Forum Archive Index - February 2002

["Desmond McDonnell" <desmondo@labyrinth.net.au>]

Accountancies use auditing as a leg in the door - a loss leader. That 
confounds the word 'independent.' Also I understand Enron and AA had 
direct or at least indirect board links. Again there goes the objectivity. 
The cover-up had to do with the fact that the Bush Administration is 
almost a replica of the Enron administration. Enron's tentacles are 
ubiquitous. Enronitis. Ever watched one tower fall onto another? USA's 
biggest bank has not done an end run but an enron, multiplying every 
dollar of capital four hundred times in financial derivatives, which is to 
say, futures. What's the future in that? It would take no great shake to 
undo the entire US financial system. And there goes the ball game! This 
is the reason people are more and more liking the look of the yellow 
metal, that barbarous relic as some PR firm used to say. Gold is 
consummately amenable to coinage. Moreover so little of it has been 
produced relative to the trillions of wallstreetpaper. Which of course is 
great for New Zealand because you have so much gold. And it is all 
nicely stored where no one can get at it, in the ground. Clever country. 
SouthAfrica.gold but NewZealand.com? Yep, the writing is on the Wall. 
Or, as someone replied underneath to the graffiti written on a 
Melbourne bridge, Australia Sucks, New Zealand Nil. 

Cheers
Peter Jenkins


Well, let them have their fun while it lasts.
But its pretty obvious its only a matter of time, months maybe,
before gold comes crashing down to earth again with a mighty
thud. The higher it goes the further it will fall, maybe $200.
I prefer to miss that sort of excitement for some steady rises
and decent tax free dividends.
But gold does have its romance - I intend to fill up my
greatgrandfather's sovereign case that somehow emptied out in the
Depression when it gets right down. Then I'll be able to slaver over
it occasionally like the gold nutters. Even if it ain't worth much, it
has that hypnotic golden sheen....But there, I'm making like Steel
Balls.

Been reading all the Enron material. Looks like the US has been having
its own selected and mini version of our 1987. Judge, Hawkins et al
would have been very at home in Enron. The most amazing thing is 
how a
high powered big five accounting company Arthur Andersen found
nothing/said nothing over massive rigging of paper profits through
chains of overseas subsidiaries, bringing them to account before they
were realised, and shifting all the liabilities off the balance sheet
onto subsidiary partnerships. Although my father and father and father
in law were both chartered accountants and I nearly qualified myself
(I'm an economist) I'll never look at an accountant/auditor with any
trust or respect again after reading about Arthur Andersen. They make
used car dealers look like choir boys.

cheers,
Hugh


----------
> From: jerrold poh <pohj@ihug.co.nz>
> To: sharechat@sharechat.co.nz
> Subject: Re: [sharechat] Gold up 8 dollars!!
> Date: Thursday, 7 February 2002 12:54
> 
> > Utter crap. Gold has value for industrial uses only. The gold
> > standard is long gone and it won't be coming back.
> 
> Hear hear, the only reason why gold has any value today, is because
> in the olden days, it was shiny and hard to obtain.  With this
> mentality (and the inability for people to let go of the past),
> we've come to the conclusion that gold still has value today.  
> 
> You'd just as well be better off in buying something like Titanium
> instead, which first off, is still quite rare, just as expensive as
> gold, and still takes _alot_ of money and effort to extract pure
> Titaniutum.
> 
> 
> Jerrold.
>  
> 
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