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June 18 - Gold $394.90 up $6.20 – Silver $5.97 up 7 cents
Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the
darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to
truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may
lead. ..Carl von Clausewitz
(Prussian military philosopher 1780-1831)
GO GATA!!!
It is a
rare day lately when the MIDAS gold market commentary cannot be written after
the first hour of Comex trading. Rarely does anything change for the gold
good in this managed market. The highs are almost always made within the
first hour. Gold is then either held at those highs, any new highs are modest
at best, or it is sold off.
OOPS, that was my exact opening commentary in yesterday’s MIDAS.
Oh well, as is normally the case on almost all gold up days, it fits
perfectly for today too. I can’t stand the buggers that keep capping
the price. The Deputy Chairman of the Russian central bank, Oleg Mozhayskov,
can see the gold market is rigged and said so in front of those in the gold
industry who attended the LBMA conference in Moscow in early June. He even had the
audacity to mention GATA in public company and say we were right. We are
talking about a G-8 central banker here! That is astounding and monumental
for GATA's credibility!! What is the matter with the morons in the mainstream
western gold industry? What a bunch of powder puff patsies!
Gold rose $6 and change (virtually limit up as far as the $6 Rule is
concerned) in the first minutes of trading and did so with euro DOWN 30. Gold
went completely on its own, which is a WONDERFUL development. The euro only
rallied when the US
current account number was reported at 8:30 EDT and it was worse than
expected. The euro then took off, eventually closing .76 higher at 121.21,
while the dollar fell .52 to 89.43. The effect on gold? Zip. Gold actually
SOLD OFF slightly by day’s end even as the euro rose an entire point.
The fact that gold rallied so strongly without outside market support
is marvelous news. It tells me there is a VERY strong hand buyer out there
who wants gold come hell or high water. I have heard a couple of extraneous
comments about gold that might fit together. The first is from one of the
most highly regarded gold traders on the floor. He told my source that he
smells somebody dumping a large hoard of dollars to buy gold. Perhaps it is
the Arabs. My STALKER source says STALKER number 2 is active and he believes
the business is coming out of Asia, perhaps even Malaysia, in preparation for the
Dinar's inauguration later this year. This is all speculation, however, it
makes sense.
What we do know is somebody went after physical gold with a vengeance
this morning, sending gold soaring until the crooks showed up like they
always do.
What is also exciting is gold is on the move with many specs and
investors on the sideline. The Café Sentiment Indicator is a 3 or 4
and the Comex open interest is at its lowest levels in about a year or so at
223,015. It only went up 2759 contracts yesterday. In years gone by we would
get a 77,000 spec open interest increase over a period of many weeks and gold
would only rise $10.
Even The Gold Cartel and other commercials are exiting the scene. The
COT revealed they got out of 3,522 longs and 7,190 shorts, which is why the open
interest has contracted.
Reg Howe, Bob Landis and I were to speak in front of a group of money
managers in Boston
next week. Collectively, they manage over $100 billion in funds. A month ago
the room was packed to hear about the dollar from Dave Lewis. Our meeting was
cancelled on Wednesday due to lack of interest. Either that, or the attendees
were to scared to be in a room with a few people who are not afraid of
confronting the establishment.
Anyway, gold is close to popping through its 200-day moving average
and taking out $400. We are only a hop, skip and a jump away.
On a positive note, gold has closed on the firm side two days in a
row, on its highs yesterday and not far off today.
One fine looking gold chart:
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/GD/84
Silver had trouble holding $6, however, like gold, it was firm all day
long, selling off modestly on the close. Like gold, the silver open interest
is very low. Yesterday on its surge, the open interest only rose 138
contracts to 86,922.
Still room for 88,000 spec longs to take gold through $430 and 36,000
spec longs to take silver back above $8.50.
Oil closed up 19 cents to $39 per barrel.
The John Brimelow Report
Gifts from the Middle East?
Friday, June 18, 2004
Indian ex-duty premiums: AM $3.03, PM $0.11, with world gold at
$387.90 and $392.20. Below, and well below, legal import level. India reacted
with more that the usual unenthusiasm to abrupt jumps in the world gold price
($9 up this afternoon on the previous morning.) The rupee exacerbated the
response by falling to a 5 1/2 month low against the dollar, with Indian
sentiment damaged by noises the new Government is making about higher
taxation. The discreet qualities of gold are likely to be increasingly valued
by affluent Indians in the future, a reverse of what was generally expected
before the election.
Prices on the Shanghai Gold Exchange have slipped to a narrow (10-20c)
discount this morning.
