It is possible that some the world's central banks are not listening to the advice of the BIS, and the BIS - out of frustration, is appealing to any receptive audience that it can get. Could it be that the US and Japan are not cooperating? Interesting -- and a little frightening. And -- I thought that AG was a member of the BIS board of directors.

What I would like to know what the BIS really thinks of the runaway OTC derivatives trades, now in the hundred trillion dollar ( annual? ) range. Their real opinion is probably unprintable.

http://www.asia1.com.sg/biztimes/2/focus21.html

Why does the Japanese Government not buy gold right now? The answer is straightforward -- they are up to their eyeballs in debt and they know it. It is not clear to me how much of the $11 trillion ( US$? ) funds saved by the industrious Japanese has been squandered by their leaders. Almost certainly more than 50%. Must be a bitter pill for the average Japanese to swallow -- that all of that hard earned money is gone -- due to the stupidity of their own government. So -- they must sell hard assets, not buy them.

I think the reason for President Hashimoto's stinging comments last year is in relation to the Japanese bitterness in realizing that they bought too many dollars, and not enough long-term hard assets such as gold. The Japanese have a traditional knack for copying new American technology, making it even better, and selling a better engineeered project back to us. This time they copied our 'fiat' currency, and did an even better job than we did at creating a financial bubble in the real estate and equities markets.

I think it is far more likely that the Japanese leaders will have to swallow their pride, and try to appropriate the relatively small amount of gold that Japanses people have saved. I would expect the Japanese will sell all of their US dollar-based equities over the next few years, as they must know that the days of the US dollar are numbered, and they desperately need the cash.

Once the Japanese economy is again on a strong footing, then they will start buying gold in quantity. I'm sure they have learned their lesson, along with SEAsia. But it will take years for them to dig themselves out fo the hole they are in. It will be interesting to see whether the Yuan devaluation is the last straw -- no facts yet, just rumors.

Is it still possible to get Gram Parson's music?

goodnight, all.

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON ( AP ) -- In the earliest evidence linking President Clinton to a foreign donation, investigators have unearthed a 1992 memo indicating James Riady took a coveted private car ride with Clinton just before the Indonesian banker began writing checks that totaled half a million dollars.

Riady ``will be giving $100,000 to this event and has the potential to give much more,'' Clinton was told in a memo Aug. 14, 1992, that advised he would share a car ride that day with the Indonesian billionaire after a fund-raiser. Clinton was then the Democratic presidential nominee. The memo, obtained by The Associated Press, was written by Melinda Yee, the Democratic Party's outreach director for Asian Americans. It said Riady, whose family controls the Lippo banking and industrial empire, wanted to talk to Clinton ``about banking issues and international business'' and the car ride was ``a courtesy call.''

Clinton's schedule for that day says Riady greeted Clinton at the door of an Arkansas restaurant where the two attended a Democratic fund-raiser and then took a five-minute car ride. In political circles, the one-on-one access of a car ride, no matter how brief, is a plum privilege.

The memo, schedule and checks were brought to the attention of the Justice Department months ago by congressional investigators. Attorney General Janet Reno has resisted naming an independent counsel to investigate fund raising although the chief of her campaign fund-raising task force and FBI director Louis Freeh have urged such an appointment. The chief of the task force, Charles LaBella, is writing a report and will make a final recommendation.

Federal law forbids U.S. candidates and parties from accepting foreign money. The law allows foreigners who are legally and permanently residing in the United States to make donations. U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies can only donate if they use funds generated inside the United States.

The memo to Clinton clearly noted that Riady had moved from the United States. ``He has flown all the way from Indonesia, where he is now based, to attend the fund-raiser,'' it said. And some of the donations were written from Lippo Bank in California on what appear to be starter or counter checks lacking the normal numbering of a personal checkbook.

The bank statements reviewed by investigators show Riady continued to infuse his account with a string of $9,000 credits. The last donation is recorded in campaign records on Oct. 27, 1992. Three days later, Riady's bank statements suggest his account was replenished with $330,000 from Jakarta, the sources said.

Two weeks later, the couple contributed $200,000 to Clinton's inaugural fund.

The gene pool on our cultivated plants is shrinking at an astonishing rate. Anyone who helps to keep it out of one company's hands is on my side of that particular fence.

Did you know that only a hundred years ago, there were hundred of apple cultivars grown?

My last heading was Rob, who does not do his homework.

