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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (6457)	6/16/1999 1:06:00 PM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81980

<<I know of a company working on high-temperature superconductive polymers>> We were talking about room temperature. apples to apples please. your logic is failing. When they have it with even 2 years of field experience, please get back to us, until then please feel free to find the door. I note you did not even(dare try)address the anti- corrosive value.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (6457)	6/16/1999 1:58:00 PM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81980

Ron, I say again, for whom do you work or contract? You have stated you do not work for the government, but have evaded the question if you have any contracts with any organization, bank, brokerage house, bullion banker (or any other group) with a short gold position. You stated your personal business was your own. Sir, you also stated you wanted to stop anyone else form investing in precious metals. Full disclosure is the only thing which will prove you will in no way profit from a lower gold price. Full disclosure is required (by law) in all investment discussions. As you are not willing to freely offer such full disclosure(and have declined, avoided, dismissed, and evaded all such requested disclosure) we may only assume that in some way you are attached to some entity which stands to profit from a continued lower gold price and thus your discussion is colored or influenced via this stance. The request for full disclosure is never out of line. Disclose or leave.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (6457)	6/17/1999 8:08:00 AM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81980

CANADA TVX CHIEF BATISTA SAYS ASIA KEY TO GOLD PRICE RECOVERY Eike Batista, the president, chairman and CEO of Canada's TVX Gold Inc. today said he is unable to predict when gold prices will improve, but added that the turnaround could be closely tied to the recovery of Asian economies. While Asian countries sold 50 tonnes of gold in 1998, as opposed to buying 900tonnes in 1997, "that region will buy gold again," sa id Batista.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (6457)	6/17/1999 8:30:00 PM
From: Zeev Hed	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81980

Ron, interesting discussion here on corrosion and conductivity. First few corrections, gold is not the best thermal and electrical conductor at ambient, silver takes that place with a thermal conductivity at ambient of 4.27 Watt/cm C and electrical resistance of 1.59 microhm-cm. Even copper is better then gold with (all same units) 3.98 for thermal conductivity and 1.67 for resistance, gold gets only 3.15 thermal conductivity and 2.35 for electrical resistance (not much better than aluminum at 2.37 ). As for coating cars with gold, it would require layers thick enough to withstand any scratching, and furthermore, all those welds will become immediate sources of flourishing corrosion. Modern cars are actually pretty good in corrosion resistance, mostly because they now use a complex process including both phosphates and zinc (as sacrificial anode). Gols of course could be quite useful if it had a much lower price for instance in PCB (and it is used there in demanding applications) because unlike copper and silver it does not corrode. It could also be used in coating architectural glass since it is an excellent IR reflector and can be made thin enough to transmit the visible. But lowering the cost of the precious metals will have, IMHO, the greatest impact on the platinum group which is much more versatile (but not good electrical or thermal conductors). I thought this diversion from the sorrow state of the old yellow would "illuminating" (VBG). Zeev

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (6457)	6/18/1999 6:59:00 AM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 81980

Gold turns By Marc Faber In investing as in war, the victor is the one who incurs fewer casualties. I believe that starting with the summer of 1998 the winners of the investment game will be investors who manage to keep their capital intact or lose less than other market participants. To be victorious will mean butting heads with the crowd. Up to two months ago the investment community was bullish about U.S. and continental European equities as well as the U.S. dollar but bearish about Asian stocks and extremely negative about the yen, which was expected to decline to 165 to the dollar. Gold, widely believed to have lost its "refuge of last resort" status, had been totally discredited. So what happened? Most European shares have fallen by 50% in just two months, the U.S. stock market got hammered, the yen has surged from close to 148 to less than 120 to the dollar, and Asian equities have outperformed U.S. and European stocks in the third quarter (and Latin American markets since the beginning of the year). Gold? It's up from a low of $271 an ounce to around $300 an ounce. Back in April I wrote that never before in history did it take more ounces of gold to buy one Dow Jones industrial average share than at that time. In 1980 you could have purchased one Dow Jones share with 1 ounce of gold; at the stock market's peak in July 1998 it took more than 30 ounces to buy one Dow share. But it now appears that the powerful surge of equities versus gold has been broken (see chart). These excesses could develop only because of massive credit inflation and accommodating monetary policies. Has the time finally come when investors should trade equities for gold? Consider this: Government officials, the IMF and economists all tell us that the present crisis came about as a result of evil hedge funds, crony capitalism, insufficient transparency in emerging markets, industrial overcapacity, real estate and financial asset bubbles in Asia, inordinate debt growth in countries such as South Korea and so on. But these aren't really causes. They're symptoms of far wider problems, namely, excessive and uncontrolled credit growth that far outpaced economic growth rates and reckless lending and trading by financial institutions with huge appetites for risk rather than prudence. These excesses could develop only because of massive credit inflation and accommodating monetary policies. To get to the root of its financial problems, the world does not require capital controls in Malaysia, stock market interventions in Hong Kong, lower interest rates in Japan, bailouts of entire countries and of hedge funds. What is needed is a new monetary system that has built-in stabilizers and imposes discipline on the financial markets. I believe that the world will eventually be forced to revert to some kind of a gold standard in which credit expansion and cross-border money flows are controlled by gold reserves, not by central banks, commercial banks, insurance companies, the treasury departments of multinational corporations and a host of other highly leveraged financial institutions. Governments will not implement such a new monetary system anytime soon. Monetary discipline would significantly reduce the power of central bankers and finance ministers. But once the crisis becomes more acute—as "deleveraging" intensifies deflationary forces—a massive revaluation of gold to around $1,000 an ounce and the implementation of a gold standard will, in my opinion, come under active consideration by reputable people. Golden opportunity? It may be time to trade in your equities for gold. Impossible? People used to say that about currency boards. But as the costs of currency instability have compounded, many card-carrying economists are now big supporters of the currency board idea. The same could very well happen with gold. For now, gold is still the ultimate contrarian play. In late September I was at a Putnam Institutional Investors' conference in Washington. The audience of about 100 people was asked to choose the best performing asset over the next twelve months. About two thirds voted for U.S. equities. I chose gold. I was alone. That confirms my belief that gold is heading higher. Don't forget that the strongest bull markets emerge in assets where there is the least participation—and that the ice is most likely to break when the greatest number of people are skating on it. If you buy gold, should you buy the physical metal or gold shares? Personally, I prefer gold bullion stashed in a safe deposit box beyond the reach of tax authorities. If the gold standard is reintroduced and the metal soars in value, expect some excess profit taxes to be implemented at the same time.