Bank of England holds key interest rate at 5.25%

here more on the china move

China Raises Bank Reserve Ratio for 6th Time in Year

http://immobilienblasen.blogspot.com/

From FT: Blue Planet moving to cash:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/9aa70da2-e20d-11db-af9e-000b5df10621.html

Dr. Ivan Pongracic guest column: To save the markets, the rich get richer - http://tinyurl.com/3cgd8x

thanks bbcmoney

good read!

U.S. housing prices plotted via a roller coaster 1890 - Present.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2757699799528285056

Buckle up!!

Bill writes, "Easter, btw, represents three years I have written this blog. That’s a lot of words!"

Happy Three Years, Bill! And thank you, so much, for all that you do. There isn't a more well-written nor a more well-reasoned and well-researched financial blog elsewhere, and we, your loyal readers, are all the better for it. We couldn't do it without you.

What writersblock said.

Thanks, Bill!

Agnico-Eagle Mines downgraded today by CIBC.
http://tinyurl.com/yt2dfo

billcara2 technicals
http://tinyurl.com/2c38m5

I have been looking for entry point. I missed the last one.

ALOHA !!

Ditto ... Thanks Bill for your blistered fingers!

On the road to protesting the "powers-that-be" here is one good citizen publishing his distain in the New York Post no less ...

READ ON:

Link: http://www.nypost.com/seven/04032007/business/hank__why_are_you_ignoring_my_foia_requests__business_john_crudele.htm

HANK, WHY ARE YOU IGNORING MY FOIA REQUESTS?
By JOHN CRUDELE

April 3, 2007 -- I've decided to send a very public letter to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.

Dear Mr. Paulson:

How ya doing?

I think you're doing a wonderful job as Treasury Secretary. And don't think I'm saying that just because I'm looking for a favor.

You have been pretty invisible compared with others in that job and, frankly, that worries me a little. It also gets me to the point of this letter.

Hank, I don't trust you. There are just too many ways for you and your former Wall Street firm, Goldman Sachs, to cheat the financial markets.

But don't think I'm picking on just Goldman - I'm a little suspicious of any firm that can make billions on a single trade with the right connections.

So on July 25, 2006, my lawyer drafted a request under Section 552 of the Federal Code called the Freedom of Information Act asking for documents generated by the President's Working Group on Financial Markets.

Around here we call it the Plunge Protection Team.

That request was ignored, although we did get a phone call from someone many months back saying they were working on it.

So on Feb. 28 I had my lawyer file another request. This time we asked for minutes of meetings that might have taken place that day and the day before.

My poor lawyer is getting a little frustrated, but I told him maybe the requests got lost in the mail. That's why I'm sending this parcel Post, pardon the pun.

It's only April, but I get the feeling that you're going to ignore me again.

Perhaps you missed it, but around the time of the first FOIA request, I documented what I believed the Plunge Protection Team was up to.

I believe this group you head, and which includes regulators, brokerage firm chiefs as well as major market players, tries to protect the stock market.

George Stephanopoulos explained it - although not very eloquently - when he was a guest on "Good Morning America" on Sept. 17, 2001.

"And perhaps the most important, there's been - the Fed in 1989 created what is called the Plunge Protection Team . . . [and they] have plans in place to consider if the stock market starts to fall."

Poor George was a little discombobulated. It was right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But since he was a very close adviser to President Clinton, Stephanopoulos would have known if something as important as this was happening.

Don't get me wrong. I think rigging the financial markets is a good thing when the nation's security is at risk.

I'm a little leery of putting the likes of hedge funds, Wall Street firms and others with very vested interests in charge of this effort - how could that possibly go wrong?

If you want everyone to be aware that Treasury is on the ball and ready to come to Wall Street's rescue, why not turn over the documents I've requested?

Could it be because you don't want us to know about some very odd trading patterns on Feb. 27 and 28 this year that saved the stock market from having a truly ugly day?

Maybe you'd prefer not to explain why traders such as Paul Tudor Jones are reportedly being consulted by the Plunge Protection Team.

Anyway, I hope you can get that stuff to me pronto. At the very least, please have your lawyers call my lawyer and give him the usual runaround.

Have a nice day printing money.

