Thai Guru's Gold und Silber ... (Informationen und Vermutungen)

Appendix

Rich Caccavale mentioned the following in Sunday’s MIDAS:

"Unfortunately, I believe that in this era of litigation, the only action these useless cowards will understand is a shareholders lawsuit. I believe there is a basis for such a course of action, because their continual failure to formally protest the blatant price fixing, which has been substantiated by GATA to an extremely high legal standard, makes them complicit through negligent retention. At some point there is an industry standard for expectations, which defines reasonable action versus negligence and whether prudent behavior was undertaken."

I believe Rich is correct. There is NOTHING more important to the share prices of the gold and silver companies than the price of their products. With all the evidence surfacing of obvious illegal price-fixing, a failure to take any course of action in response to your letters constitutes gross negligence in my book.

More on this tomorrow. What is important is GATA is out there FOR THEM and THEIR SHAREHOLDERS. What are they doing for the shareholders in this regard?

***

Hi Bill,
I just read Rich Caccavale's letter in your Sunday Midas Commentary . Perhaps in your next Midas Commentary you can ask members to please retain letters sent to gold/silver company executives and directors for evidence for use in a future class action lawsuit against executives and directors.

Canada has some pretty good shareholder rights laws that should be utilized by an aggressive lawyer. An example is Canada Business Corporations Act section 120 (1) Disclosure of Interest. How many officers and directors have personally been short gold or silver futures, options or shares at any time during the past ten years while being an officer or director of a gold or silver mining or exploration company and not made timely disclosure of this? And if they had made disclosure why did they not resign? Section 120 (6.1) Access to Disclosures gives shareholders the right to access any minutes of directors or committee meetings that contain disclosures under this section and any other related documents. There is some good stuff in the Canada Business Corporations Act and similar provincial Acts that can put pressure on officers and directors to begin acting in the shareholders' best interests. We need a sharp lawyer to run with this.
Regards,
Ron Lutka

Dear Chris:
I love it! Finally, something I can do other than get angry about this situation (and load up while the price is still low).

I suggest you tell people to delete the old contacts first, then paste the new ones in; revise the number of years you've held their stock to the personal situation, and also to customize the (silver or gold) statement for their main product to the one that applies. Print it out and read it before sending.

I have 7 companies I'm writing to; one of whom is PAAS for silver. I think there could be a different letter for silver. I have a lot of Ted Butler's writings and am manic about silver's potential, and the huge meltdown in store as the world actually runs out of this historic metal just when we need it the most for automation. Perhaps I'll add that sentence to my letter to customize it more for silver. Ted has shown us these guys are naked under their "shorts," and there are no bank reserves to cover it up once the panic starts. Anyway, take my comments or leave them in your communication to the troops.

Love and blessings,

Beverly Brodsky
Founder, All One Light
Heart-centered life coach, and inspirational speaker and writer

http://www.gata.org/ACallToArms.html

March 15 – Gold $440 down 40 cents – Silver $7.35 down 1 cent

Judge's Order To Barrick/Morgan Is More Vindication For GATA

"The world wishes to be deceived." -- Sebastian Franck

This morning was something else. When I turned on CNBC to find out what gold was doing, it was up over $3. I thought it was a mirage, so I went over to my computer. No it wasn’t. Oops! Yes, it was. By the time I took a shower, ate breakfast and returned to the computer almost $4 in gold gains evaporated with bullion falling into the minus column. Yep, a mirage.

Then, following last night’s MIDAS about Halliburton all over Alaska setting up oil drilling deals, I saw President Bush on the tube mentioning drilling for oil in Alaska. Been trying to find out more on that one.

Then, this word surfaced from New Orleans:

From Bloomberg News Service
The Globe and Mail, Toronto
Tuesday, March 15, 2005

http://www.theglobeandmail.com…/TPBusiness/International

A judge ordered Barrick Gold Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to try to settle a 2-year-old lawsuit filed by coin dealer Blanchard & Co. to avoid a 10-day trial scheduled to start in July.

