Friday, December 31, 2004
TSUNAMI and The Ring of Fire
He noted in the January/February issue of "Intuitive Flash" 2005 resumes Earth changes especially near the equator, Ring of Fire and the West Coast of America. However, the Indian Ocean quake and the resulting tsunamis indicate that they have started 5 days earlier than I predicted.Here's another interesting site that shows earthquakes, visually, around The Ring of Fire: http://www.iris.edu/seismon/As to the Indian Ocean quake, indications are that this is the first of a series of early warning signs for future changes. The next sign to watch for is "significant" activity in Mexico, and in the Pacific Northwest, specifically Mount Rainer. By "significant" I mean an eruption. Mount Saint Helens is already active and while this was not a specific early warning sign that I had predicted, Mount Saint Helens and Mount Rainier are all part of the same Cascades range and are subject to the same magma flows and pressures.
A new Web Cam of Mt Rainier added in December of 2004: http://www.nps.gov/mora/cam/paradise.jpg
Mover Mike
Thursday, December 30, 2004
SE ASIA TSUNAMI #3
Then WorldNet Daily has a very good article about the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the risks we face here in the Northwest.
.The BBC has an article about how Web Logs Aid Disaster Recovery
Mover Mike
SE ASIA TSUNAMI #2
MALE (AFP) - At least 42 islands in the tourist paradise of the Maldives were flattened with 117 people killed and missing after tsunamis raved the low-lying atoll nation, the president said.Not only is the title misleading, but further in the article is this piece of nonsense:
The tragedy struck the atoll nation of 330,000 Sunni Muslims which is already facing the prospect of extinction from sea level rise caused by global warming. Gayoom had warned that a one-meter (three foot four inch) rise in sea levels could submerge his country.Not only is Global Warming just a theory, but there is no evidense of rising sea levels; As Michael Chrichton wrote about in State of Fear
Mover Mike
I wondered if the 9.0 Earthquake would have an effect around the Ring of Fire. Mitch Battros at Earth Changes TV says both Yellowstone and Mt. St. Helens have been relatively quiet. Here's the link for viewing Mt. St. Helens.
Mover Mike
As if India hasn't had enough, now Drudge is reporting the last volcano in India is erupting.
Mover Mike
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Ahh! The Feeling of Safety
According to Nathan Tabor at NewsMax
First, according to statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there is an interesting correlation between accidental deaths caused by guns and those caused by doctors.
Doctors: (A) There are 700,000 physicians in the U.S. (B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians total 120,000 per year. (C) Accidental death percentage per physician is 0.171.
Guns: (A) There are 80 million gun owners in the U.S. (B) There are 1,500 accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups. (C) The percentage of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.0000188.
Statistically, then, doctors are 9,000 times more dangerous to the public health than gun owners are.
Again, the MSM, every year inform us about the dangers of gun ownership.
My wife is convinced!
She is adamant against buying a gun for home protection.
According to Soyouwanna.com 43,200 die from motor vehicle crashes each year. We have two cars and two physicians (and many more at our disposal through rental car companies and physicians at our HMO). I would feel safer with a gun. Maybe I could threaten my doctor with my car!
Mover Mike
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Revisiting The High Cost of Defense
In June of 2004, Robert Bell, Chairman of the Economics Department, Brooklyn College, N.Y. delivered a paper in Barcelona titled the THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S BUBBLE BLOWING MACHINE.
The paper describes how in the Spring of 2003 Ken Pedeleose, an analyst at the Pentagon department intended to control program costs at federal contractors, was startled to find that the overhead costs of virtually every airplane that Lockheed Martin sold the U.S. Air Force would soon be skyrocketing in price. Pedeleose had personally researched the massive cost increases on the C-130J transport, which would go up from $1.193 billion in 2003 to $8.352 billion by 2006. Documents widely circulated by others in the Pentagon showed that costs for the F-16 program would jump from $3.49 billion in 2004 to $6.66 billion in 2005 and then on to $14.84 billion the next year. The F/A-22, F-117, and many other programs showed similar vaults in costs.The question is, why would an established program show an increase in costs, assuming there is no major increase in the number of planes built? Shouldn't there be a learning curve, meaning the more planes built, the cheaper the cost per plane?
