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	<title>Contrarian Stock Market Investing News - Featuring Bargain Stocks &#187; South Africa</title>
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		<title>Investing In Gold Miners? Be Selective &#8211; And Look at Those Costs!</title>
		<link>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/investing-in-gold-miners-be-selective-and-look-at-those-costs/3121</link>
		<comments>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/investing-in-gold-miners-be-selective-and-look-at-those-costs/3121#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:29:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erin Hamilton</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gold Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anglogold Ashanti]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BHP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erin Hamilton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Goldcorp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Isabel Turner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RandGold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[silver]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Africa]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/investing-in-gold-miners-be-selective-and-look-at-those-costs/3121</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>It ain’t much fun being a miner in these torrid times. It’s raining supply problems, infrastructure problems and energy costs are rocketing. Time for investors to be really picky!</p>
<p>A load of performance tables have just been published. On average the last 12 months has seen tier 1 gold companies shed 20% of their stock market values. And even a safe bet like big boy BHP Billiton has lost 16%.</p>
<p>A warning comes from international consultant Pricewaterhouse Coopers. In its latest mining report it says earnings overall in the sector may have peaked. Revenue for the top 40 companies might have grown 32% last year, but cost rises of 30% are up with that.</p>
<p>Mining houses are having to absorb many of their&#8230;</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It ain’t much fun being a miner in these torrid times. It’s raining supply problems, infrastructure problems and energy costs are rocketing. Time for investors to be really picky!</p>
<p>A load of performance tables have just been published. On average the last 12 months has seen tier 1 gold companies shed 20% of their stock market values. And even a safe bet like big boy BHP Billiton has lost 16%.</p>
<p>A warning comes from international consultant Pricewaterhouse Coopers. In its latest mining report it says earnings overall in the sector may have peaked. Revenue for the top 40 companies might have grown 32% last year, but cost rises of 30% are up with that.</p>
<p>Mining houses are having to absorb many of their costs. Net result? The &#8220;boom cycle may make way for a bust cycle&#8221;, says top South African analyst Gary Quinn. He works at Prudential Portfolio Managers, one of South Africa’s leading investment houses.</p>
<p>Of course, the current, much-publicised supply shortages are a factor in rising prices. But that is not much good to the miners when costs are going through the roof. The inevitable result is lower earnings. Quinn has just published his sums. They show that earnings for South Africa’s miners could be flat through all of 2009.</p>
<p>The gloom is global! Investors have been selling off big time &#8211; even the usually acquisitive Russians! Much is being made of the sale by Suleyman Kerimov (35th on Forbes’s rich list) of his stake in Russia’s top silver producer, Polymetal.</p>
<p>Kerimov got out at a 30% premium to the then market price. But traders are reading his move as a clear indication that this sage investor thinks that silver and gold valuations have peaked. And he is not alone.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, South African mining shares have been hammered hardest. Boards there are having to deal with a ghastly range of value-destroyers. There are labour issues, safety issues, power issues and the longer term concern that gold yields are declining. These have slumped over 25% since 1999. Miners have had to seek gold at deeper and deeper levels and at a much higher cost.</p>
<p>Take Gold Fields, one of the world’s largest producers of gold. Given the high gold price, now hovering around the $900 mark, one would have thought markets would be moving in this tier 1 producer’s favour. Wrong! In fact Gold Fields’ share price has nearly reached 12 month lows.</p>
<p>Other South African based companies haven’t fared too well, either. AngloGold Ashanti is some 36% off its 12 month high. Harmony, South Africa’s third biggest producer, is down 27%.</p>
<p>Further down the chain, tier 2 producers are more than 30% off the 12 month weighted average. Even an old market favourite — RandGold Resources — has taken a pounding in recent weeks. It has lost a whopping one third of its market value in just three months.</p>
<p>RandGold management says that is down to the fall in gold bullion prices earlier this year. That and — surprise surprise — the cost of energy!</p>
<p>Randgold’s key operations in Mali, Loulo and Morila, depend on diesel power. So, in spite of producing more, Randgold’s profits fell 10% compared to last year’s figures. Management also blames the weak dollar and increased costs of royalty payments.</p>
<p>Total despair? No. We remain optimistic. Along with the likes of resources bank Macquarie, we believe the key is to be selective. We are taking out our calculators to search for low cost producers.</p>
<p>Macquarie has done some of the work for us, highlighting Goldcorp, Agnico-Eagle and Yamana. Goldcorp maintained the lowest costs among senior miners at $240 per ounce of gold. That compared to the overall top gold producers&#8217; average of $385/oz!</p>
<p>So keep looking,</p>
<p>Erin and Isabel</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.fspinvest.co.uk/free-e-letters/the-miner-diaries/articles/investing-gold-miners-00117.html">Investing In Gold Miners? Be Selective &#8211; And Look at Those Costs!</a></p>
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		<title>Don&#8217;t Hold Gold&#8230; Buy This Instead</title>
		<link>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/dont-hold-gold-buy-this-instead/3117</link>
		<comments>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/dont-hold-gold-buy-this-instead/3117#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:08:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve Sjuggerud</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gold Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Steve Sjuggerud]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[<p>If you want to own gold, this is how you should do it&#8230;Quite frankly, it&#8217;s unbelievable&#8230;  Rare gold coins are  selling as close to melt value as they possibly can.</p>
<p>Take one of the real &#8220;blue chips&#8221; of the rare-coin world&#8230; the $20 Liberty, made over 100 years ago. It has just under an ounce of gold in it.</p>
<p>Back in 1989, the wholesale cost to dealers on this coin (graded &#8220;mint state 63,&#8221; or MS63) hit $1,600. The price of gold on that day was $366 per ounce. So in late May 1989, a dealer had to pay 4.4 times the price of gold to buy this coin.</p>
