-->Aus der FTD vom 19.1.2004
Bundesbank erhält Beistand für Goldverkauf
Von Andreas Krosta, Frankfurt

Ã-sterreichs Zentralbankchef Klaus Liebscher unterstützt das Vorhaben der Deutschen Bundesbank, einen Teil ihrer Goldreserven zu verkaufen. Die Erlöse sollen in einem Bildungsfonds fließen.

"Ich denke, die Pläne der Bundesbank sind zu akzeptieren", sagte Liebscher der FTD. Er geht davon aus, dass sich die Notenbanken schon bald auf ein neues Goldabkommen einigen werden, das Voraussetzung dafür wäre."Ich bin sehr optimistisch, dass wir im Frühjahr einen neuen Vertrag ausgehandelt haben werden", sagte Liebscher.

Das bisherige Abkommen zwischen 15 Zentralbanken läuft Ende September aus. Darin hatten sie sich verpflichtet, nicht mehr als 400 Tonnen des Edelmetalls jährlich zu verkaufen. Die Bundesbank beabsichtigt nach Angaben aus dem Institut, in den nächsten Jahren jeweils rund 100 Tonnen Gold zu veräußern.


Bildungsfonds im Blick

Bundesbank-Chef Ernst Welteke möchte mit den Erlösen einen eigenen Bildungsfonds finanzieren. Das Bundesfinanzministerium besteht jedoch darauf, dass die Gewinne wie im Bundesbankgesetz vorgeschrieben an den Bund abgeführt werden. Auch Finanzminister Hans Eichel liebäugelt wie SPD und Grüne damit, die zusätzlichen Einnahmen in die Bildung zu stecken. Über den Verkauf entscheide aber allein die Bundesbank, heißt es.


Liebscher deutete an, dass in dem neuen Goldabkommen die jährliche Verkaufsmenge heraufgesetzt werden soll."Ich denke, auch 450 Tonnen pro Jahr oder ein bisschen mehr sind kein Problem für den Markt, wenn man ihn darauf vorbereitet." Er deutete zudem an, dass die Ã-sterreichische Notenbank auf Verkäufe verzichten könnte, um anderen Notenbanken mehr Spielraum zu geben.



© 2004 Financial Times Deutschland
<ul> ~ ftd</ul>

-->hat Felix Austria schon sehr viel von dem"gelben Dreck" verkloppt, und das zu echten Media-Markt-Mutter-aller-Schnäppchen-Preisen.
Da wäre es schon schön, der Zornesabwehr auf andere Länder verweisen zu können, die sich ähnlich volksvermögenverprassend verhalten. Und da kann man dann glatt"grüßzügig" hinter andere zurücktreten und darauf verzichten, selbst mehr davon zu verkaufen, was man gar nicht mehr besitzt! Was für eine Lachnummer! Der hat echt den gleichen IQ-Level wie Welteke, und das muss man erst mal schaffen
:-)))

-->Excerpted from"Midas" commentary for January 28, 2004
Copyright 2004, LeMetropoleCafe.com
Used by permission

By Bill Murphy
LeMetropoleCafe.com
January 18, 2004

Yesterday I distributed this Bloomberg story in a Café email:

* * *

The board of Germany's Bundesbank opposes a plan by its
president, Ernst Welteke, to sell some of the central bank's
gold reserves to fund research in Europe's largest economy,
Der Spiegel said.

"Welteke won't get a majority for his proposal," the magazine
cited an unidentified board member as saying. Only three of
the board's eight members are in favor of the proposal, Der
Spiegel said, citing the board member.

The Bundesbank's board will vote on the proposal in February,
the magazine said.

The Bild am Sonntag Sunday newspaper said this month that
the Frankfurt-based Bundesbank and the German government
have agreed to sell up to 600 tons of the central bank's gold to
raise as much as 7 billion euros ($8.7 billion) for a fund to
promote education and research. The government expects the
fund to generate interest income of between 250 million euros
and 300 million euros a year, the paper said.

* * *

In my opinion the importance of this brief news story cannot
be overstated. Here's why:

* Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan had just made a big splash
in Berlin.

