There are 10 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. More hand-wringing about euro's rise, and some speculation about intervention
From: GATAComm@aol.com
2. Ted Butler: Do-Or-Die Time Coming Up?
From: GATAComm@aol.com
3. If you read The Gartman Letter, here's something else you may have missed
From: GATAComm@aol.com
4. Is front-running for the new bullion fund pushing up gold's price?
From: GATAComm@aol.com
5. Rising interest rates may not bother gold much
From: GATAComm@aol.com
6. Noranda stops negotiating exclusively with China's Minmetals
From: GATAComm@aol.com
7. Debt doubles at agency that insures U.S. pension plans
From: GATAComm@aol.com
8. CBSMarketWatch says gold ETF is expected to launch Thursday
From: GATAComm@aol.com
9. Mark Gilbert: U.S. is happily devaluing its way out of its trade deficit
From: GATAComm@aol.com
10. Are you paying storage fees on silver that doesn't exist?
From: GATAComm@aol.com
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 01:23:02 -0000
From: GATAComm@aol.com
Subject: More hand-wringing about euro's rise, and some speculation about intervention
Euro Holds Near Record;
Ministers Fail to Request ECB Sales
By Joshua Krongold and Mark Tannenbaum
Bloomberg News Service
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
bloomberg.com
pid=10000085&sid=ay685BZOBONM&refer=europe
The euro traded within a half cent of a record against
the dollar after European finance ministers failed to
ask the European Central Bank to sell the currency
for the first time to stem its advance.
"We didn't ask the ECB anything," said Dutch Finance
Minister Gerrit Zalm late yesterday, after chairing a
euro-region finance ministers' meeting in Brussels.
The euro has risen 4 percent in the past month,
spurring European finance ministers to complain its
rally may hamper economic growth.
The European currency was little changed at $1.2956
at 5 p.m. in New York, after reaching a record high
three times in the past two weeks, according to
electronic foreign-exchange dealing system EBS.
The dollar was also little changed at 105.34 yen,
after dropping to a seven-month low of 105.17
yesterday.
"They want to indicate that they are unhappy about
the euro's rise, but don't want to signal that a
determined effort is imminent," said Robert Sinche,
Bank of America's head of currency strategy in New
York. He expects the euro to rise to a record $1.32
by year-end. The euro is up 2.9 percent this year.
Shares of European exporters, including Philips
Electronics NV, fell on concern that the euro's
appreciation will erode the value of sales in the
United States. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index shed
0.7 percent to 247.24.
Exports account for a fifth of the euro region's
economy, which grew in the third quarter at the
slowest pace in more than a year. Juergen
Hambrecht, chief executive officer of BASF AG, said
on Nov. 11 the euro's advance "may become a major
issue." Exports make up a third of German gross
domestic product, Europe's largest economy.
The euro's advance is "a worry," Belgian Finance Minister
Didier Reynders said late yesterday in Brussels following
the ministers' meeting. At least six ECB council
members, including bank President Jean-Claude Trichet,
in the past week said recent currency moves were
unwelcome.
"If the ECB were very serious about this, we'd have to see
some intervention," said Steven Saywell, a currency
strategist at Citigroup Inc. in London. "Barring that, or
a cut in interest rates, which would seem to be a very low
priority, I don't think there's very much we can expect
from the ECB."
Saywell predicted the euro will strengthen to a record $1.33
in three months, about 3 cents above its current all-time
high of $1.3006, reached on Nov. 10.
"The more the euro rises, the more voices will start asking
for intervention," said EU Monetary Commissioner Joaquin
Almunia in an interview yesterday in Brussels. "It has to be
a coordinated effort but it seems that our friends across the
Atlantic aren't interested."
European complaints will fail to halt the euro's rally, said
Sonja Marten, a currency strategist at Dresdner Kleinwort
Wasserstein in Frankfurt. "For a while the market gets
scared and then after a while you move on."
ECB policy makers may sell the euro should the currency
move "quickly" toward $1.35, Marten said. "I don't know
when the market is going to have the guts to move above
$1.30 and challenge the ECB, but I don't see us going back
down."
Economic growth in the 12-nation euro region was 0.3
percent in the third quarter, the slowest in more than a
year, as the euro's gain eroded exporters' profit.
U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow told reporters
yesterday in Dublin that "a strong dollar is in America's
interest." Markets, not governments, set foreign-exchange
rates best, he said. Snow's comments came three days
after one of his aides, on condition of anonymity, said
currency markets are operating in an orderly, favorable
way.
Comments by U.S. officials over the past few months
suggest "they're quite happy" with the dollar's decline,
said Jason Bonanca, a currency strategist in New York
at Credit Suisse First Boston. "We can see one more leg
of dollar weakness" to $1.32 per euro by year-end, he said.
The dollar is down about 22 percent since President George
W. Bush took office in January 2001, according to the
Federal Reserve's Trade-Weighted Major Currency Dollar
Index.
The U.S. currency's recent decline may stall, based on a
technical indicator some traders use to gauge a currency's
likely direction. The dollar's 14-day relative strength index
against the euro is at 67.3, after closing last week at 70.9.
The index shows how rapidly prices have risen or fallen in
a given period. A level above 70 suggests an exchange
rate may decline.
The number of investors who consider the dollar to be
overvalued fell by almost half in November, according to
a Merrill Lynch & Co. survey. A net 24 percent of investors
questioned in the survey said the U.S. currency is
overvalued, compared with 43 percent in October, according
to the survey, published in London.
The dollar failed to advance even after the Treasury
Department said international investors increased purchases
of U.S. assets in September by $63.4 billion, the most since
June.
"It would have needed to have been over 100 to turn sentiment
on the dollar around," said David Mann, a currency strategist
at Standard Chartered Plc in London.
Hedge funds and other large speculators placed record bets
on the euro to gain against the dollar in the week to Nov. 9,
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission figures
showed yesterday.
The difference in the number of wagers placed by futures
traders on an advance in the euro compared with those on
a drop -- so-called net longs -- was 57,529 on Nov. 9, the
CFTC said, the most since the euro's 1999 debut.
Japan's currency fell from its strongest in seven months
after the Cabinet Office said it grew more pessimistic about
the Japanese economy in November for the first time in 17
months, citing a slowdown in exports and industrial
production.
Growth in the Japanese economy, the world's second
largest, slowed to an annual pace of 0.3 percent in the
third quarter from a revised 1.1 percent in the previous
three months.
