they'd already borrowed.
Examining the debt situation in Greece, Slavoj Zizek argues; "The true goal of lending money to the debtor is not to get the debt reimbursed with a profit, but the indefinite continuation of the debt that keeps the debtor in permanent dependency and subordination." Debts are meant to maintain a hierarchy of power, since the daily reproduction of capitalism is centred on social control through the imposition of work for capital. Yet John Holloway explains that: "Debt is essentially a game of make-believe: it is capital saying 'if we cannot make the workers produce the profits we require, if we cannot impose the submission that we require, then we shall pretend that we can: we shall create a monetary image of the profits we need.'" Elsewhere (e.g. Radio Interview, Global Revolt, Class Struggle in China), I've supported an analysis that argues 'we are the crisis of capital' – that powerful resistance to and rebellion against capitalist work has thrown the system into question, that there's a widespread rejection of capitalist values, and the GFC was a generalised vote of 'no confidence' by 'the market' in both people's willingness and ability to pay their debts.
Today, confidence in capitalist fictions is again at a very low level. Last month, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) made headlines when it warned about growing debt, the coming "cataclysmic year", and another crash; telling investors to "sell everything". But before you follow their advice, it's worth recalling that RBS was once a small retail bank, which transformed into one of the world's largest. Then, during the GFC, went from a position of global leadership to a basket case – a failure which almost brought down the entire UK financial system. The bank's collapse was only prevented by 45 billion pounds of taxpayer support and several hundred billions more in government loans.
A tale of . . . measuring the Emperor's clothes
Over and over, around the globe, we hear a rising chorus of people asking – What is real and what is fiction? With a background in unemployed people's organisations, I've long been aware that official unemployment rates and job creation numbers are made-up, with governments and statistical agencies 'massaging' and distorting the figures for political purposes. At a forum I attended last year, Victor Quirk, from the Centre of Full Employment and Equity at the University of Newcastle, estimated the actual unemployment rate in Australia at close to double the official number. Unemployment rates are among a range of measuring tools used to help maintain and reproduce the fictions of capitalism. These figures, statistics, and valuations are not objective truths, but creations reflecting widespread power struggles within, against, and outside of capital.
Economists tend to imagine an artificial world of graphs, tables and calculations, 'invisible hands', debts that are assets, and endless 'growth' that in fact destroys. Some have developed elaborate theories to calculate the finance industry's 'investments in investments', 'bets about bets' and 'bets about bets about bets'. However, these theories are mostly fables – tales told to keep us working and help us sleep. Economic theory and analysis relies on information provided by governments, banks, ratings agencies, and other mainstream institutions. Yet none of these can be trusted.
In 2007, economist Li Keqiang, currently China's prime minister, let the American ambassador in on a secret: China's GDP figures are "man-made" and therefore "unreliable." He explained that most of the country's economic data should be used for "reference only." More recently, political economist Minq Li's latest book, China and the 21st Century Crisis, discusses the untrustworthiness of official Chinese economic data, while still relying on this data to develop his analysis of contemporary capitalist crisis. As we commonly find, in the absence of accurate information, people have limited options. It's widely recognised that when pondering China's economy (on which so much now hinges) 'we can't trust the numbers'. Comparisons are sometimes drawn between the Chinese economy and that of the Soviet Union. Although it was widely understood the Soviet government made-up many of their economic indicators, and was totally deluded about the political/social situation, it still came as a major shock when this 'super power' collapsed.
Since the GFC, spending by the Chinese government has been a crucial factor in 'combating global economic crisis'. It's reported that between 2008 and 2014 available new loans in China rose by more than $US20 trillion. Apparently the Government has also spent over a trillion dollars on directly stimulating the economy. Yet fear of serious economic decline in 'the world's factory' persists. Today, there's little confidence Chinese policymakers know what they're doing and growing concern that the Communist Party leadership are out of their depth is helping to destabilise 'the markets' and global economy.