Blanchard accused the miner and the banker of illegally profiting from the manipulation of gold prices.

Judge Helen Berrigan in New Orleans scheduled a meeting to negotiate a settlement with the companies March 30.

"The court feels that the record has developed sufficiently to allow for meaningful settlement discussions," Judge Berrigan said in a ruling posted yesterday on the court's Web site.

Blanchard sued Toronto-based Barrick and New York-based Morgan, accusing them of taking part in an antitrust scheme to suppress the price of gold and making more than $2 billion (U.S.) in profits from the decline through a hedging program.

-END-

Just last night Kitco posted an interview I did last Friday with Al Korelin and Paul Warren of Vancouver on this very subject:

John Perkins (Author of "Confessions of An Economic Hitman") James Turk (Author of "The Coming Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It") and Bill Murphy (GATA) Provide Lively Discussion

…Bill Murphy of GATA joined us in the fifth segment. Regular listeners know how passionate Bill is when it comes to the issue of "gold price manipulation". His interview this week provided an update on the Blanchard lawsuit and summarized his group's contention that central banks have conspired to rig markets to suppress gold prices, primarily because rising gold causes alarm in the financial community…

http://www.kitco.com/ind/korelin/mar142005.html

-END-

What I focused on was how the case would have to be settled because, from what little I know, should what Blanchard has on Barrick and Morgan surface in the public domain it could lead to the end of the financial world in the US as we presently know it. Thus, it has to be settled out of court.

While the mainstream won’t give this development the time of day or serious meaning, the judge’s order is HUGE for GATA and our camp. WHY:

*The Tim Woods of the world and Barrick itself have trivialized the lawsuit for years, mocking it as "frivolous" and one brought to the New Orleans Federal Court by a bunch of conspiracy nuts.

*The judge’s order is a slap in the face to the critics of both the suit and GATA. This is an ENORMOUS vindication for our ARMY.

*Do you think the New Orleans judge would order one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world to try and SETTLE a lawsuit brought on my some Louisiana coin dealer unless Blanchard had them nailed, or because the case was frivolous? Just from what I know (in general, not specifics) Blanchard has bombshells to drop on both Barrick and Morgan. No way The Gold Cartel can allow what Blanchard most likely has to circulate in the public domain. God forbid the investment world should come to realize what the gold market has really been about for years. God forbid the public should know the truth.

While GATA would dearly love to have what Blanchard has come across during the Discovery process become public information, I certainly can understand why Don Doyle, Blanchard CEO, will settle. He has spent years and millions in legal fees to take on the richest and most powerful people in the world. His effort to get this far is extraordinary. He owes it to himself and his firm to do what is in their best interest. What would you do (after spending millions of your own money) if the richest and most powerful people around offered you $5, $10, $50 million to go away?

One thing is clear based on the judge’s order: All Blanchard has to do is come up with a reasonable number for Barrick and Morgan and the case will be settled with the amount and facts in the case sealed, which is just what I expected all along.

Who knows if this will lead to other lawsuits down the road. If (when) a settlement is reached, I have no idea how it will affect Blanchard’s class action suit against Barrick and Morgan. Perhaps that will be settled at the same time.

Don’t be bummed by this. Think how far GATA (and our argument) has advanced since day one when we retained one of the most prestigious anti-trust litigation firms in the US - that being Berger & Montague in Philadelphia. This led to the valiant suit by Reg Howe, who took on the world all by himself (with financial support from GATA):

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
District of Massachusetts
Civil Action No.
00-CV-12485-RCL
______________________________________
)
Reginald H. Howe, )
Plaintiff, )
)
v. )
)
Bank for International Settlements, )
Alan Greenspan, )
William J. McDonough, )
J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc., )
Chase Manhattan Corp., )
Citigroup, Inc., )
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., )
Deutsche Bank AG and )
Lawrence H. Summers, )
Secretary of the Treasury, )
Defendants. )
______________________________________)
COMPLAINT

