How's this for technology working....

My 56K V.9 modem never 'went' faster than 28Kb with an analog line. I have since installed an ISDN ( I Still Don't Know ) , Integrated Services Digital Network line. Now with my ISDN moden, I can have two analog lines derived from the digital lines. The V.9 modem now works at 50+Kb on the 'new' analog lines going through the ISDN modem. Of course, there's the ISDN at 128Kb. Now, for the Phone company to get a DSL line to me for a flat rate. Then the problem comes in of what speed do I want? 640Kb/s, ~1.2Mb/s, or 7.2 Mb/s? The mid level choice is almost as fast as a T1 connection. Will wonders never cease, and I can even use phone when surfing the 'net with the ISDN or DSL service.... :- ) )

I think the cable companies are going to be in for some competition here for the 'fast' 'net......

Cable companies want about $50/month for cable modem internet at 1.2Mb/s on a 'party line that slows down with more users attached ( also have to have cable at +$ ) . Phone company wants to charge ~$60/ month for 640Kb/s with no slow down or security problems that cable companies have.

Is this the new economy? We all sell services to each other? Hmmmm.

stay ahead of it.................THAT IS why we're here! Just trying to

get an edge on the left hooks coming our way. ( & getting a little

hawaii money.....& a little college money.....& a little... )

I do hope the bailout succeeds. But -- what irks me is that a successful bailout of Mexico was performed in 1995 -- with the US coughing up almost singlehandedly about 20 billion. Now we hear that the Mexicans are in the hole about 60 billion -- which I think the Mexican people are somehow expected to subsidize. After what they have been through -- due to their leaders -- I can imagine what would happen if any Mexican leader made it evident to the Mexican people who was bankrolling the 60 billion. So -- what happens -- inflate the Mexican currency some more?

Why do I think Brazil is no different?

Combined deficits of national and local

governments, estimated at over 50 trillion yen, will likely

top 10% of gross domestic product...yep now switching to the russian papers.

For Public Money

TOKYO ( Nikkei ) -Hakuo Yanagisawa, minister without

portfolio in charge of financial revitalization, said

Thursday that he hopes banks will make full use of the 25

trillion yen in public funds set aside to replenish capital.

The call was seen as urging banks to apply for larger

infusions. Currently, the big banks still appear reluctant

and are considering applying only for sums of between

100 billion yen and 500 billion yen.

He stressed the large infusions of public money were

necessary, despite fears among the finance industry about

the burden in paying it back.

I've put up a new chart at The Privateer website. This one is a $US 2 x 3 Point and Figure chart back to 1990. You can see what happened during the Gulf war on the chart. But more to the point is the situation on the chart right now. It's as tight as it can be.

This is an excellent chart for seeing at a glance the importance of the $US 300 level.

Fortunately there are a few pioneers ( die hards? ) still slugging it out, some of them associates of mine. Everyone heard of Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountatin Institute? I do not know him personally, but I do think his work is admirable. Real Goods, Inc if you have not heard about it, has a great alternative energy catalogue, though it is a little pricey. Lots of tidbits for the engineering types.

So -- what worries me is that we apparently have signed some sort of international agreement, probably with few of the real alternative energy Guru's like Amory Lovins involved. Some sort of plan needs to be made up so that we don't find ourselves buried in directives that can't be met. Or ones that cause unneeded financial hardship. It will take time to restart the alternative anergy programs our illustrious leaders shut down in their brilliant shortsightedness -- another item ( like education -- Tax deductions/rebates on college ) that our supposedly 'Green'/'Pro-education 'leaders forgot to work on after their election in 1992. Congress is also to blame. The Republicans missed a great opportunity for energy independence. And -- an opportunity to revive our local energy resource program -- though that would be long term, unfortunately given the low price of oil. Admittedly they would have a problem with their pro-'big' business stance.

My reasoning is that we must trim our energy useage at the very least so that we do not become hostage to another MidEast crisis. We should be using our valuable oil ( nonrenewable ) for making plastics -- not sending it up the smokestake to make electricity. Just wait till 2010-2015 and oil goes out of sight.

I still remember that Windmill company that went belly up about three years ago -- Windmere I think it was called.

I'm not sure it is right to let off 'scott-free' certain countries such as China -- but we must lead by example as a mature industrial nation that should know better. Once we have done better with the techology our alternative energy 'diehards' have developed, we will be in a better position to encourage other countries to do the same. And -- a nice side benefit will be that we will see less smog between the cars in LA, and we will not have perpetual sore throats when the inversions occur ( I did ) . And -- we would not have to tell our children to stay inside when the pollution gets bad.