<p>Today – nearly 20 years later – the wholesale price on this coin is&#8230;</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If you want to own gold, this is how you should do it&#8230;Quite frankly, it&#8217;s unbelievable&#8230;  Rare gold coins are  selling as close to melt value as they possibly can.</p>
<p>Take one of the real &#8220;blue chips&#8221; of the rare-coin world&#8230; the $20 Liberty, made over 100 years ago. It has just under an ounce of gold in it.</p>
<p>Back in 1989, the wholesale cost to dealers on this coin (graded &#8220;mint state 63,&#8221; or MS63) hit $1,600. The price of gold on that day was $366 per ounce. So in late May 1989, a dealer had to pay 4.4 times the price of gold to buy this coin.</p>
<p>Today – nearly 20 years later – the wholesale price on this coin is a hair above the price of gold. There is practically no &#8220;collector&#8217;s premium&#8221; over the price of gold. It is ridiculous.</p>
<p>This is even more ridiculous: Some investors are buying South African gold Krugerrands and U.S. gold coins minted yesterday. These coins have no chance of trading at a premium to their melt value – they&#8217;re in near-infinite supply. The mints can simply make more of them to meet demand.</p>
<p>But if you&#8217;re buying MS63 graded $20 Liberties, you&#8217;re pretty much just paying the cost of getting it graded and the dealer markup. You&#8217;re paying nearly the same price as you are for modern gold coins.</p>
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<p>To most people, the series of 9 numbers and letters above mean absolutely nothing.</p>
<p>But if you follow just one simple instruction&#8230; and relay this 9-digit Code to your broker&#8230; you are entitled, BY LAW, to receive as much as 181% in gains by June 15, 2009.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, the Code has nothing to do with stocks, mutual funds, gov&#8217;t bonds, options, or any other investment you&#8217;ve likely heard of&#8230;</p>
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<p>At that price, sell your Krugerrands. They&#8217;ll never go up in value. They&#8217;ll always be worth the price of gold. Take those proceeds and buy some rare coins!</p>
<p>As I said, I think the $20 Liberties and similar coins are an incredible bargain right now. But when a bull market finally takes hold in rare coins (we&#8217;re overdue&#8230; it&#8217;s been 20 years!), these &#8220;low end&#8221; rare coins aren&#8217;t what take off. The rare stuff is what really zooms. </p>
<p>The last three rare-coin bull markets have seen gains of  348%, 1,195%, and 665%. When they do take off&#8230;  prices go nuts.</p>
<p>Right now, the rare-coin market can&#8217;t get any lower&#8230; Dealers are hardly making anything on these coins as it is. And the price of gold has sneaked above $900 again. In my newsletter, I&#8217;m returning our gold coins to a &#8220;buy.&#8221;</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re completely new to coins, then I suggest you read the new brochure that coin legend David Hall has posted on his website (<a href="http://www.davidhall.com/" target="_blank">www.davidhall.com</a>)  called &#8220;Long Term Wealth Builders.&#8221;</p>
<p>David works with coin dealer Van Simmons. Van has taught me more about making money in coins and collectibles than anyone. He&#8217;s more than a coin dealer&#8230; he&#8217;s a mentor of mine. </p>
<p>You can&#8217;t pick up the phone and call Warren Buffett for advice on stocks&#8230; or Bill Gross for advice on bonds. But the rare coins and collectibles world is small enough that you can pick up the phone and chat with the most knowledgeable man I know in collectibles. (You can reach Van at 800-759-7575 or <a href="mailto:info@davidhall.com">info@davidhall.com</a>.)</p>
<p>I am absolutely flabbergasted at how cheap rare coins are right now, trading closer to &#8220;melt value&#8221; than ever. You can make money in two ways here&#8230; If the price of gold goes up&#8230; or if the &#8220;collector&#8217;s premium&#8221; goes up (heck, it can&#8217;t go down from here).</p>
<p>My suggestion is to stick with a dealer you&#8217;re certain you can trust (Van is who I do business with)&#8230; and for the most potential for profit, buy a few exceptional coins instead of a large handful close to melt value.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not often you can buy an asset when it&#8217;s the cheapest in its recorded history. But that is the case, right now, in rare gold coins. Whether you buy or not, you&#8217;re doing yourself a disservice if you don&#8217;t at least consider the idea.</p>
<p>Good investing,</p>
<p>Steve</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.dailywealth.com/archive/2008/jun/2008_jun_20.asp">Don&#8217;t Hold Gold&#8230; Buy This Instead</a></p>
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		<title>And Then There&#8217;s This&#8230;Friday, June 20th, 2008</title>
		<link>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/and-then-theres-thisfriday-june-20th-2008/3099</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:11:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ed Steer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gold Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bank Of England]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Comex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inflation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[oil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[silver]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Africa]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://98.129.13.34/?p=3099</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>The gold price lost about eight bucks (silver was down about 20 cents) from the open in Sydney on Thursday morning until about fifteen minutes before the Comex opened in New York yesterday morning.</p>
<p>A rally commenced which quickly turned into a vertical line that looked like it was heading for the outer edges of the known universe. Ditto for silver. Then, around 9:15 a.m. NY time..and as expected, the bullion banks showed up and hammered both rallies as flat as a pancake. Silver actually closed down on the day, and down 42 cents from it&#8217;s high peak of $17.74. Gold was driven back below $900&#8230;down more than $10 from it&#8217;s peak&#8230;which was $908.60.</p>
<p>You have to be brain dead not to&#8230;</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The gold price lost about eight bucks (silver was down about 20 cents) from the open in Sydney on Thursday morning until about fifteen minutes before the Comex opened in New York yesterday morning.</p>
<p>A rally commenced which quickly turned into a vertical line that looked like it was heading for the outer edges of the known universe. Ditto for silver. Then, around 9:15 a.m. NY time..and as expected, the bullion banks showed up and hammered both rallies as flat as a pancake. Silver actually closed down on the day, and down 42 cents from it&#8217;s high peak of $17.74. Gold was driven back below $900&#8230;down more than $10 from it&#8217;s peak&#8230;which was $908.60.</p>
<p>You have to be brain dead not to see what&#8217;s happening here. This is the third time this week that vertical price spikes in both metals were clobbered shortly after the Comex open. As I&#8217;ve said in the past&#8230;no profit-maximizing seller ever sells like this&#8230;<strong>ever!</strong> Only those trying to control the price do this sort of thing. And, as always, the CFTC, SEC and your mining company&#8217;s executives are nowhere to be found.</p>
