Gold Tops $800 for 1st Time Since 1980 nearing all time high

When gold went over $800 an ounce in 1980 it was all that investors were talking about. With gold approaching its all time high of $875 you really aren't hearing much if anything. Is gold the next oil?

clipped from ap.google.com NEW YORK (AP) — Gold barreled above $800 an ounce Wednesday for the first time since 1980 as investors cheered the Federal Reserve's decision to lower its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point. The Fed dropped its federal funds rate to 4.50 percent, as the markets widely anticipated. Lower interest rates tend to undermine the dollar and raise the allure of precious metals as an investment alternative. The dollar stumbled to another low against the euro following the Fed's decision on Wednesday, helping drive gold higher. Gold last topped $800 an ounce in 1980, when prices reached as high as $875 an ounce in January. Adjusted for inflation, an $800 ounce of gold in 1980 would be worth more than $2,000 today. While the $800 mark means something less than it did 27 years ago, gold prices have surged roughly $150 an ounce since mid-August

McCain Likes Retail Clinics, Drug Imports and Tax Credits

Its too bad we can't clone some of these candidates into one great candidate.

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Like many Republicans, McCain is pushing for new tax credits that would put individual insurance on a more equal footing with employer-sponsored insurance He wants safety protocols that would allow importation of cheaper drugs from foreign countries, a possible cost-saving measure that has been loudly opposed by the pharmaceutical industry. He’d also support clinics in retail outlets, which have been spreading rapidly despite objections from many doctors’ groups. “I don’t think there should be mandates for health insurance.” “I’m not gonna force Americans to do it. I don’t think that’s the role of government….If we bring down health-care costs more Americans are going to be able to afford it.” “We’re going to have to have a Medicaid fund that will provide those people with sufficient funds to get health insurance.” “You will be gauged and paid by how” well the patient fares. “We should not be paying for medical errors.”

Expect $60 soon?

Interesting contrary view.

clipped from members.forbes.com Here's how Littell sees it. Last year Saudi petrocrats thought demand would slacken at the same time that oil production rose from sources outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Nations. They cut back Saudi production from 9.5 million barrels a day in March 2006 to 8.5 million a year later in order to keep supply and demand balanced and crude prices hovering around $60 per barrel. But the Saudis overestimated non-opec production. Check out the relationship between prices and production in the accompanying chart. The Saudis hold the key to long-term oil prices since they are one of the few exporters--Kuwait and Abu Dhabi are the others--with the ability to increase production significantly. How long before we get some relief? Littell expects the impact of all that additional oil to hit U.S. markets in a couple of months or so. The Saudis "didn't plan on $80 oil," he says. "They wanted to keep it around $60 and did the wrong thing."

Satellite Shot of Killer Storm

Great shot from satellite.

clipped from news.aol.com Tropical Storm Noel heads toward the Bahamas in this satellite image taken Tuesday. Southeast Florida may be placed under a tropical storm watch later Tuesday, forecasters said.

Sites Already Leaking Black Friday Deals

clipped from money.aol.com Hurry up -- grab your coat and car keys! There's no time to waste if you want to score a bona-fide, brag-worthy holiday bargain. Sites like bfads.net are already leaking Black Friday sale details, well ahead of the post-Thanksgiving shopping day that kicks off the holiday shopping season. Despite this new tactic, the Black Friday dance will play out as it has in years past. For those who haven't caught the rerun, allow me to screen the highlights: * The setup: A handful of websites -- BlackFridayAds.com, bfads.net, Gottadeal.com, to name a few -- hype stores' marketing schedules by posting anticipated deals at holiday hot spots like Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, Best Buy, and Circuit City  before the ads appear in newsprint or on the stores' websites. First, identify your most-coveted item that will go on sale Buy it before it's a steal: Before the official sale starts, make your way to the store and pick it up at the current, pre-sale price. Ask for a refund on what you overpaid:

Hot Christmas Toys #2 Cookie Monster and Ernie

WOW. I have the original cookie monster. Can't wait to get this one.

clipped from money.aol.com Elmo is still out there, but this year, T.M.X. Friends from Mattel's Fisher-Price is featuring Cookie Monster and Ernie.

Hot Christmas Toys #1 Hannah Montana In Concert

Get and give, or sell it on EBAY at a nice premium.

clipped from money.aol.com Analysts expect the Hannah Montana In Concert Collection Doll from Play Along, a division of JAKKS Pacific, Inc., to be at the top of the sales list this holiday season.

Sites Already Leaking Black Friday Deals

Let the games begin.

clipped from money.aol.com bfads.com Sites like bfads.net are already leaking Black Friday sale details, well ahead of the post-Thanksgiving shopping day that kicks off the holiday shopping season.     1 of 5 Photo Gallery: Predictions for Top Toy Sellers www.playalongtoys.com Analysts expect the Hannah Montana In Concert Collection Doll from Play Along, a division of JAKKS Pacific, Inc., to be at the top of the sales list this holiday season.     1 of 11 Despite this new tactic, the Black Friday dance will play out as it has in years past. For those who haven't caught the rerun, allow me to screen the highlights: * The setup: A handful of websites -- BlackFridayAds.com, bfads.net, Gottadeal.com, to name a few -- hype stores' marketing schedules by posting anticipated deals at holiday hot spots like Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, Best Buy, and Circuit City  before the ads appear in newsprint or on the stores' websites.

