This is what the speculators are like. Even the best of them tend to build fortunes that don’t last.

The US mint still puts out gold coins that are legal tender. They are mostly sold to collectors but they are still legal tender. Got that?

In fact, if you try to pass of a forged coin as legal tender the full weight of the law can come down on you regardless of whether the gold content is the same as this case proves.

So what happens if you try to pay your employees with legal tender gold coins and report their income based on the face value of the coins (i.e. the amount that the coin is legal tender for)? The full weight of the government comes down on you for tax evasion because the coins are worth more then the amount they are legal tender for. Thankfully, we still have jury system in this country so the company in question did not get convicted.

Still, I think that it is disturbing that they only got off because of a hung jury. In my opinion, it should have been a straight acquittal. How can you make something legal tender and then demand that they value it according to some other standard for tax purposes?

Granted, the construction company that was doing this was trying to help its workers avoid taxes on their wages. But lots of companies use more dubious methods then this to avoid paying taxes and get away with because it is legal. The way that most companies account for stock options would be just one example. Why pick on the blue collar companies?

If you don’t want them reporting their wages according to the face value, don’t make it legal tender. How hard of a fix is that?

Acme, the international company, has been making changes, divesting from some product lines and investing in others. The changes have been occuring all year, but they are now looming over our site, my Acme. It is verly likely that things will be running differently by the end of the year. Will it be by our Click Here to continue reading.

This from Market Watch….

Outstanding U.S. consumer debt rose at an annual rate of 5.9% in August, pushed higher mostly by a hefty gain in credit-card debt, the Federal Reserve reported Friday.

The overall increase of $12.2 billion was the highest since May, the Fed reported. It pushed total outstanding consumer credit to $2.47 trillion in August, up from $2.46 trillion in July.

Outstanding consumer credit rose by an upwardly revised 4.7% in July. It was originally estimated to rise by 3.7%.

August’s data captures the impact of turmoil in financial markets that month, noted Ryan Sweet of Moody’s Economy.com. “They provide further evidence that consumers did not pack it in following the events,” he wrote in an email.

Revolving debt such as credit cards was the biggest driver behind the overall rise in August, the data show. That debt climbed by 8.1% in August, or by $6.1 billion.

This is from the Wall Street Journal…..

Despite potential tax and investment consequences, more individuals have been borrowing from their 401(k) plans or taking hardship withdrawals in recent months, some retirement-plan providers say.

Not all plans have seen jumps, and more-comprehensive statistics won’t be available until next year. But a number of plan providers that follow month-to-month patterns, including T. Rowe Price Group Inc., Hewitt Associates and Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., have seen a small but noticeable uptick.

Many in the field expect more 401(k) borrowing in 2008 as consumers struggle with tighter credit and potentially higher mortgage payments.

This from the Wall Street Journal…..

Merrill Lynch & Co.’s announcement Friday that it would take a $5.5 billion hit to third-quarter earnings is exposing the weak oversight exercised by top Merrill executives as it became a big force in the mortgage-securities business.

Wall Street has been reeling from the recent credit crunch tied to questionable home mortgages, with several companies taking multibillion-dollar write-downs. But Merrill is taking the biggest charge and is the only major U.S. firm so far that has said it will report a loss for the third quarter.

The announcement gave a boost to Merrill’s shares, which rose $1.89, or 2.5%, to $76.67 in 4 p.m. trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. That reflected investors’ relief that Merrill is trying to put the problems behind it.

The psychology that enables the markets to raise Merrill’s stock price after reporting over 5 billion dollars in losses continues to puzzle me. Especially considering that only a couple months ago Merrill claimed that therr exposure to sub prime was limited. As Wall Street Journal article above says….

In July, before the market worsened, Merrill’s chief financial officer, Jeff Edwards, said in a conference call with investors that the firm’s exposure to subprime mortgages was “limited, contained and appropriate.” These mortgages are typically made to borrowers with poor credit records, and their value has plunged this year.

Given that kind of track record and fact that the ARM reset charts that seem to show that the worst is yet to come, why is everyone relaxing now?

The Fed closes a bank out in Ohio…..

The Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today approved the assumption of the insured deposits of Miami Valley Bank, Lakeview, Ohio, by The Citizens Banking Company, Sandusky, Ohio.

Miami Valley, with $86.7 million in total assets and $76 million in total deposits as of October 1, 2007, was closed today by Ohio’s Superintendent of Financial Institutions, and the FDIC was named receiver.

The failed bank’s two offices will reopen tomorrow as branches of The Citizens Banking Company. Depositors of Miami Valley will automatically become depositors of the assuming bank.