----------------------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
jsmineset.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
mineweb.com
gold-eagle.com
kitco.com
usagold.com
goldseek.com
goldreview.com
capitalupdates.com
dailyreckoning.com
goldenbar.com
silver-investor.com
thebulliondesk.com
sharelynx.com
mininglife.com
financialsense.com
goldensextant.com
goldismoney.info
howestreet.com
depression2.tv
moneyfiles.org
howestreet.com
minersmanual.com
a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com
goldcolony.com
miningstocks.com
mineralstox.com
freemarketnews.com
321gold.com
silverseek.com
investmentrarities.com
kuik.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
plata.com.mx
(In Spanish)
plata.com.mx
(In English)
resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
lemetropolecafe.com
goldinsider.com
hsletter.com
investmentindicators.com
interventionalanalysis.com
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
os2eagle.net
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
investmentrarities.com
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
gata.org
By GoldMoney:
goldmoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
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GATA is a civil rights and educational
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Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
-END-
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:32:47 -0000
From: GATAComm@aol.com
Subject: Ted Butler: Do-Or-Die Time Coming Up?
By Ted Butler
November 9, 2004
www.InvestmentRarities.com
A close reading of the current Commitments of Traders
Report (COT), including an extrapolation since the
Tuesday cutoff, indicates that we are still at a bearish
extreme in gold and silver. Yes, there was technical
fund liquidation and dealer short covering in the latest
report, but that activity clearly took place on the big
down day on November 2. Subsequently, it appears
that the tech funds came rushing back onto the long
side (with the dealers going short) at higher prices.
The tech funds are still buying high and selling low,
the dealers are doing the opposite.
Basically, there are only two ways for this big tech
fund long/dealer short position to play out. One party
will have to be the aggressor. Either the tech funds
liquidate at lower prices, or the dealers cover at higher
prices. No one knows which it will be. We do know
that, in gold and silver, the dealers have never panicked
and covered shorts at higher prices. Certainly, there is
little or no visible evidence that the dealers are about
to panic here. But, they could, particularly in silver,
and my sense is we would get little warning.
The reason I analyze the COTs is to identify low or
high-risk points in the market. I hope I have been
clear that this type of analysis is short-term in
nature, and to a long-term silver investor the COTs
matter little. And long-term is the right way to go.
Still, trying to divine the basic rhythms of the
markets is a compelling intellectual attraction.
Because I've seen the COTs play out in a certain
repetitive way for many years (with variations, of
course), it's hard for me to ignore them.
Over the past year there have been several ultra-low
and ultra-high-risk points in silver and gold as defined
by the COTs. The most recent low-risk point was
back in mid-September. (See my commentary "The
Setup?"). Since that point silver has rallied more
than 20 percent in price ($1.25+ per oz). But it has
been tech fund net buying of almost 35,000 Comex
futures contracts, or 175 million ounces, that caused
the rally. In gold, almost 80,000 net contracts were
bought by the funds since the September lows. It is
the addition of these contracts that caused the price
to rise and greatly increase the risk of a tech fund
flush-out to the downside.
This doesn't mean, of course, that the funds WILL get
flushed out. As I said, no one knows how it will play out.
But we are at an extreme juncture. It doesn't hurt, even
for a long-term silver investor, to recognize that, at least
for mental preparation in volatile markets. It's always
dollars to the upside in silver but not always a couple of
dimes to the downside. Can silver explode in price from
here? Of course. Can silver get smacked down with
tech fund liquidation? Also of course.
The current situation is more extreme than usual, in my
opinion. It's almost as if the dealers are in a "do or
die" situation. We have a confluence of forces that are
superimposed upon the extreme COT position.
For one, we have a very heavy Comex option expiration in
gold and silver on November 23. This is the one month when
gold and silver have a concurrent option expiration. Normally
the major option months are staggered. The amount of call
options that is and could get "into the money" at current or
higher gold and silver prices is massive. I don't recall an
option expiration cycle with such heavy numbers of call
options in both gold and silver threatening to go live if
prices remain steady or move moderately higher. If this
were to occur, tremendous additional pressure could be
placed upon the dealers.
Likewise, December is the largest futures delivery month
and the only concurrent major futures month shared by
gold and silver. The delivery process begins on November
30, one week after the options settlement. Considering the
current one-year lows in the level of COMEX silver
inventories, it is not hard to imagine a "tight" December
delivery process. That tightness would only be
exacerbated if the short position going into the first delivery
day was swollen with a full tech fund long position and
unusual in-the-money option exercises. Additionally, the
recent purchase of 5 million ounces by the Central Fund
of Canada (not 6 million, as I reported originally) creates
a tighter overall physical market.
In short, the stakes are much higher for the dealers than
is usually the case at extreme COT points -- especially
considering that the leader of the silver wolf pack, AIG,
has apparently departed. If the dealers were to ever get
overrun, these unusual additional factors would seem to
add to that likelihood.
Amazingly, the total gross short position in Comex silver
(futures plus call options as of November 8) is the highest
in recent memory, at 198,000 contracts. That's the
equivalent of 990 million ounces. This is a billion-ounce
paper short position that is much larger than the 600 million
ounces in world production and maybe 150 million ounces in
known bullion inventories combined. Try to find another
commodity with that configuration. You won't.
Because the stakes are unusually high for the dealers, they
will be working overtime to engineer a sharp selloff. If such
a selloff does materialize, it should set up a tremendous
low-risk buying opportunity.
If I knew which way this bloated COT position was going to
be resolved, I would tell you. The simple truth is that no
one can know. All we can do is observe and prepare. So
instead of worrying about how the market may behave in
the short term, prepare, emotionally and financially, for any
outcome. And concentrate on what we do know -- namely,
in a commodity deficit prices must eventually rise to
eliminate that deficit.
Fortunately, there is one simple and best solution that
overrules all short-term uncertainty and allows us to capture
the certainty of the long term. That simple and best solution
is unencumbered physical silver. There are no contingencies
or "what-ifs" with real silver. There are no worries about what
could go wrong. No concerns over short-term price
fluctuations. When the law of supply and demand triumphs in
silver, there will be no unexpected surprises for those holding
real silver.
In has been my observation, almost universal among those
who own real silver, that they tend to disregard the impact
of short-term price movements upon their real silver holdings.
This is the way it should be.
