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

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TSX VENTURE SYMBOL: JPN
OTC Bulletin Board SYMBOL: JPNJF

MAY 13, 2004 - 12:40 ET

J-Pacific Targets New Gold Mineralization at Elizabeth Project

http://www2.ccnmatthews.com/sc…pl?/current/0513080n.html

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TSX SYMBOL: DSM

MAY 13, 2004 - 13:35 ET

Desert Sun Mining Corp.: New Drilling Indicates Potential For Major Depth Extension At Joao Belo Mine

http://www2.ccnmatthews.com/sc…pl?/current/0513090n.html

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MacMillan Gold intersects significant mineralization at Cerro de Oro Gold and Silver Project

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-…13-2004/0002173953&EDATE=

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TSX SYMBOL: ELD
AMEX SYMBOL: EGO

MAY 13, 2004 - 16:30 ET

Eldorado Gold Corporation: First Quarter 2004 Financial Results

http://www2.ccnmatthews.com/sc…pl?/current/0513119n.html

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LSE (AIM) - YAU

TSX SYMBOL: YRI
AMEX SYMBOL: AUY

MAY 13, 2004 - 12:51 ET

Yamana Gold Year End Results Release Notification

http://www2.ccnmatthews.com/sc…pl?/current/0513082n.html

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Friday, May 14, 2004

Slowdown forecast in jewellery sector

Published on May 14, 2004

The Jewel Fest Club has forecast that the jewellery market will grow 10-15 per cent this year, down from the usual rate of 20-30 per cent per year, as unrest in southern provinces has reduced tourist numbers, said the association's deputy executive chairman yesterday.

Nipaporn Amornpongchai said the jewellery industry recorded overall revenue of Bt104 billion last year, with this year expected to reach Bt114.4 billion to Bt119.6 billion.

"The reduced sales growth has resulted from a decrease in foreign tourists due to the situation in the South. We hope the situation will be peacefully resolved soon so that sales will return to normal levels," said Nipaporn.

According to statistics provided by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, tourist numbers are expected to reach 10 million this year, down from an earlier forecast of 12 million.

Besides the problems in the South, dishonest traders have also badly damaged the Thai jewellery industry's reputation by selling fake jewellery and providing false information on products sold to foreign visitors, she said.

Despite slower domestic growth, exports remain strong, especially to China. Nipaporn said that although China is an aggressive competitor due to cheaper labour costs and abundant resources, the target market for its products is different.

Chinese gems are aimed at budget-minded consumers, while Thai products are aimed at consumers looking for good designs and high quality.

Nipaporn urged Thai businesses to form strategic clusters to market and promote their products more effective. She said the "Amazing Thailand Grand Sale Fair 2004", which will be held from June 10-13, is expected to boost retail sales.

Benjaprut Akkarasriprapai

THE NATION

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Meridian Gold "buy," target price raised

Thursday, May 13, 2004 11:03:05 AM ET

UBS

NEW YORK, May 13 (New Ratings) - Analysts at UBS maintain their "buy" rating on Meridian Gold Inc (MDG.NYS). The target price has been raised from $13.50 to $16.50.

http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_422050.html

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option63

Gegenvorschlag

Mach selbst einen eigenen Diskussionsthread auf

Dieser Thread bleibt wie er seit Eröffnung ist, solange Interesse vorhanden ist hier Informationen zu Minen und dem Gold und Silber Geschehen zu lesen, und zu Posten.

Dieser Thread war genauso vorgesehen wie er heute ist!

Was hier aber fehlt ist eine Nummerierung der einzelnen Postings, damit man sich auf frühere Postings von Usern beziehen kann. Habe mehrfach im Thread daruf hingewiesen, und die Verantwortlichen hier gebeten, dies bitte zu ermöglichen.

Bis jetzt leider ohne Erfolg

Gruss

ThaiGuru

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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gata/message/2175

From: GATAComm@a...
Date: Thu May 13, 2004 9:34 pm
Subject: Barrick, contradicting itself, loses motion
to add defendants in Blanchard case

5:27p ET Thursday, May 13, 2004

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Blanchard & Co., the New Orleans coin and
bullion dealer, announced today that it has
defeated a motion by Barrick Gold to add about
20 bullion banks and 75 gold producers as
defendants in Blanchard's gold price-fixing
lawsuit in federal court in New Orleans.

