Fox News in Los Angeles did an exposé on multi-level marketing company Fortune Hi Tech Marketing. This video exposes the truth behind the company: operating like a pyramid scheme, dismal failure rates, false earnings representations, few making any money, broken promises, FHTM lying about its relationship with big name companies.

Fox interviewed me for their story, but you should note that the comments they used in this video were comments I made about MLM in general, not specifically FHTM.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes today about the sticker shock property owners are having when they open their property tax bills. The taxes have gone up in general, but property owners are frosted because their assessments no longer match the real market value of their houses.

The reality is that property values are generally down, and municipalities that use some variation of “market value” for their assessments are treading on thin ice.

The newspaper reports on a property owner whose assessment went from $140,500 to $173,100.  The tax bill went up 27%, or $871. The homeowner says he couldn’t sell his house for $173,100 even if he wanted to.

Last week I was on CNBC’s personal finance show On The Money talking about this issue. I successfully fought my assessment last year, and encourage other homeowners to do the same.

I encourage homeowners to challenge their assessments if they can prove that they are out of line with market values. Local governments are going to have trouble, though, if property owners object in large numbers. The government still wants the same amount of money, so they’ll have to do a large rate increase to keep the cash flowing their way. This would mean that even if you are successful at having your assessment reduced, you might still pay the same amount of property taxes.

And in other “breaking” news: More than a month after a database of Milwaukee Public Schools spending was made public, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is finally reporting it. Why would the Journal Sentinel neglect to make a timely report of an issue so critical to taxpayers?

Here’s an interesting tidbit from the article: “MPS spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin said MPS officials believe they have adequate controls over spending and they monitor bills to see that they are appropriate.”

I disagree. MPS doe note have adequate controls over spending. The district keeps contending that it has been cut to the bone and there are simply no areas in which to reduce spending. This database proves the exact opposite.  When are taxpayers going to demand that MPS quit wasting their money?

If you watch television, read the newspaper, or surf news sites, you’re sure to have hears about the $50 billion Ponzi scheme masterminded by Bernard Madoff.

The $50 billion in losses is merely an estimate. Some experts (like me) think that the actual losses will be much higher.

Stockbroker Fraud Blog discusses several options victims have for recovery:

• Securities Industry Protection Corporation (SIPC) could provide up to $500,000 per account. (Although I think the customers of the “investment advisory” business which is allegedly where the Ponzi scheme occurred won’t qualify. Only regular brokerage accounts would qualify. And fraud doesn’t qualify either, only unauthorized trading or theft. It will be interesting to see how this one pans out.)
• Victims could go after Madoff personally, seeking to get their hands on his personal or company assets.
• There may be third parties that could be liable to the victims.
• Victims might be able to get some money back from the IRS for taxes paid on phantom capital gains in prior years. There’s also a possibility of claiming a theft loss on tax returns.

So there is some potential recovery for victims, but that wouldn’t make me feel all that good, however. Investors are sure to lose money no matter how you slice it. Now they’re waiting to see how much they will lose.

I talked about this fraud and Ponzi schemes in general on CNBC’s On the Money last night. Check out the videos here.

In case you missed it, I was on CNBC’s personal finance show On The Money on Friday.

You can watch the second Web Extra video here. I offered the following year-end tax tips to help consumers:

Tonight I called in as an expert on CNBC’s “On the Money.” The show is all about consumer finance issues, and tonight we were (of course) talking about the bailout bill that the House passed today and President Bush signed into law.

One of the provisions of the bill included a “fix” for 2008 for the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The AMT was created in 1970 to make sure that high-income individuals paid income taxes, even if they had lots of deductions. In its first year, only 19,000 taxpayers paid AMT.