Beiträge von Schwabenpfeil

When it comes to the gold shares, I am a long term investor as veteran Café members well know. Until the general public starts to pour into this tiny sector, it makes little sense to me to go to the sidelines. This was a mega winning strategy in 2002 and 2003. It was a huge bummer last year even though gold rallied some 5%. My bet is 2005 is a big one for us and we go back to watching our equities grow instead of disappear.

It’s time to end the pain and make some gain. If the HUI blows through 200, then throw this analysis out the window. However, seems to me we have bottomed. Certainly the dismal sentiment so prevalent everywhere is bullish.

Take my largest holding, Golden Star Resources, which is back in the pooch house. It was the dog of dogs, trading as low as 35 cents only a few years ago. In November of 2003 it soared to $8.64, only to collapse, taking out $3.50 only a last week. There were several factors which contributed to the drubbing of the share price last year. However, for the most part they seem to me to be one-off events which are behind them. Their gold production is on the rise, their exploration projects are top-shelf and the management is outstanding. Look for GSS ($3.77, up 10 cents) to take out its highs of last year and surpass $10 per share later this year.

Golden Star Resources - GSS (punch US)
http://new.stockwatch.com/swne…utilit_snapsh_result.aspx

Speaking of quality exploration companies, Seabridge Gold ought to be geared to make another run at its highs. it finished out today at $3.20, a buck off its high, and made just THIS PAST NOVEMBER. 2004 that is, not 2003! Seabridge has held up better than most of my holdings, dropping 33% off its highs instead of my standard 40 to 60%.
Seabridge Gold - SA (punch US) http://new.stockwatch.com/swne…utilit_snapsh_result.aspx

The gold shares seem to want to hold. HUI 200 represents significant support with 210, then 220 key resistance. Love to see a gap opening and run sharply higher for a change. The HUI closed right on its downtrend set in motion right below 250.

HUI
http://bigcharts.marketwatch.c…&o_symb=hui&freq=1&time=8

The XAU gained .77 to 94.02 and the HUI finished at 204.80, up 2.60.

Happy days are not here again. Yet they should be right around the corner.

GATA BE IN IT TO WIN IT!

MIDAS

Rhody the fiddler:

Hi Bill:
I did a little fiddling with a calculator just now, and you might be astounded to learn what $421 gold translates to in inflation adjusted 1960 dollars. Since a 1960 dollar was 12 times the size of the present one, the present price of gold is equal to $35 in 1960. Sound familiar? Mind you when gold was fixed at $35 in 1960, it was probably already undervalued given inflation over the previous 16 years.

And what of silver? Today it closed at $6.62 and this represents an inflation adjusted price of 55 cents in 1960. Silver actually was 93 cents in 1960, so we see that silver is still grossly undervalued relative to gold. The fact that there is four times as much gold in the world than silver makes the present valuations even more ludicrous.
Regards, Rhody.

Another reason to rag on over the World Gold Council:

India wedding jewellery orders rise, despite price
Tue January 18, 2005 5:05 PM GMT+05:30
VICENZA, Italy (Reuters) -- Gold jewellery demand for India's current wedding season is up around five percent on the year-earlier period, with customers embracing rising gold prices as an enhancement to the metal's investment value.

India's wedding season accounts for at least 60 percent of its annual bullion use which at some 600 tonnes annually makes it the world's biggest gold consumer, according to Indian jewellers at an Italian trade fair. "The reason people are buying gold in India is for its value as an investment. The orders for the current wedding season are good," said P.K. Jain of Mumbai-based Diastar Jewellery Limited, adding that some 14,000 weddings took place in November on the first day of the season…

-END-

That article states why gold is in such demand in India, (as well as in the Arab world and in the Far East). It is the investment quality in high karatage jewelry which is the allure for buyers in these countries, not the high fashion aspect. So why is the WGC spending millions to promote high fashion jewelry. It makes no sense, unless your real raison d’ etre is downplay the investment aspects of gold in order to aide The Gold Cartel.

Don’t know whether this is good or not, yet it is about as bullish as I have seen the mainstream gold world in years:

Gold price to reach the highest level since 1981
January 17, 2005

By Stuart Wallace

London - Gold prices will reach their highest level since 1981 this year as a weakening dollar boosts demand for the metal as a store of value, Deutsche Bank has said.

The bank has also increased its estimates for aluminium, coal and iron ore prices.

