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Heading for the "puke point"Richard Daughty - I am in full lock-down mode here at the Mogambo Bunker, and I gotta tell ya that I look pretty sharp in my camouflage Speedo and these bandoliers of ammo across my chest. The reason that I am so frantic is that the growth in Total Fed Credit has gone to zero for over a month now. This is, for me, the ultimate in bad news. The lack of growth in Fed Credit is bad news because, as Peter Zihlmann of P. Zihlmann Investments explains, "The present expansion is the longest running expansion on record. It has surpassed all other economic expansions before it. The driving force behind it is the rapid growth of the money supply and the explosion of credit that has accompanied it." Many people are saying that the money supply is anemic, too, but that is not exactly true. In fact, M3 has accelerated over the last month above its trend for the last few years, although the monetary base has pretty much leveled off. But if there really is no rapid growth in the money supply, and there is no explosion in new credit, then the longest-running expansion in history must be just that; history. Gary Lammert, who is a practitioner of fractal analysis, writes that even when there is money and credit being pumped out, there is nothing to guarantee that they money will be spent on anything useful. "But without the growing money supply flowing into investments for the production of real and useful items that can be sold in a competitive manner to the global markets, the generated economic activity may be malinvested into cul de sacs of domestic services, speculative financial assets, and purely domestic production items such as housing construction." So the money may be thrown down some rat hole or another, such as stocks or bonds or houses. "Every great economic cycle," he goes on to say, "has a recognizable -usually in retrospective- apogee inflection point or day where markets peak and begin their primary descent. While the primary cause of this inflection point in major economic cycles is a decelerating rate of growth money supply (prior to an actual contracting money supply), the inciting composite elements of that decelerating money supply are a combination of fundamental evolving feedback conditions occurring in the real economy at the consumer level. At the consumer level - ongoing wages, consumer debt load, forward consumption status, and projected job status dependent on near term production needs - all factor into the deceleration of borrowing and hence money supply." In short, sometimes people are already so far in debt that they don't want to take on any more damn debt and then have to listen to their wives or husbands whining and complaining that they can't afford to eat as it is, and borrowing MORE damn money to buy ANOTHER damn machinegun is crazy. Some people have called this the "puke point." And if that wasn't enough, in the last week foreigners have suddenly stopped buying our debt through their accounts at the Fed. And the banks have suddenly divested themselves of $74 billion in government debt. In one week! One! And the banks got rid of another $11.5 billion in "other securities," to boot! The only bright spot, if you want to call it that, is that mortgage activity in the banks took a big jump, as usual, meaning that the only thing that is selling well is the ultimate in humongously-expensive, time-consuming, non-productive things, namely houses. Now, left to its own devices, the economy would, under normal circumstances, drift into a little recession, the excesses would be cleaned out, and the stupid businesses (the only kind that will hire me) would all go under, and the mismanaged businesses would all go under, freeing up resources of all kinds, and the busted people who acted like idiots would all be swearing that if they ever, EVER, get their hands on another dime, they will never, never, EVER act so stupid with it again as long as they lived, cross my heart And, for awhile, people will try and save some money and make do without things they want, and savings would grow, and pent-up demand would grow, and then one day, for reasons that nobody can actually enumerate, things get a little better, and then they get a little more better, and then better and better and better, and after awhile the economy is perking again, only slightly different, since there are no stupid businesses or mismanaged business stinking up the joint. But these are not normal times. The cover of Barron's this week, with the headline "When Will He Stop?" should convince you of that. The illustration is of Alan Greenspan pumping up a balloon with a bicycle pump. The balloon, emblazoned with "4%", is leaking air. The article, inside, by Randall W. Forsyth, who is one of the Assistant Managing Editors of Barron's, wrote the cover story. He entitled it, "Leaky Balloon" with the subhead, "Greenspan's end game". The story itself is nothing, as the whole purpose of that particular newspaper is to get people to buy stocks, and it would irritate advertisers to even suggest that everything was not wonderful, or even hint that today is not the perfect time to buy stocks, and lots of them. So it is not surprising that it does not even mention the cause of our problems; an out-of-control Federal Reserve and the resultant enormous levels of staggering, stultifying, smothering debt in every