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“Cautious,
careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those
who are really in earnest must be willing to be
anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and
publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and
bear the consequences.”
- Susan B Anthony
I was invited to join the board of directors of GATA
-- the Gold
Anti-Trust Action Committee -- a little over a year
ago and it has been a privilege for me to work shoulder to shoulder with
people of such good character.
What started out as a whim and a small donation more
than five years ago has turned into a virtual life pursuit. That wasn’t
the plan back then, but that’s what it has become. I’m fifty-six
years old and I’ve done a lot of things in my time and been a lot of
places around the world, but at the end of it all, my life’s work will
be defined by my efforts on behalf of GATA and its ongoing struggle against
all the power and all the money in the world. Except for my family and my
means of making a living, this battle has become all-consuming. I’m not
the only person associated with GATA who thinks that way. It reminds of an
old expression: To love what you do and know that it matters -- How can
anyone ask for more out of life than that?
That’s basically where I and many others
associated with this undertaking stand.
As you are aware, the prices of gold and silver are
managed by the bullion banks and the central banks of the world, and most of
the market rigging is occurring on the COMEX, where, as silver expert Ted
Butler says, “eight or less traders” pretty well run both
the gold and silver price show.
However in the last number of years, the “money
trusts,” as William Jennings Bryan called them, are starting to
have a few problems, the biggest one is that world-wide physical demand for
both gold and silver is eating them alive. Adding to their woes have been
national and international reports from highly credible individuals and
groups outlining how the Western banking system in general and the United States
financial system in particular have been intervening against the free-market
prices of gold and silver.
For gold, they’ve been doing it off and on
since the 1960s. Their latest efforts have been going on covertly for more
than fifteen years; and, for silver, far longer than that. It can be flatly
stated that no one knows what the free-market price of either silver or gold
would be if they were allowed to seek a price that was unhindered by (quoting
GATA consultant Reg Howe) “malignant
government intervention.”
However the reasons why the central banks and
bullion banks are doing it should be obvious to anyone with more than a
room-temperature I.Q. in degrees Fahrenheit.
One reason that this market manipulation has gone on
as long as it has, is, first, the influence of the World Gold Council and
Gold Fields Mineral Services. As GATA Chairman Bill Murphy…over at LeMetropoleCafe…and others have
stated, these two organizations are controlled by “The Empire”--
my name for today’s powers that be.
The second reason is the gold and silver mining
industry itself. Most top gold and silver mining companies in the United States
are either directly or indirectly under the influence of The Empire, most
of them for many many
decades. These companies include Newmont, Freeport-McMoran,
Coeur d’Alene,
and Hecla. In South Africa
both AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields would be
included, and in Canada,
Barrick is the Darth Vader of gold
companies. I have my suspicions about two other Canadian-based companies as well -- one gold and one
silver, but at the moment they are just suspicions.
I must admit that I have little knowledge of
what’s happening in the Australian gold mining industry, but if their collective
hedge books are any indication, The Empire has been busy there as
well.
There is no company on the above list that will help
its shareholders end the manipulation because they are all part and parcel of
it.
The other gold and silver companies all know (or
have reason to suspect) what’s going on, though they plead ignorance. Virtually
all these companies fall outside the direct clutches of The Empire. But
if converted to the ranks of The Rebellion, they would become
powerful allies that would break the backs of those in The Empire that
have a stranglehold on gold and silver prices.
It may seem incongruous to many of you, including
yours truly, that an organization such as GATA and its supporters should have
to fight this battle at all. “What,” you may rightfully ask,
“are the executives and board members of these mining companies, whom
we elect by proxy every year, doing for us? This is their job.”
You are, of course, within your rights to ask this
question. Here’s the problem that executives and board members of
publicly traded companies have: They’re called shareholders. They would
infinitely prefer that you buy their stock and just shut up. The last thing
they either collectively or individually want to do is to deal with
legitimate shareholder grievances, even though we, the shareholders, own the
companies. The companies are ours, not theirs.
Now, to be fair, there are some gold and silver
companies that are really looking out after their shareholders by finding
more ounces ... and they are happy to tell you all about it in their press
releases and annual reports. But where the rubber really meets the road, the
manipulation of the gold and silver price is the one
issue that they just don’t want to face. Not one of them has
sent a letter off to the CFTC, the COMEX or NYMEX to complain -- not one.
(On a very personal note: I no longer give a rip
about how many ounces of anything they find at current prices when I know
perfectly well (as do they) that shareholder value would be far more enhanced
if these companies spent their time ending the rigging of the precious metals
markets rather than running all over hell’s half-acre with a diamond
drill in tow. Right now gold should be north of $700 and silver north of $30.
And that, my friends, would really be adding to shareholder
value.)