Gold in 2005 would average $458.80 an ounce, 7 percent more than a previous estimate, Deutsche Bank said in a report dated January 13.

The average next year would jump to $490.30, the highest since 1980, according to Europe's third-largest lender.

Gold closed down $4.10 at $422.50 an ounce in London on Friday. The metal's average price rose 13 percent last year to almost $410 an ounce, the third annual gain, as the dollar fell against all major currencies.

"Further weakness in the US dollar as a result of unsustainable external imbalances and only measured return to a positive real interest rate environment in the US is expected to be particularly beneficial to dollar gold prices," said London analysts John MacKinnon and Tama Willis.

The forecast for this year's gold price was higher than the $435 median from 37 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg last month.

Estimates ranged from $395 to $550. Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank had the seventh-best mining analysts in 2003, with UBS, ABN Amro Bank and Merrill Lynch the top three, according to the Thomson Extel survey.

London-based precious metals research group GFMS said on Friday that gold prices would probably rise to a 16-year high by July and average $447 an ounce in the first half.

Gold climbed to $454.20 in December, the highest price since June 1988. The average price was $614.49 in 1980.

"The kind of buying you can see from speculators and funds could take the gold price above $500," said Gillian Moncur, an analyst at London-based consultant CRU International. "The dollar remains the dominant factor."

The euro touched a record high of $1.3666 on December 30. The dollar's value has eroded as US trade and fiscal deficits have widened…

"An extended period of strong growth in China, renewed strength in the US economic outlook in 2005 and a rebound in Japanese and euro zone growth in 2006 are set to deliver another two years of above-trend global industrial production growth," the bank said.

-END-

First Greenspan let the cat out of the bag. Then Paul Volker revealed the US made a mistake not managing the gold price enough to prevent the dollar from tanking so badly in the late 70’s/1980. Now this…guess they were in there after all, just without enough oomph and vigor:

Bill,
In today's WSJ A-1 story, "As Dollar Weakens, Hidden Strengths May Stave off Crisis" there is a paragraph that is new information to me unless I previously missed it.

Referring to the 1970's dollar crisis and comparing it to today it states, "Worried the falling dollar was undermining its anti-inflation efforts, the Carter administration announced a multi-part support package on Nov. 1, 1978: The Treasury would use gold sales and foreign borrowing and draw on its reserves with the International Monetary Fund to defend the dollar. At the same time the Federal Reserve raised its discount rate a full point."

Carter used gold sales to defend the dollar? Surely then Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush II must have followed. I never realized it was official White House policy back in 1978 to rig the price of gold. I also never recall the Carter administration announcing this policy to the public.
James McShirley

So was this:

Semico predicts semiconductor market slowdown in 2005 (INTC, MSFT)
By Alistair Barr

1/17 SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Semico Research Corp., a Phoenix-based technology consulting firm, said sales of semiconductors will weaken in 2005 as interest rates and oil prices rise, growth in consumer spending slows and the U.S. dollar falls. Semico's Inflection Point Indicator (IPI), which analyzes data such as book-to-bill ratios to predict industry sales 8 to 9 months in advance, was 14.23 in November, down 5.8 percent from the previous month, Semico said. This was the largest percentage drop since August 2001, when the IPI fell 8 percent, Semico explained…

-END-

This potentially significant market happening was overlooked today:

Bond markets braced for GM downgrade
By Dan Roberts and Jenny Wiggins in New York Jan 16 2005 23:06

Corporate bond investors are bracing themselves for a possible downgrade for General Motors, one of the largest borrowers in the world, and fear its effect on the wider market.

The troubled US vehicle maker, which has $291bn of debt outstanding, is teetering on the edge of a fall to junk rating status, a move with serious repercussions for many fund managers only allowed to hold investment grade debt.

On Friday, Standard & Poor's took the unusual step of announcing it was "focusing on the appropriateness of the stable rating outlook" for GM despite reaffirming its existing BBB- status, one notch above junk….

-END-

Think we’re confused:

-Fed speakers air differences on rate policy

By Ros Krasny

CHICAGO, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Possible differences on Federal Reserve monetary policy emerged on Tuesday when two regional Fed presidents downplayed the risk of inflation while a third urged greater vigilance against rising prices.

In separate appearances, Minneapolis Fed President Gary Stern and Anthony Santomero, president of the Philadelphia Fed, said interest rates still have room to rise but can most likely continue to do so at a measured pace as inflation stays low.