TOCOM responded to finding world gold $4 higher on the opening with no
excitement. Volume did rise 21% but only to equal a wretched 14,911 Comex
lots, while open interest was static (+89 Comex lots). The active contract
was up 5 yen, but world gold slipped $1.65 from the NY close. There appears
to be no Japanese initiative in gold at present. (NY traded yesterday 41,981
contracts; open interest rose 2,759 lots.)
Obviously, however, someone is supplying initiative, with the
perennially bearish Barclays commentator complaining of yesterday:
"Aggressive buying catapulted the prices for gold, silver and
platinum higher yesterday…gold is now softening…However the
market will be wary of selling the market aggressively with the potential for
another burst of buying this afternoon. In the event, after a $2 lull in the
Asian morning, powerful buying started quite early in the European day. TheBulliondesk had noticed a big surge
in traffic by 8am NY time, by which point the price was already up $3.70 at
$392. And of course it has continued since, with estimated Comex volume
standing at 52,000 by 1pm, far ahead of yesterday.
This looks like a conscious effort by a large capital pool to overcome
the defence offered so freely below the key technical levels in the mid
$390s. The timing and apparent preference for the physical market suggest the
possibility on Middle Eastern orientation. Assuming the leaders of this
effort are reasonably well informed, this fight will presumably resume next
week.
In the meantime, as weekend reading, I commend the latest essay by The
eXile correspondent War Nerd concerning the last but one outbreak of
terrorism in Saudi Arabia
:
"But it doesn't look to me like these Saudi terrorists were looking
to die… It reads to me more like terrorist collusion with the local
cops -- either that or the cops and soldiers of the Saudi government are so
totally intimidated they're not a factor any more.
And that means Saudi
Arabia probably isn't going to last much
longer. When the government troops won't leave their barracks, when the cops
run every time the rebels fire a shot...well, church is about out. Think Tehran when the Shah fell, or Cambodia in '75… this
didn't happen overnight. It's been building up as long as I can remember. And
it's going to have to get worse before it improves. I'm going to be writing a
lot of columns with "Arabia" in
the title this year.
http://www.exile.ru/192/war_nerd.html
JB
CARTEL CAPITULATION WATCH
The US
stock market continues to meander. The DOW finished up 38.89 at 10,416, while
the DOG gained 3 to 1987.
June 18 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. current account deficit widened to a record
$144.9 billion in the first quarter as Americans bought more foreign-made
goods, a government report showed.
The deficit, the broadest measure of trade because it includes investments,
follows a $127 billion gap in the previous three months, the Commerce
Department said in Washington.
The gap is equivalent to 5.1 percent of the nation's $11.5 trillion economy,
matching the record reached a year earlier. –END-
GATA’s Mike Bolser:
Hi Bill:
The Federal Reserve today added $7 Billion in temporary repurchase
agreements, an action that moved the repo pool up to $38.88 Billion and kept
the pool's ma rising in a linear mode. The DOW's 30-day ma has clearly turned
upward and in my opinion will regain a strong upward trajectory as the Fed
announces its rates decision next week. Greenspan's purposeful ambiguity has
fully obfuscated the picture of how large the rise will be at this point. No
one knows for sure so the "market" may be "surprised".
Gold is rising nicely, almost as if a giant hand had been removed form it,
while the dollar is falling in concert. The $6 rule or more precisely, the
never exceed the first standard deviation rule is always in effect. The
viscous counter attack started Monday was needed by the Fed since they were
"surprised" by the huge PPI numbers and had to sequester
them...again. With such a hard attack on gold we can guess that the PPI
numbers were equally as bad because the Fed was forced to change their
careful gold retreat plan. Expect more brainless Wall Street and CNBC
propaganda attempting to convince us that bad is good.
During any retreat the enemy can deliver sever damage if they set careful
ambushes. We are just exiting one of those ambushes but we must always be
wary of another trap.
Mike
Chuck checks in for the LATE EDITION:
So far this last decline and bottoming process is echoing the one in
2002. Take a look. If so, we should move up to about 225 on the HUI followed
by one more setback and then move up in earnest. It is a pretty remarkable
similarity including the pessimism and disbelief although I think it is much
higher this time.
We are obviously ready for a financial "event" here. Even
this week the market lifted each day in the last half hour while the golds
sold off each day at that time.
GSS was interesting obviously some of the massive shorts got scared
but was not ready for the move. But it sets up a break out target for it,
perhaps when there is some resolution of the IAM takeover. The unconcern in
the stock market is matched by the degree of fear in the gold market.