Without that, my post makes no sense. Sorry.

Fine host I turned out to be!

I appreciate that one guy with a big estate in Great Britain has decided to dedicate a large part of it to preserving the old ways of fertilizing, and the variety of the genepool.

As for Charley, he is one ugly guy who is honest and smart, and actually using his land for the benefit of mankind. This is almost too good to be true, yet it is. I don't look a gift horse in the mouth when it presents itself.

You should go read up on economic history, and come back next year.

Promey

Love that low cholesterol diet! Still the same weight I was at 21. Yessir!

Why do you suppose the American medical establishment refuses to recognize decades of British and European research on the subject?

CFTC ( http://www.cftc.gov/cftc/ ) , a govt regulatory agency, or the NFA ( http://www.nfa.futures.org/menu.html ) .

Always a good idea to check with them before going with a new broker . . . saved me from choosing the wrong broker

when I first started.

up nearly $US 5 ( $291.20 to $296 ) on June 8, the $A Gold price

has taken off. It is approaching the $A 500 level.

This has broken the $A Gold price out of a six week trading

range ( on the P&F chart ) and established a very pretty new

uptrend line.

In fact, if you want to take a look at a GORGEOUS Gold chart,

check out the $A chart at The Privateer website.

In Europe later today there is the G-7 emergency Finance

Ministers' meeting in Paris AND the inaugural European Central

Bank ( ECB ) meeting. The ECB meeting is the one where

there is high expectation that a Reserve Ratio for Gold as

backing of the Euro will be announced. We'll have to wait

and see on that one.

Back to $A Gold. It was the breakout of the trading range

on this chart back in late March that signalled the $US Gold

move above $US 300 and to its recent $US 314 ( spot month close )

high. Here's another signal from the $A Gold price. The

$A price has signalled every major Gold upmove for the past 12

years - including 1985-1986 and 1993.

There's no buy signal on the $US P&F Gold chart yet, but

the $A Gold chart has certainly given a signal.

Updates on the $A - $US Gold comparison page, and updates

on Gold charts in $A - $US - Yen - and DMarks are posted

at The Privateer website.

http://www.open.by/belarus-now/cont/1998/0602/finance/index.html

My read at the moment: Long term: sideways.

Medium term: sideways.

Short term: Up.

Erratic gold is for speculators,

not investors

6/6/98

THE average South African still has a blind-spot when it comes to gold

and gold shares. Raise the issue of the gold price at a dinner party and

you're certain of finding more than half the guests believing that one

day the gold price will start soaring, taking gold shares with it.

To understand this strange phenomenon one has to go back almost

two decades, especially from 1976 to 1980 when the gold price soared

to $850 an ounce.

Many investors made fortunes out of their gold shares, because there

are few investments that offer the kind of gearing that South African

gold shares do.

I remember cutting my teeth as a financial journalist in the heady days

of this gold rush. The gold price and soaring gold shares were a

feature of almost every newspaper, radio and television broadcast.

Without fail, analysts were predicting a gold price in the thousands of

dollars rather than in the hundreds.

On January 21, 1980 the gold price peaked at $850 an ounce and

started dropping. It hasn't stopped since.

An overview of the gold share market shows a steady decline with short

bursts of upward movement, often spectacular, but the trend has

remained downwards.

Those South Africans who still feel that one day the world will wake up

to the intrinsic investment quality of gold as the ultimate store of value,

need to have been at this week's Saturday Star/Magnus Heystek

Investments Investors Club meeting in Johannesburg, where Michael

Price, the president of Franklin Asset Managers, addressed the

audience via a satellite link-up.

I waited for the inevitable question from the audience: What are your

views on gold and the gold price, Mr Price?

Price, like all other international speakers that we have used in recent

years, was quite brutal in his reply.

I have never bought gold or gold shares in my life, was the reply, swift

and prompt. No discussion.

The response from the audience was unbelieving, almost hostile. After

the seminar several members of the audience came to have a chat

about, you guessed it, gold and their views of the gold market.

Many other investors hold similar views, especially elderly investors

who remember the good old days. They simply cannot bring

themselves to sell their gold shares.

But the message is clear and has been for some time. The gold

industry is in a sunset phase, with many mines coming to the end of

their lives.

The message, as far as I'm concerned, is that gold shares are for

speculators, not for investors. You may make money when the gold

price runs, but you cannot depend on an asset as unpredictable as

gold.