In a 23 June 2003 letter to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Charles Grassley, Pedeleose gave the reason: Lockheed Martin “has to make up hundreds of millions of dollars in their pension funds that were invested in the stock market.”
Lockheed Martin and other federal contractors literally operate under a law unto themselves, known as U.S. Government Cost Accounting Standards.
“The total funding requirement for our pension plans under U.S. Government Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) in 2002 was $87 million. CAS is a major factor in determining our funding requirements and governs the extent to which our pension costs are allocable to and recoverable under contracts with the U.S. Government. For 2003, we expect our funding requirements under CAS to increase substantially. This amount is recovered over time through the pricing of our products and services on U.S. Government contracts, and therefore is recognized in our net sales.”
The last sentence is particularly interesting. It means if Lockheed Martin loses pension fund money on the stock market, the company ultimately increases the size of its revenue by adding the losses onto its prices to the federal government.(Emphasis added
From the 3rd Quarter 2004 Lockheed Martin Quarterly Report
The outlook for 2005 operating profit and earnings per share assume that the Corporation's 2005 FAS/CAS adjustment will be within a range of ($550) to ($300) million.
Today in the NY Times, Looking for Cuts, Pentagon Turns to Jet Fighter Program, the Pentagon is looking at making sharp cuts to the F/A-22. Seems the plane's cost has gone from $35 million apiece to $258 Million per. Good Luck cutting this program. Not only is the cost written into law, but 1000 contractors in 43 states have a vested interest in the program continuing.
Mover Mike
SE ASIA TSUNAMI
Media Linking Killer Tsunami to Global WarmingI wonder if we will see more super quakes reverberate around the ring of fire. Since the earthquake was caused by a subduction zone like we have here in the Northwest, I wonder if we will soon experience the same kind of earthquake. Let us pray for the families of those who died, that their souls are not made bitter by their losses.
Mover Mike
Monday, December 27, 2004
Tuesday, December 28
The other day I said
Since my return from Cabo, I've learned that Gold production is declining. Production is estimated to fall from around 2500 tons to 2000 tons over the next ten years. The reason for this was a lack of Exploration during the 1997 - 2002 period. During this period Exploration budgets had been cut by 67% simply due to the fact that Exploration programs weren't profitable with a Gold price below $350 / ounce. No Exploration means no new Gold deposits ! Like so many products that become short in supply, it takes 4 to 10 years to correct the imbalance. Think not only gold mines, but paper mills and refineries.I knew the 50,000 tons was a large number, but I just learned that in all of mining history 145,000 tons of gold have been mined and 15% of that has been lost, leaving 123,000 tons. Imagine our trading partners are exchanging our paper for over 51,000 tons of gold a year or over 40% of all the gold still in existence in the whole world!Last month the trade deficit for just the month was $58 Billion. That is almost $2 Billion per day! If a tonne of gold costs $14 Million, our daily deficit is equal to 143 tonnes per day or 4290 tonnes a month, 51,480 tonnes a year! Why would anyone accept our paper for over 50,000 tons of gold that is in short supply?
Muy Incredible! This will not end well.
Mover Mike
Thursday, December 23, 2004
It's Amazing to Me...
The reason for this was a lack of Exploration during the 1997 - 2002 period. During this period Exploration budgets had been cut by 67% simply due to the fact that Exploration programs weren't profitable with a Gold price below $350 / ounce. No Exploration means no new Gold deposits !Like so many products that become short in supply, it takes 4 to 10 years to correct the imbalance. Think not only gold mines, but paper mills and refineries.
Last month the trade deficit for just the month was $58 Billion. That is almost $2 Billion per day! If a tonne of gold costs $14 Million, our daily deficit is equal to 143 tonnes per day or 4290 tonnes a month, 51,480 tonnes a year! Why would anyone accept our paper for over 50,000 tons of gold that is in short supply?
Germany's Bundesbank was expected to sell 120 tonnes of gold into the world market, but decided to sell only 8 tonnes. Argentina is increasing their gold reserves as are Russia, China and the Middle East.
