Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Wednesday 04.18.2012
The Big Rally in Gold is Getting Closer and Closer
By P. Radomski - GoldSeek.com
The Hindu festival of Akshaya Tritivai is coming up this month and this is of interest for gold investors. The holiday, which falls on April 24th, is a day when Indians go on a major gold buying binge. It is one of the most auspicious occasions to buy gold, the ultimate symbol of wealth and prosperity. The timing couldn't be better for the ending last week of the 20-day strike by India's jewelers and gold importers who protested new government taxes on bullion. Moreover, the wedding season has already started in some parts of India and gold is an integral part of most Indian weddings. It is expected that in April and May imports will be around a 100 metric tons to India, the world's largest consumer of gold. The nationwide strike is estimated to have cost the industry at least $3.91 billion.
A Return to the Gold Standard,
or Gold Behind Currencies Part 3 Return of Gold to an Active Role in the New,
Global Monetary System
BY JULIAN PHILLIPS - FinancialSense.com
The questions gold investors have to ask themselves is, "if the days of the dollar are numbered, how will gold be used in the monetary system that follows? Will there be a global monetary system that all nations subscribe to or will the monetary world fragment?" For one thing, we will continue to live in a global world with nations trading amongst each other. To gold investors, such an eventuality –let alone its potential reality—would cause a return to the use of gold as a foundation for any monetary system, but not as a means of exchange, ever again. That journey has already started. Whether in a cooperative or uncooperative world, gold will have to provide international liquidity and facilitate trade between nations in place of the dollar. This will include the U.S. too. The world is headed irrevocably to a multi-currency system with the dollar as one of the world's leading currencies, but not the sole one. Gold, as always, will have to inspire the trust it once did. It will have to fill the gap left by the world of currencies that occurred when the developed world removed itself from gold and at the same time removed currencies from supplying adequate measures of value.
The Trouble with Money
BY CHRIS MARTENSON PHD - FinancialSense.com
A Broken Narrative
Recently I was asked by a high school teacher if I had any ideas about why students today seem so apathetic when it comes to engaging with the world around them. I waggishly responded, "Probably because they're smart."
In my opinion, we're asking our young adults to step into a story that doesn't make any sense.
Sure, we can grow the earth's population to 9 billion (and probably will), and sure, we canextract our natural gas and oil resources as fast as possible, and sure, we can continue to pile on official debts at a staggering pace — but why are we doing all this? Even more troubling, what do we say to our youth when they ask what role they should play in this story — a story with a plot line they didn't get to write?
Yuan vs. Dollar: A battle in the making
By Thomas H. Kee Jr. - MarketWatch.com
One of my major concerns coming into the year was China. In fact, I was, and still am, very concerned that China's economy and policies could dramatically impair the U.S. economy. At the end of last year, I was hearing from personal friends who develop in China that people were just walking away from multi-million dollar deals, and the sentiment on the street there was distrust and concern.
I do not know if that has changed yet -- my contacts have not communicated that to me thus far -- but at the same time I am too far removed to know exactly what the ground floor looks like in China anyway.
Are the U.S. and China trading places? Competing narratives obscure facts on GDP gap
By Barry Eichengreen
BEIJING ( Caixin Online ) — By now, everyone has grown accustomed, if not physically weary, of articles extolling China's economic dynamism and rehearsing America's economic decline. While the United States is only now beginning to recover from the most serious recession in nearly 80 years, China skated through the global financial crisis essentially unscathed.
Even if the growth of the Chinese economy now slows to 7.5%, that will still be triple the rate of expansion of the United States, where growth in the wake of the crisis remains subdued. It will not be many years before China overtakes the U.S. in sheer economic size. And with this reversal of economic fortune will come a reversal of political fortune, as China assumes the leading role on the global geopolitical stage.
Spanish Flu May Send EU to Bed
By: John Browne - GoldSeek.com
Recently, the world's economic leaders, including economists at the European Central Bank, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the U.S. Federal Reserve, supported by most of the mainstream financial media, assured the world that the debt agreement worked out between Greece and its creditors would help put an end to the European-wide debt crisis. In reality, the crisis has merely been papered over. Despite the broad rally in stock and bond markets over the past few weeks, I firmly believe that Greece will likely require another bailout within a year.
