Friday June 27th 2008

Gold revs its engine and squeals down the track
Prices were stuck in a $50 trading range until the Fed sent the dollar reeling
The U.S. Federal Reserve gave gold the fuel it needed to restart its engine and the precious metal has already driven through the trading range barrier it's been stuck in for the past month.Gold futures had been trapped in a $50 trading range between $860 and $910 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange since May 28. It climbed past $920 in electronic trading Thursday evening as the U.S. dollar slumped in reaction to the Fed's failure to signal urgency to raise rates to curb inflation.On Wednesday, the Fed decided to hold short-term interest rates steady at 2%, but sharpened its focus on inflation, saying that the risks posed to the economy by upward pressure on prices have increased.

Gold Heads for Second Weekly Gain on Demand for Inflation Hedge
Gold headed for a second weekly gain as crude oil rose to a record and the dollar weakened, boosting the appeal of the metal as a hedge against inflation and an alternative investment to the U.S. currency.Crude traded at a record $141.71 a barrel today, adding to expectations inflation will quicken. The dollar has weakened against the euro for two weeks, extending losses after the U.S. Federal Reserve on June 25 gave no indication at its policy meeting that it would resume interest-rate increases.``Inflation fears, dollar weakness, that's what has pushed gold higher,'' Peter Fertig, a consultant for Dresdner Kleinwort, said by phone from Hainburg in Germany.

Oil and Gold Prices Go Through the Roof
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Gold and the other precious metals futures soared Thursday, propelled by U.S. dollar weakness since Wednesday's Federal Reserve policy statement, stronger crude oil, an equities selloff and continued worries about the financial sector, analysts said.Chart-based buying also helped precious metals.August gold leaped $32.80 to settle at $915.10 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. September silver climbed 61.3 cents to $17.22."It's all attributed to the Fed," said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist with Lind-Waldock. "There is not a clear-cut signal of when the Fed is going to raise rates."

Oil price surge rattles global stock markets
By James Quinn
Global stock markets were under pressure today as the soaring price of crude oil darkened the outlook for economic growth.Global stock markets tumbled as a weak dollar pushed the price of oil over $140 dollars a barrel for the first timeThe Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 358 pointsIn Asia, markets stretching from Japan to New Zealand were lower as they took their cue from a weak perfomance on Wall Street. Crude oil hit a new high of $141.98 today - its second consecutive record.The FTSE 100 was down more than 30 points in early trading, and markets in Europe were also weaker.

CNBC Video:'Misleading' Fed Should Let Banks Fail
The close ties between Wall Street and government mean big brokers and banks will be bailed out, but that is putting the entire financial system at risk, Marc Faber, editor of the "Gloom and Doom Report" said. Find out what he thinks investors should do.

VIDEO: Peter Schiff June 26 2008 Fox Business News

Barclays warns of a financial storm as Federal Reserve's credibility crumbles
US central bank accused of unleashing an inflation shock that will rock financial markets, reports Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Barclays Capital has advised clients to batten down the hatches for a worldwide financial storm, warning that the US Federal Reserve has allowed the inflation genie out of the bottle and let its credibility fall "below zero"."We're in a nasty environment," said Tim Bond, the bank's chief equity strategist. "There is an inflation shock underway.This is going to be very negative for financial assets. We are going into tortoise mood and are retreating into our shell. Investors will do well if they can preserve their wealth."

Wall Street plunges towards worst month since the Great Depression of the early 1930s
By Ian Lyall
Shares plunged on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday because of fears over oil, inflation and the global economy.In London the FTSE 100 slumped 2.6 per cent, or 147.9 points to 5518.2.Meanwhile in America, the Dow Jones fell more than 350 points to its lowest level since October 1, 2006.It is now on course for its worst June performance since the Great Depression of the early 1930s.The febrile mood on trading floors came amid fears that soaring energy prices will push up inflation and erode consumer spending, dramatically reducing company profits.

Asia markets pounded by Wall St and oil prices
Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent
Asian stocks ended the week under a dramatic pounding from investors as record oil prices, runaway food price inflation and a dread of further calamity on Wall Street gripped trading floors.Shares everywhere – from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur – crumpled under the weight of sell orders in the property and banking sectors as markets absorbed overnight carnage in the US.The damage was particularly severe in Tokyo, where the Nikkei benchmark slumped more than 2 per cent to a two-month low as brokers declared an unhappy “re-coupling” with sentiment on Wall Street.

Fed May Give Private Equity
More Leeway to Help Banks
The Federal Reserve may soon make it easier for private-equity firms and others to invest in the nation's ailing banks, according to people familiar with the matter.With bank stocks crumbling and the second quarter drawing to a close Monday, the changes could offer a lifeline to cash-strapped lenders desperate to secure capital."This would be a bit of a sea change for the Fed," said Gregory Lyons, head of the financial-services practice at law firm Goodwin Procter LLP. "A number of banks would love to access the private-equity pool. It's a clean slug of money."

