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Welcome to the USAGOLD Gold Discussion Archives. The archives of this gold discussion forum are a treasure trove of information to educate investors about protecting their wealth through portfolio diversification with private gold ownership. The discussion forum also covers the wider issues of the past, present, and future role of gold in international monetary policy and the dynamics of the modern gold markets...

 

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ARCHIVED DISCUSSION FROM 1/9/2004
All times are U.S. Mountain Time

(Yesterday's Discussion.)

Goldilox (1/9/04; 23:57:34MT - usagold.com msg#: 115028)
US set to back state control of Iraqi oil
http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11319,1118137,00.html
snippit:

"David Teather in New York
Thursday January 8, 2004
The Guardian

Officials are likely to recommend the creation of a state-run company to own and manage the Iraqi oil industry, shutting out foreign investment and countering, in part, allegations that the US-led invasion of the country was merely an oil grab."

Goldilox:

Now WHICH state might that be? Texas?


mikal (1/9/04; 23:51:31MT - usagold.com msg#: 115027)
Eagles and Krugerrands fly to far away lands...
It's occurred to me that the timeline for the production of bullion coins worldwide is always a sporadic affair. That their commencement and end has usually been unexpected and abrupt. With so many commemorative issues to supplement the usual offerings, such as monkeys and heroes and statues and stars, they reach farther than ever, implying a future with
more permanent, annual coinage.
If true, a metallic circulating ruble for every country, never mind the purity, then the paper notes would need backing too, more than the present euro!
This would likely spell the end to gold and silver bullion Libertads, Eagles, Pandas, Brittanias, Maple Leafs, Kangaroos(Nuggets), Philharmonics, Krugerrands(Springboks) as we know them.
Which of these countries will make bullion minting obsolete first?
A) Australia? Under pressure from world economic crisis and competition from regional powers in Asia and the world?
B) U.S.? Decreeing that all treasury, central bank and certain in-ground precious metals be employed for "the common welfare" as backing for her currency and collatoral for her renegotiated debt payments?
C) Canada? Incensed by heavy-handed hoarding from Great Britain and U.S.A. and satiated with the Queen's portrait?
Persuaded to join the N.A.C.B.(North American Central Bank) and monetary system?
D) Mexico? Unable to stem the outflow of metal and natural resources to first world counries by any other means and/or prodded to join the new "dollar" system and the N.A.C.B.(North American Central Bank)?
E) China? Implimenting the next stage of a 50 year economic plan to build the economy and salvage the tottering banking system?
F) Austria? Recruited into a Euro-wide effort to stabilize
the crisis-shaken volatile euro by contributing more of their central bank reserves to the ECB?
G) Great Britain? Humiliated by the cratering demand for her stratospherically priced, limited-mintage, "Queen Elizabeth" issues, halts the Brittania coinage and offers the metal stock to the campaign to save the fledgling fiat euro?
H) South Africa? Joining one or other of her global allies for political and domestic advantage?


Goldilox (1/9/04; 23:48:37MT - usagold.com msg#: 115026)
Japan's FOREX reserves hit new record
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific_business/view/65524/1/.html
snippit:

"TOKYO: Japan's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, hit a record high at the end of 2003 as it continued to buy dollars to cap the rising yen and promised more funds for such intervention.

Japan's foreign exchange reserves rose 29 billion dollars to 673.5 billion dollars at the end of December for a fourth consecutive monthly record, the finance ministry said.

"The biggest reason for the gain was (currency) market intervention," said ministry official Hiroko Inaoka.

Goldilox:

And they're going back for more. Now that's what I call a "line of credit". It's just not resurrecting the "dead cat" they're spending it on. Oops, I did it again. There goes Kittie off to bed in a huff.


Goldilox (1/9/04; 23:41:55MT - usagold.com msg#: 115025)
Deficit Hits $126 Billion In Fiscal First Quarter
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1665-2004Jan8.html
snippit:

"By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 9, 2004; Page E01

The federal budget deficit reached $126 billion in the first three months of the 2004 fiscal year, as improving tax receipts were outpaced by rising federal spending, congressional auditors said this week.

The first quarter total puts the deficit on pace to top $500 billion and adds weight to increasingly insistent calls for more attention to the government's deteriorating fiscal health. Economists with the International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday that the twin U.S. budget and trade deficits "pose significant risks for the rest of the world."

Goldilox:

Where DID I put that credit card? I'm not keeping up!


Goldilox (1/9/04; 23:34:46MT - usagold.com msg#: 115024)
Old News about FIAT
@ Ten Bears

Four words to describe why not:

Bankers
Politicians
Power
Greed


Goldilox (1/9/04; 23:30:38MT - usagold.com msg#: 115023)
Nixon's role in dollar's demise
http://www.moneyfiles.org/usapower.jpg
@ GAB

Great post. I do not disagree in general. However, the timeline at this link and the volumes of literature we have explored here suggest that more likely, Nixon's action was but one event (although an important one) in a much larger theater of dollar domination and devaluation.

International bankers have been steering administrations and kingdoms with their financial manipulations for centuries. Politicians are smart cookies, but their forte is getting elected and mediating political action and compromises. They often work from incomplete and/or faulty data and analysis - leading them into what later look like real bonehead moves. Witness the Bay of Pigs, where JFK was maneuvered by Dulles and the "company" into a half-assed attempt to remove the very dictator the CIA had sponsored a couple years earlier in the Cuban revolution (sound familiar - Iraq watchers?).

Bankers certainly don't mind a little egg on the face of the politicians, as it keeps them in their place, and then they come back for more "advice".

Richard Nixon was a good foreign relations president, who didn't know beans about finance. I would bet his "finance advisors" scared him with the threat of De Gaulle taking all our "stash", so he thought there was no other option. And maybe by that time, there WAS no other option. Who knows, now?

So the bankers begin their government sponsored accumulation leading into the $850 peak at 16% prime rate, sell out to Joe Sixpack, and force another 20 year (accumulative-for them) bear until the steam engine explodes and they can sell out again. Yes - history rhymes!


Ten Bears (1/9/04; 23:19:13MT - usagold.com msg#: 115022)
Old News About Fiat/Debt Money
If memory serves, history reveals that some congressman (perhaps Lindbergh) protested during the debate to establish the "federal" reserve in 1913… "If we need a banking bill, why not just have the treasury print the money and spend into existence rather borrow from bankers who do not have the money and create it from nothing in order to loan it to our government. Either way will require an income tax, and the bankers’ proposal will allow them (the bankers) to collect interest on all government expenditures. We can eliminate that interest expense." We all know the outcome of that debate. The same or similar proposals have been advanced numerous times, particularly during the 1930's, however, to no avail.

One proposal advanced during the depression to eliminate the central bank without creating a catastrophic event entailed raising the fractional reserve banks reserve ratio to approximately one hundred percent (reducing the money supply) and to print treasury bills (greenbacks) to increase the money supply in amounts sufficient to neutralize the transaction and retire debt.

Of course, the political power of the central banking cartel was and still is such that no changes were made in those directions. Instead, the Glass-Stegal Act of 1933 was repealed during Clinton's term allowing banks free reign; additionally, the banks reserve ratios have been effectively reduced to zero allowing extreme expansion of money supply.

So what? Check out the interest on the national debt (www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdint.htm) and the total treasury gross tax collections (www.economagic.com/em-cgi/data.exe/data.exe/irssoi/grosstax1). As interest expense on the national debt increases relative to total tax revenues, those in power must find ways to increase tax revenue by expanding economic activities (interest rate cuts), or cutting federal (non-interest) expenses, discretionary spending, social security, social programs etc.


Great Albino Bat (1/9/04; 22:34:09MT - usagold.com msg#: 115021)
Nixon's action in 1971 and today's consequences...

I believe it might be useful to review briefly, how Nixon's fateful decision to "close the gold window" on August 15, 1971, is at the root of today's financial disarray throughout the world.

Up to August 15, 1971, all countries of the world had the right to exchange the dollar holdings of their Central Banks for gold, at their option. And all countries of the world, except for the USA, had the obligation to settle claims originating in their imports, by paying either in gold or dollars.

The US was thus able to import from abroad, and pay out either gold or dollars, which were preferred by the US of course, since the US produces dollars via its financial system. Early on, France didn't care much for being paid in dollars, and insisted on gold, much to the US displeasure.

The US was able to expand (create) credit and thus create the possibility for extra IMPORTS, because it had the Fed and banking system to create dollars. The other countries did not have this privilege, they had to pay for their imports by exporting goods or selling services like tourism, for instance. The rest of the world's countries were held back by the fact that they did not create dollars.

The "engine for growth" was thus the US, which was the only country that could print up dollars and buy with them. The other countries had to pay for imports either with stuff they sold, or with gold, or with dollars, which they could get by selling to the US. (US imports were their exports)

If they could not sell all they wanted to the US, they did the next best thing and tried their best, to sell something to someone for dollars, and this meant that someone had to be selling something to the US in order to get those dollars.

By 1968 or so, most of the Central Banks of the world had their fill of dollars and were asking for gold. US and Britain did their best to contain the demand for gold, but to no avail. Gold continued to leave the US.

So we come to 1971. Nixon and his advisers felt that US stocks of gold were dangerously low, and so Nixon said, "No more redemption of dollars for gold."

But, by 1971 the whole world was relying on sales to the US to keep their industries working and their people employed. "No more gold" should have been the immediate signal to hold back sales to the US until a revaluation of gold had taken place and a new monetary arrangement set up, and perhaps that would have included ditching the US privilege of paying for imports in dollars.

But, that did not happen. The structure of world production was, already by then, geared up to sell to the US, and the rest of the world had no leaders to say: "No gold means we don't sell!"

That was 32 years ago.