IMF Raises Global Forecast for First Time Since Early 2011
By Ian Katz - Bloomberg.com
The International Monetary Fund raised its global growth forecast for the first time in more than a year, with the U.S. boosting the outlook while recent improvements remain "very fragile."
The world economy will expand 3.5 percent this year, compared with a January projection of 3.3 percent, the Washington-based IMF said today in its World Economic Outlook. It sees growth of 4.1 percent in 2013, up from 4.0 percent. It raised its forecasts for the U.S. to gains of 2.1 percent this year and 2.4 percent in 2013.
IMF still won't admit truth about the euro It is often said that travel broadens the mind. Not so for finance ministers gathering in Washington DC this week for the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and G20. For them, the agenda will seem wearily familiar.
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
Like a bad penny, the eurozone debt crisis keeps returning, seemingly deliberately to coincide with these international summits. Spain's rapidly deteriorating economic and financial position provides the flash point du jour.
With yields on Spanish government debt again above 6pc, and a couple of crucial bond auctions looming, matters are once more coming to a head. Crushed by repeated austerity programmes, the big southern European economies are sinking back into recession, raising new doubts about their ability to meet fiscal targets.
Investors bet ECB will bring Spain back from brink
By William James
LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) - Some investors are betting the rise in Spanish borrowing costs will force the European Central Bank to dust off its bond-buying programme to shore up the euro zone's fourth largest economy and head off a more acute phase in the debt crisis.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy spooked markets last month by loosening his country's budget deficit targets. Since then, bond yields have climbed at an accelerating pace as international long-term investors pull money out of the country.
Oil Trades Near Two-Week High on Spanish Debt, IMF Forecast
By Ben Sharples - Bloomberg.com
Oil traded near the highest close in two weeks after Spain raised more debt than planned at an auction and the International Monetary Fund boosted its global growth outlook, easing concern a slowing economy will curb demand for crude.
Futures were little changed after gaining for a second day yesterday. Spain sold 3.2 billion euros ($4.2 billion) of bills, compared with a maximum target of 3 billion. The IMF raised its growth forecast for 2012 to 3.5 percent from 3.3 percent and increased its 2013 estimate. U.S.crude stockpiles rose for a fourth week, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed.
How the U.S. Could Protect Itself
Against Volatile Oil and Gas Prices
By Gary Hunt - OilPrice.com
Global oil prices are driven by a 'rule of thumb' that suggests prices will go up when the spare capacity of oil available on any given day is less than 5% of expected global demand. In today's high priced oil market that swing in spare capacity is about 2%.
This a big deal because traders worry about risk such as events in the Middle East, or with Iran or any other places that supplies oil. Spare capacity or swing productive capacity is the volume of oil than can be delivered as a percentage of expected global demand in a thirty day period. Like any other commodity market, the tighter the supply the higher and more volatile the price.
Obama proposes steps to boost oversight of oil markets
By Steven Mufson - WashingtonPost.com
President Obama proposed measures Tuesday to step up oversight of energy markets and boost by tenfold the penalties for market manipulation, in an effort to blunt political pressure over the 20 percent increase in gasoline prices since the beginning of the year.
The new measures would, with congressional approval, provide an additional $52 million to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, boost civil and criminal penalties from $1 million per violation to $10 million a day for violations and give the CFTC greater power to set margin requirements that would force traders to provide more cash and reduce leverage when buying contracts.
Obama wants $52 million to crack down on oil speculation
By Susan Crabtree - The Washington Times
Feeling election-year heat from consumer pain at the pump, President Obama on Tuesday called for a new regulatory crackdown on oil speculators, including stiffer penalties for market manipulation and more resources and tools for enforcement.
The White House proposal is designed to act as a deterrent to illegal manipulation of the energy market, which Mr. Obama and other Democrats repeatedly have said is at least partially responsible for high gas prices.
Mr. Obama urged Congress to act quickly to fund the $52 million proposal Tuesday.
Obama Wants to Target Oil Market Manipulation
President Barack Obama is asking Congress for help in policing oil markets to be on the lookout for price manipulation by speculators. Obama says the country can't have some speculators reap millions while consumers suffer from high gas prices.