Edwards Would Ban Consumer Drug Ads for 2 Years

Good or bad idea? Would you miss those Viagra ads?

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Add one more health-policy prescription to a presidential campaign that’s been full of health talk. John Edwards yesterday rolled out a plan to impose tighter rules on the direct-to-consumer drug ads that have played an increasingly important role in the drug industry’s marketing arsenal. Under Edwards’s plan, a drug would have to be on the market for two years before it could be pitched directly to consumers. The plan would also require prior FDA approval of “major ad campaigns” and beef up rules about disclosing how well a drug stacks up against a placebo, according to Edwards’s Web site. “You’ve seen these ads. You know who’s paying for them, right? You are,” Edwards said yesterday at a speech in New Hampshire, the AP reported. He added that the ads are “driving up demand for the most expensive and most profitable drugs.” In the 2008 presidential race, the health-care sector has given $6.5 million to Democrats and $4.8 million to Republicans, the New York Times reports.

Global Warming Bad for Kids

clipped from www.usatoday.com Global warming is likely to disproportionately harm the health of children, and politicians should launch "aggressive policies" to curb climate change, the American Academy of Pediatrics said today. •Air pollution does more damage to children's lungs, causing asthma and respiratory ailments, because their lungs are still developing, they breathe at a higher rate than adults and are outdoors more. •Waterborne infections, such as diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems, hit children especially hard. These infections rise sharply with more rain, which is expected as the climate warms. •As mosquitoes are able to move to higher ground, the malaria zone is expanding. Kids are especially vulnerable; 75% of malaria deaths occur in children younger than 5. The report briefly mentions that mass migrations are expected as regions become uninhabitable. "Children fare very poorly in these major population shifts," says Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness

The real stuff on housing and subprime

Lot's of pictures and charts so you get the picture. Points out delinquencies are worst on loans made at the end of the frenzy.

clipped from krugman.blogs.nytimes.com The new Joint Economic Committee report on subprime is, aside from its policy moral, a great source document for facts about the housing bubble, illustrating some key facts about what happened, where, and when. I thought it might be interesting to readers if I gave you a few highlights, plus some useful pictures from other sources. First, in case you don’t know just how anomalous, how at odds with historical experience, the runup of prices in recent years has been, here are real housing prices over time: The overall rise in prices is, as I tried to explain more than 2 years ago, an average between modest rises in some areas and clearly bubbleicious increases in others: The popping of the bubble has produced a big, big slump: Delinquencies are already soaring to recession-type levels, even though we’re not in a recession (yet?): And the delinquencies are worst on the loans made in the final bubble frenzy:

Da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper" Online (Fantastic)

Absolutely fantastic. High resolution. Must be seen. Please share with friends.

clipped from news.aol.com Can't get to Milan to see Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper?" As of Saturday, all you need is an Internet connection. Officials put online an image of the "Last Supper" at 16 billion pixels - 1,600 times stronger than the images taken with the typical 10 million pixel digital camera. The high resolution will allow experts to examine details of the 15th century wall painting that they otherwise could not - including traces of drawings Leonardo put down before painting. clipped from www.haltadefinizione.com clipped from news.aol.com See It for Yourself: 'The Last Supper' in Detail Photo Gallery: Da Vinci Mysteries Antonio Calanni, AP Now that a detailed copy of Leonardo Da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' is online, experts are likely to discover more about the famous 15th-century painting. In July, Slavisa Pesci claimed he found hidden figures in it.     1 of 12

Army looking for fraud in Iraq contracts

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com Beginning Monday, Army investigators will look for fraud in the awarding of the roughly 6,000 Iraq war contracts worth $2.8 billion. A team of 10 auditors, criminal investigators and acquisition experts will assemble at a large Army acquisition center in Warren, Mich., outside Detroit, to review an initial 314 contracts awarded at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. Each contract is worth more than $25,000 and was issued between 2003 and 2006 at the camp, which military officials have "identified as a hub of corruption," the Associated Press writes. A separate team at Camp Arifjan is examining 339 contracts of lesser value. Here's the complete AP report.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Pet Health

And I mean everything.

clipped from blogs.wsj.com So you know the Merck Manual, the trusty reference on health for docs and patients? As of this week, there’s a Merck Manual about pets. The book (full name: The Merck/Merial Manual For Pet Health) is 1,345 pages long, so rather than plow through the whole thing, we cheated a little — we got on the phone with Cynthia Kahn, the editor, and Scott Line, a vet who was co-editor on the book. The factoids came fast and thick. (Merial, by the way, is the Merck/Sanofi-Aventis joint venture in animal health.) Dogs can be poisoned There are vets who operate on fish There’s an animal called a sugar glider? Some cats are compulsive. Rats aren’t just for subways anymore.