Sandra Pianalto, president of the Cleveland Fed, followed with a more hawkish view that seemed to favor a more aggressive approach toward inflation.

"It is prudent to move the federal funds rate up to a positive that gives me more confidence that monetary policy is no longer accommodative," Pianalto told a corporate meeting in Pittsburgh.

The central bank cannot underestimate the possibility of inflation creeping in, and pushing up rates sooner rather than later is better than "finding out the hard way," she said.

Fed speakers are out in force this week ahead of the FOMC policy meeting on Feb. 1-2.

Minutes from the December meeting, released on Jan. 4, said that "some" members thought the long period of low interest rates was creating "potentially excessive risk-taking in financial markets."

Those blunt words raised concern that the Fed might accelerate its monetary tightening.

Bond dealers are trying to assess whether the view is widely held on the FOMC or confined to a few members such as Atlanta Fed President Jack Guynn and, based on Tuesday's comments, Pianalto.

Stern earlier told a financial planners group in Minneapolis that he was "not fully persuaded" that excessive risk-taking is occurring.

Santomero did not rule out potential for more aggressive rate policy but returned to the Fed's mantra that the pace of rate changes should be data-driven.

"If signs of price pressure emerge on a consistent basis we will need to consider quickening the pace," he said in a speech to the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

Santomero and Stern, but not Pianalto, are voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee in 2005.

"The Fed is going to keep raising rates and still runs the risk of speeding up their rate hike efforts if the inflation news is bad," said Steve Gallagher, U.S. chief economist at SG Corporate & Investment Banking in New York.

STERN, SANTOMERO SEE GROWTH, LITTLE INFLATION RISK

Santomero and Stern suggested Fed policy could most likely stay on the track it has been on since June, when the fed funds rate was at a four-decade low of 1.0 percent and the FOMC started lifting rates by 25 percentage points at each meeting.

The comments had little impact on the bond market, where short-term rate futures already price in rate increases in February, March and most likely May, pushing the fed funds rate to 3.00 percent.

"If the economy evolves as I expect over the next year or so -- with continued output growth, steady increases in employment and reasonably low inflation -- then I expect we will continue to move the federal funds rate toward neutrality at a measured pace," Santomero said.

Stern termed the U.S. economy "fundamentally sound, fundamentally resilient," and said rates are "clearly not at a restrictive level."

U.S. real GDP growth was about 4 percent and 2005 could bring a similar performance, even given the drag created by high energy prices, Stern told the financial planners.

Santomero pegged GDP growth at 3.5 percent to 4.0 percent and employment growth at 150,000 to 200,000 a month.

Turning to the U.S. trade and current account gaps, Stern said the United States would get a boost if overseas economies grew more quickly.

Santomero said the lagged impact of the lower U.S. dollar should help stabilize the U.S. net export position in 2005. However, he warned that the falling dollar could lessen competitive pressures on domestic producers, adding to inflation.

Market interest rates could also be forced up by the large U.S. budget deficit and by the potential for big inflows of foreign capital into the United States to reverse, Pianalto said.

-END-

The King Report
M. Ramsey King Securities, Inc.
Tuesday Jan. 18, 2005 – Issue 3078 "Independent View of the News"

..The FT: "There are two more telling gauges of how much of a turnround 2005 has been from 2004. First, the bottom 50 performers on the S&P 500 so far this year have shed 11.4 per cent since January 1. Last quarter, the 50 stocks returned 24.4 per cent, leading the robust year-end rally that put the benchmark index up 9 per cent for 2004…in the first eight days of trading in 2005, less than $2bn has flowed into equity funds, according to forecasts by TrimTabs. During the entire month of January last year, fund flows into equity funds reached an all-time high $44bn. The poor performance - and absence of cash flows - has caught many off guard and raises the ominous question: is this the prologue to a bad year?"

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/10d68…d9-9183-00000e2511c8.html

More and more it looks like the average American is tapped out. Our long-time friends at Van Hoisington Management delineate just how perilous the average American’s finances have become. "Household debt was a record 115.3% of disposable personal income in the third quarter, an all time high for the series. The financial condition is only slightly better when household debt is viewed in terms of assets or net worth. This is surprising since the value of homes has increased sharply in recent years, and stock values have somewhat recovered… In the first two months of the fourth quarter, total consumer fuel expenditures jumped to 8.3% of wage and salary income, the highest energy burden since 1990). Fuel expenditures now require an additional 2.1% of total wage and salary income from the lows in 2001. The current oil shock now stands as the third largest of the five events that have occurred since the early 1970s. Each of the preceding oil shocks were associated with recessions." http://www.HoisingtonMgt.com.