<p>Open interest for Wednesday&#8217;s price gains are as follows&#8230;gold up a pretty big 5,648 contracts, and silver added an insignificant 179 contracts. Volume in both metals was very heavy yesterday, and the open interest numbers will certainly reflect that (hopefully) when they come out later this morning.</p>
<p>I spoke with Ted Butler yesterday morning as both gold and silver were being driven down from their highs. He also confirmed heavy volume along with massive buying (and short covering) by the tech funds in the Non-Commercial category, coupled with the bullion banks taking the short side of all trades. Even Gartman went long again yesterday. Unfortunately, this week&#8217;s rally is rapidly turning into a carbon copy of every other rally we&#8217;ve ever had&#8230;tech funds go long, bullion banks go short. How long this rally lasts is anyone&#8217;s guess. However, options expiry is next Wednesday&#8230;and first day notice for delivery will be two days later on Friday, June 27th. Anything (and I mean anything) can happen between now and then&#8230;and the fireworks have already begun. And once again, we&#8217;ll have to wait until next Friday to see Thursday&#8217;s activity show up in the Commitment of Traders report.</p>
<p>In gold news I see that South African gold output (in April) fell 10.1% in volume terms.  The <em>Reuters</em> story didn&#8217;t say if this was m/m or y/y. Does it matter? I also note that Rhodium closed above the $10k mark for the first time ever at $10,010. Now that&#8217;s a precious metal!!!</p>
<p>Today&#8217;s first story is from <em>The Telegraph</em> out of London. Mervyn King, the governor of the BOE, has some rather frank words for the public about what&#8217;s happening&#8230;and what&#8217;s coming down the road&#8230;although I have no idea how he sees inflation coming to an end when the printing presses are running flat out. I guess it&#8217;s the British version of spin. The story entitled &#8220;Things will get worse, warns Bank of England governor Mervyn King&#8221; and is linked <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/06/18/cnbank118.xml&amp;CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p>The second story is rather interesting and worth noting carefully. It will be of more than passing interest if this bill gets passed. It&#8217;s entitled &#8220;Senators propose ban on commodities investing&#8221; and the link is <a href="http://www.pionline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080618/DAILY/482061918" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s see&#8230;what else happened yesterday. Twice the PPT saved the Dow after it fell below 12,000. Two ex-Bear Stearns fund managers were arrested by the FBI. Mexico imposed price controls on food. House Democrats called for nationalization of all oil refineries. That&#8217;s quite enough.</p>
<p>Today is Friday&#8230;and they are always interesting.  This one should be no different.  Have a great weekend and all of us at <em>Casey&#8217;s Daily Resource</em> <em><strong>Plus</strong></em> will see you right here on Saturday.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://caseyresearch.com/displayArchiveArticleDrp.php?id=287">And Then There&#8217;s This&#8230;Friday, June 20th, 2008</a></p>
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		<title>Gold Shoots Higher, but Pulls Back</title>
		<link>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/gold-shoots-higher-but-pulls-back/3093</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:30:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Doug Casey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gold Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Electricity Problems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Globex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[platinum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[silver]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Africa]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://98.129.13.34/?p=3093</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Gold was slightly lower until the open of the New York session on Thursday, but went vertical at that point, adding $20 in an hour and peaking at $908 before easing during the rest of the NYMEX and dropping further in the Globex to fall back below $900 and finish at $898.00/oz., up only $4.40. Overnight, gold is trending higher.</p>
<p>Platinum pushed past $2090 in Hong Kong, but that was its high for the day, as it sold off whenever a rally began and ended near its intraday low at $2041/oz., down $42. Overnight, platinum has edged higher.</p>
<p>Silver followed gold’s chart almost exactly, peaking around the same time at $17.72, then declining to close at $17.32/oz., down a penny. Overnight, silver&#8230;</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Gold was slightly lower until the open of the New York session on Thursday, but went vertical at that point, adding $20 in an hour and peaking at $908 before easing during the rest of the NYMEX and dropping further in the Globex to fall back below $900 and finish at $898.00/oz., up only $4.40. Overnight, gold is trending higher.</p>
<p>Platinum pushed past $2090 in Hong Kong, but that was its high for the day, as it sold off whenever a rally began and ended near its intraday low at $2041/oz., down $42. Overnight, platinum has edged higher.</p>
<p>Silver followed gold’s chart almost exactly, peaking around the same time at $17.72, then declining to close at $17.32/oz., down a penny. Overnight, silver has been pushing higher.<br />
(<a href="javascript:openCharts();">Click here for charts</a>)</p>
<p>Although they ended up with not much to show for it, it was a pretty good day for the precious metals, considering that the equities markets turned around, the price of crude plummeted, and the dollar edged slightly higher.</p>
<p>Gold battled the headwinds blowing against it because, “In the medium to long term, the combination of strong international safe-haven demand and decreasing production and supply of gold in most major producers, and particularly in South Africa, will likely result in gold going significantly higher in the coming months,” said Mark O&#8217;Byrne, of Gold and Silver Investments Ltd.</p>
<p>The production falloff in South Africa is precipitous, O’Byrne said. “South African gold output in April fell more than 10% in volume terms, compared with a year earlier … [Further,] South African production of gold was over 1,000 tonnes per annum in 1970 and has been steadily declining to nearly 250 tonnes per annum today.”</p>
<p>Output “has fallen sharply after state-owned power utility Eskom struggled to provide sufficient power to mines,” O’Byrne said. And, “Eskom have admitted that the power and electricity problems are a major challenge and may take years to rectify, which would likely result in further falls in gold production in South Africa.”</p>
<p>Peter Spina, of <em>GoldSeek.com</em>, believes gold is a tightly coiling spring. With oil “now solidly above $100, gold should easily be above the four-figures mark,” Spina said. “The longer the oil price stays above the $100 level, the more appealing gold will become and the investment buying will support the gold price during this traditionally weak seasonal period.”</p>
