US Conspiracy Keeps Gold Price Low - Kwana News

South Africa has lost billions because of price rigging

Hilda Grobler

There is an international conspiracy to keep the price of gold below its equilibrium price. At present gold sells at $267,l0 (R2136,80) a troy ounce when it should, in fact, sell at around 5600,00 (R4 800). And they have the proof to back up this claim, said Bill Murphy, chairman of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA), at a summit in Durban this week.

Murphy said that part of the United States' exchange stahilisation fund has been used to keep the gold price low, and to help "foster the manipulation of the bullion market. "The Clinton Administration's goal was not to help the poor, but to find a way to get 3 000 tonnes of IMF gold into the physical market to keep the gold price from rising."

As a consequence South Africa, and all the other Sub-Saharan gold producing countries, have lost millions of dollars through this conspiracy that Murhpy describes as "a Clinton Administration scandal". Murphy believes that when all the facts are on the table, this scandal will be "bigger than Watergate".

He said that African gold producing countries cannot get the money back that would have accrued to them from revenues received from a free market gold price that should have been hundreds of dollars higher, if not for the gold market manipulation of the Clinton Administration.

"Worse, as a result of faltering economic growth, reputations of various black political leaders have been tarnished, unemployment has skyrocketed and infectious disease problems are at crisis levels. "When GATA invited the summit attendees, we stated that we would present an action plan to end this gold market manipulation. It is my opinion that if this plan is implemented, it will result in that tremendous rise in the price of gold and stimulation of the economies of the African gold producing countries that GATA speaks of .

"Two and one half years ago it was clear to me that the gold market was rigged.! could see that just by the waythe market was trading after the Long Term Capital Management hedge fund blow up and bail out by New York and Federal Reserve Banks. Every time gold poked its head up and began to rally, the same sellers showed up at the same time, usually at critical technical levels.

"What is amazing to me is that since those days of 30 months ago, all the evidence that the GATA camp has amassed has supported that initial supposition. It has been like pieces of a giant puzzle coming together with each additional piece of evidence fitting in perfectly with what was previously discovered. At no point in time these past years have we uncovered any information that contradicts our initial analysis.

"What is most disturbing about our discoveries is the realization that the manipulation of the gold market was set in motion to benefit so few at the expense of so many - especially to the detriment of the people and economies of the African gold producing countries."

Murphy believes that gold producing countries in Africa are entitled to reparations. Had it not been for the fact that they were paid artificially low prices for their gold, their coffers would have been full. He said that former US President Bill Clinton's speech in Sandton recently, in which he charged that the South African government was not spending enough money on medication for HIV/Aids sufferers, was scandalous.

"This is unmitigated gall, an outrage and an affront to the sick in South Africa. If not for the former President's gold policy, there probably would have been enough money to have already cut the mortality rate in half."

* Full details of the alleged conspiracy are available at www.GATA.org