Normandy avoided Goldman''s worst and is hopeful

5p EST Monday, January 17, 2000

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Here's an interesting dispatch from GATA Chairman
Bill Murphy. Please post it as seems useful.

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

* * *

Monday, January 17, 2000

By Bill quot;Midasquot; Murphy
Chairman, Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Le Patron, www.LeMetropoleCafe.com

As a result of the efforts of GATA Secretary/Treasurer
Chris Powell, one of the most powerful and respected
members of the United States Senate has sent letters
to Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve
Board, and to Lawrence Summers, U.S. secretary of
the treasury.

The senator asked Greenspan and Summers to answer
the 11 questions that were presented to them in GATA's
two-page advertisement in Roll Call on December 9, 1999.

In addition, the senator asked that they respond to
him quot;directly.quot;

GATA will keep you informed as to the senator's
progress in obtaining answers.

* * *

Germany fires another
shot across the bow

It is very clear that Germany (probably along with
other European countries) is very unhappy with the
orchestrated effort to hold down the price of gold.

I do not have all the appropriate details but
sources tell me it was announced today that the
Bundesbank is going to mint 1 million gold coins
that will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the D
Mark.

Last year I reported that the Germans were most
behind the Washington Agreement, in which 15
European countries agreed to limit gold sales and to
curtail their gold lending practices.

The price of gold then shot up more than $80 before
the gold market manipulators could marshal their
forces to add enough supply to orchestrate the price
down once again.

That is why we believe today's announcement is far
more significant than creating gold demand by
minting the coins. It is another shot across the bow
of those who are holding down the price of gold to
suit their own interests. It also is clear evidence
that there is a split among the major central banks
as to what is being done to the gold market.

Central bankers do not like sudden, radical moves.
They want stability. We strongly suspect that the
Germans know that a future unstable situation is
being created by those holding down the gold price.
Too much gold demand is eating up too little gold
supply at too low a price. The gold loans are TOO
BIG to be paid back in a short time.

Yes, the Germans know this and are telling certain
shorts to cease and desist with their price-capping
in the gold market. The Germans know that the longer
this goes on, the bigger the problem will be when
this taut gold slingshot finally is slung.

Thus they want a gradual move up in the gold price
NOW, so that things do not get out of hand in the
future.

For what it is worth, that is my take on this gold
coin announcement.

Germany has spoken. Oil is at $28 per barrel.
Commodity indexes are all going into new high
ground. Bond yields have risen from 5 percent to 6.7
percent in a year.

The gold price should rise SHARPLY. If it does not,
it will become even more clear that certain
financial powers are HOLDING DOWN the gold price.
Those entities then must be immediately exposed.