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

To: long-gone who wrote (32308)	4/22/1999 2:13:00 PM
From: Alex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116779

Fed's Meyer: Little Proof Higher Interest Rates Help Crises <Picture> --Meyer: Flexible forex regimes better than pegged rates By John Lipold, Bridge News Washington--April 22--Federal Reserve Gov. Laurence Meyer today assailed the International Monetary Fund's advice early in the Asian crisis that countries tighten monetary policy to avoid further problems down the road. In prepared remarks to be delivered in upstate New York, Meyer said higher rates did little to preserve currency values in the countries and choked off growth. Further, Meyer said one of the key lessons learned from the Asian crisis is for countries "not to become complacent" during periods of "excellent macroeconomic performance." Meyer's comments on complacency were aimed at bankers, whom he said should not be lulled by strong economies, the strength of their balance sheet positions, debt-to-income ratios, or credit quality. However, Meyer, a noted "hawk" on the Fed's policy-making Board of Governors, has recently suggested it may be time for U.S. policy-makers in particular to begin to reassess whether current U.S. rate policy is too loose. Turning to the Asian crisis and the lessons that can be drawn from it, Meyer criticized both the monetary and fiscal policies followed at the time. Monetary policies may have been conducted properly before 1997, but "they were probably not tightened sufficiently or for long enough in the immediate pre- devaluation phase of the emerging crises in the developing Asian economies," Meyer said. It's even possible that "the crisis might have been moderated, if not avoided," had an earlier tightening taken place. According to Meyer, when the countries finally did tighten, it was already too late. "There is little in the Asian post-float experience to convincingly support the view that higher domestic interest rates did help to support the exchange rate," he said. The Fed governor also criticized IMF prescriptions for fiscal policy. "In retrospect, it seems clear that the initial objectives for tightening fiscal policy set by the IMF for the affected Asian countries were inappropriate," he said. Loosening rather than tightening would have been appropriate, given the declines in output across Asia, he said. (c) Copyright 1999 FWN futuresource.com

To: long-gone who wrote (32308)	4/22/1999 2:18:00 PM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116779

Richard : My own analysis showed a bottom on Anglo and DeBeers shares some weeks ago --- and it was. I posted my opinion on the SAf thread. Both went up, in Rands, about 50% since then. If you are asking about gold, I get the feeling from what Bobby Godsell said in the AngloGold Report, that $280 or thereabouts is the bottom. Goldfields came out with a report, yesterday, that $270 is the bottom and $305 is the top. So, you takes your pick. (See #32311)