Thai Guru's Gold und Silber ... (Informationen und Vermutungen)

Chuck checks in:

Long time, no write. It is during these times of little happening or inspiration that I so deeply admire Bill and his Quixote cause. It is his unflagging perseverance and confidence that his cause is not only noble but right that he can put out a daily diary that keeps our eyes fixed on the financial truth. It is easy to write when the tides of the markets flow out positively. The words and confidence can ooze easily and you know that your readers enjoy your insights. It is a happy time for everyone.

But we know that markets ebb and flow in cycles--in advances and in sometimes painful corrections, as many of us have had to endure over the past year plus. As I have tried to point out, that unlike the stock market, the precious metals always seem to be on the defensive with gaps and sharp drops the norm not the exception. Those who are invested in the stock market never seem to share our problems. The volatility now rests at an all time low. There are no sudden downside lurches nor dramatic gaps, just a giggly upswing devoid of any concern whatsoever. And this occurring among the frightening deficits and debt that threatens to topple the whole international system. As the great Mad philosopher, Alfred E. Newman says, "what me worry?" It has been frustrating and very, very annoying to all of us.

But, I believe that the tide has finally turned. The markets held up by the schemes and rigging of a corrupt financial empire have now reached their saturation point, and we are now confronted with either a loss of control by those "evildoers" or a gravitational drop as the last buyer is sated or in the case of gold, the last seller and capper.

Remember that until now we have not had the wind at our back, i.e. a real bear market in stocks such as we had in 1973-74 and carrying with it a real fear of what might lie ahead. As this phase unfolds we shall witness enormous flows of paper transferring into gold. And joining in to this shift will be the collapse in the biggest Ponzi scheme of them all, the levitating and eerie real estate market. The stock market affects many people. The real estate market affects much more since it has been the driving engine of the economy for the past 5 years or so.

Our times are not dissimilar although on a different front to one of the great episodes in the history of Israel --the challenge by the prophet Elijah to the false prophets of Baal. In the midst of a tremendous declension in the spiritual condition of Israel, Elijah challenged the corrupt religious system. The question then was who was truly God or if we might apply here, who held the real power. While the false prophets could do nothing more that huff and puff and cut themselves in a frantic attempt to have their false God send down the fire, the God of Israel responded with fire. The false prophets were excised and the course of Israel was changed.

We are heading into this kind of period both in the spiritual realm and in the financial or material plane. We have advocated patience and perserverance in this amazing time. The question again is, "Who has the power?" We shall soon find out the answer. Stay tuned!. Chuck ikiecohen@msn.com

From yesterday’s Presidents' Days MIDAS special:

Technically, please note how important 210/212 HUI and $430 gold is.

April Gold
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/GD/45

HUI
http://bigcharts.marketwatch.c…&o_symb=hui&freq=1&time=8

There is powerful resistance for both at those levels. Once they are taken out, which I expect to occur this week, both gold and the HUI should take off.

***

And that is what is happening so far. The XAU rose 3.64 to 99.93, while the HUI gained 7.85 to 217.74 and is only a stone’s throw from taking out key resistance at 220. Gold should leave $430 in the dust. Will wonders ever cease? The HUI closed on its high for a change, not selling off late as has been the usual case for some time.

Very quickly here we have a development which MIDAS has been yapping about for the last couple weeks: the perfect storm which has been looming on the horizon looks a great deal more ominous. Rising commodity prices and inflation are bad for the consumer. Not good for corporate profits either. A sinking dollar is also not good for the inflation front. Hard to imagine long-term US interest rates not going a good deal higher in this environment to boot, barring a market collapse.

The Fed is in a pickle, ironically, so soon after Chairman Greenspan stated the following before the House and Senate Banking Committees last Wednesday and Thursday:

``The economy seems to have entered 2005 expanding at a reasonably good pace, with inflation and inflation expectations well anchored,'' the Fed chairman said in the text of testimony to the Senate Banking Committee. ``The evidence broadly supports the view that economic fundamentals have steadied.''

