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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (25301)	1/3/1999 12:33:00 PM
From: Alan Whirlwind	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116764

JFK commanded the only PT boat to be rammed and sunk by a lumbering Japanese destroyer. Rather hard one to pull off, not? If you're going to bring Biblical Characters into this, there were consequences for their missteps. Solomon fell into sleeping with pagan women in his older years and fell away from his faith. His son who reigned after him deigned not to listen to the counsel of his elders, given his father's sad example, but rather chose that of his peers and the people suffered dearly for it. David's misdeeds caused civil wars and pestilence. So if that's the standard, I really would rather Clinton resign than be forced to share in his Biblical punishment.

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (25301)	1/3/1999 1:59:00 PM
From: Alex	Respond to of 116764

Hi Bobby................. Sell dollars, buy things Just as the world turns, says James Grant, so will commodity prices Commodities were the inverse of internet shares in 1998. Tangible and gravity-prone, they generated steep losses for speculators and producers alike. In the week before Christmas, the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index fell to a 26-year low. Seasoned speculators have never seen the likes of it. As it's the prophecy season, I will venture a forecast: commodity prices, especially the gold price, will rally in 1999. The gold forecast comes easily; I have been bullish before. I am more bullish today because the global monetary system is undergoing profound and disruptive change. Late in November, an organ of the People's Bank of China issued a little-noticed statement to the effect that China owned too many dollars and that diversification was in order, including diversification into gold, the monetary asset even the Swiss have proposed to sell. The gold price has mainly been going sideways or down since January 1980; it has good reason to go up in 1999. As for commodities in general, the age-old cure for very low prices is very low prices themselves. Let things get cheap enough and producers will make less, and consumers use more. In the 1970s, ultra-high prices of metals, grains and energy spurred production and stifled consumption. What followed was the commodity bear market of the 1980s. Now, probably, the opposite train of events is under way. On form, generation-low prices in coal, hogs, gold, crude oil etc will reduce production and stimulate consumption. There are two principal reasons to buy commodities: first for consumption, and second as a hedge against price inflation. The double rub is that industrial production is weak, in and out of Asia, and there is no inflation to speak of in the industrialised world, except in financial assets, which is the kind of inflation nearly everybody is in favour of. Like the average internet stock, the average commodity offers no dividend yield and generates no profits. There, however, the similarity ends. Equities are known to appreciate, commodities to depreciate, so why bet against an evident sure thing? In short, because the world turns. The fact is that nearly every commodity is a "weather crop", natural gas and crude oil no less than wheat and corn. In this day and age of just-in-time inventory management, it would take only a medium-size drought or a winter of only mod-erate severity to cause a bullish tilt in supply and demand across a range of markets. The monetary environment is another latent bullish influence. Just as Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, is named the Financial Times Man of the Year, the dollar is meeting competition from the euro as a monetary store of value. There has been no such challenge in 50 years. Where it might lead is anyone's guess, but monetary stability is not the outcome I would rate odds-on. So for the new year, a resolution: sell dollars (and the internet stocks denominated in dollars); buy things. - James Grant is the editor of 'Grant's Interest Rate Observer', New York www.grantspub.com

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (25301)	1/3/1999 6:31:00 PM
From: Little Joe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116764

Bobby: I think you are right re gold. If emerging countries recover because of infusion of dollars, our increasing money supply, etc. I think commodity based stocks will be big winners. With regard to our past presidents. 1. They are long since dead and no useful purpose would be served by judging them at this point. History will judge. 2. They are not here to defend themselves, and I am not sure, I believe all that I have heard. 3. It is very interesting to me that Clinton invokes these men not to compare himself to their best qualities but to their worst qualities. 4. While I am no great admirer of Clinton's sexual peccidilos, I do not believe that he should be removed from office for them. There are a whole host of other offenses that disturb me far more. The man who appoints our judges and the attorney general and the U.S. Attorneys throughout this country simply should not be a perjurer, even if you think the perjury was only about sex. I would submit that the perjury had to do with protecting himself from a potential multi million dollar judgement and protecting himself from the political consequences of it. Also, it so clear from the evidence that he attempted to obstruct justice, that I can't believe any one who has read the record has any serious doubts about this. Add to this the clear attempt by his minions to trash and destroy anyone who opposes him and you start to get a picture of a very evil man. 5. We can't have it both ways, either sexual harrassment is a serious matter and lying in a sexual harrassment case is a serious matter or it isn't. And if it isn't then we should just say so. These pompous jerks in Washington are always telling us how important it is to protect women in the work place and then many, if not most of those who espouse this view, participate in a cheerleading session for the greatest user of woman in our time and for one who they all KNOW lied to protect himself from the consequences of his actions in the lawsuit. 6. Having said all of that I have no doubt that if he were a republican. all the dems would want him eviscerated and the repubs would be defending him. Remember, Henry Hyde defended a fellow repub who had sex with a House Page, who if I remember correctly was a minor. The truth is they are all so hypocritcal, I am thinking of not voting any more. Why should I waste my time when all they seem to care about is maintaining their power and their party's power. I think I'll put up a billboard for the next election that reads: "DON'T VOTE, IT ONLY ENCOURAGES THEM". Sorry to be on my soapbox. Live long and prosper, Little joe