Senator Gramm may help quiz Greenspan

10:20p EST Wednesday, January 19, 2000

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Some good news tonight, attached for you below.

First, stories about GATA's efforts to question the U.S.
Federal Reserve System and U.S. Treasury Department
were distributed by Dow Jones News Service and WorldNet
Daily.

And then GATA Chairman Bill Murphy dispatched a brief
commentary to his subscribers at www.LeMetropoleCafe.com
that has some good news for gold.

We're hopeful that things are slowly but surely turning our way.

Please post this as seems useful.

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

* * *

Senator Lieberman queries
Fed, Treasury on gold

Dow Jones News Service
January 19, 2000

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., has
sent letters to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan
Greenspan and Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers
asking questions about the handling of the government
gold supply.

Lieberman sent the letters Jan. 10 on the behalf of one
of his constituents, a Manchester newspaper editor who
is a member of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee.

The editor, Chris Powell, said the committee asked
Lieberman to send the letter after Greespan and Summers
failed to respond to an open letter in Roll Call, a
newspaper that covers Congress.

Lieberman's office said Tuesday it hadn't received a
response to the letters.

The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee said it was
concerned the Fed or Treasury may have taken action to
depress the price of gold to benefit gold short
sellers.

* * *

Senator asks Fed, Treasury chiefs
to clarify metals policies

By Jon E. Dougherty
WorldNetDaily.com
January 19, 2000

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., has asked Treasury
Secretary Lawrence Summers and Federal Reserve Chairman
Alan Greenspan to answer a series of questions about
national gold policy, in response to an inquiry from a
precious metals research group.

The questions posed by the Gold Anti-Trust Action
Committee initially were published as an open letter to
both officials in the Dec. 9 issue of the Capitol Hill
newspaper Roll Call. The public inquiry was titled
quot;What are you doing with America's gold?quot; and was
addressed specifically to Greenspan and Summers.

Since its initial publication, however, GATA Chairman
Bill Murphy said, neither official has responded.

Because both agencies have remained silent, Chris
Powell, GATA secretary/treasurer and managing editor of
the Manchester, Conn., newspaper, the Journal Inquirer,
contacted Lieberman and asked him to intervene on the
group's behalf. In his letter to the officials,
Lieberman mentioned GATA's unsuccessful bid for answers
and asked if both men would address them quot;at your first
opportunity.quot; So far neither official has responded to
the senator's request either.

GATA, which has been monitoring U.S. and global gold
policies and markets for months, believes some elements
within U.S. government financial circles may be
intervening in the gold market to assist major bullion
banks in keeping the price down because, they say,
there are quot;millionsquot; of ounces of gold loans on the
books -- far more than exists in the world.

Murphy said such an action, if it is occurring, quot;is a
clear and illegal violation of the Fed's purpose
clause.quot;

Murphy and GATA initially warned congressional leaders
over a year ago that the organization believed there
may be some concerted effort to depress gold prices,
but few listened, he said. However, after a brief gold
price surge in October, Murphy said, he could sense
that there was quot;near panic in the gold loan industry,quot;
which strengthened his belief that gold prices were
artificial.

Today, though prices have stabilized again, Murphy said
he still believes some of the world's most influential
central and bullion bankers have attempted to
manipulate the gold market to their advantage and the
advantage of key investors, by depressing the price of
gold while making short-term loans on millions of
ounces of non-existent gold.

* * *

'MIDAS' COMMENTARY

By Bill quot;Midasquot; Murphy
www.LeMetropoleCafe.com
January 19, 2000

The commodity markets are flying. The CRB Index last
traded at 211.57 up 2.27 and is just coming out on top
of a pretty good-sized four-month base that offers the
support to propel it a good deal higher.

Some of today's action:

-- Copper up $1.65 to $88.25, new high for the move.

-- Aluminum cleared $1,730/mt, a new 29-month high.

-- Platinum up $12.30 at $428.

-- Cotton, limit bid, up 3 cents at 57.76 cents.

-- Crude oil, $29.45 last with a high of $29.70.

-- Heating oil, 79.90 cents, up 2.80 cents.

quot;Johannesburg, January 19 (Bloomberg) -- The
new Randfontein Board, having concluded a detailed
investigation of all of the gold hedging positions of
Randfontein, has found them to be completely
inappropriate for the company. In a series of
transactions completed yesterday a substantial portion
of the hedge book has been closed.quot;

Rumors were swirling today that Barrick was in there
doing some forward sale covering of its own.

With all this commodity price action today, gold
managed only a 60-cent gain. Throughout history gold
was a leading indicator, as its price advanced BEFORE
other commodities turned higher. Not now. We know the
answer why.

Gold demand is at record levels around the world, the
European banks have announced they are curtailing
lending in September, producers are covering, and hedge
funds have pulled back on the gold carry trade. Who is
selling?

NOT SO FAST. JUST IN FROM THE COMEX FLOOR....
Word is that massive lending is going on -- from little central
banks or central banks that no one has heard of before
as being active in the gold market. Are you kidding me?
What a joke! Who are these central banks and who are
these so-called central banks lending to? Who is
borrowing gold in this exploding commodity environment
and taking on the upside gold price risk? Has the
Sep/Oct gold $84 price explosion been forgotten
already?

Ludicrous! The gold supply hitting the market to hold
the price from exploding has got to be U.S.-
orchestrated and is a part of the same old gold
manipulation scheme. All the collusion crowd does is
spread disinformation about what is really going on
behind the scenes. I am fed up with that crap. I would
hope the gold producers and the rest of the industry
would be too.

There is one other possibility and it is just as bad.
Sources told me yesterday they had heard of possible
International Monetary Fund gold lending. I called the
Joint Economic Committee of Congress to see what they
had heard. But they had not heard anything and said
that would be a pretty stupid end-run maneuver.
Congress would consider such action hostile.

More on that one soon.

On a positive note: our savvy floor gold trader who is
rarely bullish is now very bullish, as the spreads are
blowing out (widening dramatically). He thinks $330
gold will soon just look like a little blip.

A special note to constituents of Ohio U.S. Rep.
Sherrod Brown:

I called his staff to see if they would like to see
Senator Lieberman's letters and they told me that
Representative Brown was just about to send his own
requests to Greenspan and Summers.

This thing is catching on. Nice work out there in Ohio.

These silly central bank lending stories (unless the
IMF is in clandestine action) that were floated today
just goes to show you how desperate the colluders are
becoming. They must be scared stiff -- watching all the
commodity markets roar -- and realizing what they have
got themselves into.

The gold loans of 10,000 tonnes CANNOT BE COVERED, and
now they ARE LENDING MORE to try and hold down the gold
price? They must fear that if gold gets rolling again
as it did in late September, they will not be able to
stop it this time and their scam will be exposed.

That is their problem.

We have got to force U.S. officialdom and its bullion
dealer buddies out of the quot;hold down gold businessquot; as
they have already tried to ruin an entire industry.

And we will, by increasing the pressure on them by
going through congressmen who just want the truth for
their constituents.

It is time for a free gold market again.