This issue had a 12-page special real estate report. Over the last four years, since the 9-11 attacks and the dot-com implosion, real estate investments have been a financial life-saver for many. In this report we look at ways of increasing wealth through selective upgrades and remodeling by using trade dollars for professional management services, utilizing versatile “like-kind” exchanges, and other means.

We also caught up with Bruce Kamm, CEO of Bentley Commerce, to see how his goal of creating an open trading platform for the world’s traders is progressing. And Harcourt Fuller, an adventuresome trader, related his Ecuadorian bartering experiences while living in that South American country.

Traveling to Chicago, we visited with Jack Schacht, founder of ITA—North America’s largest independent trade exchange. There, Schacht and partner Joan Varner hosted an exciting networking event for their top 300 traders. Of those, eight members did over $1 million, thirty-three in excess of $500,000, and the balance averaged $255,000 in annual trading activity.

Many other interesting stories are found in this issue, such as CPA David Tuttle’s “How The IRS Finds Delinquent Taxpayers And Their Assets,” Active International’s brokering of NASCAR sponsorships, and how barter plays a role for one of the nation’s top litigators.