You are here
Greenspan''s 1981 essay confirms government''s interest in controlling gold price
By Steve Goldstein and Aude Lagorce
CBSMarketWatch.com
Saturday, February 5, 2005
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B5524BA20-ED8A-4BAE-
B898-261E216DF8AF%7D&siteid=mkwt
LONDON -- The Group of Seven finance ministers and top central
bankers of the world's leading industrialized countries on Saturday
failed to come to a consensus on debt relief for the world's poorest
countries and did not alter their year-long stance toward the
foreign-exchange market.
In addition, hopes that China would be pressured into revaluing its
currency, the yuan, didn't materialize.
In its communiqu, the G-7 affirmed that exchange rates should
reflect economic fundamentals and said it wanted more flexibility in
exchange rates. The language was identical to that issued at Boca
Raton, Fla., last February.
China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, told local Chinese
media that the country didn't face pressure.
"If we had a very big current account imbalance, there may be
pressure, but China only has a small current account surplus ... so
the pressure is not great. But of course with some countries the
imbalance is large," Zhou said.
That imbalance is particularly acute with the U.S., where the peg of
8.28 yuan to a dollar has left the U.S. with a deficit with China of
$147.7 billion, according to data through the end of November.
John Taylor, under secretary of the treasury for international
affairs and the U.S. representative at the London meeting, said
Saturday that bilateral talks with China were "successful."
European countries, themselves troubled by the weakness in the U.S.
dollar, were pleased to have a mention in the communiqu that the
U.S. has agreed "to fiscal consolidation."
French Finance Minister Herve Gaymard, at a press conference, said
he saw no reason to doubt the sincerity "of his American friends"
when they pledged to control their deficit and said signs from the
U.S. on the dollar were "encouraging."
On debt, the differences were far more stark.
The G-7, meeting a day after former South African President Nelson
Mandela called on leaders not to look the other way on world
poverty, agreed to provide up to 100 percent relief from bilateral
debt to what are called Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. The group
will consider on a case-by-case basis relief for HIPC countries that
have multilateral debt.
"London 2005 will in my view be seen as the 100 percent debt relief
summit," the G-7's host, U.K. Chancellor Gordon Brown, said at a
news conference.
The ministers said they would push to the G-8 summit in July a
discussion for Brown's favored International Finance Facility plan;
Brown said he agreed to push back the proposals because he hopes to
pick up more support.
Brown's IFF called for G-7 backing to borrow as much as $100 billion
up front on bond markets, and to distribute the money over 10 years.
The U.S.'s Taylor said Saturday that he still doesn't approve of
Brown's IFF plan, arguing the plan would violate the U.S.
appropriations process. But he also didn't express hostility to the
U.K. going ahead without them.
"The IFF may be good for them. ... Let me not quarrel about the
different approaches," he said.
Germany and France, for their part, issued a statement on
development aid apart from the G-7, though they gave some support to
Brown's proposals.
The two nations said they back a pilot International Finance
Facility for immunization, and support a tax on international air
travel, such as taxes on airline fuel or charges on plane tickets.
France and Germany plan to present the plan to the EU, and said they
hope to launch it by year's end.
Gaymard said the plane-ticket plan itself could raise as much as $3
billion.
The U.S. wasn't quite as complimentary to this proposal, as Taylor
said he didn't see value in the global tax plan first presented by
French President Jacques Chirac in Davos.
Other highlights of the G-7 included the call for better oil data,
increased medium-term energy supplies and energy market
transparency. Taylor said the G-7 reference toward oil was primarily
about getting better data from non-OECD countries in a bid to have
less energy price volatility.
The G-7 said in its communiqu that the economy should
remain "robust" in 2005.
"Since our meeting in October, the economic cycle has matured and
global growth moderated, but is expected to remain robust for 2005.
Risks are balanced, though global imbalances remain," it said.
----------------------------------------------------
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.kereport.com
(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)
http://www.resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/
http://www.interventionalanalysis.com
http://www.investmentindicators.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 First Ave., Suite 807
Denver, Colorado 80206
1-800-869-5115
http://www.USAGOLD.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
http://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
Gold & Silver Investments Ltd.
Mespil House
37 Adelaide Rd
Dublin 2
Ireland
+353 1 2315260/6
Fax: +353 1 2315202
http://www.goldinvestments.org
info@gold.ie
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
http://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
The Moneychanger
Box 178
Westpoint, Tennessee 38486
http://www.the-moneychanger.com
Franklin Sanders
1-888-218-9226, 931-766-6066
----------------------------------------------------
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 $1,000 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled GATA.
Donors of $200 or more will receive copies
of "The ABCs of Gold Investing" by Michael
Kosares, proprietor of Centennial Precious
Metals in Denver, Colorado, and "The Coming
Collapse of the Dollar" by James Turk and
John Rubino.
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.