The big news for me that I heard about while in Mexico: Mexico is moving toward the remonetization of silver Hugo Salinas Price -- businessman, philosopher, and Mexican patriot -- describes in an essay the progress of monitization:
This November 30 the 31 governors of all theWe insist we are a capitalist country, yet other countries practice what we preach. They value gold, they privatize Social security (Chile), they have no capital gains tax (Japan or Canada), they are moving to a precious metal backed currency (Mexico and China). Meantime we squander our resources. Isn't it amazing how we can spend $200+ Billions in Iraq, but can't find $100 million to contribute to the global food aid programs.
states that make up the Mexican Republic sent
a communiqué to the Ways and Means Committee
of the Mexican House of Representatives,
expressing their unanimous approval of the
monetization of silver and urging the committee
to approve a bill which aims to achieve precisely
this objective.
A poll by national TV Azteca revealed that
96 percent of viewers approved of the
monetization of the silver ounce.
The Bank of Mexico, Mexico's Central Bank,
is adamantly opposed to this measure. The
bank does not want the public to have the
opportunity of saving in monetized silver.
It wants to maintain its monopoly on the
printing of Mexico's money, which has no
intrinsic value and does not want the
public to have any alternative for its
savings, other than bills or bank deposits. (emphasis added)
Mover Mike
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Cabo San Lucas
The tip of Baja includes San Jose de Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, here lives the largest collection of ex-pats anywhere in the world. For an Oregonian it is quite pleasurable to sit on the beach at 8:00PM, with toes in the sand at The Sand Bar, in a short sleeve shirt in December. The food was wonderful, though expensive at tourist stops. Snorkeling in Santa Maria bay was amazing in the warm water; so many fish. There is quite a disperity between the incomes of Americans and Mexicans, where the tourist dependent Mexican earns somewhere between $5 USD and $11 USD per day. However, there doesn't appear to be any major envy. It seems the goal of many Mexicans is to move to the US and make American money.
In some ways Mexico appears to be very Old World. The pace is slower and there is a respect or politness, much like we see in our stereotypical mafia family on TV. It is polite to address someone as senor or senora, on Don senor if they are elderly. When you enter someone's shop, you are always greeted with Ola and you respond buenas dias, or buenos tardes, or buenos noches. When you leave you may shake hands and say gracias. The taxi drivers are polite and it is best to negotiate a price before getting in, so there are no surprises. When you get out, pay, shake hands and say gracias senor. The US and Mexico are so different, and both have great qualities. The danger is to make one like the other, instead of appreciating the differences.
We took a tour up Baja to Todos Santos, where the Hotel California is located. All along the way is the simply gorgeous view of the Pacific Ocean with beautiful sandy beaches priced at $35 USD per meter frontage. Imagine Oregon beach property at $3500 for 350 feet of frontage. Cabo reminds me of La Jolla, California. I suspect that Baja may look like as crowded as the Amalfi Coast in Italy. The one shortage is water. Baja gets about four inches per year and many hotels have desalinazation machines.
Tourism and timeshares are the big industries. 9/11 hurt Baja. Everyone talks about the timeshare visit. You are either involved in selling timeshares, referring, dependent on the money given as inducements, or sitting in the 90 minute meeting, then comparing your loot with others. For the record we received transportation to and from our hotel to the airport, $50 USD to be used at the restaurant Ole! Ole!, $50 USD to be used at the restaurant Mi Casa, a free snorkeling trip to Santa Maria Bay with lunch and an open bar, a tour by bus to Todos Santos, a bottle of Kahlua, a bottle of Tequila, a Mexican blanket and $20 USD.
My wife and I again agreed to disagree about the benefits of the "vacation club". Fiesta Americana is a five star resort between Cabo and San Jose, truly spectacular! The one bedroom suite in the vacation club next to the hotel of the same name, rents for $623 USD per night. We agreed to take a look again next year and stay in the hotel for eight days, seven nights for $995 USD plus tax. I have a year to prove to her that we can afford it.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Tuesday December 14th
America's trade deficit swelled to an all-time high of $55.5 billion in October as imports - including those from China - surged to the loftiest levels on record. Skyrocketing crude-oil prices also contributed to the yawning trade gap.Experts were expecting $52.4 Billion. Seems like the lower USD hasn't had much effect yet. In the meantime Greenspan raises rates another 1/4 point.