From BBC News:

( Clinton ) also pledged US assistance for financial intelligence units dedicated to rooting out the passage of drug money, as well as praising the efforts of poorer drug-producing countries to stamp out the drugs industry within their own borders.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_109000/109299.stm

I believe I saw this at the Biltmore House ( Asheville NC ) .

Pick and choose among these links - a lot of stuff on the subject here.

http://infind.inference.com/infind/infind.exe?query=nuclear+test+earthquake&time=7&x=38&y=18

Not interested in particular companies, rather an overall site such as Kitco.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

However , these leprechauns have no clue to the real world economy.

The mining sector can't stand for long a POG which cancels their profit potential without drastic mine closures.

The ride to 300$ has been enjoyed by hedge funds and trend followers without second thoughts.The effect is paradoxal as CBs now understand that they have engineered a short squeeze of biblical proportion.

To avoid mine closures , they need the POG to go back to the 340/360 area where most mines are still profitable.Then , they think that supply is not going to dry up.

But it is to late: the cumulated shorts run in the 8000 T .

Trailing stops will kick in around 325/340.

It will be fun to watch.

If a worldwide monetary crisis unfolds at the same time , it will be double fun.

http://www.un.org/ga/20special/

I can't give you any advice on what you should do, but after making my maximum allocation to the PM mining stocks, I started again accumulating PM ( physical ) with discretionary income, just has you have.

I'm just buying the stuff in about a constant dollar amount monthly, and sticking it back without concern about the short-term POG.

Perhaps this definition you are referencing is an old one, unless someone is making restrike coins with the old dates.

New gold coins from the European countries are minted as bullion coins along the Troy ounce standard ( and fractional ounces ) such as Austrian Philharmonic, UK Britannia, Switzerland 'New' Helvetia, etc. - there are not any minted in terms of Gold Francs that I am aware of.

This would mean that we are entering a wave 1 of the THIRD Wave of a bull market.

My understanding of the US banking system is as follows: Banks have the ability to create money via the reserve requirement system.If you deposit 100 $ in a bank , ( 100 $ being our initial money supply ) then the bank can lend say 90 $ to another entity ( new money supply is 190$ ) keeping the 10 for reserve requirements ( which is supposed to rein in money supply growth ) .

Now the borrowing entity will buy goods or deposit the money in the same or another bank.The later will be able to lend 81 $ ( money supply is at 271 $ ) ...

Now the money that economic units have at their disposal to start that process consists of circulating money supply plus the one created by bond issues to pay government expenses. With the current economic boom ( lots of lending ) and the huge outstandig government debt no wonder that the money supply is quickly growing and at a pace disconnected with the real growth of the economy namely the GDP.

If the growth in money supply was related to business investments there would be no problem ( at least not as much ) but most of the money is diverted in non productive investments ( stocks, bonds and esoteric financial speculation ) .The game might work as long as financial investments perform better than the cost of borrowing.

The question is what will bring the demise of the current paradigm?

If excess capital is continuously created and diverted into financial products to the extent that there is no or small inflation in consumer goods the pyramid scheme will blow in one of the following 2 scenarios ,which in fact are connected: deflation of financial assets to the extent that the debt accumulated to enter the game can't be repaid or negative growth wich would make company default and would as well shock the stock market.

What will happen then? The FED is likely to loosen its monetary policy. ( which it did in 1987 and it worked fine )

This time however the pile of debt is not comparable to what it was then and a Japanese scenario is likely to develop in the US.

Thus any deflation would be short lived.The system can't afford deflation and will have to inflate no matter what.

BUY GOLD

Does anybody have the text of FDR 's recall of GOLD?

Does anybody knows what is exactly and precisely the capital structure of the FED?

THANKS

The vacuum effect created by the bond market in this country will greatly hurt other countries friendly to the United States. The U.S. bond market has already sucked up a great deal of wealth from foreign countries. The trade deficit is the harbinger of that. Foreigners are shipping goods to this country to pay for their bonds. They do not mind selling their wares at an unfavorable exchange rate,and will continue to do so for so long as the yield on bonds is better than the productivity of labor and capital. How long friendly governments will tolerate the flight of capital to the United States is unknown.

Antal Fekete, Deflation:Retrospect and Prospect, CMRE Monograph 45, April 1986.