In the meantime, the dragon of credit creation was turned loose in the US, as the figures show. Dollar creation through credit expansion in the US took off, now that there was no need to redeem dollars held abroad for gold. The dragon of credit expansion had been chained down to the floor, by the fact that dollars had to be redeemed. Now, the dragon was free!

32 years later, the world is completely dependent on continued sales to the US - even for worthless paper! Because stopping the sales means throwing millions out of work.

The ECB is under great pressure to lower its interest rate from 2%; the object of the pressure is to make the Euro worth less, in order to be able to continue selling to the US, or whoever has the dollars. Otherwise, they have to close up shop, as their product is priced out of the market. My guess is that the ECB is going to cave in and debase their currency (that's more good news for gold) just to be able to keep their plants running and their people employed.

"To wealth through poverty" is the motto today. Countries want to devalue - Japan leads the way - and impoverish their people, so they can produce and sell more and be wealthy.

Gold payments kept the world in order in the 19th Century.
Gold payments chained the dragon of credit expansion, all over the world.

The Bretton Woods arrangements (1944) included the dollar "as good as gold" - a fatal flaw!

There is no painless way out of this terrible mess of worldwide massive investment in productive plant that should never have been installed, and would not have been installed had not the US had the privilege of paying for goods with money created out of thin air. The way out won't be nice. It will involve a worldwide collapse of production and trade and probably bloody wars, before all is in ruins and men begin to pick up their tools to rebuild again.

There is a saying that getting wealth is hard, but keeping it is an even harder job. Gold owners, think about it.

The GAB. Have a happy weekend!


Goldilox (1/9/04; 22:28:43MT - usagold.com msg#: 115020)
The War rages on - DOW vs. Gold
Catchy title, eh?

sorry about that. I've been reading too long today.


Goldilox (1/9/04; 22:26:02MT - usagold.com msg#: 115019)
The War Wages On - DOW vs. gold Dow VS Gold The War Wages On Dow VS Gold by Sol War wages on DOW vs. gold
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/ti/2004/0109.html
snippit:

"In February 2003, the Dow would only buy about 21 ounces of Gold and yet the price of Gold was about 100 dollars lower than today. Yet this one picture tells a startling tale. While all the gold bugs are jubilant that the price of Gold has gone through the roof, in effect it is nothing but an illusion. The Dow buys much more Gold now then it could about one year ago.

What gives? I have been stating for a long time that everyone needs to wake up and smell the coffee. We are in the midst of a currency war. We have no standard of pricing any currency., that is why Gold is so important because you can measure any currency against a constant. Without Gold the constant value is removed from the equation and all hell breaks lose. That is what is going on right now. While it appears that Gold is going to the moon in US dollars in reality it is not doing much and is still losing value in the strongest currencies."

Goldilox:

More evidence by Sol over at FSU that the current gold rally is a "dollar thang". Phase II should begin the real bull, overtaking stronger currencies, as well. As usual, good reading.


Goldilox (1/9/04; 22:17:00MT - usagold.com msg#: 115018)
Quigley's Book "Tragedy and Hope"
http://www.moneyfiles.org/quigley.html
@21Maybry

I remember you had some interest in political history of the international banking community.

Check this link out.


Denarius (1/9/04; 22:15:30MT - usagold.com msg#: 115017)
@Waverider - Russia puts gold and silver coins in circulation
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=286383&PageNum=0

Waverider (01/08/04; 23:58:28MT - usagold.com msg#: 114927)

Just to learn something I put the numbers in that article through my Mk-I/Mod-0 brain and the Au/Ag ratio figures to be an even 60 between the two coins. For comparison, the Denarius personal stash just happens to equal 50 to 1 by weight. I believe the Koran gives the ratio of gold to silver as one dinar to seven dirham. For the world at large, our fellow poster provided the rest of the numbers:

Goldendome (1/9/04; 17:57:21MT - usagold.com msg#: 115005)
Poor Man's Gold closing the Gap!
Gold/Silver ratio today is at 65.97 to 1
At the end of Dec.it was......70.50
Back in May it was, TA-TAhh...80.+

I'm not sure what I learned by this but I cannot shake the feeling that it is something I will need to know in the not too distant future. Wouldn't it be something if the ratio on the CRIMEX does level out at 60/1 ?



Goldilox (1/9/04; 21:39:11MT - usagold.com msg#: 115016)
Dollar value timeline
http://www.moneyfiles.org/usapower.jpg
A cool JPG timeline of US dollar devaluation throughout the 20th century. Good art, too.

Druid (1/9/04; 21:23:40MT - usagold.com msg#: 115015)
(No Subject)
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/
Snip.

"Gardano suggests that credit card delinquencies and personal bankruptcies are "a natural outgrowth" of a $10 trillion economy driven almost totally by consumer spending. And quite happily adds that the more the "economy improves, the more people will grow deeper in debt and bankruptcies will grow." Now we're completely baffled. Orwell couldn't have improved on this one: Increasing debt and bankruptcies rising from an already staggering historical level = an "improving economy." Color me confused..."

Druid: In some of my more youthful indescretions, which at times, challenged the boundries of my physical and mental well being, I couldn't have smoked or ingested enough drugs or consumed enough alcohol to arrive at this type of totally %$#&@*( logic. It's no wonder that our leaders are looking to far away galaxies for solutions.


steady (1/9/04; 21:20:13MT - usagold.com msg#: 115014)
ECOisms stuff.
many books have been recomended on this form, many dealing with the root of gold, the evolution of the metals role, the ways to grade it, and the wars associated with it, all causes of the recent gyrations we have seen not only in the pog, the pos, the dvig, but in the silver gold ratio as well.

ecosim is the direct results of those causes it is the effect being felt upon the population of this plantet. ecoism takes into consideration of the upcoming effect upon the planets population and recomends three books worthy of reading, 1) taking the fear out of change dr. Denise O'Grady. 2) ethical relativity e.Westmark , especially in light of kilos lighting my eyes up with that superb stuff he posted about everything being relative.(yea , yea BURRRRRRRRRPpppp..... opps im still digesting that food for thought) 3) building mental muscle, conditioning exercises for the six intelligence zones, david Gamon, does it work? has my typing improved?
Ecoism adds compassion to its platform, but not that old style consevative compassion , no this compassion is from the heart and its radience gleaams from eye to eye in a golden silver recognition of brotherhood unity love and trust that no one no group no cartel no govt ever has had the powere to control EVER< and EVER amen! just from a glance a simple eye contact and a nodding of the head, a silent but powerful bond is developing between those who own gold/silver and the gold/silver itself its almost as if its calling out come tell them they may listen now.
this compasion realzes the dire straits many who do not have anything on this planet face, but it is themselvs who have to help themselvs and realize that paper money can be turned into real money now and to actally go do it do it. one 1/10th of an ounce at a time or whatever but since no one has any really then its a level playing fied. so is the compassion limited? heck yes, there are no free lunches anywhere in the univewrse its all universal law exact, mathamatical,and perpeetual. see ecoism realzes that things evolve, and at times devolve but all monetary affairs will revolve around gold and silver in some way and its on its way.
thats the compassion ecoism extends, get gold / silver real money or be left behind. simple as that!
do not miss this trip to infinity and beyond.........


Druid (1/9/04; 20:57:09MT - usagold.com msg#: 115013)
(No Subject)
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/
Snip.

"An ominous harbinger for U.S. financial assets," writes our friend Terry Reik of Clapboard Hill Partners, "has been the stunning collapse in foreign-capital flows...From a peak of $110.4 billion in May, net foreign flows have fallen to $90.6 billion in June, to $73.4 billion in July, to $49.9 billion in August, to $4.2 billion in September."

September's net inflow, Terry explains, is only 10% of the monthly minimum required to fund our $500 billion current account gap. Private interests overseas have forsaken the dollar in favor of other assets.

Druid: Oh! Here's the problem.



Dollar Bill (1/9/04; 20:13:53MT - usagold.com msg#: 115012)
*>*
http://www.morganstanley.com/GEFdata/digests/latest-digest.html#anchor0
The Roach commentary is quite different from his usual hopeful embraceing of -lets share the global realignment schtick-.
Unless it is too late to make your forum gold 04 predictions, I change mine to 450-500. Lets make that 502.
TownCrier, the news is good.


White Hills (1/9/04; 20:08:29MT - usagold.com msg#: 115011)
Dry washer & Gab
A very well known Salesman of my times, once told me and I have never forgotten, that if at once you see that the Sale is dead any thing you do afterward ,no matter how radical, can only help bring it back to life if possible, if not you haven't lost anything. The dollar is dying IMHO so any effort to revive it no matter how radical is understandable. From the outside it may seem nuts but on the inside that may be a different thing. Perhaps talking about the moon and Mars for instance, may be an effort to put forth something that will divert the publics attention from what is going on in the economic sphere, Perhaps WW3 has started and know one wants to say so. We may be seeing efforts to bring as many allies into our camp as possible and to secure those that are a little shaky, Mexico for instance. All the things being said about the dollar, gold, deficiets, national debt, loss of jobs, loss of manufacturing ability, immigration ect. all are true but everything is different since 9/11 it is a different world and I think the USA is under attack and will do whatever it takes no matter how radical it may seem to preserve our Republic. I don't see any other solution but a radical one, do you?
This is not a political opinion, I could care less who is in office I don't see any difference if you asked me, Maybe on guy seems more likeable than the other but that is in the eye of the beholder. White Hills


Gonlyold (1/9/04; 19:24:09MT - usagold.com msg#: 115010)
Banks, UGH!
Ag Mountain said (msg#: 115003)that, "anyone else who ever borrowed money from a bank" is part of the problem. And because borrowing, particularly the money-from-thin-air kind, got us into this mess, you've answered Federal_Reserves's question (msg#: 115006) of, "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO US?" The fractional reserve system happpened to us. But I'm afraid that it's worse than that.

