Saturday May 10 2008

Gold gains for the day, over 3% higher for the week
By Myra P. Saefong & Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures climbed almost $4 an ounce Friday to close at their highest level since late April with crude oil's surge to a record price above $126 a barrel and some weakness in the U.S. dollar encouraging the metal to end the week with a gain of more than 3%.Gold for June delivery rose by $3.70 to close at $885.80 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract closed 3.2%, or $27.80, above last Friday's closing level of $858."There are too many bullish drivers in gold to keep it subdued over the short term," said Peter Spina, an analyst at GoldSeek.com.

Gold & Silver – The Fuse Is Lit!
Peter Degraaf
Much discussion has taken place in recent weeks, regarding the possibility that gold and silver might continue to sink to lower levels, as the summer doldrums set in.Investors soon become shell-shocked with negative market analysis that looks at a half-full glass of water and refers to is as ‘half empty’.They read about a member of the Federal Reserve Board who is quoted as saying that he is worried about inflation, and they interpret this to mean that the dollar is going to rise, and gold might fall, just because of that single comment. If the man was serious about his worry, he and his pals would be raising rates, not lowering them! Of course we know that their hands are tied, as the Fed cannot raise rates until the economy, especially the housing market, can handle higher rates.

What If We'd Been on the Gold Standard?
by: James Hamilton
If the U.S. had decided to go back on the gold standard in 2006, where would we be today? That's a question my friend Randy Parker recently asked me. Here's how we both would answer.Many things might have been different had the U.S. decided to promise to exchange dollars for gold at the 2006 price of $600 per ounce of gold. But let's start with some of the things that wouldn't have changed. I contend that we'd be no less worried today about geopolitical events in places like Nigeria, Iraq and Iran. The phenomenal growth of the Asian economies would presumably have continued. The bad mortgage loans made prior to that time would still be on the books and still be problematic, with attendant worries about the financial soundness of many institutions.

Brazil Opec plan lifts oil to $126 per barrel
Robin Pagnamenta and Peter Stiff
Oil prices soared to highs above $126 yesterday as the President of Brazil said that the South American country was considering joining Opec.The latest record, the fifth in as many sessions, was driven by a new round of speculative buying as markets remained jittery about tight global supplies and booming demand. New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, touched a high of $126.20 in early afternoon London trading. London’s Brent crude contract hit a record $125.90.

West Coast dream crashes as Californian city Vallejo considers going bankrupt
Suzy Jagger in New York
Vallejo, California, is notable for many things. It was the state capital, for example, if only briefly, in 1851. It is the home of Boomerang, Kong, ROAR! and V2: Vertical Velocity, evocatively named rollercoasters at the sprawling Six Flags Discovery Kingdom theme park. And, as of this week, it is seeking to declare itself bankrupt.Faced with tax revenues that are spiralling downwards, the Mayor and council members voted unanimously this week to file for bankruptcy. Joanne Schivley, one councillor, said that nobody wanted to go down this road, but added: “There do not appear to be a lot of options left. We are going to be out of cash by June 30.”

Greenback down as credit market concerns rise
The US dollar fell on Friday as another round of credit market losses prompted investors to reduce exposure to risky assets and heightened concern about the health of the US economy.The US currency fell sharply against the yen after American International Group, the world's biggest insurer, posted its largest ever quarterly loss and said it planned to raise $US12.5 billion ($13.3 billion) in fresh capital.That rekindled concern about the US economy, particularly with crude oil again rising to a record high, and sent the US dollar 0.8% lower to 102.94 yen.

Are we there yet?
There is a view slowly emerging that the worst of the global credit crunch and sharemarket ructions has passed. But there are many reasons to believe predictions that the crisis has reached bottom are prematurely optimistic.Are we there yet?There's still a way to go.Are we there yet?A little down the road …The children's band Hi-5The consensus is in. Things will get worse before they get better.In large part the grim forecast is a consequence of the pain that has happened so far. What was first felt in disruptions to esoteric credit markets last August, then led to sharp sharemarket falls in January, has not yet made its full impact felt on the real economy.

Federal regulators close Arkansas bank ANB Financial
Federal regulators says they've closed ANB Financial National Association banks after discovering "unsafe and unsound" business practices there.David Barr, a spokesman for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says many customers served by the bank's nine locations had accounts under $100,000, which will be fully insured by the government. Barr says customers can continue to write checks and draw money from ATMs through the weekend.
Barr says Pulaski Bank and Trust Co. agreed to assume control over ANB Financial's bank locations, which will be open Monday.As of Jan. 31, federal regulators say ANB Financial had about $2.1 billion in assets and $1.8 billion in total deposits. It was the third closure

Sealed Borders Work Both Ways
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Apparently not having enough to do to keep illegal immigrants from entering the country, U.S. officials are now also spending their time looking for illegal immigrants leaving the country. According to an article entitled “Border Busts Coming and Going in the Los Angeles Times, federal customs and immigration officials are setting up random checkpoints 500 yards from the Mexican border to search vehicles leaving the United States for illegal immigrants, drugs, and other contraband. People who cannot produce their papers are taken into custody and then turned over to the Border Patrol, which then deports them a few hours later.

Medvedev flexes muscle with Victory Day display of firepower
Tony Halpin in Moscow
Tanks and nuclear missile launchers rumbled through Moscow’s Red Square yesterday for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as Russia put on a display of power for its annual Victory Day parade.President Dmitri Medvedev, its new commander-in-chief, issued a warning against efforts to change international borders, saying that “irresponsible ambitions” risked war across whole continents. In an apparent swipe at the West over support for an independent Kosovo, Mr Medvedev said that Russia objected to attempts to “interfere in other states’ affairs, not to mention attempts to revise borders”.