freaking corner of the world. So how insightful can it be? But the article does contain a helpful suggestion as to where the next stimulus is going to be. He quotes Independent Strategy, a London based consultancy, as saying "there is a paucity of corporate spending the U.S. and the rest of the developed world." If this is true, and even if it is not true, then you can count on Congress to pass some more tax incentives to encourage businesses to spend. And since mere deductions, which only means that the business does not have to pay tax on the money they spent, are insufficient, look for tax credits, where the business gets actual cash from the government! Spend a buck, get some, if not all, of your money back! Talk about an economic stimulus! Perhaps this explains an article in the Washington Post, entitled "The Road to Riches Is Called K Street," informs us that the number of registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C. has, since 2000, more than doubled. The fees they charge their clients have doubled. Why this sudden lobbying activity? The Post explains "The lobbying boom has been caused by three factors, experts say: rapid growth in government, Republican control of both the White House and Congress, and wide acceptance among corporations that they need to hire professional lobbyists to secure their share of federal benefits." Patrick J. Griffin, who is identified as "President Bill Clinton's top lobbyist", says that the clients of lobbyists "see that they can win things, that there's something to be gained." It's this next part that caused me to spew beer out of my nose. "Washington has become a profit center." Like this is news or something! Hahahaha! But it IS news, because of the sudden sheer size of the money involved, as the article then went on to chronicle how the Republicans have sold out, becoming as loathsome as the Democrats, only better dressed, when they write "The Republicans in charge aren't just pro-business, they are also pro-government. Federal outlays increased nearly 30 percent from 2000 to 2004, to $2.29 trillion. And despite the budget deficit, federal spending is set to increase again this year, especially in programs that are prime lobbying targets, such as defense, homeland security, and medical coverage." In short, things to kill people, things to spy on people, and socialized medicine. Terrific. Just freaking terrific. Having said that, this is where I always make my big mistake, as I always underestimate the lengths to which government will go, and the depths to which they will sink, to desperately try and ameliorate the damage that they continuously do. So I, foolishly trying in vain to learn from my mistakes, now say that you should look for more tax rebates, something on the order of a thousand bucks to everybody! Look for tax credits for buying cars and houses! Look for taxpayer money being spent to pay poor people's down payments on houses! Look for elimination of capital gains on investments! Look for spending on energy development of all kinds! Drilling for oil! Solar! Wind power! Hydrogen power! Nuclear power! Biomass! Natural gas! Anything, Jack, anything! And this is entirely possible, because when you have a fiat currency, there is no end to what a government can do to literally put money into people's pockets. It is limited only to the extent of the human imagination, greed and fear. And since the entire economy is now totally dependent on the four-legged stool of government spending, the stock market, the bond market, and the housing market, that is where the Congressional stimulus will probably flow. Of course, all of this stimulus spending will not be good news for inflation, which is already bad and getting worse. The good news is that I do not even have to do any real work, as Doug Noland has already done the math. "For the week," he writes, "the CRB index rose 0.4%, increasing y-t-d gains to 10.0%. The Goldman Sachs Commodities index added 0.3%, with 2005 gains rising to 27.9%." And for a personal opinion, go buy something. The prices will astound you. Or, even easier and a lot cheaper, I can tell you what you will find, courtesy of an article in the June 19 issue of my stupid hometown Leftist rag of a newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times. They have, across the bottom of the page, some charts. Since 1998, median home prices are up 13.9% per year, gas prices up 13.1% per year, homeowners insurance up9.9% per year, health insurance up 14.5% per year. On the income side, average wages are up 3.3% per year, and Social Security payments are up 3.6% per year. The article itself is an entire page of the stories of people who can no longer actually survive, thanks to prices rising so much. If you read between the lines of Larry Edelson's "Real Wealth Report", you will note that he agrees with The Mogambo about this inflation thing. But if you call him up to ask him about this, he acts all surprised and says "Mogambo who?" But this is not about how Mr. Edelson snubs the poor Mogambo, who is merely trying to borrow a few bucks to get him through the week. No, he is talking about inflation, and he writes, "And right now, almost every commodity and investment I write about - food, precious metals, energy, even water - is soaring. The cost of a 5-ounce can of pistachios I bought yesterday is up 12% in a month. A large size bag of Lay's potato chips is up another 14%. Corn