And whether or not gold can "save" us is questionable. I'm sure a few of us who have physical gold may think that we are in comfortable positions right now, but I don't think that I will be too comfortable when the U.S. economy goes down and other people start getting hungry (This is a subject that deserves more attention than this one parpagraph). Like BB has mentioned many times in the past, food, clothing and shelter: get you some.


Paper Avalanche (1/9/04; 19:23:19MT - usagold.com msg#: 115009)
Spelling errors.....
Repleat in my last post. I beg your indulgence.

PA


Paper Avalanche (1/9/04; 19:08:00MT - usagold.com msg#: 115008)
@ Twincaman
Per your earlier post...

"Despite all this talk of physical gold being used as money, I believe that paper or electronic money must continue. Without it, modern commerce would cease. Currency used in trade IMHO has to be more portable than Kruggerands.

We will always have some kind of currency, maybe pegged to a measured amount of a non-inflatable commodity like gold. Physical gold as money is incompatible with world trade."

I have the following thoughts that may provide some clarity and insight into what lies ahead.

For starters, there is no talk about gold being used as "money" on this site by the regulars. The reason for this is that what lies ahead of us is gold being internationally reconized a store of value (a means by which one could preserve the excess of labor for future use not subject to bank / government devaluation as is now the case with paper dollars or dollar denominated financial "assets").

I agree that we will forever need a universally accepted transaction medium by which those that produce widget A can convert the product of their labor into product B. However, I believe that it is a mistake to assume that because gold was a monetary unit in the past that it will be utilized in similar measure in the future. Your post points out the fact that the high tech nature of commerce today requires a transaction currency with which workers can exchange labor for goods.

I believe that gold is a horrible currnecy. However, it is a terrific store of wealth.

What is wealth?

To me it is a function of my chronological point in my life timeline. I am 33 years old. I know that I can produce more than I need to live on for the next 20 years (hopefully) and I also realize that I may live beyond my productive years such that I may rely upon the bounty of my productive years to complement whatever meager earnings I can generate when I am less capable. To that end I wish to conserve my excess labor in a vehicle that is not subject to any man's political will, greed or fraud. As a result, I do not contribute anything to my 401(k) (because the stock market generates an average return of 7% and health care costs - which is what you are saving for in retirement anyway - are rising at a rate of 20+% annually - even a Wharton grad could figure this out).

In a nutshell, and hopefully to your benefit, I would ask that you dwell upon the difference between the following concepts:

transaction medium

store of wealth

transaction medium

store of wealth

transaction medium

store of wealth

Gold is not money. It has only been for brief periods of time in history (relative to paper money - and only under penalty of law for deviation from said state set exchange rate). It is the absolute best way to preserve that which God has given you and which you only have a finite amount of....

your days on this earth.

Take care.

Paper Avalanche


Paper Avalanche (1/9/04; 18:32:11MT - usagold.com msg#: 115007)
@ Goldilox
Genius. I am anything but. I am just a guy drinking beer watching this whole gold thing shake out and learning from the truly insightful, intellectual giants who unselfishly provide us all with an education that could not be found anywhere else.

If you make enough guesses at a specific outcome, you eventually get it right (albeit that I actually predicted $430+ close today). As they say in sales, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.

Humbly yours,

PA


Federal_Reserves (1/9/04; 18:17:15MT - usagold.com msg#: 115006)
Industry on Parade
http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d4507.htm
The USA was once a producing country, and we were proud of it. Industry on Parade was a great show born in the great 1950's era. It started with a loud whistle blowing, and the work shifts starting. It then explained the real craft of life - manufacturing. Do you remember this show? To bad they took it off.

Now we are losing jobs and deeply in debt. We make a living as door greeters at Wal-Mart selling cheap crap others make. Goverment and trade deficits are piling high. The dollar is turning into toliet paper. Soon
it will be used as wipe because it will be cheaper than
CHARMIN.

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO US?










Goldendome (1/9/04; 17:57:21MT - usagold.com msg#: 115005)
Poor Man's Gold closing the Gap!
Gold/Silver ratio today is at 65.97 to 1
At the end of Dec.it was......70.50
Back in May it was, TA-TAhh...80.+

Gold has been repressed and is breaking out. Others also say that Silver has been, at least, equally repressed and that Demand/Supply issues with Silver may be more extreme. Gold is pulling the Silver caboose, but the Silver shorts will be creamed as badly as the Gold shorts. Gold and Silver--both-real money for thousands of years. Got-and-getting more onto the Gold and Silver express.


Gandalf the White (1/9/04; 17:49:07MT - usagold.com msg#: 115004)
YES, Sir Rich !!! Your wish is my command ! <;-)
http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.pnf?chart=$SILVER,PYPA[PA][DA][F!3!1.0!]&pref=G
Although not of TRADITIONAL P&F design, (which does not give an adequate PICTURE), this above LINKED SPECIAL P&F SILVER CHART (just for you) shows that "HI HO SILVER" is off and running again today, (AND it won't stop for a while !) ----
HAVE fun while ALL the clouds have those SILVER linings !
<;-)


Ag Mountain (1/9/04; 17:08:29MT - usagold.com msg#: 115003)
Goldilox, those bozos are us!
Those greedy bozos as you call them are all around us. They're your friend, brother, parents, neighbor, and anyone else who ever borrowed money from a bank as a way to tap into their future stream of productivity (wages) in order to start living a more comfortable life today.

Some people here like to gripe about it but I can tell you the root of the effect is every bit as innocent as it is inflationary.

So the trick as the giants at this forum have shown us is not to let our combination of good intentions and ignorance combine to repeat old mistakes. They want to get rid of the inflation of financial gold obligations that are treated and accounted for as if they were part of the true gold supply. That's what they mean by setting gold free -- eliminating the illusion of abundance caused by the bookkeeping of financial gold obligations as derivatives of real gold.


Goldilox (1/9/04; 16:53:06MT - usagold.com msg#: 115002)
gold credits and debits
@ Gene

Oh you mean, like, dollars defined in the constitution?

That's where this all started until some greedy bozos decided there wasn't enough gold to keep up with their inflationary ideals.


Gene (1/9/04; 16:17:17MT - usagold.com msg#: 115001)
@Caman
Couldn't gold debits & payments be handled by book entries, just like T-notes are handled today?

Twincaman (1/9/04; 15:40:34MT - usagold.com msg#: 115000)
Hard Money
Despite all this talk of physical gold being used as money, I believe that paper or electronic money must continue. Without it, modern commerce would cease. Currency used in trade IMHO has to be more portable than Kruggerands.

We will always have some kind of currency, maybe pegged to a measured amount of a non-inflatable commodity like gold. Physical gold as money is incompatible with world trade.


Cavan Man (1/9/04; 14:33:09MT - usagold.com msg#: 114999)
Your "Great White Father"(knows best eh?) in Washington
Affecting POG by the 24-7 (BELIEVE IT)
Former Treasury Sec. Paints Bush as 'Blind Man'
Fri January 09, 2004 10:41 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill likened President Bush at Cabinet meetings to "a blind man in a room full of deaf people," according to excerpts on Friday from a CBS interview.
O'Neill, who was fired by Bush in December 2002, also said the president did not ask him a single question during their first one-on-one meeting, which lasted an hour.

"As I recall it was just a monologue," he told CBS' "60 Minutes," which will broadcast the entire interview on Sunday.

In making the blind man analogy, O'Neill told CBS his ex-boss did not encourage a free flow of ideas or open debate.

"There is no discernible connection," CBS quoted O'Neill as saying. The president's lack of engagement left his advisers with "little more than hunches about what the president might think," O'Neill said, according to the program.

CBS said much of O'Neill's criticisms of Bush are included in "The Price of Loyalty," an upcoming book by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind.


a nation of one (1/9/04; 14:17:19MT - usagold.com msg#: 114998)
to gab

The "world's most intelligent people," contrary to the current propaganda would have us believe, fortunately, are not members of one racial, social, religious, or ethnic group, but are spread throughout humanity. Every group has its members who are more intelligent than the rest. But what needs to be paid attention to is not mere intelligence, but where is it located, in terms of mental component. It is possible for a human individual to possess very high intelligence, say, in the verbal component, which would mean that the individual would be able to verbalize his thoughts in a very intelligent way, while, at the same time, other mental components -in the same individual's mind- may not be highly intelligent (and in fact may be below average intelligence), which would mean that the very intelligently expressed verbalizations of such a person would be made up of ideas which, themselves, were not intelligent at all. If you look carefully for this, you will see it. I believe it is pretty clear that this is going on right now in very visible ways, with respect to some pretty significant events, in the world. Remember, most human beings are only of average intelligence or below. And many who are very intelligent have comparatively little ability to express their ideas well. The concept of intelligence, therefore, is often misinterpreted, sometimes coincidently, sometimes deliberately to achieve a particular type of result, such as in propaganda to raise one group above another. Those with higher intelligence in math, for instance, are more likely to be good also at finances, and these will be more likely to recognize the present virtues of gold, than someone who is good at obedience, for example. And then of course there are those who lack all ability to do things even so simple as spell English words properly, and yet who show their other types of intelligence every day, some of them on this forum. These are probably more intelligent than those to whom you refer as "The world's most intelligenct people."


Denarius (1/9/04; 14:12:30MT - usagold.com msg#: 114997)
@Golden Era - About Greenspan & Outrageous
Golden Era (1/9/04; 09:19:32MT - usagold.com msg#: 114970)
About Greenspan

Just a follow-up thought. Can - all the gold that has been mined by man for thousand of years and all the gold that have been sold by the central banks be accounted for?
D> Yes, it will be accounted for, one troy ounce at a time as it is spent over the next few thousand years.

What if they have been hoarded in hugh quantities by some covert organisation in the last few decades which only the select few like Greenspan is aware of.
D> No matter to me since I 'joined' that group of hoarders some time back.

