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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: long-gone who wrote (16635)	12/21/2002 2:43:15 PM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82007

long-gone >I would think a Doctor(even a white one) would be listened to by some level of your government Especially if that fellow is ill! I'll tell you a story. Last year, following the "collapse" of the rand, the head of the SA Chamber of Commerce informed President Mbeki that the rand had fallen as result of illegal activities and possibly a conspiracy. This lead to an expensive and, in fact, a futile, legal inquiry as result of which the head of the SA Chamber of Commerce was put into disrepute and he lost his job because nothing was, in fact, proved or found. m1.mny.co.za news.bbc.co.uk I know this is not exactly what you are after but I mention it because, in fact, the SA gov is sick of "information" and whistle-blowing into so-called conspiracies against the currency or the economy, generally. I can assure you that the SA Reserve bank is well aware of all the tricks (certainly many) which the banks employ in the currency and other markets but, today, the Reserve Bank is normally not prepared to act in opposition to market activity with the intention of "defending" the currency or any other financial instrument or even "normalizing" market activity. In the past, the SA Res bank did try to defend the currency against speculation and lost most of its gold reserves by so doing. business.iafrica.com >>>Reserve Bank officials also repeated their view that complex asset swaps set up last year by Deutsche Bank for three top corporates had not been neutral for the country's reserves, although they had not contributed to the rand's slide. Earlier, they had told the inquiry that they would not have approved the deals if Deutsche Bank had disclosed that it intended to sell rand for foreign currency as a hedge. "Any application to Exchange Control has a certain motive and intent and if that...is not disclosed or exposed willingly, then the applicant is not being transparent in its ultimate aim or objective," said Alexander Bruce-Brand, head of exchange control at the central bank. Deutsche Bank executives maintain the asset swaps were neutral or even positive for South Africa's reserves because it bought large amounts of domestic bonds in related transactions.<<< So, frankly, I don't know what you expect me, or even the SA government, to do about the speculative and other activities of a German or any other bank or agency particularly if such activities are not illegal?

To: long-gone who wrote (16635)	12/21/2002 3:01:25 PM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82007

long-gone >the (written)request of any respected professional(perhaps with a small political check contribution attached) in your country might even get your equal of our SEC or CFTC to request copies of evidence from the Blanchard Vs. Barrick JP Morgan lawsuit to bring about a full bore(Public Press Release?)criminal investigation of JP Morgan Barrick for Gold Price Manipulation & Conspiracy. The Blanchard case is indeed very interesting but no-one in the whole world, even a judge, can pre-judge it at this stage. Surely it must take it's course and if the evidence is there the result must follow. I understand that's what's called "Due Process". I don't believe the SA government is party to conspiracies against the gold price, in fact, I am sure the SA gov would be delighted if the POG was to rise significantly. However, SA's largest gold miner, AngloGold, has always played "both sides of the street" when it came to dealing with the bullion banks and forward selling and one never knew exactly what its position was. On the other hand, Goldfields and Harmony, SA's next two big gold-mining groups play "straight cards" and their profitability, and therefore taxation to the state, is directly related to the gold price. You can be sure that if they knew of anything they could do to raise the POG they would do it.