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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (18157)	5/10/2007 11:56:17 AM
From: foundation	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 220168

Japanese pure gold facials offer a dazzling promise Thu May 10, 2007 1:26AM EDT reuters.com TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - They say Cleopatra maintained her youth by wearing a face mask of pure gold to bed. Now in luxury-obsessed Japan, you too can gild your features and feel like a modern-day queen. A Japanese firm showcased this week a "pure gold skin treatment" which investors say rejuvenates the skin and helps remove wrinkles and blemishes. Gold leaf is placed on the face to accelerate cell growth in the basal layer of the skin, Umo Inc. said. Reuters Pictures Editors Choice: Best pictures from the last 24 hours. View Slideshow "The effects of gold include anti-ageing. It can also remove wrinkles and blemishes that women often worry about," said a spokesman for the company which developed the therapy last year. The luxurious treatment is available at some 30 salons and spas across Japan and one session, which lasts between one and two hours, starts at 20,000 yen ($170). "My face started feeling warm when they finished applying gold. It feels luxurious and I feel spoilt," said Satomi Ogura, 32, who tried the treatment at the Beautyworld Japan 2007, the country's biggest beauty expo. The gold facials appear to be part of a trend in Japan towards a return to the good life. In the 1980s "bubble economy" years, wealthy Japanese were known to sprinkle gold on food and drink pink champagne by the magnum. And even during the recession, Japanese were among the world's top buyers of luxury goods and diamond jewelry. Tokyo's Ritz-Carlton recently started offering a "diamond-tini", a martini cocktail poured over a 1.06 carat stone, for 1.8 million yen. Its 13,000 yen "wagyu" beef burgers are also popular. ---------- ... soiled panties for him -- a gold facial for her... and "diamond-tinis" to wash them down. ... a deviant culture, to be sure.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (18157)	5/10/2007 2:50:23 PM
From: gregor_us	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 220168

San Diego Market Conditions from Bob the Realtor. Hi J., Thanks for your previous comments on my essay. Much appreciated. Will post again on occassion of next piece, which I think will cover resource nationalism: "Learning from Lagos." In the meantime, here's Bob on San Diego: April 2007: San Diego Housing Market: single family attached and detached homes; Sales for the month of April were a dismal 2324, a decline of 18% from April 2006 and 44% from 2005. This is the lowest April sales activity in the past 12 years. Pending sales in April of 2341 is an indicator that May sales will be about the same as April. If this holds May will be down about 25% from 2006 and down 40% from 2005. It is looking like the sales in 2007 will be around 25,000 for the year. Sales are down across all size ranges except for the over 3100 sq ft which has remained flat, which skews the average price calculations. The market below 1600 sq ft has seen the biggest declines, down about 40% from the peak. This has had the effect of breaking the sales chain and affecting sales of larger homes bringing the whole market down. realtytimes.com

To: TobagoJack who wrote (18157)	5/10/2007 4:05:16 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 220168

Blood in the streets? I hope they don't mean mine. <Caught in a deflationary spiral that lasted until 2005, homeowners found their properties lost two-thirds of their value. Such a home price plunge would be unthinkable in the West, says Peter Churchouse, 57, a former Morgan Stanley property analyst who's now director of Hong Kong-based property consultant Lim Advisors Ltd. ``If you had a decline like that in America or Europe, there would be blood on the streets,' he says. > And they do seem to be determined to inflict "democracy" on people. Given a choice of being ruled by the kleptocratic mob with average IQ near 100 and being ruled by the 800 with average IQ near 130, it's not certain that mob rule is better. Mqurice

To: TobagoJack who wrote (18157)	5/11/2007 2:38:01 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 220168

$153 billion in deals with Iran since 2000. Foreign investment rises in Iran Tue, 08 May 2007 04:03:41 A new study suggests companies and government agencies in three dozen countries have struck more than $153 billion in deals with Iran since 2000. The research by the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank shows that while the number of new deals with Iran fell between 2000 and 2007 from 101 to 18, the value of those deals rose from $21.68 billion in 2000 to $47.5 billion in 2007; Reuters reported on Monday. "I think it means that companies are interested in going in for a big pay off .The companies are doing a cost-benefit analysis and saying to themselves 'this is too good to pass up," said Danielle Pletka, AEI's vice president for foreign and defense policy. Most of the investment from more than 300 corporations and government agencies comes from Europe and Asia and most deals involve the energy sector, given that Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil exporter. The AEI report lists companies, countries, specific transactions, export credit guarantees, and export and import flows -- all from public sources. The report will be formally released at a news conference on Wednesday. During the period studied, French companies were the leading investor in Iran at $30.2 billion, followed by China at $29.5 billion, Germany at $26 billion, Italy at $23.7 billion, Japan at $18.3 billion, Austria at $18 billion, the Netherlands at $13.6 billion, South Korea at $13.27 billion, Britain at $12.78 billion and India at $9.9 billion. With other factors added in, France is only Iran's fifth-largest trading partner. While some countries, like Japan, have reduced investment in Iran, "France has remained an enthusiastic partner," Pletka said. Even the United States, which has had trade sanctions on Iran for nearly 30 years, posted $4.2 billion in investments.Pletka said US firms conducted business through subsidiaries. Other companies and government agencies cited by AEI included France's Calyon Corporate and Investment Bank, the Italian national export credit agency SACE, China National Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Corp., Germany's Linde AG and Japan's Chiyoda Corp. China, which needs new energy supplies to support its booming economy, was Iran's number one trading partner in 2005 -- the last year for which trade figures were available -- after four consecutive years as number two. In 2005, Italy was the number two trading partner and also the number one guarantor of government export credits to Iran. Japan, Iran's number one trading partner in 2000-2004, was ninth in 2005. Tokyo has been under strong pressure from Washington to curb its dealings with Iran. Spokesmen for the US State and Treasury Departments say they were unaware of any comprehensive US government analysis of US and international investment in Iran despite the fact that their