Am I getting more Outrageous?
D> I don't know, let me see. Running your last statement through the Outrageous Quantifying Subroutine in my surplus HAL-1000 we get the result:
>>>> "Why, no, what makes you ask, Dave?" <<<<
I'm no conspiracy junkie but the truth is always unbelievable when first revealed. In fact, that reminds me of something I wrote a few years back when my life wasn't going so well. Fwiw,

=There are only three ways sheeple handle new information;
=They ignore it,
=Then they deny it,
=And then they wage war on it.

But don't rely on me; ask Galileo when you see him.

Outrageous? You want Outrageous? Here's some outrageous for you -- if you can handle outrageous:

http://isht.comdirect.de/charts/big.chart?=2&hist=14d&lSyms=SLV.FX1&lColors=0x000000&sSym=SLV.FX1

http://isht.comdirect.de/charts/big.chart?hist=14d&lSyms=GLD.FX1&lColors=0x000000&sSym=GLD.FX1

http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SharpChartv05.ServletDriver?chart=$copper,uu[c,a]dalanyay[da][p][vc60][i]&r=0501

Not a bad way to start the new year, imo.
Unless, of course, you're holding the USD in your portfolio:

http://quotes.ino.com/chart/intraday.gif?s=NYBOT_DXY0&t=f&w=15&a=0&v=w

I might even predict that the word 'outrageous' will get worn out in this next year -- or in this posting!

Have a Good Weekend, all; I know mine already has a silver blush on its golden glow. (Now where did I put that last dollar and the frame for it?)



steady (1/9/04; 14:08:39MT - usagold.com msg#: 114996)
risks turne dinto mining opportunities
yep its all risk capitol and im taking some off the table as frequently as i can once my accounts digital credits equal a certain level then its off the table with that digital money .

it a trip push certain buttons in te right sequence and at the right time, see its so backwards that they gpot ya conditioned cause of trafic lights to thing green means go and red means stop, but in the big paper casino its just the opposite, red means go, green means stop.

then u see i press even another machines buttons and lo and behold someone talks back to me and i say hey send me a check,a few days latter the post main brings me paper with more digits imprinted upon them , i run as quick as my lil hobbit feet can carry me to the bankers office and say hey can i put this into your care for a few days.
then i go to another machine and put in a plastic card and punchh in even another sequence of numbers to finally get some of dem unprized papers that the federal reserve disguises to pass as united states dollars by printing under the federal reserve note
the united states of america ,for what reason i dont know but only to fool the unsuspecting., then finally i get to go to where teh real money is and exchange some of those papers for gold and silver the real honest money.
a laborious process , but alot easier to mine gold/silver that way, as well heck most of the good claims are allready taken and i dont really feel like prospecting anyway when i can mne for gold this way, and never ever expose myself to the elements. yes my goal is to have more ral money than digital money but the dang paper leverage is making it hard to keep up, but im getting there one gram at a time!


Goldilox (1/9/04; 13:56:15MT - usagold.com msg#: 114995)
paper Risks
@ steady

If everything in the paper market is risk capital, with expectations to lose as well as win, have at it. If the paper burns, then it's all gone anyway. A major reason for removing winnings from the "table" and storing physical is for liquidity and wealth to survive if the paper game goes drastically sour.

If 90% of your assets crash in the paper game, you need a 10X return on physical (insurance) value to "get even" - not counting what other abberations are included in "getting even".

That's why wary managers are uping their allocation of "insurance" from 10% to 20% or even 30%. At 30%, if your paper assets crash, a 10X return on physical assets averages out to about 3X the original asset portfolio.


R Powell (1/9/04; 13:49:01MT - usagold.com msg#: 114994)
From the horse's mouth,
That horse being Jim Glassman, Sr. Ecomonist for J.P. Morgan who was just interviewed by the lovely Maria on the peoples' stock picking television channel.

Jim says that "everyone knows recovery is here" and that "nothing on the economic front indicates caution". He was refering to stock buying, of course. He says that inflation is still deflating and currently one half of one percent. He speculates the next report will show the core rate flat.

I think I'll e-mail Jim to ask him the name of his optometrist.
Rich


steady (1/9/04; 13:33:46MT - usagold.com msg#: 114993)
what if
what if u are fully invested in the paper game, and playing with the casinos money, why not if u can trade in and out on to gain more digital credits. then use those digital credits to buy more shares of the co u are holding in your core positions. with without adding any more fiat to your account and using that fiat for physical.
nothing was ever achieved without taking a risk.


Goldilox (1/9/04; 13:06:33MT - usagold.com msg#: 114992)
Levi's moves West (beyond the Int'l Dateline) - closes 2 remaining US plants
http://www.citizenonline.net/citizen/archive/article6132461CC81849CA8F7A02FA4FDC80F9.asp
snippit:

"SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Levi Strauss & Co., the California Gold Rush outfitter whose blue jeans are a globally recognized symbol of America, closed its last two U.S. sewing plants Thursday.
About 800 workers at the 26-year-old San Antonio plants lost their jobs in the move, which was announced last September.
The financially troubled company, based in San Francisco, has been shifting production to overseas contractors for years to offset drooping sales in the ultra-competitive apparel market. Only two decades ago, it had 63 U.S. manufacturing plants.
Levi Strauss spokesman Jeff Beckman said the 150-year-old company was making a delayed but unavoidable business decision.
‘‘We tried to do our best to maintain manufacturing in the United States, but we have to be competitive to survive as a company,’’ he said.
Sewing in San Antonio finished up around Thanksgiving and last month it ceased the laundering work done to give jeans their various finishes. Once, more than 4 million pairs of jeans were made here each year by workers earning an average of $10-$12 per hour.
This spring Levi's will shutter its three remaining company-owned plants in Canada, completing the shift to contract production in China and other countries with far cheaper labor."

Goldilox:

This is hardly news at this juncture. The only tradesmen left in this country are printing press operators of the Bernanke money machine.


R Powell (1/9/04; 12:08:52MT - usagold.com msg#: 114991)
Hello silver !!
March Comex close $6.497, up 22.4

Goldilox, about that margin increase, today's one day move translates into a $1120 paper gain for the longs and an equivalent lose for the shorts. This is almost the entire $1350 old margin requirement. No tears here! I certainly do hope the shorts are all current with their margins.

If time allows, maybe the Wizard will post one of his charts for silver with lots of green Xs on it!! And a prediction from the crystal? The interday high on Feb. 5, 1998 was $7.38. Is it now in sight? I won't mention the old high from 1980....yet!
a very happy Rich
Rich


Goldilox (1/9/04; 12:06:40MT - usagold.com msg#: 114990)
Margin requirements
http://focus.comdirect.co.uk/en/detail/_pages/charts/main.html?sSymbol=SLV.FX1
thanks Rich-

$6.45 looks pretty good for a days work, eh?


USAGOLD / Centennial Precious Metals, Inc. (1/9/04; 12:04:07MT - usagold.com msg#: 114989)
Hard assets... easy access! Delivered to your door.
http://www.usagold.com/buy-gold-coins.html



"There is nothing on earth
that can be all things to all people.
Gold comes damned close."

-- R. Strauss




TownCrier (1/9/04; 11:54:13MT - usagold.com msg#: 114987)
Special Market Wrapup: "Believe it!" by Jim Puplava and Eric King
http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/puplavabelieve.html
Thanks first to Black Blade for recommending that this be included in our Gilded Opinion, and finally, thanks again to Mary and Jim Puplava for their gracious permission to reproduce selected features from Financial Sense Online here at USAGOLD.

Excerpts from article:

An investor would be fortunate enough if he or she were to encounter one or two secular bull markets in their lifetime. Secular bull markets can last a long time and make investors a lot of money.This is one of those times.

A new bull market has begun in commodities, especially gold and silver. This new bull market is a secular bull market and it coexists with a cyclical bull market in equities. It is one reason that it has gotten little attention and has gone unnoticed by the vast majority of investors. ...This new bull market in gold and silver has no greater friend than Mr. Greenspan. Mr. Greenspan's penchant for fighting every financial crisis and every recession with more money and credit are creating the ideal monetary conditions for a major bull market in the precious metals. His expansionary monetary policies know no equal.

As to how to play this new bull market, which is only in its formative phase, I recommend a buy-and-accumulate strategy. When a bull market is in its formative stages, before institutions or the general public comes in, your best strategy is to buy and accumulate. ...new bull markets have a way of confounding the experts. Old chart patterns change. Resistance levels are taken out, new support levels are drawn on the charts, and you start to see higher highs and higher lows. That is the most telegraphic sign that you are in a new bull market.

In the early stages, you want to be a buyer and accumulator of bullion and precious metal equities. In the early stages of a bull market you buy on the dips and hold. Don't trade out of your position. Why? Because when you least expect it, the bull will roar and charge upward to higher levels. As Richard Russell is fond of saying, a new bull market will try to throw investors off every chance it can. Russell recommends putting a third of your portfolio in bullion and stocks and then holding on for the rise of your life. I couldn't agree more. Trading in and out of stocks or bullion at this point can be quite costly.

(click url for full text)

JP concludes: "Trying to trade your way in and out of this new bull market can be detrimental to our financial health. Most of the wealthiest people I have met in the investment world have not been traders. They were INVESTORS. Unless you are absolutely confident that you can trade in and out of this market, always buying in at the bottom and always getting out at the tops, you will find it more profitable to hold your positions and adding to them on the dips. It's time you became a believing investor."

R.


R Powell (1/9/04; 11:52:32MT - usagold.com msg#: 114986)
Comex margins
Goldilox, you asked (114921) about any possible meaning (consequence) to increased margin requirements...

"Might the change in silver margins and NOT gold margins be a sign of tighter liquidity in Ag? Maybe some of the shortages that have defied market interest so far are being felt?"

