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The GoldBugg Report - June 03, 2008

June 3, 2008

-"We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful." Warren Buffett

-"At times like this," Bill Murphy of GATA writes, "when The Gold Cartel is going all out, it is critical to keep the big picture in focus. Gold is on pace to finish the year up again. This will make it 8 years in a row and still Planet Wall Street pays it scant attention and only when it has to.

The likely upside potential for gold and silver is staggering as future demand for both will probably go off the charts, while mine supply is declining and available central bank gold supply dries up already it seems the ECB banks are now inclined to keep most of what they have left. Kitco Daily Resource

-Personally, I'd buy gold here before I sold it. I think we saw the low for gold on May 1 when June gold hit a low of 849. The 40-week moving average for June gold stands at 843. So 843-849, that should be about the low area for gold. Sit tight. Get some sun. Stop worrying. Richard Russell

-Poor Man's Gold-The U.S. government is imposing quotas on silver dollar coins, and the rare shortage offers a glimpse into the growing popularity of the Silver Eagles. See charts here-

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121026905137777883.html

-If you own gold and silver, fear not. The Fed is years away from ever admitting a mistake, like printing too much money. Moreover, this is America. Congress will never call out for tight money. As long as the Chairman of the Fed still believes in the economic tooth fairy, rising inflation is guaranteed. Unfortunately, the outlook looks grim. Inflation causes stagnation as people can afford to buy less and less.

At the same time, a weak economy only encourages the Fed to print more money that will continue to rob me of my savings, and generate even more inflation. Bernanke may have been educated at Princeton but from what we have seen, he still knows very little. And in turn, this means we all get to learn firsthand what stagflation is all about. Richard Benson-Read more here- http://www.321gold.com/
editorials/benson/benson052808.html

GOLD

-The current strong investor demand will push gold above $1,100 a troy ounce by the end of this year, GFMS Ltd. chairman Philip Klatwijk said Wednesday. "The subprime crisis has put gold in the spotlight," Klatwijk said, adding volatile stock markets and a high-inflation environment will further increase the appeal of gold as a safe-haven investment in the coming months.

"In the short term, prices could fall as low as $850-870/oz, but bargain hunting will emerge" as jewelry fabricators return to the market to replenish stocks, he said at the Shanghai Futures Exchange Annual Forum. Klatwijk noted despite a rally in prices that pushed gold above the $1,030/oz level in March this year, the supply reaction including mine production and official sector sales has been limited so far.

On the demand side, however, GFMS's latest data show fabrication demand from the jewelry sector fell 21 percent on year in the first quarter. But the fall in fabrication demand will be more than compensated by rising investment demand, Klatwijk said. Dow Jones

-The Case for USD 1,300/oz Gold. Our 2009 gold target of USD 1,300/oz does not factor in external elements such as geo-politics or the speculative herd-following frenzy. I have a feeling this once-unthinkable 4-digit target will turn out to be too conservative. Read more here- http://www.kitco.com/ind/Lee/
printerfriendly/may232008.html

-When you start worrying about your portfolio, please remember these simple data points that make precious metals a good investment:

-Oil is now over $130. Of course there has to be some speculation here, but there are many commodities that are also at sky high prices and these do not trade on exchanges - just producer to industrial end user, meaning there are no speculators or hedge funds involved. The list is so long I won't include it here.

The key thing to remember is that if these commodities are also in very strong bull markets it confirms that the general trend in almost all commodities is higher due to economic basics. These basics are: a) the supply demand impact of a new world (China, India, Russia, Brazil, etc.), b) a decade or more of global paper money increases well above normal, creating inflation and c) the normal 20-25 year commodity up cycle that just started in 2001

-Politicians are out of control and have no intention of dealing with deficits, debt levels or reckless monetary policies. The only solution they understand is more paper money to keep financial and political promises that will be impossible to deliver to the electorates of their countries.

-One of the smartest and respected Wall Street firms, Bear Stearns went under and was bailed out by the Fed (an unprecedented bailout as the Fed is suppose to deal only with the banking system not investment banks). There are probably more institutions with similar problems that will require more paper money or created credit. Even worse is the fact that if the Fed can bail out Bear Stearns, it gives a green light to Congress to bail out anyone and everyone else in trouble. The Senate Banking Committee just approved such a bailout bill for housing speculators. This will lead to more paper money and more inflation.