* This story contradicts a planted and false story the Germans
were committed to sell up to 600 tonnes of their gold, which
has been Welteke's plan all along. GATA believes Welteke
has been a stooge of the Gold Cartel for a long time.

* Most importantly, this is the first positive gold story from any
Western central bank since GATA was formed five years ago,
and it reveals serious German concern over all this multi-year
gold selling by the West.

* The Der Spiegel article suggests that its source has been in
contact with all members of the Bundesbank board. It is not
just one man's opinion. It is a consensus. The story was leaked
to send a message.

* Perhaps a group of German central bankers is looking at the
low prices received by the Swiss and British for their gold and
are making a stand that they will not be drawn further into this
U.S.-inspired folly.

* More and more Germans can see the foolishness of the
United States regarding our horrendous current account and
budget deficits and know what the result is going to be: a
soaring gold price and a troubled dollar for years to come.
Why sell gold cheap to invest in a depreciating dollar?

* The Germans have an historic fear of hyperinflation. They can
see commodity prices on the move, led by oil above $35 per
barrel. They see the United States following in their footsteps
of yesteryear. Now is a time to BUY gold, not get rid of it on the
cheap to the Chinese, Russians, Arabs, and Indians.

* For years there has been a pro-gold faction in Germany that
might have been held in abeyance. Perhaps, with the sharp rise
in the gold price, the pro-gold faction believes that it is time to
make its move. As GATA consultant James Turk has repeatedly
pointed out over the years, there is a very serious question
whether half of Germany's gold is already gone through leasing
and swapping schemes. Bundesbank gold sales now may be
nothing more than an accounting gimmick to write off the gold
the bank knows it cannot retrieve without sending the price
through the roof. It could just be that the five recalcitrant
Bundesbank board members are outraged that Germany could
its valuable gold be given away and want to put an end to the
matter. We will hear a lot more about Bundesbank gold in the
months to come.

* If Bundesbank's pro-gold faction wins out (and it appears to
be in the lead), it should have an effect on other Western central
bankers and cause them to rethink their gold sale and lending
policies. Many of these bankers are like sheep. Turn one of the
leaders and many more could follow.

* There is a good chance that the brilliant efforts of GATA
supporter Ferdinand Lips are paying off dramatically. Just before
Christmas Lips distributed 500 copies of his book,"The Gold
Conspiracy" -- the German text of what has been published
in the United States as"Gold Wars" -- with a personal letter
to the most important political and financial leaders in
Switzerland. Lips has worked for years to expose the
manipulation of the gold price and the folly of Western central
bankers who are dumping gold.

* And yes, GATA's five-year effort to do what Lips has been
doing may be paying off in Germany too. We have received
much feedback over the years that our message has been
heard by a number of influential Germans.

-->Sell oil for gold, Mahathir tells Saudi Arabia

http://biz.yahoo.com/rm/040118/saudi_mahathir_1.html

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 18 (Reuters) -- Former Malaysian
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Sunday that Saudi
Arabia should sell oil for gold, not dollars, to avoid being
"shortchanged" by a decline in the U.S. currency.

"The price of oil is $33 but the U.S. dollar has declined by
40 percent against the euro so you're effectively getting
$20," Mahathir told an economic conference in Saudi Arabia's
Red Sea city of Jeddah."So you're being shortchanged."

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has justified
higher world oil prices by saying they are necessary to
compensate for the slide in the U.S. currency.

Mahathir, who retired last October, spent much of his time
in office upsetting Western governments and defying their
economic orthodoxies. But he became a respected spokesman
in Islamic and developing states and received an ovation in
Jeddah.

He suggested countries tally their total annual imports and
exports and settle the difference at the end of the year in
"gold dinars." Sounding a discordant note, Mahathir also
warned Saudi Arabia against rushing to join the World Trade
Organisation (WTO), saying it was not necessarily a positive
move.

Saudi Trade Minister Hashem Yamani said on Saturday his
country had narrowed differences with the United States that
were holding up accession to the organisation and said he
wanted to join"tomorrow."

