You are here

London Sunday Times columnist bullish on gold

Section: Daily Dispatches

9p ET Thursday, August 23, 2001

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Thanks to the Tocqueville Fund people and
GATA supporter Jim Cole for the following
transcript of the interview yesterday with
John Hathaway on the Fox News program quot;Your
World with Neil Cavuto.quot;

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

* * *

From the Fox News program
quot;Your World with Neil Cavutoquot;

quot;Good as Gold: Investing in Gold, with John
Hathaway of the Tocqueville Gold Fundquot;

August 22, 2001
4:45 p.m. ET

Neil Cavuto: I don't have to tell you there
aren't a whole lot of stocks out there making
money these days. But it is my job to tell
you about the ones that are. So when I say
quot;gold,quot; that might sound a little boring, but
the returns on anything related to it are
anything but. Joining us now to tell you some
more about putting luster back into your
portfolio is John Hathaway, manager of the
Tocqueville Gold Fund. John, good to have
you.

John Hathaway: Thank you.

Cavuto: It's beginning to percolate now, huh?

Hathaway: It's starting to, really since last
November. It's been one of the best return
sectors of the market.

Cavuto: As we take a look at how gold has
done versus the Samp;P, it's above board while
these guys are losing money hand over fist.
What's driving that?

Hathaway: It's in the fairly early days. My
thought is that we're in a three-to-five-year
bull market, and usually in the beginning
nobody really understands that it's even
taking place, much less the reasons for it.

Cavuto: But all of this is occurring as the
underlying metal itself is not advancing at
that rate.

Hathaway: The only thing good that you can
say about the metal price is that it's really
stopped going down.

Cavuto: But don't you need, John, the metal
to do it so that the funds can?

Hathaway: Ultimately, yes, absolutely. And
so far all you can say is that it has
basically stabilized. It has stopped going
down, but it hasn't gone up.

Cavuto: You're up, what, about 11 percent on
the year?

Hathaway: Year-to-date, right.

Cavuto: As we take a look at the top five
funds in this category -- again, like yours -
- some strong double-digit advances for this
group. Is it the weak dollar or the
perception of the weak dollar that's driving
it? Is it the belief that all of these
interest rate cuts are going to mean
inflation and these kind of investments do
very well in that environment?

[Graphic: quot;Gold Funds (YTD Performance):
First Eagle Sogen Gold, up 28%; Monterey OCM
Gold, up 28%; American Century Global Gold
Adv., up 25%; USAA Gold, up 20%.quot;]

Hathaway: Those are two things. One is that
interest rates have come down quite a bit,
and real interest rates -- which is just the
nominal rate, less the inflation rate -- is
almost zero. Whenever you've had that
condition, there's no penalty for owning
gold. It's easier to own, and that certainly
is a big plus in its favor.

[Graphic: quot;Gold Stocks (YTD Performance):
Homestake Mining (HM), up 107%; Newmont
Mining (NEM), up 24%; Placer Dome (PDG), up
17%.quot;]

Cavuto: But this has been like the financial
Godot, right? Everyone waits and waits and
waits and it never materializes.

Hathaway: There's been a 20-year bear market.

Cavuto: Are we being hoodwinked here, or
what?

Hathaway: It's always a possibility. But we
strongly believe that it's a good place to be
and should be a good place to be for three to
five years.

Cavuto: So you invest now -- even at these
higher levels -- and you argue that you're
going to do OK?

Hathaway: We've barely come off the floor, so
I still think it's a good entry point. When
money flows into this sector -- which it
really hasn't; it's a very small market cap
altogether and it's a small commodity in
terms of money flows in the world financial
market -- the potential for big returns is
there.

Cavuto: John, thank you very much. John
Hathaway of the Tocqueville Gold Fund.
________________________

If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution.
GATA welcomes contributions as follows.

By check:

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. c/o
Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer 7 Villa
Louisa Road Manchester, CT 06043-7541 USA

By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:

a href=http://www.gata.org/creditcard.htmlhttp://www.gata.org/creditcard.html/a

By bank wire:

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. c/o
Savings Bank of Manchester 923 Main St.
Manchester, CT 06040 USA Bank routing number
211-170-185 For account number 9500-574-053

By Gold Money:

a href=http://www.GoldMoney.comhttp://www.GoldMoney.com/a Gold Anti-Trust
Action Committee Inc.
Account number 50-08-58-L

By E-Gold:

a href=http://www.e-gold.comhttp://www.e-gold.com/a Gold Anti-Trust Action
Committee Inc. Account number 110915

GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-
deductible in the United States.