Mover Mike-2001
Mover Mike was started in September 2004, on October 28th this Blog hit 1000 Total Visitors. Today we went over 2000 Total Visitors. I'm a Marauding Marsupial in the TTLB Ecosystem. Whoopee! I am enjoying the writing. It has been my way to answer the things leftists say or believe, or share what I find interesting, for example, a Ted Kooser poem, the plight of the USD, and strange things people do. I am heading off to Cabo San Lucas for the first time and will be back in about a week. Hopefully, I will have figured out how to add pictures using Hello and Picasa.
Mover Mike
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Bible Code
(Edwin)Sherman, founder of the Isaac Newton Bible Code Research Society and a professional mathematician, is convinced that the Hebrew Bible contains coded messages that are evidence of God's authorship of the Bible. His book, "Bible Code Bombshell: Compelling Scientific Evidence that God Authored the Bible," describes numerous examples of encoded phrases and sentences that are both lengthy and relevant to the text where they were found.From what I've read the first five books of the Old Testament must be reproduced down through the centuries exactly, with no deviations, as first written. It is in these five books that Isaac Newton was convinced contained code, and due to its complexity, could only have been written by an enormous intellect or God. So far it doesn't seem to predict, but record an event after it happens. We only now, with computers and advaced mathmatics, have the ability to decode passages.
Mover Mike
Friday, December 10, 2004
Argentina,Today
However, I think the real reason is that the Argentine Government has put pricing controls in place and neither the US Dollar nor US tourism is a concern. In other words, there really is no US influence in Argentina economically speaking, and prices have to be kept to where local citizens can afford to buy. So, going out to have some excellent steak and wine at a local café in Buenos Aires will cost you about US$25 for 4 people (you read correct, I did say four people). However, for locals who still mentally equate things when the Peso was 1 to 1 with the US Dollar, we are talking about AP$75 (or what is US$75 in local terms if you can understand the concept). In other words, the meal I just described cost AP$75 Pesos, but in US Dollar equivalent it is US$25. However, for citizens of Buenos Aires who obviously have not had any salary increases to keep pace with the devaluation, this is a seventy-five dollar meal, speaking in terms of previous exchange rates.I think this article is apropos in light of my posts about the USD. Couple of things I noticed. The government installed price controls as a political way to appease the masses. Devaluation involves inflation because imported goods are more expensive and the costs get passed on. I suspect price controls eventually will lead to shortages, black markets and corruption. Tourism is beneficiary of the devaluation. Is Argentina our future?
Mover Mike
Dr. Richebächer and the USD
During the four years 1989-93, total credit in the United States - financial and nonfinancial - grew by a cumulative $3,255 billion, or $819 billion per year. In flagrant contrast, during the four years to mid-2004, overall credit grew virtually three times as fast, by $2.4 trillion per year, and there is no letup in sight.Now those numbers just astound me; $2.4 trillion new credit per year!
Mover Mike
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Stranger and Stranger!
California's attorney general will try to reverse a key victory for the pro-life lobby by suing to overturn a recently passed federal law designed to protect health care providers from retribution if they refuse to support abortion.So, the state attorney general is trying to force doctors to perform abortions if they refuse. Stranger and stranger!
Mover Mike
Hairy toes give away N.C. shower peeper
A Greensboro man hiding in the women's locker room Tuesday night was caught peeping after a woman in a neighboring shower stall spotted his hairy feet, authorities said.As Roseanne Rosannadana said, "It's always something!"
Mover Mike
Boo Bush, Yea Congressmen
The Bush administration expressed confidence in U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday and said he should stay in office, in a belated rebuff to demands from Republicans in Congress for his resignation.I voted for Bush, for this?
Mover Mike
I wasn't aware that three courts had ruled against the Partial Birth Abortion Ban passed by Congress. I am glad to see
Members of Congress ask reversal of partial-birth abortion ruling.
Twenty-six Republican members of Congress asked an appeals court Thursday to reinstate the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, struck down by a federal judge in September.Mover Mikesnip
U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf in Nebraska ruled in September that the ban interferes with a woman's right to an abortion and is unconstitutional. Kopf's ruling followed decisions overturning the law by federal judges in New York and San Francisco. Those decisions also have been appealed.
