"The human race has never found a way to confront bubbles," said former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan commenting on the wild ride we are having in the markets right now.

"The behavior in what we are observing in the markets in last seven weeks is identical in many respects to what we saw in 1998, what we saw in the stock-market crash of 1987, I suspect what we saw in the land-boom collapse of 1837 and certainly the bank panic of 1907," Greenspan said.

Greenspan was the Fed chairman from 1987 to 2005 and is now a private consultant. He was referring to the stock market crash of 1987, and the ensuing fallout, and the implosion of Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund operated by a group of Novel laureates who apparently didn't know as much about the capital markets and about financial derivatives as they thought.

According to Greenspan, business expansions are driven by euphoria and contractions by fear. "In human nature," Greenspan said, "euphoria takes over when the economy has been on the rise for a couple of years, fostering bubbles, and these bubbles cannot be defused until the fever breaks." Said Greenspan: "The human race has never found a way to confront bubbles."

It's all very well for Greenspan. What about us, the simple investors out to make an honest buck, pay the taxes on the gains and go off to retire in relative comfort? We sit here watching our little funds eroding as Greenspan's bubbles either burst when they hit the ground or float off into outer space never to be seen again.

It's actually double trouble. With the fluctuations come some very good buys, bargains in fact. So the big and totally unanswerable question is there all the time: To buy or not to buy?

Next time you seem some poor slob bending over to stock a coke machine showing a plumber's crack, don't laugh. He probably has more money than you will ever dream of.

No one realizes just how much money there is in soda vending machines. Let me give you some basics, and I will let you do the math. You can buy cans of soda for twenty-five cents each, wholesale. Anyone can become a wholesaler. The whole process takes about the same amount of time as frying an egg. Just call any of the major distributors.

Now, imagine yourself on a really hot day. You are parched. You are also tired. You have been working all day. It doesn't matter if you have been working digging ditches or writing content, everyone gets tired. Now, you don't have anything to drink with you, but just a block away is a soda vending machine where you can get an ice cold coke. You know the kind where beads of water are forming on the outside of the can because the mixture of sugar and caffeine inside is so cold. Now, how much would you pay for that can. One dollar? Two dollars? The average price in New York City for a cold coke from a vending machine is now $2.50!

Now, watch a vending machine in a busy place for about an hour and count how many people put their money in. I recently counted 50 people an hour. 50 times $2.25 times 8 hours a day. Is it enough for you. Now multiply times 365 days a year because vending machines never close. And remember that there really is more than 8 hours since the machine doesn't go home at 6.

Just think, that guy with the ill fitting pants just cleared a million last year. How did you do?

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Did you know you can make money -- very, very good money -- just by knowing lots of information most people consider silly or worthless? Remember Cliff Claven from Cheers? Well, if instead of sitting around drinking beer he had put his trivia background to good use, he would have been a rich man.

You see there are lots of trivia competitions on the Internet. If you answer a bunch of question, you could win lots of money. It's that simple. For example, The 21 Trivia Competition going on right now has a grand prize of $21,000. All you need to do is answer 21 questions correctly to be entered in the drawing. All the questions and answers are somehow related to the number twenty-one. For example, there are questions about the 21st President, the atomic element 21, the movie "21," and so forth. The questions start off easy but get much harder.

But here is a hint. There is no time limit. So all you have to do is some Google searching and you will eventually find all the answers. Not only is this allowed, they even encourage it! I don't know why, but they really want to give some trivia buff $21,000!

You can do everything on the Internet. Each time you answer a few questions, you can go to the next page. It's also multiple choice so even questions where you don't have a clue you still have a good shot at. Just eliminate a few of the weird answers and you will have an even better shot.

But take my advice. print out the questions and spend some time searching the Web. Isn't the chance to win $21,000 worth just a little bit of your time? If not, then I think you are reading the wrong blog!

If you are, we suggest you start counting your money. In 1860 when Abraham Lincoln decided to run, the amount of money he needed for his campaign was $100,000, a tidy sum in those days. George W. Bush put together $367 million to win his presidency in 2004 and his opponent in the race, John Kerry, scraped together $328 million to fund his losing campaign.

Now we come to 2008. Forecasters are predicting that it will cost at least $400 million to take home the presidential prize. These figures throw interesting light on some aspects of the world's great democracy. It takes money to be a winner. Had Kerry upped his investment to say $400 million, would he have become the president instead of Bush? Is it only a matter of money, or are there other factors involved as well?

Michael E. Toner, the chairman of the Federal Election Commission, has some friendly advice for presidential candidates who plan to be taken seriously by the time nominating contests start in early 2008: Bring your wallet. "There is a growing sense that there is going to be a $100 million entry fee at the end of 2007 to be considered a serious candidate," Toner said in an interview.

Jockeying for presidential nomination in both major parties is already vigorously underway, as illustrated by the parade of GOP contenders on display this weekend at a meeting of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis. The main arena of competition is financial, as candidates prepare themselves for a race most analysts believe will involve sums vastly larger than those spent on previous presidential campaigns.

