SILVER RUSH! - June 6th news...

"Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged."

-President Abraham Lincoln

MARKET NEWS DIGEST

HSBC Chases Profit in Iran -Bloomberg
Nations U.S. Says Sponsor Terrorism

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- From their offices atop Tehran's 15- story Sayeh Tower, HSBC Holdings Plc bankers have helped lend more than $825 million to the Iranian government, which the U.S. says sponsors terrorism and provided a haven to al-Qaeda members after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Half a world away in New York, where London-based HSBC is the biggest retail bank in the state, with 412 branches, the company takes deposits just two blocks from the site of the twin towers that were destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks.

HSBC is doing business in other countries that the U.S. says sponsor terrorism, including Libya, Sudan and Syria, through direct and indirect ties, according to bank documents and interviews with executives. HSBC also banked for the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, according to a Central Intelligence Agency report published in October 2004.

Such dealings by HSBC and other non-U.S.-based banks are unfettered by U.S. sanctions, which generally don't apply to foreign companies acting overseas. Even U.S. companies, which must conform to sanctions against terror-sponsoring nations, can avoid them by using foreign subsidiaries. New York-based American Express Co. uses a Bahrain-based unit to issue and accept charge cards in Syria.

Pressure to Stop

As the U.S. wages a war on terror, financial services companies are collecting deposits and fees in the U.S. while lending money in countries the U.S. says sponsor terror. An increasing number of state and city officials and pension fund managers are pressuring the companies to stop.

``You are feeding that terrorism pipeline,'' says New York City Comptroller William Thompson Jr., who manages more than $80 billion in pension funds, including money for city firefighters and police officers, 366 of whom died in the Sept. 11 attacks.

``You're enabling the government to be able to funnel dollars to terrorism,'' says Thompson, 51, who administers funds holding $100 million in HSBC stock.

U.S. sanctions, which vary from country to country, bar most U.S. commerce with nations that sponsor terror. Financial institutions are generally prohibited from operating bank accounts for or transferring or lending money to the governments and citizens of those countries. Exceptions include the financing of some imports and exports such as humanitarian aid, sales of medical supplies and limited money transfers to ordinary citizens.

Libya and Iraq

The U.S. lifted most economic sanctions against Libya in 2004 for cooperating with weapons inspectors, yet it still considers the country a terror state. The U.S. State Department also designates Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria as state sponsors of terror. Iraq was on the list until Oct. 20, when then Secretary of State Colin Powell removed it.

``We put the world's financial institutions on notice,'' President George W. Bush said at a Nov. 7, 2001, news conference. ``If you do business with terrorists, if you support them or sponsor them, you will not do business with the United States of America.''

Four years later, dozens of banks with offices in the U.S. have helped provide billions of dollars to Iran's government and the other nations accused of being terror sponsors.

Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG, which has an office in Tehran, led a group of lenders extending $1.75 billion in credit to Iran in 2003 to help pay for development of its South Pars gas fields, according to a company press release.

FULL STORY

Related Stories:
5-23-05 --"Terror-free" investing has arrived -Craig Smith, WND...Nearly every American with a pension plan or mutual fund has money invested in companies that are doing business with terrorist-friendly countries. But now there's a way to help suck the "lifeblood" out of terrorism -- and do some good at the same time.

5-24-05 -- Is your pension supporting terrorists? -Ron Strom, WND...An analysis of public pension systems in the U.S. finds the largest and most prominent funds tend to be heavily invested in global publicly traded companies that have business activities in terrorist-sponsoring states.

Stocks fall on jobs report, oil spike -MW
Paltry 78,000 jobs added in May; oil up 6.1% on the week
By Mark Cotton, MarketWatch
June 3, 2005

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks were lower in the final hour of trading Friday amid a fresh spike in oil prices and disagreement over the implication for interest rates of a much weaker than expected jobs report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 100 points in early afternoon trades to touch a low for the session of 10,448.63. It was last down 87 points at 10,466..