In fact, it's kind of funny. I talk to people with big physical
silver holdings who are very concerned with short-term price
movements, but only for the possible impact on short-term
speculative holdings. Their physical silver holdings are
thought of very differently. It's as if we are talking about
different commodities. We are. One is paper and one is
real. One is uncertain in the short term, the other is certain
for the long term.
I hope and wish for everyone to look at silver this way.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
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----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
jsmineset.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
mineweb.com
gold-eagle.com
kitco.com
usagold.com
goldseek.com
goldreview.com
capitalupdates.com
dailyreckoning.com
goldenbar.com
silver-investor.com
thebulliondesk.com
sharelynx.com
mininglife.com
financialsense.com
goldensextant.com
goldismoney.info
howestreet.com
depression2.tv
moneyfiles.org
howestreet.com
minersmanual.com
a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com
goldcolony.com
miningstocks.com
mineralstox.com
freemarketnews.com
321gold.com
silverseek.com
investmentrarities.com
kuik.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
plata.com.mx
(In Spanish)
plata.com.mx
(In English)
resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
lemetropolecafe.com
goldinsider.com
hsletter.com
investmentindicators.com
interventionalanalysis.com
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
os2eagle.net
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
investmentrarities.com
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
gata.org
By GoldMoney:
goldmoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
-END-
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:47:42 -0000
From: GATAComm@aol.com
Subject: If you read The Gartman Letter, here's something else you may have missed
"Conspiracies rarely exist."
-- Dennis Gartman
in The Gartman Letter,
September 14, 2004
* * *
Zurich Financial Underwriters
Plead Guilty in Probe
By Philipp Goellner and Eric Moskowitz
Bloomberg News Service
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
quote.bloomberg.com
pid=10000006&sid=a3zNEEpnmHDc&refer=home
Two underwriters at Zurich Financial Services AG,
the third-biggest U.S. commercial insurer, pleaded
guilty to charges they helped rig bids to help an
insurance broker give business to favored clients.
The two men, John Keenan and Edward Coughlin,
worked exclusively with Marsh & McLennan Cos.,
according to plea agreements at their arraignment
today in New York State Supreme Court. The pleas
bring to five the number of people who have admitted
roles in the illegal business practices under
investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
"The investigation is proceeding carefully and
methodically," Spitzer said in a statement. "Our goal is
to determine the full extent of wrongdoing in the industry
and its effect on consumers."
More than 17 people, including Marsh Chief Executive
Jeffrey Greenberg, have been fired or suspended since
Spitzer sued Marsh, the world's largest insurance
broker, on Oct. 14. Spitzer and the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission, expanding the probe beyond
bid rigging, this week sent new subpoenas to insurers
such as St. Paul Travelers Cos., seeking to determine
whether they are selling policies to help companies
hide losses.
Keenan and Coughlin each pleaded guilty to a
misdemeanor under New York State's Donnelly Act,
which bars agreements in restraint of trade. They face
a maximum sentence of one year in state prison.
The two employees no longer work at the company, said
Zurich spokesman Keith Owens. Keenan and Coughlin
were part of an unspecified number of employees in the
excess-casualty unit suspended last week, Owens said.
Keenan and Coughlin, who worked exclusively with Marsh
Global Broking between 2002 and 2004, are expected to
testify in future cases, Spitzer's office said. Supreme
Court Judge James Yates set a trial date for Keenan and
Coughlin of Jan. 27, 2005.
"I don't think the attorney general's office is going to bring
any of these cases to trial," said Lewis Weiner, an attorney
for Coughlin. "They're squeezing these low-level people and
that's not right."
Marsh spokeswoman Barbara Perlmutter declined to
comment on today's plea agreements. Zurich said it's being
helped in its investigation by the New York-based law firm
LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP. LeBoeuf
spokesman Stephen DiCarmine declined to comment.
In his complaint against Marsh, Spitzer said insurers
inflated quotes as part of a phony bidding system Marsh
designed to steer business to the insurers that paid it the
highest fees. Two executives from American International
Group Inc. and one from Ace Ltd. pleaded guilty last month
in connection with the Marsh accusations.
Zurich won a contract two years ago to insure an $800
million school project in Greenville, South Carolina,
according to the Marsh suit. Marsh, which brokered the
deal, gave the contract to Zurich because it expected the
insurer to pay a lucrative fee, Spitzer's complaint said.
Zurich wasn't named as a defendant in the suit.
Spitzer filed his second complaint in the probe last week,
suing Universal Life Resources Inc., a closely held broker
based in San Diego. That suit linked UnumProvident Corp.,
MetLife Inc., and Prudential Financial Inc. to price fixing
and payoffs, bringing the total number of companies
identified in the collusion to nine.
The subpoena sent to St. Paul is part of a wider
investigation into non-traditional, or loss-mitigation,
insurance products. Ace received similar subpoenas
yesterday. A federal grand jury is probing a policy that
American International sold to Indianapolis cell-phone
distributor Brightpoint Inc. that the SEC said allowed
the company to mask losses.
Regulators are studying whether some policies can
provide financing like a loan while being accounted for
as insurance.
Spitzer and other state officials told a U.S. Senate panel
today that alleged abuses they found in the insurance
industry indicate the need for more federal oversight,
including tougher antitrust rules.
Industry groups told the same panel that fees that form
the core of Spitzer's suit against Marsh are part of
standard business practices.
"It's an incentive to bring in good business," said Ernst
Csiszar, president of the Property Casualty Insurers
Association of America. "The idea is we need better
disclosure.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
jsmineset.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
mineweb.com
gold-eagle.com
kitco.com
usagold.com
goldseek.com
goldreview.com
capitalupdates.com
dailyreckoning.com
goldenbar.com
silver-investor.com
thebulliondesk.com
sharelynx.com
mininglife.com
financialsense.com
goldensextant.com
goldismoney.info
howestreet.com
depression2.tv
moneyfiles.org
howestreet.com
minersmanual.com
a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com
goldcolony.com
miningstocks.com
mineralstox.com
freemarketnews.com
321gold.com
silverseek.com
investmentrarities.com
kuik.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
plata.com.mx
(In Spanish)
plata.com.mx
(In English)
resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
lemetropolecafe.com
goldinsider.com
hsletter.com
investmentindicators.com
interventionalanalysis.com
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
os2eagle.net
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
investmentrarities.com
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
gata.org
By GoldMoney:
goldmoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
-END-
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:58:16 -0000
From: GATAComm@aol.com
Subject: Is front-running for the new bullion fund pushing up gold's price?
