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Archimedes was a famous mathematician
whose theorems and philosophies became world-known. In his own time he gained
a reputation few other mathematicians of this period achieved. He is
considered by most historians of mathematics as one of the greatest mathematicians
of all time. He discovered pi.
 Most of the
facts about his life come from a biography about the Roman soldier Marcellus
written by the Roman biographer Plutarch.
Archimedes was best known for his discovery of the relation between the surface
and volume of a sphere and its circumscribing cylinder, for his formulation
of a hydrostatic principle -- Archimedes' principle -- and for inventing the
Archimedes screw, a device for raising water. Archimedes' Principle states
that an object immersed in a fluid experiences a buoyant force that is equal
in magnitude to the force of gravity on the displaced fluid.
Legend has it that Archimedes discovered his famous principle while taking a
bath. He was so excited that he ran naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting, "Eureka, eureka!" -- "I have found
it!"
He also invented things such as the hydraulic screw, the catapult, the lever,
the compound pulley, and the burning mirror.
In mechanics Archimedes discovered fundamental theorems concerning the centre
of gravity of plane figures and solids.
Archimedes probably spent some time in Egypt
early in his career, but he resided for most of his life in Syracuse,
the principal city-state in Sicily,
where he was on intimate terms with its king, Hieron
II. Archimedes published his works in the form of correspondence with the
principal mathematicians of his time, including the Alexandrian scholars
Conon of Samos and Eratosthenes of Cyrene.
Archimedes played an important role in the defense
of Syracuse against
the siege laid by the Romans in 213 BC by constructing war machines so
effective that they long delayed the capture of the city. But Syracuse eventually was
captured by the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus in the autumn of 212
or spring of 211 BC, and Archimedes was killed in
the sack of the city. You
can read more about Archimedes here.
* * *
We've all had times when the light bulb
has gone on and we've said, "Eureka!
That's it!" These flashes of insight come not only with a feeling of
euphoria, but also with the complete answer to the problem or question at
hand ... a "great seeing," if you will. You don't see, you don't
see, you don't see. ... Then all of a sudden, you see it all.
The experience I had last week was a derivative of that. "Eureka! Is that
it?" A question, rather than a declaration of fact.
I didn't go shouting and running naked through the streets, or even around
the office -- but it set off the proverbial light bulb. What precipitated it
was an article by Chris
Powell, secretary-treasurer of the Gold Anti-Trust Action
Committee, posted at the GATA Internet site at Yahoo Groups last week. The
story involved Germany's
Bundesbank declaring (again) how it was going to be
looking for a new agreement to sell even more gold when the Washington
Agreement on gold expires in September 2004.
It wasn't the article itself that was of interest, as we've all heard this
tired story too many times to let it put the fear of God into us any more. What
got my attention was Chris's preamble to the article. This is what he had to
say:
"And now Ernst Welteke, president of the Bundesbank, has given another interview musing about
selling the bank's gold reserves, which happens whenever the central bankers
are nervous that the gold price is getting out of hand. A Reuters
story about that interview is appended."
"Keep in mind that when central bankers talk about selling gold, they
usually mean writing off as sold their leased gold, gold that is long out of
the vault and already sold into the market and a dangerous liability for the
bullion banks that borrowed it. Such 'sales' don't add to the gold supply in
the market; they help avert a short squeeze by expropriating national assets
in favor of influential private interests --
interests that tend to employ central bankers before and after their careers
with the central banks."
The moment that I read that, the "Eureka
light" turned on. It occurred to me in a flash that this might be what
the entire Washington Agreement was about. I fired off an e-mail to Chris
with my suspicions, and this is the reply that I got back:
"So much about the Washington Agreement can't be any more than
speculation, but better minds than mine in our cause - particularly Frank Veneroso
-- have thought for some time that 'gold sales' were just bailouts for the
bullion banks. If so, the Washington Agreement was devilishly clever. It was
presented as a way of SUPPORTING the gold price by limiting sales so as to
avoid hurting those struggling little countries that actually work for a
living. What better cover for a scheme to SUPPRESS the price, or at least to
keep it from exploding, then by eliminating the chance of a short
squeeze?"
"Veneroso thought from the beginning that gold
leasing had gotten out of control and that the central banks collectively
didn't really know how much they had been leasing, and thus were looking for
a method of gradual adjustment of the gold price to a more realistic level."
"I dunno, but I figure that, since they're all
a bunch of crooks, misappropriating public wealth in favor
of the money powers, the crookedest explanation is
the most probable. ... But then I'm a gold nut!" Chris
* * *
For the first time the entire Washington Agreement makes sense ... at least
to me. Once the European central banks put their heads together (back in
1999) and came clean with each other, they were absolutely horrified to find
just how fast those gold bars were disappearing out of their vaults. That
much we already know.
But it was the Washington Agreement that became the red herring to cover
their tracks (and their collective behinds) as they attempted to keep a lid
on the gold price while they dug themselves out of a physical and paper gold
nightmare.
Let's take a look at the text of the agreement one more time....
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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