On May 10, 2000 a GATA delegation consisting of Reg Howe, Frank Veneroso, Chris Powell and Bill Murphy met with Denny Hastert, The Speaker of the House in the United States Congress; Spencer Bachus, the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy; and Dr. John Silvia, the Chief Economist of the Senate Banking Committee. We presented each of them our 100 page "Gold Derivative Banking Crisis" document and personally delivered it to the staff of every House and Senate Banking Committee member.

Submitted by cpowell on 02:09PM ET Saturday, September 8,
2012. Section: Daily Dispatches

5p ET Saturday, September 8, 2012

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The Russia Today television network reports very high viewership for GATA hairman Bill Murphy's interview Tuesday on its "Capital Account" program with Lauren Lister, and so Murphy urges GATA supporters to send the interview's YouTube link --

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver):

GATA Chairman Bill Murphy's appearance today on the Russia Today television network's "Capital Account" program, hosted by Lauren Lyster, has been posted at YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxVsosT3GAw

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

Smart Money acknowledges its big miss with GATA and gold

Submitted by cpowell on 12:42PM ET Saturday, August 25, 2012. Section: #0000ff;">Daily Dispatches

3:40p ET Saturday, August 25, 2012

Governments Don’t Manipulate the Price of Gold … Do They?

Attempts to manipulate free markets invariably end badly - after all, they are, supposedly, by their very nature, free. Over the past few weeks, the exposure of the Libor-rigging scandal has monopolized the headlines of the financial press. The rather obvious implication being that given almost half the reported inputs that help establish the Libor rate are discarded immediately, Barclays simply CANNOT have manipulated the Libor rate alone. Period. At best this is a cartel, at worst it’s outright fraud on a scale that is completely unprecedented. In Grant Williams' humble opinion, the Libor scandal will mark a fundamental change in the treatment of financial conspiracy theories in the media. The sheer amount of coverage it will undoubtedly receive will signal a shift in attitude towards the exposing of such scandals rather than the blind-eyes that have been regularly turned in recent years. Prime amongst conspiracy theories that may soon be finally proven to be either valid or the figments of overactive imaginations, are those alleged in the gold and silver markets. If the long-stated claims about government-sanctioned, bank-led manipulation of precious metals markets are eventually proven to have any validity whatsoever, the fallout from the Libor scandal will prove to be (to use the words of Jamie Dimon) just another “tempest in a tea pot” as the precious metals are the very underpinnings of the entire global financial system.

Gold may have its worst week in 2012 as it is currently down 3.5% for the week in dollar terms and nearly 3% in euro and pound terms. However, gold is still higher so far in June and the fundamentals suggest we have bottomed or are very close to a market bottom prior to a summer rally.

However, further short term weakness is possible as speculators go to cash and support is at $1,540/oz (see chart above).

The IMF data on central bank demand in January showed that Sweden raised its gold reserves by 18.3 metric tons to 144 tons in January. The data on the International Monetary Fund’s website was gold bullish showing continued demand for gold by central banks internationally. Belarus added 5 tons to reserves, Kazakhstan raised reserves by 7.6 tons and Turkey increased gold reserves by 4.1 tons. They were two quite odd minor reductions in gold reserves. Mexico reduced bullion reserves by 0.1 ton and Tajikistan cut them by 0.3 ton, according to the IMF. However soon after the increase in Sweden’s gold reserves was reported by Bloomberg, Sweden’s central bank gold reserves contradicted the IMF data and denied that they had increased their reserves. Joanna Gerwin, acting head of communication for the Riksbank, told Bloomberg that Swedish gold reserves were unchanged at 125.7 metric tons in January. Officials at the IMF’s office in Paris said nobody in Europe was able to comment. Alistair Thomson, a spokesman for the IMF in Washington, didn’t immediately reply to a voicemail and e-mail from Bloomberg outside normal business hours. Interestingly, the Riksbank sold 36.6 tons under the Central Bank Gold Agreement (CBGA) from 2007-2009. An increase in reserves of 18.3 tonnes is exactly half of the amount sold and would mean that the Riksbank had bought back half of the gold sold from 2007 to 2009.

