A Melman Minute By: Leonard Melman   NOTE: In order to complete Mr. Melman's forthcoming book on the essential fundamentals of the developing international financial crisis and its relationship to gold and silver, new "Melman Minutes" will be posted only three times per week, each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Since the work has been expanded to include potential solutions to the growing list of seemingly insoluble dilemmas, the working title of the book has been revised to 'REVERSING THE WAY IN!"   March 8, 2010 Greetings from the world's largest annual resource conference, PDAC 2010.  The attendance is enormous, enthusiasm is contagious and in the many years we have been attending this convention, we have never seen crowds of this size, particularly in the investment side of the gathering.  Total attendance is now estimated at near 20,000 - or the population of a small city! The convention itself is divided into two halves; the mining company investment side and the trade display area.  In addition, the conference hosted a newsletter writer presentation day yesterday and we were honored to be included among the presenters.  The subject of our talk was "A message From the Queen" with the overall concept being that demands on government by the public have become so enormous that it is no longer possible to finance them through normal tax collection and this has resulted in a proliferation of artificial fund0-raising methods including government debt of historic dimensions and, most recently, the innovation of directly creating money out of 'thin air' through the method known as "Quantitative Easing."  The QUeen's message to Parliament of late November in which she promised an abundant array of items "her" government was going to accomplish fit well within this theme. Many of the presenters also focused on the same theme that governments in general and the United States in particular were running out of time to actually create real solutions, rather than expanding on those which are already failing.  Perhaps the most important number we heard was that it now takes over $7.00 in debt creation to increase GDP by just one dollar.  One generation ago, that number was close to $1.50 for each dollar of GDP increase.  We can only wonder if (a) this trend can continue much longer and (b) what has happened to the eeffectiveness of the Keynesian method of economic development, for Lord Keynes certainly never admitted to the possibility of such a drastic step toward eventual hyperinflation in his works. And so, the convention is buzzing with many crosscurrents of both information and emotions and perhaps that accounts for the huge increase in attendance. Unfortunately (or, perhaps fortunately) our 'daytimer' is filled with a relentless appointment schedule and we will have to limit today's MM at this point.  However, we plan to write a more complete report on Wednesday afternoon when the convention wraps up at noon EST, which should allow us to have it completed by the normal time of 10:00 AM PST. Financial markets this morning show both the Dow Industrials and Canada's TSX little changed, gold is off by about $10 while silver and platinum have moved very little.  The petroleum complex is slightly higher, interest rates have moved higher and the Canadian Dollar has just broken out above 97.4 cents, the highest level in several months. On a personal level, we are proud to inform you that our forthcoming book, "Reversing the Way In" is now virtually complete.  Fifteen of the eighteen chapters are now concluded and the remaining three will be finished by the time our train returns to Vancouver on March 15.  We expect printed and e-copies to be available by early April and the formal introduction of the book will take place at our workshop at the Cambridge House convention in Calgary later that month. It has been a lengthy labor, but indeed it has been a labor of love. - - - - - All quotes US Dollars unless otherwise noted. Next Melman Minute scheduled for Wednesday, March 10, 2010        ◄  Previous Minute                                                                                                        Next Minute  ►
		DISCLAIMER The information presented above is based on data which we believe to be from reliable sources, but the accuracy of which cannot be guaranteed.  Any opinions or predictions contained herein are those of the editor and are likewise offered also for information purposes only. Any investment decisions should be made only following consultation with registered investment professionals.