黄金至少攀上2100美元

根据全球顶尖黄金专家的意见，金价至少可上涨到2100美元。顶价暂时还看不到。

祝大家好运！

USA & Europe Will Slip Into Recession

The risk is high!

Jeff Applegate, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley, is no raging bull either. “Europe and the United States will slip into recession this year,” he predicts to The Times. That’s not exactly a recipe for a run-up in stocks.

Indeed Morgan Stanley has recommended that clients trim back their stock allocations. “We think there’s risk of more downside,” Applegate says.

Birthday Cake

My staff members Yiin, Annie, Wendy and others gave me a surprise this afternoon with a birthday cake.

How thoughtful they are that they remember my birthday!

Thank you very much!

New Year Visit By Ming Hoo, Sing King, Timothy & Benjamin

Ming Hoo, Sing King (Yian's sister), Timothy and Benjamin came over to our place for New Year visit.

They drove all the way back from Kuching to celebrate Year of The Dragon in Sibu.

We spent a good time chatting over some goodies!

During my MYF time in Sibu Central District, we served Lord together. The memories are still very much cherished.

Ming Hoo is a well known qualified architect with base in Kuching. He is very actively involved in serving Lord there.

Sing King is accountant by profession. They are specimen of a lovely couple in Christ.

USA Extended Zero Interest Rate Policy To 2014

Money is now practicably free ( I mean in USA here).

For example, you could loan money to the government for five years and get a miserly yield of 0.73% in return. That's less than inflation, which means that you are actually losing money.

TIPS — those financial instruments that protect you from inflation — are actually returning a negative yield.

This is killing the greenback!

New Year Visits By Allen's Buddies

Allen's buddies came for Chinese New Year visits. I took the oppportunities to snap some for them.

The younger group had a good time together.

Know Where To Cross The Boarder

Subject: Know where to cross the border..


Know where to cross the border...
If You Cross The North Korean Border Illegally
You get 12 years Hard Labour.


If You Cross The Iranian Border Illegally
You Are Detained Indefinitely.


If You Cross The Afghan Border
Illegally, You Get Shot.


If You Cross The Saudi Arabian Border Illegally
You Will Be Jailed.


If You Cross The Chinese Border Illegally
You May Never Be Heard Again.


If You Cross The Venezuelan Border Illegally
You Will Be Branded A Spy And Your Fate Will Be Sealed.


If You Cross The Cuban Border Illegally
You Will Be Thrown Into Political Prison To Rot.


If You Enter Britain Illegally
You Will be Arrested, Prosecuted And Sent To Prison And Deported


If You Are An Indonesian AND ILLEGALLY CROSS THE MALAYSIAN BORDER

YOU GET:


MyPR (Permanent Residence / Pemastautin Tetap)
A Driving License,
Voting Rights
Job Reservation,
Special Privilege to be Consider as Bumi,
Credit Cards,
Subsidized Rent Or A Loan To Buy A House,
Free Education,
Free Health Care,
and if you are a clever dickie, you can be a Menteri Besar or even Prime Minister!


Oh Malaysia, what a great country!!

Gold As Investment

Gold also got a boost from reports the world's biggest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, was bullish on bullion as a hedge against inflation as governments print more money to reduce debt.

Gold has never lost its luster, believe me!

New Year Visit By Relatives

We received numerous New Year visits by our relatives. In the above picture is Yian's brother and his family. They came with Ming Hoo (Yian's brother-in-law) and family on Chu Yi.

We had a good time chatting over some New Year goodies!

Photo source: King

阿Jib哥

阿Jib哥的 Facebook

Najib has moved the battleground to the cybersphere. This has made the coming GE a lot more interesting!

阿华哥

阿华哥！

The battle is now on facebook!

Mr. Hii Chung Yiong - My Beloved Teacher

Mr. Hii Chung Yiong was my teacher in Chung Cheng Secondary School, teaching Civic and Bahasa Malaysia. Soft in his approach to students, Mr. Hii never raised his voice to his students. As such, he gained a lot of respect from us.

On Chu Yi, Mr. Hii came with his family to my house for a new year visit. We shared on the life of Chung Cheng Secondary School.

It was really a wonderful meet with Mr. Hii.

Lunar New Year Couplet

I pasted the couplet vertically on the two sides of my door entrance.

Literally it means "Pray for peace, harmony and good weather!"

Sky Filled With Fireworks And Smoke

The Chinese in Sibu ushered in Year of Dragon with fireworks and firecrackers in a traditional way.

The whole of Sibu was filled with thunderous firecrackers sound and the smoke literally covered up the sky above Sibu.

Gold In The Year Of Dragon

Gold is now down to $1,651 an ounce because the dollar bounced.

This is a solid opportunity to buy and hold gold until real interest rates are positive.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Have a wonderful Lunar New Year break.

Lunar New Year Couplets To Usher In Year of Dragon

Wong Memg Lei of The Methodist Church invited Ting Hua Hu, a well-known calligrapher in Sibu, to stroke with his brush beautiful couplets with biblical touch for Year of Dragon.