9:54p ET Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Resource Investor's Tim Wood speculates that the
impending launch of the World Gold Council's
bullion fund in New York has prompted front-
running that is supporting the gold price, and he
quotes gold's perennial disparager, Mitsui's Andy
Smith, as predicting a collapse in the gold price
once the front-running is out of the way. Wood
adds that his own expectation is otherwise,
given the awfulness of the alternative to gold,
the dollar.
You can find Wood's report here:
resourceinvestor.com
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
jsmineset.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
mineweb.com
gold-eagle.com
kitco.com
usagold.com
goldseek.com
goldreview.com
capitalupdates.com
dailyreckoning.com
goldenbar.com
silver-investor.com
thebulliondesk.com
sharelynx.com
mininglife.com
financialsense.com
goldensextant.com
goldismoney.info
howestreet.com
depression2.tv
moneyfiles.org
howestreet.com
minersmanual.com
a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com
goldcolony.com
miningstocks.com
mineralstox.com
freemarketnews.com
321gold.com
silverseek.com
investmentrarities.com
kuik.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
plata.com.mx
(In Spanish)
plata.com.mx
(In English)
resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
lemetropolecafe.com
goldinsider.com
hsletter.com
investmentindicators.com
interventionalanalysis.com
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
os2eagle.net
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
investmentrarities.com
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
gata.org
By GoldMoney:
goldmoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
-END-
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Message: 5
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 03:58:57 -0000
From: GATAComm@aol.com
Subject: Rising interest rates may not bother gold much
10:57p ET Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
This CBSMarketWatch story is interesting
for its comment that, as Jim Sinclair has
been saying, rising interest rates are no
threat to gold, since they always trail the
true inflation rate and make more trouble
for gold's competitors, paper investments.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
* * *
Gold Futures Climb Back to 1988 Levels
By Myra P. Saefong
CBSMarketWatch.com
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
cbs.marketwatch.com
2D42F9%2D967C%2D15F403AEAAAD%7D&siteid=mktw&dist=
SAN FRANCISCO -- Gold futures climbed above $440 an
ounce to close at their highest level since 1988 Tuesday,
as signs of inflation sparked fresh investor interest in the
precious metal.
"Gold has legs to move," based on the reported 1.7
percent climb in the producer price index last month --
the most since January 1990, said John Person,
president of National Futures Advisory Service.
"Interest rates are still relatively inexpensive, which
makes gold a favorite hedge against a rise in the U.S.
dollar," he said. "The Fed raises rates to combat
inflationary pressures, but they risk choking off the
economy's growth momentum, so this makes buying
gold even that much more attractive as many doubt
they will be overly aggressive in their interest
rate-hiking campaign."
Against this backdrop, gold for December delivery
closed at $440.50 an ounce on the New York
Mercantile Exchange, up $3.20 for the session
after tapping a high of $441.40 earlier. Prices
haven't traded at these levels since July 1988.
"Earnings last quarter for companies in the S&P
500 Index rose about 17 percent based on the
share-weighted average of the 462 companies that
released results by Nov. 12" -- that's the smallest
increase since the second quarter of 2003, said
Person.
"This shows that earnings are decelerating, and that
shows the economy is definitely going to be
struggling," he said.
Combined with the PPI data, it all "spells trouble
ahead for the Fed, which must try to balance inflation
while not curtailing the economy's growth momentum,"
said Person.
"If the Fed sees inflation as a threat, they will
aggressively raise rates -- that is bad for stocks and
bonds, but supportive for gold," he explained. The
situation would make gold more attractive "as a hedge
against losses in paper assets, until the Fed takes
control of the situation."
From here, Kevin Kerr, president of Kerr Trading
International, expects prices to climb to $475. "Interest
rate fears are driving this market and it looks like little
will put the brakes on the rally," he said.
If prices break through the $446 to $450 level, "there's
little doubt that the market will continue on its track for
$500 and beyond," said Dale Doelling, chief market
commentator at Bullion.com in Chicago.
All in all, the factors are "ripe" for a continued increase
in gold, said Michael Cuggino, portfolio manager of
Permanent Portfolio Funds.
Elsewhere in metals futures, silver and copper ended
mixed Tuesday. December silver rose 2 cents to close
at $7.592 an ounce. December copper closed at $1.369
a pound, down 1.85 cents.
Tracking inventories, copper supplies were down 160
short tons at 41,861 short tons as of late Monday,
according to Nymex. Silver stocks were unchanged at
102.2 million, while gold inventories stood at 5.35 million
troy ounces, also unchanged from the previous session.
Meanwhile, the January platinum contract lost $8.40 to
end the day at $868.90 an ounce after a report from
metals refiner and marketer Johnson Matthey said
platinum supply will likely outpace demand in 2005 for
the first time in six years.
For the current year, platinum demand will likely grow
less than 1 percent to 6.47 million ounces while supplies
will be up 230,000 ounces at 6.43 million ounces.
December palladium closed at $222 an ounce, up $2.50.
The palladium market is set for another 1 million-ounce
surplus in 2004, the Johnson Matthey report said.
In equities, metals mining shares recovered from
Monday's declines, pulling key indexes for the sector to
fresh highs.
The CBOE Gold Index closed at 98.66, up 1.8 percent
for the session. It closed at its highest level since
mid-1997.
The Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index rose 1.5 percent
to end at 108.68 and the Amex Gold Bugs Index closed
at 240.89, up 1.7 percent. Both indexes traded around
their highest levels since January.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
jsmineset.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
mineweb.com
gold-eagle.com
kitco.com
usagold.com
goldseek.com
goldreview.com
capitalupdates.com
dailyreckoning.com
goldenbar.com
silver-investor.com
thebulliondesk.com
sharelynx.com
mininglife.com
financialsense.com
goldensextant.com
goldismoney.info
howestreet.com
depression2.tv
moneyfiles.org
howestreet.com
minersmanual.com
a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com
goldcolony.com
miningstocks.com
mineralstox.com
freemarketnews.com
321gold.com
silverseek.com
investmentrarities.com
kuik.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
plata.com.mx
(In Spanish)
plata.com.mx
(In English)
resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
lemetropolecafe.com
goldinsider.com
hsletter.com
investmentindicators.com
interventionalanalysis.com
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
os2eagle.net
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
investmentrarities.com
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
gata.org
By GoldMoney:
goldmoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
-END-
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Message: 6
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 04:14:41 -0000
From: GATAComm@aol.com
Subject: Noranda stops negotiating exclusively with China's Minmetals
By Nicole Mordant
Reuters
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
reuters.com
duid=mtfh20062_2004-11-16_20-37-38_n16318293_newsml
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Noranda Inc. said
on Tuesday it is reopening the field to other bidders
or may go it alone after failing to seal a
multibillion-dollar takeover by China Minmetals during
seven weeks of exclusive talks.