Keystone XL Likely Dead
By Daniel J. Graeber - OilPrice.com
Critics of U.S. domestic energy policy are trying to maneuver the Keystone XL oil pipeline past the Oval Office, trumpeting the project as the 21st century version of the New Deal. The project has come to represent growing divisions in domestic energy policy during the presidential campaign cycle in the United States. In the long shadow of the project, however, are a series of domestic oil pipelines that could make Keystone XL redundant by the time it goes into service in 2015.
Republican lawmakers may try to force the administrations hands once again on the Keystone XL pipeline, a project meant to transfer crude oil from tar sand deposits in Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the southern U.S. coast. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney mourned, before an audience of supporters in Nevada, that the U.S. government was able to put its manufacturing muscle on display by building the interstate highway system and the Hoover Dam. Now, the U.S. government "can't even build a pipeline," he said in a reference to Keystone XL.
The big day for Swiss cheese, or the tax code
By Wesley Pruden - The Washington Times
Life is unfair, as John F. Kennedy famously observed. That might not have been the most memorable thing he ever said, but it's probably the most quoted, and when better to repeat it than on the last day for Americans to file their federal income tax returns.
Jimmy Carter, who has mercifully all but disappeared down the memory hole, called the U.S. tax code "a disgrace to the human race."Hitler, cancer and the designated hitter follow closely, but we take Mr. Jimmy's point. How the government confiscates our money, like a root canal without anything to kill the pain, is not very nice. But like a village dentist armed with only a pair of greasy pliers, the government gets the job done.
U.S. consumers adjust to $4 gasoline $4 gas reinforces trend toward lower U.S. fuel consumption
By Steven Mufson - WashingtonPost.com
Are American motorists finally changing their gas-guzzling ways?
As prices have neared and in some cases topped $4 a gallon, drivers have cut their consumption of gasoline to its lowest levels in a decade, driving less and buying cars that are more fuel-efficient.
The adjustment has slowed the climb in gasoline prices, which until last week had risen for 10 consecutive weeks, and could preserve some money for Americans to spend on other items as the economy struggles to recover more convincingly.
The Too Big To Fail Banks
Are Now Much Bigger
And Much More Powerful Than Ever
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
The Democrats, the Republicans and especially Barack Obama promised that something would be done about the too big to fail banks so that they would never again be a threat to destroy our financial system. Well, those promises have not been kept and the too big to fail banks are now muchbigger and much more powerful than ever. The assets of the five biggest U.S. banks were equivalent to about 43 percent of U.S. GDP before the financial crisis. Today, the assets of the five biggest U.S. banks are equivalent to about 56 percent of U.S. GDP. So if those banks were "too big to fail" before, then what are they now? They continue to gobble up smaller banks at a brisk pace, and they continue to pile up debt and risky investments as if a day of reckoning will never come. But of course a day of reckoning is coming, and when it arrives they will be expecting more bailouts just like they got the last time.
Keiser Report: Meets Schiff Report 4.0 (E276)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert discuss the Fukushima of Central Bank quantitative easing policies and the blowfish that is more deadly than a Goldman Sachs CDO. In the second half of the show Max talks to investor, author and radio show host, Peter Schiff about gold, the dollar and Japanese monetary policy.
Housing Data Disappoint ... Again
By Matthew Philips - BusinessWeek.com
So the latest housing number is kind of bad: 654,000 new units were started in March, 5.8 percent below the revised February numbers. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting something considerably higher. The median estimate of the 82 who ventured a guess was 705,000. Even the lowball forecast, 670,000, was too high. It's the rare economic survey where the biggest bear isn't bearish enough. Clearly we've been fooled by housing again: Just when it looked like he was getting out of bed, the perpetual sick man of the recovery rolls over with some phlegmy numbers.
Homes Cost More to Build Than They're Worth
By AnnaMaria Andriotis - SmartMoney.com
U.S. home building fell for the second straight month down to its lowest level since October, Commerce Department data released Tuesday shows. Builders increasingly blame home appraisals, which often value properties less than expected – and sometimes come in even lower than the cost of constructing the house in the first place.