Sincerely,

John Crudele

Excerpt from Dallas Fed Richard Fisher's remarks yesterday (via David Fry):

"[...] Thus far, the damage from the subprime market has been largely contained, as many of my Federal Reserve counterparts have been saying. Why do we say so? To begin with, quality problems have risen primarily for adjustable-rate subprime loans, which are only about 8.5 percent of home mortgage debt outstanding. Also, much of this debt was packaged into private-label mortgage-backed securities with the downside risk spread out over a diverse group of investors. Nevertheless, because 40 percent of homebuyers last year were nonprime (subprime and Alt-A) borrowers, housing markets may feel some short-term pain, making it less clear whether housing construction has bottomed and how long the housing downturn may last. Fortunately, the financial system and the economy are strong enough to weather this storm.

While the subprime damage is largely contained, I do not mean that the market will or should refrain from punishing those who neglected time-proven rules of prudence. Nor am I suggesting that the neglect of prudent practices has not bled into other types of credit—such as the Alt-A market. Indeed, it would be atypical for lax lending standards in one area of credit not to lead to laxity in others. Nor am I placing excessive faith in models that have yet to be tested by real developments.

The subprime situation may well be a blessing in disguise. It reminds us that history does have the capacity to repeat itself. The old financial axioms—levelheaded notions such as “know your customer” (or your counterparty) and “there is a difference between price and value”—remain valid. I expect market discipline to reassert itself, swiftly punishing those who pressed the limits of imprudence or suffered selective amnesia, hopefully doing so in a way that staves off the impulse for lawmakers and regulators to interfere disproportionately.

I acknowledge that is a tall order. But I am encouraged by what I see developing. As a former market operator, I take comfort in knowing that over time markets always clear. To be sure, the economy will grow somewhat more slowly because of the correction in the housing market. At the same time, other pistons in our economic engine, particularly consumption, continue pumping. And a buildup in housing inventory means that responsible buyers will be able to purchase homes at more affordable prices. We may have had a glimpse into this process in the National Association of Realtors report of pending home sales released yesterday.[...]"

(Full transcript of Risk Is a Many Splendored Thing: Lessons Learned. Remarks to the Austin Mortgage Bankers Association (Austin, Texas - April 4, 2007) http://dallasfed.org/news/speeches/fisher/2007/fs070404.cfm)

I guess that these convoluted arguments cover all the bases. In the event that their present conclusions do not materialize, Fed offcials can claim that they reached them based on best information at the time (forgetting the tortured logic used), but that they were aware of the risk that made the situation worse.

It seems that Fed officials & most of Wall Street (and by extension the markets) love to draw definitive conclusions on slowly unfolding processes based on freeze frame snapshots and are apt to concoct the most tortured rationales to justify their prospective judgements. It goes something like this: Sub-prime mess obvious, so we admit to it. No equivalent sign of total collapse in Alt-A at this time, hence no contagion is forthcoming. What happened to Occam's razor?

JML

Bill and others on this board: I imagine that some of you follow Jim Sinclair's commentary on the gold market. Yesterday (April 4) he posted two articles expressing his views on how derivatives are having a negative impact on the prices of gold shares.

Short Of Gold OTC Derivatives Return Home To Roost
Death By Derivatives
http://www.jsmineset.com/

Many of us are perplexed about the relative underperformance of our gold equities in this current bull market. If Sinclair is correct in his assessment, should we think about shifting our portfolios more to the metal itself? Or should we at least invest mostly in companies that are likely to do well despite the negative impact of derivatives? Sinclair mentions Royal Gold as an example of a company to own in this environment.

So much green on my screen and the general mkt, ho hum. How long can this last? When will the music stop? Meanwhile, GRZ taking off. Really discipling myself to keep spec stock positions to a small allocation. In the old days I would fall in love with something like this or westerngoldfield, my other small position, and look for the big pop.

In the spirit of longterm low rsi values, earlier in the week positioned myself into biotech, bbh and pbe. Looks interesting on a three year chart, monthly, 20ema. Good risk reward entry, I hope.

Anyone have any thoughts on AMD? Ever since their ATI merger, they've been getting pounded, but as a company, they are quite valuable. ATI is the only major competitor to nVidia in the gigantic world of graphics processors in the cell phone, laptop, PC, MAC, and gaming console world. AMD is the only major competitor to Intel for the mainstream server, workstation, and PC markets. AMD/ATI has excellent products, but at the moment, AMD is behind Intel in the innovation category (again), and getting hurt by pricing wars (so too is Intel).

