GOLD AS WAR OMEN

Having been in the mining industry for many years taught me that some things are absolute. GOLD is one of those things! THE NOBLE METAL
If you can wade through this, it may ring some alarm bells. sorry, I just threw it together to shove down the throats of the admirers of the emporers new clothes who are reciting the rhetoric as I type (this was yesterday, as I publish this, GOLD is going ballistic!)....FOLLOW THE LINKS, and find more it's happening NOW!

WITH SO MANY STORIES COMPETING FOR THE PROPAGANDA FRONT PAGE, the most important story is being completely missed. Gold hit $US700/oz overnight with no sign of halting its upwards momentum. No space is being devoted to serious analysis of the implications of a Gold price of $1US000/oz and above. The movement in the gold price, which is rapid, has the potential to totally undermine current economic settings and demanding a total rethink. If the implications of this recent radical shift in the global economy are not confronted AND SOON, I shudder to think of the damage that will be done. (tony sadgrove, www.crikey.com.au )

The unstoppable rise of gold prices continues while the dollar is at its lowest level of the past year against the euro.

In the meantime the US Federal Reserve (FED) pulled the interest rate up for the 16th time by a quarter point, raising it to five percent.
FED Open Market Committee officials said interest rates may be raised more to curb inflation. Following the last increase, interest rates have reached the highest level since April 2001.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 4.06, or 0.3 percent, to 1318.79 at 10:04 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 51.63, or 0.4 percent, to 11,591.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 12.60, or 0.5 percent, to 2308.14.

AIG lost $2.26, or 3.4 percent, to $64.28 for the worst performance in the Dow. The world's No. 1 insurer said first- quarter profit fell 16 percent to $3.2 billion. The value of derivatives slid by $333 million as the fair value of investments to hedge borrowings declined as interest rates rose. UnitedHealth Group Inc. fell $1.37 to $44.80. The No. 2 U.S. health insurance provider said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an informal inquiry into its stock-options grants. (NOTE: INSURANCE IS ONE THING YOU WON'T GET) http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=a6ZkIl88wLn8&refer=home

Gold prices on Tuesday jumped to USD700 an ounce in New York trade, touching an all time high since October 1980. Today they are at USD 704. Silver is also up 50 cents at above USD 14.50/oz. Platinum has also soared to an all time high of USD 1,242/oz. "The weakening of the dollar is adding to this rally. But in many ways gold has gone up late last year and earlier this year even before the dollar started to weaken. Anticipating this weakening, gold has gone up," http://news.moneycontrol.com/india/news/economy/goldnewyorktrade/goldpricesgallopingaway/market/stocks/article/213950

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, has long been coy about its management of gold reserves. But in recent days, comments attributed to a part-time Chinese economist that a weakening U.S. dollar should prompt Beijing to hold more gold helped send the price of the metal to levels not seen in more than 25 years.
Some Chinese economists are urging the government to quadruple its gold reserves to 2,500 tons from the current 600 tons because the countrys foreign exchange reserves had become the worlds largest.
China has been trying to gradually diversify its reserve holdings away from the dollar. But economists say fears of a collapse in the U.S. currency will prevent any dramatic shift. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-05/11/content_587479.htm