In a statement to its employees, Blanchard
said Barrick had based its motion on a claim
that its gold hedging program is similar to
programs used by other mining companies. But,
Blanchard added, Barrick has long claimed in
filings with both the court and the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission that
its hedging program is UNIQUE.

That is, it seems that, to try to delay the
lawsuit and its evidence-discovery process
by adding dozens of defendants, Barrick has
just changed its story completely.

Denying Barrick's motion, the court didn't
buy the change of stories.

Barrick and its co-defendant and bullion
bank, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., are, GATA
has long maintained, the intermediaries
through which the U.S. Treasury Department
and Federal Reserve have been intervening
surreptitiously in the gold market. The
U.S. government is entitled by law to sell
and buy gold but, GATA has maintained, only
to achieve ordinary purchases and sales, not
to rig the market, and only in the open, not
surreptitiously so that only favored
associates of the government, like Barrick
and Morgan Chase, can profit by exclusive
knowledge of government policy.

Those were the points of GATA consultant Reg
Howe's lawsuit against Morgan Chase, the
Treasury Department, the Fed, and others in
federal court in Boston several years ago.

The Blanchard lawsuit pursues the same
points with a much-narrowed list of
defendants, which is why the case is so
important.

Blanchard's statement is appended.

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

***

STATEMENT TO BLANCHARD & CO. EMPLOYEES
FROM DONALD W. DOYLE JR., CEO

We just received a copy of the court's order and
reasons denying Barrick's motion to join, as
defendants, approximately 20 bullion banks and
75 gold producers. The court said that, without
production of the documents requested by
Blanchard, it was impossible to determine the
status of the absent parties.

According to the court, a dispositive issue in
this case is whether or not Barrick's hedging
program is unique. Blanchard says the program
IS unique; Barrick claims that it is NOT unique.

The court has placed Barrick on a very slippery
slope. Not only is the company now open to
its worst nightmare -- discovery that will provide
even more proof of manipulation and
monopolization -- but it also finds itself in the
unenviable position of claiming that its hedging
program is NOT unique even though the company has
repeatedly stated the OPPOSITE in filings with
the federal district court and in filings with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Just two examples:

"Barrick admits, on information and belief,
that no other gold producer has available to
it the combination of margin-free hedging,
10-15-year terms, and flexible delivery dates
that are available to Barrick." (Answer of
defendant Barrick Gold Corp. to plaintiffs'
third supplemental and amended complaint,
October 7, 2003, Paragraph 35.)

"The terms of our gold sales contracts provide
flexibility and benefits that we believe are
unique to us and unavailable to any other
gold producer." ( Barrick annual report for
2002, Page 55, incorporated in Barrick's
Form 40-F filing with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission in 2003.)

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The Action Of Gold Over The Next 90 Days Will Determine If Gold Has Lost All Vestiges Of 5000 Years Of History As A Standard Or Not

Yesterday it was announced that the US Balance of Trade Deficit had expanded at an outrageous rate by historical comparison. Trade Deficits act to increase the Current Account Deficit because that is the simple mechanics of the process. If a trade deficit gets out of control, expansion of the Current Account Deficit cannot be far behind. The Current Account of any currency is the final determinant of the direction of that currency. Increasing deficits at or above 3% of GDP can cause a serious bear market in any currency. That is exactly what has happened to the US dollar.

The US Budget Deficit is hopeless in an economy wherein 65% of the corporations pay no tax - not even in 1999 and 2000 when business was booming. The US Budget Deficit is hopeless in an economic society in which the incumbent will certainly lose the upcoming election if the economic recovery fired by a 100% war footing, significant tax relief and historic levels monetary ease, fails before October of this year.

If the recent purely manipulative breakdown of an apparent Double Top Neckline succeeds, gold will no longer be a standard of the people but rather just another casino entity within the standardless Western Judeo-Christian society.