Inflation and inflation expectations have taken a dramatic turn for the worse in only days. The odds are they will intensify in the weeks ahead. Should the Fed raise rates to combat these developments (are they really new developments, or hidden ones which can no longer be ignored?), they risk the economy going into a tailspin should interest rates go up too much too fast. They risk letting inflation get out of control and a dollar collapse should they lay back too much.

Any way we look at it, the day for gold to be KING investment is fast approaching. Most of the gold world pundits are still neutral to bearish. The general public still cannot spell gold yet. When they learn how to, gold, silver and the PM shares will go ZOOM.

They remain THE historic investment opportunity of a lifetime.

GATA BE IN IT TO WIN IT!

MIDAS

Appendix

PS

God forbid a financial tsunami hits with little warning. However, if it does, gold could shoot up $25 in a day, silver $2 in a single Comex trading session. In a tsunami The Gold Cartel will have too many bouncing balls to keep in the air. They will be overwhelmed by demand for physical gold from all over a frightened world. Their monstrous derivatives related short positions could easily become a nightmare for them.

Zu erwarten: Goldpreis steigt um 7,20 Dollar
und Bill Murphy: Yet $6 Rule Still Reigns

The $6 Rule is alive and well. When will this obvious price management ever end?

Der schöne Anstieg ohne größere Rücksetzer war kein Zeichen dafür, daß die Goldkabale nicht in das Geschehen eingegriffen hätte; denn eigentlich hätte der Goldpreis ja um 10 bis 20 Dollar steigen müssen: Putting all of that together, you have a recipe for gold to go up $10 to $20. That is if it were a free market. But, we don’t have one.

By the way, for Café newcomers, the $6 Rule is the general level where The Gold Cartel instructs its members to cap the gold price. On a day like today when gold has EVERYTHING going for it, that level can extend up to $7.40, which is the upper band for the rule.
Früher waren gar 8 Dollar – 33% über den 6 Dollar – die eigentliche Grenze. Nun also nur noch 7,4.

While totally disgusted with today’s price capping….
War schlimm, der gestrige Tag!

Folgende Grafik zur Veranschaulichung der Preisdeckelung und des praktisch flachen Preisverlaufs.
(Spot traded $434 at 9 AM EST; from there on it gained another 20 cents over the next 4 1/2 hours with the dollar sinking badly and oil going nuts to the upside. All efforts by bullion to put in a really exciting day like other commodity markets were CRUSHED by the pathetic Gold Cartel.)

Zitat

Original von Ulfur
Zu erwarten: Goldpreis steigt um 7,20 Dollar
und Bill Murphy: Yet $6 Rule Still Reigns

Der schöne Anstieg ohne größere Rücksetzer war kein Zeichen dafür, daß die Goldkabale nicht in das Geschehen eingegriffen hätte; denn eigentlich hätte der Goldpreis ja um 10 bis 20 Dollar steigen müssen

Hallo Ulfur,

was ist denn Deine Meinung zum Goldmarkt ? Ist er manipuliert oder nicht ?

Gruß
Schwabenpfeil

Schwabenpfeil,

an Goldpreismanipulationen glaube ich schon. Es ist aus historischen Gründen und als absoluter Wertmesser für Währungen zu bedeutsam, als daß die Notenbanken den Wert nicht „managen“ wollten.

Aber an Bill Murphy´s 6-Dollar-Regel glaube ich nicht.

Es will mir nicht einleuchten, daß eine hochgeheime, konspirative Gruppe der Notenbanken/Regierung mit der Aufgabe den Goldpreis zu manipulieren, sich an eine so plumpe, formalistische Regel hält und diese Grenze unter allen Umständen verteidigt.