I. Jurisdiction
This is a complaint for damages and injunctive relief arising out of manipulative activities in the gold market from 1994 to the present time orchestrated by government officials acting outside the scope of their legal or constitutional authority and certain large bullion banks active in the over-the-counter gold derivatives markets and on the Commodities Exchange ("COMEX") in New York. The complaint alleges horizontal price fixing in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, securities fraud in violation of Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act"), common law fraud and breach of fiduciary duty by the directors of the Bank for International Settlements with regard to holders of its American issue, and violations of the Constitution by federal officials acting under color of federal law but wholly outside the scope of their legal or constitutional authority. Subject matter jurisdiction of the federal claims is based on 15 U.S.C. s. 15(a) (antitrust) and s. 78aa (violations of the Exchange Act), 28 U.S.C. s. 1331 (federal question), s. 1337 (commerce and antitrust) and s. 2201 (declaratory relief), and 12 U.S.C. s. 632 (international banking and financial transactions). Supplemental jurisdiction of the common law claims is based on 28 U.S.C. s. 1367…...
-END-

Chris Powell wrote a stirring recap of Reg in court, who represented all of us in our effort to right a terrible wrong:

11:26p ET Monday, November 5, 2001

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The case of Howe vs. Bank for International Settlements et al. -- I like to call it Howe vs. All the Money in the World -- was roughed up a little today but survived its first day of hearing in federal court in Boston.

During 2 1/2 hours of oral argument, U.S. District Judge Reginald C. Lindsay dismissed two counts of the lawsuit involving securities fraud charges against defendant J.P. Morgan/Chase, and ruled that the plaintiff's method of serving lawsuit notice papers against the BIS -- by mail in English instead of by personal service in German -- was insufficient.

But the two dismissed securities fraud counts were secondary to the lawsuit's substance, and the problem with the lawsuit notice probably can be fixed by a pricey translator if the lawsuit is allowed to proceed.

The judge took the remainder of the case back to his chambers for drafting a written decision on the plaintiffs' motions to dismiss the rest of the lawsuit. That could take weeks or months.

The case was called at 2:30 p.m. in a beautiful and huge courtroom in the opulent new U.S. courthouse just across Fort Point Channel from gleaming downtown Boston. About 30 people sat in the audience section at the back of the courtroom, some of them GATA supporters, including a few who had come quite a long way to watch.

Plaintiff Howe sat alone at the counsel's table on the audience's left. At the counsel's table on the right sat his opponents, nine lawyers representing the BIS, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan/Chase, Citigroup, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Board, and the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Behind them in the gallery were still a few more defendants' lawyers. The defendants' lawyers seemed to be smirking over their having had to come all this way just to confront a mere pro-se litigant, but they seemed to be smirking less when it was over.

About two-thirds of the hearing consisted of Judge Lindsay's questioning Howe about the case and its likely weaknesses. The judge was exceptionally well-informed about both the legal technicalities and the broader issues behind them. While he sought to move the hearing along, he also was pretty indulgent in letting Howe explain things.

The hearing wasn't really about whether the gold market is manipulated. It was about whether there is any basis in law for the suit. Thus it turns on legal issues and technicalities that will interest few of the partisans of gold and free markets -- issues like the very limited circumstances under which the government and government officials may be sued for official acts. But a few observations from this partisan may be of interest:

* The judge had trouble seeing in the lawsuit's claims possible evidence that the bullion banks had conspired with each other rather than with the federal government, other than what was called "parallel conduct" -- their doing the same things in the market at the same times. I thought Howe answered this well by noting that the bullion bank defendants had issued the overwhelming majority of gold and interest rate derivatives and essentially were themselves the markets for those instruments.