One out of three builders say they lost signed sales contracts during the last half of 2011 because appraisals on their homes were less than the sales price the buyer agreed to, according to the latest data from the National Association of Home Builders. The association says the situation hasn't improved since. And roughly a third of builders say the appraisal amount was less than the cost of building the home.
Housing: New Bubble or More Trouble?
BY JOHN RUBINO - FinancialSense.com
The in-laws own a gas station in Miami that they've wanted to sell for years. But they dithered when the market was hot and ended up being stuck with it when interest evaporated in 2009.
Lately, though, the phone has begun to ring again. It's not exactly a feeding frenzy but real offers are coming from legitimate buyers for the first time in three years.
That's actually a pretty good description of real estate in general, where low interest rates have convinced a growing number of people that it's time to buy. See this upbeat story on the home builders:
Big Banks Slack on Maintaining Foreclosed Homes
in Minority Areas, Complaint Charges
by Cora Currier - ProPublica.org
Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank have let foreclosed homes in black and Latino neighborhoods lapse into disrepair, while bank-owned homes in mainly white neighborhoods are better cared-for, according to housing advocates.
The National Fair Housing Alliance, a non-profit group, brought a formal complaint to the Department of Housing and Urban Development last week alleging that Wells Fargo violated the Fair Housing Act by failing to keep up homes in minority neighborhoods. Today, the group announced they are also filing a second complaint, against U.S. Bank.
Is HUD on the chopping block? HUD targeted as budget pressures grow
By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Brady Dennis - WashingtonPost.com
Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney was overheard earlier this week saying he might eliminate the Housing and Urban Development Department.
President Obama's advisers say he is trying to preserve HUD's support for housing aid, but advocates for the poor say his budget plans would raise rents on very-low-income Americans and could cause some families to lose assistance.
Health Care in an Age of American Decline
by RAVI KATARI - Counterpunch.org
"A heart that's full up like a landfill. A job that slowly kills you. Bruises that won't heal. You look so tired, unhappy. Bring down the government, they don't speak for us. I'll take a quiet life, a handshake of carbon monoxide."
The existential sorrow in Thom Yorke's voice has never sounded as poignant as it does today in "No Surprises", a track of lonely capitulation on Radiohead's monolithic OK Computer. The song evokes images of helplessness and retreat in the face of globalization and corporate capitalism. The accompanying music video features Yorke's head in a bubble helmet that slowly fills up with water (1). The symbolism in both the lyrics and the video has become increasingly relevant since the record's release fifteen years ago.
Fed parses job numbers for clues on economy
By Jonathan Spicer and Debbie Hummel
(Reuters) - Two top Federal Reserve officials pointed on Monday to last month's surprisingly weak jobs report as all the more reason to take a wait-and-see approach to a U.S. economy that, in general, is improving.
Although the unemployment rate slipped to a still high 8.2 percent in March, jobs growth slowed sharply, raising fears the labor market could start to sputter as it did a year ago. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by only 120,000 last month, roughly half the gains in each of the previous two months.
Mixing and Matching
By Thomas Sowell - PatriotPost.us
Apparently the soaring national debt and the threat of a nuclear Iran are not enough to occupy the government's time, because the Obama administration is pushing to force Westchester County, N.Y., to create more low-income housing, in order to mix and match classes and races to fit the government's preconceptions.
Behind all this busy work for bureaucrats and ideologues is the idea that there is something wrong if a community does not have an even or random distribution of various kinds of people. This arbitrary assumption is that the absence of evenness or randomness -- whether in employment, housing or innumerable other situations -- shows a "problem" that has to be "corrected."
Simultaneous Jobs Data Release Jeopardized
By Meera Louis - BusinessWeek.com
The U.S. Department of Labor said it can't assure news organizations they will be able to transmit market-sensitive economic data at exactly the same moment under changes resulting from the first review of procedures in a decade.
The agency ordered journalists to remove computer hardware, software and communications lines they currently have installed at the department to transmit news on data such as the jobless rate and consumer prices. Instead, reporters will have to use equipment, software and Internet connections provided by the government.
Henry Kissinger Coming Home to Harvard Kissinger returns to Harvard—and America turns a corner.