The Nasdaq Composite fell 25 points to 2,072, putting it on track to snap a four-week winning streak.

The S&P 500 Index was off 8 points at 1,196.

"You have some people saying the Fed is going to tighten some more as the data indicate that labor markets are tight because they're looking at the unemployment rate. Other people are looking at the 78,000 gain and going, 'Gee whiz, we're back to a weak economy,'" said Lincoln Anderson, chief investment officer at LP Financial Services.

For Anderson, investors should read the data not as a sign that the economy is slowing, but rather than "companies are tightening up on costs and rebuilding their earnings trajectory."

Investors digested an employment report showing hiring in the United States slowing to its weakest level in nearly two years.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 78,000, the lowest since August 2003, the Labor Department reported. The unemployment rate slipped to 5.1% from 5.2%, based on a separate household survey. It's the lowest unemployment rate since September 2001.

Economists were expecting much stronger job growth in May, forecasting an average gain of 186,000, according to the survey conducted by MarketWatch.

For Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group, the report shows the U.S. economy is slowing to about a 3% GDP annualized growth rate in the second quarter.

http://www.marketwatch.com

Related Stories:
6-1-05 --Crude Oil Rises as Shut Refinery Units Boost Supply Concern -Bloomberg -- Crude oil rose for a seventh straight session as refinery malfunctions raised concern that refiners won't produce enough gasoline to meet peak demand this summer.

6-1-05 --SEC's Donaldson to resign -MW Tough regulator led effort to clean up Corporate America -MarketWatch...Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson, who took office in the wake of massive corporate scandals and aggressively stepped up the agency's focus on fraud and good governance, announced on Wednesday that he's resigning at the end of the month.

Silver Surges On Fund Buying -DJ

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Comex silver futures charged to two-and-a-half month highs of $7.50 per ounce Tuesday on heavy fund buying spurred by a greatly improved technical or chart pattern sparked by the erosion of overhead resistance.

The most active July silver contract settled 14.2 cents higher at $7.452 per ounce.

Silver initially veered lower Tuesday in line with the other metals markets after the U.S. dollar rallied strongly overnight in the wake of the 'No' vote by France regarding the E.U. constitution which dealt a heavy blow to the Euro-zone single currency.

However, strong bargain hunter and speculative interest emerged at the early lows to limit the metal's losses, and once the U.S. currency eased slightly from its early highs silver was pushed onto a rising path.

Local or short-term traders were impressed by silver's ability to reverse course and nudged prices higher still to trip pre-placed stop-loss buy orders at $7.30 and then again at $7.38.

These buy orders unleashed an automatic wave of fresh buying interest, and at the same time spurred a large speculative player to cover short exposure to the market and move to establish a long position.

Potential sellers proved content to linger on the sidelines during the rapid ascent in prices, and only emerged in light numbers once the psychologically significant $7.50 level was attained.

Dealers agreed that the market's strong performance has rendered its technical or chart pattern fairly positive, and therefore should draw out further chart-following fund interest in the days ahead.

Further, any other players hosting short positions in the market are expected to feel the pressure to unwind that exposure by buying back metal they previous sold.

Consequently, the upside has been widely deemed silver's near-term path of least resistance. Potential upside targets for July futures include the $7.75 region initially, followed by the $7.90 and $8 regions.

"As far as the charts go, there's very little established resistance beyond $7.75 until $8.00, so any further moves could be very quick indeed," argued a dealer with a large New York-based Japanese investment bank.

A floor dealer with a large U.S. commission house with extensive fund client business agreed. "Silver feels really good here and has been shaping up for a turn higher for a while. With gold having had a weak performance today because of the euro, silver looks even better. We are looking at $7.74-$7.75 as the next target, and then $8," he said.

August gold headed in the opposite direction, hit hard by fund buying spurred by the U.S. dollar's scramble to seven-month highs against its major rivals.

Aug prices bottomed out at $415.80 before recovering to the $418-419 region by the close, but dealers agreed further probes lower are likely on the near term agenda.