* The judge seemed almost obtuse in not understanding Howe's claim that there was fraud in the BIS' forcibly redeeming the shares of its private shareholders at less than fair value when there had never been any indication to the private shareholders that their shares could be taken this way.

* One of the lawyers for the government asserted the government's right, under the laws establishing the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund, to trade in gold in a way affecting gold's price. That is, he almost seemed to be claiming, on behalf of the government, the right to do exactly what the lawsuit complains of, without actually admitting that this was happening. (Whether he is right is exactly the legal issue the suit seeks to settle.) Howe was excellent in rebutting this claim. He argued that prior to 1974 Congress had fixed the gold price, but since then has left gold's price to the market. Thus, Howe said, any government trading in gold cannot constitutionally aim to fix the price, and certainly not surreptitiously. (I thought Howe got by far the better of this exchange, at least establishing a point worth litigating. Unfortunately I was sitting on the wrong side of the courtroom. We'll just have to wait to find out what the judge thinks.)

* Howe was just as effective in describing the unfairness of the BIS' liquidating its private shareholders without recourse and without arbitration. While the judge at first had wanted to skip argument on the arbitration issue, considering it examined adequately in the legal briefs, Howe managed to get his approval to make one point and then another and another, and the effect was very strong politically -- it gave the impression of ordinary small investors getting screwed by arrogant and powerful people. This happened to be the last issue discussed, so Howe finished strong, the other side weak.

When it was over, the courtroom cleared out quickly, and Howe was left alone at the counsel table packing his books andpapers into his briefcases. Forgive the editorializing, but I couldn't help but think of the scene at the end of the trial in that wonderful movie, "To Kill a Mockingbird," when Gregory Peck, playing the quietly heroic defense lawyer, Atticus Finch, does the same thing, seemingly alone -- and yet he is not alone, but rather watched by the oppressed people in the gallery with awe, admiration, and respect for standing up against the most hateful and vicious power. What I saw today was really not so different.

I won't guess what will happen with this case; anything can. Maybe the essence of what has happened today is that we could have lost the whole case but didn't. (I spent some time later with Howe and his business associate, Bob Landis, and, analyzing the day clinically, almost as a sport, they seemed ready to be hopeful.)

We still may lose the case on the technicalities in a few weeks and should be prepared for that.

But two things:

* Enough of the cursed cynicism that the courts are as rigged as the markets, that there is no fighting the power. We know some things about market rigging but there is no evidence that anything in court today was rigged. We got a day in court ifnot quite yet OUR day in court. And for all its faults this remains a country where one brave man pleading his own case can summon the representatives of all the money in the world and put the bastards in danger of having to answer for themselves.

* The lawsuit is an important front in our struggle for free markets and honest dealing but it is not the only front, and, win or lose here, our strategy and plan will be, in Churchill's words, KBO: Keep buggering on. Thanks to GATA Chairman Bill Murphy and Howe and those who have come to their assistance, we have discovered that the scheme against gold is only part of a bigger scheme involving interest rates and currencies to deprive the financial markets of any standards of value and to expropriate the world for the benefit of certain Wall Street interests and to make the world the slave of the U.S. dollar. This deeply shames Americans who understand it. That is why they will continue to oppose it as best they can regardless of what happens in court. It is an anti-imperialist cause and thus a great cause. And, as Churchill said, "When great causes are on the move in the world, we find that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on space and time, and beyond space and time, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

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

That was over three years ago and we are still following Churchill's advice. The judge eventually ruled against Reg – on technicalities only. Without getting into it all, he did not disparage what Reg presented to the court. His basic ruling was against Reg on a legal standing issue. He said a gold company ought to be the one bringing this case to court.

Which is just what Blanchard did. Learning from Reg, Blanchard went after Barrick and Morgan and left the US government, et al, out of it.

Here it is so many years later and "GATA’s Enveloping Horn" (more on that soon) is still on the march. Reg’s heroic effort is paying off in many ways. Certainly, when Barrick and Morgan settle, any reasonable person will know Blanchard had the goods on Barrick and Morgan. They will know GATA has been right all along.

