Daily Dispatches

11:21a ET Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reported in London's Telegraph yesterday that the prospect of currency controls in Europe is a lot greater than imagined. His column is appended here. It may evoke the statement the U.S. Treasury Department gave GATA last year, claiming the power to seize or freeze any assets, not just gold and silver but also ordinary currency and securities, upon the president's proclamation of an emergency:

Ford Pledges Major Assets in Financing

By Nick Bunkley
The New York Times
Tuesday, November 28, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/28/business/28ford.html?_r=1&ref=business...

DEARBORN, Mich., Nov. 27 -- Executives at Ford Motor Co. have insisted they are willing to bet the company's future on a turnaround plan put in place earlier this year.

On Monday they essentially did just that, mortgaging nearly all of Ford's domestic assets -- its plants, office buildings, patents, and trademarks -- along with stakes in Ford Credit and Volvo, to raise $18 billion.

From Agence France-Presse
Saturday, November 25, 2006

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061126/wl_asia_afp/australiachinaindiaecon...

SYDNEY, Australia -- Western nations must prepare for a future dominated by China and India, whose rapid economic rise will soon fundamentally alter the balance of power, former World Bank chief James Wolfensohn has warned.

Wealthy countries were failing to understand the impact of the invevitable growth of the two Asian powerhouses, Wolfensohn said in the 2006 Wallace Wurth Memorial Lecture at the University of New South Wales at the weekend.

From Reuters
Saturday, November 25, 2006

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/061125/3/2tgsm.html

BEIJING -- Countries holding large stockpiles of foreign exchange reserves face problems diversifying their holdings away from dollar-denominated assets because of the potential market reaction to any such move, a senior Chinese forex official said on Saturday.

The official, Guan Tao, deputy director-general of the general affairs department of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), highlighted the potential pitfalls of such a move without specifically referring to China or its plans for managing its reserves.