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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rarebird who wrote (39398)	8/22/1999 11:13:00 AM
From: Bobby Yellin	Respond to of 116874

How quickly some people forget.. if the government knew what it was doing ..how would it have allowed the devasting savings and loan castrophe that only profitted crony capitalists? A friend told me the difference between someone with alzheimer's(sp) and someone just demented(sp).. the poor alzheimer's patient goes crazy and then dies.. the demented one lives and drives everyone else crazy the way these mergers are going..I wonder if some law firms are going public soon.. there is going to be so very much money spent down the road on antitrust cases..who knows.. maybe even more money will be spent down the road on those lawsuits than on the coming build up in defense maybe they can save money by denying funding for the emergency census numbers.. after all if the census expenses weren't important enough to be put in the normal budget..maybe they can forgo them and no call them emergency spending..

To: Rarebird who wrote (39398)	8/22/1999 2:38:00 PM
From: Bob Dobbs	Respond to of 116874

Rarebird: You are indeed an unusual species. Your post brings to light the extraordinary efforts by the powers that be to subvert wealth for their own short-sighted gain. When will they learn? Bob

To: Rarebird who wrote (39398)	8/22/1999 10:58:00 PM
From: Rarebird	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116874

Gold Price Sinks Due To Sheer Weight of Paper: Professor von Braun The Rocket School of Economics. There is no question that the “paper gold” market is considerably larger than the actual physical gold market. Estimates we have seen range from a minimum of 90 to 1 to in excess of 100 to 1 paper ounce contracts being written for every single ounce of gold that changes hands. This is mind boggling. The paper gold market is not in the slightest bit concerned about such things as supply and demand numbers and anybody who is relying on these numbers and such comments as increased demand for physical metal to make investment decisions, fails to see the significance of what's going on here. We clearly have an aberration here that is unique. No true futures market could operate this way for too long since there is not enough gold around to cover the positions that have accrued. In a sense, there is now two markets within one and considerable confusion will result if this is not understood. The usage of gold has changed in the sense that now its the bullion banks that write the paper contracts (using other entities reserves), as opposed to a central bank printing paper currencies that have some form of gold backing. This activity really began its current expansionary phase after gold peaked in February of 1996. The downside has been continuous since that time and the number of contracts written favoring the shortside has increased year after year. The price has of course correspondingly declined. Eventually supply and demand will have its way and the long awaited and often referred to short squeeze will appear, but at present the odds still favor the shortsellers. They are onto such a good thing and still maintain the ability it seems, to stay at least one step ahead of the game. It is unlikely it will end just yet. Lurking in the background is the issue of the IMF gold reserves and a potential sale. Never mind the political resistance to this sale, the odds favor it happening and politicians stated resistance has a habit of disappearing when the time comes to vote. In this case, the IMF needs the cash and the alternative (US taxpayers) may be even more unpalatable. Markets have a habit of correcting aberrations caused by the greed of the players whether they like it or not. As we all know, most “flavors of the month” are “too good to last”, and this paper gold market is no exception. Casinos, those wonderful places that have replaced the town meeting halls of the last century, have rules and certain guidelines that must be followed. Most of these rules and guidelines reflect such things as odds given, credit extended, mild (and legal) intimidation, and so on. The gambling industry for the most part, is self- policing because of the risk. It is their cash they stand to lose. Consequently, while there are some exceptions, the odds given in the various games of chance don't change all that much from casino to casino. But most bean counters fail to realize that their little universe is not the epi-center of whatever industry they are in and lose sight of the fact of what they are and are not, in control of. From a casinos point of view its Achilles heel is people through the door and money on the tables. Las Vegas is a good example of this in the sense that you have a market that has expanded rapidly since 1986. Expanded ? How about exploded in terms of growth and new casinos. Like the current paper gold sellers boom, the industry players all convinced themselves that they needed to expand and many new casinos now dominate the Las Vegas skyline, such as it is. In doing so the bean counters all ignored their own rules and guidelines and have now created one of the biggest ongoing traffic snarl ups in the southwest, created a shortage of skilled staff and put the towns sewage system under strain. Oh dear. Using greed as a fertilizer for growth always produces unexpected results. The “too much of a good thing” syndrome begins to come into play and the activity, regardless of what it is, tips itself over, or self corrects. Nature may abhor a vacuum but it abhors an aberration as well. So too with the paper gold business which has of course grown out of the actual trading of physical metal, but now dominates it to such a degree that it is beginning to impact on the realities of supply, demand and more importantly, the potential for increasing new supply. Why mine gold at these price levels ? Obviously, more metal is not needed. But watch out when the paper gold supply turns to the physical market for its redemption's. That indeed will be an interesting day. Professor von Braun can be contacted via email at profvonb@aol.com fiendbear.com