| Gold hits new high over $900
Gold hit a record high above $900 an ounce this morning as turmoil in financial markets and expectations of aggressive US rate cuts helped raise the metal's appeal. Comex gold futures touched $908.90 an ounce, surpassing Friday's record high of $900.10. The most active February contract was later quoted at $907.0, up $9.3 an ounce. Platinum hit a lifetime high, while silver touched a 27-year peak, buoyed by gold's rise. Spot gold hit an all-time high of $906.70 an ounce, higher than $895.70/896.50 in New York on Friday. Fears of further subprime mortgage-related write-downs in the US financial sector and inflation fears driven by record-high crude oil also attracted buying from investors and speculators. .
Disowned by the Ownership Society
Remember the "ownership society," fixture of major George W. Bush addresses for the first four years of his presidency? "We're creating…an ownership society in this country, where more Americans than ever will be able to open up their door where they live and say, welcome to my house, welcome to my piece of property," Bush said in October 2004. Washington think-tanker Grover Norquist predicted that the ownership society would be Bush's greatest legacy, remembered "long after people can no longer pronounce or spell Fallujah." Yet in Bush's final State of the Union address, the once-ubiquitous phrase was conspicuously absent. And little wonder: rather than its proud father, Bush has turned out to be the ownership society's undertaker. Well before the ownership society had a neat label, its creation was central to the success of the right-wing economic revolution around the world.
February 2008
I continue to be amazed at the evolvement of Huckleberries Online and the local blog community. HBO Blogfest '08 is another example of something happenin' different here. A wonderful mix of personalities and pseudonyms. It didn't start out that way. But I'm delighted that we've gotten to a place where we can set aside ideologies, religious doctrine, politics, disparate backgrounds, etc., to enjoy one another's company. Blogfest '08 was a special time. I'd like to see HBO and the SR sponsor a Dougfest (Doug Clark & Trailer Park Girls) this summer. It might happen. Who knows? HBO works because there's no agenda or much organization. Sorta like the Grateful Dead. If I don't screw things up at HBO Central, we'll get together for another blogfest about this time next year. Now, for your Wild Card ...
Refco ex-VP pleads guilty
A former senior executive at Refco Inc. became the first company official to plead guilty to defrauding investors in the failed trading giant on Wednesday, one day after a Mayer Brown lawyer was indicted on criminal charges.
Santo Maggio, former executive vice president, admitted in a New York federal court that he "participated with others to hide the true financial health of Refco." He worked at Refco from the late 1990s to October 2005, when the futures and commodities broker collapsed after disclosing that an entity partially owned by former Chief Executive Phillip Bennett owed the company about $430 million.
The debt stemmed from client losses that had piled up since the mid-1990s, according to federal prosecutors. Mayer Brown partner Joseph Collins, who represented Refco for more than a decade, helped hide the debt for several years, prosecutors charge in his indictment.
Down $77b and falling
Australian shares plunged a massive 6 per cent this afternoon as panic selling set in among investors over an expected slowdown in global growth.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Share Index had shed more than 6 per cent, down 335.4 points to 5245 points - its lowest since November 2006 - placing the market on course for a record 12th day of declines.
The plunge equated to a $77 billion loss of market value. The latest plunge means the sharemarket has now lost more than 23 per cent of its value since hitting a record high in November and is now officially in a bear market.
The broader All Ordinaries Index was down 294.4 points, or 5.23 per cent, to 5336.5 before noon.
Asian bourses were also softer, with Japan's benchmark Nikkei Share Average Index down 4.8 per cent and the boarder TOPIX index down 4.6 per cent.
Rewards spur China’s gold rush
After more than doubling production in the past two years, the managers at the Habahe Huaitai gold mine in Xinjiang have factored in a similar surge this year. There are numerous reasons for the rise, including better knowledge about the project's reserves, but above all, a spokesman said, increases are being driven by higher global gold prices. .
McCain: Still Losing GOPs?
Foley and the Best Boys: Clarice Feldman, a conservative, tries to find Democratic misbehavior in the outing of Rep. Foley and fails, as far as I can see. So what if a Soros-backed "watchdog" group coordinated the publicizing of the initial, not-that-damaging-but-suggestive email between Rep. Foley and a page? That's allowed. You're even allowed to wait until it's too late for the GOPs to take Foley off the ballot. The gambit only worked because Foley was guilty. ... .
AC360°: Flirting with disaster
Morning Folks...Please pardon our appearance this morning. We are in the process of transitioning from one set of blogger software to another... SOOO while the look may change slighty, the content is still the same...NO worries...In Raw Politics today...It is Florida Primary day! It was THE STATE in 2000 that decided the Presidency, but will it give us a clue as to who the GOP front runner is? Florida is also "the basket" that Rudy has put ALL his eggs in!!! Rumors have it that he just may drop out if he doesn't win!! So watch Anderson and the CNN political gang tonight for full coverage...Also, if your Grandpa was a thief and your Daddy was a thief, sorry folks but chances are YOU will be one, TOO! Check out the new study in Crime & Punishment... Plus Mexican officials issued an arrest warrant for Cesar Laurean, he was last seen in that country...
The State of the News Media 2007
Every media sector except for two is now losing popularity. Even the number of people who go online for news — or anything else — has stopped growing. Only the ethnic press is up. The definitions of enemy and ally in the news business are changing. Newspapers have begun to partner, for instance, with classified-job-listing Web sites they once denounced, brought together by mutual fear of free sites such as Craigslist. With fundamentals shifting, we sense the news business entering a new phase heading into 2007—a phase of more limited ambition. Rather than try to manage decline, many news organizations have taken the next step of starting to redefine their appeal and their purpose based on diminished capacity. Increasingly outlets are looking for “brand" or “franchise" areas of coverage to build audience around.
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