Der Goldpreis steigt um 7,20 Dollar und Bill Murphy sagt, die 6-Dollar-Regel hätte gehalten. Da kann ich ihm nun mal nicht folgen, da ist Schluß. Winkelzüge machen die Sache auch nicht besser (Riesenbandbreite)

Bill Murphy sagt, die 6-Dollar-Regel wäre in den letzten Jahren nur ein einziges Mal gebrochen worden. Aber wie im Thread über diese Regel (hier im Forum ) aufgeführt, ist der Goldpreis in den letzten Jahren etliche Male mehr als 6 Dollar gestiegen.

Letztes Jahr meinte Murphy, die 6-Dollar Regel wäre erst gebrochen, wenn der Goldpreis 8 oder mehr Dollar steigt. Aber 8 Dollar sind erheblich (33%) mehr als 6 Dollar, so daß schon die Bezeichnung 6-Dollar-Regel falsch wäre.( Warum nicht eine 5 Dollar-Regel mit Obergrenze 10 Dollar?) Zudem ist der Goldpreis auch im letzten Jahr – meines Wissens – schon über 8 Dollar gestiegen.

Gestern nun sagt Murphy, die obere Bandbreite liege bei 7,40 Dollar. ( Warum genau 7,40 und nicht gerundet auf 7,50?)
Murphy widerspricht sich damit selbst: Im letzten Jahr waren´s noch 8 Dollar, nun 7,40 Dollar.

Einerseits behauptet Murphy, es gäbe diese ultimative Grenze für das Plunge Protection Team, anderseits vermag er nicht einmal die Grenze eindeutig zu definieren.

Was wir gestern gesehen haben, war ein bildschöner kontinuierlicher Goldpreisanstieg. Der Chart zumindest läßt nichts von Inventionen vermuten. Murphy sagt, während der New Yorker Handelszeit sei der Goldpreis nach einem Anstieg ganz zu Beginn nur um 20 Cent gestiegen. Nach dem Kitco-Chart ist der Goldpreis auch während New Yorker Zeiten stetig nach oben gegangen.
(Nachträglich: Habe noch einmal den Chart angeguckt und sehe, was Murphy mit seinen 20 Cent meint. Andererseits sieht man genau daran, wie willkürlich Murphy seine Daten aus dem Chart gepickt hat, um zu seiner Schlußfolgerung zu kommen. Tatsächlich ist der Goldpreisanstieg erstaunlich gleichmäßig vor und innerhalb der New Yorker Handelszeiten erfolgt. )

Murphy meint, ohne Manipulationen wäre der Goldpreis um 10 bis 20 Dollar gestiegen.

Was ist passiert? Eine fernöstliche Bank – nicht Japan oder China – will ihre Devisen diversifizieren. Diese Tagesnachricht ist doch kein Grund, daß der Wert des Goldes sich um 20 Dollar erhöht hätte.

Wer kann dem Gold einen Anstieg von 20 Dollar auf solch eine Nachricht wünschen? Was innerhalb weniger Stunden um 20 Dollar steigt, kann in gleicher Frist um 40 oder mehr Dollar sinken (Kurseinbrüche sind häufig dramatischer als Anstiege). Wäre es gerechtfertigt, das der Goldpreis um 50-100 Dollar sinkt, wenn China und Japan bekanntgäben, sie blieben beim Dollar als einziger Reserveeinheit?

Im Grunde ist die 6-Dollar-Regel im Zusammenhang mit Goldpreismanipulationen auch völlig unnötig und irrelevant. Das Eingeständnis, daß sie mehrfach durchbrochen wurde, ändert an der Frage der Goldpreismanipulationen keinen Deut. Murphy´s Leugnung der mehrfachen Verletzung seiner Regel zeigt mir, daß er gewaltige Scheuklappen trägt. Sorry.

Wie sieht Du das, mit der 6-Dollar-Regel und deren angeblicher Unüberwindbarkeit , Schwabenpfeil?

Ulfur
Ich warf zwar nicht dazu angesprochen - dennoch kurz dazu:
Du hast Recht: man muss hier nicht krampfhaft "Regeln" innerhalb eines Manipulationsprozesses suchen wollen. Murphy wird hier sicher nicht erfolgreich sein.