Serbia defies UN with elections for Kosovo
By Harry de Quetteville in Mitrovica
Serbia will make its most defiant claim yet to sovereignty over breakaway Kosovo on Sunday, staging crucial elections there three months after its former province declared independence.The elections, which are predicted to usher a hardline nationalist coalition into power in Belgrade, are being organised across Kosovo in an open challenge to authorities in the new state’s capital, Pristina."Around 94,000 Serbs will be eligible to vote, in 298 polling stations,” said Ljubica Marovic, of Serbia’s electoral commission for Kosovo.

Robert Fisk: Hizbollah rules west Beirut in Iran's proxy war with US
Another American humiliation. The Shia gunmen who drove past my apartment in west Beirut yesterday afternoon were hooting their horns, making V-signs, leaning out of the windows of SUVs with their rifles in the air, proving to the Muslims of the capital that the elected government of Lebanon has lost.And it has. The national army still patrols the streets, but solely to prevent sectarian killings or massacres. Far from dismantling the pro-Iranian Hizbollah's secret telecommunications system – and disarming the Hizbollah itself – the cabinet of Fouad Siniora sits in the old Turkish serail in Beirut, denouncing violence with the same authority as the Iraqi government in Baghdad's green zone.

Johann Hari: The loathsome smearing of Israel's critics
In the US and Britain, there is a campaign to smear anybody who tries to describe the plight of the Palestinian people. It is an attempt to intimidate and silence – and to a large degree, it works. There is nobody these self-appointed spokesmen for Israel will not attack as anti-Jewish: liberal Jews, rabbis, even Holocaust survivors.My own case isn't especially important, but it illustrates how the wider process of intimidation works. I have worked undercover at both the Finsbury Park mosque and among neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers to expose the Jew-hatred there; when I went on the Islam Channel to challenge the anti-Semitism of Islamists, I received a rash of death threats calling me "a Jew-lover", "a Zionist-homo pig" and more.

BBC debate: Has Zionism worked?
By Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent
After a week or so of travelling the length and breadth of Israel, from the tranquil slopes of the Upper Galilee to the rocket shelters of beleaguered Sderot, we gathered three Israelis together, in Tel Aviv, to discuss the past 60 years.
"Has Zionism worked?" was the question we put to the former Knesset member and Ambassador, Zalman Shoval, magazine editor Bambi Sheleg and novelist Alon Hilu.And to put everyone in the mood, we met in the modest, book-lined study of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, a couple of blocks from the beach. With his glasses on the table in the corner and the simple, utilitarian house pretty much unchanged, it was as if the grand old man of Israeli politics had just stepped out of the room, leaving us to talk.

Poll: US Jews prefer Clinton
New Gallup survey says 66% of American Jews will vote for former first lady should she be elected to compete against John McCain in presidential elections
WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton is the most popular US candidate for president of the United States among Jewish voters, according to a new Gallup poll. Clinton's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, is not far behind.Republican candidate John McCain will receive more Jewish votes than US President George W. Bush got four years ago, the poll said, but most Jews will remain loyal to the Democratic candidate.Democratic presidential hopeful tells NBC's 'Meet the Press' his rival's recent comment that US would 'totally obliterate' Iran if it attacked Israel is reflective of George Bush's 'cowboy diplomacy', but adds that US would defend Israel after any attack, 'nuclear or otherwise'

'The British wanted us to kill each other'
Said Jabr, 74, Arab Israeli
The old British Army base, a small sandstone fort, stands abandoned on a hill in Abu Ghosh, an Arab village just southwest of Jerusalem. Said Jabr was 14 when the British pulled out.“It was on the 14th or 15th of May. I remember exactly that the British commander came to Ali Saleh, the village mukhtar (elder), and said they were going to leave and warned us to be ready,” he recalled from his family home in Abu Ghosh. “Thirty-five armed villagers walked into the base to take command. But the British commander went at the same time to the kibbutz and told them the same thing.

The Long Night
by Charley Reese
Have you ever wondered how human beings can be so cruel? And how cruelty crosses all the boundaries – national, racial and ethnic? I have. Rereading an autobiography published in 1941 by a communist agent reminded me of the dark side of human nature.The book, Out of the Night, was written – under the pseudonym "Jan Valtin" – by a German who lived through the chaos of the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism. Broken by Gestapo torture, he ended up being pursued by both the Nazi and the communist manhunters and killers.

US Terrorism Report: Wrong Lessons
Instead of dealing with the obvious truths that the terrorism report highlights, the authors of the report have resorted to another logic that places blame squarely on external circumstance, never holding the US government accountable for its actions, says Ramzy Baroud.The data provided in the US State Department's annual terrorism report for 2007 points to some interesting if puzzling conclusions. The much publicised document, made available 30 April via the State Department's website, makes no secret of the fact that Al-Qaeda is back, strong as ever. It also suggests that violence worldwide is nowhere near subsiding, despite President Bush's repeated assurances regarding the success of his "war on terror".

MDC to contest run-off against Mugabe
Phumza Macanda | Pretoria, South Africa
The leader of Zimbabwe's main opposition group said on Saturday he would contest a run-off against Robert Mugabe after disputed elections on March 29 in hopes of unseating the veteran president.But Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he would only participate in the run-off if international observers and media had full access to ensure the poll is free and fair. The opposition has accused Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party of trying to intimidate voters and rig the ballot.

Rice seeks African insight to help end Zim crisis
Washington, United States
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke on Friday with African leaders and former United Nations chief Kofi Annan for their insight into how to end Zimbabwe's presidential election crisis, her spokesperson said.Rice spoke to Botswana President Ian Khama, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete about how they could help promote a solution, according to State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack.

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