Gold: ESF slush fund for market rigging has grown to US$386 billion
Wall Street on Parade's Pam and Russ Martens report today that the cash sitting in the U.S. Treasury Department's secretive Exchange Stabilization Fund for market intervention has grown to $386 billion.
The Martenses write: "The size of the ESF slush fund matters because under current law (31 U.S.C. 5302) the decisions on how to spend the billions in this slush fund belong to the treasury secretary and 'are final and may not be reviewed by another officer or employee of the government.' The law also provides that the treasury secretary 'with the approval of the president, may deal in gold, foreign exchange, and other instruments of credit and securities the secretary considers necessary.'
"Since publicly traded stocks are 'securities,' that certainly sounds like the treasury secretary would have the right to intervene in buying up stocks to shore up the stock market, effectively making the treasury secretary a Plunge Protection Team of one."
Of course, as GATA long has noted, the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, as amended, specifically authorizes the ESF to trade secretly in gold in the name of stabilizing the value of the U.S. dollar, it would be surprising if, with the dollar's international value falling steadily lately, ESF money wasn't being used to restrain gold prices.
Also of course, mainstream financial news organizations won't get anywhere near this development with the ESF, since it is too relevant to reality. Only Wall Street on Parade will tell the world about it.
Wall Street on Parade's report is headlined "Trump Issued an Executive Memorandum Giving Mnuchin a $50 Billion Slush Fund; Mnuchin Gave Himself $386 Billion More" and it's posted here:
wallstreetonparade.com
Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org |