Der Punkt, den man nicht oft genug betonen kann, ist und bleibt jedoch:
a) es GIBT diese Steuerung/Manipulation/Kabale/Preismanagement!
b) die Belege dafür sind offensichtlich und nicht zu leugnen
c) dennoch geschieht genau diese kollektive Ignoranz skandalöserweise täglich in der Mainstream-Presse

Und: Genau 6$ sind es sicher nicht (wie Du sagst: viel zu plump für die Leute, die dahinter stehen) - aber es steckt schon bis zu einem gewissen Grad System dahinter: es wird immer wieder versucht
a) die Charttechnik zu zerstören, um Momentum-Trader vom Goldmarkt fernzuhalten
b) gerade kurz VOR/WÄHREND Krisensituationen (in denen Gold eigentlich hochschießen müsste und würde) den Preis zu drücken
c) jegliche fundamentale oder zufällige starke Kurssteigerungen ab einem gewissen Grad (zB eben ca. 6$/Tag) auszustoppen, um keine schwer zu stoppende Eigendynamik entfalten zu lassen.

Diese Gottspielerei im Goldmarkt kann man schon sehr lange beobachten und ich rechne weiterhin damit, dass es bis zum physischen Nullbestand der an der Manipulation beteiligten Bullion und Notenbanken so weitergeht. Und danach?: denke, die heute Beteiligten sagen sich "après nous le déluge" - nach uns die Sintflut. Allerdings dürften sie es vor diesem Tag X wohl noch schaffen, irgendwie ihre Gold-Shortpositionen geschlossen zu haben. Viele werden dann sogar long sein - und ihre Medien noch bis zum Tag X "short" schreien lassen. So läuft das Spiel noch etwa 1-3 Jahre lang.

Zitat

Original von Ulfur

Im Grunde ist die 6-Dollar-Regel im Zusammenhang mit Goldpreismanipulationen auch völlig unnötig und irrelevant. Das Eingeständnis, daß sie mehrfach durchbrochen wurde, ändert an der Frage der Goldpreismanipulationen keinen Deut. Murphy´s Leugnung der mehrfachen Verletzung seiner Regel zeigt mir, daß er gewaltige Scheuklappen trägt. Sorry.

Wie sieht Du das, mit der 6-Dollar-Regel und deren angeblicher Unüberwindbarkeit

Hallo Ulfur,

zunächst mal ist es wichtig, dass wir übereinstimmend der Meinung sind, dass der Goldmarkt mit Sicherheit nicht nur dem freien Spiel der Marktkräfte überlassen ist

Dann sind wir uns wohl auch einig, dass es keine offizielle 6 $ Regel gibt. Es handelt sich also um eine These von Murphy, die er aus seinen jahrelangen Beobachtungen ableitet ...

Ich habe daher diese "Regel" für mich persönlich daher immer mehr als eine Art "Zielsetzung" des Gold Cartels aufgefasst. Wahrscheinlich ist es keine starre Grenze, sondern eine Art Orientierungsgröße für das Gold Kartell.

Mir persönlich gefällt Murphy ziemlich gut, da "verzeihe" ich Ihm einfach den einen oder anderen "Ausrutscher" oder einzelne "Unpräzessionen". Ob er deshalb "Scheuklappen" trägt ??? Nun, wenn einer einerseits einen engagierten jahrelangen Kampf austrägt, wird er andererseits mit Sicherheit nicht immer völlig "objektiv" sein können ...

Gruß
Schwabenpfeil

February 23 – Gold $434.60 up 40 cents – Silver $7.41 down 8 10 cents

Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, "as dangerous and intractable circumstances as I can remember."

"I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood what I've said."
- Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Chairman; During Congressional Testimony

Or, was the above quote from the Koreans?