Anyone remember what the Chicago river used to look like, or the those two rivers in Pittsburgh -- Monongahela and ? Anyone see La Jolla, Calif recently? Not anywhere near as clean as it used to be.

How about that low pollution coal ( in Utah? ) that our 'Green Leaders' made off-limits? I wonder -- did our leader's Indonesian friends the Riadys ever get anywhere with their plans to sell us the low pollution coal? Bet that plan is dead in the water after the SEAsian crisis. Pollutiongate? Nice ring to it.

Try this Web Address:

http://www.centralfund.com/

Email Address:

sspicer@nas.net

I am curious. When you say you reject the FRN's as phony what, pray tell, do you use when in the store stocking up on freeze dried foods and canned foods and ammo and coleman stoves and cheeze-in-a-can and ritz crackers and generators etc. It is the acceptable currency in the US. Many people ( myself included ) in the US will disagree with you and say that their FedResNotes are in fact not phony.

Spudders ( friend ) , please send me all your remaining phony-notes. I will see that they are properly disposed of ( winkage ) .

Good to see you back you ole 'tater you........missed yer posts....

away....to await more stuff from the one who is of potatoephenom

Éß

1 ) How to heat and cool the fluid medium ( R12 best ) . Very little heat differential needed if use right medium.

2 ) How to convert motion into electricity. Very low RPM devices are hard to use, as most generators are very inefficient at 1 RPM speeds. The Generator would probably have to be all permag -- with lots of them. Expensive custom-made generator.

I would suggest solar panels with one of those variable input volage inverters and a lead acid battery pack of you want alternative renewable energy. That technology is proven. Or wind or water power -- even cheaper cost per watt -- if you are the lucky one and have enough wind of moving water. Don't need much of a water head these days, but still have a low rpm generator problem like with the Minto wheel.

I would suggest a Minto wheel only if you have a need for a very low RPM motive source, or you want to experiment. I will eventually -- I would love to make an alternative energy educational site -- but I would also like to make a prototype space drive using the Zero-point energy stuff -- which is in its infancy. Too many ideas and not enough time!

My the way I concur with not using drivespace. Just bought a 6.7 Gig Maxtor ultra DMA for $120 US. Now -- that is cheap! Haven't bought a recordable CDRom for backups -- yet. Price coming down rapidly.

-------------------------------------------------

You got me all riled up .. so I checked my account

and I had in fact bought a teensy weensy bit of

rangold .. 32500 shares .. my cost was 4 rands ..

they closed yesterday offered at 4 bid 3.7 I think.

-------------------------------------------------

And you are dealing with TWO rather savvy RSA stocktraders...........arrogance is just part of the game......get over it....

away.......to regret having said anything......

Éßnotlol

I hadn't expected the first cut, certainly not the second, so I'm not even gonna guess on a possible third. The FED spurs on growth when it cuts rates, which under normal circumstances would seem appropriate if the economy were going to slow down. This time, however, the FED is spurring on growth right in the middle of a big bonfire called the global economic crisis, and it doesn't make a bit of sense to do it unless the intention by Mr. Greenspan is to let her down easy. If there is sanity behind the FED cuts, I wouldn't expect to see many more of them.

I do not like this 'tell the enemy we are coming approach with Saddam'. It's much easier to lose the Chess game when you tell the enemy what you are doing. If we put enough people or munitions over there, we run the risk of shooting ourselves in the foot -- even if Saddam does nothing.

What if we shoot down another Iranian airliner? Or get close to some Oil platform in the Gulf that isn't what it appears to be? Or run over a mine?

I don't like this one bit. We have political bureaucratic types writing the script for the war. If you must have a military confrontation, decide on what is to be done, and let the military do it.

I must admit this sounds strange coming from someone who does not like war one bit, but I do know that lasting peace does come from having a strong prepared military -- and not using it. The weaker we let our non-nuclear forces get, the more likely we will do something stupid.

It will be interesting to see if Saddam breaks down. Must be approaching winter over there, so any ground based military campaign by Saddam might not be very wise. Could be that all this is is smokescreen, in the hope that the US makes a mistake.

But --- can't rule out a 'lets distract the American people from the Impeachment proceedings' gambit. That's one problem with letting the politicians wage war.

At the very least we are running up a big bill.

What makes gold money? liquid, durable, desirable, recognizable, portable, and finite.

Shame it is not acceptable

What more is it then, that the dollar has, and gold does not? ( Besides a bunch of crooked promoters ) .

And from the Pilsner Urquell....