and wheat prices are up 13% and 11% respectively since early May. Soybean prices are on a tear, UP 23% in barely four weeks. The price of cocoa is up 10% in a week. Sugar is up 10% in three weeks. A loaf of bread is up 8.9% since the first of the year. A head of lettuce is up 13%." And it is going to get worse and worse because, as he correctly says, "Rising oil prices are inflationary." To amend that, I will generalize to say that rising prices of ANY kind is inflationary. The famous Jim Rogers is on the same wavelength, and he figures that, just looking at historical precedents, "The boom market in commodities will last till sometime between 2014 and 2022. The crude oil crisis however, could deepen unless someone discovers a huge, new oilfield." Yeah, like THAT'S going to happen ! Hahahaha! There has not been one major oil field find, anywhere in the world, in the last 35 years! But your government is doing all it can to shield you from the bad news, even as it works overtime to make it worse. They are lying about prices, as Mr. Edelson notes when he says "the Consumer Price Index is essentially a sham. It's manipulated lower because it's the index the government uses to adjust Social Security, welfare, and Medicare payments. The lower the index - or the slower its rise - the more the government saves. "No taxes of any kind are accounted for as a cost of living. Not personal taxes. Not sales and local taxes. Not consumption taxes. Not even property taxes. For some reason, the government does not consider these items to be 'a cost of living.' "But the biggest manipulation in the CPI is the way the government calculates the cost of housing. It uses rents as a substitute for the actual cost of buying a home. But with millions of Americans dumping their rentals and rushing into home ownership, rents are actually going down in some areas." That is why I have not run into anybody, anywhere, who thinks that inflation is not roaring, or anybody who is not angry about it, and when I tell them that the government says that inflation is very, very, very low, they look at me incredulously and ask "What are you? Some kind of idiot?" and I have to admit that, yes, I am an idiot, but that does not change the fact that the government is lying when it says that inflation is, as I reported, very, very, very low. - I am surprised at the hostile reaction to the Supreme Court ruling in Kelo v. New London. The crux of the case is, using their analogy, that the state can take property from A to give it to B because B will pay higher taxes. The people don't like that? Hahahaha! I shake my head in wonder! This is the exact same loathsome Leftist lunatic philosophy that has permeated everything for the last half century! But now, NOW, they are upset? The government is continually taking something away from you, whom I will refer to as A, to give it to some other guy, whom I will label as B. But now, just because it is their houses on the line, people are getting upset? Hahahaha! What morons! But you never hear WHY New London is making this grab for people's property. The reason is, obviously that the morons of New London, like moronic governments everywhere, have persisted in electing Leftist morons to their government, and that government of morons (GOM) has spent the last half century spending every dime they can get their hands on, and raising taxes to get MORE money to spend, and promising the moon to everybody. Now they need money. They need lots of money. Lots and lots of money. But taxes are already so onerous that they can't raise them any more. And why do they need so much money? They have provided for legions of city workers who are, like all government workers everywhere, grossly overpaid and under-worked, and who have benefit packages so outrageously generous that they are not even available anywhere in the private sector, and they are under-funded. They have promised lifetime pensions to everybody that ever sat on the City Council, or worked for the government, or even merely walked by City Hall one day when they were handing out generous pensions to everybody in sight. They have continuously built parks and playgrounds and recreational facilities and gymnasiums and nature trails and museums and swimming pools and erected a multitude of public buildings, and staffed all of them to the max. They have responded to the egregiously bad performance of their educational system by paying the bad teachers and administrators more and more and more, instead of firing them. They have created local entitlement programs and welfare programs and before-school breakfast programs and after-school latch-key programs and school-crossing guard programs and assistance programs of every stripe. They have whole fleets of new cars and trucks for city employees. They have issued general obligation bonds and revenue-anticipation bonds by the truck full. And now they have, like the butthead citizens who elected these dimwits, spent their way to the literal edge of bankruptcy. And so the people are upset? Hahahaha! The state has debased and destroyed their money, but they are not upset about that. The state has grown itself to be, literally, half the entire economy, but they are not upset about that. The state has now installed so many taxes on so many things that they have driven up prices, but they are not upset about that. The state has indebted every citizen alive, and citizens