Late noontime news post

Waiting for a phone call, so here's the news:

Calculated Risk - AAR rail traffic increased in September. Again, yet another data point in full consonance with all the other pro-growth data points.

Reuters - Italian senate begins expulsion process for Berlusconi. Italians love crooked winners. They despise crooked losers.

Mineweb - Indian jewellers hope to mobilize gold in new scheme. I guess that might work in Mumbai. Then again, do Indians want to "loan" their gold at 5%? Does that become cost-effective for jewellers? And why does this article suspiciously come out right when the gold price is trying to conclusively break down thru $1300?

Reuters - slowing economy may force Chidambaram to wield budget knife. Might be bad for gold. Then again, the government doesn't buy gold.

Mining.com - how India's war on gold backfired. Hi Frik! Nice to see you're a regular reader.