THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER, January 18, 2004, Page 7

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=415 BGCOLOR="#888888" TEXT="#080000" background="0680af93.jpg"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="861" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#000000 HEIGHT= 146 ><NOBR><div> THE  WALL STREET DESK  January 18, 2004</div> <div> <IMG SRC="0f4e9700.jpg" border=0 width="489" height="112" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="326"><div> THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#BBBBBB" FACE="Arial" ><IMG SRC="06621200.png" border=0 width="33" height="32" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> </FONT>page 7</div> <div> <B>copyright cinédiscstudios.com, Inc. 2004</B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> NANA READS THE MARKET</div> <div>  <!-onMouseover Link CSS Script-© Dynamic Drive (www.dynamicdrive.com). For full source code, installation instructions, 100's more DHTML scripts, and Terms Of Use, visit dynamicdrive.com--><style></style>   <A NAME="dollar_lower"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="868" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 2528 ><NOBR><div> <TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="431" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#FFCC66" BORDERCOLORDARK="#003366" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1651 WIDTH="427"><div> <B>THE DOLLAR OF LOWERED EXPECTATIONS, AS THE YEAR BEGINS......January</B></div> <div> <B>By Nana Barnes & Staff</B></div> <div> <B>Wall Street, N.Y. Jan.4, 2004. Special to The Sunday Malibu Newspaper</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>At the end of 2003, Wall Street rallied. The key was Buy & Sell. Grab what you can & run. Forget about </B><I><B>investing </B></I><B>in the stock market. You bought stock at 20, and hours later, or days later, it's up to 23-24, sell. Run!</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The administration got its rally, helped by the so-called good news about the 'end' of the Iraq 'war, from the economy boosters put in place by those in our economy doing the White house bidding. Hovering as dangerously on the edge of Deflation like we were, at the time </B><I><B>anything </B></I><B>was considered an improvement. It's gotten a little out of hand, this White House pressure to distort, all the leading U.S. economists swearing by their pink haloes of our strong recovery. The PR job's been done, pat on the back to Karl "Goebbels" - It was done brilliantly. Everyone is sold on a strong recovery: Politicians, economists, Wall Street advisors & brokers, gurus, you name it. Everyone is convinced we've got a strong recovery.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Everybody ignores the sharp decline in the Dollar, which will continue and result in not much of an improvement in U.S. exports. And the traditional buyers who normally finance U.S. growth by buying Treasury notes (and bankrolling the deficit) are absent. Germany, whose Euro is appreciating in bounds against the Dollar ($1.27 buys 1 Euro), cannot justify buying U.S. Treasury notes and get back less than what they invested - This is our dilemma. No buyer will come near our Treasury notes - except China, whose Wan is pegged to the Dollar! China has it worked out that they don't lose; They lend you money of X amount, this is politically motivated, winning friends and influencing people. They get back the money of X amount they had lent to the U.S., because its in small enough quantities. We cannot expect China to finance $500 billion in Budget Deficit. This year, 2004, either the Fed raises rates sharply to make it interesting for investors - Or the Deficit will worsen.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Now the geniuses in fashion on The Street are basing their market predictions on the Fed's not raising interest rates by much, if at all. If interest rates don't go up sharply, the Budget Deficit will worsen. Elementary. How can the Federal Reserve hold interest rates at 50-year lows in a recovering economy? Do the math, geniuses.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Another disaster is that these same geniuses are saying: "There's no inflation." Gold was $260., and is now up at $420. All raw material has gone up sharply. Oil was expected to fall to $22 a barrel after the Iraq 'war' but it is now $33 a barrel. Nine months down the pike, this represents a 50% mistake in pricing. Those convinced we won in Iraq predicted Iraqi oil coming onstream at 3-1/2 - 4 million barrels a day before the end of 2003. Where is this largesse? They didn't count on Iraqi resistance, and we're kept busy repairing oil pipelines that are attacked again and again, keeping Iraqi oil off the world's markets.</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#dollar_lower" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER, January 18,"><U>continues</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="377" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#EEEEEE > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 276 ><NOBR><bR> <div> <B>Jan. 18,  2004</B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <B> <img src="HTMLobj-247/aniGif.gif" alt="The Federal Rate Going, Going..." border="0" align="bottom" width="260" height="269">  </B></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <B>The Federal Reserve will leave the rate where it is through the holidays but look for it to climb after January 2004, just in time for Bush confidence-building before the 2004 Presidential elections.</B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div>  <A NAME="halliburton"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="431" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#FFCC66" BORDERCOLORDARK="#003366" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 806 WIDTH="427"><div> <B>Halliburton wins fresh Iraq contracts?