who are not even born yet, so heavily that the debt cannot ever be paid back, but they are not upset about that. The state has encouraged that all the retirement accounts of everyone be put into the stock and bond markets, and they have lost money for years, but they are not upset about that. The state has gradually eaten away at every liberty, piece by piece by piece, but they are not upset about that. They have allowed the Constitution to be gutted, bit by bit by bit, but they are not upset about that. But maybe force them to move out of their houses, and they are, all of a sudden, upset about that! Hahahaha! Perhaps Vox Day, in an essay on WorldNetDaily.com, encapsulated it best when he wrote, "Merely substitute a few terms in describing the system and it becomes clear that the Supreme Court has established a neofeudal oligarchy, where all land is held in the name of the federal government-king, governed by his local government-nobles and worked by taxpayer-serfs. Should one serf fail to produce a satisfactory harvest of crops-tax revenues, the noble can take the land from one serf and give it to another who promises to produce a more abundant harvest. "This is a major expansion of the eminent domain concept, and I can confidently predict that the redefinition of the constitutional term 'public use' will soon be as stretched beyond recognition as the now-meaningless phrase 'interstate commerce,' (as has) the Orwellian term that now covers things that do not cross state lines (and thus are not interstate) and have not been sold or exchanged for other goods (and thus are not commerce)." - China reportedly has 50 coal-fired plants under construction, and there are another 600 or so planned for the next 6 to 8 years. That's a good thing, too, as they are going to need every kilowatt, because the future of China is that there are going to be more, a lot more, gigawatt-gobbling air conditioners and furnaces and hot water heaters and dishwashers and computers and printers and TVs and VCRs and video games and electric gizmos of all kinds, and lots and lots of power-hungry machinery and industrial processes to supply all of this stuff. Investment tip o'; the day: invest in coal and coal-oriented technologies. But, predictably, air pollution is bad and getting worse. As a result, the National People's Congress Standing Committee passed a Renewable Energy Law, effective January 1, 2006. This new law requires that by 2020, 10 percent of China's electricity must be generated from renewable energy sources by 2020. Ten percent of the usage today is a hell of a lot. Okay, now let's look at fifteen years of growth in electricity usage, given the extent of planned increase in coal-fired technology alone talked about in the preceding paragraph. Wow! And let's not forget about oil, as they are going to use a lot of oil. - I was given a copy of the famous June 5 NY Times article about gold by Stephen Metcalf entitled "Believing in Bullion" which was okay as far as it went. But the part that really started me going berserk is that he is quoting some bozo German sociologist named Georg Simmel, whom Mr. Metcalf characterizes as "the greatest theorist of money" who said that "money is only money when it is in motion." The actual quote from this Simmel jerk is "When money stands still, it is no longer money according to its specific value and significance." Hahaha! What a moron! This proves that he does not understand the first thing about money, just as I do not understand the first thing about being a good husband and father. And as for the suggestion that he is the "greatest theorist of money" I laugh one of those long and labored Mogambo laughs (LALML) that convey contempt and ridicule, hahahahahahahahahahahaha! So, to paraphrase this Simmel bonehead, food is not food until you eat it? Gasoline is not gasoline until you drive your car? A hand grenade is not an explosive until you pull the pin? The Mogambo is not an idiot until he opens his mouth to speak? Ha! If you run into this Simmel character, probably unemployed and passed out drunk on a sidewalk somewhere is this is an example of his intellectual powers, let him know that money is also supposed to be a store of value, too, and as such, it is still money when it is sitting in your wallet. In fact, I say, and you can quote me, "Money is worth more than almost anything you can buy with it." - Bill Murphy of Letropolecafe.com says that the heyday of gold is looming. "Wait until the facts surface about how the central banks squandered 2/3 of all their bank reserves to foster a price manipulation scheme. There will be a frenzy to own the stuff like never seen before." How big a frenzy? He opines that "we will most likely see the gold price somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000 US an ounce", which is, admittedly, what a lot of other people have said, too, but I just like hearing it. But maybe not today, as I notice that the gold lease rates are again at very low levels, which means that the central banks and bullion banks are trying as hard as they can to get as much gold into the market as they can to make the price of gold stay as low as they can, so that people will not say "Look at the soaring price of gold! The Mogambo was right! We're all freaking doomed!" And, of course, there are always the insiders at the COMEX, fraudulently manipulating the price of gold and silver to enrich themselves. Will