-Gold and silver are commodities and will respond like other commodities in the coming grand cycle commodity bull market. But these metals are also possible currency substitutes that cannot be wiped out by a bank run or a printing press. This will have increased appeal as we move further into more of a paper money crazed world. Ken Gerbino-Read more here-

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/
gerbino/gerbino052308.html

-Indian money likely to buy more gold. The WGC says in its latest World Gold Trends the potential for additional gold buying in the world's largest gold market, India, is increasing.

Read more here- http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en
/page33?oid=53704&sn=Detail

-Zimbabwe official gold price hiked to Z$7 billion per gramme. Even though the official Zimbabwean gold price has been hiked to Z$7 billion a gramme, miners in the hyper-inflation ravaged country say this is still nowhere near enough to meet their costs of production. Read more here- http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/
page34?oid=52659&sn=Detail

-Realtors will tell you that nearly anything both parties agree to can be written into a residential purchase contract. On Monday, Realtor Kim Ogilvie closed a deal with a very interesting twist. A golden one to be exact.

The buyer of a downtown Sarasota residence that sold for more than $1 million brought a briefcase filled with $400,000 worth of South African Krugerrands to the closing that is about 444 of the gold coins. A foreign coin expert was at the closing and verified the coins' authenticity and weight.

"This was a first," Ogilvie acknowledged, adding in Realtor fashion: "It really shows you the depth to which buyers will go to use their resources to acquire properties they think are well-priced." Despite the big push by Realtors regionwide for international buyers and, of course, the foreign-born Krugerrands both the buyer and the seller were Americans. Read more here- http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080521/
BUSINESS/805210601/0/FRONTPAGE

-Researchers at North Carolina State University have discovered that gold nanoparticles are helping a once-failed drug to safely stop HIV from invading the body's immune system. Read more here- http://www.photonics.com/printerFriendly.aspx ?contentID=91748&Publication=1

SILVER

-Mitsui in talks to sell silver-based autocats. Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co Ltd aims to start commercial production of its new, less costly catalyst which applies silver rather than platinum in 2011/12, a company official said on Tuesday. The use of silver instead of the more expensive platinum, currently trading near a historical high, will enable the company to cut metals costs by more than 90 percent.

Kentaro Kato, a senior official in the company's sales department, said cutting costs was the primary aim of the development project, which began about five years ago. "We focused on how we could cut costs, because we had heard that high platinum prices were giving manufacturers a really hard time," Kato said in an interview. After testing several metals, Mitsui Mining decided that silver showed the most promise, being much cheaper and yet having comparable ability to remove soot from diesel exhausts.

"At a rough calculation, sales cost will probably be reduced by about 50 percent," Kato said. He said the company plans to begin commercial production of the new catalyst in time for application in diesel engines for construction machinery and other industrial equipment that will need to meet stricter emission standards from 2012. The new standards will be introduced in Japan, North America and Europe.

Tighter diesel emissions standards have already been introduced for trucks, buses and passenger vehicles. Mitsui Mining will aim for first-year sales of 9 billion yen ($87 million).

The new technology to make a silver-based catalyst will be used for diesel particulate filters (DPFs). It hopes to sell DPFs in a set with oxidation catalysts, which will continue to be platinum-based. Read more here- http://www.miningmx.com/mining_fin/395594.htm

-Collectors angered as U.S. rations 'silver eagles'. The government rationed food during World War II and gasoline in the 1970s. Now it's imposing quotas on another precious commodity: 2008 dollar coins known as silver eagles. The coins, each containing about an ounce of silver, have become so popular among investors seeking alternatives to stocks and real estate that the U.S. Mint can't make them fast enough.

In March the mint stopped taking orders for the bullion coins. Late last month it began limiting how many coins its 13 authorized buyers worldwide are allowed to purchase. "This came out of nowhere," says Mark Oliari, owner of Coins 'N Things Inc. in Bridgewater, Mass., one of the biggest buyers of silver eagles. With customers demanding twice as many as they did last year, Mr. Oliari would like to buy 500,000 a week.

But the mint will sell him only around 100,000. The coins have a face value of $1. But the mint sells them for the going price of silver, plus a small premium, to a handful of wholesalers, brokerage companies, precious-metals firms, coin dealers, and banks. The dealers mark the coins up a bit more and sell them to the public. Currently, the coins are fetching about $19 apiece, with some sellers seeking more than $20.

