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Gold"conspiracy" 8-24-04
Canada report lends support to gold"conspiracy"
(Amounts in U.S. dollars unless noted)
By Nicole Mordant
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Gold price
conspiracy theorists got a credibility boost on Tuesday when a
respected Canadian gold fund manager released a 71-page report
arguing that bullion prices have been artificially depressed by
central banks, bullion banks and hedge funds.
In a document titled"Not free, not fair: the long-term
manipulation of the gold price," John Embry, the chief
investment strategist at Sprott Asset Management, details
incidents in the last decade that"collectively refute the idea
that gold is a free market".
Sprott is a private Toronto-based asset management and
research company managing more than $1.6 billion for
institutions and private investors.
"We certainly do not look upon ourselves as crusaders, but
the more we investigated the gold market, the more readily
apparent it became that the gold price appeared, in the
politest of terms, to be managed," Embry said in the report
that he co-authored.
He said the gold price's moves seemed at times to be
counterintuitive, going down on days when there were compelling
reasons for it to rise.
"We avoid the word 'conspiracy' and prefer to instead
believe that, at least initially, powerful groups -- central
banks, bullion banks, hedge funds, etc -- were operating in
their own self-interests and not necessarily in concert with
one another," Embry said.
For several years, a small group of market players, who
have become known as"gold bugs", have argued that evidence
exists that the gold price has been manipulated lower for
profit by some of the world's biggest financial institutions,
gold producers and central banks.
This is most clearly embodied in an antitrust lawsuit
pending against Barrick Gold Corp. <ABX.TO> and J.P. Morgan
Chase & Co Inc. <JPM.N> in a Louisiana court by a New
Orleans-based coin and bullion dealer.
Blanchard and Co. argues that the world's No. 3 gold
producer and the U.S. financial giant colluded for over a
decade to suppress the gold price. Barrick and JP Morgan have
tried to get the case thrown out of court.
The mainstream gold and financial services industry has
mostly shrugged off the gold bugs' arguments as nothing more
than the hysterical conspiracy theories of a vocal fringe
group.
The bullion price was last at $403 an ounce. It is down 3
percent this year but is 60 percent stronger than it was three
years ago.
((Reporting by Nicole Mordant, editing by Rob Wilson; Reuters
Messaging: nicole.mordant.reuters.com@reuters.net; +604 664
7315))
REUTERS
und mehr unter www.sprott.com
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