Gary North: Fed's secrecy aims mainly to hide gold's disposition

12:22p ET Sunday, February 21, 2010

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Market analyst Gary North's new commentary at LewRockwell.com says it plainly: The Federal Reserve's opposition to being audited under legislation being pressed by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is largely a matter of needing to prevent the American people from learning the status of the U.S. gold reserve.

North writes:

"Nobody at the Fed will say what is really at stake: an independent audit of the government's gold holdings, which are officially held for the government by the Fed for safekeeping. If the gold is gone, or if there are legal claims against it by foreign central banks as a result of Fed swaps, this would constitute fraud on a massive scale."

Of course the disposition of the U.S. gold reserve long has been the target of GATA's work, and now is the target of GATA's lawsuit against the Fed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which seeks access to the Fed's gold swap agreements with foreign banks:

http://www.gata.org/node/8192

The disposition of the U.S. gold reserve is also the target of GATA's efforts to have gold swap questions put to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke when he testifies to Congress next week:

http://www.gata.org/node/8356

North's commentary is headlined "Central Banks Are on the Defensive" and you can find it at the Lew Rockwell Internet site here:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north815.html

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

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To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16