My O My..... what a busy thread :-)
1:25a EST Tuesday, December 7, 1999
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Here is an important announcement and appeal from GATA
Chairman Bill Murphy. GATA is making a big move in
Washington this week and wants you to know about it so
you can help us.
Please post this as seems useful.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
* * *
By Bill "Midas" Murphy
Chairman, Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
December 6, 1999
Some news of the day:
Gold Drops After Dutch Central Bank
Says It's Selling 300 Tons
London, Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Gold dropped more than 2
percent to a two-month low after the Dutch central bank
said it will sell 300 metric tons over the next five
years, with the first 100 tons to be sold next year.
The announcement comes after 15 European central banks,
including that of the Netherlands, agreed Sept. 26 to
limit gold sales during the next five years to those
already planned.
* * *
Goldman Investigated by U.K. Regulator
on Ashanti, newspaper says
London, Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The Financial Services
Authority, Britain's financial regulator, is
investigating a potential conflict of interest
involving Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s role in advising
Ashanti Goldfields Co., the Financial News reported,
without citing sources.
Accra, Ghana-based Ashanti, which bet gold prices would
stay low, revealed losses on derivative contacts after
the metal soared at the end of September and faces the
threat of bankruptcy over margin calls fror the 17
banks, including Goldman, which had contracts with the
company.
The FSA needs to make sure that, although Goldman was
entering into derivative contracts on behalf of clients
and not for itself, adequate steps were taken to ensure
potential conflicts of interest didn't come into play,
the paper said, while some outside Ashanti shareholders
want to see action considered against Goldman and
others for misselling derivatives, the paper reported,
citing independent investor Colin Kingsnorth.
* * *
Sources tell GATA that Goldman represents 30-35 percent
of the gold market in New York.
A leading Canadian brokerage has told our sources that
Goldman Sachs is by far the major gold trader in the
United States. Their known gold producer client base
would not suggest that they be such an overwhelming
market factor. The quiet word is that they are
facilitating orders for the U.S. Federal Reserve System
or the U.S. Treasury Department or both.
* * *
GATA Calls for Gold Affirmative Action
"Mission Not Impossible"
GATA's goal is to undertake a course of action that
will cause the price of gold to start its journey to
its natural equilibrium price, which is probably from
$450 to $650.
The Internet is changing the world. In times past, the
likes of GATA would never be heard. Governments could
do what they wanted without fear because they
controlled the press and the big money. The Internet
has changed all that. It is now possible for the likes
of us to make our presence felt. It is becoming much
more difficult for governments to pull the wool over
the eyes of aggrieved parties.
When I visited the hallowed grounds of the United
States Congress on behalf of GATA last spring, I was
truly in awe. What a great country the United States
is. It stands for so much good -- equal opportunity for
all, etc. That is the way it has been for most of our
history.
But that is not the way it was for blacks in America
until the late 1960s. I know because during those
turbulent times, as an athlete, I lived with Walter
Esdaile, a black from the North (Connecticut), and
Winston Moore, a black from the South (North Carolina).
Walter was my college roommate during my senior year at
Cornell and "Mo" was my roommate during my one year
with the Boston Patriots of the American Football
League. It was a revelation to me to see how two black
men from different parts of America viewed life in our
country.
Walter was a 6-foot-5, 260-pound guard on the
basketball team at Cornell. He heard the "N word"
taunts but blew right by them. Man, was he a talented
ballplayer. Cornell beat both Ohio State and Kentucky
that year (1968) on their home courts! Walter is a
highly regarded conservative banker today and thrives
in Connecticut. He was a real winner and knew how to
make his mark in an industry that had not recruited
blacks.
Winston "Mo" Moore graduated from Virginia Union and
was a center. Mo was not the greatest center in the
world, but he was colorful and last I heard he was
doing something with Eastman Kodak. Mo, "The King,"
Bill Byrne, and I all lived together in a tiny house in
Winthrop, Mass., during my year with the Patriots in
1968.