Fascinating!
Chuck
Commentary from a Café favorite, The King Report:
Bill Gross (Pimco) the world’s largest bond manager in
yesterday’s FT: "Too much debt, geopolitical risk and several
bubbles have created a very unstable environment which can turn any minute.
More than any point in the past 20 or 30 years, there's potential for a
reversal. We have become a levered global economy, specifically in Japan and the US. With all this consumer debt,
business debt, government debt, smaller movements in interest rates have a
magnified effect…"
Slate.com: "Yesterday's trade deficit figures showed that Americans continue to hurl dollars overseas in exchange
for cars, oil, televisions, you name it. In theory, that's bad news, since it
means the money we earn isn't stimulating domestic demand. The good news is
that a lot of the dollars we export find their way back here. And while we
Americans shrewdly use our greenbacks to get a lower price on things we need
or desire like DVD players, many foreigners are using the cash we send them
to buy stuff that Americans don't want to buy—government bonds. What a
great deal! We underpay for their great electronics; they overpay for our
mediocre bonds." This is Milton Friedman’s rationale for free
trade. It is great until the holders of the debt change disposition.
There’s nothing like living and depending on the kindness of strangers,
and foreign ones at that!
Asia, with the preponderance of global population, must export massive
amounts of goods to the US
and Europe to import and pay for the
necessities of life, particularly food. Years ago we saw a piece of research
that highlighted Asian Tigers’ necessity to export to pay their food
bills. Now China, India, Indonesia
(1st, 2nd & 4th most populated
countries) and Vietnam
have joined the mix.
The Institute for Supply Management says prices paid by manufacturers
for raw materials in May are near the highest level since November 1979.
ISM’s prices paid by non-manufacturing companies for raw materials
soared to a record in May. Good thing inflation is under control and the core
is benign.
"The average for all grades of unleaded gasoline rose 36 percent
this year through the end of May, according to U.S. Department of Energy
figures. Passenger car prices rose 1.1 percent in May, the biggest increase
since March 2003, after falling 0.2 percent in April. Costs of light trucks
rose 1.1 percent after dropping 1 percent the month before." http://www.freep.com/money/business/jobs17e_20040617.htm
Inflationary pressure is building in the pipeline. Intermediate goods
prices rose 1.1% in May. Core intermediate prices rose 0.9% after rising 1.1%
in April, which was the largest rise since 1/95. Core intermediate good
prices are +5.1% y/y, the highest increase since when October 1995.
Crude goods prices soared 2.8% in May after rising 3% in April. Core
crude goods prices fell 3.8% in May but are still +22% y/y.
Ed Hyman’s (ISI) latest report is full of charts and details
that show the economy might have peaked a month or so ago and inflationary
pressure is building. That’s our view and prognostication. We must now
watch the data and see if the stagflation keeps intensifying as Easy Al
replays the ‘70s.
Derek VanArtsdalen from San
Antonio:
Good morning, Bill—
Here's a quick update for your readers on the technical side of the
gold/silver picture. So far, gold is tracking almost tick for tick with the
U.S. dollar, although that may well change at some point for reasons you've
discussed many times in "Midas." As you've said, gold will likely
begin outperforming all fiat currencies on the planet and seems to be in the
early stages of preparing for that.
In the meantime, no one can argue that the dollar's action has pretty well
dictated what gold has done in the last few years. Oil, of course, is now
also heavily involved in the equation. So, let's take a look at the charts...
First, here's a 3-year chart of the U.S. greenback:
 
For the
most part, this chart is self-explanatory. It doesn't take a T/A genius to
figure out where the dollar is probably headed: lower. Its recent strength
was enough to challenge the topside of the channel (red circle), but that
strength appears to be giving way to the natural forces of downside pressure.
With Sir Alan pumping out dollars like there's no tomorrow, the U.S. buck is
hardly worth the paper it's printed on. Anything can happen, of course, but
if I were a dollar bull I sure as hell wouldn't take any comfort in the chart
above. The MACD histogram is starting to contract once again, and you can
clearly see what has happened each and every time it's done that. In short, look out below...
Here's the oil chart:
I've
read a few articles recently whose writers predict an imminent fall in oil
prices to something below $25 per barrel. If oil is indeed destined for
sub-$25, there's nothing on this chart to suggest it. Some folks are looking
at the price action over the last several months and anticipating the
completion of the right shoulder on a head-and-shoulders formation (small green
circle). However, chart patterns don't always produce the expected result, as
evidenced by the much larger completed head-and-shoulders formation within
the large green circle. Even though such patterns are supposed to be
extremely bearish, there's no law that says they must be. As you can see, the
larger head-and-shoulders pattern, which is technically about as perfect as
they come, didn't result in anything except much higher prices.