An early MIDAS, as I am off to San Diego to watch my niece play for her college tennis team. After yesterday’s debacle, the US went into damage control mode and must have raised Cain with the South Koreans. When the Koreans woke up and saw (or were berated for) the carnage, they began to backtrack on their remarks about the dollar. The fact that their first comments most likely reflected the truth has become irrelevant for the day. Placating the Orwellians in the US became the name of the game for the moment.

S. Korea plan on FX diversification not new-c.bank

SEOUL, Feb 23 (Reuters) - South Korea's plan to diversify its foreign exchange reserves, Asia's fourth largest, is not a new idea and the central bank may hold a press conference on the issue, BOK Assistant Governor Rhee Yeung-kyun said on Wednesday.,,

"The central bank is considering holding a press conference during the morning to clarify its stance on forex reserves after volatile moves in the overseas markets," he added.

-END-

A fellow Café member had it nailed last evening:

Is this double speak or what? What the heck does the word "diversify" mean then? They may not be selling dollars outright, but they sure as hell are not going to be buying as many. If that is not what this means, then the entire announcement is totally meaningless.

Someone sure as hell got to these guys in a hurry. I wonder what we have over them? Maybe the threat was that we would pull out completely from S. Korea militarily and leave them to the tender mercies of N. Korea.

The more I see this kind of stuff, the more disgusted and cynical I become.
Dan

As the evening wore on the exculpatory comments from Asia grew more shrill:

S.Korea BOK: Reserves plan not meant to sell dlr
SEOUL, Feb 23 (Reuters) - South Korea's plan to diversify its foreign exchange reserves does not mean that the Bank of Korea would convert dollars into other currencies, the central bank said on Wednesday.

The central bank also said in a brief statement it would not change its foreign exchange reserve ratios based on short-term market factors…

-END-

05:15 Follow-up: Japan's Ministry of Finance says has no plans to reduce U.S. dollar holdings
Korea and Japan have all announced they do not plan to reduce U.S. currency holdings, while Taiwan said it has not been selling U.S. dollars.
* * * * *

The comments out of Asia arrested the dollar’s fall and it rose slightly. All eyes were to be on the CPI number this morning. After such stunning inflation events of the past week, a surge in the consumer inflation number could be a nail in the coffin for the low interest rate picture in the US for some time. Orwellians to the rescue again and right on cue:

08:30 Jan. CPI reported 0.1% vs. consensus 0.2%; ex-Food & Energy reported 0.2% vs. consensus 0.2%
Prior total CPI revised to 0.0%; ex-Food & Energy unrevised at 0.2%.

Abracadabra, it was benign. The dollar then took off in recovery mode after yesterday’s drubbing. Good to know energy prices are giving the US consumer relief. No sense going here too much more. Been there, done that often enough. You have to wonder though how much of what we receive out of Washington and New York isn’t mere propaganda these days? More appropriately, it is hard to believe almost anything emanating out of their camp.

The gold price action? Like clockwork! Yesterday, there was reasoned enthusiasm in most quarters because of the extent of the move. I was rather disgusted based on what I saw. Same drill. The market was capped in the most aggressive manner by the crooks. The one surprise was the after-market when gold rallied as much as $1.50. I pondered how long that would last, as The Gold Cartel NEVER allows gold to rally in the evening following a substantial "limit-up" move the day before.

Didn’t have to wait long for the answer. Soon after Asia opened, gold was 20 cents lower and it was downhill from there on in. The farce goes on.

Soon as the dollar took off, the cabal forces let into gold as planned. The joke of it is that the commodity inflation news of the day before was thrown out the window in today’s early going. It became irrelevant in this rigged market. This is a perfect example of how The Gold Cartel USES THE DOLLAR ACTION to manipulate the price of gold and also keep it in check re other currencies and to minimize any sort of world-wide investment enthusiasm.

