You are here
More proof of central bank intervention against gold, and that it''s failing
8:20p ET Monday, October 4, 2004
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Here's another great story by Reuters' Canadian
mining correspondent, Nicole Mordant. It's about
objections in Canada to the Chinese government's
bid for the great Canadian mining house, Noranda.
One need no special sympathy for the Chinese to
see that these objections are awfully hypocritical.
Canada has aligned itself slavishly to the U.S.
dollar system and dollars have poured into China,
so what are the Chinese supposed to DO with all
the damned things? Just buy more U.S. treasury
bonds rather than something just as real as the
appliances and other manufactured goods the
Chinese ship across the Pacific?
And how about this criticism of the Chinese for
caring only about "simple monetary self-interest"
and having "questionable corporate goals, no
disclosure, and no governance standards"?
You mean like Nortel and Enron?
Canadians are as obliged as Americans to wake up.
The world is a two-way street now.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
* * *
Stop Noranda-China Deal,
Canada's Conservative Press Says
By Nicole Mordant
Reuters
Monday, October 4, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6408496
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Opposition to a
$5 billion takeover of Noranda Inc. by state-owned
China Minmetals Corp. continued to rage in one of
Canada's two national newspapers on Monday as
readers took up cudgels against what would be
China's biggest foreign investment.
Under the headline "Stopping the Noranda deal," the
politically conservative National Post devoted 80
percent of its business letters page to calls for a deal
to be halted on grounds it would involve Canada in a
union with an undemocratic state with a poor human
rights and labor record, and invite a foreign government
to get a foothold in a sovereign country.
"If Noranda's Canadian assets were acquired by China
Minmetals there would be, in effect, islands of Chinese
state control within the boundaries of Canada," said
letter writer Rob McVey of Markham, Ontario.
Since Canada's biggest mining firm by sales announced
10 days ago that it was in exclusive talks with Minmetals,
the Post's columnists and others have railed daily in the
paper's pages against the purchase of 100 percent of the
copper, nickel, and zinc miner by the Chinese
conglomerate.
If a price can be agreed on, analysts generally expect a
deal to be reached although some regulatory hurdles
remain.
"Nothing about this takeover makes business, political,
or ideological sense," Post columnist Terence Corcoran
said in a 1,000-word column last week.
"OK, Noranda shareholders might get a premium on their
shares and make off with a nifty profit; so probably did
the German steel mills when they struck cozy
arrangements with Hitler," Corcoran said.
In another Post commentary, two academics questioned
Minmetals' motivation for a foreign purchase, arguing that
China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were driven by
"simple monetary self-interest and 'impress the boss'
self-interest."
"It's hard to think of better poster children for poor
governance than Chinese SOEs -- with questionable
corporate goals, no disclosure, no governance
standards, and no experience managing assets abroad,"
said Randall Morck, finance professor at the University of
Alberta's business school and Bernard Yeung, global
business, economics, and management professor at
New York University's Stern Business School.
But Canada's other national newspaper, the
lefter-leaning Globe and Mail, lent its support to a deal,
saying that at worst, if a deal was clinched but did not
work out well in the end the "opportunity to fail is what
capitalism is all about."
"Encouraging (or at least not discouraging) China to
participate in the Western economy, to gain exposure
to Western values and democratic systems, might have
the pleasant side-effect of speeding up Chinese reform,"
said columnist Eric Reguly.
"Economic freedom might encourage the development
of political freedom," he added.
David Weiner, Minmetals' spokesman in Canada,
accused detractors of the deal of double standards.
"For those who would argue that China has undesirable
labor practices -- if that is the case, then why do we
applaud all the Canadian companies who are quite
prepared morally to enter China and 'exploit' that cheap
labor?" he asked.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
http://www.cbs.marketwatch.com
http://www.capitalupdates.com/
http://www.silver-investor.com
http://www.thebulliondesk.com/
http://www.goldismoney.info/index.html
http://www.minersmanual.com/minernews.html
http://www.a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com/euro-vs-dollar.html
http://www.investmentrarities.com
http://www.kuik.com/KH/KH.html
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/home.htm
(In Spanish)
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/plata/english.htm
(In English)
Subscription site:
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
http://os2eagle.net/checksum.htm
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
http://www.investmentrarities.com/
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
http://www.blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave., Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
http://www.eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
http://www.gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
http://www.kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
http://www.milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
http://www.mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
http://www.swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
http://www.gata.org/creditcard.html
By GoldMoney:
http://www.GoldMoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