In the end, the candidate with access to the most money will be the next president of the United States of America!

Want real money with little effort? The secret is to become a broker. No, I am not talking about a stock or mortgage broker. Those take real training. What I am talking about is a universal broker.

A universal broker does one thing. He (or she) puts together people who want to buy things with people who want to sell them. That's all. They are also called "finders" because they are good at finding stuff. But with the Internet, anyone can find anything with a few short Internet searches.

People who want things, just don't have time to look for them anymore. Let's say you break a shoe lace. You are a busy guy. You don't want to have to find the right shop with the right lace and then waste your day going there, parking, and choosing through stacks and stacks of laces. You want to shoot a quick e-mail saying "Subject: I need a shoe lace" and then have someone send you one. They key is most people are willing to pay for the convenience.

Meanwhile, an online broker knows the right places that have the right material. All he or she does is forward the e-mail, add a few cents to the price, and then for the work of reading and writing an e-mail, they have just made some money. Now, you can make five cents on a shoe lace or $5,000 on a car. Whatever is out there, if you an find it for people who want it, you can have a job as a universal broker.

Some people just go to online auction sites. They buy stuff and then resell it the next day for a slightly higher price. They don't even have the merchandise shipped to them. They resell and have it shipped directly to the buyer. Just before you do this, watch online auctions so you get a real value of the true value of various merchandise and won't get stuck.

If you have a camera and an Internet account, you can make a lot of money on the Internet. And no, I am not referring to pornographic pictures! Actually hundreds of amateur photographers are making tons of money by posting their pictures on photo websites where people can download them for a fee.

Come on, how hard is it to take a picture of something interesting with a digital camera? Find a subject. It can be anything from a head of broccoli to a majestic moose. Millions of people search the net every day for specific photographs. You never know who is willing to pay money to download and print out your work. In fact, by the time you have read this much, 8 people have already purchased photos of a New Hampshire Moose (the big ones with the antlers). Now, you don't make much per download. You can realistic expect people to pay up to $20 for a single download. But where the real money comes in is in volume. The beauty of the Internet is that without you doing anything more, hundreds of people can pay for and download the same shot.

What's that? You say you do not know anything about photography? The secret is that you don't really have to. With a digital camera and a big memory card you can take hundreds of pictures and then review them on your computer. Out of a few hundred, you will always have a few that are really nice. Those are the ones you post.

Besides nature (which always sells), try taking pictures of interesting people. They don't have to be famous. People love pictures of ordinary people, doing ordinary things. Just make sure to ask their permission before taking the shot. people have a right to decline to be photographed.

Now go make some money!

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One of the best ways to make money and stay protected from a turbulent economy is to get involved with home refinancing. Many people use mortgage brokers not based on need, but based on the fact that a mortgage broker deals with all the details most people do not want to be bothered with. People are willing to pay a little for the convenience, and since the mortgage broker's price comes out of the mortgage, no one really feels it.

The way a standard mortgage works, a person borrows money from a bank and agrees to repay it in a number of years. The actual rates that banks charge for this service change every day and fluctuate from bank to bank. No one likes to spend all their time finding the daily rates every day by driving to dozens of banks. A mortgage broker does this for you. He or she has a relationship with hundreds of banks who want business. When a bank comes out with a new, great rate, the first ones they call are the mortgage brokers. Having one represent you is a great deal.

You may be worried about all the paperwork you need when taking out a mortgage. A good broker will sit and calmly explain what everything means. While a bank representative may be in a hurry, a broker will take all the time you need to make sure you know what you are getting into.

The job is actually fairly easy. The more mortgages a broker handles, the more he or she earn. The best thing is that unlike the actual lender, a mortgage broker assumes no risk in a mortgage. It's a great career and you do not need a multi-year degree. Many of the larger firms offer ten week training programs and then you are all set.

Here's another fast and easy way to make money. People are always getting rid of used books. When people buy books, they read them once (maybe twice) then put them up on a shelf and forget about them until they need the room. Then they go in boxes in the basement. When they finally need room in the basement and look for something to get rid of, boxes of old books are usually the first to go. People don't even try to make a buck. Often, they even hire someone to cart the boxes of books off to the local dump.

What you can do is start by advertising your services to remove unwanted books. You can charge a low fee, say $10 per box. Believe it or not, people will pay that! But the real secret is that these books that they are paying you to get rid of are worth money! That is because smart people do not buy books from retail shops. They look for cheap ways to buy. That's where you come in. Advertise that once a month you will sponsor a giant book sale. Dust off those books and set up display tables in some shopping center parking lot. All you need is thirty locations, and you can do a book sale every day. Since the books cost you nothing (remember -- you were paid to take them) anything you charge is profit. Sell them for $3 per book. Sell one hundred and that's $300 profit in you pocket with no expenses on your part. Thirty times a month means you can earn $9,000/month or over $100,000 a year!

Don't worry about running out of books. The same people who buy books from you will pay you to take them back after a few months of gathering dust! So what are you waiting for. Go get rich!