Zeev : Re "..... Maintaining the price of gold within certain bounds is part of that Job."
I don't dispute that. Unfortunately, they have not maintained POG within certain bounds. Today, POG is at an effective 22 year low --- in actual dollar terms.
Most of what you say is correct. The problems in Sub-Saharan Africa are not really gold-related but due to a myriad of other problems, not the least being the inability of the blacks to govern themselves. IMO, it precisely this which gives the lie to the new "democratic" process in the "developing" world. And, it is because of this that some other reason must be found to blame.
That is why I believe the notion of a gold "conspiracy" has a real blackmail potential. According to the GATA reports, the ANC and their surrogates, COSATU, MWU, probably SA Communist Party etc, are really impressed with the idea that the low gold price is not just an act of God but can be attributed to evil-doing by US and UK capitalists. You may not know it, but Mbeki's recent debacle in suggesting that HIV was not the cause of AIDS was not just the musings of an idiot --- it was his intention to blame the AIDS epidemic on poverty etc which was the result of greed and racism by the whites and colonial powers. It requires little imagination to see that he can put the same cap on the head of the gold operators.
So, the gold story has now become highly politically charged in a way that it was not previously. And, as I see it, it will become a stick with which to beat the US and UK for doing nothing to help Africa other than mouthing-off platitudes. |