UBS units accused of misleading customers
By Gretchen Morgenson
The top securities regulator in Massachusetts has sued UBS on the grounds of fraud, saying that the firm misled clients when it sold them auction-rate securities and that it pushed the increasingly risky instruments on individual investors to reduce its own potential losses.The roughly $300 billion market for auction-rate securities ground to a halt last February when buyers all but vanished. Existing holders were locked into shares and notes issued by municipalities, tax-exempt institutions, student loan companies and closed-end funds. Many of these investors say they were told that the securities were as safe and liquid as cash and had no idea that their holdings could be tied up indefinitely.

Economics to scare the kids
By The Mogambo Guru
There was an interesting article in last Tuesday's Wall Street Journal titled "Watch Out for Sovereign Debt Risk" by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, a couple of economics professors at the universities of Maryland and Harvard respectively.I thought that it would be about all those dollars that foreigners have in their "sovereign wealth funds", thanks to the damned Federal Reserve creating it all, and then us borrowing it and then spending it on imports of foreign goods and services, enough to produce a merchandise trade balance deficit of almost US$850 billion a year!

Cheerleaders turn backs on reality
By John Browne
When listening to the typical, television-based, Wall Street cheerleader work themselves up into a bull market frenzy, one is tempted to wonder if they ever bother to compare the movie that is rolling along in their heads to the one that is occurring in the outside world. Perhaps for those living in a media bubble, the only reality that matters is the one reflected in the camera lens.Over the past nine months, we have seen increasing signs of economic contraction and falling corporate earnings in America. Although the financials, airlines, auto manufacturers, and retailers have grabbed the headlines, few American sectors are immune from the pain.

What if We Leave the Middle East? (We Won’t Be Missed)
Posted by Leon Hadar
We’re all familiar with this cliché-ridden story line. A successful husband dumps his middle-aged and supposedly feeble wife for a younger woman. The estranged wife’s friends are worried that after so many years of being dependent on her spouse, she won’t be able to make it in the real world as a single woman. But to the surprise of everyone, she goes to college, gets a degree and then opens a small but profitable business. And after dieting and working-out in the gym, she looks great and starts dating attractive and successful guys. In fact, she seems to be doing now that her husband is now around anymore much better than during her married life.

The go-it-alone President who changed tack in search of a legacy
Tom Baldwin
President Bush receives scant credit for the transformation of his foreign policy in the past four years. In contrast to the go-it-alone president who in his first term rode roughshod over international sensibilities when he took the US to war in Iraq, Mr Bush now seeks the legacy of a leader who sought diplomatic solutions.He told The Times recently that he wanted to “leave behind a series of structures that make it easier for the next president” — or, as he put it later, “a multilateralism to deal with tyrants”.

How does President Bush lie?
By Cy Bolton
In the face of overwhelming evidence, it's astounding that people such as James Kirchick, in ",” continue to defend the president against accusations that he intentionally misled and outright lied to the American people in making the case for war with Iraq.Consider first the implications of the famous Downing Street memo from July 23, 2002. Briefing Tony Blair about his recent talks with Washington, Britain's top intelligence officer stated that U.S. "military action was now seen as inevitable. ... But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Who's Planning Our Next War?
by Patrick J. Buchanan
Of the Axis-of-Evil nations named in his State of the Union in 2002, President Bush has often said, "The United States will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."
He failed with North Korea. Will he accept failure in Iran, though there is no hard evidence Iran has an active nuclear weapons program?William Kristol of The Weekly Standard said Sunday a U.S. attack on Iran after the election is more likely should Barack Obama win. Presumably, Bush would trust John McCain to keep Iran nuclear free.

The October surprise Republicans dream of
McCain’s adviser was reminding credit crunch-hit Americans of 9/11, says Alexander Cockburn
Everybody knows it, but it took a notoriously ruthless Republican operator to come right out and say it. Charlie Black, John McCain's campaign adviser, recently let drop to Fortune magazine that another terrorist attack on US soil would be a "big advantage" for the Republican presidential candidate. Of course McCain lost no time in distancing himself from Black's remark. "I cannot imagine why he would say it. It's not true. I've worked tirelessly since 9/11 to prevent another attack on the United States of America. My record is very clear."

American reporter in 'love triangle row' told to leave Iraq
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
CBS, the American television network, has recalled its correspondent in Baghdad after she joked that she had to use death threats to force the war on to news bulletins.Lara Logan, a former war correspondent for ITN, was appointed to a position in the network's Washington bureau days after she told a chatshow host she would "blow her brains out" if she was subjected to US television news.Logan, 38, attracted a barrage of damaging publicity after her appearance on John Stewart's Daily Show last week, most damagingly in the New York Post which branded her a "homewrecker," for allegedly conducting a relationship with a married man during her time in Baghdad.