There is not one fundamental negative to gold. In fact, every fundamental from inflation to geopolitics is screaming bullish for gold and increasingly so. The fight here is between the TA’s ability to be used as the ultimate manipulative tool and gold’s increasingly bullish fundamentals.

I personally believe in gold as the reflex standard in a society gone mad. Lies are the norm. Independent contractors doing military and interrogation work in Iraq are total con jobs to avoid ethics, rules, conventions and human decency. These are set up by unregulated people who believe they are above the law. Employment statistics are total lies. The discount rate is a total lie. Yet Martha lies to the liars and she will go to hell for that. Should not the standardless society leaders give an award rather than jail time to the best liar in private life? Or do you go to jail for both the truth and a lie?

If Manipulators Win And Gold Is Not A Standard What Does It Mean To The Price of Gold?

What it means is simple. The implications of the smallest market in the world with the largest amount of derivatives set upon that platform are as follows:

Outrageous price action both on the plus and negative side. If anyone out there plays this as a future and is not of the talent level of the greatest traders in market history then you are the turkey sitting at the gaming table.

There will be no means of preserving wealth from generation to generation as that will only be available to the manipulators themselves and the very few master traders.

Conclusion

Since the manipulators of the price of gold now depend on the US dollar as their cover, the operation itself depends upon the dollar maintaining its rally. The second that rally fails, the gold price will vault over $400 to suck you back in at $500 before you experience the next major rip-off. Please note that on balance the pros are covering their shorts now as the gold public panic and unload. Greed will get you next in this game of separating the public from its money.

The answer for those that can - assuming the TA manipulation of gold here succeeds - is a business that focuses on the extraction of mineral commodities including gold, gems and industrial minerals. They create “real wealth” and in fact are a storehouse of wealth from generation to generation. Assuming manipulation wins, then after 90 days such a venture will be my only endeavor.

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May 13 - Gold $374.40 down $2.90 - Silver $5.60 up 4 cents

Gold Cartel Calls In Saudis For Help

Zitat

The definition of the ultimate
optimist is: "The guy at the end of the runway at the
Oakland, CA airport runway who is waiting for Amelia Earhart
to return".

GO GATA!!!

A fair amount of my commentary recently has focused on the orchestrated news which was negative for gold. Today The Gold Cartel and friends dropped another bomb:

By Natsuko Waki

BASEL, Switzerland, May 13 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia still regards the dollar as having the edge over the euro as the top reserve currency, the country's vice central bank governor said.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Muhammad Al-Jasser, vice governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, said central banks worldwide would like to sell gold faster but were worried this would make the price collapse.

Speaking in Basel, he also said China should not be asked to cool its booming economy because Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, and the rest of the world need China to sustain growth.

Euro take-up by central banks since its launch in 1999 has been slow, even though talk occasionally sweeps the currency market that Middle Eastern central banks have been buying.

"The euro has not yet gained a competitive status against the dollar as a major reserve currency. People are not going to switch to euros until European financial markets become more competitive, deeper, more liquid and diversified," he said.

Central banks have bought euros to diversify foreign exchange reserves away from the U.S. dollar, minimise risks and enhance returns. But the greenback's share in official reserves was 64.5 percent in 2002 against the euro's 18.7 percent.

Al-Jasser said gold, still widely held as a reserve asset, was a relic of the past for central banks.

"It's a dead asset. Central banks from industrial countries are afraid of a collapse in the value of the mountain of gold they have. They would otherwise sell gold faster because it doesn't give them returns."

Saudi Arabia's foreign currency reserves stood at $19.6 billion last year and total reserves hit $24.5 billion, levels economists say have not been seen since the oil boom in the early 1980s. It does not disclose composition of the reserves.

-END-

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The John Brimelow Report

Insight from Standard & SAMA

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Indian ex-duty premiums: AM $2.40, PM $8.22, with world gold at $378.25 and $374.65. Below, and comfortably above, legal import point. The Indian rupee collapsed early this morning and the stock and other markets reeled as it became apparent that the pro-business BJP Government had been defeated unexpectedly in the national elections. Subsequently they recovered somewhat. In the short run, the new government’s accession is unlikely to impact on India’s propensity to buy bullion at these prices. Perhaps the upper class may feel less competitive attraction from the stock market.