The dollar is more liquid, less durable, more desirable, more recogizable, more portable, and less finite.

The dollar is also more traceable/less uniform than gold.

Why is the dollar is more liquid? It is, becase people are able to convert it readily into other valuable forms, including gold. The reason this is so is because it is widley used and people have dollar denominated obligations, or expect obligations to be fulfilled in the terms of dollars. In short the obligations drive the demand and hence convertabiltiy of the dollar. This demand has become acute with the increased liabilities in dollar terms. The shortfall of dollars has led to an increased desire for them in relation to gold, hence the fall in gold price. This situations may be poised to reverse itself when the present gold lending practice is considered.

Why is the dollar more desirable? At the moment, this desirability is derived from a number of the other attributes of the dollar, and is subject to change. The dollar has a percieved high durability due to increased demand and lower ( for the moment ) percieved price fluctuations relative to other money forms with similar attributes ( fiats ) . The dollar is widlely recognized, as a stable form of obligation. The dollar is also more portable. For example three one hundred dollar bills are less weighty, and of less substance than a relative measure of gold. But that relative measure is also subject to change with the denomination for example three hundred one dollar bills. The dollar is also capable, the ultimate portability, electronic transfers. But the chief desirable trait is one that is the most dubious of qualities. That is the quality of traceability. All dollars are serialized or otherwise identifiable and thus tracable. This tracability lends itself to monitoring and taxation ( read confiscation ) . Taxation is a principle means of controlling the less finite aspects of the dollar. Interest rates, and monetization of debt are two of the others. The balance of these produces stability , and thus desirability.

Why is the dollar more portable? The dollars portability is derived largely from faith and trust. More, discussion later if you want..I'll be watching... got a meeting now.

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/archive/19981112/news/current/soapbox.htx?source

All: It is not too late to buy one of those Generac 4kw LT generators. 13 hours running time with low oil monitor, and cast iron sleeeves. Oil filter option. Cost - $800US tax extra. Only 150lbs weight. Compromised with spouse. Still do not know brand name of gas motor made for these units, but looks like quality. I'm willing to gamble the cash because these units can be repaired, unlike most cheap Generac units. No cast iron sleeve on many Generac units -- so beware buying used ones. Forget those cheap Briggs and Stratton units.

I decided against the bigger LT units because the running time was shorter. And because of the 'spouse effect'. By the way, you can store gasoline up to a year if you are willing to take the fire risk - special additives are available. Decided against natural gas units because these go at exorbitant commercial prices that would guarantee 'spouse effect'.

Hey, if the hard drive went squirrely for any reason, don't reformat and start again. Huge drives are so cheap now that the smart thing to do is to install a new, up to date drive and use that. Keep the old one on the shelf. From time to time peck away at getting the rest of the files off it or give it to a nerd, if you meet one in the future, who claims he can do that for you.

The War

The matter of the contrast between what happened to the North American economies after the two world wars bears much study. We can all agree that the increased capacity available after the second war found a ready market overseas. I believe, however, that there was very much more to the prosperity that was built through the fifties and sixties and we don't pay enough attention to that factor. That factor is human investment.

Men coming out of the service took higher education in vast numbers. Very few indeed would otherwise have even seen the inside of a university were it not for government scholarships to demobilized servicemen. This pool of talent came on line in the fifties and powered much in the hard sciences, particularly, for the next two decades.

It is a type of investment that we would do well to consider when shoveling out truck loads of money for amelioration of social problems or the manned space program. We would be far better off putting a hefty tranche of that money to work elsewhere. If kids going through high school could see that going through university just meant keeping marks up, I believe that North American society could be transformed. Among other benefits, we would have far more voters who could think straight.

The return would not be immediate but it would gives us a ten times return compared to the present system of social welfare band-aids and some big science.

However, in contrast to the reaction that would normally follow under a conventional monetary targeting regime, interest rates will not be changed in an attempt to correct deviations of money growth from the reference value over the short term.

DeBeers diamond monopoly has been one of the few, ( the *only* one I can think of at the moment ) , who has successfully followed planned growth over years. They simply impose a percentage growth in diamond prices- and effect this by stockpiling fine diamond rough in London and by controlling virtually the entire market. They have millions and millions of carats in fine diamonds stockpiled which will never see the light of day.

However even they use a form of interest control to fine tune this. By limiting site holders access to goods, and by raising or lowering the quality of the goods they release to market they in effect raise and lower the interest rate.

