Say you have $20,000 to $100,000 to invest. You can put it in stocks, hope to make a 10% return over time, and if the market moves up, you could walk away with an extra $2,000 to $10,000 before taxes. Or, you could take that same investment, and put it into something that could generate far greater returns.

James Altucher, Managing Director of Formula Capital, says that a better way to reap big returns is to exploit your employer. (See video.)

You've been hearing and reading all the bad news about the credit industry and all the nasty things that its difficulties might mean to you, but is anyone considering the positive outcome that this major reset of the American economy could mean in the long run? Being that I'm a cynical optimist (an oxymoron, I know), I have a perspective on this mess which many people might not be thinking about.

I've been telling you since late 2006 that we have entered a world economic shake down and that the biggest hindrance to further growth in the American economy is the fact that the balance sheets of American corporations are full. I cite the sudden spate of major acquisitions in pursuit of profit creation via consolidation as support for my opinion. As modern economics are conventionally structured, the only basis for economic health is steady growth. That makes the case for the necessity of this period of down slide only too palpable.

If we as a nation can financially hold it together for the next couple of years and swallow the huge bitter pill of a recession, when we come out on the other side of this mess we shall reap the incredible rewards of the "green economy" which is now in the process of being built. Today we are planting the seeds of America's next economic boom and I'm sorry to report that most of the rest of the world has mistakenly adopted our old patterns.