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To: Knighty Tin who wrote (279087)	3/7/2004 2:46:20 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

mish, I think China will try to prevent foreign commodity cos. from ripping them off, and will revalue for that purpose, throwing the US into massive inflation and depression as a byproduct. Why doesnt anyone believe the decision makers. Seems silly to me. China said it is NOT floating the Renmimbi. Greenspan said JOBS not the PPI were what was influemcing him. Lots of $ were EASILY made if people focused on simple ideas like believing the decision makers rather than people who said, gold, commodities, a falling US$ or whatever would force the FED to raise rates. As ass backwards as it might seem, treasuries rally with a falling US$ and vice versa. The US wants lower $ and China and Japan do not. I have no reason to doubt what China is saying about the Renmimbi. None. I did not doubt for 1 second that treasuries and eurodollars were primarily dependednt on Jobs, not the price of copper, gold, and oil. That is what Greenspan said and more importantly that is EXACTLY how the market is reacting. Personally I am glad that people are focused on the wrong things cause if everyone was focused on what I am focusing on, I would probably be wrong. ggg Mish

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (279087)	3/7/2004 4:47:17 PM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Respond to of 436258

and you can imagine a great way to do that right? <g> follow the yen brick road, follow, follow, follow, follow the yen brick road.. got wizard?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (279087)	3/7/2004 5:32:43 PM
From: ild	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Did you read Buffett? berkshirehathaway.com A far less pleasant unwinding operation is taking place at Gen Re Securities, the trading and derivatives operation we inherited when we purchased General Reinsurance. When we began to liquidate Gen Re Securities in early 2002, it had 23,218 outstanding tickets with 884 counterparties (some having names I couldn’t pronounce, much less creditworthiness I could evaluate). Since then, the unit’s managers have been skillful and diligent in unwinding positions. Yet, at yearend – nearly two years later – we still had 7,580 tickets outstanding with 453 counterparties. (As the country song laments, “How can I miss you if you won’t go away?”) The shrinking of this business has been costly. We’ve had pre-tax losses of $173 million in 2002 and $99 million in 2003. These losses, it should be noted, came from a portfolio of contracts that – in full compliance with GAAP – had been regularly marked-to-market with standard allowances for future credit-loss and administrative costs. Moreover, our liquidation has taken place both in a benign market – we’ve had no credit losses of significance – and in an orderly manner. This is just the opposite of what might be expected if a financial crisis forced a number of derivatives dealers to cease operations simultaneously. If our derivatives experience – and the Freddie Mac shenanigans of mind-blowing size and audacity that were revealed last year – makes you suspicious of accounting in this arena, consider yourself wised up. No matter how financially sophisticated you are, you can’t possibly learn from reading the disclosure documents of a derivatives-intensive company what risks lurk in its positions. Indeed, the more you know about derivatives, the less you will feel you can learn from the disclosures normally proffered you. In Darwin’s words, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” *