This is a company that isn't broken or on the verge of bankruptcy. It's RSI(7) is Daily: 20.4, Weekly is: 8.9, Monthly is 25.5. They have had a negative Quarterly Revenue Growth (yoy = -3.6%) and their profit margin is at -3%.

That's definitely an accumulation zone, but the stock is at its 52 week low and the company has some competition problems. Still, I see them turning things around with their next major release cycle. I'm wary of picking some up NOW because of the broader markets, but how far can this sucker fall?

No position

Hello There
does anyone know if Bill uploaded his notes on the PDAC conference..i would really like to read them.
WS.

Re: AMD

This is what "gold"man says:
--
VALUATION: We maintain our 12-month price target of $12. Given that AMD does
not generate full cycle normalized EPS, we are using a ~1X P/S multiple on 2007E
sales to derive our price target. Some will argue that AMD is inexpensive on book
value of ~$11 per share, but we believe tangible book value of ~$3 per share is a more
appropriate metric given the goodwill, so at nearly 6X tangible book there is no support
on that metric.
--
I wish I had beleived them when the stock was 18.

I am tempted to buy at 12.75 now, but looking for someone to say soemthing +ve.

Thanks Bill for your prompt answer...look forward to whatever your plans turn out to be,
and i hope you are and feel better !!

Re AMD, seems to me Bill's whole approach is to buy proven leading companies, which AMD is not (plus junior PM miners, a special stuation).

Always dangerous to "catch a falling knife" - and AMD is still trending down. I understand that Bill buys only when a "cara 100" has based, bottomed. Bill referred once to awaiting a moving-average crossover to the upside before buying.

I expect Bill's book will clarify and amplify, but my main point is AMD is not a world-class proven performer ...

Fazeli, Re. AMD.

AMD likely will survive as INTC needs competition, but their cash situation is not good according to Merryl Lynch. "...the company likely can't get to the end of the September quarter without an equity financing in the $1 billion range."

Plus they need to repay an existing bridge loan first.

I am looking for it to drop to around $10 first. On paper, there is even the theoretical chance it won't survive, specially if the market goes caput.

Re AMGN: Hope JogyP and holdenll are in (I'm not!). Resistance is now at 60-62.

Went long BMD yesterday and plan to add to the position on any pull-backs. Near-term pop was due to an announcement of new orders for limestone aggregate (whereas the drop last November was due to delays/uncertainties in orders), but the long-term story is whether the company is able to obtain approval for using limestone to cut sulfur dioxide emissions during processing of oil sands (their quarry is centrally located relative to current and future oil sands projects).

Taking MU at 11.69...

Thanks for all the responses re: AMD, much appreciated.

RE: "Bahamas Global Mining Trust"
As it allows, sure would be interested in knowing more.

Happy Easter Everyone,

Thanks Bill for all the wisdom and opinions, I'm looking forward to that "Bahamas Mining Fund" you mentioned!

God Bless.

Re: AMGN
I got in at 58, 56 and 55s.
Any reasons for the high volume spike today?

I will be happy with 60+.
Re: MU, I am afraid to bet against "Gold"man.

BMD is a new idea for me. Will wait for a pullback, may be at market close today.

Euro breaking out as you said Bill:

http://tinyurl.com/yqws2r

Keep egging us on!

ALOHA !!

GEOLOGIX
GMC.V/GVCM.PK

All I have done so far, in terms of due diligence, is minimal. I have checked out the management and done my "fraud" search and it has turned up nothing of interest. I have gone to their website and reviewed some of the projects and I find San Agustin(Mexico) to be the most promising although the website wants visitors to consider their Peru properties as the major focus. The website also does not disclose on the "property" section the terms of the Silver Standard option on the San Agustin propoerty(flagship), which is that if there is a 50mil silver ounce resource that Silver Standard has a 50% back-in right to the property. Then the website goes on to say that the San Agustin property is more focused on gold. Well, with that sort of back-in rights agreement I can see why. It seems to be a little on the "deceptive" side to leave that info out. Also all their properties except for San Agustin are in the target drill stage, San Agustin is in the deliniation stage and has yet to move to in-fill drilling. Thats a long way to production ... Also there is no mention of infrastructure, meaning roads and electrical power for San Agustin, a very important factor to bring a mine into production. The main positives for Geologix is their assay results from San Agustin, 284meters grades 1.74g/t AU ... good results. If those width assays improve then so will the price. The company has no debt and a burn rate of $130,000 per month. Cash on hand shows they are in a deficit so that means they need to either borrow more or dilute more. Also most dilution so far has been done under $0.54 per share. Most of management does not really have a big share commitment either. Biggest shareholder is Newmont Canada over 1mil.