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Saturday, January 17, 2004</B></div> <div> <B>A subsidiary of the controversial American firm Halliburton has bagged two new contracts to restore Iraq's oil infrastructure. The US military on Friday awarded the two-year contracts worth up to $1.2 billion to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton. The fresh contracts came even as Pentagon's inspector-general was considering whether to launch an investigation into an earlier Iraq oil contract awarded to KBR. These new contracts entrust the Halliburton subsidiary with the task of restoring oil fields, and installations in southern Iraq to pre-war levels. </B></div> <div> <B>"The competition for the two contracts was full and open in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations," the Army Corps of Engineers said in a statement.</B></div> <div> <B>"This process provides for a fair and impartial evaluation of the offerers proposals. The contractors were selected on the basis on best value to the government and qualifications to do the work described in the solicitation."</B></div> <div> <B>"The competition for the two contracts was full and open in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations."</B></div> <div> <B>The contracts cover a full range of services, ranging from putting out oil fires to environmental cleanups, restoring installations to safe operating conditions, maintaining oil fields, pipelines, buying and importing fuel, distributing fuel inside Iraq and providing technical assistance. The new contracts replace a previous contract awarded to KBR in March without competitive bidding to restore Iraq's war-ravaged oil industry.</B></div> <div> <B>The earlier contract is under scrutiny by Pentagon auditors, who earlier this week found "suspected irregularities." A draft audit also found that KBR overcharged the government by some $61 million for fuel purchased through a Kuwait contractor, Altanmia.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Becoming a stink in the US, longtime critics of the Bush administration allege that Halliburton is always being favoured since Vice President Dick Cheney was the company's former chief executive.</B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="421" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#FFCC66" BORDERCOLORDARK="#003366" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 1010 WIDTH="417"><div> <B>The PPI (Production Price Index) and the CPI (Consumer Price Index) exclude Energy and Food. Why should you exclude them from rates of inflation? They were not included in the past because they were rock-stable, but no more. Where are these two major items in any modern-day calculations? Energy goes up 50% and you exclude it? Inflation is here - In commodity prices and in oil. The Wall Street and White House economists' rationale for no inflation is the 'Excess Capacity In Factories' indicator reading positive. There's an answer to this, deliberately overlooked by these soothsayers: Some factories are closed, taking them, but not the jobs they provided, out of the equation. Also, they fail to include the U.S. factory jobs transferred to low-cost production countries. That's why this so-called 'recovery' is called a Jobless Recovery. A contradiction in terms. Every recovery has to be accompanied by increased employment. Jobless Recovery is a contradictory term.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>How will our White House "Goebbels" handle this one? Easy. The administration will play down the Budget Deficit, and the White House will try to slow Social Spending, </B><I><B>any</B></I><B> non-Defense and non-Home Land Security spending. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>In his State Of The Union Address 2004, President Bush, after finite coaching from Karl "Goebbels" Rowe, will conveniently forget spending like a drunken sailor in 2002 & 2003, and will talk down the Budget Deficit - "Don't worry, the recovering economy will take care of it," he might say, in effect. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Contrarily, the rest of the world is recovering at fantastic rates. Its only the U.S., in real recovery definition, that's lagging behind. The longtime scenario is changing from the U.S. leading the world's economic recovery, to it falling on the shoulders of countries such as Brazil, Russia & China to pick up the baton and run with it.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>European economists are well aware that the daily scenarios issued by Wall Street are false. How can you analyze false economic data? Wall Street is in total agreement with the White House, and where are those in disagreement? Most of them are out of a job, or are being threatened with job loss. Toe the line, or don't show up for work tomorrow. Where is the voice of The Contrarians? There are no Contrarians today, and that scares the Hell out of me!</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>So what should you do now? Run? Don't touch that dial. The worst is yet to come. The Dollar Of Lowered Expectations, at your service.......</B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="417" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 114 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="mailto:wallstreetdesk@cinedisc.us." TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:wallstreetdesk@cinedisc.us."><U><I><B> <img src="HTMLobj-248/aniGif.gif" alt="Comments To The Wall Street Desk." border="0" align="bottom" width="110" height="34">  </B></I></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR=#003333 WIDTH="274"><div> Discuss your market concerns, or your market questions. Please leave your name, email address and a daytime telephone number.</div> <bR> <div> Your Wall Street Team.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="85" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFCC99 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 WIDTH="85"><div> <A HREF="page_7__the_wall_street_desk_m.htm" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER, January 18,"><U>up on top</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="417" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#FFCC66" BORDERCOLORDARK="#003366" FRAME="HSIDES" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 1217 WIDTH="417"><div> <B>Saddam's Money:</B></div> <div> <B>Going, Gone......