Unintended Consequences
Mover Mike
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Laying Down A Base
When I direct people to a e-commerce site, I, now, need a catalog and a shopping cart, a merchant account (a way to accept payment) and work on rankings and keywords. It makes no sense to set all of this up, and have no visitors. I have hired a mentor to meet with me once a week to learn how to sell on the net and have people find our offerings. Where would I be without a mentor who has set up web sites and is experienced with the way Google and Yahoo rank web sites. Then there is a new language: HTML. Setting up this Blog through Blogger eventually gets around to HTML. I have gotten pretty good at finding what I want in someone's website in "view source" cutting and pasting it into my template. I have a lot to learn, but I do have my trusty HTML for Dummies by my side.
I am fortunate that I have a source of quality products to sell chosen by my wife. She has been in the furniture business for over ten years and has great taste, as demonstrated by the success of our store, which is now celebrating its third profitable year. We opened shortly after 9/11.
This kind of activity has occupied more of my time than blogging. Seems like there is no over riding issue, as there was prior to the election. I have commented on the excessive PC nature of our country. There's the invasion of illegal aliens and no solution. There's Iraq! I hope that our troops are not dying in vain. There's Iran and nuclear proliferation. There is the weakness in the USD, but about the time we all get worked up over it, the USD rallies. I don't want to be the "boy who cried wolf".
I will comment on some movies we've seen lately. Kinsey, Sideways, and Closer have been recent movies that I have enjoyed. I am fascinated by the study of adultry, the reasons it happens and the effect it has on the parties involved. These three movies are adult with very good acting and I suspect will be nominated for Academy Awards. The theme song "Blowers Daughter" by Damien Price in Closer is haunting (right now I can't hear it enough) and Natalie Portman steals the screen like no one I've seen in a long time. I remember her first movie in which she was a 13 year old girl living next door to Timothy Hutton. She was great in that movie and she has gotten better in each movie since.
Maybe, it's the season that has taken my mind away from the news. Not only is Christmas two weeks and three days away, but we've been going to the tanning booth every other day, laying down a base for our quick trip to Cabo, returning on the 21st. We started going under for six minutes and now we are up to 14 minutes. Some things just take time.
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Saturday December 4th, 2004
Gleanings from the Web: Man gets probation in botched castration
A man who botched the castration of a transgendered woman will spend the next three years on probation.
snip
...he thought he could do it because of his experience castrating animals on a farm.I suspect some things you learn on the farm should stay on the farm. The Basque sheep ranchers in eastern Oregon bit them off!
Mover Mike
Woman dies in assisted suicide after being taken to Switzerland
A CHRONICALLY ill British woman at the centre of a High Court euthanasia battle has died in an assisted suicide in SwitzerlandEuthanasia is spreading!
Mover Mike
Schools Take the "Christ" out of Christmas--and Celebrate Ramadan
In Herndon, Va, a Muslim "multicultural trainer" taught third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students about the practices and beliefs surrounding Ramadan. This included presenting the call to prayer and displaying religious artifacts such as prayer rugs. In public school classrooms across the country, similar efforts are being made to educate students about aspects of the Muslim faithFirst, the warnings in Portland, OR about the Boy Scouts and now this!
Mover Mike
New method helps map women’s happiness
Having sex is the high point of most women’s’ days, while commuting is the low point. And most women like being with their kids less than they will admit, according to a study published Thursday.They did say sex is the high point of most women's "days"! Where does she find the time?
Mover Mike
Get 'em while they're hot: Stadium franks go organic
Consumers are demanding healthier food everywhere — even at the ballpark. Some fans want food they feel is not only more nutritious, but also safer. Certified organic foods are untouched by preservatives and pesticides, and the meat comes from animals not treated with hormones or antibiotics.So you can chomp an organic hot dog while watching the hormone filled athletes play baseball.
Mover Mike
Emergency operation after school prank
Jack Watson (10 years old) had to have an emergency hour-long operation to reattach a testicle to the lining of his scrotum after friends gave him the excruciating "wedgie".Maybe the transgendered woman should have gone to some 10 year old boys instead of that farmer.
Mover Mike
Friday, December 03, 2004
Warning: Boy Scout Talk
Under pressure from gay and atheist parents, Portland school officials are considering a policy that would ban the Boy Scouts of America from recruiting students during school hours.
Under the proposal, non-school groups would be allowed to send literature home with children, but the flier or pamphlet would need to be accompanied with a disclaimer, warning parents that the groups' values may be offensive.