Israeli threats stiffen Iran's resolve
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Although it is manifestly clear that Israel runs major risks for minor gains by planning to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, the tendency of Israeli politicians and pundits to underestimate the risks and the likelihood of success is growing by leaps and bounds.Following the argument that Israel does not want to wait for a new administration in the United States, to paraphrase one of Israel's voices in the US, CBS consultant Michael Oren, Israel's increasingly bellicose attitude against Iran actually has the adverse effect: it sets barricades in the path of Iranian politicians who want to reach a compromise with the "Iran Six" over Tehran's nuclear program.

'Dutch Jimmy Carter' accuses Israel of terrorism in new book
By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent
The emotion in Andreas Van Agt's voice as he lambastes Israel's behavior seems puzzling for a man of his status. It is especially intriguing when one is reminded that this blue-eyed professed idealist is an astute statesman who presided as the Dutch prime minister for five years, until 1982."My involvement in the Middle East is certainly unusual," Van Agt confessed in an interview with Haaretz at his home in Nijmegen, where he discussed Israel, the Palestinians, European foreign policy, the Holocaust and anti-Semitism

Police say teens beat homeless Ohio man to death
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A group of teenagers beat a homeless man to death as passers-by slowed to watch the attack, some of which was caught on videotape, police said.Anthony Waters, 42, suffered a lacerated spleen and broken ribs during the attack Wednesday night and died at a hospital, police said."The pack mentality going on in the city of Cleveland must end," police Commander Calvin Williams said Thursday at a news conference where he urged the attackers to come forward.Portions of the attack were caught on a surveillance camera outside a towing company on the city's east side. Police said the videotape shows passing cars slowing to watch three teens attack Waters until he staggered into the parking lot, where he was assisted by employees of the towing company.

The failure of Nelson Mandela
Condemning Mugabe calls into question the concept of African liberation, says Anthony Daniels
Nelson Mandela's description of the Zimbabwean catastrophe wrought by Robert Mugabe as a failure of leadership is a failure either of intelligence or of honesty, or of both. There comes a point at which euphemism turns into untruth; and Mugabe's regime long ago passed the stage of mere human error that the term 'failure of leadership' implies.The reason most African leaders find it so difficult to condemn Mugabe's rule is that to do so would put in question the whole concept of African liberation. The crimes of colonialism are only too well known; but the crimes of anti- and post-colonialism are still too recent, and too current, to be talked of with frankness by their beneficiaries.

'Can't you save the baby?'
Virginia Keppler, Beeld
Pretoria - A pregnant woman was brutally murdered in her house in Waverley in Pretoria on Thursday by having her head beaten to a pulp.The attackers then hid the body of the woman, who was eight months pregnant, under the duvet on her bed in Varing Street.The unborn baby of Antoinette Botha, who was a nurse at Moot Hospital, did not survive the attack either.The attacker(s) then collected household appliances but left them standing in the house and fled in Antoinette's black Mercedes Benz with registration number WRW 497 GP.

SA arms flow to Zimbabwe
South Africa has been supplying Zimbabwe with weapons of war, including helicopters, revolvers and cartridges -- despite the mounting human rights atrocities in that country.The sales, some involving state arms company Armscor, have been quietly taking place for some years. When a Chinese freighter recently carried weapons destined for the Zimbabwean military and tried to dock in Durban, there was an international outcry.Information at the Mail & Guardian’s disposal points to a cosy relationship between the defence forces of both countries, as well as government-to-government arms transfers. This appears to conflict with President Thabo Mbeki’s mediation role between the ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition MDC, which demands neutrality.

The fear is constant but resolve remains in Zimbabwe
Jan Raath in Harare
Bread disappeared on Monday. It has happened before, only to turn up on the shelves again a few days later, though this time things look different. “No flour,” the young woman behind the counter said with an air of finality.We live in a country where nothing, not even our daily bread, can be taken for granted as the economy slips into chaos and the streets are gripped by anarchy. We live in fear of what's coming next.I was driving for a meal with friends the other night and passed a mob of about 30 youths, wearing T-shirts with Mr Mugabe's visage, long sticks at the ready.

Tsvangirai: vote Mugabe to stay alive
Militia warns voters of reprisals if they back opposition in sham poll
Zimbabwe's opposition has advised its supporters to vote for Robert Mugabe for their own safety when they are herded to the polls today amid threats of violence if there is not a resounding victory for the only ruler the country has known.In a final push to intimidate voters, the ruling Zanu-PF's militia forced people to political meetings across large parts of Zimbabwe yesterday.They were again warned that their "vote is their bullet" if they did not support Mugabe even though the opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai has pulled out of the race because a state-orchestrated campaign of murder, abduction, beatings and rape made it too dangerous for his supporters to vote.

Formation of a 'church within a church' for conservative Anglicans
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
Anglican conservatives meeting in Israel yesterday described their sense of “betrayal and abandonment” by the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and declared the formation of a new global Anglican communion for “faithful” Anglicans living in liberal provinces.Details of the “church within a church” will be announced on Sunday. The founders intend it to halt the slide of their Church towards Western secular values and to reform it from within.
Meeting in Jerusalem, more than 1,100 evangelicals from around the world, including 300 bishops, have stepped back from the brink of schism.

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