For Coins 'N Things alone, the shortage is costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost sales of silver eagles. The firm sells about $1 billion worth of precious metal every year, including silver, gold, and platinum coins. Mr. Oliari, a 50-year-old numismatist who has been in the business since 1973, sniffs: "You can't print what I want to say about the mint."

The mint, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury, has offered little explanation beyond a memo last month to its dealers. "The unprecedented demand for American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins necessitates our allocating these coins on a weekly basis until we are able to meet demand," the mint wrote. A spokesman declined to elaborate. Read more here- http://www.gata.org/node/6323

-Silver Rationing-Jason Hommel. Read more here- http://news.silverseek.com/GoldIsMoney/1211842966.php

-Silver Shortages Misunderstood-Jason Hommel. Read more here- http://news.silverseek.com/GoldIsMoney/1211991685.php

-Mary Anne & Pamela Aden frequently asked questions. Read more here- http://news.goldseek.com/AdenResearch/1211988600.php

Q. Would you buy new gold positions now?

A. It's always a good strategy to average into any market. That is, buy a certain amount on a monthly basis knowing that you will likely hold this position for years because gold's major bull market is still evolving.

Buying at intermediate lows is ideal, which is why we follow the intermediate trend. To give you an example, last Summer was an ideal buying time and so was the Summer of 2006. If you would've bought then, you would have obtained the best price of the last two years on an intermediate basis. But if you'd averaged into the market since the Summer of 2006, you would have also done very well.

Q. Would you ever sell gold?

A. As special as gold is, we're not married to it. Our devotion is to the major trend and when it's up, like it is now, we will stay invested. Gold has been in a confirmed uptrend since August, 2001, and as long as this uptrend stays intact, we'll stay with it. This trend is truly your friend.

Q. So what's better to buy, gold or silver?

A. Gold led silver when the bull market started in 2001. Silver didn't take off until 2003, but once it did, it made up for lost time and it clearly outperformed gold. Overall, we recommend buying and holding both metals, but it looks like silver will soon be outperforming gold again.

-In reality, silver's price action doesn't look all that bad in recent months if you divorce yourself from your emotions. I've been studying silver for a long time and think it looks very impressive today. Perspective on silver's technicals is everything, and it is impossible to get perspective on anything if you are too emotionally involved.

Silver is great, but it must be viewed with cold neutrality like all assets. If you're a silver owner, you should take comfort that silver is basing high for its next major upleg. Now since silver follows gold, and gold's seasonals are very unfavorable in summer, we may have to wait until autumn for the next major gold and silver uplegs.

Both of the past two uplegs started in Augusts of their respective years. But if there was ever a summer for gold to buck seasonal trends, 2008 is it. The coming inflation scare is going to be the worst seen since the 1970s, great for gold investment demand. Adam Hamilton-Read more here- http://www.321gold.com/editorials/
hamilton/hamilton052608.html

-New Hunt brothers of the silver market most likely to live in Arabia. Beginning in 1973 the then richest family in America decided to beat inflation by buying silver, then $1.95 an ounce. It worked brilliantly and by 1979 the Hunt brothers had amassed half the world's silver in a pool with wealthy Arab investors and the price peaked at $54. But they used too much leverage and the authorities changed the rules to pop the silver bubble. Could this happen again today?

As inflation rears its ugly head there are bound to be very wealthy people like the Hunts who look for a way to protect their assets. Indeed, Warren Buffett, George Soros and Bill Gates are among individuals known to have invested in silver. Read more here- http://arabianmoney.net/2008/05/27/
new-hunt-brothers-of-the-silver-
market-most-likely-to-live-in-arabia/

-A recurring theme keeps surfacing in analysts' comments regarding both gold and silver around this time of year and that is that the summer months tend to be weaker for gold and silver. That is more or less historically accurate and all over the world some investors and futures traders are currently positioning for expected summer weakness. However, it is arrogant and foolish to presume that this year will follow some predetermined seasonal path.

Seasonality is just one of many factors at play and it is certainly not the strongest factor. Silver very well may pull back harshly over the summer months and if (repeat IF) it does it will have followed the more expected path, but the trading graveyard is filled to the brim with the bodies of those who placed oversized bets based on seasonal expectations. Silver also very well may not follow those expectations.