<p>Overall, “Pressures are building within the gold and silver complex, this may be another pop higher followed by consolidation, but I expect one of these rallies to gain traction and ignite the next leg higher in the gold price,” Spina wrote. “It could be well underway by summer&#8217;s end.”</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://caseyresearch.com/displayArchiveArticleDrp.php?id=287#precious">Gold Shoots Higher, but Pulls Back</a></p>
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		<title>Congress Berates, Rebukes and Ridicules Executives from Five Major Oil Companies</title>
		<link>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/congress-berates-rebukes-and-ridicules-executives-from-five-major-oil-companies/2939</link>
		<comments>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/congress-berates-rebukes-and-ridicules-executives-from-five-major-oil-companies/2939#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:04:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Hancock</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Oil Investment & Alternative Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bangladesh]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dollar Currency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ethiopia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal Reserve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food Prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Investment Houses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Major Oil Companies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Morocco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mortgage Rates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mozambique]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nasdaq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[oil]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opec]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Treasury Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United Arab Emirates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[us treasury]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[<p>Gas prices hit another record high. Soaring food prices ignite riots the world over. It should come as no surprise that a 71% increase in food prices since 2006 has the good citizens of South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Mozambique up in arms.</p>
<p>And if  you thought things couldn’t get any worse, the <em>Financial Times</em> reported on Monday that U.S. mortgage rates soared last week amid a sharp rise in Treasury market yields. Make no mistake, inflation’s back. A Volker-like response may seem alarmist, even far-fetched, to many. However, investors are bracing for the Federal Reserve to raise rates going forward.</p>
<p>At least those rate increases could help U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson fulfill his recent promise to “defend the dollar.” Secretary&#8230;</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Gas prices hit another record high. Soaring food prices ignite riots the world over. It should come as no surprise that a 71% increase in food prices since 2006 has the good citizens of South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Mozambique up in arms.</p>
<p>And if  you thought things couldn’t get any worse, the <em>Financial Times</em> reported on Monday that U.S. mortgage rates soared last week amid a sharp rise in Treasury market yields. Make no mistake, inflation’s back. A Volker-like response may seem alarmist, even far-fetched, to many. However, investors are bracing for the Federal Reserve to raise rates going forward.</p>
<p>At least those rate increases could help U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson fulfill his recent promise to “defend the dollar.” Secretary Paulson is on the final day of a four-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to negotiate currency and economic issues (i.e., a supply increase) from members of the OPEC cartel.</p>
<p>Shall we say America’s relationship with OPEC is a bit strained? Perhaps we’ve stayed a bit too long and expected a bit too much. The greenback keeps sliding down a cliff. Oil-producing states holding their dollar currency pegs are importing more and more inflation. At some point, both parties must reconcile that M3 – the fullest measure of U.S. money supply – can’t outpace a nation’s GDP forever.</p>
<p>Regardless, the Fed seemed content to exchange $16 billion worth of Treasury notes for mortgage- and asset-backed securities last Thursday. In its 10th Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), the Fed gave desperate investment houses another chance to dump their worthless derivatives for good ol’ American IOUs. To date, brokerage firms have dumped $175 billion on the Fed’s balance sheet.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Even holders of the mighty euro are feeling the pinch. We read in The Economist last week that customs seizures of counterfeit goods rose by 17% in the EU last year. Cigarettes and clothing accounted for more than half the sham gear seized.</p>
<p>It seems like desperate times call for desperate measures. And the masses, desperate for answers, call on politicians for help.</p>
<p>And any political production worth its salt has three main characters: the hero, the martyr and the villain. Heroes (politicians) need a martyr (America’s middle class) and a villain (oil companies) – and, if they’re lucky, a super villain (foreign oil companies).</p>
<p>Our colleague Eric Fry sums it up best: “When share prices soar, we call it a ‘bull market.’ When home values soar, we call it ‘healthy price appreciation.’ But when oil prices soar, we call it ‘speculation’ and ‘manipulation’&#8230;and then we gaze around for someone to blame.”</p>
<p>The members of Congress recently convened a special hearing to berate, rebuke and ridicule executives from five major oil companies. Each congressional inquisitor took a turn excoriating the oil companies for daring to earn a profit, especially when so many Americans have so little money. It just isn’t fair.</p>
<p>A few months earlier, you may recall, Congress invited the heads of America’s leading financial institutions to a little tête-à-tête. During that encounter, the congressional inquisitors took turns admonishing the finance CEOs for feathering their nests a bit too lavishly. But none of the execs in attendance drew much criticism for frittering away billions of dollars of shareholder wealth.</p>
<p>Therefore, the essential message from the nation’s top lawmakers is clear: Losing billions of dollars of shareholder wealth is a bad thing, but not nearly as bad as adding billions of dollars to shareholder wealth. In fact, earning billions for shareholders is such a bad thing that it must be legislated away or taxed into extinction.</p>
<p>Where were the nation’s top legislator-inquisitors when the NASDAQ bull market of 1999 and 2000 was powering higher? Where was the outrage over the “speculation” that produced obscene “windfall profits” for the Wall Street firms?”</p>
<p>We’re not so sure. But we continue to see that many in the West want to go through life pretending they’re still the greatest story never told.</p>
<p>It comes  as no surprise. From Dutch tulips to dotcoms, people fool themselves into  believing it’s “different” this time.</p>
<p>It’s  never different this time.</p>
<p>Christopher Hancock<br />
for The <a href="http://www.dailyreckoning.com"  class="alinks_links">Daily Reckoning</a> Australia</p>