By Niall Ferguson - TheDailyBeast.com
A successful college graduate is, as a general rule, loved by his alma mater. The more prominent he becomes, the more phone calls he receives. If he really makes the big time, there are invitations to host grand dinners, receive honorary degrees, give commencement addresses ... and of course, bestow his name on this or that chair or building (as well as on a very large check).
Marc Faber-Go East Young Man/Woman--13.Apr.2012
The renowned Dr. Doom also known as Dr. Marc Faber joined FSN today to discuss his latest commentary that it might just be time to start looking at real estate investments in severely distressed markets such as Florida and Arizona. Dr. Faber explained his outlook for the Western Economies, his forecasts for Gold and Silver, and his take on "printing press" economics.
A Death Bounty and an Attorney General
By Arnold Ahlert - PatriotPost.us
Why Eric Holder ignores the New Black Panther Party's price for George Zimmerman's head.
One can be forgiven for wondering what level of New Black Panther Party (NBPP) thuggery is sufficient to warrant the attention of Florida law enforcement officials or, seemingly, the most myopic U.S. attorney general to ever head the Department of Justice. On March 24th, New Black Panther Party leader Mikhail Muhammad offered a $10,000 bounty for the "capture" of Zimmerman and publicly stated that Zimmerman "should be fearful for his life." Fellow Panthers distributed wanted posters calling Zimmerman a "child killer" and offering that bounty "dead or alive." And in a mind-boggling rant during a conference call, Michelle Williams, Chief of Staff for the Tampa, FL branch of the NBPP, told Party members to get ready for a "race war."
Washington Leads World Into Lawlessness
By Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org
The US government pretends to live under the rule of law, to respect human rights, and to provide freedom and democracy to citizens. Washington's pretense and the stark reality are diametrically opposed.
US government officials routinely criticize other governments for being undemocratic and for violating human rights. Yet, no other country except Israel sends bombs, missiles, and drones into sovereign countries to murder civilian populations. The torture prisons of Abu Gahraib, Guantanamo, and CIA secret rendition sites are the contributions of the Bush/Obama regimes to human rights.
10 Disgusting Examples Of Very Young School Children
Being Arrested, Handcuffed And Brutalized By Police
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
When did we decide that it was okay to treat very young school children as if they were terror suspects? When I was growing up, I don't remember a single time that the police ever came to my school and arrested anyone. But now police are being called out to public schools at the drop of a hat. All over America, very young school children are being arrested and marched out of their schools in handcuffs in front of all their friends. For example, down in Georgia the other day police were called out because a 6-year-old girl was throwing a tantrum. The police subdued her, slapped handcuffs on her and hauled her off to the police station. Instead of apologizing for this outrageous incident, the policeare defending the actions of the officer involved. But this is not an isolated incident. All over the country young kids are being handcuffed and mistreated by police.
U.S. factory decline suggests economy losing steam
By Jason Lange
(Reuters) - Output at U.S. factories slipped in March and builders started construction on fewer homes, offering cautionary signals for an economy that appeared to be gaining traction.
Manufacturing output slipped for the first time in four months, dropping 0.2 percent, the U.S. Federal Reserve said on Tuesday.
The decline dragged on overall industrial production which was unchanged and fell short of analysts' expectations.
IRS Insanity: Small Business Owner Takes IRS to Court
You think the federal government is bad for taxpayers, you should hear what the IRS is doing to tax preparers. New Internal Revenue Service rules are putting regulatory burdens on tax preparation services. Critics say that the new rules are unconstitutional and only benefit big tax preparers. Hear more as Alexis Garcia interviews Chicago small business woman Sabina Loving about the burdens the federal government is putting on her tax preparation service, and what Loving is doing to fight back.
Court says Arizona can demand voter identification
By Tim Gaynor
(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ruled Arizona may require voters to show identification at the polls, a ruling likely to add fuel to the fiery debate about voting rights in a presidential election year.
But the court also ruled the state cannot demand that they show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, a decision the state's attorney general said he would appeal.
Life AFTER Hillary... Washington Whispers About Who
Will Be Next Secretary of State Handicapping the race for secretary of state.
