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Barron''s interviews Tocqueville Gold Fund manager John Hathaway
1:37p ET Saturday, November 19, 2005
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
As of this hour there doesn't seem to be any comment
from Blanchard & Co. about the settlement of its
anti-trust lawsuit against Barrick Gold, nor any
news reports that aren't based solely on the press
release Barrick distributed yesterday. GATA is
seeking a statement from Blanchard and will convey
it to you as quickly as possible.
Nevertheless, the outline of a settlement of the
Blanchard lawsuit has been apparent for two years
and may have been inevitable for that long as well
-- ever since November 23, 2003, when Barrick
Chairman Peter Munk returned to the podium of the
Gold Investment Summit conference in London to
repudiate his conference-keynoting speech of just
24 hours before, announcing that Barrick would
stop hedging its gold production for 10 years.
Munk was a late substitution at the conference for
Barrick CEO Greg Wilkins, who withdrew, MineWeb
reported, "to attend to some urgent business in
New Orleans" -- home of Blanchard and site of the
U.S. District Court where Blanchard's lawsuit
against Barrick had been filed.
Of course Barrick's extravagant hedging of its gold
production was exactly what the Blanchard lawsuit
complained of -- the device, Blanchard alleged, by
which Barrick and its bullion bank, J.P. Morgan
Chase, were controlling the gold market. This
summer the court ordered Barrick and Blanchard into
settlement negotiations, and perhaps the settlement
gives the force of law to Barrick's pledge to
discontinue hedging for 10 years from November 2003.
That would not require Barrick to close its hedge
positions, and indeed Barrick has done little of
that. But since Barrick, in a motion filed in the
Blanchard case, had acknowledged being the agent
of the central banks in the gold market, a
settlement based on Barrick's cessation of hedging
would require central banks to operate more in the
open in their attempts to contain the gold price,
or at least to find other intermediaries to provide
them with the cover Morgan Chase and Barrick had
been providing.
And that does seem to be what has happened over
the last couple of years. Barrick's hedging has
stopped and hedging by other gold miners has
diminished dramatically, only to be replaced by
increased selling of gold and issuance of gold
derivatives by central banks, actions that are
more clearly on the public record.
These changes have coincided with a growing
recognition in the mining and financial
industries that the gold price has been set not
by ordinary market factors but largely by
central banks -- that gold mine production has
been substantially less than market demand, that
the production gap is growing and has been filled
only by central bank dishoarding of gold reserves,
and that central bank gold reserves are finite,
deliberately overstated, and sure to be exhausted
eventually, perhaps much sooner than the gold
establishment lets on.
You know it all. It's the story GATA has told since
its founding in January 1999, the telling of which
has coincided perfectly with the rise of the gold
price since then. Just a coincidence? Maybe --
after all, the rooster crows and thinks he makes
the sun come up. But let's all keep crowing and
see what happens.
GATA's November 2003 dispatches about Barrick's
abrupt repudiation of its hedging policy can be
found in the GATA dispatch archive here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gata/message/1768
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gata/message/1769
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gata/message/1770
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gata/message/1772
MineWeb's reports about Barrick's performance at
the London conference in November 2003 can be
found here:
http://www.mineweb.net/events/conferences/2003/emgc/73221.htm
http://www.mineweb.net/events/conferences/2003/emgc/17732.htm
As for Blanchard's apparently paying Barrick to settle
the libel lawsuit Barrick filed against Blanchard in
Canada, it must be remembered that, unlike U.S. libel
law, which gives the broadest latitude to examination
of public issues and policy, Canadian libel law is a
huge infringement on freedom of speech. This and the
desire for a home-court advantage likely were why
Barrick countersued Blanchard in Canada rather than
in the United States, where Blanchard's own lawsuit was
filed and where Blanchard alleged Barrick carried out
its part of the gold price suppression scheme.
Canada has many virtues as well as many advantages over
the United States but libel law is not one of them.
Indeed, while the United States can justify the gold
price suppression scheme as a crucial mechanism of its
worldwide imperialism, Canada is a gold- and natural
resources-exporting country, so what is its excuse for
playing along with the scheme? How about South Africa's
excuse? Mexico's? Russia's? Australia's?
Outside the United States it's really all treason. But
as Harrington's famous epigram goes:
...Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason?
...For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
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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
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http://www.resourceinvestor.com
http://www.goldpennystocks.com/
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http://www.investmentindicators.com/
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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
Box 460009
Denver, Colorado 80246-0009
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
Lone Star Silver Exchange
1702 S. Highway 121
Suite 607-111
Lewisville, Texas 75067
214-632-8869
http://www.discountsilverclub.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
http://www.buysilvernow.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
----------------------------------------------------
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