EU looks to be a good deal for banks, insurance cos., and others looking to exploit weak local markets. The currency itself will likely be subject to the equivalents of the shipper's hurdles. States' rights is going to get a new chapter, and it will not look as rosy as the unionist propaganda going in. It may not matter much for quite some time whether the currency is backed by gold or by mineral water ( gazeuse ) .

Signor Shipper laughed uncontrollably when the EU was mentioned and spat contemptuously and frequently. The essence of his contempt is that local ( meaning anything up to national ) officials ( defined as those most officious ) have circumvented the dividends of union by laying on fees, licenses, tolls, and, naturally, bribes, to replace the tarriffs which are history. Beyond these normal operating expenses are the delays, often for the flimsiest of reasons, which lead to lost cargoes and lost customers.

EU looks to be a good deal for banks, insurance cos., and others lookin

http://www.iinet.net.au/~standeyo/Special_News.html#Hot_News

Old soldier/Retired soldier: Any missing Russian subs?

chas: You are our resident seismologist. Did you get any real time data? False alarm from Belarus, or nuclear explosion? I think we would have known about an meteor event, also.

But -- it is typical of the newsmongers that WJC uses. I like your simpler idea that it is a 'half-baked' WJC newsbyte better than my hidden conspiracy idea. More palatable, and more curable. Just remove the source. Looks like Kenneth Starr will succeed in making sure our next president is not a Democrat. I just hope the Replicans can get their act together, as I think a third party will no be viable -- yet.

( oh TeddO ) ..........how's my buddy doin' ( ) ............hmmmmmm......... ( melancholically ( ? ) speaking ) ..............

Kuston - I am coming to Phoenix JULY 3 thru JULY 6.......Golf on Sat JULY 4 is the only time. I know it will be hot, hot, hot and the fourth-o-July is not great timing either but it is the only day I can 'get away' during this forced family'inlaw' long weekend. Can we do something At Karsten eblm@mci2000.com Let me know asap please.....

D.A. - I trade currencies because these markets have good volatility and I seem to have a decent feel for the trends. I am not immoral......not today anyway ;- ) .....good to see you posting.........thanks bro. go silver ( ! )

trader ed - I am in agreement with whoever said it.....the CAN$ has not yet shown it's lows. And I think the same about the grains too........although I will be going in for some bean meal veeeeerrrrrryyyyy sooooooooon......uh huh. Sugar is still a good play.....more downside not much......imo. And October sugar will be the play........ohmy ( ! )

Earl - I am still impressed..... ( damn ) ........you make a great case for Silver getting knocked down some more. Your daily chart did not look too promising for next week.......nope. We need some more of your good stuff......I like this candlestick talk.

JohnD - I like Iceberg Lettuce. It is good loaded with brocoli and carrots and croutons with your favorite dressing........mmmmmmmmmm good. Had a big bowl tonight in your honor.........no tomatoes...... ( don't like 'em in salad ) ..........

Spock........all discussion can be related to precious metals............use scroll...... ( friendly reminder ) .....live long and prosper.

US$ - wow........the beat goes on.

DJ - thank you for the weekend channels.....they are great......... ( that you post them I mean ) .........tick-tock, tick-tock.

away.......to the charts.....and then the couch.....but not before some ice cream......yum-yum.

Éß

What seems to be happening appears to be an organized attempt to discredit leadership of any kind. This makes me wonder if there are members of the US government that inherited some of the Nazi mass control techniques post WWII, and are manipulating public opinion. This kind of a consipiracy would be nearly impossible to prove, one way or the other.

It is possible that our government is now so big that it has several shadowy, self-sustaning organizations that do not answer to any particular president or political party. I can only hope that possible secret organizations such as this will fail in the long run. I think our only defense against this is periodic clean sweeps of political parties. We do need a viable political party that can attract a significant part of the public vote. But given the current bullish climate, such a new party will not get enough support until the US markets fade in a big way. So, we must be patient.

On a more positive note, I am pleased to note that our government does indeed still have 3 functioning branches ( in a fashion ) , and that we at least do not have the giant interlocking corporations of Japan and South Korea. If we did not have this economic diversity, we would not have recovered as well as we did since 1991. And, freedom of the press seems to be having a second life -- as exemplified by Matt Drudge. That is a start in the right direction. Lastly we have not yet had our 'crossing of the Rubicon' so things might get better again.

What deflationary events could cause the cry0 to bottom? Anoother yuan devaluation, or a Brazil/South America crash. Comments?