More importantly, GATA is only warming up. As mentioned yesterday, GATA is on some roll. This just extends this "roll." We are going to get these Orwellian creeps and expose the bums for what they are. GATA’s credibility is soaring all over the world and we are going to utilize this increasing credibility to bury the bad guys. We have been at this longer than WW II lasted. No matter. We will stay the course until we win.

GATA asks you to help us to help you by writing your gold companies to support GATA by attending Gold Rush 21. Have you done so yet?

Back to the farce of a gold market. The CRB went bananas again today. It closed at 320.50, up 3.26. It has gone parabolic. Soybeans and the grains were on fire. Oil closed at $55.05, up ten cents and a new high for the move.

April CRB
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/RB/45

How about them beans?

http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/SB/35

Gold?…. Suppressed by The Gold Cartel all day long again. Their obvious price-capping is beyond absurd at this point with the disparity between gold and commodity prices widening to ludicrously incongruous price points.

To give you some idea how desperate the pathetic Orwellians are these days, the gold open interest rose a whopping 10,862 contracts to 327,940. The funds are buying like no tomorrow and The Gold Cartel is stopping the price from advancing at all visible costs to maintain their fraud. Houston’s Dan Norcini sums up the OI situation nicely:

Hey Bill:
I suppose by now you've seen the open interest and volume figures for yesterday. Another whopping increase of 10,000+ new longs completely absorbed by fresh selling. In the last two days alone (Friday & Monday), a total of nearly 25,000 new longs have been added (24,878 to be exact) with the result that the front month gold price has gone from 443.40 as of the close on Thursday to 441.60 as of yesterday's close, a LOSS of nearly $2.00.

To put things in perspective, for the entirety of last week, 24,183 fresh longs were added; 10,167 of those added on Monday thru Thursday. That buying was able to move the price up from a close on Friday, March 4 of 435.10 to 443.40 on Thursday, March 10 or a $8.30 gain. In the last two sessions as I mentioned above, we have had MORE THAN TWICE the increase in TWO DAYS in open interest than the first four days of last week combined and prices have gone DOWN!

It should be obvious to even the most unbiased of observers that a determined seller is absorbing the entirety of the buying coming into the gold pit. No one, and I will say it again until the cows come home, no one in their right mind sells like this to maximize their profits when it is so apparent that speculators want to take prices much higher. If this is not official sector intervention, then let's just shut down the entire commodity futures markets because I have no idea who else could be so utterly stupid as to work crosswires to their own interests. NORMAL sellers LOVE HIGHER PRICES; whoever is doing the capping, and we know who it is, DESPISES Higher prices and is doing their infernal worst to bring them down.

As an additional side note - The recent peak in open interest was made back on November 22 last year at 370,786. We are now $18.90 below the peak price at 460.50 for the April contract and only 42,846 contracts shy of that open interest total. At the rate these clowns are absorbing the buying coming into the pit, we could conceivably reach that in a matter of 4-5 more days!
Dan

I can’t recall the funds adding so many new positions one day after another when the price dropped $5 on that second day. Normally, a number of funds would liquidate on such pronounced weakness. Word to me is the funds are drooling, delighted at the setback – looking at it as an opportunity to buy cheap gold. They are watching what the commodity markets are doing too. More importantly, they are cleaning up and making a great deal of money in those markets – money which is flowing into gold. 'Course most don’t realize they are playing in RIGGED CASINO, with the US Government and bullion bank allies prohibiting gold from rising no matter what goes on in the world.

One thing for sure. We have a giant move coming soon, up or down. While the odds and historic probability greater favor the bums, I think, as usual, up. However, we need some help for this to occur. In addition to a surging physical market, which we have, we need the funds (and all the money in the world) to overpower the crooks who are throwing all their Mafia muscle behind capping the price. What a showdown we have here!

