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Are you long gold? Buy call options on gold futures? One day the bubble
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>From: lepatron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: trdoptions@xxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Midas-Brown and Blair-Abbott and Costello-"Who's on First?"
>Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 19:58:35 -0400
>
>Le Metropole members,
>
>I had planned to do a Midas du Metropole today but
>got bogged down as I spent a good 45 minutes talking
>to a Staff Director of the Senate Banking Committee.
>She was from Texas too, knew about the Bank of England
>gold sale and wants to know all GATA has to tell them
>about our opinion of the size of the gold loans, the
>potential dangers to the banking system that creates,
>our gold market manipulation allegations, and why we feel
>the collusion going on in the gold market is a bigger
>scandal than Watergate.
>
>So instead I will do a Mini Midas and will touch upon
>some highlights.
>
>Number one is the BOE gold sale fiasco. It has truly
>become an Abbott and Costello sort of "Who's on First?"
>comedy routine -or like Alphonse and Gastone or Fric and
>Frac. Take your pick.
>
>Asked in parliament if it was right to sell off part
>of Britain's reserves, Prime Minister, Tony Blair,
>replied, " The gold price has been falling for two years,
>so in fact if it carried on falling and we didn't sell
>we would lose money". ( so now a key reserve valued for
>hundreds of years has been sold as part of a trend
>following market timing philosophy ).
>
>He then declined to say if he would meet with the South
>African Gold Industry delegation, but said the sale was
>justified saying, " We did this on technical advice
>from the Bank of England. ( excuse me Haruko Fakuda of
>the World Gold Council was personally told that the
>decision was a political one and made by the Treasury )
>
>Prime Minister Blair then went on to say, " It is only
>the Conservative Party's utter obsession with the euro
>in some bizarre way. Given that Argentina and
>Switzerland ARE also selling gold, what it has to do
>with the euro I do not know. It is only that which is
>making them raise this issue. It was done, as I say,
>on technical advice. It was carried through perfectly
>sensibly and we actually got the best deal for the country".
>
>( Hello, Mr. Prime Minister. First, do you know something
>we don't know about Switzerland and Argentina selling
>gold at the moment and second, the best deal, you
>could have achieved would have been $30 to $40 more per
>ounce by carrying out the sale like all the other
>major countries have done for the past 20 years. No one
>could have botched a sale like you all just did if
>they tried )
>
>But the story gets now gets confounding. On Sunday your
>Chancellor of the Exchequer said in the London Times," "The
>proposal to sell the reserves was put to ministers
>by officials, and, say TREASURY INSIDERS, agreed
>to with LITTLE DISCUSSION".
>
>The chancellor is said to have been surprised and
>mortified by the reaction from Thabo Mbeki, the
>South African president, who said last week that
>the decision would have a "potentially disastrous
>effect" on South Africa.
>
>Ok, so what gives here. Blair said it was a BOE
>decision. The BOE says it was a Treasury decision.
>The Treasury says it was only a Treasury decision
>of sorts and agreed to with little discussion.
>
>Good grief. A decision that may have DISASTROUS
>effects on South Africa was made with very little
>discussion that no one will take responsibility for. Yet,
>it is so important that Tony Blair will not reconsider
>the sale, even though he does not even know who made
>the decision to sell the English gold in the first place.
>
>They might as well ask me who made the decision to
>sell the English gold since they obviously have no clue-
>it has been clear to us at GATA for months now. Had to
>be our Treasury or Fed in conjunction with Goldman Sachs and
>some other bullion dealers! At least my answer is
>consistent and holds water. Those guys make
>Abbot and Costello look profound!
>
>While it received little attention in the U.S. press,
>we understand a bomb went off in the British
>Consulate in South Africa ( that needs to be confirmed
>but a good source phoned in that to me today ).
>What we do know according to a Reuters report today was that:
>
>Thousands of South African gold miners plan to march
>on the British and Swiss embassies in Pretoria on
>Saturday to protest central bank gold sales which
>have pushed bullion prices to record lows.
>
>"I am expecting thousands of mineworkers to attend,"
>National Union of Mineworker's Gwede Mantashe said.
>"The British owe us a lot. They have taken a lot of
>wealth from us," Mantashe said, noting that South
>African gold mines helped to finance the British war
>effort during World War Two………
>
>Then there is South African President, Thabo Mbeki,
>who according to Business Day said, plans to finance
>debt relief for poor nations make "no sense if in
>the process you destroy the gold producers".
>
>So it has been a couple of zany days. How clear can
>it be that there is an "agenda" behind these gold sales.
>That agenda has nothing to do with helping poor
>countries. Otherwise, the BOE would reconsider its
>sale and the IMF would come out and say that they
>intend to press for an IMF gold sale, but not until
>there is a substantial recovery in the price- like to
>$350 per ounce; one that the gold producers in the poor
>countries could live with.
>
>When will the U.S. press and the world wake up to the
>fact the gold market today is all about large
>investment banking houses, the bullion dealers, the
>U.S. government and the British government fostering gold
>sales to serve their own selfish interests? They
>are causing incredible pain and suffering around the
>world and make the Robber Barrons of our U.S. past
>look reasoned. Yes, this is a scandal that is bigger
>than Watergate because of the devastation their dealings
>are causing and someday that truth will be known.
>
>To end this Mini Midas on a positive note- according
>to Standard Bank, physical demand for gold is
>"staggering". So much for the press reports that
>gold is not important anymore.
>
>Even with all the manipulation , we are due for a
>big, big rally - for they are making it to just too
>obvious now and making it too easy for the likes of
>GATA and others to reveal what a sham this is.
>
><A HREF=http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/scripts/products.cfm";>Le Metropole
>Cafe</A>
>
>All the best,
>
>Bill Murphy
>Le Patron
>
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