The Fed betrayed the dollar by cutting interest rates. European’s don’t seem to want to hold dollars any more. And now, even the oil producers seem to be having second thoughts about the dollar. This from Brad Setser’s blog…..

I would note one additional change: a likely shift in the currency composition of the portfolio of the world’s large oil exporters. Qatar (hat tip Macro man) recently indicated that it cut the dollar share of its investment authority’s portfolio to around 40% . Kuwait has also reduced the dollar share of its portfolio. Russia cut the dollar share of its reserves from around 70% to around 50%. Pretty soon the Saudis will be the only big oil exporter keeping the majority of their assets in dollars …

Ramin Toloui calculates that the oil exporters need to keep around 60% of their assets in dollars for a rise in oil prices to be dollar positive. They probably aren’t doing that. More spending and investment in the oil-exporting economies also isn’t a dollar positive: the dollar’s share of the oil-exporting economies financial portfolio certainly tops the United States share of their import portfolio.

A substantial number of leftists, union leaders, American manufacturing CEO’s, and economists, think that that the average American worker should be paid less. And as much as it pains my hillbilly soul to admit it, I agree with them.
But I do have one gripe. Most of the afore-mentioned pressure groups are dishonest. They would Click Here to continue reading.

This quote was taken from Brad Setser’s blog (though Michael Pettis is currently minding the shop)…..

Logan Wright, a Beijing-based analyst who regularly writes excellent reports on China’s financial system for Stone & McCarthy, puts it this way in a September 27 report called “China’s Perfect Storm? Food Price Inflation and a Possible PBOC Policy Shock:”

First, at the same time that pork prices have driven August CPI growth to 6.5%, China has also been ravaged by unusually harsh floods in the south and droughts in the north. As a result, the autumn harvest, which comprises around 70% of total annual grain output, could produce a significant negative surprise, accelerating the rapid rise in food prices. At the same time, global food prices and futures continue to trend higher based on a series of bad harvests around the world, just as China may need to increase imports to supplement its own supplies. Secondly, signs of weakness in the housing sector spilling over into U.S. consumption are developing, and this could have consequences for China’s exports, which have been a critical engine of China’s growth and a safety valve for domestic overcapacity in several industries. Third, and perhaps most significantly, inflation is more salient politically in China than in other nations, because of its tendency to produce social unrest that challenges the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule. Support for the CCP depends heavily upon improving standards of living for Chinese citizens. This means that the Chinese government is very likely to react quickly and strongly in response to a potential threat of escalating inflation.

This is from Reuters….

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Record high coal prices and tight supply are piling the pressure on electricity generators already hit by soaring oil markets and high gas prices, industry players say.

Coal fuels about 40 pct of global power generation. Physical coal prices for delivery into Europe have risen by over 50 percent this year.

High freight rates are tightening the screws on prices and utilities and cement producers, also big coal users, may be forced to scale down operations.

“The market is having to adapt to coal prices, to freights, which we’ve never seen before,” a trader said.

“I do believe that before the end of the year it’s possible that some generators in Asia will have to look at turning off their plants because they won’t have enough coal,” said a coal producer.

This from Bloomberg…

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — Commodities had the biggest monthly gain in 32 years, led by wheat, crude oil and gold, as the dollar’s slump enhanced the appeal of energy, grains and precious metals as a hedge against inflation.

The 19-commodity Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index was up 8.1 percent this month, the most since July 1975. Wheat climbed to a record in September amid a global grain shortfall, boosting corn and soybeans. Oil also hit a record, and gold reached a 27-year high. The Federal Reserve cut borrowing costs to bolster the U.S. economy, sending the dollar tumbling.

From the Wall Street Journal….

Rising prices and surging demand for the crops that supply half of the world’s calories are producing the biggest changes in global food markets in 30 years, altering the economic landscape for everyone from consumers and farmers to corporate giants and the world’s poor.

“The days of cheap grain are gone,” says Dan Basse, president of AgResource Co., a Chicago commodity forecasting concern.

This year the prices of Illinois corn and soybeans are up 40% and 75%, respectively, from a year ago. Kansas wheat is up 70% or more. And a growing number of economists and agribusiness executives think the run-ups could last as long as a decade, raising the cost of all kinds of food.
In the past, such increases have been caused by temporary supply disruptions. Following a poor harvest, farmers would rush to capitalize on higher crop prices by planting more of that crop the next season, sending prices back down. But the current rally, which started a year ago in the corn-futures trading pit at the Chicago Board of Trade, is different.

Not only have prices remained high, but the rally has swept up other commodities such as barley, sorghum, eggs, cheese, oats, rice, peas, sunflower and lentils. In Georgia, the nation’s No. 1 poultry-producing state, slaughterhouses are charging a record wholesale price for three-pound chickens, up 15% from a year ago.