The big Canadian miner will continue to have
discussions with the state-owned Chinese trading
house but said that a period of exclusivity has expired
and won't be renewed, a move analysts said is aimed
at pressuring Minmetals into striking a deal quickly if
it is still keen.
"Noranda and (parent) Brascan have gotten sick and
tired of the Chinese dragging their feet. Apparently the
package presented to them by China Minmetals is
also not satisfactory," said a Toronto-based analyst
who asked not to be identified.
Noranda's stock gained 68 Canadian cents to C$21.18
and shares of Brascan, which owns 42 percent of
Noranda, rose C$1.18 to C$44, as the market hoped
for a richer deal.
David Weiner, Minmetals' spokesman in Canada, said
his company was "absolutely" still interested in Noranda,
which, as the world's third-biggest zinc and ninth-largest
copper miner, offers industrializing China a stable supply
of metals.
"It's a complex transaction and, by their nature, they take
time to execute," Weiner said, adding: "You can
certainly expect to hear from us in the very near future."
After putting itself up for sale in June at a time of buoyant
metal prices, Noranda picked Minmetals on Sept. 24 from
among several suitors as its top deal prospect.
Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, the world's No. 1
iron ore producer, is widely regarded as one of the other
bidders and its president said on Tuesday that it was
open to talks about Noranda.
"If Brascan seeks us out, we are open to studying
anything. But we will move ahead only on projects that
create value for our shareholders," Roger Agnelli told
journalists at a news conference in Rio de Janeiro.
CVRD's stock was down 5 percent or $1.22 in New
York at $23.20.
In the weeks that Minmetals has been looking into
Noranda's operations, Noranda's stock has dropped
about 9 percent, while mining stocks on the Toronto
Stock Exchange have risen about 8 percent as metal
prices zoomed higher.
"It was not in the best interests of Noranda
shareholders to continue granting an exclusivity to
China Minmetals when the economic fundamentals in
the industry have continued to improve," said Noranda
spokesman Denis Couture, pointing to robust metal
prices and Noranda's good third-quarter results.
"Negotiations with Minmetals are progressing and are
cordial ... but we might want to pursue options with
other parties," he said.
Noranda said in September that the Chinese firm had
made a preliminary offer to buy all of Noranda in a
mostly cash deal.
Canaccord Capital analyst Greg Barnes said the small
premium that Minmetals offered, which lead the market
to peg a value of up to C$23 a share, or C$7 billion
($6.4 billion) on the transaction, put a lid on Noranda's
stock price.
"People are looking at it as dead money," he said.
Another rumored Noranda suitor, Switzerland's XStrata
Plc, could be off the radar screen after it recently made a
bid for Australia's WMC Resources, a copper and nickel
producer that CVRD is also seen eyeing.
Couture said Noranda was also weighing going it alone.
There is no deadline for a decision on its future, he said.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
jsmineset.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
mineweb.com
gold-eagle.com
kitco.com
usagold.com
goldseek.com
goldreview.com
capitalupdates.com
dailyreckoning.com
goldenbar.com
silver-investor.com
thebulliondesk.com
sharelynx.com
mininglife.com
financialsense.com
goldensextant.com
goldismoney.info
howestreet.com
depression2.tv
moneyfiles.org
howestreet.com
minersmanual.com
a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com
goldcolony.com
miningstocks.com
mineralstox.com
freemarketnews.com
321gold.com
silverseek.com
investmentrarities.com
kuik.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
plata.com.mx
(In Spanish)
plata.com.mx
(In English)
resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
lemetropolecafe.com
goldinsider.com
hsletter.com
investmentindicators.com
interventionalanalysis.com
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
os2eagle.net
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
investmentrarities.com
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
gata.org
By GoldMoney:
goldmoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
-END-
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Message: 7
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 05:47:50 -0000
From: GATAComm@aol.com
Subject: Debt doubles at agency that insures U.S. pension plans
By Mary Williams Walsh
The New York Times
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
nytimes.com
pagewanted=all
The federal agency that insures pension plans said
yesterday that its deficit, already at the highest in
its history, had doubled in its last fiscal year, to
$23.3 billion.
Over a 12-month period, the agency, the Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corp., incurred losses of $12.1
billion, according to the agency's audited annual
report for fiscal 2004. Much of the loss was a result
of pension fund failures in the airline industry.
The agency, created in 1974 to be the federal safety
net when pensions fail, has now lost an average of
$10 billion a year for the last three years, according
to one estimate. The mounting losses come at a
time when the agency is responsible for paying the
pensions for more than one million people covered
by pension plans that failed.
The agency's executive director, Bradley D. Belt,
called on Congress yesterday to address the situation
quickly, "so the problem doesn't spiral out of control."
He said that the Bush administration was preparing
a plan for a comprehensive overhaul of the pension
system, which it would propose early next year.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is paid premiums
by companies that offer traditional pension plans. But
it does not have the legal authority to raise those
premiums or take other fundamental steps to bring its
finances back into balance. Such measures would have
to be enacted by Congress.
Congress, however, has not addressed the problems of
America's pension system in a comprehensive way
since the late 1980s, when a number of large steel
companies with traditional pension plans defaulted.
Since then, lawmakers have made some lesser
amendments to the system, but even those have
been made with great difficulty. The issues involved
are complicated, and any true pension reform will be
costly to someone -- either companies, workers, or
the federal government.
Experts warn that waiting will not make the troubles
go away. The system of regulating and insuring
traditional pensions called defined-benefit pensions
is increasingly resembling the system that did the
same for the savings and loan industry two decades
ago.
Congress had difficulty correcting that system's
structural problems as well. As a result, there were
delays and missteps, and the problems had years
to grow and deepen. In the end, the entire system
collapsed in 1989 and Congress had to authorize a
federal bailout that cost about $200 billion.
