Is Lassonde really so ignorant of his own organization's work?

4:23p ET Monday, February 24, 2014

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GATA's researcher, consultant, and friend R.M. had to laugh at World Gold Council board member Pierre Lassonde's insistence in his interview today with Kitco News that central bankers "spend no time whatsoever thinking about gold":

http://www.gata.org/node/13683

For if central bankers really don't bother with gold at all, R.M. wonders, why does the World Gold Council spend so much time talking to them about it? And how can a World Gold Council board member be so ignorant of his organization's work?

Or is Lassonde really not ignorant at all but working hard at disinformation for people who are not central bankers?

R.M.'s commentary is appended.

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

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While Pierre Lassonde may maintain the fiction that central banks "spend no time whatsoever thinking about gold," the evidence from the World Gold Council, on whose Board of Directors he sits, suggests otherwise, and the highly paid gold council staffers who specialize in dealing with central banks might be forgiven for raising an eyebrow or two at his strange remark.

A few minutes of research into the organization Lassonde purportedly is helping to supervise would show him the following:

1. The World Gold Council says its "government affairs team works with policymakers and influencers globally, such as central bankers, politicians, regulators, academics, and the financial services industry, equipping them with tools and research to make an informed decision about the role of gold":

http://www.gold.org/government_affairs/what_we_do/

A review of the council's government affairs publications shows 68 research reports especially relevant to central banks:

https://www.gold.org/media/publications/#start/0/limit/10/ordering/date/...

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2. The World Gold Council jointly sponsors a program called the Executive Program in Gold Reserves Management in conjunction with the University of California at Berkeley. This program is held exclusively for central bank and finance ministry representatives.

The program says about itself: "The Executive Program in Gold Reserves Management is a joint initiative between the UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education and the World Gold Council. Led by distinguished faculty from UC Berkeley and experts from the World Gold Council, this program will lead central bankers and finance ministry officials through an intensive four-day program that will equip each participant with the skills necessary to return home as an expert in the management of gold reserves."

"As central banks collectively hold $1.7 trillion in gold reserves, it is essential that central bank executives understand the underpinnings of the global gold market."

See:

http://executive.berkeley.edu/programs/executive-program-gold-reserves-m...

3. In May 2011 in Shanghai, Central Banking Publications and the World Gold Council held a three-day seminar for central bank delegates titled "Gold as a Reserve Asset: The Role of Gold in Modern Central Bank Reserve Management."

The course was introduced this way: "The return of central banks as active purchasers in 2009 represented a sea change in official sector attitudes to gold. Now perhaps more than ever in the past three decades, central banks are reviewing not just their holdings but also their understanding of gold and its role in a reserve portfolio."

See:

http://www.garashanghai.com

The detailed course schedule is here:

http://www.garashanghai.com/digital_assets/4601/GARA_brochure.pdf

A list of more than a hundred central banks that previously sent representatives to the course is here:

http://www.garashanghai.com/static/past-delegates

4. In 2013 the World Gold Council commissioned a report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, which concluded that "as the world heads toward a multi-currency reserve system, demand for gold is likely to rise."

"The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum is an independent globally-operating financial think tank and a platform for confidential exchanges of views between official institutions and private sector counterparties. OMFIF cooperates with central banks, sovereign funds, regulators, debt managers, and other public and private sector institutions around the world."

http://www.omfif.org/about/

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