In the world's largest economy (apparently/for now) there's a similar story. In 2008, the US government reportedly spent around a trillion dollars to stem systemic collapse. At the same time, as the finance industry went into crisis, in order to 'save' companies like General Electric, General Motors, Bank of America and Citi Group, the US Federal Reserve (as the lender of last resort) provided massive loans to corporations of all kinds. These corporations, like the banks, were 'bailed out', yet recession and economic instability continued. At the end of last year, a decision by the US Federal Reserve to very slightly raise interest rates was meant to tell a story of confidence in US economic recovery. The fragility of this gambit was indicated by the Reserve's statement that this measure was made partially so it could be rapidly reversed if things started getting worse. So far this year, 'the market's' vote on US and Chinese political/economic narratives has been one of 'no confidence'.
Just an opinion . . .
Among the key players in the world's financial architecture are the main credit ratings agencies – Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch. They exist to assess the creditworthiness of corporations, institutions and countries who borrow money. Their ratings are meant to reveal how likely debts are to be paid back. A high rating indicates that a borrower's finances are secure. But, surprise, surprise, the ratings are a fiction.
In 2001, it wasn't until right before Enron declared bankruptcy that the agencies began to downgrade its credit rating. In 2007, the agencies rated Iceland's banks at AAA (the highest possible) despite them borrowing $120 billion – ten times the size of the nation's economy. Within a year, the banks had collapsed. And, in 2008, investment banks Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch were all highly rated just before they went bankrupt.
The ratings agencies are paid by those they're meant to be assessing and rely on the accounts provided by them. They also cover-up and disguise problems their clients wish to hide, they miscalculate, misinform, and fail to appraise the 'real' situation of corporations, banks, and other financial institutions. Ratings agencies have made billions of dollars giving high ratings to fraudsters. In fact, the higher the rating given the more the agencies receive in payment. While Governments, investors, and 'the market', place great store on these ratings – the agencies themselves say they "are just their opinions and shouldn't be relied on." According to Standard and Poor's, their ratings "should not be viewed as assurances of credit quality or exact measures of the likelihood of default." Instead, the ratings should be considered a "commentary".
None-the-less, these ratings have a direct impact on 'the market' and the wider economy. They are tremendously powerful 'opinions' and 'commentaries', with the potential for a downgrade to destroy a corporation, help bring down a government, or destabilise a country. The agency's ratings are repeatedly used as weapons by 'market forces' against states seeking to challenge the power of capital. At the same time, the agencies are key players in covering-up the crimes of the rich and powerful. Along with accounting firms, these key capitalist measuring instruments are sophisticated story tellers, weaving tales of punishment and discipline for most of us, and a web of lies for their corporate pay masters.
Not the whole story . . . ?
As David Harvey indicated above, much of the global economy is secretive, 'hidden' or in 'the shadows'. This is commonly acknowledged through terms like the 'grey economy', which includes the incalculable and common array of 'cash in hand' payments. The size of this 'informal economy' is impossible to measure. It's guessed the 'grey economy' in 'developing countries' is about 40% of their official GDP. In some nations it's the largest sector of the economy. In 'developed countries' it's said to be around 20% of GDP. There's also 'shadow banking' – which includes financial institutions not subject to 'regulatory oversight', as well as the unregulated activities of supposedly 'regulated' institutions. The size of this part of the global economy has been estimated at $20 trillion. Then there's the so-called 'black economy', which is also immeasurable. You only have to consider a part of it, illegal drugs, thought to be about 1% of total global trade, to grasp the importance of this economy.
As well, any story about the hidden or 'black' economies should acknowledge the open secret that 'behind every great fortune is a great crime'. Anyone familiar with the development of capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism will have an appreciation of how they were founded on the theft of land and property, the plundering of environments, horrendous violence, cheating, swindling, the enslavement of millions, the robbery of people's lives and freedom. And this history, written in blood, hasn't ended.