"Everybody should be careful before joining the WTO because
it is not all positive. It can be very negative if you don't
handle it properly," Mahathir said."They try to impose
their agenda without regard for some other countries."

-->Central banks set to renew gold pact

By Tony Major and Andreas Krosta in Frankfurt
Financial Times
Sunday, January 18, 2004

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1073281113427

European central banks are likely to renew their five-year
agreement restricting gold sales in the spring, well ahead
of its expiry in September, in a move that could prolong
the two-year bull run in bullion prices.

The new agreement is also expected to raise the limit on
aggregate annual sales by the 15 participating central
banks, which include Germany, France, Italy, and the UK,
from 400 tonnes to more than 450.

Klaus Liebscher, governor of the Austrian central bank -- a
signatory to the accord -- said he was"very optimistic" that
a new gold agreement would have been"negotiated by the
spring." In an interview with the Financial Times, he said the
talks were"not yet in the end phase. But he indicated
Europe's central bankers were supporting a renewal of the
agreement."It is wise to renew the pact... and many of
my colleagues see it that way."

His comments will help to reassure gold investors, who have
seen its price rise by 20 percent in each of the past two
years on geopolitical tensions and a sliding dollar. Analysts
believe gold, which hovers just above the $400 an ounce
level, could now touch $450 this year.

Liebscher said he thought"sales of 450 tonnes a year or a
little more" would not be a problem for the market as long as
it was forewarned. Analysts said the renewal of the pact at
these levels would be positive. The pact has a big influence
on the gold price, and many had expected the central banks
to seek a bigger increase in sales.

"A limit on annual sales of between 450 and 500 tonnes
would be positive for the market," said Paul Walker of Gold
Fields Mineral Services."This is at the lower end of
expectations."

Europe's central banks, which hold more than 14,000 tonnes
of gold, have been offloading bullion for years to diversify
their reserves and to provide easy means for governments to fund
budget gaps. But in the 1990s a selling binge by central banks
drove the price sharply lower.

The gold pact, signed by the ECB and central banks of the
euro zone -- Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK -- in 1999,
helped to rebuild confidence by preventing undisciplined
selling.

Under the first agreement, the biggest sellers were
Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the UK. But the German
Bundesbank, which has some 3,400 tonnes of gold in its
reserves, has recently indicated it now wants to sell about
400 tonnes. The Bank of Italy is also thought to be keen to
sell some gold.

-->

-->>Sell oil for gold, Mahathir tells Saudi Arabia
>http://biz.yahoo.com/rm/040118/saudi_mahathir_1.html
>JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 18 (Reuters) -- Former Malaysian
>Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Sunday that Saudi
>Arabia should sell oil for gold, not dollars, to avoid being
>"shortchanged" by a decline in the U.S. currency.
>"The price of oil is $33 but the U.S. dollar has declined by
>40 percent against the euro so you're effectively getting
>$20," Mahathir told an economic conference in Saudi Arabia's
>Red Sea city of Jeddah."So you're being shortchanged."
>Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has justified
>higher world oil prices by saying they are necessary to
>compensate for the slide in the U.S. currency.
>Mahathir, who retired last October, spent much of his time


Diese WTO ist wohl der selbe Ganovenverein wie alle überstaatlichen Organisatio-
nen,vor allem wenn man weiß wer die gegründet hat!Oh ist die Menschheit korrupt!
>in office upsetting Western governments and defying their
>economic orthodoxies. But he became a respected spokesman
>in Islamic and developing states and received an ovation in
>Jeddah.
>He suggested countries tally their total annual imports and
>exports and settle the difference at the end of the year in
>"gold dinars." Sounding a discordant note, Mahathir also
>warned Saudi Arabia against rushing to join the World Trade
>Organisation (WTO), saying it was not necessarily a positive
>move.
>Saudi Trade Minister Hashem Yamani said on Saturday his
>country had narrowed differences with the United States that
>were holding up accession to the organisation and said he
>wanted to join"tomorrow."
>"Everybody should be careful before joining the WTO because
>it is not all positive. It can be very negative if you don't
>handle it properly," Mahathir said."They try to impose
>their agenda without regard for some other countries."