"The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is living on
borrowed time," said Rep. George Miller, a California
Democrat who has followed the troubles in the
pension system closely. He issued a statement
yesterday saying the possibility of "an S.& L.-style
taxpayer bailout of the agency to the tune of billions
of dollars has increased."
In announcing the pension agency's latest financial
results, Mr. Belt, the executive director, said that it
was not running out of cash. With reserves of $39
billion, he said, it should be able to keep sending
retirees their pension checks "for a number of years,"
even if Congress does nothing.
The problem is that the pensions the agency must
pay retirees are much larger than the reserves, Mr.
Belt said. The pensions owed retirees measure
$62.3 billion in today's dollars.
Unless the agency finds a way to close the gap
between the $39 billion that it has and the $62 billion
that it owes, it will run out of money at some point.
In that case, either retirees will be denied their
benefits, or else Congress will have to appropriate
money for a bailout.
Mr. Belt also noted that the agency's problems were
worsening at a time when the general economic
environment has been improving. He said the agency
now faced $96 billion worth of risk from companies
that are "reasonably possible" to default on their
pension promises. The comparable number a year
ago was just $82 billion.
The pension agency identifies such companies by
looking at their corporate credit ratings, together
with the weakness of their pension funds.
The agency does not identify the companies whose
pension plans it expects to take over. Still, it is clear
that the airline industry was responsible for much of
the agency's loss for the fiscal year.
US Airways' three pension funds are expected to cost
the agency $2.1 billion. And United Airlines, a unit of
UAL, recently announced that it would terminate all
four of its pension plans as part of its efforts to emerge
from bankruptcy. Taking over United's pensions alone
will cost the agency an estimated $6.3 billion, by far
the biggest pension insurance claim ever made by a
single company. Accounting rules require the agency
to book that loss in its fiscal 2004, even though it has
not yet taken over United's plans.
Even before yesterday's announcement, analysts were
warning that the pension agency needed help. Douglas
J. Elliott, president of the Center on Federal Financial
Institutions, said that if Congress took corrective action
quickly, the cost would be small relative to the cost of
a bailout some time in the future. The center is a
nonpartisan research institute that examines the
federal government's various lending and insurance
programs.
Mr. Elliott said that the agency's new numbers brought
its average losses to more than $10 billion a year for
three years.
"This is a trend," he said. "This isn't something where
you can just say, 'Well, that was a bad year, thank
goodness we're over it.' "
In addition, the agency's fiscal 2004 was a year of
general improvement in overall economic and financial
conditions, Mr. Elliott said. Had interest rates not
changed slightly in the agency's favor, its losses would
have been even larger.
Congress is not expected to address the pension
agency's problems in the current lame duck session
because it already has a full workload. But some
members said yesterday that they were concerned
about the strength of the nation's pension system
and hoped to introduce legislation early in 2005.
"This issue has wide-ranging implications on retirees,
employers, workers, taxpayers, and the government,"
said Rep. John A. Boehner, the Ohio Republican who
is the chairman of the House Committee on Education
and the Workforce. Mr. Boehner said in a statement
that he planned to introduce a bill in 2005 that would
address what he called "systemic pension
underfunding problems."
The Education and Workforce Committee has already
held hearings on the problems of the pension system
and possible remedies. Mr. Boehner said that in
addition to making sure companies set aside enough
money for their pensions, the bill would require
companies to disclose clear information about their
pension plans and pay adequate insurance premiums
for their coverage.
In addition to the premiums it collects from companies,
the pension insurance program receives the assets from
the failed pension funds it takes over and invests them.
It does not currently receive money from income tax
receipts.
The insurance premiums have not been increased since
1994 and are thought to be inadequate relative to the
amount of insurance coverage companies receive. United
Airlines, for instance, has paid about $50 million in
insurance premiums over the years, for coverage of its
$6.3 billion claim.
Pension specialists also point out that the premiums do
not have anything to do with the amount of risk companies
bring to the pension insurance program. Companies with
pension plans that do not have adequate funds do pay
higher premiums than companies with strong plans. But
that way of operating does not account for one of the
most important signs of whether the plan will collapse or
not: the company's own health.
A strong company with an unhealthy pension plan poses
nowhere near the risk of a weak company with an
unhealthy pension plan.
Mr. Boehner has suggested finding a way to distinguish
between weak and strong companies, and charge higher
premiums to the companies that pose greater risk.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
jsmineset.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
mineweb.com
gold-eagle.com
kitco.com
usagold.com
goldseek.com
goldreview.com
capitalupdates.com
dailyreckoning.com
goldenbar.com
silver-investor.com
thebulliondesk.com
sharelynx.com
mininglife.com
financialsense.com
goldensextant.com
goldismoney.info
howestreet.com
depression2.tv
moneyfiles.org
howestreet.com
minersmanual.com
a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com
goldcolony.com
miningstocks.com
mineralstox.com
freemarketnews.com
321gold.com
silverseek.com
investmentrarities.com
kuik.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
plata.com.mx
(In Spanish)
plata.com.mx
(In English)
resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
lemetropolecafe.com
goldinsider.com
hsletter.com
investmentindicators.com
interventionalanalysis.com
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
os2eagle.net
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
investmentrarities.com
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
gata.org
By GoldMoney:
goldmoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
-END-
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Message: 8
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 01:17:48 -0000
From: GATAComm@aol.com
Subject: CBSMarketWatch says gold ETF is expected to launch Thursday
By John Spence
CBSMarketWatch.com
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
cbs.marketwatch.com
dateid=38308.6839583333-
827083075&doctype=806&siteid=mktw&selCount=20&value=ETF&property=word&
BOSTON -- The first exchange-traded fund investing
in gold bullion will begin trading on the New York
Stock Exchange on Thursday, said sources familiar
with the situation.
Called StreetTracks Gold Shares, the ETF will trade
under the symbol "GLD" with the World Gold Council
as the sponsor.
