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

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (63950)	2/18/2001 9:49:57 AM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116779

Zeev : Re "..... Maintaining the price of gold within certain bounds is part of that Job." I don't dispute that. Unfortunately, they have not maintained POG within certain bounds. Today, POG is at an effective 22 year low --- in actual dollar terms. Most of what you say is correct. The problems in Sub-Saharan Africa are not really gold-related but due to a myriad of other problems, not the least being the inability of the blacks to govern themselves. IMO, it precisely this which gives the lie to the new "democratic" process in the "developing" world. And, it is because of this that some other reason must be found to blame. That is why I believe the notion of a gold "conspiracy" has a real blackmail potential. According to the GATA reports, the ANC and their surrogates, COSATU, MWU, probably SA Communist Party etc, are really impressed with the idea that the low gold price is not just an act of God but can be attributed to evil-doing by US and UK capitalists. You may not know it, but Mbeki's recent debacle in suggesting that HIV was not the cause of AIDS was not just the musings of an idiot --- it was his intention to blame the AIDS epidemic on poverty etc which was the result of greed and racism by the whites and colonial powers. It requires little imagination to see that he can put the same cap on the head of the gold operators. So, the gold story has now become highly politically charged in a way that it was not previously. And, as I see it, it will become a stick with which to beat the US and UK for doing nothing to help Africa other than mouthing-off platitudes.

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (63950)	2/20/2001 12:59:16 PM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 116779

Monday February 19, 2:20 pm Eastern Time EU-wide credit card fraud soared 50 pct in 2000 BRUSSELS, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Credit card fraud in the European Union rose by a staggering 50 percent last year, with illegal transactions reaching an estimated 600 million euros ($553 million) EU-wide, the commission said on Monday. A large proportion of the increase involves payments made by telephone or over the Internet. This resulted in low consumer confidence in transactions conducted online, dampening the potential for expansion of electronic commerce. ``Fraud is increasing most in relation to remote payment transactions, especially on the Internet,'' the EU's executive arm said in a statement. ``And while sales in e-commerce in recent years have exceeded the most favorable estimates, its potential is inhibited by lack of confidence in the privacy and security of payment transactions performed over the Internet.'' Recent data showed that even though Internet transactions represents only 2 percent of all credit card usage, they account for half of customer complaints. To respond to the rise in illegal transactions, the commission Monday launched an ambitious three-year plan aimed at tackling frauds across Europe. The plan will increase coordination with the industry, with the goal of introducing ``the highest economically viable level of security'' for remote transactions by mid-2002. New technical measures to prevent fraud, such as the introduction of an electronic chip in credit cards, are being developed and implemented, even though the costs at present remain high. ``Credit cards were not made to function on the Internet,'' a commission source told Reuters. ``There is a real need of safer payment systems that we hope the industry will deliver.'' biz.yahoo.com