Interesting times -- with many crosspurposes -- crosscurrents. Who knows what will happen?

'D.C. Police silent on murder of Former White House Intern'

http://www.federal.com/feb09-98/Story01.html

There is hope for American Democracy after all -- the Internet Strikes again! Government coverups have been suspected for years, but now with the Internet, suspicious activities can be displayed for the truth eventually to come out. I am not saying that Internet news is accurate -- but it is probably no more inaccurate than the stuff we read in the papers or get on the radio/TV.

I also learned that there are now 4 ( repeat 4 ) AFIP forensic pathologists who now claim that Ron Brown's ( un ) autopsy was bungled ( putting it nicely ) , and key x-rays somehow lost ( very rare occurrence for AFIP ) . Given the stellar reputation of the AFIP, and their reputation for telling the truth, I believe them, not the 'official' story.

Finally, I learned tonight the Christopher Ruddy has photos on the net of Ron Brown's aircraft that crashed ( Bosnia? ) . The photos clearly show that the tail of the plane remained intact, and one Nurse/Stwardess could very well have survived -- apparently long enough to be rescued. Mysteriously, she died suddenly enroute to a hospital. Also, according to Chris Ruddy's AFIP connection, Ron Brown's significant injuries only consisted of a survivable fractured pelvis, and a mysterious nearly perfectly 'hole' on the top of his head, having fine bone fractures consistent with an entering projectile.

I now understand why K. Starr's investigation is so difficult, and why he needs support from the public and the news media. If you take all the circumstantial evidence seriously, you conclude that there is a group of powerful individuals in our government who will stop at nothing to achieve their ends. BC may not even be aware of their activities. But -- if there is such an organization, I wonder how mlong he would last if his usefulness were to end. I can only hope that the tide is turning these individuals before it is to late for our democratic system. At least we are not in the same situation yet that Russia is in -- so there is still hope that we can cleanse ourselves of this corruption. And -- just like in one of those Robert Ludlum novels, if the above does turn out to be true, I hope all of this never becomes public knowledge.

http://www.afr.com.au/content/980211/world/wjakarta.html

My post to Jin was that only a basket of currencies made sense, with less than 50% US dollar weighting.

If I had read your post more carefully, I would have seen that the Asian currency basket forces are gathering strength. Perhaps China and other Asian countries have enough gold to start their own gold-backed currency. As you know, my guess -- and yours -- is that the SEAsian countries will be the first to set up a true gold-backed currency, a la BIS. SEAsia just had their deflationary 'bounce' so they had their 'accident at the intersection'. Hence they will be the first to 'set up the streetlights' --ie, go onto the gold standard again.

Thanks again for your informative posts -- I should read more carefully before I post.

http://www.intersurf.com/~vor/gold.html

No guts, no glory!!

BUY GOLD!!.....er...SILVER!!

Myrmidon/Avalon: I was just trying to make Heavy Hitter feel better by talking about things that might make our favorite topic go up. Was trying to convince myself too, since I have a significant investment in gold stocks. I think my small gold call derivatives play is history, however. Would it be ok if Heavy Hitter keeps trashing the gold market? Might be just the discussion we need, since Kitco is such a reliable contrary indicator. Might be even better than talking about sunspots.

Humor is excellent medication for what ails one -- at all times !

I hope RJ is still looking down at the Pacific Ocean -- and relatively dry. The last major ElNino that hit the Calif coast converted many beach front properties into rather poorly designed houseboats! So far in the Mid West we have avoided the usual winter snowstorms, but we are having hail and thunderstorms. Very odd!

By the way -- for you doubters -- I am not talking about quoting some author on sunspot activity and market behavior -- I am talking about my own graphical analysis. I do not have a clue on what the causal relationship is, just statistical correlation over 100 years.

Does anyone know what expanding the M2 or M3 does in this phase of an economic cycle? Does inflation show itself first in the markets, as long as the markets are fairly strong?

From the sentiment expressed here today I feel that gold is going up alot more than I suspected. Going to increase my position based on this feeling. Hey whats life without a little gamble.

I see no evidence of a market top over the last 10 days of following the SP-500. And -- our 'pasting' of Iraq will be bullish for the market as well -- as long as we don't have an unexpected military reversal. I think the real threat to world peace will not be in the current ME fracas, but later when our forces have left. Unless -- Saddam has some terrorists strategically placed in the US. He has repeatedly shown little concern for preserving any kind of human life -- except perhaps his own.