<p>P.S. to get The Daily Reckoning direct to your inbox sign up to our <a href="http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/subscribe-dr/">free e-mail newsletter</a> or if you prefer to use RSS, subscribe to the <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/dailyreckoningaus">Daily Reckoning RSS feed</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/oil-companies-2/2008/06/06/">Congress Berates, Rebukes and Ridicules Executives from Five Major Oil Companies</a></p>
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		<title>And Then There&#8217;s This&#8230;Wednesday, June 4th, 2008</title>
		<link>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/and-then-theres-thiswednesday-june-4th-2008/2812</link>
		<comments>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/and-then-theres-thiswednesday-june-4th-2008/2812#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:46:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ed Steer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gold Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bullion Banks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gold Prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[silver]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[silver prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Africa]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[<p>Both gold and silver began selling off in London at 5:00 a.m. New York time. Then at precisely 9:00 a.m. Eastern time, a not-for-profit seller showed up, and gold and silver got smacked at exactly the same time as the dollar skyrocketed. </p>
<p>Gold got hit for about $17&#8230;and silver for 27 cents. No profit-maximizing seller ever sells like this&#8230;<strong>ever!</strong>  As one experienced gold commentator over at Bill Murphy&#8217;s <em>LeMetropoleCafe.com</em> put it yesterday&#8230;&#8221;(It&#8217;s) not the action of a price-motivated long&#8230;or profit-motivated short.&#8221;</p>
<p>I give the cartel a 9.6/10 for this. The Kitco graph is a beauty, don&#8217;t you think? They did the dirty in 15 minutes and that&#8217;s about as vertical a line as you&#8217;re going to see..and not a stop along the way!&#8230;</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Both gold and silver began selling off in London at 5:00 a.m. New York time. Then at precisely 9:00 a.m. Eastern time, a not-for-profit seller showed up, and gold and silver got smacked at exactly the same time as the dollar skyrocketed. </p>
<p>Gold got hit for about $17&#8230;and silver for 27 cents. No profit-maximizing seller ever sells like this&#8230;<strong>ever!</strong>  As one experienced gold commentator over at Bill Murphy&#8217;s <em>LeMetropoleCafe.com</em> put it yesterday&#8230;&#8221;(It&#8217;s) not the action of a price-motivated long&#8230;or profit-motivated short.&#8221;</p>
<p>I give the cartel a 9.6/10 for this. The Kitco graph is a beauty, don&#8217;t you think? They did the dirty in 15 minutes and that&#8217;s about as vertical a line as you&#8217;re going to see..and not a stop along the way! I would have awarded a few extra marks if they had dropped the price more than $25. Maybe some other time. Too bad we don&#8217;t see many days like that when prices are rising. It appears that it only happens when they&#8217;re &#8216;falling&#8217;.</p>
<p>Gold didn&#8217;t recover a lot of ground as the day wore on, but silver almost made it back to unchanged.</p>
<p>Monday&#8217;s open interest numbers are interesting. Even though both metals had up days that day, open interest in gold fell another 4,929 contracts and silver was down 1,575 contracts. There are probably some June deliveries in that gold number, but nevertheless, o.i. normally increases on days that the price rises, so these are probably numbers that were from last week&#8217;s hammering that weren&#8217;t reported in a timely manner. As I&#8217;ve said many times, the bullion banks love to manage the Commitment of Traders report.</p>
<p>In gold news&#8230;and for the second day in a row&#8230;a major gold producing country announced that first quarter production was down. On Monday, it was Australia. Tuesday, it was South Africa announcing Q1/08 production down 15.6% from Q4/07&#8230;and down 16.8% from Q1/07. This news was not unexpected, as the power issues in South Africa have got years to run. Of course, this sort of news no longer impacts the price, since the bullion banks have a short-side corner on the gold market. Hell&#8230;production could have fallen 100% and yesterday&#8217;s price would have probably been driven down even further!</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve got a couple of stories today that are worth spending some time on. The first is the usual monthly epistle that comes from Eric Sprott and Sasha Solunac over at Sprott Asset Management in Toronto. The timing couldn&#8217;t be better for this piece. It&#8217;s entitled &#8220;They&#8217;re Getting Worse&#8221;&#8230;and the pdf file is linked <a href="http://www.sprott.com/pdf/marketsataglance/MAAG.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p>The second story is from silver analyst Ted Butler.  His weekly commentary is entitled &#8220;Bubble Mania&#8221; and it&#8217;s linked <a href="http://www.investmentrarities.com/weeklycommentary.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p><em>Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.</em> &#8211; Dale Carnegie</p>
<p>Well&#8230;the Dow got saved again yesterday. The falling knife experts swung into action around 2:30 p.m. Eastern time&#8230;just as the market looked like it was doomed for the umpteenth time this year. Their efforts were only partially successful. I wonder how they&#8217;ll make out today?</p>
<p>We&#8217;ll know soon enough&#8230;and I&#8217;ll be here tomorrow to talk about it.  I hope your Wednesday goes well.</p>
<p>Source:<a href="http://caseyresearch.com/displayArchiveYearDrp.php?year=2008"> And Then There&#8217;s This&#8230;Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 </a></p>
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		<title>Small Cap and Junior Miners</title>
		<link>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/small-cap-and-junior-miners/2536</link>
		<comments>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/small-cap-and-junior-miners/2536#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2008 19:41:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ed Bugos</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gold Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Agnico Eagle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CDNX]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gold fields]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gold Prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Junior miners]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Level Gold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Miners]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Precious Metal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resource market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Royalties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Africa]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/small-cap-and-junior-miners/2536</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>After reaching a record level, gold has lost some of its momentum lately. That can be seen in a number of different ways. <em>Gold and Options Trader’s</em> Ed Bugos sees this as only good news. Gold should have another surging summer, and now is the best time for investors to get in by playing the “dips”.</p>