As Waverider reported (114909), some commodity margins, including copper and silver, are scheduled to be raised. This was predicted only a short while ago, right here on the USA forum.

Usually, when any commodity increases in price its daily volatility (price swings) also increase. Almost all futures positions are offset before the final delivery deadline. So, in essence, the margin is just monies available in the trading account that have a lien placed against them while the position is active. In the rare case of delivery, the margin is the downpayment with the rest of the payment in full due upon delivery for the buyer. Mathematically, the same small percentage move in price becomes greater as the price increases. A 2% move of $5.00 silver is $0.10 but a 2% move of $6.00 silver is $0.12. Larger price moves imply greater risk :>( and greater reward :>).

While the position is open, the margin's purpose is to insure that the trader has the means (money) to cover any potential lose. This protects the counterparty and insures against default. Basically, if you're playing poker with other unknown players, you want to see the color of their money before you risk your own. Now, with greater swings in the price of copper (price of copper = wow!) and silver, imho, it's prudent that the Exchange raise the margin to insure that the losing players will be able to cover their loses. The old $1350 silver margin covered a move of $0.27 in the POG. The new margin will cover a greater move of just over $0.40 in the POS. A contract of Comex silver is standardized as 5,000 ounces so a penny move represents $50. I would not be surprised to see increased margins in other commodities (natural gas?) soon if they remain high and active. Basically, the amount of margin required is determined (arbitrarily?) by the risk involved with the contract. Margin for 5,000 bushels of corn is only about $600 but corn usually moves only a few cents/day and large swings take more time than is now the case with silver.

As Aristotle mentioned, the margin to hold a contract of gold increased last year. Gold became very active last year. Margin is required for both the buyers (longs) and the sellers (shorts). As for liquidity, the increased margins may lower the number of players now entering the casino, who simply do not have the margin money available in their accounts or the risk tolerance in their blood. However, I don't believe the increased margin reflects the tightness of supply either of available Comex silver or of available physical. However, the increased POS itself may be indicating some awareness of tight physical supply. Usually, increases in the lease rates indicate some immediate physical shortage, often in London and usually temporary. One fine day this will occur but prove to be not so temporary. I hope I live long enough to see this.

I hope this helps some.
Thanks to Waverider, always on the alert for us. With her on duty, I know not too much will go unnoticed concerning the casinos, especially any metals' lease rate changes.
Rich



Goldilox (1/9/04; 11:15:10MT - usagold.com msg#: 114984)
Go Go Gadget Gold Chart!
INO, Kitco, and Focus.comdirect - you know where they are
Up toward the close. Can we break and hold $427?

By the way, one look at the DX and Kittie went back to bed again. These regular "dead cat bounces" are gonna make him a candidate for cat Prozac soon.

I'll give him some catnip when he awakens.


Great Albino Bat (1/9/04; 11:15:08MT - usagold.com msg#: 114983)
Golden Era (1/9/04; 09:19:32MT - usagold.com msg#: 114970)

Golden Era, I have the same hunch you have, and I have had it for a long time now.

The true insiders on gold are perhaps the world's most intelligent people - not necessarily the best people, but the smartest. They have called the shots in world affairs for hundreds of years.

We are as little children to these people, as far as knowing what is really going on.

Now, if we in our ignorance and innocence can perceive what is going on, and what has to happen, we can be absolutely certain they have known it for a long, long time as well.

It is my opinion that these people have been liquidating the only real assets of the world's central banks - GOLD - for quite some time now, because it was evident since before Nixon took the US off gold redemption back in 1971, that the present international monetary system was headed for disaster. That liquidation of Central Bank assets provided these insiders with vast amounts of gold which they were able to acquire very cheaply indeed.

I have a hunch about where massive stocks of gold will turn up someday, when things are again reorganized. It won't be Fort Knox! But I'll keep that to myself.

Sometimes intuition is spot on. And as Hoople quoted a bit earlier, Truth is Stranger than Fiction - and how! Be sure to get your share of gold a.s.a.p.

The GAB


DryWasher (1/9/04; 11:05:43MT - usagold.com msg#: 114982)
"Whom the gods will destroy, they first make mad...."

Great Albino Bat (msg#: 114946) wrote:

"Those are words from Greek tragedy, 2,400 years ago.

I can't help but think of those words, reading that Pres. Bush plans to build a permanent space station on the Moon, and send an expedition to Mars.

Good Lord! As if the current financial situation of the US was not desperate enough, more spending will be added to the present overload of deficit.

Mr. Bush appears to be clueless. He seems utterly out of touch with reality. Look at him in the news and he seems to exude confidence, he is quite merry and smiling."

DryWasher Comment:

Yes Sir GAB, you have it exactly right. From the sublime to the ridiculous, to the sublimely ridiculous, to the ridiculously sublime, to the total complete madness that this latest offering from the leader of the free world represents.

Is it any wonder that the Dollar is in a free fall this morning? It should be entertaining to see how the Democratic candidates respond to this proposal, not to mention the late night talk show hosts reactions.

Gold. Get you some, and hang on tight because me thinks we are in for a wild ride ahead.


Goldilox (1/9/04; 10:54:38MT - usagold.com msg#: 114981)
New high for today
http://focus.comdirect.co.uk/en/detail/_pages/charts/main.html?sSymbol=GLD.FX1
$426.80 off to new highs for the day.

PA - you're a genius!!


Paper Avalanche (1/9/04; 10:51:02MT - usagold.com msg#: 114980)
It may be a delay in reporting prices, but......
It would appear that the futures contract price is at 425.20 and the spot price is at 426.40 as of 12:50 EST.

Is there a shortage of physical gold?

PA


The Hoople (1/9/04; 10:47:51MT - usagold.com msg#: 114979)
Goldilox
You can't beat Duke Energy for a "resource writedown". They just took a 3.3 billion hit largely to reflect the declining market value of their merchant power plants. Who's a Joe Sixpack gonna trust? I saw those dinosaur abandoned plants a couple years ago and knew they weren't fessing up. I think it was Arthur C. Clarke who said the truth is always stranger than fiction. When all the truth is revealed on Wall Street I doubt if any fiction writer could dream of such total corruption. Meanwhile, gold shines through the din as it has for centuries.

Goldilox (1/9/04; 10:40:50MT - usagold.com msg#: 114978)
Gold Battle - continued
http://focus.comdirect.co.uk/en/detail/_pages/charts/main.html?sSymbol=GLD.FX1
$425.90 - here we go again.

Jump boyz, jump!!!!

Bite those CABAL jerks right on their wallet pocket!


Goldilox (1/9/04; 10:30:11MT - usagold.com msg#: 114977)
Gold Battle
http://focus.comdirect.co.uk/en/detail/_pages/charts/main.html?sSymbol=GLD.FX1
Someone is expending a lot of capital to keep gold under $425.

Clink! (1/9/04; 10:26:33MT - usagold.com msg#: 114976)
More on real estate
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/kettell/kettell010804.html
I should have posted the whole link, because the article was more interesting than just the first paragraph (I just got carried away with the TA). Coming to a US city near you soon ? He's talking about the early-to-mid 80s.

Snip

I want to tell you what many people in Houston (who still had jobs) did when home prices collapsed. They would have a house valued at say $60k, which had cost them $110k and on which they had a $100k mortgage. They would go out and buy a foreclosed house for $100k which was twice the size of their existing house. They told the lender they were in the process of selling their existing home, so the lender would gleefully approve them for the new loan. Their home payments would be about the same as on the first house. Then they would go out and buy a new car and anything else they needed to buy on credit. Finally, they would contact their lender on the first home and tell them that they were quit claiming the house over to them. Rather than fight it, the existing lender would take back the house and post the foreclosure to the credit report of the homeowner. The homeowners weren't bothered about the foreclosure, because they had their immediate needs covered, house, car, etc. The lenders wouldn't bother taking the owners to court, because they were inundated with foreclosures, and it was far cheaper for them to simply take the property back peaceably. Human ingenuity and/or conniving is incredible!

C!


steady (1/9/04; 10:23:13MT - usagold.com msg#: 114975)
gold smoking thru 420 again
half way thru its stash at the 420 level lets hope gold doesnt get so high that it stumbles and falls, gold looking for more than the head rush from 420!

Goldilox (1/9/04; 10:22:43MT - usagold.com msg#: 114974)
Royal Dutch Shares drop along with reserves inventory
CBS MarketWatch.com
snippit:

"But the oil sector was in freefall, after Royal Dutch/Shell reclassified the quality of 20 percent of its proven crude and natural gas reserves. In Amsterdam trade, Royal Dutch shares (RD, Trade) dropped over 6 percent, while other oils majors, such as France's Total (TOT, Trade), were lower as well, with Total down 1.6 percent."

Goldilox:

I guess if the banks and corporations can "lose" money from their books, it was only time before a resource company pulled the same shenanigans.


Clink! (1/9/04; 10:02:20MT - usagold.com msg#: 114972)
Wanna see a double top ?
Go to your preferred stock chart site and take a look at the six month window on PHM, LEN or DHI. You will see a beautiful medium-term rounded top, neatly cleaved into two short-term tops, the second top being typically bearish as it is lower than the first.

The relevence of this ? These are all homebuilders. Is real estate goin' down ?

C!


Goldilox (1/9/04; 09:49:06MT - usagold.com msg#: 114971)
Look out below!
http://charts-d.quote.com:443/1002980432830?User=demo&Pswd=demo&DataType=GIF&Symbol=DX00Y&Interval=10&Ht=600&Wd=800&Display=2&Study=MA&Param1=13&Param2=0&Param3=&FontSize=10
Dx at 85.04 - 84.xx next - Look out below!

Golden Era (1/9/04; 09:19:32MT - usagold.com msg#: 114970)
About Greenspan
Denarius,

Thanks for the response.