So, I wouldn't put much faith in the smaller one that's forming now.
In fact, the internal indicators are growing stronger, not weaker (red
lines). As several writers have pointed out, we're only one major terrorist
event from plus-$50/barrel oil. Good luck on re-election, Mr. Bush...
Now let's look at the price of gold itself:
I worked
up this chart yesterday but didn't have it ready in time for
"Midas," but you can see that we were closing in on the apex of a
symmetrical triangle, which means that the price was ready to break out one
way or the other. If I had gotten this stuff in on time, I would have
predicted that the price would break up and out. Well, it's about 9:15 a.m.
Eastern Time, and the gold price on Kitco is up about six dollars. So the
breakout is a decisive one.
The
measured move from this chart puts the next price objective at about $452.
After that, I think $486 is obtainable in the next few months and possibly
$500 by year's end. As you know, Jim Sinclair is staking his reputation on
$480 gold on or before August 15th. I wouldn't want to bet against him...
Here's a 3-year gold chart for the bigger picture:
When you
see things from this view, you've got to wonder what all the panic is about,
eh? Sure, a $50+ price correction is painful, no doubt about it. But in the
grand scheme of things gold's near-term prospects appear promising. There's
nothing confusing about this chart, and I for one believe that the
pronouncements of gold's death have been greatly exaggerated...
Finally, here's a
price chart for silver:
The most
striking thing about this six-month silver chart is the presence of the huge
gaps down (two purple circles). The first one left a void around $7.80, and
anyone who thinks it won't be filled is crazy. Sooner or later it will, and
my bet is it'll be sooner rather than later.
Yesterday's
price action broke severely up and out of the 10-week downtrend (red line) as
you can see by the black price marker circled in green. Things are obviously
heating up this morning in follow-through action. Also note on the chart that
the internal indicators (circled in red and blue) are beginning to look quite
healthy. Anyone shorting silver now is a real gunslinger and could well get
taken to the cleaners in the weeks ahead...
That's about it, Bill. Hope your subscribers find these charts helpful in
determining which way to place their bets. In closing, I'm including a copy
of Al Thomas' words from an e-mail he sent to his subscribers this week. It
contains the simplest explanation I've seen yet about the scam of fiat money.
In fact,
you'd almost need a Federal Reserve board member assisting you in order to
misunderstand what Al is saying. I feel it's only fair to mention Al's
website is
located at www.mutualfundmagic.com
Here's Al's beautiful explanation of what's happening to our money even
as I write.
THE ALCHEMIST
BY AL THOMAS
Fake Money
Reach in your pocket and take out that big roll of bills. Depending on how many
of them you have you feel pretty good. BUT did you know they are not worth
the paper they are printed on? Huh? Let me explain.
Yes, those bills are legal tender because those guys in Washington passed a law stating they must
be accepted for payment. They are Federal Reserve Notes and it states right
on the bill, "This is legal tender for all debts, public and private
". That is OK, but if you go to the U.S. Mint will they redeem it in
gold or silver? Years ago they did, but not since 1971.
Al most everyone has bought stock in a company. The company issues shares and
each share represents a portion of the ownership in that company. It is
against the best interests of the stockholders to issue additional shares
unless something of equal value is added. Why?
Let ’s keep it very simple. Suppose the company is worth $100,000 and
it has issued 100,000 shares of stock. The stock has a book value of $1.00
per share. If the officers of the company decide to issue another 100,000
shares to hire security guards (like soldiers), lease (not buy) an airplane,
increase the accounting staff (these folks do not increase production) and
pay the executives more (who will produce the same amount as they are now)
you will notice that all these expenses do not add to the company ’s
profits. The value of all shares is now 50 cents per share because the value
of the company has remained the same. $100,000 divided by 200,000 shares is
50 cents per share.
What has all that to do with your money? You have seen in the paper that the
Federal Reserve Bank (it is neither Federal nor maintains a reserve) has had
an auction for Treasury Bills. Sir Al an Greenspan has authorized the
printing of those T-Bills. With just paper and ink he has created billions of
dollars of debt for the government. And who is the government? YOU. Each time
the Fed turns on the printing presses to sell government bonds it effectively
dilutes the value of the money you have. That is called inflation. Unless the
productivity rate of the country increases by a like amount it devalues your
currency.