No matter what happens short-term, a historic move to the upside is in the works. The Gold Cartel is huffing and puffing against nature. The end result is inevitable. The windbags are going to run out of available air as they are blowing against the winds of nature and, eventually, money from those all over the world who want to buy cheap gold.

The John Brimelow Report

Stunning Comex data

Tuesday, March, 15 2005

Indian ex-duty premiums: AM $7.32, PM $6.82, with world gold at $440.75 and $441.90.Ample, and adequate, for legal imports. Once again, the Indian Reserve Bank intervened heavily towards the end of the day to force the rupee down, so the afternoon data may well understate the strength of the Indian bid for world gold during their business day.

Reuters from Singapore this morning carried a story saying that

"…"buying was brisk in…Singapore and Thailand, said Ronald Leung, director of Lee Cheong Gold Dealers…"…Premiums for gold bars were steady at 60 U.S. cents…"

and stating that firm demand in this region contrasted with discounts in Hong Kong, reported as 20c compared to 30c premiums a week ago. Curiously, Shanghai premiums jumped $2 over yesterday – perhaps some bureaucrat hit the wrong button – the whole question of gold pricing in China looks increasingly odd.

The ECB captive Central Banks sold E89Mm worth of gold last week, which eyeballs at about 8.4 tonnes compared to 6.5 tonnes last week, an immaterial change in the context of the world gold trade.

World gold went out static in Tokyo – up 5 c from NY. Activity slumped; volume fell 47% to only equal 14,420 NY contracts and open interest was also comatose – up 175 Comex lots.( NY yesterday traded 59,118 contracts; open interest rose an astonishing 10,862 lots – 33.78 tones! – to 327,940.)

Yesterday, world gold had to absorb some liquidation from Japan. But on the opening in NY, a spirited effort was made to move gold up. UBS comments:

"Gold tried to fill the previous day’s COMEX closing gap by some fund type of buying. The transparent pre-opening market prepared the participants for this to happen and a lot of sellers met the demand right away."

Subsequently, gold was smashed down on steady selling. ScotiaMocatta observes:

"Good physical demand was seen near the lows and some fund buying lifted us to a close of 440.60/441.10."

If the Comex data is to be credited, 80 tonnes of net buying – 24,878 contracts or 8.2% – in the last two business days has resulted in a $1.80 decline in the April contract. It is difficult to know whether to be more impressed by the seller or the buyer.

JB

Don’t want to miss this one:

Is the Gold Price Being Managed?

By James Turk
March 15, 2005

http://www.kitcocasey.com/displayArticle.php?id=49

CARTEL CAPITULATION WATCH

The DOW was hit later on in the day for a change and dropped 59 to 10,745, while the DOG gave up 16 to 2053. The US stock market monster trading range continues on. I still believe we have a KERPLUNK coming.

The dollar rose .21 to 82.13, while the euro gave up .53 to 133.47. The yen rose to 104.46.

08:30 Feb. Retail Sales reported 0.5% vs. consensus 0.6%; ex-Autos 0.4% vs. consensus 0.8%
Prior readings: Retail Sales revised to 0.3% vs. (0.3%); ex-Autos revised to 1% from 0.6%.
* * * * *

08:30 March Empire Manufacturing reported 19.6 vs. consensus 19.9
Prior 19.19.
* * * * *

08:56 Redbook chain store sales index (0.9%) March-to-date vs. Feb.
* * * * *

09:03 Foreigners' holdings of U.S.-assets holdings in January rose a net $91.5B
Largest increase since May 2003. Jan capital inflows is second-highest on record. Stock hodlings rose net $16.5B
* * * * *

US net capital inflows surge to $91.5 bln in Jan

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - Net inflows of capital into U.S. assets surged to a more-than-expected $91.5 billion in January, the second biggest inflow on record and more than enough to finance the nation's current account deficit that month, a Treasury Department report showed on Tuesday.