Just a follow-up thought. Can for all the gold that has been mined by man for thousand of years and all the gold that have been sold by the central banks be accounted for? What if they have been hoarded in hugh quantities by some covert organisation in the last few decades which only the select few like Greenspan is aware of.

Am I getting more Outrageous?




Waverider (1/9/04; 09:10:57MT - usagold.com msg#: 114969)
Silver too Goldilox....
http://focus.comdirect.co.uk/en/detail/_pages/charts/main.html?sSymbol=SLV.FX1
...the Silver bullet is not to be left behind... :)

Goldilox (1/9/04; 09:01:47MT - usagold.com msg#: 114968)
Spot and Spike @ $426
http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=FOREX_XAUUSDO&v=s
@ Gandalf

Don't hold the boyz back. They really want to JUMP today!


Golden Era (1/9/04; 08:50:08MT - usagold.com msg#: 114967)
About MARS
http://www.goroadachi.com/etemenanki/
An interesting alternative view-point about the conquest of MARS.

Goldilox (1/9/04; 08:48:44MT - usagold.com msg#: 114966)
Uranus?
@ steady

No gold, maybe gas. . .

GWB is announcing US Mars exploration plans later today - are we honoring the god of war?


Goldilox (1/9/04; 08:44:13MT - usagold.com msg#: 114965)
Statistics just don't work anymore?
CNBC is saying this about the jobs report. I wonder why the profits, ISM, GDP, and CPI numbers aren't scrutinized this heavily.

Let's see . . . 1000 jobs - that's about 1 per decent sized city. Christmas and all, I bet they were all last minute WMT Santas. That way, they won't be looking for work again until next Christmas.


steady (1/9/04; 08:42:14MT - usagold.com msg#: 114964)
markets to probe uranus?
markets to go look for gas on and in uranus?

allan greenspam want to go to uranus to check out its econiomic model?

is there fiat on uranus?

how much gold is under the surface of uranus?


Goldilox (1/9/04; 08:14:00MT - usagold.com msg#: 114963)
Jobs and Terror Reports
Five minutes after the release of the jobs report, showing 1000 new non-farm jobs in December, Tom Ridge gratiously drops the terror alert from Orange to Yellow. Such convenient information management.

He sure makes me feel more "SECURE". The most secure thing in his universe is his hair, which could probably withstand an airliner crash unfettered...


MK (1/9/04; 07:59:59MT - usagold.com msg#: 114962)
News & Views
http://www.usagold.com/AMK/MK-gold.html
Updated.

Breaking Gold News!

Scroll down for Stein's view of Mars probe.

You are invited to visit now, often. Updated regularly. Stay abreast the gold market via News & Views, this forum and Jon Warner's Afternoon Gold Market Reports.

This is the website where serious gold investors congregate and keep in touch with the market. Please bookmark this page.


White Rose (1/9/04; 07:34:43MT - usagold.com msg#: 114961)
Manybe we need the moon for energy
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/helium3_000630.html
Do a google search for three "words": helium 3 moon

The moon has a unique fuel for fusion reactors not found on the earth.

As far as we know, there are no moon guys with rocket-propelled gernades on the moon, so it is the perfect place to invade for the energy resources.

When the beast is faced with energy shortages, it will try all kinds of schemes.

I suspect that the Mars stuff will be dropped once Bush gets the price tag.


Clink! (1/9/04; 06:42:14MT - usagold.com msg#: 114960)
Gresham's Law
It would appear that, if there is really 80cents of metal value in a penny, and the dollar continues to fall as it has in the last months, we may be witness to a superb example of Gresham's Law in practice. A 'good' metal penny will more-or-less disappear, starting this year. What will be the first sign of distress ? How about the re-emergence of that campaign from a while back which had every cashier asking if you had any pennies ?

I'm not sure that I would go as far as actively buying tubes of pennies (although you get a LOT of weight for your money - silver lovers eat your heart out !), I have started to keep a jam jar for loose ones on my bedside table. If we have a severe bout of inflation, such as in Zimbabwe, it may be useful to have even smaller metal denominations than those silver dimes, quarters and halves. (It also helps to avoid questions from doubtful spouses who keep on muttering that you spend too much time on that computer reading about precious metals. "Er, it's for charity, honey. Let's both see if we can fill it up before next Christmas !")

Clink! (although, to be strictly sonorously accurate with this post, that should be Chink! Copper on glass, it's just not the same ...)


Usul (1/9/04; 06:12:39MT - usagold.com msg#: 114958)
Reserves shock hammers Shell
http://www.thisislondon.com/news/business/articles/timid72751?source=
"In a shock announcement that wiped about £2.5bn off the stock market value of the Anglo-Dutch group, Shell said it had over-reported its proven reserves by 25%"

This should not be a surprise to regular USAGOLD readers. According to the roach theory, and the observation that corporate behaviour is not dissimilar to that of sheep and lemmings, there may well not be just the one company that is overstating is reserves. Just another case of corporate rosy-scenario painting.

A 2002 study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Environmental Energy Technologies Division estimated that recoverable oil reserves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) reported in the media were overstated by about a factor of three for the prevailing oil price.

Dr Colin Campbell has calculated that over 300 Gb of world reserve claims are spurious. We are not far from the "Hubbert Peak". Of course, reserves may well be recoverable, but at a higher price. At some point the flow from the cheap pipelines is going to dry up, no matter how hard we pump.


Cavan Man (1/9/04; 05:56:18MT - usagold.com msg#: 114957)
US Space "plans"
We have the best economy debt can buy. Thanks GAB.

Dollar Bill (1/9/04; 05:51:10MT - usagold.com msg#: 114956)
*>*
If that fellow who was so hostile to my educators, by that I mean you guys, if he had just read longer, he might have seen the manipulation more and more. Here is another area of manipulation, the junk bond yield spread market. If companies can continue to roll over thier debt, and at low spreads, I guess even pigs can fly. How long? I guess the spreads are something to add to our list of watched items.

"as long as the corporate bond market remains healthy, then equity prices would be expected to continue their general uptrend, with nothing worse than the occasional correction happening from time to time.
junk bond yield spreads have narrowed by 700 basis points since hitting a record 1100 basis points during the near-meltdown. That means that we are only about 150 basis points away from the incredibly narrow spreads that prevailed in the two years prior to the Asian crisis. Those low spread levels sparked the surge in corporate debt issuance that led to the equity bubble.
..the next batch of corporate bond maturities that are stacked up in 2006-2008 comes onto the horizon. Should companies have as much trouble rolling over those maturities as they did in the 2001-2002 time frame, a repeat of the deflation in stock prices of the last few years could then happen. "


steady (1/9/04; 05:22:33MT - usagold.com msg#: 114955)
import exports
if im not mistaken which i often am, the feds reposaitory in ny, isnt classifyed as us soil so when trhey move gold out of the sa its not an export so there gold movements are not reported since they dont fall under usa controlled assets since the fed is a private non us owned bank! and the movement of there assests arent reflected on the balance shet of the usa,
why do u think we got deep storage gold?
cause the valuts are empty and the gold that may or not be in there is cstodial gold not reserve gold.

yep i know this choir hasnt forgotten the reclassificatio of the gold reseve from reserve stats and after they got bsted for that with there paper trail, they had to reclassify it once more to deep storage gold.

anyway lots of profligactic acts in the gold world to obstificate the trth and to create fog so the sheeple wont see the golden and silver beams that are subconsciously trying to call out to all and any who have not lost there innate ability to recognize true value and true wealth! gold and silver calling out to be rescued and restored to there proper place at teh top of the ecomonic food chain, in nature that is called dawinism, in the business world its called ecoism!


steady (1/9/04; 05:13:16MT - usagold.com msg#: 114954)
DiGiTs In ThE HuNdReDtHs PlAcE
dEy JuSt ApPeArD. wHaTs It MeAn?

Denarius (1/9/04; 05:11:37MT - usagold.com msg#: 114953)
@Bulldog ref: Golden Era

Bulldog (01/08/04; 21:34:09MT - usagold.com msg#: 114908)
Golden Era

If the $ gets pegged to gold, then given the amount of $, gold will be valued in 5 figures.
D> The number $36,000 has been estimated by some.

I myself am waiting for gold to be its own standard, beyond merely fiat.
D> An item does not become money when issued but only upon acceptance in payment. The power of gold to be money is intrinsic; it awaits only to be activated by your offer and another's acceptance. It is that simple. It requires no laws. It is it's own rule, the rule of universal acceptance. If I accept your offer of one ounce of fine gold for one of my equally fine goats guess what; WE are on the gold standard.

I do expect the physical supplies to dry up sooner than later. When they say, gold get you some, it is the best advice to follow. If we live long enough, this "wealth" will come.
D> The pressure to blow the top off the fiat scam has been building since the mid 1960s; it won't be much longer, imo.

If I get rid of any of my gold, it will not be for fiat, but to acquire assets.
D> That is EXACTLY the point that so many others don't get. There won't BE any fiat floating around when gold comes back into its own proper place for comerce and for wealth storage. As a necessary part of the return to real money, the Legal Tender Laws will be repealed. The only ways for you to get rid of your PM will be to spend it, make jewlery, or pass it on to your heirs. It is that simple.

=========================================================

D> As I see it, there will be your gold and the 'claim checks' you write on it to carry on normal living. Each of us that has PM will be in the position to BE our own bank. (No PM dealer I have spoken to seems to be able to understand that they have the perfect setup to be the new banks; they just can't seem to 'get it' - or my powers of communication are woefully lacking.)
Some may choose to deposit their gold into your bank, or another one with a proper vault, and write checks against their gold there. One such system already exists in the guise of GoldMoney, as I understand it. For large payments, the actual gold will be transferred from one person's vault to another much as international settlements were made by moving gold from one locker to another in the basement of the NY Federal Reserve Bank. Now the gold just sits there and the electronic claims on it are moved from one computer file to another. We have the technology to make it all so simple that the PTB will resist it to their end. So be it.