"It obviously all depends on what the currency markets do next, but we're expecting the U.S. dollar to keep rising over the short term and that will have negative consequences for gold," said a floor dealer with a New York futures brokerage.

http://www.dowjones.com

Related Story:
COMPARING SILVER BULLION TO MORGAN DOLLARS -Rich Spohr, SATC ... notice that not only did the Morgan Dollars not lose any ground during this 34% correction in Silver, but they actually gained 13% moving from $155 to $175.

MORGAN SILVER DOLLAR RESEARCH REPORT -SATC ... A new bull market in silver began in mid-2003, which has driven the price of silver bullion from a low of $4.50 per ounce to a high of over $8.00 per ounce -- a rise of 77%. Since the new bull market in precious metals began back in 2001, Investment-Grade (MS-65) Morgan Silver Dollars have risen as much as 72%.

Social Security plan backed in new poll -WT
By Donald Lambro
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 31, 2005

Most likely voters continue to support President Bush's proposal to let younger workers invest some of their Social Security payroll taxes through personal accounts, a new survey finds.

The poll by independent pollster John Zogby for the Cato Institute, which is being released today, found that when voters understood the benefits of personal investment accounts, including a better financial rate of return than the current system, the Bush plan was supported by 52 percent of Americans and opposed by 40 percent.

"The thing that is compelling in this poll is that this is the response you get when you use a positive approach on Social Security reform," Mr. Zogby said.

"If you use the 'Chicken Little, sky-is-falling' approach, then voters understand that something has to be done, but don't see the connection between personal accounts and fundamental reform of Social Security."

"There are a large number of voters, especially those under 50, who don't think they are getting the best possible deal from Social Security," he said.

FULL STORY

Related Special Report:
SOCIAL INSECURITY The Social Security Crisis and Proposed Solutions

New Social Security card proposed -CT
High-tech plan targets ID theft, illegal workers
By FRANK JAMES
Chicago Tribune
5/29/2005

WASHINGTON - Congress is moving to replace the paper Social Security cards issued to 280 million Americans with plastic, harder-to-counterfeit versions to try to curtail identity theft and the use of Social Security cards and numbers by some undocumented immigrants to obtain jobs.

Critics fear the cards could become de facto national IDs and eventually play the role that identity papers have played over history in repressive societies. Some worry that the proposal could mean trouble for immigrant workers and even criminal fines for employers.

If the Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2005 became law, every person seeking a job in the United States - citizen and undocumented immigrant alike - would have to present the card to his or her prospective employer.

Proponents hope that the card would also end the difficulties endured by victims of identity theft like one San Diego resident. The woman, a U.S. citizen who asked that her name not be revealed, said Thursday that her name and Social Security number were misappropriated by an undocumented immigrant who got jobs and credit using her Social Security number.

The immigrant stole from one employer, defaulted on credit and had an arrest warrant for an assault, causing more than a decade of problems for the victim.

The front of the new card would have the holder's photo and Social Security number.

A machine-readable magnetic stripe on the card's back, like those found on credit cards, would contain a digitized photo and the person's employment eligibility. The card could be swiped through a reader by an employer with its information compared with an employment eligibility database to be maintained by the Homeland Security Department.

Stiff penalties proposed

Under the bill, for the first time employers who hire undocumented immigrants could face federal criminal charges punishable by up to five years in prison for employing even one illegal immigrant and a fine of up to $50,000 for every illegal immigrant hired.

The bill would also require the hiring of 10,000 additional federal immigration enforcement agents to crack down on the hiring of illegal immigrants.

"If anyone who's here illegally is hoping to get a (new) job . . . they won't be able to get that job if they don't have one of these," said Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., the bill's chief sponsor, during a recent hearing as he held aloft a prototype of the card.

"And they can't have one of these unless they're here legally. And so what does that say to someone who is here illegally? "I might as well go home because I can't feed my family in the U.S.' "

FULL STORY

Related Story:
6-1-05 -- Delaying Social Security Reform Will Make Problems Far Worse -IBD BY JED GRAHAM, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY ... Almost a decade ago, a Clinton administration Social Security advisory panel issued a stark warning.