Should you care? What it amounts to is everything will cost more because your
money represents less. This is monetary inflation and has nothing to do with
the supply of goods. Yet some day (who knows when) those bonds will have to
be redeemed. The idea of the central government is to keep watering down the
money so they can pay off the debt with cheaper and cheaper dollars. This is
a method of creating money instead of raising taxes yet you are paying for
it.
Throughout history there have been scores of private and government banks
that have issued fake (fiat) money and in every case they have failed and the
holders of the fake money have lost. Will that happen this time? I would not
bet against it.
-END-
Regards,
Derek
I’ve Seen This Movie Too
I sat with my boss in a sweltering but fashionable downtown eatery in Toronto in mid August
1987 having lunch – with two chaps who were the book runners for my
number one client, a major bullion bank and at the time the biggest
derivatives dealer in the word. One of them was a Polish immigrant, a Ph.D.
in mathematics who had been recruited from then DOW 30 constituent Honeywell.
While he spoke in slightly broken English, this guy was not only a genius but
had represented Canada
as an Olympian as a sailor. These were indeed ‘heady times’. The
DOW had just broken the magical 2000 level and 5 year mortgage money was
available at approximately 10% in Canada if you were on friendly
terms with your local bank manager. In those days 10% money intuitively made
most business deals work. Over a nice bottle of wine talk quickly turned to
‘the markets’, interest rate in particular and in a larger sense
the general equity markets.
It was after a couple of ‘jars’ of wine and some banter
about the equity markets that our Ph.D. friend, in his broken English
informed us, "there are going to be days when the [stock] market [DOW]
goes down 4 or 5 hundred points". The other three of us sitting at the
table stared at him in disbelief laughing at him like he was full of crap.
Given that that the largest one day movement in the DOW Jones to that point
in time was about 28 points we asked him what his reasoning was for such a
bold prediction. His answer was [again in broken English], "the incorrect
assumptions in portfolio insurance". So, the three others of us are
starting to feel our wine a little bit and we question our Ph.D. friend a
little bit further. We asked him pointedly just what it was that ‘was
wrong’ with the assumptions in portfolio insurance? His reply,
"Simple, portfolio insurance constitutes computer generated equity
trades. The more the markets move in a given direction, the more the
computers will exacerbate the move in the same direction-thus the market will
drop 4 or 5 hundred points easily in one day." That produced chuckles
and a retort of, "By the same logic it seems the market might equally be
susceptible to a 4 or 5 hundred point rise in one day?" As I’ll
never forget the reply was [again in broken English], "Empirical observation
I have made, things never seem to ‘crash’ up." The other
three of us were dumbstruck. We asked him what made him so certain of his
convictions on the equity markets? His reply, "I’ve modeled it all
in my computer. It is certain to happen given the right conditions."
This guy had ‘modeled’ the equity market in a computer program he
created in his spare time, for fun, and determined under which circumstances
it would catastrophically ‘fail’. He equated this exercise he had
undertaken to a car company like FORD testing a new model in a wind tunnel
for aerodynamics.
By now you must all be wondering what any of this has to do with where
we are today? The answer – the analytical mind of Jim Sinclair. I
wonder if Jim ever speaks with a Polish accent in broken English? Never the
less I keep getting this déjà vu feeling all over again –
a lot of folks who should know better have not been around the block a few
times and cannot see with the clarity of Jim Sinclair. I know history tends
to repeat itself [most chartists would agree], and I know I’ve seen
this movie before. This should give us all reason to be deeply concerned.
Rob Kirby
SA’s
gold production falls by 8,3% in Q1
South Africa’s gold production decreased by 8,3%, to 84 616,5 kg, in the
first quarter of 2004, versus the same quarter in 2003, the South African
Chamber of Mines said in a statement yesterday.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, total gold production fell 10,2% as the annual
effect of the December holiday period and the significant fall in the rand
gold price plus domestic cost pressures placed the industry under stress, the
chamber said.
For South African Chamber of Mines member gold-mines, the average grades
recovered fell by 7,2%, to 4,4 g/t, in the first quarter and tons processed
through the mills decreased by 2,8%.
Despite the spot gold price rising 16% year-on-year, to $408/oz in the first
quarter of 2004, the further 18,7% appreciation in the rand exchange rate, to
R6,77 a dollar, in the same period meant that the rand price of gold fell a
further 5,9%, to R88 873/kg, the chamber said.
