Dear CIGAs,

To sum up gold and the US dollar.:

1. The dollar has a solid roof above it that now cannot be penetrated.
2. Gold has a solid floor underneath it that now cannot be penetrated.

Today's Gold and Dollar market carefully followed the general directive that no market action should ever embarrass the Chairman of the Federal Reserve or the Secretary of the Treasury when either (and certainly when both!) are speaking on national TV.

End of story.

The following is a nice review of the means being used to kill the US dollar:

The $1.8 trillion of foreign exchange reserves held by China are still largely denominated in greenbacks and there must be some horror in Beijing at the plans put forward by the Fed. Alex Patelis, an economist at Merrill Lynch, has put together a handy list of what the US is planning to spend:

1. Treasury buying mortgage-related assets: $700bn
2. Potential supplementary stimulus package favoured by Democrats: $100bn
3. Insuring money market funds: $50bn
4. Treasury fortifying the Fed's balance sheet: $100bn
5. Expansion of temporary swap lines with central banks: $180bn
6. Loan to AIG: $85bn
7. Fed purchase of agency discount notes & ABCP: amount not specified
8. Fed loans through the Primary Dealer Credit Facility: $20bn through Sep 17
9. Fed's discount window: $33bn balance
10. Treasury purchase of GSE MBS this month: $10bn
11. Potential cost of Fannie/Freddie bailout: $200-$300bn

With a neat symmetry, the $1.5 trillion-or-so total is what some people believe the Iraq war will end up costing.

More...