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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (18727)	5/2/2003 4:24:58 PM
From: Jim Willie CB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

WAR OVER BUT DOLLAR’S BATTLE BEGINNING by Dr. Richard S. Appel April 28, 2003 A series of events appear to be unfolding that bring into question the continued tenure of the U.S. dollar as the world’s undisputed premiere currency. Last September Mahathir Mohamed, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, made an unprecedented announcement. He stated that he would like to use gold in the form of gold dinars for the settlement of international trade. Since then, additional nations have released statements concurring with that belief. To date, these have all emanated from Muslim dominated countries. Last week, as the U.S. war with Iraq began to wind down, another announcement concerning the dollar was proffered from yet another Muslim nation. Petramina, Indonesia’s state owned oil company, stated that they were considering replacing the U. S. dollar with the euro in payment for their oil exports. Heretofore, Iraq was the only major oil exporter that had demanded payment in euros rather than dollars for their oil. The U.S. dollar, after staging a modest rally prior to the onset of the Iraqi War, has been exhibiting weakness since it appeared inevitable that the U.S. was to be successful in dethroning Saddam Hussein, and "liberating" his country. On the surface this appears to be a surprising effect given the unending statements by various experts, that a quick resolution to the war would be beneficial to both our economy and to the dollar. As I have stated, I believe that the war against Iraq was destined to increase the animosity between the various Muslim nations and the United States. It is likely that this recent statement by Indonesia will shortly be joined by that of other states within the Muslim world. Before the inception of its Bear Market the U.S. stock market, for the major part of a decade, had attracted enormous sums of foreign capital to our nation. In order to acquire our shares, foreigners sold their currencies and bought dollars. This acted to lend strength to the dollar but, unfortunately, this condition is now being reversed. The recent uncovering of the myriad of schemes, fraud, and deceit that permeates our business and financial communities has already begun to take its toll. It has shaken the confidence in our markets not only of American investors, but also of foreign ones. This has caused the sale of a substantial amount of U.S. common stock by foreign entities. The combination of the Bear Market and foreign concerns about the integrity of our business and financial participants, has already acted to generate the exit of a substantial sum of money from our country. This in turn has placed significant downward pressure upon the U.S. dollar, as now dollars are being sold for the monies of other nations Many commentators believe that Muslims have begun to use the dollar as a weapon against the United States. They state that a concerted effort is underway to depose the dollar from its throne as the world’s foremost currency. They further speculate that this is being executed in an effort to first weaken, then destroy, their hated adversary. I am not so certain that this is the case. However, a reduction in the world’s incredible dependence upon the U.S. dollar is the logical result, given the various events that have been and are now occurring. Not only Muslims, but all other individuals and countries that are dependent upon the continued confidence in and strength of the dollar, must now question the dollar’s continued viability as a reserve asset.

To: Sully- who wrote (18727)	5/2/2003 4:27:11 PM
From: Jim Willie CB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Wall Street wants you to believe, by Martin Weiss SafeMoney Report April 29, 2003 You can’t say I didn’t warn you. Several times in the past few months, I reported to you how our recent study -- "Corporate Earnings Blacklist" -- showed that hundreds more publicly traded companies could be significantly manipulating their earnings. This study was based on the same principles that enabled us to warn against Enron and WorldCom months ahead of time. Now, Justice Department officials have just announced they have 130 cases of corporate fraud under investigation at this very moment. We’re talking about big companies -- like Lucent, Charter Communications, Bristol Myers, AOL, and dozens more. Here’s the critical point: This morning, Wall Street brokerage and investment banking firms reached their $1.4 billion settlement with the regulators, revealing a mass of new evidence against them. Now, in ADDITION, federal prosecutors will be turning their attention to their list of 130 alleged corporate frauds, and will move as quickly as they can to file indictments. This means a slew of corporate frauds are soon going to be hitting the markets like a tidal wave. The stock market is too vulnerable to withstand one more major corporate fraud -- let alone dozens! Wall Street wants you to believe that the stock market rally is here to stay. But dig under the surface and you’ll discover a stock market that is extremely fragile and vulnerable. Some key facts ... • At no time did the number of stocks advancing versus those declining indicate that the rally was healthy. Indeed, the advance/decline ratio is telling us that stocks are STILL locked in a powerful bear market that is nowhere near a bottom. • Investor sentiment is wildly bullish -- a blatant signal of vulnerability. The last time investors were as bullish as they are today, stocks plunged nearly 29%. • Stocks are back in "bubble land," almost as overvalued as they were at their all-time highs. The Dow is trading at a valuation that would take 27 years for the average Dow company to earn back the equivalent of its share price. The S&P 500 is trading at an astronomical 30.