In another blog post, The Last Delegation, I wrote about the rise of the new bourgeois in Russia during the 1990s. As the Soviet Union disintegrated, traditional crime areas, such as robbery, illegal drugs, gambling and prostitution, were thriving and those able to were enriching themselves. The black market 'mafia' were making off with whatever they could get their hands on, while cunning members of the ruling elite were using their privileges to become richer and to secure their futures. The up-and-coming oligarchs emerged as well-connected entrepreneurs, getting rich through connections to business or political networks, as they plundered state resources and robbed the populace as part of the new 'free market' economy.
During this period, as James Petras explains; "Over a hundred billion dollars a year was laundered by the mafia oligarchs in the principal banks of New York, London, Switzerland, Israel and elsewhere – funds which would later be recycled in the purchase of expensive real estate in the USA, England, Spain, France as well as investments in British football teams, Israeli banks and joint ventures in minerals." The winners of the Russian gang wars "followed up by expanding operations to a variety of new economic sectors, investments in the expansion of existing facilities (especially in real estate, extractive and consumer industries) and overseas. Under President Putin, the gangster-oligarchs consolidated and expanded – from multi-millionaires to billionaires, to multi-billionaires. From young swaggering thugs and local swindlers, they became the 'respectable' partners of American and European multinational corporations", as they continued to 'diversify' into stock speculation, banking, finance and company buyouts. Petras details a similar process with the rise of the 'new bourgeois' in China, Brazil, Mexico, India, and more. Many others have investigated the legal and illegal crimes of the ruling class in different parts of the world.
What can we believe in . . . ?
For those who've managed to read up to this point, you may be asking – how long does this story go for? While many people across the globe are saying; 'What can we believe in?' 'There's nothing we can trust anymore'.
It's not surprising that numerous pundits now believe 'extend and pretend' is a confidence trick whose days are numbered. Systemic collapse has been forestalled by government cuts, intervention, bailouts, stimulus packages, interest rate and currency manipulation, and so on, seeking to guarantee future profits. Yet, the continuing refusal of people to pay their debts, to accept austerity, and to work harder for less, (along with the vicious battles between different capitalist gangs and the ruins left in their wake) sees fictitious capital continually expand, a range of economic, political, environmental and social crises intensify, the system's crimes become more apparent, and claims of growth and recovery revealed as fantasies.
Throughout The Big Short there's a consideration of value – of what things are really worth. The movie appears to centre on the value of money, stocks, houses, superannuation, pensions, wages, salaries, and dividends, as this is what people are often preoccupied with when worrying about financial crisis. Yet behind these concerns are deeper questions about what we value and how we value. How do we value life? How do we value each other? What are our relationships worth? How can we treasure the environment? How long can we put off making difficult decisions – seeking to avoid harsh realities? Are we reaching the conclusion of 'extend and pretend'?
The future is unwritten . . .
Nick Southall


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Welcome to Monday my loves!!
We are now officially in the second half of the year.. as much as I would like to celebrate this mark on the calendar, I am instead left wondering where the heck the time has gone!! ha ha .. Andddd it means that I am now on the slippery slope towards Christmas .. yikes!! I am not ready to think about that yet.. really I am not!
So in the mean time let me show you my latest BoBunny design team layout that I created for their blog last week. I was asked to create a Misc Me spread using their brand new Penny Emporium collection.
This particular collection does not come with its own Misc Me cards, but some of the papers within the collection are perfect to cut apart to be used for your pocket pages.
I just love pocket scrapping especially when I have random leftover photos from an event - but those photos are not enough for a stand alone layout, or you might have just a few too many to make a single or double page layout. That is exactly what I had going on with these photos - I had too little for a traditional 2 page layout. This is where the Misc Me is perfect for those odd number of photos.
To grunge up the layout a little I used my soft sandpaper to rough up the edges, then with watered down white paint I "whitewashed" the edges- and then finally went around the edges with some walnut stain ink.
