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To: Cactus Jack who wrote (48700)	3/15/2002 12:19:47 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 65232

12:19 ET Explosion in Yemen near US Embassy : Reuters is reporting an explosion was heard in an area close to the US embassy in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. The embassy on Wed warned Americans in Yemen that they could be in danger of "imminent terrorist targeting". The warning came on the eve of a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, who left Sanaa on Thursday.

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (48700)	3/15/2002 12:37:26 PM
From: Jim Willie CB	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 65232

I hear you on central bank gold dumping after 10 yrs of it though, they are at the end of that game the gold carry trade is now dead, from what I read gold lease rates are now over 4% for bullion bankers and gold has lost its downtrend of course, a retest is possible but I doubt a retest, given the Japanese citizen buy spree my eyes are on "the other gold" -- silver very different little brother to gold not owned any more by central banks many industrial uses, from photography to semiconductors a strategic metal for military in deficit annually (I was surprised to read that photographic silver use has grown steadily, right thru the advent of the digital camera, probably because printing digital photo files sucks) I believe in the next few months a scandal will surface on the gold carry trade cozy deals with JPMorgan and others gold is now below real value due to suppression silver is below real value also most silver mines are under 50% production the pendulum has swung far too far low for precious metals, just like it swung far too far high for stocks and paper assets I expect the tidal wave of gold will eventually overwhelm central bankers soon, they will be reluctant to sell, for the simple reason that they will gather more cash from sale later, since the uptrend will be more clear and then you have citizen outrage for pillaging the national reserves that hasnt happened yet, but it could before long forget gold focus on silver and the platinum group silver can be suppressed on the paper side: futures but it cannot be suppressed on the physical supply side I personally have received two unsolicited offers to purchase physical silver, speaking of the strong likelihood of a silver shortage, a corner, a price spike like 1980 WE WILL SEE A BREATHTAKING REPEAT OF 1980 IN THIS DECADE gold will surpass $1000 eassssssiillly silver will surpass $100 when the shortage is met with a corner / jim

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (48700)	3/16/2002 11:11:01 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

"Here's an eye-popping statistic: Each year, Americans spend more on buying and selling stocks than the total of all dividends paid out by American corporations. That's a bit disturbing, especially considering the state of the market this past year. As Warren Buffett has noted, there's an inherent idiocy to paying the high costs associated with 'rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.' As bad as the fees can hurt you, though, hyperactively managing your portfolio can really put a damper on your returns. Consider that, according to Ibbotson Associates, $1 invested in the S&P 500 Index at the end of 1980 and held there through the end of 2000 would have grown to $18.41. However, if you missed the best 15 trading months of the year[s] from 1980-2000, your initial $1 would have only grown to $4.73." fool.com

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (48700)	3/16/2002 12:04:10 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