But-- I see no evidence that gold is heading down, either.

I think what we need to do is shrug off our natural tendency to want to jump into the equity markets as we watch the market rally, and keep our powder dry. This bull market is riding on 'vapor' as Maverick would say -- and we must steel ourselves from jumping in -- unless we are short termer pros like the Oldman.

I think we must watch Monicagate, a possible Chinese devaluation, a Brazil/Argentina/Columbia crisis -- It will take alot to bring down this exhuberant market -- but alot can happen, and quickly.

One very interesting -- and the most ominous -- fact is that AG is strangely silent as the DOW fast approaches a new high! Does he know something we don't, and is afraid to spook the market?

Don't go and do anything you will regret, I don't want to spend all this money. It is gonna move up, It's wanting to go now.

Markets are driven by my investment decisions! Just yesterday I moved money back to PM and some energy services. No surprise that today PM and energy is down and Dow is soaring to new highs!

There is only one thing which would help. Go ahead, guys, shoot me, put me out of my misery and drive PM through the roof ;- )

Canadians are wondering why Americans chose to live here in peace,then

spend the rest of their days crapping all over their new country.We are

confused and hurt that Americans find it neccessary to point out with

prejudice the faults ( in their opinion ) with our beautifull and peaceloving

country,while Canadians are targeted with heneous personal attacks when

travelling in the USA.Could you offer the Canadians and others from

around the world an explaination before you leave Ted.Thank you.

If the Rupiah is to be linked to a currency board of the world's strongest and most stable currencies ( gold too? - I wish! ) then this will be very bullish for Indonesian markets. My guess is that the 'peg' to the US dollar just refers to a starting point for launching this process. What we need to do is find out what currencies make up the currency board, and their weighting. It would be very bullish for all of SEAsia if more than one country is doing this -- as this would reduce currency fluctuation risk -- provided that the ideal mix of stable international currencies is used. I would guess that the list should include the Swiss Frank, the German Mark, the Austrian dollar ( ) , the Japanese yen, the Chinese Reminbi and the US dollar, with less than 50% weighting in US dollars.

Jin -- Take care! I hope you are good at 'hiding', and being low profile.

There are two problems with this scenario. Do we really want to eliminate SH, and are there any friendly democratic ( and competent ) leader types left in Iraq that have survived all of SH's assassinations? The Kurds didn't fare well during their last uprising, and any friendly to the US met an unfortunate end.

Did you notice that Turkish troops are massing on the Iraqi border to 'turn back the expected refugees' from Iraq?

I wonder, we should be practicing how to find WMD -- do we have sensitive probes that could detect traces of VX nerve gas, anthrax or botulinum toxin -- I hope so! Too bad our nanotechnology is not well advanced -- we could use it now.

Thanks for not answering a question with a question. That's the problm there are no easy answers, much the same as with gold.

Thanks Donald for all the excellent Info. Why is Russia so Worried about contamination, if SH doesn't have massive stockpiles of weapons. Don't get me wrong , I DON'T LIKE BC, but SH is in direct violation of UN sanctions. This is not going away. To everyone running down America I say , germs have no sense of directions. SH has plans to use agents , or he wouldn't be so hell bent to make them. What should we do, let him pick the time and place? Everyone better think about this long and hard before passing judgement. The leaders of your countries must have hard facts to become a part of this. Before everyone jumps all over me, I ask you, what would you do?

More than $70M in stock registered for

sale by Intel executives, directors

http://www.cnnfn.com/digitaljam/wires/9802/10/intel_wg/

observed that overall liquidity conditions in credit and capital markets belied the supposition that the real federal funds

rate is too high.

Despite fears of what the Asian crisis might mean, the FOMC met in a buoyant financial atmosphere.

Continuing the 1997 uptrend, revised M2 grew another $5.3 billion in the week ended Jan. 26 -- an annual rate of

6.8%, compared to the Fed's 1%-to-5% target range. M3 grew $5 billion, an annual rate of 9.5%. Lending activity,

particularly in the business and real estate sectors, has been zealous as market interest rates have come down. And

stocks have returned to near record levels. The U.S. dollar, meanwhile, has come down considerably from recent highs.

http://www.economeister.com/news/1998_02/09/120300be.htm

Your shares of Kloof were exchanged for shares in 'GOLDCO ( Gold Fields of S. Africa Ltd ) Presently only listed on theJSE. Goldco may in due course apply for a listing of its shares in ADR for;m on Nasdaq according to info I rec'd. Long term could be alright.