Wednesday, April 1- Profile in Womens Courage

Despite the dire warnings of experts that the Conficker virus would create chaos within many Win-tel computers, I am, so far, unaffected. My guardian Angel has my back once again.

This week's Profile in Women's Courage post is about an angel of another kind. It has been said that "When a heart calls, an angel will answer." - Unknown. Kathy Giusti has answered the call many times. And despite her own personal challenge with Multiple Myeloma, she finds time to give hope to so many. Click here for more on Kathy and her background and efforts with MMRF.

I have also included a video of her recent CNBC Interview as part of the Harvard Business School's series, The Money Chase, on our womenlighte.ning.com social network site under the "Must See Vid" tab. Under the "group events" tab you will find a link to the MMRF Race for Research page. There are several scheduled for this year, and I am hoping to get many of you here in the Lower Fairfield County area to join me for the Tri-State event this summer. If we get enough to participate as a group, we can consider sponsoring a tent.

Until next post, continue to believe, achieve, receive. SDG - JBH

The Road Ahead

My apologies to those of you who faithfully follow my daily blog. I took a few days off before the beginning of the new quarter to get together a plan for the next. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I believe the next few months (read quarter) are going to show us whether the economic policies of both the past and current administrations will be effective at getting our world economy back on track, or worsen an already bad situation.

This piece by a noted economist Alan Abelson in this weeks' Barron's is a must read. If what is proposed as part of a Private-Public partnership is successful at removing so called "toxic assets" from bank balance sheets, what happens next? Allegedly, this action will free up credit to new borrowers. But the number of credit-worthy individuals or companies is dwindling due to depressed spending and massive layoffs. Setting aside these "bad bets" and pretending they don't exist is just not part of the solution. The same thing can be said of the GM scenario. Now the strategy is to have an "orderly breakup" of the company by putting all the "good" assets together, and the "bad" assets into another pile, including employee pensions.

We have come to a crossroads in our history, which began as a journey in the last century with the creation on the fractional reserve banking system. We have had several debt related shocks to the system over the last 75 years, but none as potentially damaging as the creation of "financially engineered" product such as the ones AIG sold, and supposedly prudent banks, bought.

As Women of Wealth, you need to be more involved in understanding the financial capacity at your disposal. Many of you have this information kept for you through the activity and control of a spouse or trustee. You MUST get enlightened, before you are shocked by what may occur in your future. This is why I blog. And this is why I set up womenlighte.ning.com. Please use these to put yourself back in control. We are here to help you as individuals, and as a community.

Please consider signing up on our mailing list and in your comments, ask for an invitation to join the WWRG social network.

Until next post, continue to believe, achieve, receive. SDG - JBH

Enlightening Women Through womenlighte.ning.com

Today marks the official debut of our own Social Network - womenlighte.ning.com! This is not about me, this is about us. Many of you have facebook or myspace pages, and I'm sure this has provided a great way to "network" with friends, relatives, and business associates. What I have learned in my research into this technology is that it provides a way for others with similar interests or affiliations to stay in touch. The FB & Myspaces will always have their place, but the future of Social Networking is in the creation of small, private, but powerful networks that are more homogeneous, but can be "daisy-chained" with other more intimate networks by design, not by force.

That is what womenlighte.ning.com is about. Women of Wealth coming together in one group or forum to bring their cause or concern to a group of like minded individuals. I have created one such group - Women With Cause - specifically for members who work in philanthropy or volunteer in a non-profit, or for profit organization that needs support. Many times, there are ways we can help each other, even though time and distance may separate us. We can create other groups as needed, and I invite your suggestions. There are several other features I think you will enjoy - videos, blogs, forums, events, etc.

Many of you have already received invitations to join the womenlighte.ning network. More invites will be going out over the next few days. Each invite will contain a "member number" that you will be prompted to enter when you set up your network profile. You will also be asked to enter your "sponsoring member" (me, in the initial few invites). This is to ensure that only invited members are allowed to join. This is not meant to be discriminatory, but rather a precaution as many of you have high public profiles and do not like the "openness" of FB and Myspace. This will also allow us, as a group to adhere to a set of Virtues for a Virtual World, and keep our mission focused. If you know of someone who is interested in joining, have them sign up to be put on our email list using the box in the sidebar to the right of this blog.

Let's make this new tool a force for change, and a community that cares. Together, we can make a difference!

Until next post, continue to believe, achieve, receive. SDG -JBHIV