TheDailyBeast.com
Next to guessing whom Mitt Romney will pick as his running mate, there's no more delicious fruit on Washington's tree of gossip than the identity of the next secretary of state. It remains a position of transcendent importance, especially in a new world where everyone seems to live and throw garbage in everyone else's backyard. The prospects generally lack the public presence and star power of most Foggy Bottom occupants—Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, and Condi Rice, for example. And they certainly don't rival Hillary Clinton, who is determined both to stay until January and not be a lame duck. Doubt not that she has the will, standing abroad, and popularity at home to walk from office with head high.
Is Hillary running?... For VP or POTUS? Bill Clinton enters 2012 race — to back his wife's supporters
By Josh Lederman - TheHill.com
The congressional candidates former President Clinton is supporting in 2012 have something in common: They all backed his wife's presidential bid four years ago.
Sources close to Clinton said he wants to help those who put themselves on the line to support the former first lady's campaign for the White House. But with Hillary Clinton serving in the Obama administration and Chelsea Clinton working for NBC News, Bill Clinton is the only member of the family in a position to hit the campaign trail.
Could Hilary Rosen's slip
put Hillary Clinton on Obama's ticket?
By Michael Goodwin - FOXNews.com
It was a serious mistake, the result of a class-warfare strategy followed to a fault by a zealous Democrat. But inadvertently, one Hilary's blunder could open the door to the other Hillary's rise.
We speak of the attack on Ann Romney by Hilary (one L) Rosen. The fallout raises the odds that Hillary (two L's) Clinton will end up as Barack Obama's running mate.
Rosen went way over the line carrying out the White House message that Mitt Romney is waging a "war on women." Rosen's accusation that Ann Romney "never worked a day in her life" is the biggest unforced error by Team Obama so far.
GOP chairman:
Google 'supportive' of controversial cybersecurity bill CISPA
By Brendan Sasso - TheHill.com
Google has been working behind the scenes with lawmakers in the House on a controversial cybersecurity bill, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) told The Hill.
Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Google has been "supportive" of his Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which has angered some of the same Internet activists who joined with Google to defeat the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Why the FCC Fined Google Just 68 Seconds in Profits
by Justin Elliott - ProPublica.org
The Federal Communications Commissionannounced Friday it is slapping a fine on Google for deliberately impeding an investigation of the collection of sensitive wireless network data as part of the search giant's Street View mapping project. The amount of the fine: $25,000.
That figure is, of course, barely a rounding error for the company. Google made $2.89 billion last quarter, or $25,000 in profits every 68 seconds.
The Coming Book Wars:
Apple vs. Amazon vs. Google vs. the U.S. Unresolved conflicts among publishers, sellers, libraries,
and the U.S. Justice Department cloud the future
of the publishing industry.
By Peter Osnos - TheAtlantic.com
Unless you are embedded somewhere in the publishing industry spectrum as an author, editor, bookseller, or librarian, the odds are that you will find it very hard to keep up with the pace of sweeping changes underway connected to the impact of the enormous expansion of digital reading. The latest authoritative survey came from Pew Research, reporting that 21 percent of American adults say they have read an eBook in the past year, with the average number of books at 24, compared to 15 for those who said they purchased only printed books -- confirmation that digital readers represent, generally speaking, very good news for literacy.
Central Kan. officials criticize storm chasers
KSN.com
SALINA, Kansas (AP) — Some central Kansas safety officials say storm chasers created traffic jams and put others in danger while following severe weather that hit the state during the weekend.
But professional storm chasers are defending the practice, saying they provide valuable information to public officials during stormy weather.
Palestinian PM to set out grounds for negotiation with Israel Salam Fayyad to deliver Binyamin Netanyahu letter describing conditions under which Palestinians will resume talks
By Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem - Guardian.co.uk
The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, is to deliver a letter to his Israeli counterpart in the pair's first ever meeting, setting out the grounds on which the Palestinians are prepared to resume negotiations and warning that the status quo cannot continue.
The letter, from Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, will say the Palestinian Authority (PA), set up under the 1993 Oslo accords, has "lost its raison d'être", according to local media accounts. However, Abbas will not threaten its dissolution, a move advocated by some who say Israelmust take full responsibility for the territory it occupies and that the PA provides it with a fig leaf.
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