Though the fin media heralded the 0.8% gain in Industrial Production for December, they were remiss in mentioning that primary metals production increased 3%; energy production increased 2.84% and paper production increased 1.1% while the inventory building (up 10 of the last 11 months) continues. Several analysts commented that the report is an indication of increasing inflationary pressures…We have commented repeatedly during the past year, as has Dr. Marc Faber, that much of the increase in US industrial production is surging utility output, which is due in good measure to increasing inflation. All those monstrous homes built over the past boom require a lot more electricity and natural gas. Utility industrial production increased 2.7% in December.

-END-

The ever alert Jess notes:

Bloomberg and crew glowing over the additions to foreign holdings of US debt in Nov 2004 of 81Billion.

What they fail to mention is that Treasury went back and radically restated every monthly number back into 2002, which is as far back as my spreadsheets go with detailed numbers.

This is where the big increase came from.

***

Speaking of Jesse, what a fab web site – check it out:

http://www.geocities.com/arthurcutten/jesse.html

CARTEL CAPITULATION WATCH

The bulls are having at it again. The DOW gained 71 to 10,629 and the DOG leaped 18 to 2106. Earnings expectations are running high.

US economic news:

08:29 Jan. Empire Manufacturing reported 20.08 vs. consensus 25
Prior reading revised to 27.07 from 29.93.
* * * * *

9:01 US Treasury reports November net capital inflows of $81.0B vs $48.3B in Oct
Inflows were the highest since the $81.1B reported in June 2004. The dollar is rallying on the stronger than expected figure: $1.3040 vs the euro, an improvement from $1.3070 prior to the report.

The John Brimelow Report

Spectacular physical demand AND Comex liquidation

Tuesday, January 18 2004

Indian ex-duty premiums:

Monday- AM $9.10, PM $8.41, with world gold at $421.35 and $422.45. Lavish for legal imports.

Tuesday- AM $8.12, PM $$7.56, with world gold at $422.20 and $422.35. Ample for legal imports.

Gold and the rupee were relatively volatile during Indian business hours today: gold mainly weaker and the rupee mainly stronger.

Reuters carries an unusual story today from the Jewelry Conference going on in Italy: Indians dealers expressing surprise at the strength of their market’s demand.

"VICENZA, Italy, Jan 18 (Reuters) -- Gold jewellery demand for India's current wedding season is up around five percent on the year-earlier period, with customers embracing rising gold prices as an enhancement to the metal's investment value…."The orders for the current wedding season are good," said P.K. Jain of Mumbai-based Diastar Jewellery Limited…Current orders represent a comeback from the same period last year, when orders sank between 20 and 30 percent as customers were sceptical of higher bullion prices."

Clearly, this is the classical Venerosian wealth effect at work.

The strength of the yen on Monday brought yen gold below 1400/g on the active contract and reportedly triggered stop loss selling. Yen gold closed at a 5-month low. There was a modest recovery today. Net, open interest fell 1,185 Comex equivalent, but according to the Mitsubishi data the liquidation was more significant: 10.9 tonnes or 3,504 Comex contracts. (NY on Friday traded 37,434 contracts in the shortened session; open interest slipped 2,264 lots to 276,708.)

Observers seem quite shocked by the scale of the Comex liquidation: UBS says

" Friday’s COTR report confirmed our view that large-scale speculative long liquidation took place in the week ending Tuesday 11th January although the size of the decline exceeded our best guesses…positions fell …to leave the net long position at 10.8Moz against our expectations of about 12.25Moz. The last time the speculative net long position was at these levels was on 10 August 2004… the sell-off in gold has gone far enough and we expect gold to rally, both in euro and US dollar terms."

JB

The gold open interest fell 2264 contacts to 276,708.

Got one potentially substantial positive to direct your way. The euro gold price has acted very well of late and is making some noise to the upside. It made a low of 318.50 when dollar gold took out $420, yet closed today at 324.70. There is no reason gold should not begin to move higher in all currencies as other developments other than dollar weakness begin to be factored into the market by investors around the world.

The dollar closed up .33 to 83.46 and the euro fell .64 to 130.39. The yen remains on the strong side at 102.28.