"From time to time, you may receive materials from a group that holds values that may offend some of our families," the draft disclaimer says.(emphasis added)
These are the values that some may find offensive:Ideals
The ideals of Boy Scouting are spelled out in the Scout Oath, the Scout Law, the Scout motto, and the Scout slogan. The Boy Scout measures himself against these ideals and continually tries to improve. The goals are high, and as he reaches for them, he has some control over what and who he becomes.
I had a great time as a Boy Scout. I was almost an Eagle Scout. We camped out under the stars, exchanged pins with buys from around the world, we were boys from all backgrounds and all colors. Never in my wildest imagination could I guess that we would become so afraid that we send out this kind of tripe:"Scout Law
TRUSTWORTHY
A Scout tells the truth. He keeps his promises. Honesty is part of his code of conduct. People can depend on him.
LOYAL
A Scout is true to his family, Scout leaders, friends, school, and nation.
HELPFUL
A Scout is concerned about other people. He does things willingly for others without pay or reward.
FRIENDLY
A Scout is a friend to all. He is a brother to other Scouts. He seeks to understand others. He respects those with ideas and customs other than his own.
COURTEOUS
A Scout is polite to everyone regardless of age or position. He knows good manners make it easier for people to get along together.
KIND
A Scout understands there is strength in being gentle. He treats others as he wants to be treated. He does not hurt or kill harmless things without reason.
OBEDIENT
A Scout follows the rules of his family, school, and troop. He obeys the laws of his community and country. If he thinks these rules and laws are unfair, he tries to have them changed in an orderly manner rather than disobey them.
CHEERFUL
A Scout looks for the bright side of things. He cheerfully does tasks that come his way. He tries to make others happy.
THRIFTY
A Scout works to pay his way and to help others. He saves for unforeseen needs. He protects and conserves natural resources. He carefully uses time and property.
BRAVE
A Scout can face danger even if he is afraid. He has the courage to stand for what he thinks is right even if others laugh at or threaten him.
CLEAN
A Scout keeps his body and mind fit and clean. He goes around with those who believe in living by these same ideals. He helps keep his home and community clean.
REVERENT
A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others.
Scout Oath (or Promise)
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
Scout Motto
Be Prepared
Scout Slogan
Do a Good Turn Daily
From time to time, you may receive materials from a group that holds values that may offend some of our families,"If I were asked, based what I read in the MSM, I would say we need more of the Scout Law followed in this country. How dare our school officials even contemplate such action.
Mover Mike
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Peggy Noonan on Dan Rather
I think the bitterness of Nixon's presidential years, the personal darkness he seemed to display, was in part a product of simple human pain, and the pain was the result of this: He had been right and brave and done the right thing in the 1950s, and the American left and its cousin the American establishment would never forgive him for it. And he couldn't stop wanting their approval. He put a traitor named Alger Hiss in jail. The left would make him pay. He paid the price in terms of his personal peace. He handed his enemies a sword..
One of those who picked it up and used it against him was Dan Rather. There is an amazing and unseen circularity to life. And wanting approval can make you do strange things
Peter Ames Carlin, again, it wasn't his flamboyance that tired his viewers. It was his bias.
Mover Mike
More Talk About the USD Today
The administration and the federal reserve had better act soon to shore up the U.S. dollar. The dollar is deteriorating almost daily against the euro and the yen. A panic attack on greenbacks is imminent if the Fed doesn't act soon to mop up excess liquidity. The last thing we need now is a currency crisis. John Kennedy had it right 40 years ago when he observed that strong states have sound currencies.The problem is the word "strong". We are strong militarily, but we are like a drunk before he takes the cure; financially bankrupt. I leave it to you to decide if we are morally and spiritually bankrupt. Some would argue that we are, others see signs of a rebirth, if all the talk about moral values is an indication.
Today the USD closed at a new low versus the Euro and it is trading lower in after hours trading. Gold closed at a new 16 year high and is higher, $455.80, in after hours trading.
There was good news of a sort. Jim Sinclair at Mineset.com says that
The China Aviation Oil Company has gone belly up after shorting crude.Seems that they tried to fight the market and the market won. That sounds like a song!
Mover Mike