Now in comparison ... I think ECU Silver is a way better buy, if we trade "prices", since ECU already is producing and the prior quarter to last was actually profitable! Also ECU already has a 100mil silver reserve and is about half way on their drill program and every assay report is positive. The gold and silver grades are better than Geologix overall, even the latest "cross-cut" assays, although the widths of late are not as large. Yet ECU has had past assays of 156 meters grading 5.05g/tAU and 526g/tAG. The current 39mil shares outstanding for Geologix will have to increase a significant amount to get to production, although it is better to dilute at $4 a share. As for "country risk" it is the same for the Mexico projects, but I consider Peru more risky than Mexico so I would have to say overall ECU has a better "country risk" factor, but I bought Aurelian at $2.94 last year so I threw "country risk" out the window in exchange for assays. so that has paid off.

I am not saying Geologix is not a good buy(overbought now)but I am saying I prefer to buy ECU at $2.70 rather than GMC at $4.10, just based on risk/reward.

Hi Bill!!! There's gold in them Hills!

Kaimu,

The ticker for Geologix exploration is GIX.V and is trading at about CDN $1.50.

Re AMGN: I'm not aware of any news. Which probably means one or more fund managers has decided it's gone down far enough to re-build/add to a position. One of TSM's columnists has a technical analysis out on AMGN today: http://tinyurl.com/2b56o4

I agree with 2nd. This move looks like an oversold rebound / gap closing to just above $60. Maybe institutionals hope that AMGN (and biotech at large) will benefit the upcoming conferences (mid-april & late June) plus a less-bad-than-feared earnings call. Also, I have read a lot of press articles / blogs seeing BBH as a possible mover near term.

JML

Disclosure: No position. Looking to open long around $52-54 later this year.

ALOHA !!

Aussieontop ... Nevermind !!! My symbol was for Geovic(close but no cigar)so my analysis on the pricing is screwed ... WHAT AN IDIOT! My analysis on Geologix is still the same in terms of their management and website and assays and funding etc. I still stand by the San Agustin project as being their best property, but I do not like the back-in rights clause. Grades are fair but the widths and strike are great. Bulk mineable for sure.

GIX.V up another 12% today so far. It is still on the overbought side based on RSI MACD W% for all frequencies. I would buy but on a correction. I should have bought when Peter Grandich first mentioned them, but a few times after his recommendations the stock tanks, so I do not rush into anybody's stock picks!

Sorry for the symbol/pricing screw up mate! What can I say? I WAS OUT CHASING WILD PIGS!!! Thats my standard Hawaiian excuse for all my screw-ups!!! HA !!!

Did you know about the back-in rights for St. Agustin? I mean even if Geologix did have to give up 50% to Silver Standard they would still be sitting on a valuable asset! I just hate any prospect of losing 50% of anything. Most all of ECU "producing" properties are 100% owned. Only their Golden Tag JV on explorations is not 100% owned.

What say you?

TA mate!!!

Hi Bill

About your luncheon with Sustainable Energy Technologies.

I came across this video on the web concerning a system
that has a unique way of generating hydrogen with electricity.

Since this company is working with PV power perhaps they
could use the electricity to power this HHO generator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rb_rDkwGnU

http://hytechapps.com/aquygen/hhos

GRZ conference call was good as to management. Pres. Doug Berlanger spoke well of relations with VZ gov't, company plans to initiate a plan with a major environmental organization, of financing efforts underway, etc. Callers were not from major institutions, but largely from private groups who seemed to be long-term shareholders, and who were on a first name basis with Boulanger. Questions centered around how the project would be financed. Some worried about dilution from equity emission, others about telling the company's story, getting the financing process to increase public interest and awareness. One questioner pointed out that KRY is vauled nearly 2X GRZ on a per ounce basis, and urged the company to put out more press releases. I wondered myself why GRZ hasn't been as visible as KRY. Berlanger, the CEO, said in his 35 years in mining, there hasn't been a better time to finance development of a major gold find.

