Text of invitation to GATA African Gold Summit

By Bill Murphy, Chairman
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
March 22, 2001

Weeks ago I let you know that the office of South African President
Thabo Mbeki called GATA's office in Durban, South Africa, and asked
to be kept abreast of GATA developments. The following email was sent
to me this morning and forwarded to the president through proper
channels. It was sent to him because it also expresses my sentiments
and represents an aspect of what my presentation will entail at the
GATA Africa Gold Summit.

I would like to make it very clear that what was sent to the
president is not coming from Reg Howe but from me. Reg will not
discuss his thoughts or how he intends to proceed over the phone or
by email, as we all realize that we are monitored by the gold cartel.
As Reg is going to respond to U.S. District Court in Boston regarding
all defendant responses by April 30, he will be able to explain his
position at the summit, as his legal response will be public
information at that time.

From MB, a very savvy member of www.LeMetropoleCafe.com:

quot;As I read Adam's scanned filing of Reg's court papers on Page 17,
the Treasury Department seems to say that whatever it was that they
DID with respect to horizontal price fixing in the gold market ...
they're immune from the Sherman Act anyhow.

quot;If this IS their defense, President Mbeki isn't going to be too
happy when he hears about it. He will naturally react the way anyone
would, demand from Secretary O'Neill a specific answer to the
following question: 'Are you or are you not manipulating the price of
our principal export product, thus directly causing the loss of
170,000 jobs in our mining industry? We are NOT interested in whether
you and your lawyers claim that the United States has the right to do
so.'

quot;I think that this defense may draw President Mbeki much closer to
GATA, something the cartel should fear.

quot;Imagine General Powell's reaction should the South African
ambassador to the United States pose those questions.

quot;It seems possible that Treasury's lawyers have overlooked the
foreign policy aspects of what Reg has eloquently called New
York/British gold imperialism.

quot;Second, their quick reference to the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 is a
plus for us, since the whole act is a minefield for Treasury with its
creation of new powers over Congress via the ESF.

quot;I'm taking all this as a plus since Treasury has not explicitly
denied the charges of horizontal price fixing and thus has left
itself open to more questions. Combined with the calls from Larry
Kudlow, Wayne Angell, and Steve Forbes for a higher gold price, the
secretary of the treasury must be about fed up with the 'gold thing.'

quot;One way for him to make all this go away is to let gold loose and
lay the blame where it belongs: at the feet of the architect of
PardonGate.quot;

Not to go unnoticed in the future by the Justice Department during
its coming investigation of the gold market scandal..... Note the
startling increase in the short interest in the following gold stocks
since March 15, 2001, according to today's Wall Street Journal:

Barrick, up 27.51%
Newmont, up 45.95%
Homestake, up 83.48%
Placer Dome, up 90.9%

Wonder who the shorts are?

Overly hedged Australian gold producers and a few South Africans have
to be more than a bit nervous about the deterioration of the Aussie
and South African currencies. They are headed for oblivion, as the
Aussie dollar is close to 49 and the Rand was last seen around 8.05
to the U.S. dollar. Unless these currencies soar when gold rallies
sharply, which is coming, the hedge books of any heavily hedged gold
producers are going to go deep under water. Crashing stock markets
and under-water gold hedge books do not let bullion bankers sleep
well at night.

Commodity prices have been really hit hard lately. The CRB has tanked
from the low 230s to finish today all the way down to 213.08. If gold
had been allowed to trade freely the past seven years, that could
have been a very big negative for the gold price. As is, it is
meaningless.

Technically, the top in the Dow Jones Industrial Average is one of
the largest I have ever seen. It forebodes a protacted, ugly bear
market. The Dow, down another 98 points, and most stocks in the
United States were battered once again today. The main stock indices
have registered bear market signals. What is it going to take to turn
the elves on Wall Street Week bearish? When will Wall Street suggest
to investors that we are in a bear stock market?

The strength in the Nasdaq is coming from the semi-conductors, yet
their business stinks and is worsening. Micron's margins have gone
from 50 percent to 19 percent, and they could even be losing money
now. Projections are not constructive.