One of the major issues and talking points in the precious metal markets in recent years has been allegations by GATA and others that bullion banks and central banks may be intervening in free markets and surreptitiously manipulating gold and silver prices and keeping them artificially low. It is an issue that is quite divisive amongst investors and in the market - including in GoldCore where opinions differ. It is an important debate and one that has ramifications not just for the gold and silver market but for markets in general and for free market capitalism. The ‘Great Silver Debate’ took place at the Silver Summit in Spokane, Washington on Friday where Bill Murphy of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) debated  Jeffrey Christian of the CPM Group. The debate, hosted by Kitco, did not see a knockout blow with both contestants voicing their long held opinions regarding the manipulation of silver and precious metals. It was a bit short on time at just 30 minutes and a full hour may have been needed in order to flesh out some of the many issues raised.  Christian recently accused GATA of being "a group that makes money by basically bilking gold investors out of fees to support GATA so they don't have to get legitimate jobs." In the aftermath of the debate, GATA secretary Chris Powell accused Christian of "graduating from his usual distortions to outright contrivance." Most of the mainstream media has ignored GATA’s allegations and the debate was not reported. However, an important development over the weekend was an op-ed piece by the respected Gillian Tett in the Financial Times.

GATA's Chris Powell speaks: "The speaker following me, George Clooney, will be able to tell you what it's like to be handsome, talented, rich, and famous. I could tell you what it's like not to be. But instead the conference has asked me to talk about gold, which at least might make you rich, or help you preserve some of whatever you've got. This opportunity is full of risk, because the gold market long has been manipulated by Western central banks to restrain the gold price. The Western central banks are slowly losing control of the market but they are not giving up easily. Why do Western central banks manipulate the gold market? The gold market is manipulated because, despite Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's insistence to Congress a few weeks ago that gold is not money, just "tradition," gold is indeed a currency that competes brutally with government-issued currencies and helps determine not only the value of those currencies but also interest rates and the value of government bonds...."

As gasoline prices passed $4 per gallon in Connecticut, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Joseph D. Courtney joined President Obama in denouncing "speculators" and urging investigation of manipulation in the oil market. There are a few problems with this.

This article was inspired by a conversation in January 2010 with fellow directors of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee: Chairman Bill Murphy, Secretary/Treasurer Chris Powell, and Directors Adrian Douglas and Ed Steer. In speaking about the growing role of the exchange traded funds in the precious metals market, it was clear that the disclosure that the precious metals ETFs described below were providing to investors was inadequate. However, was there a material omission under securities law? I found the issues complex. Understanding the commodities markets can seem daunting to someone like myself with a securities background. Meanwhile, the securities markets and related legal and regulatory issues can be unfamiliar to those with a background in commodities. I decided to ask my attorney to help me gather the relevant information into one document to make it easier for GATA supporters and other interested parties—whether from the commodities or securities markets—to examine these issues and to better understand and price these securities. - Catherine Austin Fitts, Solari Report

As long as man has lived, man has always been keen to commit grand acts of deception on his fellow man. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Propaganda Minister said, "The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed." The theory of global warming caused by carbon emissions is likely to be another one of these great lies. But the greatest big lie of all, in my opinion, is our global monetary system and the suppression of gold and silver prices that aid and abet this lie.

The Andrew Maguire LBMA whistleblower story just refuses to go away, and it is about time someone from the mainstream media (yes, we know you read us constantly) finally picked up on this massive expose about the decades of fraud and manipulation in the commodities market, with a focus on gold and silver. Don't worry, the Wall Street ad revenue sources you may lose from highlighting this "must read" story will be more than offset by the increased readership you will gain. Today we have the latest segment in this saga, courtesy once again of Eric King who interviews GATA members Bill Murphy, Chris Powell and Adrian Douglas.As is pointed out in the interview, "The CFTC, on the public record, has been shown to have known in advance of massive market manipulation, and have done nothing." Isn't this the same reason why Markopolos called SEC the biggest bunch of idiots in existence vis-a-vis their performance in the Madoff debacle. It is time someone big blew this up finally. Perhaps this will explain why it never get mainstream attention: "JPMorgan chase is an agency of the US government, rigs the markets, and undertakes market manipulation." To all our readers: this is yet another "must hear" interview.

"The Federal Reserve System has disclosed to GATA that it has gold swap arrangements with foreign banks that it does not want the public to know about. The disclosure contradicts denials provided by the Fed to GATA in 2001 and suggests that the Fed is indeed very much involved in the surreptitious international central bank manipulation of the gold price particularly and the currency markets generally." - GATA