GOLD & GATA
Sunday Times - Brown lost ã2bn selling UK's gold
by Eric Hommelberg
April 15, 2007
GATA got another tremendous credibility boost today by a devastating article in the Sunday Times on the controversial gold sales announced by the Bank of England on May 7, 1999.
It was believed by GATA at that time that the timing of the announcement of these gold sales only had to serve one single purpose which was to drive the gold price down.
The price of gold had to be taken down since gold was at the verge of a significant break-out above the $290 mark which would hurt the commercial gold traders and banks which were heavily short at that time tremendously.
The funny thing is that two of the of the big short players at that time (JP-Morgan and Deutsche bank) informed their clients the day before the BOE gold sale announcement that gold was NOT GOING ABOVE $290. Now how did they know that? (source: Bill Murphy, LeMetropleCafe, May 10, 1999)
Well, the very next day we all knew why gold was not going above $290.
So from that perspective Gordon Brownâ?Ts decision to sell off half of Britainâ?Ts gold reserves and to announce the gold sale in advance could be considered as a great success since he got what he wanted, a crashing gold price which made it possible for the short players to cover at more convenient price levels.
Sure enough Blair and Brown came under heavy pressure since selling gold at rock bottom prices is about the most foolish thing one can do and has cost the British tax payer already more than 2 billion pounds and is likely to increase dramatically the years ahead.
You think these remarks re gold price manipulation/bailing out shorts are exaggerated?
Well, read onâ?¦
Suspicion on the announced gold sales ran so high that chief executives and chairmen of Placer Dome, Newmont Mining, Ashanti Goldfields, Homestake Mining, Gold Fields, and Anglogold wrote an open letter to Tony Blair. This letter included:
On 16 June 1999, in the House of Commons, Mr. Quentin Davies, from the Opposition Front Bench, speaking in the debate on gold sales, said that there is a persistent rumour concerning the position of international investment banks.
Mr. Davies said:
"...We cannot allow the rumors to grow, because they are extremely dangerous to public confidence. It has been suggested that the market is very short of gold, that the short positions may be a substantial multiple of the total amount of gold currently held by the Bank of England, and that the Bank's real motive is to save the bacon of firms that are running those short positions. ...Has the Government's whole plan been simply to drive down the gold price by whatever means, fair or foul, to save the position of certain figures in the city which apparently, are so short and potentially in such trouble?"
END.