The yen sagged too this morning, to an 8 month low on poor economic news. All other things being equal this is bad for those short yen futures, and it triggered a limit-up day in platinum. TOCOM gold was far less responsive. Volume did jump 38% to the equivalent of 24,030 Comex lots, but the active contract was only up 3 yen, and open interest slipped the equivalent of 350 Comex. Sluggish overseas gold was the cause: and world gold was another 55c down on the NY close at the end. Nevertheless, sustained weakness in the yen invariably stimulates long accumulation of TOCOM futures. (NY yesterday was estimated to have traded 62,000 contracts.)

Gold in NY yesterday afternoon was crushed down some $4 in the final half hour, with 24% of the volume trading in the last tenth of the day. This of course was a mirror image of the Dow’s 150 point recovery late in its trading day. Bullion dealer commentaries were shocked, given the news of the day and unusually vocal. Reuters quotes one:

" "Given the trade deficit and given the dollar, I'm very shocked and I think it's a very poor performance on behalf of all the precious metals," said Graham Leighton, a vice president of precious metals at Societe Generale ."

Macquarie remarks:

Zitat

"A sharp reversal on liquidation into the Comex close had dealers scratching their heads"

Standard Bank concurs, and offers an unattractive explanation:

Zitat

"Gold’s performance was disappointing given a cocktail of positive factors – an historically high US trade deficit, crude oil at 13 year highs, an ever worsening geo-political situation in the Middle East, and surging physical demand from the Indian sub-Continent and SE Asia. This suggests that there may be significant selling going through the market at the moment (Central Banks, producers?)

No significant producer candidate comes to mind.

These thoughts makes the perspective offered by a curious interview with the vice governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency on Reuters valuable. Trashing the Euro as a potential reserve currency and deploring any restraint of the China boom, this official lays particularly heavy emphasis on denigrating gold:

Zitat

"Al-Jasser said gold, still widely held as a reserve asset, was a relic of the past for central banks. "It's a dead asset. Central banks from industrial countries are afraid of a collapse in the value of the mountain of gold they have. They would otherwise sell gold faster because it doesn't give them returns."

No returns on holding gold since 9/11? The whole interview sound as if it was scripted in Washington. It probably was.

JB

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"Relic of the past"???? The script writer reads like the same one who wrote the anonymous FT article. Not much originality from this Gold Cartel crowd.

It does not get too much clearer that The Gold Cartel and present Administration in Washington considers a rising gold price to be a threat to the financial system and to their throne of power. The ties between the Bush and Royal Saudi families are well known. Our bond market is gradually falling apart. To keep it from becoming a complete rout the US financial powers must believe the dollar needs to be propped up and gold taken down. What other reason could there by for this peculiarly timed Reuters interview? The Saudis rarely ever comment on the markets publicly and there was no reason for them to bring up gold in the context of the interview, unless they were asked to.

This Saudi news is no minor deal as it shows the degree to which the financial powers are petrified of gold and to the extent they are willing to go to keep the pressure on. Short-term this has to be considered a negative. In the intermediate to long term it won’t make much difference at all. Meanwhile, the gold news continues to be very market friendly:

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. producer prices rose 0.7 percent in April, larger than economists' forecast and the biggest increase since March 2003, reflecting higher costs for gasoline and food, a government report showed.

The increase in prices paid to factories, farmers and other producers followed March's 0.5 percent rise, the Labor Department said in Washington. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the so-called core rate rose 0.2 percent for a second month.

The core rate was 1.5 percent higher than in April of last year, the biggest 12-month increase since August 2001. Prices of partly finished goods such as steel mill products and chemicals also rose. Some companies such as Sherwin-Williams Co. are considering raising prices to assuage the rising cost of energy.

–END-

As we all well know, fundamentals are meaningless in a rigged market over the near term. In a free market, gold would have popped nicely today, just as the bond yields rose again in response to this inflation number. The 30-year fell another 19/32 to 103 20/32. In addition, June crude oil rose again, to $41.08, up another 31 cents and near the all-time high reached during the Gulf War. Gasoline continues to make all-time highs.