The hedge funds have made big money by shorting the semi's. Are the
big mutual funds trying to run them in to stem the general high-tech
bearish investor sentiment and selling of the tech shares by the
public? Anyone have any knowledge of such goings on?

Is the tide turning on the reckless central banks? Today, from
www.msnbc.com/news:

BOE facing lawsuit over BCCI
Bank could see civil case claiming $781 million in damages

LONDON, March 22 -- The Bank of England is to face legal action
over its supervision of collapsed Bank of Credit and Commerce
International following a ruling in Britain's House of Lords
on Thursday

As stated for a long time now, the backlash against Wall Street is
going to grow and grow and grow. And for very good reasons:

JP Morgan reins in analysts

Financial Times
Wednesday, March 21

The independence of JP Morgan's stock market research is being
questioned after analysts at the U.S. investment bank were
instructed to seek approval from corporate clients before
publishing recommendations on those stocks.

In a memorandum circulated to JP Morgan analysts last week,
Peter Houghton, head of equity research, said he must personally
sign off all changes in stock recommendations. In addition,
the memo further sets out rules, described as quot;mandatory,quot;
requiring analysts to seek out comments from both the companies
concerned and the relevant investment banker at JP Morgan, prior
to publishing the research.

Mr. Houghton then says: quot;If the company requests changes
to the research note, the analyst has a responsibility to
incorporate the changes requested or communicate clearly why
the changes cannot be made.quot;

In a further effort to ensure nothing slips through the net
without being reviewed by the corporate financiers, JP Morgan
requires prior to release of the research note, quot;the client
bankerquot; e-mails his approval to the publishing department.
The attempt by JP Morgan to discipline its analysts will ring
alarm bells among fund managers and investors.

Concern is mounting over the integrity of research published
by large investment banks where the main driver of business
is not selling shares to investors but fees for advice on
mergers and takeovers. quot;This is slavish subservience of
analysts to bankers,quot; an analyst at a rival firm said.

In his report to The Treasury, Paul Myners criticised the
relationship between brokers and fund managers and suggested
fund managers should develop their own in-house research teams.
Mike Crawshaw, co-head of research at Schroder Salomon Smith
Barney, confirmed that it was not unusual to let corporate
clients see research before it was released, but there he drew
the line.

quot;There are pressures from corporate relationships but putting
the onus on the analyst to justify himself, that is definitely
wrong.quot; In the final paragraph of the memo, Mr. Houghton states
that independence and integrity are vital to the firm. quot;The
procedures outlined above do not represent an approval process
but a communication process,quot; he says.

Terry Smith, head of research at Collins Stewart, said the
constraints on analysts at large firms were increasing. quot;It
is a bit like a judicial system where the accused decides the
outcome.quot; Mr. Smith fought a legal battle with his former
employer, the investment bank UBS, over the publication of a
book about dubious accounting practices which mentioned UBS
clients. Yesterday he pointed to the recent flotation of
Orange, where analysts were barred from briefings unless they
agreed to have research vetted by the company.

The urgent language of the memo and its tone suggest that the firm
is seeking to rein in its research team at a time when investment
banking revenues are drying up. Mr Houghton acknowledges the
difficulties of a bear market in his memo, thus: quot;Downgrade notes
obviously attract more attention than upgrade notes and we need to
reflect this in our procedures.quot;

One analyst at another firm said: quot;How are we supposed to earn
a living? There is no corporate business this year.quot;

This is pathetic. And what an outrage. How are 170,000 out-of-work
miners in South Africa and miners in other parts of the world to earn
a living after what Morgan and Chase have done to the gold price
these past years?

Poor old JP Morgan millionaires. As it relates to gold and as we all
know, this same JP Morgan Chase is the big gold short at the moment.
They are the ones with the massive gold derivatives on their books.
They are among the ones that are putting pressure on gold producers
to hedge forward so that they can make their fees, quot;make their
living,quot; and protect their massive gold short positions.

It is only a matter of time now before Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs,
Chase, and Morgan are paraded in front of the world in disgrace as
the jaded hypocrites that they are. It cannot come soon enough for me.