Don’t know what to say about silver. $6.50 seems to be Rock of Gibraltar support. However, just when you think you have silver figured out, it goes off on the deep end.

The silver open interest rose 706 contracts to 98,502.

March copper closed at $1.4015. Talk about whacko markets. It soars, then collapses. Then it soars and collapses. Still, like gold it continues to make higher highs and lower lows.

March copper
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/CP/35

Feb crude oil was all over the place, soaring to $49.50, then swooning to $47.70. Exhausted, Feb WTI settled unchanged at $48.38.

The CRB remains on the steady side, closing at 283.57, up .59. If it were not for the moribund grain/oilseed group, it might have made new highs by now. See that in the cards anyway before spring.

January 18 – Gold $422.50 up 50 cents – Silver $6.62 up 4 cents

Gold, Silver And The Shares Appear To Have Bottomed

In a pond, koi can reach lengths of eighteen inches. Amazingly, when placed in a lake, koi can grow to three feet long. The metaphor is obvious. You are limited by how you see the world. -Vince Poscente, Olympian (1961- )

GO GATA!!!

When gold crashed down to the $430+ level after GLD sold 15 tonnes of gold, I thought that was it. The Gold Cartel tested pivotal support in that area three or four times. Gold composed itself and turned north, reaching $445. As it turns out the cabal forces were only warming up for their next assault, ignoring dollar weakness and just about every thing else.

Even longer term support was obliterated at $420. During this blatant cartel mugging the specs have run for the hill, while cabal forces have used the opportunity to extensively cover short positions put on at much higher prices. As a result, the technical posture of the market has firmed up considerably. At the same time the cash market is stout as can be. Swiss refineries continue to go all out.

To really return to its long-term bull trend and winning ways, gold still must clear and close above $430.

Feb gold
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/GD/25

Zitat

Original von Jürgen

EGO ist guuuuuuut

Hallo Jürgen,

Teamfähigkeit und Toleranz für andere Meinungen und Interessen wären es auch.

Wenn mehrheitlich kein Interesse mehr an den Texten aus dem Le Metropole bestehen sollte (wofür momentan wenig spricht) können die Texte auch jederzeit weggelassen werden.

Gruß
Schwabenpfeil

The direction the IMF, Brown, and Manuel are trying to take the world in as far as the poor in sub-Saharan Africa is concerned is disingenuous. If it were not for these folks and The Gold Cartel, the price of gold would be FAR higher and there would be substantially more funds available to help the poor.

More importantly, there would be hope, which there is little of in the black communities right now. I will never forget what my South African black cab driver chauffeur friend told me during my tour of the country. "Bill, he said, "these kids have no hope. They get into trouble because they have no future. They have unprotected sex (and contract AIDS) far too early because there is nothing else for them on the horizon."

Wild-eyed diatribe on my part as far as what is wrong and what could be in South Africa? Not at all. We need only refer to Midas commentary this summer about the Russians, who know what GATA knows:

THEN, in a stunning development, Oleg V. Mozhayskov, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, bluntly brought GATA to the attention of the mainstream gold world, which I am sure had most of them gagging. Mozhayskov delivered the keynote address at the London Bullion Dealers Conference in Moscow on June 4th 2004. His speech was delivered in Russian. The only words he mentioned in English were Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (or GATA)…..

Here is a quote from this remarkable speech in which this Russian banking bureaucrat lashes out against the US for its economic policies:

"This dualism in gold price formation distinguishes it from other commodities and makes the movements in the price sometimes so enigmatic that market analysts need to invent fantastic intrigues to explain price dynamics. Many have heard of the group of economists who came together in the society known as the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee and started a number of lawsuits against the U.S. government, accusing it of organising an anti-gold conspiracy. They believe that with the assistance of a number of major financial institutions (they mention in particular the Bank for International Settlements, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and others), some senior officials have been manipulating the market since 1994. As a result, the price dropped below US$300 an ounce at a time when it should, if it had kept pace with inflation, reached US$740-760."

-END-

That’s right…$750 gold if it were not for The Gold Cartel.

This is what an industry organization like the World Gold Council should be in a rage over. Instead, they say and do nothing, this useless group. Something must be done about this. GATA has that some thing in mind. Stay tuned.

MIDAS

S003675M – AVERAGE LIQUIDITY DATA – NET ASSETS IN GOLD AND FOREIGN CURRENCY
Net gold and foreign currency claims on non-euro-area residents.