The gold open interest rose 746 contracts to 255,488, while the silver open interest fell 409 contracts to 91,471.

Volume jumped in the last half hour of the Comex trading session by 45% in the gold pits. The cabal made sure gold’s attempted rally failed. Funds were also on the sell side during the day.

Portugal announced they sold 35 tonnes early this year with a May settlement date. The sale was within the terms of the Washington Agreement. Most likely, this was another tranche called away from them as a result of their option writing program. It also means another country scheduled to sell 35 tonnes was not able to do so as Portugal was not figured in the 400 tonne figure for the year.

Just in late:

Sources tell me they noted some gold borrowing, which went with a good deal of buying of August gold and selling various 2006 months. It is hard to know exactly what this means. Are they borrowing the gold to bomb the market, or are they borrowing it because the market has become so tight? This borrowing does fit in with our feedback that the gold pipeline is drying up.

Silver was very steady all day long.

One has to be very careful here about any kind of margin positions. There are numerous commentators out there saying gold is going to crash, the gold shares are going to crash, and the general market is going to crash on Monday. With gold in such a fragile condition thanks to the cabal forces, we have to be prepared for anything in the very short-term. If our markets do go to hell in a handbasket, the torment should be brief. Technically, gold is very bearish. Fundamentally, it doesn’t get much better. Only the antics of The Gold Cartel have shoved gold down to these bargain basement levels.

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CARTEL CAPITULATION WATCH

The dollar continues to move higher, closing at 92.15, up .71 and a new high close for the move, with the euro falling .87 to 118.11.

The DOW was all over the place, ending the day down 34 to 10,011, while the DOG held steady ground.

Inflation Fears Send Stocks Skidding

By MICHAEL J. MARTINEZ
AP Business Writer
Published May 13, 2004, 9:18 AM CDT

NEW YORK -- New government data that showed a possible rise in inflation sent stocks sliding Thursday as investors feared the news would prompt the Federal Reserve to not only raise rates soon, but to raise them to a larger degree….

The Labor Department said that wholesale prices climbed 0.7 percent in April, the largest increase in a year, spurred on by higher dairy and gasoline prices. However, excluding food and energy prices, "core" whole sale prices rose by only 0.2 percent, matching economists' estimates. –END-

GATA’s Mike Bolser:

Hi Bill:
The Fed added $14.692 Billion today May 13th 2004, an action that caused the pool to slip to $34.87 Billion ( there was a large expiration today).

These Federal Reserve open market operations can be viewed daily at:
http://www.newyorkfed.org/mark…mm/temp.cfm?SHOWMORE=TRUE

for temporary operations

and http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/permanent.html

for permanent operations. In addition the reader may see the repo pool daily at my own free website:

http://www.pbase.com/gmbolser/interventional_analysis

The permanent operation today was $1.692 Billion.

The Fed isn't ramming the pool higher even with a weakened DOW so I continue to believe they prefer to add their repo support in a gradual slope upward with no steep spikes as shown in the red 30-day moving average trace.

Support regimes--Follow the red line

With the onset of the "Iraq War Rally" the Fed has implemented four distinct support regimes. Each one exhibited a slightly different character. The first, which initiated the false DOW "rally" was parabolic in repo growth, the second was approximately linear in appearance, the next lasted a bit longer and carried a steeper up slope and the last and current regime of a more gentle up slope. The last three seem linear.

These regimes of government intervention have been designed to steer the DOW by adding futures support and the funds can be used in currency markets as well. Since the government has an unlimited supply of paper assets (hyperinflation) with which to support the DOW, don't expect them to suddenly walk away and let it crash. However speculators appreciate this and know about the required hyperinflation so they move out of the DOW and into investments that will survive the inevitable inflation. This potent force is known as price discovery.

The inflationary surge in prices has ignited an upsurge in the number of investors seeking protection from the ravages of government intervention. The rest of the world has increased their bullion purchases not to mention their energy purchases and storage capacity (China). The move is into commodities and precious metals in particular. Somewhere in this arena the Fed will fail in their interventional schemes. The time factor resides with the commodity longs while the remaining stocks of Fed bullion needed to continue the charade dwindle. When the central bank players decide enough is enough the Fed's grand gamble will be over.