As a group, the precious metals companies we own
shares in are just hoping that this situation will resolve itself without
them having to get involved. Well, that isn’t going to happen. Another
question worth asking of these companies is: What happened to their fiduciary
responsibilities to us, their shareholders? Just because they want to bury
their collective heads in the sand on this issue, why should we, the true
owners of these companies, have to put up with it?
I now refer back to the title of this essay: “A
Call to Arms.” The following is what this essay is all about.
One of the major initiatives that GATA has
undertaken is a gold conference that is to be held in Dawson City,
Yukon…in northern Canada…the jumping-off point for the Klondike
gold rush of the late 19th century. The conference is called Gold Rush 21
and will be held on August 8th and 9th this year. The
Internet site for this conference is hyperlinked here.
The main purpose of this conference is to form a NEW
precious metals organization that will really look after the best interests
of all gold and silver companies -- and by extension, us, the shareholders.
Now you can take the word about this
conference to the executives of these gold and silver companies, with
virtually no effort on your part, as all the heavy lifting has
been done in advance. The letter below is self-explanatory. All you have to
do is cut and paste the letter into a word-processing program on your
computer (such as Microsoft Word), add the addresses and the names from the
“Key Personnel” list to the top of the letter, add your name and
address at the bottom, and press “send.” Once you have the letter
set up with your name at the bottom, it will take no more than a couple of
minutes to send a letter to each gold and silver company whose shares you
own. You’ll be able to go through all the companies on your stock list
in no time flat, including the companies you might own that are controlled by
The Empire.
There are TWO separate mailing lists … both of
which appear at the end of this essay. The first one includes all the gold
and silver companies that comprise the HUI, XAU, and the TSX Gold Index. The
second and smaller list is comprised of other fairly major mining (or
resource) companies that should also receive copies of the letter/invitation.
Of course, some of the companies you own shares in
may not appear on this list, so if you feel inclined to send this invitation
to them, you will have to do the necessary spade-work on their respective
websites. But the names that appear on these two lists comprise the vast
majority of the participants in the gold and silver industry in North America
and South Africa.
Here’s my letter to Eldorado
Gold, the first company name (on the first list) that I own shares in. You
are more than welcome to customize each letter to each of your companies as
you see fit, and remember: They are YOUR companies, not theirs!
10 March 2005
To: Hugh C. Morris, Chairman of the Board
Paul Wright, President & C.E.O.
Earl Price, C.F.O.
Nancy Woo, Investor Relations
Eldorado Gold
Corporation
#1188, 550 Burrard Street
Bentall 5
Vancouver, B.C. V6C 2B5
From: Ed Steer
Shareholder
Edmonton, Alberta
Subject: Gold Rush 21 – Dawson City,
Y.T. – August 8th and 9th 2005
Greetings to all,
Before I get to the topic of this
memorandum, I would be grateful if you would forward copies to all company
personnel whose names appear on the list above. I would also request that you
would forward a copy to the legal firm that represents your company, as there
are questions in this memo regarding fiduciary duties of management and
directors as they pertain to all of your shareholders. Thank you.
I have been a shareholder in your
company for three years.
For that length of time (and longer) I
have been aware of the fact that the prices for both gold and silver have
been actively managed by the Federal Reserve of the United States and other
central banks, the most notable of which is the Bank of England. Also
involved in association with these and other central banks are bullion banks
such as J.P. Morgan/Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and Deutsche Bank.
In April of 2004, the Deputy Chairman
of the Russian Central Bank, Oleg V. Mozhaiskov,
had the following to say at the London Bullion
Market Association meeting in Moscow….
“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 organizing 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, have reached US$740-760.” His
entire speech is hyperlinked here.
Canada’s
foremost precious metals analyst, John Embry of Sprott
Asset Management in Toronto,
is the co-author of a report that describes this manipulation in detail. The
report is entitled “Not Free, Not Fair: The Long-Term
Manipulation of the Gold Price.” The entire report is
hyperlinked here.
And in a March 2005 report entitled
“The Role of Gold in the Unified Gulf Co-operation Council
Currency” published by the Gulf Research Center
in Dubai, U.A.E., author Eckart Woertz
endorses the findings of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee that Western
central and commercial banks have rigged the gold market and have much less
gold than they claim to have, and so are vulnerable to rising demand for
gold. The study recommends that the oil-producing countries of the Middle East diversify their ever-depreciating U.S.
dollar holdings into gold. To order a copy of this report, please follow this
hyperlink.
In a very related development, Blanchard Coin &
Bullion of New Orleans
has sued Barrick Gold and its bullion bank, JPMorgan, for gold price manipulation. There is an interview
with Don Doyle, the president of Blanchard Coin regarding this lawsuit,
which I believe you would find of interest. It is hyperlinked here.
The actual legal documents filed by Blanchard Coin at the United States
District Court of Louisiana may be of interest to your legal counsel, and the
pdf file is hyperlinked here.
