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Gold/Mining/Energy : Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Berliner who wrote (234)	2/1/2000 6:31:00 PM
From: Ptaskmaster	Respond to of 529

Paul: Questions, no answers, also over at the North American Palladium thread on the nature of Russian palladium 'supply'. The Noril'sk resource estimate is probably a Russian state secret, and would have to remain cryptic in order to allow all the export games to be played out affecting timing and price of supply. Think the Russian export of palladium is complicated and cryptic? Take a look at the best exposition I have seen to date of the manipulation of the price of gold. Reginald Howe has put together the simplest explanation of all salient facts along with reasonable suppositions in what has to be one of the best, most thought-provoking essays to date. Ptask ________________ Two Bills: Scandal and Opportunity in Gold? By Reginald Howe, The Golden Sextant, February 1, 2000. ----snip---- "Evidence is accumulating that the administration of Bill Clinton may have turned the Exchange Stabilization Fund (the "ESF") into a political slush fund to make itself look good and simultaneously profit some of its closest Wall Street friends and supporters. Specifically, the known facts support credible allegations that the Clinton administration has effectively capped the gold price by using the ESF to backstop the selling of gold futures and other gold derivative products by politically well-connected bullion banks. ----snip---- "Unlike the Fed, the ESF is virtually without institutional structure or safeguards. It is under the exclusive control of the Secretary of the Treasury, subject only to the approval of the President. ----snip---- [Howe hypothesized that:] "The ESF was writing gold call options for certain bullion bankers, principally those most active in selling futures and arranging forward sales: Goldman Sachs, Chase, et al. As of April 30, 1999, it had outstanding a sizable position at strike prices in the $300 area. ----snip---- "When gold threatened to explode over $300 in early May, and with IMF's proposed gold sales in trouble, the ESF found itself in much the same position as that of Ashanti and Cambior after announcement of the Washington Agreement.... if settled in gold at the strike price, the ESF would have to deliver gold from U.S. reserves or go into the market to cover, adding more upward pressure to the gold price. "Worse, unlike the modest premium income from sales of options, huge losses could not be hidden from Congress in the monthly financial reports to the House and Senate Banking Committees." Full essay and hypothesis at: goldensextant.com