Its only a matter of time.

Mike

The bond auctions this week were nowhere near as positive as they looked at first glance. The astute Bill King tells us why in his King Report last evening:

The more important story is the disappointing 5-year note auction, the 2nd tranche of the Treasury Refunding. Initial auction results looked modestly beneficial. However, the Fed had to buy $3.058B of the $15B auction (20%) because central banks only bought 34.5% of the notes. The past four months they have bought 41%, 44%, 43% and 40.4% of auctions. It’s revealing and troubling that the investment community insouciantly ignores the fact that central banks, principally Japan and China, have been funding over 40% of US Treasury Auctions. Where’s the commentary or concern?

We have opined that economic statistics are not indicative of the robust economy that most of Wall Street sees and heralds. We have also noted that the convenient sudden job growth is mostly BLS legerdemain and the taking of temp jobs because employment benefits have lapsed. However, we noted that it’s possible that intractabulls might be correct about the self-employment and small business boom. And that verification would appear when the IRS releases tax data.

Yesterday the US Treasury reported a $17.62B budget surplus for April. The average forecast was for $15.5B; some Wall Street bulls expected $23B due to the robust economy and employment boom. (Last year the surplus was $51.06B.) The CBO had forecast receipts of $222B and spending of $207B. April 2004 total tax receipts fell 4.8% to $220.091B (from $231.160B) ~$2B less than CBO forecast but spending was less than expected but a larger magnitude. Spending for April surged 12.4 y/y%.

For the first seven months of the current fiscal year (through April) tax receipts are up only 1.3% y/y. Bush’s tax plan cut receipts but this should disturb the supply siders and Lafferites who advocate that cutting taxes increases tax revenues because it stimulates the economy. Revenue from withheld income and payroll taxes increased only 2%. Social security taxes increased only 1.6% FYTD! Is this characteristic of a robust economy with a self-employment and small business boom? Or are many self-employed doing a Tony Soprano? PS - While tax receipts increased only 1.3% FYTD, spending surged 7.5% y/y.

April receipts were $9B or 4% lower than April ‘03. Tax refunds were $12B higher than last year, but April had 5 Fridays and the Treasury reports the majority of tax rebates on Fridays.

-END-

Some positive demand news for silver:

http://www.stamfordadvocate.co…l=stam-business-headlines

-END-

Congratulations to Silver Standard Resources for taking a step to counteract the silver trashing efforts of the cabal price managers:

Here is what Silver Standard Resources had to say in their press release.....

"With cash of $61 million, and marketable securities of approximately $10 million at March 31, the company decided to invest approximately 20% of its cash and securities in physical silver following the decline in silver prices in April and May. Silver Standard now owns over 1.95 million ounces of silver. This silver is held on an allocated and segregated basis and, consequently, is not available to be loaned."
Robert Quartermain, President
Silver Standard Resources Inc.

It seems like eons ago the World Gold Council launched plans to commence trading its Equity Gold Trust on the New York Stock Exchange. As it would be a positive for gold demand and attract more investor attention to gold, the GATA camp posited way back the authorities would make it very difficult for the World Gold Council to get up and running, which is just what has happened.

By Bloomberg News Service
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

The introduction of gold-backed shares in the United States has been delayed because of a longer than expected review by securities regulators, said Bobby Godsell, chief executive of AngloGold Ashanti, the world's second-largest gold producer.

World Gold Trust Services, a subsidiary of the producer-funded World Gold Council in London, said in May 2003 it was seeking approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell as many as 60.4 million shares in the Equity Gold Trust.

The trust would be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The delay in getting approvals reflected a desire by U.S. officials "to make absolutely sure they understand the nature of the security and that it's meeting all of the regulatory requirements," Mr. Godsell said.

Equity Gold Trust shares would be "a little bit between an equity and money," Mr. Godsell said. "It's a product innovation. I guess you take time to get through the regulators when you're innovating a new product. I'm sure it will come out."