Neither scenario should surprise us. It's much more important to keep focused on the longer-term fundamentals for the white metal, nearly all of which remain extraordinarily bullish and nearly all of which continue to improve with time. Every now and then we have a year which bucks the seasonal trend. This one, 2008, is a good candidate to do just that too if the consistent positive money flow into SLV, shown in the graph below, is any guide.

It should be obvious from looking at the graph that there has been more buying pressure for the largest silver ETF than selling pressure as silver metal pulled back harshly from over $21.00 to around $16.00 and has now crawled back up to challenge $18.00. Indeed, we have yet to see ANY significant negative money flow from the silver ETF in 2008. Part of the reason for that is that silver is still so darn cheap compared to its more popular yellow cousin. But that's not the only reason.

Repeating from the last Got Gold Report, written when silver was challenging $16.00: "While we have seen considerable negative money flow from the largest gold ETF as gold prices fell, we see the opposite in the U.S. silver ETF. That means that people are buying this dip in silver. At least so far. It also probably means that the continued existence of the current paper-silver-market-influenced pullback for the white metal may already be in jeopardy. We'll see." Gene Arensberg-Read more here- http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=43070

PLATINUM-PALLADIUM

-The platinum supply equation refrigeration key to ongoing supply levels. As platinum mines get deeper they need to refrigerate intake air to maintain reasonable working conditions and this requires a big increase in power which may just not be available in the short to medium term.

Perhaps slightly glossed over in the various reports and comments on the short to medium term future of the platinum price, and the power problems being faced by the South African mines which produce the vast bulk of the world's new mined supply is that of refrigeration.

No this is not some esoteric new use for platinum catalysts, but an absolute necessity for the deeper platinum mining operations and the world's two largest producers, Anglo Platinum and Implats are both fast approaching mining depths where refrigeration of the intake air into the mines will be vital to maintain safe working conditions and productivity.

Without refrigeration working conditions become too hot for miners to maintain concentration over a full shift and there is the attendant risk of death from heatstroke. Read more here-

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/
page35?oid=53494&sn=Detail

OIL

-Oil rises despite falling demand. Analyst says prices can go to $150 a barrel, even as U.S. demand for oil-based products continues to slump. Read more here-

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/28/markets/oil_prices
/index.htm?postversion=2008052815

-British PM warns of global oil 'shock'. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned Wednesday that the world faced an era-defining oil "shock" that required urgent action, as European leaders struggled to contain growing protests over soaring fuel prices. "It is now understood that a global shock on this scale requires global solutions," Brown wrote in The Guardian newspaper. Read more here-

http://www.breitbart.com/print.php?id=08052813534
1.va9dpf9d&show_article=1

-Shell sees end of 'easy oil' era. Read more here- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7421792.stm

-There seems to be no stopping the high flying oil price as it leaps above $130, a price that seemed unlikely just last December. The growth in oil demand will continue to be driven by China and Asia, in spite of the U.S. economic slowdown.

In fact, according to the International Energy Agency, China, India, Russia and the Middle East will consume more crude than the U.S., for the first time. Oil use worldwide will increase 2% this year because of the emerging markets. So with demand as robust as it is, any possible supply disruption will simply push oil up further.

This has already been happening, for instance, with the ongoing supply threats in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer. And it's been another main factor keeping upward pressure on the oil price over the past few months.

Chart 1A shows the incredible run up in oil. It's now overshooting the top side of a 23 year channel, while its leading indicator (B) is at an overbought area, the most since 2000. This is saying that oil is near, or at a high area for now. Keep an eye on $112 as oil will remain very strong even if it declines to this level. Major support is at $85 and as long as the oil price stays above $85, this bull market will continue to march onward and upward.