Kaimu

Thanks for reminding me of Mineras Andes.
I remember that Rob McEwen owns 30% of this
company. They start mining this quarter.

Afternoon, Bill and and early congrats to year three on your blog! Keep up the great work, but please pace yourself. Health before work!

Interesting divergence in PM shares today. Highfliers such as AUY HL PASS and GSS need a breather but SLW keeps powering ahead. I think there's gonna be good news coming next month about SLW'S cost basis for the Penasquito project.

On another note, wonder if anyone has an opinion on Ludin Mining's acquisition of Rio Narcea? LMC was up big yesterday.

mogwai8myball--Yesterday afternoon from a television in the background I think Craemer was with Erin what's-her-name and he was hyping LMC big time. I see CIBC also came out today raising target to C$18. No opinion on RNO, but someone else on this board had a position recently.

Took profits today on USU.

Looks like KRY is in the news again with (another share offering). 12.5 mm shares @ C$4.25 with an over-allotment of another 1.875 mm shares. I guess this means more dillution for KRY shareholders.

Long KRY.

Seamus
I think that was me.
I bought RNO on 3/9 for for 3.50, seeing some unusual price and volume activity. Also liked the fundamentals. On the announcement yesterday I sold at 4.36 considering that this was above Lundin's tender offer. All in US $.
Naturally I am wondering if I left $ on the table because someone else might compete with a higher bid or shareholders might not think the premium adaquate, but oh hell, I'll take a 25% gain in less than a month...anytime.
Seamus, I too took profits on USU today and also CCJ. Love these companies, but can't get greedy.
I generally lightened up on positions today, not wanting to hold a lot of paper over a long weekend.
Also added to my shorts with the rationale that the odds of bad news coming over a long weekend are a lot better (these days) than the possibility of the sun breaking out, peace being declared worldwide, and all of us living happily ever after.
Sad times these are.
Well, fellow troopers, here's wishing you all a wonderful Easter holiday. I hope you will all connect with family and loved ones.
Congrats to you, Bill, on your third "anniversary". You have helped me, and so many others... beyond words. Thank you, amigo.
Keep the faith all.

Blue Planet went to 25% of port. cash.
With the CRB busting 317, Euro busting resistance at 133.56, and S/P closing above 1440 this is where
THE RUBBER HITS THE ROAD!
Next Leg up or mini double - top in Gold?

* both JNJ and AMGN bounced sametime/place almost to the minute; sucker punch? Oversold in s.t. yes- be nimble!

Bill I placed a client in some CEF today noting all the yank-script he is holding, have a difficult time establishing a position on his behalf noting my juniors are up 40+% in the last 90 days....

Did you see the IMF report about European "decoupling?" Noticed your ABB has the wind at it's back again my gut tells me HBB is simply "trading" a range the last 90 days holding their breath per impending Q1 announcements.

Rigdon you sold CCJ today huh, picked some-up sub
$ 34 on the cigar lake noise but hate to sell here noting the momo yellow cake got ahora!

Seamus, thanks for the response on LMC. I did a search on ludin on cramer's realmoney site. To say he's hyping it is an understatement. Foaming at the mouth comes to mind. Guess he figures if it worked for AUY.... Perhaps it's similar to AUY'S acquisition of Desert Sun, which upset a few DEZ shareholders.

I didn't have any uranium but opened some positions in coal stocks peabody and aci. Think a sector rotation is just starting.

Should have added, we've just had at least 2 feet of fresh snow here in the Maine mountains. Fishing season opened on April 1st LOL. I was planing on going after some brookies, browns, or maybe an Atlantic salmon for dins this weekend.
Oh well, it is Reggae Fest at the Sugarloaf ski area (35 minutes away), best skiing of the year, guess we will just have to make a few more turns.
God I love a party!

Rigdon--it's been a few years since I've been up there, but I always had a good time. Enjoyed the fresh seafood throughout New England when I lived in Beantown. I still get back there (MA)about 2-3 times a year.

Nice move on RNO. I felt the same way about taking a few chips off the table--no need to get greedy. Don't want to fall in love with them, just trade prices. Thanks to Bill for repeating that mantra in his writings.

Love the fact the Euro closed over 1.34. Should be bullish now that it broke resistance and good for the PMs.