States say $5.15 an hour too little -USAT
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
May 31, 2005

More states are raising their minimum wages, pushing hourly rates above $7 in some and shrinking the role of the federal minimum wage, which hasn't gone up in eight years.

Eleven states have raised their rates since January 2004, and Wisconsin will become the 12th on Wednesday. Employers there must pay at least $5.70 an hour through June 2006, when the minimum wage rises again to $6.50 an hour.

In all, 17 states and the District of Columbia — covering 45% of the U.S. population — have set minimums above the federal rate of $5.15. That has helped cut the number of workers earning the minimum or less (for those earning tips) from 4.8 million in 1997 to 2 million last year, or 2.7% of hourly earners, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.

About half of minimum-wage earners work at restaurants. Millions more have wages that are influenced by the minimum. Its buying power is at its lowest point since 1949.

Congress last changed the federal minimum wage in 1997. The latest proposal to raise it died in the Senate in March.

"The federal government is not living up to its responsibility, so the states are acting," says New Jersey state Sen. Steve Sweeney, a Democrat who sponsored a law that will raise the state's minimum.

http://www.usatoday.com

Citigroup: $208M to settle SEC fraud charges -MW
By Greg Morcroft, MarketWatch
May 31, 2005

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Two Citigroup Inc. subsidiaries have agreed to pay $208 million to settle fraud charges relating to the creation and operation of an affiliated transfer agent that has served the Smith Barney family of mutual funds since 1999, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday.

The SEC found that Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Smith Barney Fund Management LLC, the investment adviser to the mutual funds, misrepresented and omitted material facts when recommending to the boards of the mutual funds that the funds change from the third party transfer agent they previously used to a transfer agent that was a Citigroup affiliate.

Without admitting or denying the findings, Citigroup agreed to pay $128 million in refunds and interest, $80 million in penalties.

"We are pleased to resolve this matter," Citigroup President and COO Robert Willumstad said in a prepared statement. "We recognize that aspects of the transfer agency arrangements entered into six years ago did not reflect the way we think business should be done, and that is unacceptable," he added.

http://www.marketwatch.com

COMMENTARY

Coming Soon: National ID Cards? -Erik Larkin
Recently passed Real ID Act undermines civil rights, critics charge.
Erik Larkin, Medill News Service
May 31, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Driver's licenses will become national ID cards--and Americans will be at greater risk of identity theft--under a new federal law that passed without significant congressional debate, critics charge.

The Real ID Act will require that states verify every license applicant's identity and residency status, and that they store addresses, names, and driving records in a database that every other state can access. It also mandates anticounterfeiting features for the licenses and a "common machine readable technology." In three years, licenses that don't meet the standards won't be accepted as identification for boarding an airplane, opening a bank account, or satisfying any other federally regulated use.

The law's sponsor, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) said that the law "seeks to prevent another 9/11-type terrorist attack by disrupting terrorist travel." Opponents contend that the act is primarily meant to prevent people who illegally immigrate to the United States from getting licenses.

When he introduced the bill at a press conference earlier this year, Sensenbrenner referred to a part of the report from the September 11 Commission that read, "Members of al-Qaida clearly valued freedom of movement as critical to their ability to plan and carry out the attacks prior to September 11th.

He said that his proposed legislation would curtail such movement and would tighten the rules for political asylum. In response to questions from reporters, he also suggested that the law was intended to "get a handle on illegal aliens in the United States."

How It Passed

The controversy surrounding the new law relates to the way it was passed as much as to what it does. Because it passed as an amendment to an emergency spending bill providing funding for American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Real ID Act did not come up for a vote on its own--or for full debate--in Congress.

"This really is a national identification card for the United States of America for the first time in our history," said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) in the Senate the day before the spending bill passed. "We have never done this before, and we should not be doing it without a full debate."