Unfortunately, they do not specify how much of the claims are on gold and how much on foreign currency. What is interesting, however, is that the Bank of Italy apparently has a gold claim on a non-euro-area country. It would be very interesting to see if Italy has a gold swap with the BIS, the IMF or even the U.S.

Andrew

What Andrew has uncovered ought to be one of the most important findings ever for the gold industry. The BIS and GFMS (generally accepted gold industry statistician) state that central bank gold loans are around 5,000 tonnes. Neither mentions anything about what the total amount of gold "swapped out" of the central banks might be.

GATA suggests that amount is significant. So significant that we believe the total amount of central bank gold that has been lent/swapped is closer to 15,000 tonnes, not 5,000 tonnes.

The difference between the two numbers has staggering ramifications for all gold market participants and investors. GATA believes that if the "truth" were known, the price of gold would have to more than double to ration the "true" supply of gold left to satisfy demand.

This is just what The Gold Cartel does not want the investment world or general public to know. That is why they have stifled GATA's discoveries and refuse to allow our startling findings to be presented in the mainstream U.S. press.

GATA has caught The Gold Cartel and the IMF doing something that is very wrong. To allow them to continue to get away with this sham is even more wrong!

The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee and our Army of supporters ask the gold industry to examine the facts and help us fight to expose the "truth."

Who could be against that?

Bill Murphy
Chairman
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee

A few things are of interest here. First, they admit to doing gold swaps. Second and much more importantly in October, 1999 the ECB adopted the collateralized loan approach to accounting for gold swaps. This is the same treatment that the IMF denied it ever recommended but we know to be the case. Under this treatment swapped gold remains as a reserve asset even though the ownership has changed and the gold has left the vault. Furthermore, this accounting change went into effect around the time of the Washington Agreement. If I remember correctly, the WA only curtailed sales and lending; it said nothing about swaps. Because of the new treatment it is very possible that gold swaps have increased significantly since late 1999.

The term "official swaps" is in reference to swaps with the EMI and ECB. I'm unsure as to the level of swaps with the EMI but I believe around 15% of the ECB's reserves are in gold which means that Italy transferred at least 450 tonnes in that swap arrangement.
On page 51 in the "Methodological Index", the following is said when explaining an account code:

The name of the column, "Gold and Gold receivables" indicates that at least part of the reserve represents only a paper claim on gold-i.e. not all the gold is in the vaults of the Bank of Italy.

The next interesting piece of information is found in the notes/definitions section of the report. On page 45, S034162M, which apparently is the code for an account, reads in the following manner:

"S034162M – CENTRAL BANK: ASSETS – GOLD AND GOLD RECEIVABLES
Comprises the gold owned by the Bank of Italy and receivables in respect of deposits denominated in gold and swaps."

The above essentially confirms that the Bank of Italy is active in the swaps/deposit market. The next excerpt of note is found on page 48 of the report. They state that:

"In October 1999, as part of the harmonization of the Eurosystem statistics, the accounting treatment of the Bank of Italy's official swaps (in gold and dollars) with the EMI between September 1997 and June 1998 and with the ECB from July to December 1998 was modified. The main change was the switch from stating gold assets net of official swaps to stating them gross of such transactions."

The central banks of Portugal, Finland, and the ECB itself, then all confirmed (in writing) the Philippine's treatment of gold swaps to Hepburn.

Hepburn's latest investigative work reveals the Bank of Italy changing their accounting procedures in October of 1999 to accommodate the IMF's devious scheming. Andrew Hepburn just reported in with the following:

I had been under the impression that Italy was very pro-gold and that none of their reserve had been lent/swapped out. I can now state with a fair degree of certainty that they are indeed "managing" their reserve. A few days ago I emailed the Bank of Italy and inquired as to whether or not they had swapped, lent or otherwise transferred any of their gold to investment banks or other central banks. Today I received I response which did not answer my question but instead pointed me to a publication on their website entitled "Monetary and Credit Aggregates of the Euro Area: the Italian Components".

Unfortunately, the way the site works is that there are no separate URL's so I can only give the directions for getting to the report that I'm about to focus on. To quote the email I received "...you can find the data you requested on http://www.bancaditalia.it
under the item Publications\Statistics\Supplements to the Statistical Bulletin\ Money and credit aggregates of the euro area: the Italian components in table 1 in the column "Gold and gold receivables".