<p align="left"><strong>The Five Reasons Why Now’s the Time to Buy Junior Miners</strong></p>
<p align="left">Gold could be ready to end the summer doldrums even before summer begins.</p>
<p align="left">The most relevant area of resistance in the way of this outlook is the 30-point range between $890 and $920. If gold can break through and find support at these values it will be poised to rise for the summer.</p>
<p align="left">With that said, I think&#8230;</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>After reaching a record level, gold has lost some of its momentum lately. That can be seen in a number of different ways. <em>Gold and Options Trader’s</em> Ed Bugos sees this as only good news. Gold should have another surging summer, and now is the best time for investors to get in by playing the “dips”.</p>
<p align="left"><strong>The Five Reasons Why Now’s the Time to Buy Junior Miners</strong></p>
<p align="left">Gold could be ready to end the summer doldrums even before summer begins.</p>
<p align="left">The most relevant area of resistance in the way of this outlook is the 30-point range between $890 and $920. If gold can break through and find support at these values it will be poised to rise for the summer.</p>
<p align="left">With that said, I think we’ve had our seasonal low and now it’s gold’s turn to shine…as the most preferable commodity…and better yet, to become money again.</p>
<p align="left">Just writing that makes me realize how early in the game it still is. Who today would believe gold will become money again? Yet, at the top of the market everyone will.</p>
<p align="left">Here is the best opportunity for us right now…</p>
<p align="left">~~~~~~~~~~~~~Special~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p>
<p align="left"><strong>Get Filthy Rich While You Sleep</strong></p>
<p align="left">Doing nothing while collecting royalties has to be one of the best — and easiest — ways to get rich. For instance, David Sengstack does nothing and collects royalty paychecks of $2 million per year&#8230;just because his dad was smart enough to buy the commercial rights to a song you’ve sung a hundred times, “Happy Birthday to You.”</p>
<p align="left">Michael Jackson does nothing and collects royalties every time a Beatles song plays on the radio (he bought the rights years ago). But Paul McCartney — now a billionaire — does nothing and collects even more on the 3,000 song rights from other artists that he owns.</p>
<p align="left">Today, you can do the same…and you don’t have to buy song rights. We got something even better. <a href="http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/MSS/WMSSJ500/" target="_blank">Check it out here…</a></p>
<p align="left">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p>
<p align="left"><strong>The Five Best Reasons to Buy Good Quality Precious Metal Juniors</strong></p>
<p align="left">Most of the small-cap and junior resource market has been in decline since gold first broke the $700 level back in 2006. But that’s all about to change, I have five reasons why you should buy juniors now before the window closes — lets get started…</p>
<p align="left"><strong>Reason #1,</strong> is that, several depressing factors have come together to produce an early seasonal low, at least for the precious metals sector.</p>
<p align="left"><strong>Reason #2,</strong> as implied in the introduction, gold has lagged the commodity cycle because the market is infatuated with the growth in developing countries, and has inferred a “realness” to their demand for commodities. I’ve never disputed that the growth exists… just that there is a lot more inflation, and that inflation is what drives prices higher.</p>
<p align="left">I believe the gold market is at a bullish inflection point — a point of recognition of sorts.</p>
<p align="left"><strong>Reason #3,</strong> the precious metal juniors have hardly benefited from the bullish trends in these commodities to date, especially since 2006, never mind the future.</p>
<p align="left">Lots of money found its way into the junior segment over recent years, to be sure, but this expansion in capitalization has been dilutive. The Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX) has had a hard time keeping up with gold itself, and is at its lowest level relative to gold since 2002. Simply put, the juniors should be tracking gold — and right now they have a lot of catching up to do. The result is a widening gap between the values of majors and juniors. In my mind, that gap will soon contract.</p>
<p align="left">With that said I think it’s the best buying opportunity in this segment since 2002.</p>
<p align="left"><strong>Reason #4,</strong> The money that has poured into the junior precious metals segment over the past few years has been soundly invested. I am impressed with the value that I’ve seen many juniors create throughout this cycle — the development of assets discovered back in the nineties has been astonishing.</p>
<p align="left">Finally, the best reason to own these juniors now…</p>
<p align="left">~~~~~~~~~~~~~Special~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p>
<p align="left"><strong>Why Has Oil Surged?</strong></p>
<p align="left">Dwindling value in the dollar, a crisis in U.S. credit, rising demand from overseas. These are all explanations for the recent surge in oil prices. But that’s not the whole story.</p>
<p align="left">There are more dangerous and deadly reasons for the rise in oil prices, and the real truth explains why we can expect this surge to last for a long time to come. <a href="http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/OST/WOSTGA07/" target="_blank">Click here</a> to read about the “bloody backlash.”</p>
<p align="left">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p>
<p align="left"><strong>Reason #5,</strong> the next takeover wave!</p>
<p>Many of the large-cap producers are priced for growth, and they know that if they want to sustain those multiples, they’ll have to buy or find reserves. That’s the incentive.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the juniors spent lots of investment dollars proving up their assets, and the market has ignored them. So they are ripe for acquisition.</p>
<p>And, the majors have plenty of cash, thanks to the latest run in gold prices.</p>
<p>Some, such as Agnico Eagle have said they’re on the hunt, while others like Gold Fields are obviously in need of assets outside of South Africa. Corrections in the price of gold won’t discourage them.</p>
<p>There’s your ammunition, five Solid reasons to make sure you are small-cap and junior miners. These miners won’t remain at these levels long, so now is your chance to get in!</p>
<p>I’m working on a more comprehensive target list as we speak. I see a window of opportunity between now and the end of this gold price correction to buy the good quality small-caps and juniors before they take off. The window could close earlier than you think.</p>
<p align="left">Regards,<br />
Ed Bugos</p>
<p align="left"><strong>P.S.:</strong> So now you know the reasons why you should be in the small-cap and junior miner game. There has been a recent downtick for gold, but that should not last. Readers of my <em>Gold and Options Trader</em> service have seen not only the reasons to buy junior miners, but they’ve gotten my personal recommendations instructing them which miners to buy and when. Want to know what I told them? <a href="http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/GOT/WGOTJ500/" target="_blank">Click here</a> to find out…</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/Archives/2008/20080523.html">Small Cap and Junior Miners</a></p>