How does the ECB think they can impose a formula growth in the money supply without reference to the actual growth of the GDP in the member nations? And if this gets out of alignment, as it always does, how will they re-establish stability without using interest rates to rope in the growth or contraction in the money supply relative to need?

It almost sound like they think they can do this by buying or selling foreign reserves- and somehow putting Euros in, or out of, general circulation- but doing this would seem to cause a migration of currency to the strong, and cause more commodity price disruptions to amplify at the consumer level; the very thing they say the want to avoid. Am I missing something hidden in his speech?

Signed, Confused in Dollar Land

Interesting, wouldn't you say? I think Kenneth Starr may be permitted to release some more evidence. Perhaps it has already been authorized, and Arlen Specter knows it.

Perhaps what is happening is that Alen Specter is trying to work out a deal with the DEMs so that Al Gore's first job as president is not to pardon Hillary and WJC.

Somehow I doubt that someone who is in WJC's back pocket would mention that WJC is at risk for criminal prosecution.

Did everyone notice that impeachment proceeding are going ahead, despite the Republican upset? Arlen Specter, a criminal prosecutor from way back, stated that the House would impeach but the Senate would fail to follow through. He suggested a deal with WJC -- resignation now, and immunity from criminal prosecution after he steps down. Sounds like a good idea.

Interesting that Arlen Specter would say this, even though he said that there was no ( official? ) evidence of overt criminal activity. What does Arlen Specter know -- something about Kenneth Starr will say when he testifies? Given that Rep Hyde wants to finish indictment proceedings before Xmas, we could be in for a very choppy period in the markets very soon.

Could be that the gold equities and gold could be in for a real boost -- as long as the general equities don't drop too rapidly.

By the way, I think AG wants all that new liquidity to leave the markets into the financial sector -- so he will not lower rates again until the markets swoon a bit. Since AG is a master at handling the markets, the environment may be almost perfect for gold equities to rise. But not too much -- whatever that is.

When can I get my tickets for the moon launch? Next stop Mars? Europa? Well -- I can dream. AG will keep a lid on everything, including gold -- but just remember 1993 -- gold went from 340 or so to 400 plus under his watch -- he did nothing because he had to expand the money supply.

this comment on the CNNfn market preview today:

METALS: COMEX Dec gold continues to lack direction and is expected

to be

confined to its recent range. If the Iraq-UN situation deteriorates, gold

may be able to capitalize on its status as a safe-haven investment in times

of crisis and could see an advance. However, given the current apathy to

gold, any crisis will need to be extreme or protracted to result in a

significant change.

Shopping coupons will be for JPN citizens with children of 15 years of age or less or old age pensioners. The Furusato Coupons, ( so the proposal runs ) , will be issued in a packet of 20 ( sadly reduced from the 30, previously agreed... ) with an approved value of Y1,000 per scrip, ( a'la beer coupons! ) , will be limited in use by time ( six months ) , place ( your defined residential district ) , fair value ( no change given ) , and utility ( local municipalities may have power to approve what items the coupons may be used for ) .

Question: This funny money, counterfeit fiat currency, call it what you will, is it ultimately deflationary or inflationary? Or is the effect negligible. I wonder if it can be used to buy gold?

One can be certain that in giving the drowning man an aspirin, he has no lack of liquid with which to wash it down...

If you have ever seen Niagra Falls, the Horseshoe Falls is about 1080 feet across. The river moves about 25 miles per hour, the average depth of the river is 25 feet. If you were watching oil, instead of water go over, it would take 1 minute and 40 seconds to represent 17 million barrels of oil. That is a staggering and humbling thought next time you visit the falls, or have cause to recollect the image.

-cg

Of course, if we should suffer a loss such as the desert fiasco under Jimmy Carter, then I would expect gold to rally as some investors moved out of the dollar.

With the Clintonized condition of the US military and no 6 month buildup I don't feel too good about what's about to happen.

To the pre-WWII Japanese military logic, Pearl Harbor was just Japan's natural answer to the US getting too strong in Japan's sphere ( neighborhood ) . With that in mind, we should understand how the average Iraqi citizen feels about his country being bombed in the middle of the night.

The weakest pattern is with the general equities, with SP-500 drooping on a 10-day intraday chart.

I'm sticking with my defense/gold equities mix a little longer. Nothing on the horizon to indicate trouble before Xmas, with the exception of Kenneth Starr and Iraq. Logically you would expect surprises here would be bullish for my investment choice.

Mali etc. ) , roll the RANYD shares into RR ( suddenly ) , and leave good

old RANGY/RANYD holding the bag for the $48,000,000 loan ( along

with those stupid ADR holders ( like us ) .....