The couplets are meant for pasting vertically on the two sides of the main door. It is a Chinese tradition which we still value.

The tea gang members individually contributed a token to The Methodist Message for the couplets to be taken home.

Let's make it a yearly event!

Picture (1) shows the tea gang members holding up the couplets. In the centre is Ting Hua Hu.

Picture (2) shows Ting Hua Hu putting down strokes on my piece of couplet. Looking on are Meng Lei, Shirley and me.

Don't Believe In Gold? That Is Ok, Just Leave It To The Chinese!

Don't Believe In Gold? That's Ok, Just Leave It To The Chinese


Chinese demand for gold is coming from every angle - AFP/Getty Images via @daylife
Many investors have reverted to questioning gold again after the yellow metal’s two massive 2011 corrections and relative underperformance toward the end of the year. Despite the skepticism, Chinese demand is red hot, hitting a record in November according to the latest data and possibly helping put a floor under prices and fueling a further bull run.

Gold has had a strong start to 2012, breaking out to the top past its 200-day moving average and closing Wednesday’s session at a four-week high of $1,644 an ounce.

Move up Move down
China's Central Bank Clamps Down On Gold, The Only Safe-Haven Left Agustino Fontevecchia
Forbes Staff
Is GLD Really As Good As Gold? Agustino Fontevecchia
Forbes Staff
China Waking Up? Central Bank Now Selling Forex Reserves To Support Yuan Agustino Fontevecchia
Forbes Staff
Will The U.S. Dollar Reign Supreme In 2012? Agustino Fontevecchia
Forbes Staff
Among the major factors fueling the recent rally is Chinese demand for physical metal, according to UBS’ Edel Tully. Hong Kong trade statistics revealed record gold exports to mainland China in November, with deliveries hitting 102.2 tons.

This represents a 20% sequential increase from the already elevated 85 tons shipped in October. According to Tully, mainland China imported 287 tons from January to November 2011, 49% of which were shipped in October and November. Gold imports to mainland China jumped 483% over November 2010.

“Signs that China is importing a lot of gold are bullish for the market,” explained Tully, “primarily because this metal can’t leave the country – it is not permissible to export gold.” Volumes have increased dramatically as well: while in the first half of 2011 imports averaged 10 tons a month, mainland China received 57 tons in September, 85 in October, and 102.2 in November. Truly impressive numbers.

This forces us to ask the question “who is doing all the buying?” Tully, notes “it is worth highlighting here the lack of full transparency in this market, which makes it difficult to get a clear picture of the distribution channels and ascertain who is behind the buying at this stage.”

Still, she speculates that a portion of that buying is definitely “anticipated demand in preparation for the Lunar New Year,” but history proves that can’t account for these massive volumes. In 2010, Hong Kong exported an average 9 monthly tons to mainland China from January to October, with that number jumping to 17.5 tons in November. “Certainly the growth rate then marked a sizeable increase, but the actual volumes back then are small change relative to the most recent shipments from HK to China,” she wrote.

Discarding retail demand leaves only one suspect standing: the government.

Chinese authorities have been looking to diversify their massive foreign exchange to minimize U.S. dollar risk. Senior PBoC officials have been vocal in suggesting gold as a valid alternative. Last December, Zhang Jianhua, head of the PBoC’s research bureau, asked his peers to “further optimize [the PBoC’s] foreign-exchange portfolio and purchase gold assets when the gold price shows a favorable fluctuation.” Zhang went even further, saying “no asset is safe now, the only choice to hedge risks is to hold hard currency – gold.”

The Chinese government currently holds 1,054 tons of gold, or about 1.8% of its foreign reserves, which experts at the World Gold Council consider a very low number. Chinese gold consumption has doubled over the last decade to about 20% of total yearly production.

Whatever one thinks of gold, the reality is that if China is intent on continuing to increase its gold holdings at the current pace, then prices are bound to continue their decade-long rally.

Investors looking to capitalize on gold’s assent, if indeed it keeps on going up, can do so by tapping into the physically backed SPDR Gold Shares (GLD). Another option is gold equities. Despite underperforming in 2011, gold equities remain at record low multiples and could provide good alternatives. Names like Kinross Gold and Barrick Gold have outperformed bullion so far in 2012, while 2011 rock stars like Goldcorp and Newmont have lagged, but still hold potential.

Gold was one of 2011’s best performing assets. Questions remain for 2012, but if China is still buying gold, then it seems hard that prices could fall.


Source: Forbes (11th January, 2012)

My Home Town Sibu Blog

This blog by Eric Luk keeps readers up to date with Sibu's happenings.

I strongly recommend it to you!

http://www.sibuericluk.blogspot.com/

Have a good day!

Our Appreciation To The Local Dailies

We did it in our traditional way to show appreciation to our press friends.

This afternoon, we set out to send Chinese New Year cakes to The Borneo Post, See Hua Daily News, The Star, United Daily News and Sin Chew Daily.

The local press friends have been co-operative and we have been having an excellent working relationship.

A big "Thank You" to all of you!

The photo shows handing over of cakes to the reporters of The Borneo Post and See Hua Daily News.