This is where I differ a bit from many other market pundits. Most say the price of gold is directly related to dollar weakness. My market watching experience has revealed somewhat of a different fact of life. The Gold Cartel uses the dollar action to keep the upward action of the price of gold as managed as possible. They cap gold on dollar weakness and the attack it on dollar strength. If this were not the case, we would not have the $6 Rule. Yes, gold might correct on dollar strength, however, it would come after a $14 rally, not a $6 or $7 one. This is how gold has traded for years. It could not be more obvious.

If the Korean clarification and bogus CPI news were not phony enough, the Orwellians even trotted out Charlie McCarthy Snow to chime in. A Dow Jones blurb just out:

*DJ US Snow: US 4Q GDP May Be Revised Up On Strong Exports

OK Charlie, sure.

Oh yes, this is a gold column. One big predicable snore for gold right out of the gate. I can barely recall a day when gold was limit up ($6 Rule) and was allowed to follow through in any meaningful way the following trading session. Thus, the early trading today was like a broken record, or chipped disk.

Around mid-day gold and silver caught some solid bids. Morgan Stanley was an aggressive and lonely buyer of gold and silver after the initial/traditional battering. MS found some company when:

*The gold open interest came out revealing an increase of ONLY 4,351 contacts to 267,860. It could easily have been a 12,000 increase. This leaves room for many more specs to enter the buying fray.

*The dollar began to weaken.

*The CRB, after yesterday’s surge to 23-year highs, failed to back off and went on to make new highs, closing at 299.16, up 1.50. Soaring coffe, up 6.5 cents, led the way.

The silver slaughter today was a classic. After all we have an option expiry. The house shorts were not about to allow a bunch of honest speculators to take too much of their money from them; the silver price has really soared the past couple of weeks. At least they would minimize their recent drubbing on the day which counts the most as far as options are concerned. The $7.50 strike price had the largest open spec option position.

The silver open interest was more dramatic as it increased to 102,103, up 3,898 contacts. The in the know friends of the cabal were smacking their lips waiting for today’s orchestrated early stuff job by piling into the short side of silver as gold was rallying. This is why the silver action yesterday was so dismal. What a lousy state of affairs.

The John Brimelow Report

Enter the Funds?

Tuesday, February 23, 2005

Indian ex-duty premiums: AM $$5.99, PM $5.86, with world gold at $433.50 and $433.25. Adequate for legal imports. Quite a respectable performance, considering that world gold was $6 above yesterday on the opening – also at the highest this year.

Yen gold in Japan also saw the year’s high today, and the Japanese response was apparently to sell. Volume jumped 97% to the equivalent of 31,748 Comex lots, and open interest dropped the equivalent of 4,055 Comex – 12.6 tonnes. The active contract closed up 17 yen, but world gold slipped 35c. (NY yesterday traded 72,321 contracts, a telling 31% above the estimate. Open interest rose 4,351 contracts – 13.5 tonnes.)

Tuesday was an unusual day in that gold rose smoothly from the opening in Asia to the NY close. Resistance was encountered from the usual quarter – ScotiaMocatta:

"Gold opened in New York around the 433.00 level and found good two way business with dealers on the sell side and funds generally buying. At one point dealers forced gold as low as 431.20/431.70 but further dollar weakness eventually brought about more gold buying.", but the shock of the dollar slump and the surge in so many other commodities no doubt shook the sellers’ nerve.

Given the sizable $7.40 rise in April gold, the open interest increase might be thought modest: doubtless it masked considerable short covering. The fact that the liquidation in Japan was so large means that the speculative community in aggregate has burned off little ammunition. Comex, based on last year’s experience, could add over 400 tonnes of buying.

The heavy ACCESS volume on Monday night as well as last night (6,840 lots) strongly suggests the entry of US Funds on the long side, which is what one deduced from The Gartman Letter’s enthusiasm yesterday too. Gartman himself very unusually turned up in the Bloomberg final comments on gold:

"The announcement from South Korea will ``give cover to other central banks that wish to follow,'' said Dennis Gartman, an economist and editor of the Suffolk, Virginia-based Gartman Letter, a financial newsletter. ``It adds confusion and disconcertion for the dollar, and that breeds support for gold.'' ." doubtless the result of a whisper from a client/friend.