The World Gold Council's members include Denver-based Newmont Mining, Johannesburg-based AngloGold, and Toronto-based Barrick Gold, the world's largest producers.

Trust shares trading in London and Australia had generated 43 tonnes of investment demand for gold as the price of the precious metal had risen during the past two years, Mr. Godsell said. "We're very encouraged." -END-

Daily Rap for 05-11-2004
by Bill Fleckenstein

"Free the ETF".

Feeding Grass Roots to the Yellow Dog

On the subject of gold, I have received many emails asking what's happened to the ETF. All I can say is, I have no idea. But along that line, I have decided to take matters into my own hands. I would like to start a campaign, if you will, to "Free the ETF." After checking around a bit, I think that perhaps the most constructive thing folks can do is convey their sentiments, via letters to the SEC commissioners -- something along the lines of:

"I would like to trade gold, via an ETF, as soon as possible. With nearly 100 ETFs now trading on a variety of instruments, surely the SEC could allow gold among those offerings. And yet, the most recent S1A for the gold ETF was submitted almost six months ago. What's the holdup?" The letters should be sent to SEC Commissioners William H. Donaldson, Cynthia Glassman, Harvey Goldschmid, Paul Atkins, and Roel Campos. The address: SEC Headquarters, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20549. –END-

Fleckenstein remains in the blind camp when it comes to what the real gold story is all about. This "holdup" is just one more aspect of an orchestrated effort to hold down the price of gold.

Mahendra predicted the stunning upset of the elections in India:

"A study of Sonia Gandhi’s chart reveals a great rise after 25 July 2004. During my last visit to India I read in media, almost all astrologers and analysts predicted that Sonia Gandhi would never be the Prime Minister of India. However, destiny will prove them all wrong and just as I said earlier in the year, I still affirm that she will soon rule India."

The gold shares sold off in light volume with the XAU down .61 to 80.09 and the HUI 1.85 lower to 173.54.

All eyes will be on the CPI tomorrow. Will it show the real inflation spreading through the US system or will they concoct the numbers? Will The Working Group on Financial Markets use the number, whatever it is, as an opportunity to gun the dollar and grill gold? Or, will gold tank and then pull some sort of stunning comeback? With the fundamentals this bullish and the technicals very bearish, something has got to give. The price action will have to tell us what that is. A key will be not to panic if the cabal forces drill us and then be on the lookout for a key reversal.

GATA BE IN IT TO WIN IT!

MIDAS

Appendix

A view of America from Down Under, a view which is becoming more widespread around the world. What is so scary about this commentary below is many months ago a Café member met with a former head of state of a foreign country. This head of state was discussing the Iraq War with President Bush when the President told him "God is on our side." This head of state said he never heard anything like it during his career in politics, describing the comment as both astonishing and disturbing.

In 1933 the Nazi party under the leadership of Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Hitler proclaimed a 'New Order', a one-party state led by him under the Fuehrerprinzip or 'leadership principle'. It was to be based on the infallibility of a 'master race', the Aryans, a theme which had no basis in scientific or anthropological fact, but was part of misty German folklore that had been around for centuries.

This new order was founded on military might, and from the start its aim was to capture new territory, or Lebensraum, so that Germany could extend its empire throughout Europe, extending to Russia and on to the eastern shores of Asia. Hitler proclaimed this 'Third Reich' (the First Reich was the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne, and the Second, Germany ruled by Bismarck) would last for a thousand years. In fact, it lasted just 12 years and 3 months.

The Nazis' rule was one which was characterised by the most appalling atrocities, none of which it is necessary to repeat here in detail -rape, torture, murder were their stock-in-trade. But if you wanted to sum up in one word what characterised the Nazi regime, that word would have to be 'arrogance'. The belief in one's invincibilty and that God is on your side (every German soldier had the words Gott mit uns - 'God with us', emblazoned on his belt buckle), the contempt for other races or Untermenschen who were good only for use as slaves to serve Germany and whose lives could be disposed of whenever deemed appropriate - all this reflected a supreme arrogance. And once that arrogance was instilled in the common soldiery, all and any kinds of human rights abuses became not only inevitable, but took on a twisted logic all their own. That phenomenon was not confined to Germany - more recent examples are the Serbian atrocities in Bosnia and Kosovo and the slaughter in Rwanda.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, the United States stood as the world's only superpower. Their military technology was, and is, unchallenged. When GWB was elected, a powerful group that we now know as the 'neo-cons' saw an opportunity to use a compliant, clueless president as a tool to implement policies that are designed to make America the only dominant nation, and to ensure that in strategic regions, governments are installed that are benignly disposed toward it. Nowhere is of more strategic importance than the Middle East with its vast reserves of oil.

When Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939 he used the pretext that Poles had been committing abuses against ethnic Germans. He also asserted that Poland had 'fired first' and that Germany was only acting in 'self defence'. All lies of course, just as the nonsense about Iraqi WMD's and Saddam's involvement in 9/11 were proved to be lies. The first casualty of war is truth, and the Bush administration's propaganda machine continues to churn out misinformation, disinformation, distractions and plain falsehoods on a daily basis.

When the US military won the brief campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, as they were bound to do, they collected thousands of prisoners and imprisoned them at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Discarding the Geneva Convention, just as all arrogant, brutal regimes do, they conducted interrogations that relied on torture and humiliation to extract information. We know this because Donald Rumsfeld has admitted to authorising 'harsh interrogation techniques' at that establishment. In my book, that equates to torture.

Now we hear of ever worse abuses in Abu Ghraib prison - women gang raped, prisoners savaged by guard dogs, and other acts that Congress says are too awful to be made public. Some Americans are indignant that the world should be so critical of America and its 'heroic' soldiers. Senator James Inhofe is one of those - he's angry about those 'do-gooders' as he calls them, and says that the Iraqis that were abused were terrorists and murderers. By extrapolation, I guess that means that torture, rape and murder are OK. Someone should tell him that the figures show that between 70% and 90% of those imprisoned by the Coalition were later to be proved to be totally innocent. No matter to Mr Inhofe, it seems. If he had been a German during WW2 he would have probably referred to those prisoners as Untermenschen.

A video-diary of one female soldier in Iraq was shown in part on BBC news this morning. In one scene, the body of a dead snake is shown. "A sand viper," says the soldier, "get bitten by that and you're dead in 6 hours. We haven't had anyone bitten yet, but a couple of prisoners have died. What should I care? Two less for me to worry about." Sure, who cares about untermenschen?

Apologists like our own Prime Minister say that because the Coalition are addressing these issues and will bring those responsible to justice, we are somehow not as bad as Saddam's people who did many more bad things and weren't punished. That is the most cowardly and obscene drivel I've yet to hear from anyone so far. The only reason that the abuses may stop is because someone blew the whistle on the whole disgusting exercise. You can bet that Bush, Rumsfled, Blair and the whole rotten crew knew what was going on, but chose to ignore it. Either that or it was a classic case of 'don't tell me anything that I don't want to know.'

Some may think I'm being unreasonable in drawing comparisons between the America of today and the Germany of the 1930's. But if power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the potential has existed for America to exert its power with impunity for a number of years, without resistance, and up until now, without condemnation. When you're unassailable, the temptation to go beyond the limits of human decency become too strong - it's so easy to say "We're doing this for the good of all - the end DOES justify the means." It's garbage and it's always been garbage. America, wake up and wake up quickly! You are becoming a pariah, hated by an ever-increasing number of people around the world. There are around a billion Muslims out there, and right now a goodly number of them want your collective heads on a plate - just as they got Nick Berg's in a show of barbaric murder yesterday.

Bill Bonner, editor of The Daily Reckoning, often says that we may not get what we expect, but we usually get what we deserve. Right now America is in grave danger - its government, its corporate sector, its media - everything is rotten, riddled with corruption, lies and naked greed. Last night on Wall Street, the Dow looked like it was in danger of collapsing. The Plunge Protection Team swung into action and a 175 point fall magically reverted to a 25 point gain in the space of two hours. If you don't think that's market manipulation you need to take a reality check.

Whatever 'it' is that America deserves you can be sure that it will eventually get it. And it won't be pretty.

The Idle Fellow