I also used the fun new Borders Stickable Stencils with the gold glitter paste, in random places to add some more sparkle. This matched beautifully with the gold/copper accents that are found in the Penny Emporium chipboard pieces.
Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have found some inspiration here today :)
Till next time
Much love
Bernii xx
BoBunny Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Portraiture, Copper Tiles , Captured / Penny Emporium.
Noteworthy: Penny Emporium
Combo Stickers: Penny Emporium
Layered Chipboard: Penny Emporium
Brads: Penny Emporium
Glitter Paste: Gold.
Alpha Stickers: Double Dot aqua stickers.
Stickable Stencils: Borders.
Pearlescents: Island Aqua.
Kraft Wood: Keys and Butteflies.
Misc Me page protectors: 12 x 12 page Protector variety pack.


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Join us for an evening of excellent music and great atmosphere. Live, laugh, and enjoy the company and talents of others. This open mic is open to the public for those wishing to to take the stage or for those who would like to enjoy the entertainment. Boxed and Burlap's regular coffeehouse menu will be available in addition to a selection of wine, beer and a variety of delicious food with three food trucks on site!
Back to All Events
Earlier Event: June 29FARMERS' MARKET
Later Event: July 6FARMERS' MARKET


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St. Patrick's Day Chocolate Dipped Oreo Gift Boxes
Our customer ordered 4 of these gift boxes to be delivered to one of their clients in Scottsdale. Mixture of white, milk and dark chocolate dipped oreos decorated for St. Patrick's Day.
customer feedback:
Hey there! I just wanted to tell you our clients LOVED the chocolate dipped oreos yesterday! Thank you for making us look good!


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Bed & Breakfast Hotel Package
Our Cape Cod Bed & Breakfast Package makes your stay all the more enjoyable.
- Nightly accommodations
- Daily breakfast for two, includes tax & gratuity
Some restrictions may apply, please call us at (800) 225-3110 for further details on this package for bed and breakfast in Cape Cod. Some black out dates apply.
Book Now
Or call us at (800) 225-3110, and mention the Bed & Breakfast Package.
Subject to availability. Taxes not included. Blackout dates may apply. Rates are not valid with any other offers, packages or promotions. Rates may be subject to change. Rates not applicable for groups.


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Los Angeles-based artist Edgar Arceneaux's work spans across mediums—blending theater, literature, and fine art to create dynamic works that explore history and histories forgotten. Primarily focused on urban conflict and racial strife, often located in Detroit, Arceneaux's work avoids easy classification.
Perhaps the most well-known piece from Arceneaux is his performance piece "Until, Until, Until…" which re-tells a misunderstood moment in history. At the 1981 inauguration gala of Ronald Reagan, African-American performer Ben Vereen presented an ode to Bert Williams, a vaudeville entertainer who had to perform in blackface to shield his own blackness from white audiences.
In Vereen's '81 ode, the critique of this unjust time in entertainment history, was misunderstood by American television audiences as the second half of the performance, which explained the historical context, was cut for time. Performed at events such as Performa and Festival de Cannes in 2017, the piece attempts to right this historical wrong. Arceneaux asks: who reviews our history? Who can restore histories?
It's a theme central to the artist's entire body of work. "Orpheum Returns- Fires Creation" features antique books, cast with crystal sugar and glass, displaying an historic authority while being made completely illegible. Pieces such as "Peaks Above The Headlines" pictures monumental mountains, with historical newspaper covers from the Los Angeles Times reading "Detroit Strife: Troops Lose, Then Regain Control". Arceneaux's poignant work questions the way we view our history—how it lives long past ourselves and ripples in ways we may not today understand.
All images by Edgar Arceneaux, "Until, Until, Until…," Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects Solo Exhibition, May 27 – July 1, 2017. Installation view courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects; photo credit: Robert Wedemeyer.