According to critics, what makes this a national ID--as opposed to another form of classification such as a Social Security card--is the fact that driver's licenses already serve as standard forms of identification for everything from entering a bar to boarding an airplane. Though the Real ID Act doesn't obligate states to follow the new national standards, their licenses and state IDs won't satisfy ID requirements for any purpose under federal jurisdiction unless the states comply.

Alexander and 11 other senators, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) last month asking him to block the amendment.

Though Alexander strongly opposed passing the Real ID Act without debate, he said he was "reluctantly" in favor of a national ID in the wake of September 11. Other observers remain deeply concerned by the prospect.

Risk of ID Theft

"This is serious business," says Bill Scannell, a privacy advocate. If you want to board a plane, "you have to show your papers."

Scannell's Web site, UnrealID.com, gathered more than 10,000 comments in 28 hours from people asking their senators to block the amendment the day before the Senate vote. Scannell faxed all those comments to the appropriate senators, but he says that his failed last-minute attempt was "like the charge of the light brigade."

The new law, which takes effect in three years, establishes general requirements, but the Department of Homeland Security will decide how to implement the broad-brush mandates. Anyone with a license from a state that doesn't meet Real ID's standards will have to get a new license before then.

One mandate provides that every state must have a database accessible by all other states and including all of the information printed on a license as well as the person's driving record. The original proposal would have created a single national database, but this provision was changed before the Senate vote.

FULL STORY

Related Story:
IDENTITY THEFT CHOICES:
National ID vs. Personal Responsibility
By Craig R. Smith
WorldNetDaily
June 6, 2005

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution ... are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." -U.S. BILL OF RIGHTS, 10th Amendment

Americans enjoy unlimited benefits from new technologies in a wired world. But those wires send information in two directions, and the access to our personal data has never been more open for abuse, fraud, and, for some, even financial ruin.

It's not just the Internet that has eroded our privacy. In dozens, possibly hundreds of every-day activities, we leave a trail of our identity. As technology brings us closer together, the fragments of information about us are becoming much easier to piece together, revealing the most intimate details of our lives to potential thieves.

"Every 79 seconds...a thief steals someone's identity, opens accounts in the victim's name and goes on a buying spree." -CBSnews.com

How should Americans properly address the growing threat of identity theft?
1) By giving up more personal information to more government agencies... OR
2) By taking specific steps to preserve their personal and financial privacy?

Identity-theft hit my family a few years ago. Armed with just a Social Security number and address the thief was able to obtain enough credit to buy a new truck and open almost a dozen new credit cards. It took thousands of dollars in legal fees to get the credit damage reversed. Nothing was ever recovered from the thief.

FULL STORY: (Posted Monday, June 6th at WND)

Which Way Next for Gold? -Aden Sisters
By Mary Anne & Pamela Aden
May 28, 2005

Gold remains bullish, despite the drop in gold shares and the rising U.S. dollar. This alone is unusual and it raises an important question... Could gold shares be leading the way down for gold, or will gold's firmness eventually pull the shares back up?

Even though the fundamentals for gold have not changed, we also have to keep an open mind and remember that when it comes to the markets, anything is possible.

The big picture is suggesting that gold could remain stronger than the shares for some time.

GOLD TIMING

Gold's been consolidating since reaching a D low on February 8, which is typical for this time within the intermediate bull market cycle. What we call A rises and B declines are, together, a consolidation phase and in a bull market it's the springboard for the best rise we call C, when gold reaches a new high (see Chart).

For now, gold is in an intermediate B decline but it will stay bullish and the major trend will remain up as long as gold holds above its 65-week moving average, which identifies the major uptrend, at $415. And since the B decline appears to be near an end, a C rise may soon be getting started. That'll be reinforced if gold now stays above $415 and then rises and stays above $425.

Silver is looking good and gold shares have been rebounding over the past couple of weeks. Could they be leading gold up into the next C rise? That may be and so far, so good.

