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If there's a tougher and shrewder entrepreneur and executive in
the gold mining business than Rob McEwen, founder of Goldcorp and now CEO of
McEwen Mining, GATA doesn't know of one. But McEwen's remarks this week at
the PDAC conference in Toronto, at least as conveyed by the National Post,
suggest that he's not tough and shrewd enough -- that in the crucial respect
he's just like the rest of management in the gold-mining industry, unable to
put 2 and 2 together even as the equation is flashing in neon lights right in
front of him.
According to the National Post, whose report is appended in part
below, McEwen is maintaining a prediction of a gold price of US$5,000 despite
the monetary metal's poor performance in recent years.
Of course timing is everything and nothing else matters much, since over
infinite time gold both may rise to many multiples of its current price as
well as fall to zero. But according to the National Post, McEwen told the
conference that gold's time is or should be now, that gold is at a
"turning point" because certain prices are going wild, like a
condominium in New York that recently sold for $95 million and a painting
that sold for almost $330 million.
"It sends a message," McEwen is quoted as saying,
"that money is not that valuable anymore."
Indeed. So if New York condos and mere paintings can rise in
price to tens of millions of dollars, why hasn't gold followed along?
More to the point, why aren't McEwen and other gold mining
executives even asking?
Of course GATA long has been providing the answer to gold's
failure to perform as ordinarily would be expected: Largely surreptitious intervention
by central banks in the gold market to suppress the monetary metal's price
and thereby support government currencies and bonds and maintain government
power.
The purpose, history, and much of the documentation of this
longstanding central bank policy are summarized by GATA here --
http://www.gata.org/node/14839
-- while GATA's full documentation file is here:
http://www.gata.org/taxonomy/term/21
Even some central bankers themselves acknowledge such market
intervention in general and call it "financial repression." Is it
likely to end any time soon when even Rob McEwen can't figure it out or can't
bring himself to talk about it even when he has a large audience whose
livelihood is at stake?
Does McEwen deny the documentation? Or is even he too scared of
the central bankers and his own company's bankers?
If he is too scared, what's the point of his being in the
gold business?
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
* * *
PDAC 2015: McEwen Sticks to US$5,000 Gold Forecast
By Peter Koven
National Post, Toronto
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Rob McEwen is sticking to his guns.
Despite the poor performance of the gold price the last two
years, and predictions from numerous experts (including Goldman Sachs) that
it will drop further, the famous gold entrepreneur maintains his long-held
belief that bullion will head north instead -- perhaps to US$5,000 an ounce.
"I think we're at a turning point," the chief
executive of McEwen Mining Inc. told investors in a luncheon presentation.
He pulled up charts showing the explosion in the U.S. monetary
base since 2008, along with rising debt relative to GDP. He also noted that a
New York condo recently sold for US$95 million, while a Gauguin painting sold
for almost US$300 million.
"It sends a message that money is not that valuable
anymore," said Mr. McEwen, who was formerly CEO of Goldcorp Inc. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
http://business.financialpost.com/2015/03/04/pdac-2015-mcewen-sticks-to-...
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