it work again this time, or have the people of the world finally gotten sophisticated enough that they can recognize that when the price of gold gets pushed down like this, it now always bounces back? Have they gotten wise to the fact that a dollar that is going down in price guarantees a rising price for precious metals, and that these temporary lower prices are actually a genuine bargain situation? If they are smart, they do. If they are not smart, then they won't. But Americans are not very smart, and if you think that America's young people are going to lead the world in literacy skills and education so that they can make the big money and pay the enormous taxes that will be necessary, think again. Stateline.org reports that up to 30% of students fail to finish high school to get diploma. Thirty freaking percent! "Broken down by race, nearly half of Hispanic, African-American and Native American students who start secondary school never receive a diploma." Half! Half of the fastest-growing sub-populations in the USA can't even get through high school! - But there is some good news, although it will surely be fleeting and, being a coward and crybaby, requires a level of courage that I cannot even imagine. As reported on FreeMarketNews.com, "A federal jury found former IRS Criminal Investigative Division (CID) Special Agent and CPA Joseph Banister not guilty of all counts alleging criminal tax fraud and conspiracy related to actions he took on behalf of a California business owner who had openly defied the IRS over several years by stopping withholding of all income and employment taxes from the paychecks of his workers." The fabulous news is that, at the root, Mr. Banister was able to prove that people since the Constitution prohibits an income tax, people have to obligation to pay income taxes, as there is no Constitutional amendment authorizing one. The 16th Amendment, which authorizes an income tax, has been around, of course, but apparently no state has actually ratified the damn thing, and so an income tax is illegal! This must be news to the Cato Institute, as their booklet, "The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America" has a footnote that says "The Sixteenth Amendment was ratified February 3, 1913." If your local newspaper is Leftist trash, like mine, then this will be a surprise to you, too, as there is no mention of this miraculous, earth-shaking verdict. But I figure that the word will get around. Then I figure that Bush will sign an Executive Order to make it mandatory, thus amending the Constitution by Presidential fiat, which is, paradoxically, also prohibited by the Constitution. But don't look to the corrupt Supreme Court to protect your silly butt about such niceties as upholding the Constitution, as we have discovered to our continual dismay. - David Morgan, writing in The Morgan Report, cites a Forbes magazine chart showing that the average price of silver over 600 years, as expressed in 1998 dollars, has been $150 per ounce. And those 1998 dollars are now seven years older and about 30% more devalued. So the real, inflation-adjusted price of silver must be about $200 an ounce now. But silver is selling for only seven bucks and change! What a bargain! - The Daily Reckoning site frequently uses the term "lumpinvestoriat", which is a real catchy word, to characterize idiots who happily part with their money without thinking about what in the hell they are doing, mostly by investing in something about which they know nothing about, and who generally pay for their folly. Clever reader Carol F. has coined the term "jumpinvestoriat", which she defines as "those who simply jump into supposedly 'hot' investments without much thought." - Kurt Richebacher notes that Japan is still suffering, 15 years later, from their own lumpinvestoriat and jumpinvestoriat real estate frenzy. He writes, "it is mainly bad loans on real estate that have paralyzed Japan's banking system. America's commercial banks, not to mention its numerous subprime lenders, are doing their best to beat the follies of their Japanese brethren." And the Japanese went crazy, too, as, according to Puru Saxena, "At the peak of the bubble in 1990, Japanese real-estate was worth four times the value of all property in the US!" And since real estate markets in The United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands have all started collapsing, it is time to brush off that old adage, "What goes around comes around". And that means bad news for the USA in the next year or so. Mogambo housing tip o' the day (MHTOTD), rent, don't buy. - Roger Reynolds, of "Shame on you, Federal Reserve!" fame, says "Pull up stockcharts.com. Type in $indu:$xoi. Be sure to put the colon in. This shows a ratio of the market divided by oil stocks. It's in a big downtrend!!! This means that the market strength is almost entirely in oil/gas/service stocks. Remember, there are a large number of energy stocks many with big shares outstanding. It also means that the broad market has been in a downtrend for many months." - The heroic government effort to privatize Social Security has cooled recently, but you can be sure that it will eventually pass. Being The Mogambo, I will take a moment away from serenely sniffing lotus blossoms and contemplating the existential cosmos to tell you what will almost certainly happen. Payroll taxes will be increased by a percent or two, up