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To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (4984)	6/24/2003 11:54:21 PM
From: Rocket Red	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5423

What happens when the Big Banks overseas say there selling GOLD AGAIN???

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (4984)	6/25/2003 12:40:12 AM
From: gold$10k	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5423

Wow... $3500 by 2050 ...and I thought my scenario through 2012 was long term! <g> Message 18567341

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (4984)	6/25/2003 9:04:42 AM
From: 4figureau	Respond to of 5423

Japan's key overnight money rate falls below zero for the first time TOKYO - Borrowing money in Japan took on a new dimension on Wednesday when the nation's overnight lending rate fell below zero for the first time in history, the Bank of Japan said. The minus 0.001 per cent money rate - which means lenders pay interest to borrowers - came because Japanese authorities have eased monetary policy in an effort to support the ailing economy and steady stock and currency markets. 'The overnight money rate averaged at minus 0.001 per cent today, down from 0.002 per cent,' a central bank official said. 'It was the first time the overnight rate has fallen below zero in our history.' The central bank uses the call rate, charged on overnight loans between commercial banks, as a benchmark to gauge fund demand and supply in the money market. Investors said the minus rate was not a big surprise as some deals between banks at below-zero rates have been made since January. Some dealers said the negative rate came after some foreign banks, which attempted to lower the level of their yen funds, lent some 20 billion yen by paying interest. 'We had thought this would happen anytime, since there have been below-zero rate deals since earlier this year,' said Yasuo Goto, an analyst at Mitsubishi Research Institute. 'But it is symbolic and surely abnormal, which was caused by the zero-rate policy (adopted by the Bank of Japan) and a loss of trust in the Japanese financial system among foreign banks,' Goto said. 'No one thinks the rate will continue falling rapidly, but the rate is likely to hover around zero for the time being.' business-times.asia1.com.sg

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (4984)	6/25/2003 9:07:15 AM
From: 4figureau	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 5423

Bank steps in to cool Chinese economy By James Kynge in Beijing Published: June 23 2003 21:57 China's central bank issued its clearest signal so far that it is concerned about economic overheating, announcing measures on Monday to rein in the rapid growth in money supply and damp down bank lending to real estate and other projects. In a statement following the first meeting of a newly formed monetary policy committee, the People's Bank of China (PBoC) said it would "flexibly pursue many kinds of monetary policy tools and increase the strength of open market operations" to control money supply. It also emphasised a need to guard against the "potential financial risk" in lending to real estate and other "low-level repetitive construction" projects. In practice, this may mean that commercial banks recall up to Rmb180bn ($22bn, ?18bn, £13bn) in short-term loans to property developers, cooling off an overheated property sector, official sources said. China's money supply grew in May at its quickest rate since August 1997, shortly before China began to suffer the fall-out from Asia's financial crisis. May M2, a broad measure of money in the economy, expanded at a rate of 20.2 per cent, higher than the central bank's target rate of 18 per cent. The high growth in money supply, caused in part by China's growing balance of payments surpluses, is regarded as a key cause of overheating in some sectors of the economy. The growth in bank deposits forces banks into a posture of aggressive lending, swelling loans from financial institutions by 21.4 per cent in May - also the highest rate in six years. Nevertheless, financial institutions are still grappling with a huge shortfall between loans - which totalled Rmb15,330bn at the end of May - and deposits, which reached Rmb21,130bn by the end of May after growing 21.9 per cent. The burden of having to pay interest on such a mountain of deposits affects banks' profitability. Another reason for the alacrity of banks to lend, Chinese economists said, was a target set by the country's new banking regulator, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, which has ordered that commercial banks should reduce the ratio of their non-performing loans by at least three percentage points this year. "The higher the total of outstanding loans, the lower the ratio of bad loans will be. That is because all new loans are bound to be performing," said Zhong Wei, director of the finance research centre at Beijing Normal University. Under normal circumstances, surging money supply, some $316bn in foreign exchange reserves, rapid loan growth and signs of overheating might be expected to prompt a tightening in monetary policy. But the central bank appears to have decided against this. "According to the economic reality at home and abroad, we should maintain stable renminbi interest rates and a stable renminbi exchange rate," the PBoC statement said. The main reason for China's reluctance to raise interest rates has been its desire to fuel consumer spending, an increasing proportion of which is fuelled by mortgages and consumer credit. news.ft.com