<<...Andersen says it will fight the charges and stay in business. It is probably not too late for Andersen to refute the obstruction of justice charges in the best way possible: promoting justice by revealing the inner workings of Enron. Its partners may know more about Enron and its top executives than anyone outside Enron itself. Andersen has said that it has already been able to restore or reconstruct most of the documents it destroyed...>> Andersen Indictment And Consequences By Dan Ackman Forbes.com Friday March 15 No good deed goes unpunished. In a parade of "didn't knows" and "talk to the other guys," Arthur Andersen was the one entity that came forward and accepted responsibility in the Enron affair--admitting it had shred Enron-related documents. Now that act has led to the first indictment in a case that is much bigger than Andersen, a case that shined a harsh light on the accounting profession, Wall Street and the wider business community--and which has also affected Congress and cabinet secretaries. Thursday, the U.S. government charged Andersen with a single count of obstruction of justice, saying the firm destroyed "tons of paper" and deleted huge numbers of computer files on its audits of Enron (Other OTC:ENRNQ.PK - news) . "The firm sought to undermine our justice system by destroying evidence," said Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson at a news conference in Washington. The indictment was returned last week by a federal grand jury in Houston, where Enron is based--and where the entire United States Attorney's Office has recused itself from prosecuting Enron itself, an indication of how deep Enron's tentacles had reached into the Texas city. The Justice Department gave Andersen until 9 A.M. yesterday to agree to plead guilty. Andersen admits its employees shredded documents, but says that its intention was not to obstruct justice and that top management in its Chicago headquarters was unaware. For the Justice Department, Andersen--with its admission on the record--was low-hanging fruit. The obstruction of justice charge comes before there has been a single charge of an underlying crime. While no one doubts that other criminal charges will be filed against Enron, its executives and possibly against individual Andersen partners, for now the indictment alleges a cover-up without a crime. That the cover-up is worse than the crime is a mantra often heard in Washington. But even in Watergate, the scandal that originated this bit of wisdom, there was a crime charged first of all--the break-in at the Watergate Hotel. But the Justice Department says the destruction of documents and e-mails was much broader than Andersen's management said, and that it was done in Portland, Ore., Chicago and London as well as Houston. It says Andersen was aware of a wide range of unfavorable financial information about Enron that was unavailable to the investing public. "Andersen and Enron...improperly categorized hundreds of millions of dollars" as an increase in shareholder value, the indictment says. Just days before the destruction began, Enron corrected its books, reporting a $1.2 billion drop in the company's value. The indictment alleges that Andersen knew the reasons for Enron's restatements--which had not yet been fully disclosed--and that it improperly characterized numerous charges against earnings as "nonrecurring" even though the accountants knew Enron "had no basis for concluding that the charges would in fact be nonrecurring." Having failed in its plea negotiations, Andersen now calls the indictment "without precedent...an extraordinary abuse of prosecutorial discretion [and] a gross abuse of government power." It says it never got to tell the grand jury its side of the story--that it had no criminal intent and that the government has ignored its cooperation in the matter. In recent weeks, Andersen has tried without apparent success to sell itself to a rival big five accounting firm. Now it will have to stop negotiating with both its rivals and the Justice Department--and start defending. It will have to show backbone, the absence of which got it into trouble in the first place. The question for Andersen is whether or not its business can survive while fighting the charges. Dozens of clients have already dropped the firm as their auditor and more are certain to follow, as public corporations send their proxy statements--including the approval of auditors--to shareholders. Fearing that Andersen might not be able to carry out its duties in its current state, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took the extraordinary step of allowing former Andersen clients to file unaudited financial statements, with audited records due 60 days later. The maximum penalty is a five-year term of probation and a $500,000 fine. But the real penalty if convicted would be the impact on its right to do business in front to the SEC and on its licenses with various state commissions. "It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that serious charges have serious consequences," Thompson said. "It would be unfortunate for a criminal justice system if any individual or any entity could say that he or she or it was too big or too important to be indicted." With the Enron cloud hanging blacker than ever, Andersen may be a goner. Even before Enron, it faced scandals involving Waste Management (NYSE:WMI - news) , Sunbeam, Baptist Fund and Global Crossing (OTC BB:GBLXQ.OB - news) . Indeed, some it its partners have reportedly suggested that the firm should disband and let the partners go their separate ways. Andersen, founded in 1913, and with 85,000 employees in offices all over the world, is a more substantial enterprise than the 21,000-employee Enron ever was--despite the energy trader's mythical position as the nation's seventh-largest company. Enron's pipeline operations can be run by others. Its trading operations, which accounted for 90% or more of its revenue, disbanded without a whisper of impact in the wider economy. The disbanding or bankrupting of Andersen, which provides a necessary service for roughly 2,500 public companies and many private ones as well, would have a more dramatic impact. Andersen says it will fight the charges and stay in business. It is probably not too late for Andersen to refute the obstruction of justice charges in the best way possible: promoting justice by revealing the inner workings of Enron. Its partners may know more about Enron and its top executives than anyone outside Enron itself. Andersen has said that it has already been able to restore or reconstruct most of the documents it destroyed. By coming completely clean it may be able to restore some of its reputation. Unless of course Andersen's role in Enron's crooked dealings is worse than is now known. If that's the case--if for example, it played an active role in guiding Enron's schemes--then it may deserve its fate.