On the downside, however, it'll be a different story if gold closes and stays below $415. In that case, the rise since 2001 would be turning down indicating gold's bull market will likely be temporarily interrupted. In other words, a situation similar to what happened in 1975-76 could then unfold.

We'll soon see how this unfolds and since we're at the moment of truth, we should know soon.

http://www.adenforecast.com

Less to the dollar than meets the eye -Dan Denning
Daily Reckoning
May 31, 2005

You can't keep a bad currency down, or at least that's what the dollar bulls would have you believe. After reeling off an 8% rally against the euro since the beginning of 2005, and making a new seven-month high, global currency traders seem to be telling us the buck is back.

Not quite. The dollar has its pros and cons. We'll take a look at three of each in moment. But in truth, there is less to the current dollar bull market than meets the eye.

What's more, investors could see a surprising rally in the euro in early June. And for the remainder of 2005, look for strong performances from Asian currencies, grains, and - of course - gold.

But first, what's so good about the dollar? There are three plausible reasons to be a dollar bull. The first and most compelling is that the dollar is not the euro. In beauty pageant terms, the dollar is a grotesquely fat currency wrapped in a skimpy bathing suit. One does not need a lot of imagination to see the flaws. But if the dollar is shapely in an obese way, there is little in the slender euro to please the investor's eye.

This past Sunday, May 29th, the French went to the polls to vote on the European Constitution - and rejected it. The Dutch follow three days later. And early last week, Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic party lost elections in Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia region. Political defeats for the key proponents of the European Union - Schroder and French President Jacques Chirac - are virtual defeats for the euro as a world reserve currency to rival the dollar.

What's more, as a paper currency backed by over-spending governments, the euro is no more fundamentally sound than the dollar. In fact, there are many bad things one could say about the euro, including "non". But if markets are even moderately efficient, much of the bad news is already "priced in" to the euro. How much higher can the dollar go by virtue of not being the euro?

"But the dollar has already crashed!" dollar bulls declare. True, the dollar has come out of its two-year pub brawl...fighting with the euro and the yen...looking considerably worse for the wear. But it's still standing, we are told. And it still looks an awful lot like the only currency in the world capable of being a real reserve currency.

Finally, the dollar has rising interest rates on its side. Tuesday's release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes indicate the U.S. central bank is intent on raising interest rates at a measured pace. The prospect of rising U.S. yields is in contrast to the lowest German interest rates since '96...that's 1896, according to currency strategist Chris Webber.

With a growing spread in interest rates favoring holders of the U.S. dollar, why wouldn't the dollar continue to rally?

But for each and every reason to "buy" the dollar, there's an opposite and more powerful reason to "sell" it. First, however, let's remind ourselves what the dollar isn't.

Just as the dollar bulls believe it has rallied because it is not the euro, so too will it fall because it is not gold. The Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index recently "violated" two multi-year up-trend lines. Gold stocks are breaking down out of their bull run, or so it would appear.

What has changed fundamentally? Nothing, of course. The dollar bulls are treating gold's rally since 2001 as part of a run-of-the-mill cyclical rally in commodity stocks that has now run it's course...as if 25 years of under-investment in mines, refineries, and productive capacity can be overcome by a nice rally in commodity stocks!

In the greater monetary scheme of things, of course, the dollar is still what investor Doug Casey calls "the unbacked liability of a bankrupt government." Gold, for its part, is no one else's promise to pay. It's yellow, inert, and a store of value that cannot be inflated away in Brussels, London or Washington. No short-term rally in the dollar can change that.

That brings us to the second reason to doubt the dollar bulls and remain firmly in gold...FULL STORY

The real risks of investing in real estate -MS
With prices soaring, real estate looks tantalizing -- but the margin of error is shrinking. Forget the get-rich-quick plans. Pay attention to the numbers.
By Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
May 28, 2005

For Derrik Dyka, the biggest obstacle to successful real estate investing isn’t a meltdown in property values or tenants who wreck an apartment or don’t pay their rent.