from the current 15.3%. You will be given the chance to either "invest" this increase in your new private account, or let the government have it. Simple and elegant, with both the financial services industry and the government rolling in more money. And you rolling in less money. - Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital is watching the clueless halfwits that comprise our Congress getting all bent out of shape with China, and is laughing that these losers want the Treasury secretary and Alan Greenspan, of all people, to "do something" about how China is "unfair". He writes "The scene is straight out of Alice in Wonderland. It is hard to fathom how these Congressmen could be so clueless as to the extent that China subsidizes the U.S. economy, and directly finances the very budget deficits these spendthrifts so irresponsibly vote to produce." But it gets worse, as he notes by writing "In fact, short of a formal declaration of war, the single most damaging thing that China could do to America is exactly what our politicians are demanding. What is even more ironic, is that giving in to these demands is also the best thing China could do to improve the lives of its own citizens." So, in short, China is being very, very nice to us, at the expense of its own citizens, as a stronger yuan would allow them to import things at lower prices. And yet this is not enough for Congress in general and that that arch-moron, John Kerry, in particular. And it still burns my smelly butt that the idiotic Democrats nominated this loser to be President of the United States! Grrrr. But this is not about John Kerry, whom I despise, or the voters of Massachusetts, whom I also despise for constantly sending the horrid Ted Kennedy and this clueless bozo to Congress year after year, or even about Democrats, whom I consider to be the lowest form of life on the planet, as evidenced by the childish, ridiculous, low-IQ, touchy-feely, moronic, big-heart-but-small-brains, bankrupting things they say and do. No, this is about money, and Mr. Schiff is also speaking of money when he writes, "This year alone America's current account deficit is likely to be $800 billion. To put this number in its proper perspective, $800 billion is equal to the combined market capitalization of the following fifteen Dow Jones companies: Alcoa, American Express, Boeing, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, DuPont, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Honeywell, 3M, McDonalds, Merck, SBC Communications, and Walt Disney. In other words, to finance just one year's purchases of consumer electronics, granite counter-tops, vacations, automobiles, furniture, appliances, clothing, toys, and net interest and dividend payments, Americans will basically give away the equivalent of half of the companies that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average." Half! For one year's worth of imports! One! - John Mackenzie of the M2
newsletter reports
that the "Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD), the representative body of the richest 26 countries in
the world, announced that it is sharply reducing its forecasts
for every leading economy." In keeping with this dour outlook,
he predicts that "2005 will be a continual decline, while
2006 will mark the awareness of the 'Greatest Depression.' Please
protect yourself; this is going to be horrific as we move forward."
I couldn't have said it better myself, especially the part about
how it will be "The Greatest Depression." But blithely ignoring The Mogambo standing outside their precious little BIS windows in their precious little BIS building chanting "Stagflation! Staglflation!", they go on to say, and this is really funny, "Central banks are unlikely to make the same mistakes so that history can repeat itself." Hahahaha! Show me a central bank that is NOT making the same mistakes over and over and over again! The reason they say this is that "central banks today focus foremost on price stability and react quickly to inflation risks, making mistakes less likely." Hahaha! - The Bank of England is shocked and aghast at the sudden rise in bankruptcies, and they are taking steps, so they say, to tighten lending standards to try and prevent more of them! Hahaha! Too late! At this stage of the game, or at any stage of any game, the only thing that the stupidity known as modern mainstream economics prescribes is more credit, not less! Hahaha! The soothing and hollow words of the Bank of England notwithstanding, central banks always create more and more money and credit to keep the over-indebted economy from collapsing. As Peter Warburton wrote (thanks Jeff W!), "the central banks preside over the creation of additional liquidity for the financial system in order to hold back the tide of debt defaults that would otherwise occur." But people everywhere have so much debt now that they cannot keep paying it, and so they go bankrupt. And yet, the exact theoretical idiocy that the central banks of the world, and especially our own despicable Federal Reserve, recommends is to supply MORE credit! Ugh. *****The Mogambo Sez: Things are coming to a head, and so it is naturally time for the government to cook up some Big Event that will transfix our attention away from our own pitiful condition. War with Iran seems to be it. I'm as aghast as you are. Richard Daughty email: RichardSmithGroup@verizon.net 321gold Inc |