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		<title>The Dollar Is Rising&#8230; In South Africa, That Is</title>
		<link>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/the-dollar-is-rising-in-south-africa-that-is/2414</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2008 19:36:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sara Nunnally</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[International Investing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[commodities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EZA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Immigrant Workers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[India]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ishares Msci]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining Companies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Platinum Prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Power Plants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Power Sector]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South African Rand]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[<p>With aging power plants and failing infrastructure, South Africa needs an injection of investment cash into its power sector. And while its economy technically maintains a budget surplus, it’s constantly battling things like unemployment and poverty.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.isecureonline.com/reports/TAT/WTATJ408/" target="_blank"></a></p>
<p>The  chart you’re looking at compares the South African rand’s performance (versus  the U.S. dollar) and the <strong>iShares MSCI  South Africa ETF (EZA)</strong>. This is what’s called an inverse correlation. When  the rand becomes inflated, South African companies don’t perform well.</p>
<p>The  opposite is also true: When the rand gains in strength versus the U.S. dollar,  South African companies perform better.</p>
<p>Over  the past couple months we’ve seen exactly that. The interesting thing is South  Africa is in the midst of a power crisis. In fact, many&#8230;</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With aging power plants and failing infrastructure, South Africa needs an injection of investment cash into its power sector. And while its economy technically maintains a budget surplus, it’s constantly battling things like unemployment and poverty.</p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.isecureonline.com/reports/TAT/WTATJ408/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.taipanpublishinggroup.com/img/assets/3713/20080522_cod_chart.gif" alt="iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA)" border="0" height="281" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>The  chart you’re looking at compares the South African rand’s performance (versus  the U.S. dollar) and the <strong>iShares MSCI  South Africa ETF (EZA)</strong>. This is what’s called an inverse correlation. When  the rand becomes inflated, South African companies don’t perform well.</p>
<p>The  opposite is also true: When the rand gains in strength versus the U.S. dollar,  South African companies perform better.</p>
<p>Over  the past couple months we’ve seen exactly that. The interesting thing is South  Africa is in the midst of a power crisis. In fact, many of its mining companies  are scared they won’t have enough power to produce things like gold and  platinum.</p>
<p>With  aging power plants and failing infrastructure, South Africa needs an injection  of investment cash into its power sector. And while its economy technically  maintains a budget surplus, it’s constantly battling things like unemployment  and poverty.</p>
<p>In  short, a commodities bull run, with gold and platinum prices soaring, won’t  mean much to the resource-rich country if it doesn’t have the power to produce  them &#8212; or if the workers wage strikes against low wages and immigrant workers.</p>
<p>My  take? Without some positive news on the situation soon, expect the EZA to drop  back, and the rand to inflate a bit more. Here’s some numbers: EZA could drop  to $110 and the rand versus the U.S. dollar could fall to a ratio of 7:1.</p>
<p>S.R.  Nunnally</p>
<p>Editor, <em><a href="http://www.isecureonline.com/reports/TAT/WTATJ408/" target="_blank">Taipan Trader</a></em></p>
<p>P.S.  The US dollar has been rising in India and Pakistan, too… So sharply that one  might expect a bit of a backlash here. <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=1y&amp;s=USDPKR=X&amp;l=on&amp;z=m&amp;q=l&amp;c=usdinr=x" target="_blank">Check  out the chart</a>, and see for yourself.</p>
<p><strong>9 out of 10 Winners for 1,043%!  </strong></p>
<p>This  cutting-edge service just nailed 9 winning picks out of 10 tries… for total  gains of 1,043%. And if  you don’t mind profiting at other investors’ expense, you could get in on gains  like this, and you could even <em>pocket a quick 424% in the next 12 weeks</em>.           </p>
<p><a href="http://www.isecureonline.com/reports/TAT/WTATJ408/" target="_blank">Follow  this link for all the details&#8230;</a></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.taipanpublishinggroup.com/tpg/archives.html">The Dollar IS Rising&#8230; In South Africa, That Is</a></p>
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		<title>Why an Energy Crunch Could Lead to Booming Profits in &#8216;Solid Electricity&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/why-an-energy-crunch-could-lead-to-booming-profits-in-solid-electricity/1563</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:07:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Denning</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gold Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aluminium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Base Metals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BHP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[diamonds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy Crisis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy Crunch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FMG]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MGX]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MMX]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palladium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[platinum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Power Crisis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RIO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WOR]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/why-an-energy-crunch-could-lead-to-booming-profits-in-solid-electricity/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>There are lots of reasons why a small company share can go up in price quickly. Usually it&#8217;s an innovative new product, a new market, or, in some cases, a sudden change in the market value of a good, product, or service.</p>
<p>Take bananas a few years ago. One day you could walk into a store and buy them cheap. A few cyclones in Queensland later, and banana prices were through the roof. For most share investors, this wasn&#8217;t an opportunity. It just made bananas and banana bread more expensive.</p>