Blocks of 100,000 shares are redeemable into gold
bullion, and shares should be priced at about 1/10th
the price of a troy ounce of gold but will deviate over
time since the 0.4 percent expense ratio will come
out of selling underlying gold to pay expenses of the
trust.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
jsmineset.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
mineweb.com
gold-eagle.com
kitco.com
usagold.com
goldseek.com
goldreview.com
capitalupdates.com
dailyreckoning.com
goldenbar.com
silver-investor.com
thebulliondesk.com
sharelynx.com
mininglife.com
financialsense.com
goldensextant.com
goldismoney.info
howestreet.com
depression2.tv
moneyfiles.org
howestreet.com
minersmanual.com
a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com
goldcolony.com
miningstocks.com
mineralstox.com
freemarketnews.com
321gold.com
silverseek.com
investmentrarities.com
kuik.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
plata.com.mx
(In Spanish)
plata.com.mx
(In English)
resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
lemetropolecafe.com
goldinsider.com
hsletter.com
investmentindicators.com
interventionalanalysis.com
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
os2eagle.net
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
investmentrarities.com
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
gata.org
By GoldMoney:
goldmoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
-END-
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Message: 9
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 01:27:27 -0000
From: GATAComm@aol.com
Subject: Mark Gilbert: U.S. is happily devaluing its way out of its trade deficit
Treasury Secretary Snow Laughs Off Dollar's Drop
By Mark Gilbert
Bloomberg News Service
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
quote.bloomberg.com
pid=10000039&refer=columnist_gilbert&sid=abKpiT.R8.6k
"The history of efforts to impose non-market valuations
on currencies is at best unrewarding and checkered"
was U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow's response
today to a question about whether the U.S. might join
with other countries in a bid to arrest the dollar's
decline.
The currency market quickly parsed Snow's comment,
made in London at a briefing on global economies,
and came up with its own translation: "Sell the
dollar."
Down it went, dropping to a record $1.3048 against the
euro and slumping to 104.29 against the yen. When
Bloomberg reporter Edie Lush told him his comments
were driving the dollar lower and his alleged "strong
dollar" policy wasn't working, Snow chuckled. "The
policy is the policy," he said.
Snow, looking scarily like Jack Nicholson in his role
as the Joker in the "Batman" movie, is laughing all
the way to narrower deficits. His lips said, "No one
ever devalued their way to prosperity." But his eyes
seemed to be saying, "There's no way I'm bailing out
a bunch of cheese-eating surrender monkeys who
can't even lick their trade unions into shape."
The U.S. currency continues to disregard every piece
of good news that would typically drive it higher. It
ignored yesterday's figures showing U.S. producer
prices jumped 1.7 percent last month, their biggest
surge in 14 years. It ignored U.S. Treasury figures
showing international investors bought a net $63.4
billion of U.S. assets in September, the most since
June.
And it ignored the latest comment from the Federal
Reserve flagging its intention to keep pushing the
benchmark U.S. interest rate higher. "There is
certainly more ground to cover," Chicago Fed
President Michael Moskow told his local chamber
of commerce yesterday.
In contrast, there's little prospect of an interest
rate increase from the European Central Bank in coming
months, with growth slumping to 0.3 percent in the
third quarter for the 12 nations that use the euro.
The Fed has doubled its overnight target rate to 2
percent this year, so the benchmark rates in the
United States and Europe are level for now. Even
with the prospect of a widening gap that should
promise higher returns on dollar deposits, the U.S.
currency isn't rallying.
That's because currency traders are growing more
convinced that the Fed is as happy as the U.S.
government to watch the dollar drop. "The issue for
the Fed is getting the Fed funds rate back up so
they can cut it again in future if they need to," says
Steve Major, global head of fixed-income strategy at
HSBC Holdings Plc in London. "A weaker dollar
allows them to do that."
Asked by Heidi Crebo-Rediker of Bear Stearns Cos.
how he expected overseas holders of U.S. Treasuries
to react to the losses the dollar will inflict on their
investments, Snow segued into a long joke, the
punch line of which was "no comment." That's not
funny when international investors own $1.9 trillion
of the $3.8 trillion of marketable U.S. Treasury
securities.
So far the U.S. government has been able to feed
its $55 billion-per-month addiction to the foreign
capital needed to fund the current-account deficit
by relying on overseas purchases of its bonds.
Yesterday's figures showed international investors
bought $19.2 billion of government debt in
September, up from $14.6 billion in the previous
month.
The figures also showed that Japan dumped Treasuries
for the first month since October 2002, with net sales
of $1.5 billion.
Maybe Japanese investors have been listening to the
chorus of Fed officials warning that U.S. economic
policies threaten the health of the Treasury market.
Yesterday it was the turn of Philadelphia Fed
President Anthony Santomero to caution that "the
issue of how a cyclically balanced budget will be
restored introduces another element of uncertainty
in the outlook."
Tim Bond, the global head of rates strategy at
Barclays Capital in London, says it's "an odd time"
for the Fed to embrace a weaker dollar as a means
of slimming the current-account deficit, given
worries about the government's enthusiasm for
more tax cuts.
"A suspicion lurks that the renewed emphasis on
the current account position betrays an attempt to
remove the source of temptation -- ultra-cheap
foreign financing -- before the politicians manage
to enact some truly disastrous policies," Bond
wrote in a research note yesterday.
With every grin, every shrug of the shoulders, every
elusive response to perfectly straightforward questions,
Snow told Europe and Japan that a weaker dollar is
just fine by him. Strong growth, he said, is what will
narrow the U.S. trade gap from last year's record
$496.5 billion, and the current account deficit from
the $166.2 billion reached in the second quarter.
What he meant was: The United States is happily
devaluing its way to an improved deficit position.
--------
Mark Gilbert is a columnist for Bloomberg News
Service.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
jsmineset.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
mineweb.com
gold-eagle.com
kitco.com
usagold.com
goldseek.com
goldreview.com
capitalupdates.com
dailyreckoning.com
goldenbar.com
silver-investor.com
thebulliondesk.com
sharelynx.com
mininglife.com
financialsense.com
goldensextant.com
goldismoney.info
howestreet.com
depression2.tv
moneyfiles.org
howestreet.com
minersmanual.com
a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com
goldcolony.com
miningstocks.com
mineralstox.com
freemarketnews.com
321gold.com
silverseek.com
investmentrarities.com
kuik.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
plata.com.mx
(In Spanish)
plata.com.mx
(In English)
resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
lemetropolecafe.com
goldinsider.com
hsletter.com
investmentindicators.com
interventionalanalysis.com
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
os2eagle.net
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
investmentrarities.com
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
gata.org
By GoldMoney:
goldmoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
-END-
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Message: 10
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 01:45:45 -0000
From: GATAComm@aol.com
Subject: Are you paying storage fees on silver that doesn't exist?
By James R. Cook and Ted Butler
Investment Rarities
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
www.InvestmentRarities.com
Last week we had two prospects tell us that they had
silver stored with major New York brokerage firms.