Somehow I feel the head fed trader was away for Passover or Easter and will return 4:30 a.m. Monday with an attitude. Hope I'm wrong.

Bill, congrats on your blog tenure as well as your health recovery.

Off to Minnesota tomorrow afternoon. Happy Easter to all!

ALOHA !!

What do most of us struggling to make ends meet really care about? Mainly we care about ourselves and our families well being. What we see in our daily lives either commuting to and from work or going to the grocery store or out to
a movie is our only reality. What we see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears is really what makes up our reality. Watch TV all you want and you will always get "their version of reality" which rarely coincides with your own.

Well here is a "blog" that I think is one of the most "reality" based blogs out there on the condition of the real estate market in the USA. What they post is backed up by real life examples from people like you and I who are "reporting"
what they see going on. There is no hidden agenda ...

Here you can get real info from almost every housing sector in the USA and some in Canada.

Here is the link: http://www.thehousingbubbleblog.com/

As a private investigator working for Equifax in the Houston, TX area during the 1980s real estate collapse I can attest to some rather "ify" insurance claims! Reading these police reports about a "sudden rise" in home fires in the Dallas area made me recall just how desperate some people can get!

Well, I have been totally frustrated in my efforts to respond and cor=espond. Sorry ya'll. I have written long, thoughtful (LOL), significant (probably not, intellectual I wish), responses and discourse and have been "told" that I have to "sign in". Bill is it possible that someone is trying "derail" your train?
Any spelling and grammar disfunction here is not my doing, I promise.

G'day Kaimu,

I like your assessment of GIX.V. Thanks for your observations.

I did know about the option and SSRI being able to claw back 50% if they find >50 million oz of silver. I don't think they are hiding anything. They apell out the details in their 29 August press release. I am not a lawyer, but it appears as though this is a time sensitive, once only option based on a resource calculation at the sooner of expending $2 million on exploration or the 2 year anniversary.

I try and keep things simple. Proving up greater than 50 million oz of silver inside 2 years for $2 million would still be a very good outcome and i hope that they can do it.

Looking at their current resource of 4.6 Moz Ag and 346 koz Au, if they prove up more than 50 Moz of silver, then they should also have greater than 3.5 Moz of gold. Therefore they would have 50% of about 5Moz Au equivalent deposit or 100% of 2.5 Moz Au equivalent.

They have 36 million fully diluted shares. They just raised $3.75 million in Feb @ $0.75 per share and they should get another $2.5 million in Jun/July from the latest issue of warrants @ $1.10. So cash should not be too much of a problem in the short term and any future raisings should be less dilutive due to the higher price.

So even if they did prove up greater than 50 million oz of silver inside 2 years, you get the value of a 2.5 million oz Au equivalent resource in Mexico and divide it by 36 or even say 40 million shares and you still come up with a pretty good number.

This looks like it could be a big deposit and I have invested in it for this prospectivity. As a bonus I like their properties in Peru.

UBS Lawsuit Claims New Century Misappropriated Mortgage Payments

LOS ANGELES (Map, News) - UBS Real Estate Securities Inc. sued New Century Financial Corp. on Thursday, claiming the subprime lender misappropriated millions of dollars from mortgage payments made on loans owned by the investment firm.

In the 14-page filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, UBS claims New Century breached the terms of a contract that called for the subprime lender to buy back home loans sold to UBS under certain conditions, such as when borrowers default soon after taking on the loans.

UBS claims New Century and its subsidiaries had agreed to collect borrowers' mortgage payments and deposit them into a third-party account, pending New Century complying with its obligation to buy back some of its loans.

But New Century failed to deposit more than $3.8 million in mortgage payments that the company received from borrowers on loans purchased and owned by UBS, according to the complaint.

UBS also claims New Century has failed to account for missing escrow payments made by borrowers.

As of March 31, New Century received more than $1.7 million in escrow funds from borrowers with loans purchased by UBS, according to UBS.

A call to a spokesman for Irvine-based New Century was not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.

UBS is among lenders that declared New Century in default last month.

New Century filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Monday.

The company was the second-largest provider of home loans to high-risk borrowers, but fell on hard times amid a spike in mortgage defaults caused by borrowers unable to make payments.

A bankruptcy judge signed an order Thursday approving a bid by New Century to secure up to $150 million in interim financing so it can continue operating.