TGL is in fact commendably calm in the face of the well-orchestrated rubbishing of yesterday’s FX Reserve reallocation story by a procession of Central Banks today:

"…gold has settled back toward $434/oz, and it may chose to consolidate just below those highs for a day or two…Given the massive gaps to the upside enjoyed by Newmont, Barrick and others yesterday, we'd not be surprised to see those shares trade very quietly lower today…Those who did not add to their gold positions yesterday should do

so this morning on this very modest correction."

In fact he has reverted to the interpretation of the Gold/Oil spread he had last November, having interpreted it as Oil-negative more recently:

"Gold now seems inordinately "cheap" relative to crude, and were we a Middle

Eastern potentate, we'd be "swapping" our reserve of crude for reserves of gold rather aggressively at these level!.

JB

CARTEL CAPITULATION WATCH

More on the CPI and other US economic news:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consumer prices inched up just 0.1 percent in January as energy prices tumbled sharply for the second straight month, according to a report on Wednesday that may help quell recent anxiety on inflation.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the Consumer Price Index, a widely used inflation gauge, rose 0.2 percent for a fourth straight month in January, the Labor Department said.

Wall Street economists had expected a 0.2 percent rise in the CPI, both overall and excluding food and energy, but traders had been bracing for the possibility of larger gains after a report on Friday showed a big pickup in core producer prices.

-END-

07:50 UBS chain store sales (0.1%) in 2/19 week vs. +0.1% in prior week
* * * * *

14:00 FOMC minutes for Feb 1-2 meeting indicate policy makers still felt funds rate target was too low
* * * * *
14:04 Follow-up: FOMC minutes
At the Feb 1-2 meeting, policy makers continued to believe that the funds rate was too low to sustain stable prices; here is the operative passage: "A higher nominal federal funds rate was seen as needed to contain risks of increased cost and price pressures, but even with this action, the real federal funds rate was generally seen as remaining below levels that might reasonably be associated with maintaining a stable inflation rate over the medium run. The pace of policy moves at upcoming meetings, however, would depend on incoming data."
* * * * *

09:07 PPG announces price increases
The company announced that it is raising prices effective 3/15 for all liquid, electrode position and powder products in North America for the general industrial, coil-and-extrusion and wood segments.
* * * * *

The Fannie Mae troubles continue to linger:

Fannie says regulator finds new accounting issues

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Fannie Mae on Wednesday said its federal regulator has identified several accounting and internal control issues and raised new questions about the mortgage funder's accounting in an ongoing probe.

Fannie said its regulator has identified policies that appear inconsistent with generally accepted accounting principles and internal control deficiencies that the agency believes may raise safety and soundness concerns.

The accounting issues raised by the regulator include securities accounting, loan accounting consolidations and practices to smooth certain income and expense amounts.

The regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, also identified new developments related to FAS-91 -- an accounting standard for nonrefundable fees and costs associated with originating or acquiring loans.,,

-END-

MIDAS and others in our camp are not the only Cassandras out there:

Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker said this at a recent conference, held at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research:

"Below the favourable surface [of the economy], there are as dangerous and intractable circumstances as I can remember.... Nothing in our experience is comparable…But no one is willing to understand [this] and do anything about it…"
"We are consuming… about six per cent more than we are producing. What holds the world together is a massive flow of capital from abroad… it’s what feeds our consumption binge... the United States economy is growing on the savings of the poor… A big adjustment will inevitably become necessary, long before the social security surpluses disappear and the deficit explodes."
"We are skating on increasingly thin ice."
-END-

For more on the Volker speech:
As the keynote speaker at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Windows Mediaplayer version
http://vodwins.stanford.edu/sns/0502/volcker.asx
-END-