One very rainy, windy night we were ready to go out for
dinner when there was frantic banging on the door. We
lived near a prison in Winthrop and suddenly, out of
nowhere, there were shotgun-toting prison police at our
door asking us if we had seen the just escaped black
prisoners, who were serving sentences for murder. Mo
was dressed formally and we were just about to go out
the door with us. We all turned white, as there were no
other blacks in Winthrop at the time. Needless to say,
Mo did not leave the house for the rest of the evening.
I never saw a big guy so scared in all my life.
Mo was from the South, so he saw things much
differently than Walter did. (While black football
players dominate the major college football teams from
the South today, blacks were just being allowed to play
on many of them in those days.) Walter, having
experienced less prejudice than Mo, sought ways to
maneuver in the predominantly white banking world.
Mo saw potential discrimination horror shows around
every corner and was more reticent about what he could
achieve.
Their personal struggles to overcome discrimination
were very enlightening to me. But because of the black
activists of the day and certain political activists,
business opportunities and greater fair play started
going Walter's and Mo's way, and they took advantage of
the change of the tide.
It is time for us to change the gold tide and get our
own fair play.
While I realize it is a stretch to equate the
discrimination against blacks in the United States to
discrimination gold investors are suffering at the
hands of our government, there is some similarity.
Black people had no constituency for a long time. Where
is ours? Most executives of gold mining companies won't
support us or their own shareholders or even tell it
like it is to the investing world. Until the 1960s, few
fought for the blacks. Name those who fight for us!
All black people wanted was equal rights and a level
playing field. What could be more normal or right?
Well, that is what we want -- equal investing rights
and a level playing field. Black people wanted truth
and transparency, and gold investors want the same fair
shot.
Black people wanted truth and fairness, and so do we.
Hypocrisy ruled the day before black people spoke up
for themselves and changed history. They won because
they were right.
SO ARE WE!
It is time for gold affirmative action just as there
was black affirmative action!
Black people marched on Washington. It worked, as it
should have.
It is time for us to move on Washington -- in a
different way but with the same focus and in pursuit of
the same result: fair play!
This is what we are going to do.
This week GATA begins our advertising and awareness
campaign with an open letter to U.S. Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan and U.S. Treasury Secretary
Lawrence Summers.
I have called all my staff director contacts in
Congress the and told them what all of us wanted to
accomplish and asked their advice for the best way to
proceed. The answer was universal. "If you want to
influence policy or make an impact on the politicians
in Washington, place your first advertisement in the
weekly newspaper that covers Congress, Roll Call."
Roll Call's readership reaches 58,000 of Washington's
most powerful insiders and is hand-delivered to each
office in the House and Senate. A White House courier
is always sent to retrieve 400 copies for top
administration officials. In addition to the
politicians, corporate public affairs people, lobbying
firms, trade associations, and journalists are among
Roll Call's subscribers.
Our advertisement will occupy the center two pages of
the newspaper this Thursday and will consist of an open
letter to Fed Chairman Greenspan and Treasury Secretary
Summers. The ad also will be distributed Wednesday to
the gold websites and to the gold world on the
Internet.
GATA will not ask for support for itself, but we will
ask all those interested in a free-trading gold market
to support our request for market transparency and for
the Fed and the Treasury to answer some specific
questions about their conduct. We also will ask gold
market followers to call for a long-overdue independent
audit of the U.S. gold reserves at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
In our message to the Internet on Wednesday, GATA will
list Internet sites that provide the postal and email
addresses and telephone numbers of all members of
Congress. We will ask gold's friends to email their
U.S. representatives and senators. We should have
enough of a constituency to reach all of Congress.
At this web site you can find congressional contacts
just by typing in your ZIP code:
vote-smart.org
Our alert to the Internet on Wednesday is meant to
start a buzz in Washington about what is coming on
Thursday and to give our crowd some time to email the
appropriate congressional staffs so we make sure that
our open letter is brought to the attention of the Fed
and the Treasury.
Now is the perfect time to make our move. Congress is
not in formal session, so we can get the attention of the
staffs and many others in Washington because they will
not be preoccupied with urgent legislation.
There is a big story here. We hope that the mainstream
news media will finally pick up on it and start doing
some serious questioning on their own. This campaign is
a big step forward in our effort to end the manipulation of
the gold market. With your help we can win the day.
-END-
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