"It’s overconfidence," says Dyka, a 34-year-old Minneapolis investor who turns old apartments into new condominiums. If you’re expecting to cash in on the 21st century’s first gold rush without breaking a sweat, it would be wise to take Dyka’s words to heart. The margin of error for making money in real estate is closing fast.

It’s not surprising that real estate tempts so many Americans today. Over the past five years, home prices have soared and rags-to-riches tales abound. But so much real estate has become so expensive that Real Estate Research Corp. in Chicago reports that many real estate pros say now is a better time to sell than buy. As San Diego real estate investor Chuck Wise observes about the area where he operates, today’s buyers are like "lambs being shorn."

Of course, that doesn’t mean that all deals are doomed to fail. But it does mean that it’s time for would-be investors to pay more attention to the perils of owning property, not just the potential profits.

FULL STORY

How America is going to be saved? -Jim Rutz
May 31, 2005
WorldNetDaily.com

At first glance, it looks like we're going Very Far South in a handbasket.

In fact, it looks the same after five or 10 glances at the government, education, cable television, the press, political correctness and even the church, where the number of pedophile priests is surpassed by the 37 percent of Protestant pastors who struggle with Internet porn.

But there is a comprehensive solution to the mess, and here it is: Over the next 10 to 20 years, we Christians are going to liberate our church. From the bottom up. In that short span of time, we will multiply the number of believers in active outreach by a factor of 50 to 100.

While most of the traditional church of today will continue as it is, some of it will reform into a radically biblical model. And as for the new, expansion phase of global Christianity, you won't even recognize it.

Two weeks ago, this column announced the discovery of a still-under-the-radar core of the worldwide church that is growing at a white-hot 8 percent a year and has been since 1970. That core is well on the way to producing a billion new born-again Christians in the next 11 or 12 years.

(In my e-mail, some have doubted these numbers, saying that Christianity overall is not growing much. True. But that's lumping together anything that could vaguely be called Christian, including the dying liberal churches, whereas I'm talking about the explosive core of 707 million. You'll have to read "Megashift" for details.)

Now, how do we expect to get 50 to 100 times as many Christians out from behind the stained-glass curtain, actively changing the whole basis of human society? By redeploying ordinary believers by the hundreds of millions.

For the past 1,700 years, we have been dumping the work of the church onto the backs of our pastors, executive preachers or priests, who run local churches for pay – a system completely unknown in the New Testament. These highly overworked souls...FULL STORY

REAL MONEY PERSPECTIVE Archives ~ FEATURED COMMENTARY Archives

REAL MONEY PERSPECTIVES is Growing ~ Post RMP on YOUR website!

Welcome to the 21st century paradigm shift
-- from a "stock-driven era" to a new "commodity-driven era."
In "Economic Solutions for the 21st Century" you'll discover ...
* SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM ... A plan to unify America
* WHY YOU MUST OWN assets that offset a DECLINING DOLLAR
* WSJ SAYS: "You don't have to be rich to invest in COINS."
* WHY SILVER could rise to $50, $75 or even $100 per ounce.
* "ATOMIC IRAN" spells the beginning of a new U.S. "Dirty War"

David M. Bradshaw is Editor of REAL MONEY PERSPECTIVES, a new, syndicated daily financial/cultural news digest. In 2001, he published REDISCOVERING GOLD IN THE 21ST CENTURY: The Complete Guide to the Next Gold Rush and has been an economic commentator since 1987, when he produced the World Economic Perspectives radio show. In 2004, he produced "A CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO COUNTER-TERRORISM" a free-to-the-public educational resource on DVD and CD. In 2005, he released a new CD, "WHAT'S YOUR WORLDVIEW?" a one-hour CD sample from his 24-hour series, "THE BIG PICTURE: The Shape of Things to Come" discussing geopolitical, economic and spiritual trends in the 21st Century. MORE ... PERSONAL NOTE: Youngest daughter Braida Zoe (age 15 mo.) is now feeding herself, running, says "hi" and "bye-bye," her name, "mama" & "dada." Shown with her mom (and loving wife) Micki among some bright Spring flowers!