And as mentioned in a prior paragraph,
the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee has been attempting to expose
this gold and silver price manipulation for more than six years. The
organization’s Internet site is at http://www.gata.org/.
Two silver analysts in particular, Ted Butler and
Dave Morgan, have collectively done decades worth of research into the
manipulation of the silver price. Their websites are located at http://www.butlerresearch.com/archive_free.html and http://www.silver-investor.com respectively. In
his weekly commentary of March 1, 2005…Ted Butler had this to say…“It
is important to remember that the past reliability of price movements of gold
and silver dictated by extreme readings in the COT (Commitment of
Traders report), is another proof of manipulation in these markets. There
is nothing random, free market, legal or economically legitimate about the
price-setting tango between the tech funds and the dealers. In fact, it is as
far removed from what is mandated by commodity law as is possible. How the
producers of real silver (and gold) tolerate this activity is beyond
me.”
The point that I’m making is that it is common
knowledge (and has been for some time) that the price of your main product
(gold or silver or both) is managed, and it would appear that most of the
people concerned about it are the shareholders of precious metals companies,
not the management of the companies themselves.
The organization that is supposed to be representing
all gold producers is the World Gold Council. If you’ve checked
their membership list, you will notice that most of their largest members are
heavily hedged gold companies that have little interest in higher gold
prices. Except to promote gold as jewellery and to sponsor a gold exchange-traded
fund that can never be physically audited…so its gold may exist only in
paper form, the WGC has never touched the issue of gold as money or as a
vehicle for investment purposes. Did you ever wonder why? The Silver
Institute fits into the same category.
As Chris Powell, the Secretary-Treasurer of GATA
said recently: "The World Gold Council exists to ensure that there
NEVER IS a REAL world gold council.” That commentary would
apply to The Silver Institute equally as well.
Can you imagine the problems that would surface for
the central banks and bullion banks if there were a true advocate for
the gold and silver industry really trying to promote gold and silver as
investments? A real precious metals advocate would be pounding the table at
all times on every issue that concerned its members (you, the producers) and,
by extension, your stockholders…the real owners of the company. Of
course the top issue that a real world gold council would be working on would
be ending the manipulation of the gold and silver price.
Well, such an organization is currently in the
planning stages. So, if your company would be interested in higher gold and
silver prices and increased shareholder value, you would be more than welcome
to participate in this historic event.
Here is the announcement…
The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee is pleased to
announce that we will be hosting an international conference on August 8
and 9 in
Dawson City in Canada's Yukon, the center of the Klondike Gold Rush at the turn of the 19th
century.
Since it represents the golden excitement of the
past, this historic location is just the place for our conference as we enter
a new time of excitement for gold. So we will call our gathering GOLD RUSH 21 and here's what
we aim to do there:
***Expand GATA's role as
an advocate for the precious metals industry.
***Offer the mining industry and precious metals
investors an alternative to the World Gold Council, which represents no more
than 20 gold companies and has done so little for those it purports to
represent. GATA will seek to include more of the industry, and we will not align
ourselves with the bullion banks and jewellery interests, which want precious
metals prices suppressed. More than 40 mining and precious metals-related
companies have supported GATA in recent years. We believe we can raise that
total to 200.
***Spread GATA's message
that the gold and silver markets are not free and not fair, and develop ways
to change that. Renowned gold experts from five continents will explain and
discuss the price manipulation committed by the gold and silver cartels. We
will cover who has done it, why they did it, and what can be done about it.
***Give conference participants a memorable trip to
Klondike Gold Rush country so they can see what a gold rush was and what one
might be again. We expect that conference participants will forge some
memorable relationships.
***Receive suggestions from conference participants
about how GATA can best build long-term support from the precious metals
industry.
The speakers at GOLD RUSH 21 will include:
- Ferdinand
Lips of Zurich, Switzerland: He has
been managing director of Rothschild Bank AG in Zurich, CEO of his own private bank
(Bank Lips), and a director of Randgold
Resources, Durban Roodeport
Deep, and Aflease. Currently
he is chairman and manager of the Top-Gold Fund, based in Liechtenstein.
He has written four books on the gold market, his latest being "Gold
Wars."
- Peter
George of Cape Town, South Africa: A
graduate of Oxford University in England
and the University of Cape Town, where he received his MBA, George
was a member of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange from 1969-1981 and was
senior partner of the Johannesburg
stockbrokerage Saunders & Taylor. He became known as South Africa's
"Mister Gold," during that period. Peter helped organize the
GATA African Gold Summit in Durban,
South Africa,
in May 2001. Five sub-Saharan African nations attended that conference;
along with representatives of major South African gold producers and the
South African mine workers union. The summit was heavily reported by the
South African Broadcasting Co.
