Last Updated: Nov 19th, 2009 - 11:07:39 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Thought for the Day Our new government is up and cracking - hard! Full steam ahead. And quite rightly so as we will need to shift a lot of dead-weight if we are to get the economy up and cracking again. Rodney Hide has ACT's 20 ways to get growth. All straight forward and what many organisations have been saying for some years now. If we can undo what Helen has done and free up the market systems and reduce government we will start to build wealth. Notice that the government doesn't actually have to DO anything. It just needs to clean out the regulatory rubbish clogging our arteries and reduce the "head office overheads". But there is still our confusion about money. This week we look at a number articles illustrating the difficulties many nations are having in solving their Central Bank problem. The problem is that the solution is not to have a Central Bank. They won't think of that one! Dec 12, 2008, 16:45 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 “Be Nice to the Countries That Lend You Money” Some "straight from the shoulder" talking from a senior Chinese government fund investor. [ Visit Website ] Dec 12, 2008, 10:09 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Fear triggers gold shortage, drives Treasury yields below zero Fear and greed are the main drivers of the markets - not careful analysis and sound capital structures based on extensive knowledge and sound theory. Sorry about that! Dec 11, 2008, 18:03 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 UK May Expand Toolkit to Halt Recession Slide The British "money pump" moves into high gear. Dec 11, 2008, 13:29 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Fed Considers Debt Sales of Its Own Slowly and tentatively journalists are starting to get the point. Central Banks are trying to solve the problems caused by too much paper money by printing more paper money. When will the politicians and the public understand the problem and the implications? Never? Dec 11, 2008, 09:56 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Oil Contango Pays Most in Decade; Stockpiling Earns 11% The era of cheap oil is here at last. Yeah, right. Dec 9, 2008, 14:49 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Few Seeing Usual Benefits of Rising Dollar The paper money turmoil speeds up. Dec 9, 2008, 14:42 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Malaysia raises gold dinar proposal again Malaysia is again raising the question of using gold for money: "Malaysia wants the Organisation of the Islamic Conference member countries to reconsider the use of the gold dinar for trade, especially with uncertainties in the international currency market. In stating this today, Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said Malaysia would attempt to hold discussions with the OIC countries so that the issue of using the gold dinar could be studied in depth. "At this time when the currency market is uncertain and challenging, maybe it will be good for the OIC countries to look again at the role of the gold dinar in increasing trade among members," he told reporters here today. Earlier he officiated the opening of Wisma Yayasan Ekonomi Sejagat here. Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad proposed the use of the gold dinar in global trade in 2002. Nor Mohamed said with the challenging economic conditions and weaknesses in the financial system, the use of the gold dinar could be reconsidered. "Before this, our suggestion was not well accepted by the OIC countries. But now with the weaknesses in the financial system, maybe we can look at the gold dinar proposal again," he said." Dec 9, 2008, 14:24 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 India Cuts Interest Rates For Third Time in Two Months All the world's politicians and all the world's Central Bankers get together to work out how to fix their paper money systems. They are all synchronising their efforts and as a result they are all reaching the same end point simultaneously. It should be an exciting finale! Dec 9, 2008, 14:15 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Red Alert: Gold Backwardation!!! The gold wars are heating up. Some interesting thoughts on how gold is reacting to recent money events. Remember that all of this money and gold pricing is run by human emotion as well as careful calculation and government intervention into the markets. It sure makes it difficult to figure out what is happening. [ Visit Website ] Dec 9, 2008, 14:08 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Bank of England Mulls 'Nuclear Option' of Cash Injection Our Reserve Bank has dropped the interest rate to 5%. At 1.5% this is the most dramatic drop ever?! America is down to 1%. How is England doing? Dec 9, 2008, 13:34 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Market Intervention is Top Financial Story of Our Generation Somewhere in the past a President of the USA has established the "President's Working Group on Financial Markets" colloquially known as the Plunge Protection Team. I first read about this around two years ago. President Bush has asked Hank Paulson to lead this group this year with the instruction to make sure the markets remain stable. This is all part of the strategy for ensuring that we don't get a huge drop into depression or suffer a slow deflation but instead get back to good old inflation which we all know and love. But we must do it in a controlled way and get back to a controlled inflation so that the Politicians and the Bankers can continue to control the world and its money - all for our benefit, of course. So the Plunge Protection Team is supposed to stop the markets from behaving too suddenly. This sounds like a good idea. But, if the government is now an active player in the markets and has unlimited funds at its disposal, how is anyone to know the worth of any asset in the markets? Just a small point! This must be why the Plunge Protection Team is shrouded in such secrecy that many people are still arguing about its very existence. Dec 9, 2008, 12:20 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Monster Crash And for some light hearted relief from all our cares and worries: [ Visit Website ] Dec 9, 2008, 12:01 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Deflation Virus Moves Policy Beyond 1930s The cure for the boom going bust is supposed to be a loose money supply. However that did not work for Japan and for the last nearly 20 years they have been living with a slow, gentle but continuous deflation. Things just kept on getting cheaper! If you had no debts then this was a good thing. Trouble is, after a bust, too many people have too many debts. This is now happening or looks like it is about to happen to most of the major economies in the world all together right now. This is unprecedented so we have no experience of the outcome. We might get 20 years of deflation but we might get a flip back to inflation as happened after the dot.com boom/bust cycle in the USA. If the strategy of printing money initiates inflation again, will the Central Banks be able to control it? REAL Economics theory says, "No!" and experience also says, "No!". I wonder where we will find the next boom starting? Dec 8, 2008, 13:33 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 GONOISM! Some fun at the expense of a Central Banker. Dec 7, 2008, 12:02 Newsletters : 2008 Newsletters : 12 December 2008 Quote for the Week "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." Plato Nov 12, 2008, 16:20