the europeans have wet their pants, page-5

I ticked six at the start of this thread. Now I'm ticking all seven. It looks like Buffett has ticked them as well, but saying he may go back to delivering newspapers if the problems aren't sorted out this week http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/02/news/newsmakers/buffett.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008100213 .

As part of the action towards the close of this last session, we've seen Russia down nearly 20% http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081006/eu_russia_markets.html and the DOW nearly half that. Normally robust Iceland has become a joke http://business.smh.com.au/business/icelands-economy-on-brink-as-lender-falters-20081005-4ud3.html as the populous makes a run on the food stores. In record time, the NZD vs the JPY has been sent all the way back to 2002 levels.

Hats off to the Chinese academics I was talking to a few months ago. They said the Chinese government wasn't supporting the market (which had fallen back to nearly pre-boom levels), because they had their hands full with the Olympics. Q: - guess what happened the day after the Paralympics finished? A: - a mass injection of Chinese Government funds, some new policies and a bounce which so far has held.

In the midst of all these distractions, GIP has just raised some much needed cash to tide the company over until full project funding is due to come through. Not every company has been successful in similar circumstances at this time and unlike 2003, GIP was respected enough that it didn't have to go to the market for funding. Those were the days when FMG (director hiding in Europe as some people were chasing him - share price low of around 4 cents) and PDN (directors stopped paying themselves, amongst other measures - share price low of under 1 cent) had close to show stopping problems.

SGW (Talison) is rumoured to be seeking a tantalum price increase of 80-100 % for a major contract which is due to be renegotiated towards the end of this year. Two of the main reasons for the price hike were supposed to be high oil costs and the high A$. They aren't looking like very good reasons now. Meanwhile, GIP has signed a record setting, 10-year contract with guaranteed minimum prices and with the feldspar and tin thrown in, is in line to be the lowest cost, legal provider in the world. I still like GIP's cost competitive chances.