Meanwhile, an enormous transfer of wealth is going to the countries with energy reserves. And with the recent oil discovery in Brazil, the world's biggest since 2000, you can understand why the Brazilian stock market is hitting new record highs. The global transfer of wealth, and the gap between rich and poor is widening, in large part due to oil, and this too will likely continue. Mary Anne & Pamela Aden

GASOLINE

-Another big jump in gas prices. Read more here- http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/
05/27/gasprices.html

-Teeth Gritted, Drivers Adjust to $4 Gasoline. Read more here- http://www.theledger.com/article/20080524/
ZNYT01/805240509/1001/BUSINESS

LIQUIDITY-CREDIT CRISIS

-The debt markets in the US and Europe have begun to flash warning signals yet again, raising fears that the global credit crisis could be entering another turbulent phase. Read more here- http://www.gata.org/node/6332

-Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Donald Kohn raised the possibility of giving Wall Street securities firms permanent access to loans from the central bank, as long as regulators tighten oversight of the companies. Read more here- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news
?pid=20601087&sid=a0YTGdK9u_P8&refer=home

-Bank failures to surge in coming years. IndyMac, Corus, UCBH under pressure as credit crunch slows economy. Read more here- http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/
bank-failures-surge-credit-crunch/story.aspx?
guid=%7B2FCA4A0C%2D227D%2D48FE%2DB
42C%2D8DDF75D838DA%7D

-Auction-Rate Notes Leave Investors in Cash Purgatory. Read more here-

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news
?pid=20601103&sid=aTOi_Y.89Pck&refer=us

-Auto Industry Feels the Pain of Tight Credit. Read more here- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/business/27
auto.html?partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

-Royal Bank of Canada and National Bank of Canada reported profit declines as writedowns on subprime debt overshadowed higher revenue from consumer banking and insurance. Read more here- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
news?pid=20601087&sid=aZcqDW4Lo7P8&refer=home

U.S. RECESSION

-Buffett sees "long, deep" U.S. recession. The United States is already in a recession and it will be longer as well as deeper than many people expect, U.S. investor Warren Buffett said in an interview published in German magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday. He said the United States was "already in recession" and added: "Perhaps not in the sense that economists would define it" with two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

"But the people are already feeling the effects," said Buffett, the world's richest man. "It will be deeper and last longer than many think." But he said that won't stop him from investing in selected companies and said he remained interested in well-managed German family-owned companies. "If the world were falling apart I'd still invest in companies," he said.

Buffett also renewed his criticism of derivatives trading. "It's not right that hundreds of thousands of jobs are being eliminated, that entire industrial sectors in the real economy are being wiped out by financial bets even though the sectors are actually in good health." Buffett complained about the lack of effective controls. "That's the problem," he said. "You can't steer it, you can't regulate it anymore. You can't get the genie back in the bottle." Reuters

-George Soros: 'We face the most serious recession of our lifetime'. 'This is a period of wealth destruction. The people who make money will be few and far between. There will be a lot more money lost than made." When George Soros the phenomenally successful hedge fund manager says this, you know something is wrong, very wrong. And indeed it is. The 77-year-old billionaire sinks back into the sofa in his Chelsea townhouse and exhales.

He has managed to make money almost consistently for over half a century - from his early days as one of the world's first major hedge fund traders to his involvement in Black Wednesday as the man who "broke the Bank of England", and in the latter years generating multi-billion-dollar annual profits throughout the 1990s. The conditions today are almost uniquely dismal, however.

"I think this is probably more serious than anything in our lifetime," he says. In short, his feeling is that the United States and Britain are facing a recession of a scale greater than the early-1990s, greater even than the 1970s. Read more here- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/
main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/05/26/ccsoros126.xml

-JPMorgan Chase CEO James Dimon says banks will suffer more from the recession than from the subprime debacle itself. Read more here-

http://moneynews.newsmax.com/streettalk/
Jamie_Dimon_worst_ahead/2008/05/20/97555.html

-Consumer confidence hits 16-year low in May. Read more here- http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080527/
bs_nm/usa_economy_confidence_dc_
4&printer=1;_ylt=Atfq4PqwiHA8Y9gptGEK1MCb.HQA

U.S. DOLLAR-FOREIGN CURRENCY

-It's not an Oil Crisis it's a Dollar Crisis. Read more here- http://www.321gold.com/editorials/schiff
/schiff052308.html

-Merrill Lynch & Co said the United States has effectively given Gulf Arab oil producers the go ahead for making changes to their dollar-pegged foreign exchange policies, by recognizing inflation as a problem. Read more here- http://www.reuters.com/article/business
News/idUSL2565817720080525?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

-Investors bet Persian Gulf will loosen dollar pegs. Read more here- http://www.gata.org/node/6327

INTEREST RATES

-Fed Signals Contraction Won't Spur Interest-Rate Cut. Federal Reserve policy makers signaled that an economic contraction in the first half won't be enough to spur further interest-rate cuts because of a rising threat from inflation. Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's April 29-30 meeting, released yesterday in Washington, showed many officials foresaw a contraction from January to June. At the same time, they raised their consumer-price estimates and said risks are more closely balanced between weaker growth and faster inflation.