One man had 50,000 ounces he'd bought from them
years ago. The other had 20,000 ounces with another
well-known firm. They have both been paying storage
fees. But neither had any kind of proof that they owned
real silver. They could not get a storage receipt with
the exact size and weight of the bars. Nor could they
get serial numbers for the bars.
According to silver analyst Ted Butler, if you can't get
proof that real silver is in your name, then the silver
doesn't exist. "Why wouldn't they give you the serial
numbers if they had the bars?" asks Ted. "It's easy
enough to do that and it's something that silver
buyers who store silver should insist on."
A few years ago Ted Butler addressed this very issue
as follows:
* * *
By Ted Butler
The same careful thinking and analysis that goes into
the decision of whether to invest in silver is often not
present in the decision of where and how the silver
will be stored. Here I think many silver investors may
be making a big mistake. That mistake is in assuming
that just because you may have a piece of paper that
reads that you own silver, there is real silver backing
that piece of paper. In fact, I would assert that the vast
majority of silver pieces of paper, such as foreign bank
silver certificates, pool accounts, and all leveraged
contracts have no real silver behind them. How could
they? No one can provide evidence of more than 150
million ounces of verified silver bullion in the world,
yet we have billions of ounces of silver promised by
various pieces of paper...
What they have been doing, issuing and letting their
silver certificates remain unbacked by real silver, is
an immensely profitable business. For 20 years or
more by not having to go out and buy and store real
silver whenever a customer buys a silver certificate,
the foreign bankers have been printing profits for
themselves. Their customers give them cash upfront,
and not only do these banks have full use of that
cash, they do not have to pay any interest on that
cash, and get this -- they charge storage fees for
silver that doesn't exist. It's better than stealing,
because if you just stole the money from someone,
you wouldn't get to charge additional storage fees.
It's a racket.
Now I have surmised that there may be a billion
ounces of silver involved in these certificates, but
I think the figure may be much, much more. Here's
my reasoning. While a billion ounces of silver may
be a lot of silver, it sure isn't a lot of money. Five
billion dollars over 20 years and all the banks that
are doing this is peanuts. One man, Warren Buffett,
bought almost a billion dollars' worth of silver by
himself (of course, he couldn't get full delivery when
it came down to it).
I recently witnessed one transaction where one entity
bought 10 million (paper certificate) ounces from a
major Swiss bank. You don't think, over the span of
20 years and the hundreds, or thousands, of banks
involved in this silver certificate scam, that there
haven't been a hundred others like this entity? What's
$5 billion spread over hundreds if not thousands of
banks worldwide?
There are two things that should come to every silver
investor's mind.
First, is there silver behind my certificate? There most
likely is if you a have a certificate that spells out the
serial numbers on the bars or a specific description of
the silver held (bags of coins, for instance). There
probably is if the storage function is separate and
distinct from the dealer selling you the silver. There
probably is if it's registered in your name and not the
name of your dealer. If you have all three, no sweat.
But if you hold a certificate where the silver is not
described specifically, or is unallocated form, or is
in a pool account, or there are no storage charges,
you would be wise to assume that the silver doesn't
exist.
That doesn't mean that you will automatically lose
when silver takes off, but it becomes a question then
of the credit quality of the entity you are doing business
with, which is a very different analysis than the merits
of silver. You then would be betting upon the financial
viability of a dealer whose books you have not analyzed.
Appearances can be deceptive. Remember that a few
years ago the largest silver refiner in the world, Handy
& Harman Refining, suddenly went bankrupt and all
silver pool owners and depositors were left in the cold.
Also, there may be small print wording in these
unbacked silver certificates that may prevent you from
getting your silver in physical form or that may deny
you the true world price at the time you may wish to
sell.
The second thing concerning silver certificates that
should come to every silver investor's mind is the market
implication that a silver price rise would have on those
issuing non-silver-backed certificates. This is what I was
mainly referring to in my mention that these certificates
are a separate and distinct short position.
Even if you are not worried that your dealer may renege
or go out of business (in the case of a large Swiss bank,
for instance) if silver rises in price dramatically, the
implications for the silver market will be profound.
While those who have been issuing these non-backed
silver certificates have profited immensely over the
decades by having free use of their silver depositors'
money, there is a cost to be paid for those profits in
the event of a silver price spike. Even if the depositors
don't demand their silver, many will want to cash out
at high silver prices. The issuing banks will be liable
for those profits, and the only way the banks can limit
their liability is to offset their suddenly very naked
silver exposure and buy silver in some form, paper or
physical. At some price trigger point -- $8, $12, $20
-- these banks will panic and buy en masse.
Ask yourself this: If the silver short sellers that these
banks have been for decades suddenly turn collective
buyers at any price, to the tune of hundreds of millions
or billions of ounces, who will be there to sell to them
such quantities?
Still think that $50 or $100 per ounce is unreasonable?
My advice here is not aimed only at new silver buyers.
I am speaking to those who have bought silver already,
over the years, with no input from me. My advice for
those holding paper silver in questionable form is to
get your silver into unquestionable form. Get out of
pool accounts and unallocated silver and into real and
allocated silver. Hold your silver in hand or with
someone you trust. The additional costs will prove well
worth it.
Make the switch now, while you can. Don't wait for the
price to rise, for then it may be too late. I can't think of
a worse outcome than for someone to have invested
in silver for a long time only to be denied a profit when
the price rises because he held the wrong form of stored
silver. Please don't let that happen to you.
----------------------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
jsmineset.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
mineweb.com
gold-eagle.com
kitco.com
usagold.com
goldseek.com
goldreview.com
capitalupdates.com
dailyreckoning.com
goldenbar.com
silver-investor.com
thebulliondesk.com
sharelynx.com
mininglife.com
financialsense.com
goldensextant.com
goldismoney.info
howestreet.com
depression2.tv
moneyfiles.org
howestreet.com
minersmanual.com
a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com
goldcolony.com
miningstocks.com
mineralstox.com
freemarketnews.com
321gold.com
silverseek.com
investmentrarities.com
kuik.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
plata.com.mx
(In Spanish)
plata.com.mx
(In English)
resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
lemetropolecafe.com
goldinsider.com
hsletter.com
investmentindicators.com
interventionalanalysis.com
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
os2eagle.net
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
investmentrarities.com
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
gata.org
By GoldMoney:
goldmoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
-END- |