Net inflows of capital climbed from a revised $60.7 billion in December that was originally reported as $61.3 billion.

January's capital inflows were the largest since $103.9 billion in May 2003, Treasury said.

Currency analysts had forecast a net inflow into U.S. assets in a range between $55 billion and $75 billion for January.

Financial market participants watch the report as a measure of foreigners' appetite for U.S. assets.

The United States depends on foreign investors buying U.S. assets like Treasury bonds to finance its current account deficit. Net inflows short of the deficit could increase selling pressure on the dollar.

January inflows handily offset the monthly U.S. trade deficit of $58.3 billion in the first month of 2005.

-END-

Hold on just one minute here. Let’s get to what is really going on here:

Hi Bill,
As you’ve seen today, net foreign purchases of US Treasuries in January 2005 was $24 billion (http://www.ustreas.gov/tic/mfh.txt ) of which Caribbean Banking Centers bought $23 billion.

Is this what it has come to? The United States of America is dependent upon "Caribbean Banking Centers" to buy its treasuries and keep the economy afloat?

China, Japan, U.K., Germany, France – they’ve all stopped buying appreciable amounts of US Treasuries.

How long do you think it will take the Bond Market (and the stock market) to see through these numbers? We are in for some interesting action on the bond market.
Regards,
Dave

As wondered by a number in our camp, how much of this Caribbean Banking Center is really the US printing money (in addition to hedge funds operating out of the Caribbean), sending it to the Caribbean in off-shore accounts, and then repatriating the very same money to make it look like foreigners are buying our debt rather than us monetizing the debt.

MOODY'S CUTS OUTLOOK ON AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP, INC. DEBT TO 'NEGATIVE'

What Barrick and Morgan want to avoid:

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Former WorldCom Inc. Chairman Bernard Ebbers, the ex-milkman and bouncer who built a small Mississippi telephone company into the second-largest U.S. long- distance provider, was convicted of directing an $11 billion fraud that triggered the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Jurors in federal court in Manhattan rejected the claim by Ebbers that he didn't know his subordinates were cooking the books and convicted him of all charges. The verdict -- guilty of conspiracy, securities fraud, and seven counts of lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission -- came in the eighth day of deliberations. Ebbers, 63, testified in his own defense. Eight of the nine charges carry maximum prison terms of 10 years each.

-END-

How many conspiracies have to surface like this before the world wakes up to the grandest one of all?

Rhody on leasing:

Morning Bill:
I didn't comment on lease rates yesterday because I didn't trust the data feed from Kitco. The same applies today. Look at gold one month lease rates. They are up .10% to .10%. That would mean that yesterday, the one month rate was at zero, which is impossible. I have more faith in the silver data which shows lease rates firmly up for all terms, but with the higher changes front loaded in the one to three month terms. That means "they" are leasing down the silver spot market again, ad nauseum.

This rigging of commodity prices (and it is occurring in all commodity areas) makes me wonder what the world reaction will be when this information becomes generally known. Will anybody be selling commodities to the United States after it becomes known how many hundreds of billions of real wealth has been cheated from the 80% of humanity living in the third world?
Regards, Rhody.

An update on Germany’s gold position:

Bundesbank says gold sales decisions not political

FRANKFURT, March 15 (Reuters) - A decision by Germany's central bank last year not to take up an option yet to sell gold reserves was not driven by political considerations, Bundesbank President Axel Weber said on Tuesday.

"The Bundesbank profit is a residual issue for me...I don't enter into any strategic considerations about Bundesbank profits, neither in the morning, afternoon or evening," Weber told the central bank's annual news conference.
Germany's central bank has an option to sell 600 tonnes of gold over the next five years under an agreement between European central banks, but has not said yet if it will exercise it.

Earlier the Bundesbank reported a 2004 profit of 676 million euros, far below the two billion euros the government had hoped to garner for its 2005 budget.

-END-