</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Iraq's old bank notes bearing Saddam Hussein's portrait became obsolete on Thursday at the end of a three-month period to exchange them for the new currency.</B></div> <div> <B>More than 10,000 tons of now worthless notes bearing the image of the ousted dictator are now being destroyed, according to a joint statement by the Central Bank of Iraq and the Coalition Provisional Authority. </B></div> <div> <B>"Rebuilding Iraq's ruined economy is a key priority for the coalition - a new currency to replace the discredited old one was a necessary early move," L Paul Bremer, the top US civilian official in Iraq, said in the statement. </B></div> <div> <B>The new notes, illustrating scenes depicting Iraq's important scientific contributions, history, landscape and economic life, have been printed in the denominations of 50, 250, 1000, 5000, 10,000 and 25,000 dinars. </B></div> <div> <B>One US dollar is now worth between 1200 and 1300 dinars, compared to about 2000 before the US invasion in March last year.</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="390" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#003300" BORDERCOLORDARK="#EEEEEE" FRAME="BOX" RULES="NONE" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR=#EEEEEE HEIGHT= 105 WIDTH="386"><div> <B>"Its (new dinar) many visible and invisible security features make it very hard to fake. A secure currency will provide a firm foundation for Iraq's future economic growth."</B></div> <div> <B>Ahmad Salman Jaburi, Central Bank of Iraq </B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <B>The new currency replaces both the old dinar and the "Swiss" dinar, used in the north of Iraq. One old dinar is exchanged for one new dinar, and one "Swiss" dinar is exchanged for 150 new dinar. </B></div> <div> <B>The statement said the dinar has appreciated by 25 % since 15 October when the new currency was started with a three-months period for exchanging the old dinar.</B></div> <div> <B>Central Bank of Iraq Deputy Governor Ahmad Salman Jaburi has said the new dinar is secure, unlike the easy-to-counterfeit Saddam dinar.</B></div> <div> <B>"Its many visible and invisible security features make it very hard to fake," he said. "A secure currency will provide a firm foundation for Iraq's future economic growth."</B></div> <div> <B>Bremer said the new currency system was in place less than a year into reconstruction of Iraq, a task that he said took three years to begin in post-World War II Germany.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The first shipment of the new currency - printed by British company De La Rue - arrived in Baghdad in 28 jumbo jet loads of 90 tons each. Four smaller aircraft distributed the cash in bulk to regional centres.</B></div> <div> <B>Printing the new currency cost US $130 million.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>It is expected that bank vaults around the country, many completely filled with sacks of old Saddam dinars, will be cleared by the end of January, the statement said.</B></div> <div> <B>To date about 4.5 trillion new Iraqi dinars ($3 billion) were estimated to be in circulation. The statement did not say how much of that has been exchanged.</B></div> <div> <B>10,000 tonnes of the old currency (in 300,000 sacks) gathered in the course of the exchanged is are ready to be verified and burned.</B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="85" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFCC99 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 16 WIDTH="85"><div> <A HREF="page_7__the_wall_street_desk_m.htm" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER, January 18,"><U>up on top</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=65 BGCOLOR="#DDDDDD" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Garamond" ><B> <!-onMouseover Link CSS Script-© Dynamic Drive (www.dynamicdrive.com). For full source code, installation instructions, 100's more DHTML scripts, and Terms Of Use, visit dynamicdrive.com--><style></style>  </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Stencil" ><A HREF="january_18__2004_headlines_january_18_2003.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WALT KELLER RUNS AGAIN?!"><U><B>TODAY'S HEADLINES</B></U></A></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >    </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER BACKPAGES JA"><U>BACKPAGES INDEX</U></A>   |   <A HREF="january_18__2004.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WALT KELLER RUNS AGAIN?!"><U>January 18, 2004</U></A>   |   <A HREF="page_1a__the_war_of_the_veils.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER January 18, "><U>Page 1A: THE WAR OF THE VEILS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="page_2__in_other_news13.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER January 18, "><U>Page 2: IN OTHER NEWS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="page_3__palestine___israeli_notebook.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER January 18, "><U>Page 3: PALESTINE & ISRAELI NOTEBOOK</U></A>   |   <A HREF="page_4__film_review__calendar_girls.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER January 18, "><U>Page 4: FILM REVIEW: CALENDAR GIRLS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="page_5__malibu_briefs___market_place.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER January 18, "><U>Page 5: MALIBU BRIEFS & MARKET PLACE</U></A>   |   <A HREF="page_6__music___blacktalk__ska_is_back.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER January 18, "><U>Page 6: MUSIC - BLACKTALK: SKA IS BACK</U></A>   |   <B>Page 7: THE WALL STREET DESK</B>     I     <A HREF="january_4__2004.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SUNDAY MALIBU NEWSPAPER January 4, 2"><U>January 4, 2004</U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>