The average increase in total production costs, excluding capital
expenditure, rose by 18% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2004 as a
result of a number of administered price increases, such as the 18% increase
in water costs, and high price increases in other input areas, such as steel.
Chamber of Mines chief economist Roger Baxter underlined that many of these
cost increases are outside of the scope of control of the mining sector.
-END-
The gold/silver shares continue to fall further behind the moves up in
both gold and silver. The XAU closed at 86.03, up 1.69.
The HUI failed to close above its 50-day moving average of 191.05. It
has not done so since April 13. It also could not take out its downtrend,
finishing at 189.38, up 4.58.
Placer Dome’s recent exploration success in Nevada is creating a stir. Below is a map
with the location of J-Pacific's projects in Nevada's Cortez Mining District. J-Pacific's
current projects in the District are noteworthy particularity in light of the
current market chatter concerning Placer Dome's activities at Cortez Hills
and ET Blue.
j-pac cortez
property map.jpg
J-Pacific
closed at 46 cents Cdn, up 6 cents or 15% on the day.
Star of the week was Samex which popped a bit more than 60%, closing
at 83 cents, up 10 cents on heavy volume. Congrats to geologist Rob Kell who
has worked his butt off coming up with the goods.
Over the past couple of weeks I have brought to your attention from
different sources that two North American gold refiners were reporting
unusually firm premiums. Comex, thanks to the price managers, had gone
disconnect with the physical market, the real gold market. The market became
so firm the past few days, The Gold Cartel could only cap the price rise, not
hold it back.
With the cash market this strong and the specs on the sideline in a
relative sense, yet poised to enter the buy side, the cabal troops are going
to have a heckuva time keeping gold from taking off. With the geopolitical
situation a horror show at the moment, one which is likely to worsen further,
gold is likely to rise faster and go further than most market players can
envision at the moment.
GATA BE IN IT TO WIN IT!
MIDAS
Appendix
California files major suit against Enron over energy price
manipulation
(17/06/2004)
LOS ANGELES (AFP) The US state of California sued collapsed energy giant
Enron, accusing it of massive market manipulation and fraud during a series
of crippling power outages in 2000 and 2001.
The suit, filed by California's
top legal official, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, seeks restitution, damages
and the return of unjust profits that he said could total "hundreds of
millions of dollars."
The complaint was filed in Alameda County Superior Court, near San Francisco, on
behalf of the people of golden state that almost ground to a halt amid a
series of rolling power shortages during the crisis.
"At the same time this corrupt enterprise successfully lobbied its
friends in the federal government to block price caps and blame California, it was
robbing our businesses and consumers blind," Lockyer said.
"Enron was the architect of a rip-off scheme that bled billions of
dollars from our state's economy. They may be bankrupt, but we will hold them
accountable. Grandma Millie is California.
I am her lawyer, and she seeks
justice," he said.
The suit came less than three weeks after a series of recorded telephone
conversation between Enron traders showed that the company deliberately
starved the most populous US state of power in order to hike energy prices.
"They're (expletive) taking all the money back from you guys? All the
money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?"
asked one laughing Enron trader on the tapes obtained from the US Justice
Department.
"Yeah, grandma Millie, man," said another. "Yeah, now she
wants her (expletive) money back for all the power you've charged right up,
jammed right up her ass for (expletive) 250 dollars a megawatt-hour."
The apparent revelation of deliberate market manipulation at California's
expense has national significance as top Enron official Kenneth Lay is a
friend of President George W. Bush, who said during the crisis that he would
not cap California's skyrocketing energy prices.
Lockyer's suit asks the court to fine Enron 25,000 dollars for each alleged
commodities fraud violation and 2,500 dollars for each alleged violation of
the state's Unfair Competition Law.
The suit is the latest step in a three-year-old investigation into the power
crisis that lumbered California
with massive energy bills that significantly
deepened its financial crisis.
"While the state reeled from the combined impact of sky-high power
prices, supply shortages and rolling blackouts, the Enron defendants enjoyed
massive, unprecedented profits, and extracted millions of dollars in ill-gotten
gains from utilities and their customers," the suit said.
©AFP
Bill Murphy
Editor
Lemetropolecafe.com
Chairman
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee
Le Metropole
Café is a Membership site. Visit and Experience a 2 week Free Trial !
Bill Murphy is chairman of the Gold Anti-Trust
Action Committee and proprietor of www.LeMetropoleCafe.com, an Internet site
devoted to financial commentary with emphasis on the precious metals. You can
become a trial member for free for two weeks by clicking here.
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