FT's 'Lex' sniffs at complaints of gold price suppression

4:23p ET Friday, March 5, 2010

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The Financial Times took renewed notice of GATA today via the newspaper's pseudonymous "Lex" column, appended here, which provides a mix of condescension and acknowledgement that just maybe something is "fishy" in the gold world.

Now if only someone could persuade "Lex" to do a little less uninformed opining and a little more research and reporting.

Just imagine the news that might result if "Lex" or anyone else connected to the Financial Times formally inquired of the Federal Reserve about the gold swap agreements it acknowledges having with foreign banks, inquiring as well as to why those agreements must remain state secrets:

http://www.gata.org/node/8192

And just imagine the sensation if the FT seriously examined and evaluated the full range of documentation, most of it official, GATA has collected about the gold price suppression scheme over the years, complete with written admissions from four former chairmen of the Fed -- William McChesney Martin, Arthur Burns, Paul Volcker, and Alan Greenspan:

http://www.gata.org/taxonomy/term/21

For now the FT mocks what it misperceives as "conspiracy" theory, since the newspaper so far has neglected to examine the public record and inquire about the underlying public policy. But one step at a time. Maybe the FT is creeping up to the story as best as any establishment organ is allowed to do. Since "Lex" quotes from this recent GATA Dispatch -- http://www.gata.org/node/8368 -- "Lex" knows the documentation is available to journalists. But does "Lex" know any journalists?

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

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Gold

By Lex
Financial Times, London
Friday, March 5, 2010

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3/fe12d070-283b-11df-9f8f-00144feabdc0.html?ncli...

Gentlemen, please check your tinfoil hats at the door. Later this month, America's commodities markets regulator will hold what should prove to be one of its more colourful hearings to address the gripes of an enthusiastic group of precious metals owners. Not content with having trounced most other investors over the past decade, they claim they have been deprived of far larger gains in, among other things, a "gold price suppression" conspiracy co-ordinated by the federal government and large banks.

Concrete action is unlikely -- similar hearings in 2004 and 2008 yielded none -- but do not expect the gadflies to be mollified either. Their claims that US government gold reserves have been sold without public knowledge to force down prices and support its fiat currency are tough to disprove categorically. Persistent net short positions on US futures exchanges would suggest something fishy if one believed there were no private contracts to offset them elsewhere.

This mix of fact and innuendo has long energised a small, impassioned audience, but record deficits and central bank money printing make their concerns resonate more broadly. They have also found an outlet among some right-wing radio stars, many of whom are also shills for bullion brokers. A comedian recently lampooned the connection in an advertisement for a fictional company using apocalyptic imagery urging customers to buy "gold, women, and sheep."

But there is no such thing as bad publicity. A sceptical mention in this newspaper encouraged one group to rejoice, noting that this "just takes a while when you're fighting all the power and money in the world." Readers who laugh should remember that goldbugs are laughing all the way to the bank. In the words of tycoon Howard Hughes, "I'm not a paranoid deranged millionaire. Dammit, I'm a billionaire."

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