In his ruling, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey granted the company's request to take on the debtor-in-posession loan from CIT Group and Greenwich Capital Financial Products Inc.

Still, Carey scheduled a final hearing on the financing request for April 24 to allow for any objections.

As part of its reorganization process, New Century has agreed to sell its loan servicing business to Carrington Capital Management LLC and its affiliate for about $139 million, subject to the approval of the bankruptcy court.

New Century has also agreed to sell certain loans and residual interest in some trusts to Greenwich Capital for $50 million.

Forgot to post URL for the previous posting...

http://www.examiner.com/a-658891~UBS_lawsuit_claims_New_Century_misappropriated_mortgage_payments.html

Thanks Seamus for HL. Care to share your current thoughts?

ALOHA !!

Aussieontop ... Good one mate ... I do not doubt your take on the Geologix assay potential in terms of future gold ounces/silver ounces. I do understand they are moving to prove up a gold resource and I know why. I still have some bit of "devil" in the details of this ownership agreement between Geologix and Silver Standard. This is how I see the details biting them in the bloody arse. Am I being too much of a bloody ratbag on this? Help me get over it if you can ...

News release:
"Within 3 months of completion Geologix must deliver a resource estimate which will form the basis of paying US $15 per oz gold and $1 per oz silver less the money spent by Geologix (max $2 million). If the silver resource is 50 million oz plus Silver Standard has a one time back-in right for 50% by spending over 3 years 2 times Geologix's expenditures."

If they do prove up 3.5 mil gold ounces then based on the above agreement Geologix will have to fork over some $53mil to Silver Standard($15 per AU oz x 3.5mil)minus $2mil which is $51mil net total. If it turns out ot be 5mil gold ounces the fee is net $72mil. Thats even before they ever get a road or a power line or a mill ordered. Quite a "balloon" payment! To me it seems Silver Standard has set this up in their favor either way!

I like Dunham Craig(Pres)with his Wheaton River, Glencairn, Kennecott and Cominco experience. He ditched the Nevada properties when he came onboard becuase the assays were not there and he ditched the Huacullo Peru property because it was too remote for exploration in a timely manner. Some people may view that as a tactical error or a botched play and maybe the share price suffers some but I view it as bold moves to fast track value for shareholders. He obviously had some sort of connections to put the Silver Standard deal together. May be worth a look at the "people tree"!

Since Craig dumped Huacullo or lets say, "put it on the back burner", which other Peru plays do you like? I think the other Peru plays are currently at Stage 1 exploration.

I really get the feeling that their whole company is riding on San Agustin for the next couple years due to their committment to Silver Standard which won't leave any cash flow to push their other properties past a Stage 2 exploration level. Only way past that is a JV. Whats your take mate?

My next step is to start ringing up the CEO and his mates! See if I can loosen up some clues as to how they plan to move this into production, time line wise and funding past the "balloon payment" and then pre-feasability, enviromental to a bankable feasibility study then to permits and mine construction as well as vehicles. Are they even planing that far ahead? Maybe not?

This is why I can't be long term with a "one shot" Stage 3 development company because the costs are just going to skyrocket the closer they get to production. The only thing that saves these types of plays is if they hit a "semi-Aurelian" deposit or they get a JV with a major backed by a solid long term committment funded with actual significant hard currency! With this Silver Standard agreement in place they won't get any JV offers for at least another two years. Look at Northern Dynasty(NAK)they have a huge World class deposit but without backing from Rio Tinto I am not so sure they'd be doing so well at this stage. The enviromental headwinds are just racking up huge amounts of funding. So much so that it has put off construction permits for years now. That kind of luck turns burn rates into "explosion" rates! I really do not think that the Northern Dynasty management had planned on that level of enviromental issues. My guess is that they were issued these claims and rights by the State Of Alaska and naturally assumed the State would be "mining friendly", but politicians being such weak links management miscalculated that factor. I lost count on the cost of the environmental impact study slash permit ... $50mil and counting?

Thats why I prefer to find prospective juniors at Stage 1 and ride them to Stage 3 then get off the merry-go-round and perhaps come back later if there is a better op set up ...

I am slanted to this being a winner, since they have not even factored in their zinc assays, but I will wait for a better entry point ... had a big run-up lately.

Anyway mate, I appreciate the due diligence assistance. TA !!