I expect these to be the final words ending an era: "A million fiat bid - none offered. This Exchange is Closed."

That is the exact point at which gold reclaims its rightful place as money, the only money. I think Anton Fekete had written something along these lines.


Denarius (1/9/04; 05:11:13MT - usagold.com msg#: 114952)
@Golden Era - About Greenspan - A ridiculous hunch?
----------------------------------------------------------
Golden Era (01/08/04; 18:45:21MT - usagold.com msg#: 114902)
About Greenspan - I suspect that Greenspan's hidden agenda is to intentionally create an environment that will "force" a situation for the US dollar to be pecked to Gold and other PM. A man of his stature is not known to be careless in speech as some may suggest and we all know how he feels about Gold. This has always been his "dream" but he cannot be upfront about what he is doing for political reasons until such time when he feels the world has reached that crossroad. - A ridiculous hunch?
----------------------------------------------------------
You are the fourth person I found who has independently thought of this exact possibility and expressed it publicly in the last several years. It is the kind of idea that is rejected out-of-hand when first proposed. You know, like taking flight in heavier-than-air machines or - now get this - actually flying a man to the MOON! Yep, right up there on the rediculous scale, imo.

I can't guess at how the USD can ever be tied to gold and other PM again. I can only postulate how the New-Dollar can have PM backing. It can get it by Imperial Decree, or by Executive Order as it is now known. The conditions under which such an EO could be issued would need to be no less devastating than they were in 1933 when the opposite ruling was made. Likewise, it will not be a move made in the glow of enlightment but in the darkness of despair.

Desperation - Depression - that's where Greenspan comes to the rescue with his marvelously convoluted yet quite simple plan of saving the nation and thereby the world. His plan will have been so well thought out over a span of forty years that it will engender no competition and little or no criticism. It will be implemented by an EO of President Cheney and hailed in the US Congress, thankful that their constitutional responsibilities have once again been lifted from their shoulders. It will lift the ugly mood off the nation even in the shadow of world skepticism - and just in time for Rumsfeld's election in 2008. It will be a happy time.

And that, buoys and gulls, is how Sir Alan became Saint Al. The End.

Naw, never happen, just our luck that Bernanke won't understand what Al will be trying to tell him from his death bed. Other than that, maybe.



Gold Standard (1/9/04; 05:09:07MT - usagold.com msg#: 114951)
Oh No! I've perpetuated an urban myth!
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/usa.asp

Sorry guys. I uncovered the following at www.snopes.com:

Snip>:

Claim: Japan renamed a town 'Usa' so that they could legitimately stamp their exports 'Made in USA.'

Status: False.

Origins: In the years after World War II, Japan, whose manufacturing capabilities had been almost completely wiped out by Allied bombing, attempted to rebuild both their economy and their industrial base by producing large quantities of inexpensive goods and exporting them to America and other countries. (The USA was the primary market, however, since it emerged from the war with a robust economy and had no damaged infrastructure to rebuild.) The phrase "Made in Japan" came to symbolize cheap, shoddy goods to Americans, and eventually the rumor arose that Japan had sought to avoid this stigma by deviously renaming one of its towns "Usa" so it could identify its products as being "Made in USA."

This rumor was almost certainly a tongue-in-cheek joke inspired by someone's noticing the coincidence of a town in Japan named Usa (and perhaps fueled by American xenophobia or lingering resentment of the Japanese). In fact, the Japanese city of Usa (on the island of Kyushu) was not creating by renaming an existing town; it was called Usa long before World War II. As well, nearly every country that imports goods requires them to be marked with the name of their country of origin, not a town or city, and it would have taken some circuitous (and probably expensive) routing to get goods marked "Made in USA" into other countries without anyone's noticing that they had originated in Japan. America, especially, Japan's largest market by far, would certainly have noticed the incongruity of goods marked "Made in USA" being imported into the USA.

<End snip

So much for a good story! However, it fits in well with my previously postulated historical perspective, that the urban myth even started.

Cheers! GS


Belgian (01/09/04; 04:57:20MT - usagold.com msg#: 114950)
@ Ari
The end game, ...visibly recognizable, you ask .
When the dollar-music stops playing the reserve-tune. When the dollar-reserves in the planet's CBs have become quasi worthless. When the growing new forces of real goods and services do accumulate, further growing "excesses" of reserve-dollars (Trillions) wich can't buy the right amounts of the right goods and services. Mountainchains of dollars in reserve for proportionate tiny hills of goods/services. Rising monetary expansion and declining rotation velocity of these confetti stashes (digits). Central Bank matters, Ari... pure CB stuff, Sir ! IMVHO, of course.

Can and/or will the dollar, in extremis, stop/decline the ongoing, further dollar (debt) expansion !? And "what" will be the net result on the global economy ? Is this predictable or not ? When does one changes its paper doll for a metallic one ? Wich girl on the ball, was, post factum, the right one to marry ...? Ohhhhhgggghhhpfffssttt.

Central Bankers are watching stocks going UP ! Are they ALL happy with the remaining "irrational" and "exhuberant" OVER_VALUATIONS ? And what about that crude oily sticky liquid, relentlessly, going UP (inflating) in dollar-price ?
C-Bankers all over the place are watching these things, aren't they Sir ? What can/will the CBers do as to bring down $ and € IRs to a level playing field and how stubborn will that exotic renmimbi/yuan, versus the planetary dollar-reserve, remain ? Will the (nationalistic) Japanese, stick to their old/aging dollar-contracts,...for ever and ever and watch the China dragon spitting fire ?

I am surprised how fast and early, (forex and other) analysts show a form of angst (strong doubts) in their assesment of the dollar (exch. rate)...price ?...value ?...use ?...
Is it because it is specifically about the "new" euro-currency, that some sort of dollar panic is exposed ???
Is this bizar attitude (Snow & Co) a sign for loss in the dollar self confidence ? Is there a breaking point ? Or are the "movers" in the market, overdoing things, just for gambling fun ?
What's your guess, Ari ?


Gold Standard (01/09/04; 04:41:38MT - usagold.com msg#: 114949)
@steady

Interesting. I was booked just the other day for expeeding the seed limit.

Cheers! GS


steady (01/09/04; 04:37:21MT - usagold.com msg#: 114948)
noise
behind every seed of adversity is another seed of equal or greater effect!

steady (01/09/04; 04:33:13MT - usagold.com msg#: 114947)
dollar
toast with jelly!

Great Albino Bat (01/09/04; 04:05:56MT - usagold.com msg#: 114946)
"Whom the gods will destroy, they first make mad...."

Those are words from Greek tragedy, 2,400 years ago.

I can't help but think of those words, reading that Pres. Bush plans to build a permanent space station on the Moon, and send an expedition to Mars.

Good Lord! As if the current financial situation of the US was not desperate enough, more spending will be added to the present overload of deficit.

Mr. Bush appears to be clueless. He seems utterly out of touch with reality. Look at him in the news and he seems to exude confidence, he is quite merry and smiling.

Worrisome!

Big investors are surely taking note and day by day, the decision to GET OUT OF DOLLARS becomes totally unavoidable.

The neocon warhawks are openly pressuring Mr. Bush for MORE WAR! As if Iraq and Afghanistan were not enough, now they are calling for war on Syria; they deplore the slight improvement in relations with Iran (earthquake assistance) and the want a total blockade of North Korea, with preparations to take out the nuclear installation there with a first strike.

More madness! The dollar is toast! Gold is the only solid alternative left. Buy some more today from CPM.

The GAB


Belgian (01/09/04; 02:53:25MT - usagold.com msg#: 114945)
@L.H. @ G.S.
Liberty Head : Last time, I passed through Monaco, I didn't noticed many Flinstone characters hanging around as the prélude to a Euroland, becoming part of the third world within the next decade. In Francorchamps ( F1-Belgium) we know who Mr.Ecclestone is and are therefore not too impressed (depressed) by his rather funny statement. Smile, Sir and let us add some salt.

Gold Standard : Nice analysis of the Japan/China story (history-future). One or several entities can be strong,... even very strong,... in one or many ways...for brief or longer periods. But this planet needs, urgently, Another International Monetary order as to consolidate all those different *strengths* in their right, harmonic proportions.
There is less and less "considerable" time...especially if financial/monetary things keep on evolving as they do, today.

Everything you produce and the "worth" of your capacity to produce, must ultimately be "VALUED" in something tangible, universal and lasting !!!
The dollar lost that priviledge some decades ago and Gold isn't yet allowed to take over that specific role.

Japan got military protection from the US (since WWII) in exchange for its (Japan) formidable capacity to produce/manufacture. The US has derived its military might from the planet's (ending) support of the dollar-system. It seems to me that this old story is running its last chapter. More dollars and bombs are not an everlasting coctail for harmonious evolution. On the contrary, I should say. More dollars and bombs are needed to hide the decaying worth/practicality of the dollar system.

The dollar IR (1%) wants the euro IR (2%= double) to come down...NOT SO FOR ECONOMICAL REASONS... but for monetary favoritism !!! That's why the C-Banker personalities have become so publicly (over)important !!! China (and the ME-Russia) will/are watching this dollar-euro game with much more attention than ever before. Global Monetary turmoil is here to stay and will gradually increase. Trichet is definitely going to be a new wind through the landscape. The outcome is unknown and unpredictable.


Goldilox (01/09/04; 02:05:49MT - usagold.com msg#: 114944)
Signing "OFF"
My talking computer just interrupted Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks to tell me "It's one o'clock." The cat's scratching teh door to get out again, so I better catch him and get us some shut-eye.

Gold is rising slowly in Europe, so maybe for once this week we won't run out of steam as soon as Wall St opens for business. I'm hoping PA is right and we have a barn burner in the AM.