<p>But in other markets &#8211; especially resource and energy markets &#8211; a sudden change in the availability of basic resources can change everything. A commodity can go from abundant to scarce relatively&#8230;</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There are lots of reasons why a small company share can go up in price quickly. Usually it&#8217;s an innovative new product, a new market, or, in some cases, a sudden change in the market value of a good, product, or service.</p>
<p>Take bananas a few years ago. One day you could walk into a store and buy them cheap. A few cyclones in Queensland later, and banana prices were through the roof. For most share investors, this wasn&#8217;t an opportunity. It just made bananas and banana bread more expensive.</p>
<p>But in other markets &#8211; especially resource and energy markets &#8211; a sudden change in the availability of basic resources can change everything. A commodity can go from abundant to scarce relatively quickly. Its price can go from cheap to expensive quickly as well. Naturally, the share prices of companies that produce volatile commodities can change quickly too. We&#8217;re counting on that this month.</p>
<p>The Leading Edge of the Energy Storm</p>
<p>The high cost of energy &#8211; especially coal and oil &#8211; is directly impacting resource production in two countries: South Africa and China. As energy prices grind higher &#8211; or even hold where they are &#8211; this will force the production of certain base metals to lower-cost countries. It will also change the supply-demand dynamic for these base metals, creating new investment opportunities in the process. A good example is South Africa.</p>
<p>You have no doubt read about the power crisis in South Africa. South Africa has a booming resource economy like Australia&#8217;s. It&#8217;s driven by gold, palladium, platinum, coal, diamonds and other resources.</p>
<p>The trouble is, South Africa&#8217;s economy is growing faster than its electrical industry. Contrary to all the gloomy reports, we found the place pretty positive when we visited in late February (mostly Johannesburg). Like any fast growing country starting from widespread poverty, you&#8217;re going to have a lot of chaos, crime and uncertainty.</p>
<p>But one of the few things you want to be able to count on is the power. You flick a light switch, the lights go on. That&#8217;s so basic that you and I take it for granted. Not so in South Africa. The folks who run South Africa&#8217;s only large power company told the government years ago that it would have to invest more in power to keep up with the economy&#8217;s growth. The government didn&#8217;t listen.</p>
<p>The result is what you have today: rolling blackouts and &#8220;load shedding&#8221; by the power provider. Demand for power has grown much faster than the available supply. This is not make-believe land. When demand exceeds supply something has to give, and in South Africa, that means power must be cut to someone.</p>
<p>Energy-Intensive Industrial Users on the Chopping Block</p>
<p>The government&#8217;s first response to the power crisis was to cut supply to the places that used the most of it, namely the suburban business parks where most of Johannesburg&#8217;s business community has relocated in the last yen years. That makes sense. You can only cut power to people who are using it. But cutting power during the middle of the business day unexpectedly is not exactly good for business, or for people&#8217;s state of mind.</p>
<p>The government decided to look at industrial users of power. And once it did that, it wasn&#8217;t going to be long before South Africa realised &#8211; like China is now realising &#8211; that there is one particular industrial process that uses much more energy than any other: aluminium.</p>
<p>You make aluminium in several steps. First, you have to refine bauxite ore into alumina. Then, you turn alumina into aluminium by adding generous amounts of electricity in an established process. I won&#8217;t go into the details. But the basic ingredients are what we want to focus on: bauxite and energy.</p>
<p>Bauxite is plentiful. You can find it all over the world. Australia happens to have plenty of the stuff. But it is not alone.</p>
<p>Australia is the Saudi Arabia of Bauxite</p>
<p><img src="http://www.portphillippublishing.com.au/images/20080405DRB.png" border="0" /></p>
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		<title>Two Great Reasons to Buy Gold</title>
		<link>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/two-great-reasons-to-buy-gold/613</link>
		<comments>http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/two-great-reasons-to-buy-gold/613#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 30 Mar 2008 05:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ben Traynor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Gold Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inflation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Africa]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.contrarianprofits.com/?p=613</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>As I wrote yesterday, oil went above $107 a barrel following an attack on an Iraqi pipeline. But it soon fell back again. Oil, along with gold, has risen strongly as the dollar has fallen. To some, therefore, it seems that oil is could offer hedging potential.“Gold is the ONLY hedge you should consider against inflation and the tumbling dollar,” says our commodities guru Garry White. “Thursday’s events demonstrated that. One piece of geopolitical news can send the price soaring – or plummeting.”</p>
<p>But gold offers more than just a hedge against inflation. Here’s another great reason to expect more moves to the upside.</p>
<p>Standard and Poor’s – the same Standard and Poor’s who gave AAA ratings to mortgage-backed securities – reckons South&#8230;</p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As I wrote yesterday, oil went above $107 a barrel following an attack on an Iraqi pipeline. But it soon fell back again. Oil, along with gold, has risen strongly as the dollar has fallen. To some, therefore, it seems that oil is could offer hedging potential.“Gold is the ONLY hedge you should consider against inflation and the tumbling dollar,” says our commodities guru Garry White. “Thursday’s events demonstrated that. One piece of geopolitical news can send the price soaring – or plummeting.”</p>
<p>But gold offers more than just a hedge against inflation. Here’s another great reason to expect more moves to the upside.</p>
<p>Standard and Poor’s – the same Standard and Poor’s who gave AAA ratings to mortgage-backed securities – reckons South Africa’s power crisis “will prove to be more of a stress test than a major ratings driver.” In other words they don’t think it’s that serious.</p>
<p>Now, given S&amp;P’s track record, you could infer just from that statement that things must be very bad indeed. A gambler friend of mine back home does quite well following a bad tipster and betting against him. But there are real, fundamental reasons to think S&amp;P are… well, wrong again.</p>
<p>They come from Eksom, the South African power generator, which has said that people should expect rolling blackouts every second day for the next three months.</p>
<p>South Africa, of course, is a major gold producer. And they need electricity to mine the stuff.</p>
<p>So gold looks like a stellar investment right now. And Garry’s got a great way for you to get in. <a href="http://www.fspinvest.co.uk/investment-services/smart-commodities-uk.html">He reckons the next big move is just about to hit – find out how you could profit if he’s right!</a></p>
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