- John Embry
of Toronto. Just as
George is known as "Mister Gold" in South
Africa, Embry is becoming known as "Mister
Gold" in Canada.
After an illustrious career at the Royal Bank of Canada, where he
oversaw $5 billion in mutual fund assets and recorded an astounding
return of 153 percent in 2002, in 2003 Embry became chief
investment strategist at Sprott Asset
Management. He was co-author of Sprott's
important research study, "Not Free, Not Fair: The
Long-Term Manipulation of the Gold Price,"
which validated GATA's work. There is no more
admired figure in the mining industry.
- Hugo
Salinas Price, who may be regarded as Mexico's
"Mister Silver." Salinas Price is leading the campaign to remonetize silver in his country, the world's
foremost producer of silver. Last November governors of all 31 Mexican
states sent a letter to the Ways and Means Committee of the Mexican
House of Representatives to urge approval of legislation to remonetize silver. Nearly 200 Mexican journalists
signed a declaration in support of the legislation. A poll by the
Mexican television network TV Azteca
found that 96 percent of viewers approved the remonetization of silver ounce. It seems that
the only major opponent of the silver legislation in Mexico is Mexico's central bank.
- Reginald H.
Howe of Massachusetts. A
successful trial lawyer in Boston and
proprietor of the GoldenSextant.com Internet site, Howe
took on the entire Gold Cartel in U.S. District Court in Boston in 2001 by suing
the Bank for International Settlements, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board,
the U.S. Treasury Department, J.P. Morgan & Co., Chase Manhattan
Corp., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group, and Deutsche Bank AG. Howe stood
against more than a dozen of the highest-powered lawyers in the world. His
lawsuit has been renewed by Blanchard Coin & Bullion's suit against
J.P. Morgan Case and Barrick Gold in U.S.
District Court in New Orleans.
- James Turk
of New Hampshire. Turk, a
former banker and manager of the commodity department of the Abu Dhabi
Investment Authority, is editor of the Freemarket Gold & Money Report and
founder of GoldMoney.com. He is also the co-author of "The
Coming Collapse of the Dollar," just published
by Doubleday
Facilities in Dawson City
are very limited, so we will have to restrict invitations to mining company
executives and investment fund managers, the people who are in the best
position to help us push the industry forward. Mining company executives and
fund managers who would like to attend GOLD RUSH 21 should write to us by
e-mail at GATAComm@GOLDRUSH21.com and we'll send
confirmations soon after that. More information about the conference can be
found at its Internet site: http://www.goldrush21.com/
GATA extends its profound gratitude to Samex Mining and Klondike Star
for their exceptional efforts to make this international conference a huge
success.
Thank you.
* * * *
As part owner of our company, which you are just
managing on behalf of all stockholders, I respectfully request that you send
a delegate to this conference to learn more about how you can help end the
manipulation of the gold and silver price, and start a NEW World
Precious Metals Council that will have all our best interests
at heart.
And once again, I would be grateful if a copy of
this was sent to your legal counsel, plus all the persons listed at the top
of this memo. Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing from you on
this matter at your earliest possible convenience.
With best wishes,
Ed Steer, Shareholder
7010-21 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6K 2H4
Email
:emhs/mtf
cc file
So there it is; and there’s not a lot to it. The
letter covers all the bases, and as I said previously, you can customize this
letter any way you see fit.
In closing, let me cut right to the chase: It is now
entirely up to us to do battle with our own companies in which
we are shareholders. Without a doubt, this is a despicable state of affairs
for all of us to find ourselves in. The decision NOT TO ACT on this
issue by the management and directors of all these companies (our companies!)
is, in my opinion, a tacit admission of total failure in their fiduciary
responsibilities not only to their shareholders…but to themselves as
responsible managers and adults…not to mention their responsibility to
the entire human race that is currently being held hostage by The Empire.
They should be ashamed of themselves both
individually and collectively. I don’t know how they can look
themselves in the mirror in the morning. And I just wonder if their hands
don’t shake a little when the reach for their paycheques.
So this is where we find ourselves. It’s up to
you and me to get this job done. There’s a lot to do…but not
a lot of time has to be spent on it, as the really tough work has
already been done in advance. Through our combined efforts, we only need to
convert a handful of companies to The Rebellion,
and the rest of them will follow in due course.
So, on behalf of GATA, I respectfully request that
you heed this “Call to Arms” and do battle with our
foes. We must be successful in this fight against the dark side of The
Force; because over the last number of years, it has become crystal clear
(at least to me) that absolutely everything on this little blue-green planet
of ours depends upon it.
Thank you in advance for your efforts…and good
luck.
Ed Steer
Director
Gold Anti-Trust
Action Committee
www.GATA.org
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S.
Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe
at www.GATA.org. GATA is
grateful for financial contributions, which are federally tax-deductible in
the United States.
 
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