``They will be patient,'' said Vincent Reinhart, former head of the Fed's monetary-affairs division and now a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. ``They are signaling that they will probably control the inflation risk by keeping the federal funds rate tighter than usual in 2009.''

The report indicated Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues are increasingly concerned by public expectations for inflation that climbed to a 12-year high this month. Traders anticipate the Fed will keep its benchmark rate unchanged next month and raise it by year-end.

The April 30 decision to lower the main rate by a quarter point, to 2 percent, was a ``close call'' for most FOMC members, the minutes said. The reduction capped off 2.25 percentage points of reductions this year, including cuts of 0.75 point in January and in March. Read more here- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news
?pid=20601068&sid=aJvGB_RrBEjE&refer=economy

INFLATION

-Zimbabwe inflation now over 1 million percent. Read more here-

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4kT7p
JlnuzY_vpKdTACcQYIPcvQD90Q4G401

-Weimar Inflation in America. Read more here- http://www.kitco.com/ind/Turk/turk_may262008.html

-Corn Costs Signal Biggest Beef Surge Since 2003 as Herds Shrink. Read more here- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?
pid=20601109&sid=axIrowbBQ7fo&refer=home

-Inflation and the lessons of the 1970s. Inflation is rising and it seems the world's central banks have critically misjudged the situation. Until a few months ago, most commentators worried about a repeat of the Great Depression. But the 1930s have virtually no relevance to our situation except that some paranoid economists remain obsessed with this period.

The only historical period that bears any resemblance to what is happening today is the 1970s. Then, and now, an oil price shock turned into a rise in the general price level. Both then and today, central banks largely accommodated this price rise, which was a mistake then and is a mistake now. Read more here- http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=569169

REAL ESTATE

-S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. Home-Price Index Falls 14.4%. Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in March by the most in at least seven years, pointing to weakness in the housing market that will constrain economic growth. The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index dropped 14.4 percent from a year earlier, more than forecast and the most since the figures were first published in 2001. The gauge has fallen every month since January 2007. Read more here- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?
pid=20601087&sid=aYDfc3P6rZys&refer=home

-Existing home sales fell for the eighth time in the past nine months, a string of weakness expected to continue as the housing industry, mired in its worst slump in decades, battles falling home prices, tight lending conditions and a weak economy. Read more here- http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080523/
economy.html?printer=1

-Case Says More Foreclosure Auctions May Hasten Housing Comeback. Read more here- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news
?pid=20601087&sid=a.lI1DpVwA3E&refer=home

-Abandoned Houses Are Keeping Contractors Busy. Read more here- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26
/business/26cnd-home.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss&
pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

FORECLOSURES

-Foreclosures in Military Towns Surge at Four Times U.S. Rate. Read more here- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news
?pid=20601109&sid=awj2TMDLnwsU&refer=home

GEOPOLITICAL

-Bush 'plans Iran air strike by August'. Read more here- http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE28Ak01.html

-Rise of Ahmadinejad rival hints at a shift in Iran. Read more here- http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/29/mideast/iran.php

-Al Qaeda Tape to Call for Use of WMDs. Authorities: New Tape to Urge Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction on Civilians. Read more here- http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrimes/story?id=4941724

-Iran's Ahmadinejad requests meeting with pope. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asked for an audience next week with Pope Benedict which would be the first meeting between the two leaders, a diplomatic source said on Tuesday. Ahmadinejad is among the heads of state expected to visit Rome to attend a June 3-5 United Nations summit on global food security, hosted by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Vatican sources said earlier this week that it was not yet clear if the pope would meet individual heads of state attending the U.N. event or hold a collective audience for them in order to save time. The Vatican has criticized Ahmadinejad for calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. Read more here- http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/
idUSL272939920080527

© 2008, Worldwide Precious Metals.
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The GoldBugg Report - June 03, 2008
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Tuesday, June 03, 2008