Goldilox (01/09/04; 01:32:01MT - usagold.com msg#: 114939)
London open
http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=FOREX_XAUUSDO
It looks like Gordon Brown tried to play Japanese at the open, but ran out of cash in a jiffy!

slingshot (01/09/04; 01:21:34MT - usagold.com msg#: 114938)
Gold Standard
Sometimes fame is not what you expect it to be.
But, I'll take it. ;0)
Slingshot----------<>


Goldilox (01/09/04; 01:12:02MT - usagold.com msg#: 114936)
Background
Thanks for the kind words Mr. G-

As to my professional background, I was a computer engineer (with no formal education) and worked my way from wiring wafer fab test jigs (for $2.75/hr) in 1972 to speaking at Analyst Conferences after 9-11-01 on techniques and technologies for data disaster recovery. Yep, I was part of the "Internet revolution". But then, I was part of the digital watch revolution, the digital automobile revolution, and the PC and storage revolutions, as well. I built a career around embracing the latest and greatest in technology, having grown up in Silicon Valley.

I only got involved in investing and finance when my industry blew up in 2002, leaving me to manage my own financial affairs as an unemployed but not completely assetless computer engineer. It has been a refreshing change; sometime scary - sometime exhilarating. Sometimes things happen in life that seem catastrophic which upon later examination are revealed to be genuine gifts. Now it seems my new-found responsibilities to manage financial affairs by my own efforts is blossoming into a wealth of knowledge, some from this forum and some by the trial and error of online investing.

Had I remained employed through this tech debaucle, I would probably watch my assets get trashed again in Bear Phase II with no recourse in my financial toolbox. Instead I have committed a substantial % to the golden path, paper and physical, which, along with my remaining tech assets has beaten all the averages this year.

The hacks on the radio that say they can get me 25-30% are hilarious. That barely covers the dollar devaluation. My last boss was a tech analyst/consultant who took his pay in charter stocks and got out in 2000 with >$100M. I once heard him tell a money manager that "anything less than 50% annual gain was rolling dice instead of researching." I understand that today.

Finally, I love to comment on the bad joke that the marriage of politics and finance has bred into our "Great Society", but I love even more the education I get from the diverse realm of posters. This is fun, but my future really does depend on it.





Mr Gresham (01/09/04; 00:41:41MT - usagold.com msg#: 114933)
Goldilox
Your questions might go unanswered -- lots is unresponded to here because of the sheer time it takes to read and think about all that is posted.

But I enjoy your posts for the information you discover for us, and the sharp comments and viewpoints you share with us. Your professional background is visible in a lot of it, and your curiosity to learn more marks you as a valuable contributor who gets my attention every time you have something to say.


Belgian (01/09/04; 00:35:59MT - usagold.com msg#: 114932)
@ GAB : Good Morning, Sir
I just had a sleepless and exiting (fascinating) night with a Belgian study (University of Leuven-analysis) of the ECB actors and their background : Wim Duisenberg (NL), J.C. Trichet (Fr), Otmar Issing (Ge), Lucas Papademos (Gr).

Four different euro-Central Bankers with a "cause". Two big nations on the "old" European continent, with a long "history" and a brand new future in sight.

*If*, "Germany" AND "France" keep evolving as they do at present,... Euroland is going to make it happen. The euro-alternative for the existing dollar-world.

A Euroland, going "strong" because of its complementary diversity ! The highly probable and desirable Germany/France-mix is a very powerfull combination. Watch how Trichet and what he stands for, is going to maneuver in concert with complementary, aligning forces !

No, nothing can be taken for granted, yet. Euroland is still climbing the huge wall of worries. And Big failures aren't to be excluded, at all. But since I start realizing what we already have been through... I'm getting more, realistically optimist, by the day.

In the past 100 years, central banking has been responsible (driving, decisive force) for shocking events. Dramatic changes. There is much more to come from the might (and manipulation + intrige) *behind* the euro !!!.

Gold...the reserve-asset evolving into the wealth-asset, will turn out to be the Big Surprise at the "appropiate" moment !!! Not one single second earlier.
Repeat...Gold as the central bankers reserve asset, next to the dollar, will (have to) evolve into the general wealth asset, by and through the euro-central-bankers. That's exactly "why", these central bankers say so very little about the precious.
The €-$ exchange rate target of 1,30-1,40 is only phase "one" in the Trichet maneuvering. The dollar will never give up its increasing efforts to divide the young, maturing EU and its ECB policies and tasks. Different people have different ideas about a CB's tasks (duties).
Trichet has that everlasting sense of French "grandeur" and wishes to include pragmatic Germany (entirely) in his C-Banking strategies. A strong and stable euro, serving EU stable growth and an expanding euro as an attracting dollar-alternative.

No change in IRs means No accomodation for the dollar without hurting the EU economy. C-Bankers are supposed to have statistical information that is not available to the observing public. That's why the decodation of the C-Bankers' interpretations are sometimes difficult, misunderstood (misintrepreted) by the observers and financial actors in the markets, running with the ball and missing the game.

The weak/strong-dollar debate and action, will go on for a while. In the mean time the euro keeps putting its own house in order, again and again, whilst we await the Golden times. Watch the game AND don't miss the Golden ball.
Have a nice day. B. @ GAB.









Gold Standard (01/09/04; 00:24:10MT - usagold.com msg#: 114931)
The Japanese and the Yen-Dollar support

I am not an expert in anything. However, as a keen observer, my rationale for the BOJ-US dollar intervention is as follows. It is a simplistic viewpoint, and liable to be refuted by far greater minds than mine at this Table!

The Japanese, as a nation, are "makers". (No Dune jokes, please!). They "make" things. They import raw materials because they do not have any sufficient supplies of their own, and process those raw materials. The things they "make", the US (and the rest of the world) wants to buy.

In the 1950's and 1960's, the "Made in Japan" stamp was cause for derision, much the same way as a "Made in Cuba" stamp would be laughed at today.

Indeed, it may be urban legend (or it may be true - I'm far to lazy to research into these things), that one of the northern islands called Usa had an enormous assembly industry, so that the coveted "Made in USA" stamp could be applied to goods. But, I digress....

During the 1970's, these guys really got their arses into gear. The stuff they "made" became better, and better, to become the world's best in the 1980's.

Suddenly, that laughable "Made in Japan" stamp became an icon of quality. They started outsourcing manufacturing processes for "cheap" stuff to developing nations, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and ultimately to the arch-enemy, China.

It's all the economics of manufacture, you see. A manufacturing corporation will go broke paying assembly workers Japanese standard wages, so they simply out-sourced (does this sound familiar?) the labour component of manufacture of "cheap" items.

When is the last time you bought a "Japanese" consumer item (a camera, a DVD player, a lap-top, etc. etc.) from a well-known "Japanese" name, that had a "Made in Japan" stamp on the back. Hmmmm, I thought so.

Japan NEEDS to export manufactured goods, and the only goods they manufacture in Japan (now, "world's best" quality) are big-ticket items - cars, plasma TV, air-con, and similar things. The "little" things that built the Japanese manufacturing behemoth have all been out-sourced.

Japan hates and fears China. Whilst our Western ancestors were living in caves and trying (usually unsuccessfully) to smash two rocks together to get a spark, the Japanese and Chinese waged sophisticated war, and during times of relative peace engaged in complex commercial arrangements.

Today, the Japanese fear China. Why? - Simply because the "Made in China" stamp is rapidly gaining the acceptance, perhaps even the iconic cachet, that the "Made in Japan" stamp has enjoyed for the past 25 years.

The Japanese, being "makers", NEED to sell their product. The biggest consumer market (at the moment) is the good old USA. If the USA consumer market fails, so too does the remaining Japanese manufacturing market for big-ticket items.

The Japanese fear China. China is doing what Japan did 30 years ago. However, there is a difference:

(1) Labour costs are significantly less in China, and they will not need to out-source to maintain profitability.

(2) China does not need to import a proportionally equivalent amount of raw materials, being blessed with an abundance of natural resources that have not been exploited so far. Whilst their own resources are underdeveloped, the Chinese are net importers, but this is guaranteed to change in the near-term future.

The Japanese can see China become the "makers" of the 21st century, leaving the Japanese manufacturing industry out in the cold, and the Japanese economy laid to waste. The Yuan peg to the USD ensures a lock-step competitive devaluation of the Chinese currency as against the Yen, and the only means available to the BOJ at present to likewise devalue its currency (i.e. to ensure that the cost of its exported big-ticket items does not go through the roof) is to buy US dollars and Treasuries.

Only history will tell us whether this has been a successful or a suicidal ploy.

Cheers! GS





Liberty Head (01/09/04; 00:19:41MT - usagold.com msg#: 114930)
Ferrari's, BMW's and Mercedes in China?
http://f1.racing-live.com/en/index.html
Snippit
Formula one boss, Bernie Ecclestone-"We will have to cancel some of the European races sooner or later. Our sponsors want us in growing markets – and Europe isn't a growing market. As I see it, Europe will be part of the third world in 10 years, while Asia and America will be dominating the world. We must be established there."
The F1 circus will already be stopping at two new venues this year, Bahrain and China.
_________________
Liberty Head

If you want to follow in the the footsteps of the giants, Bernie knows the giants personally. They are all neighbors, having Yachts of fun in Monaco, while wearing velour suits. ;-)

Best Wishes


Goldilox (01/09/04; 00:10:25MT - usagold.com msg#: 114929)
Silver liquidity
@ Ari

That's why I asked (there were lots of ????? in that post). "Average Joe" probably has only an Ameritrade account, so I didn't really envision "Joe" working the Comex at all. If anyone is taking delivery, I thought it might be pressuring the exchange to dust off the storage bins. Not as relief, but more a requirement of insurance against larger daily moves. I have no evidence, it was just a question.

I have no experience in the commodities markets. I am thrilled when someone actually answers one of my questions. They're often passed by.




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