You are here

Bundesbank joins Fed in demanding secrecy for gold swaps

Section: Daily Dispatches

4:45p ET Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Germany's Bundesbank today joined the U.S. Federal Reserve in demanding secrecy for gold swap transactions involving those central banks.

The Bundesbank brushed off 13 specific questions posed by the German journalist Lars Schall, whom GATA had encouraged to pose the questions. The first of the questions was: "Does the Bundesbank have gold swap arrangements with the United States / Federal Reserve?"

In reply to that question and the 12 others, the Bundesbank press office told Schall:

"In managing foreign reserves, the Bundesbank fulfills one of its mandated tasks as an integral part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). We trust you will understand that we are not able to divulge any further information regarding this activity. Particularly with respect to the confidential nature of information about where gold holdings are kept, we are unable to go into any greater detail concerning exact locations and the quantities stored at each of these. Likewise, owing to the strategic nature of the activity, we are not at liberty to provide you with more detailed information about gold transactions."

Schall sought an explanation from the Bundesbank about its activity in the gold market and the security of German gold reserves held outside Germany itself, particularly German gold held in the United States.

The Bundesbank's refusal to answer Schall's questions can only heighten suspicion that use of German gold is central to the gold price suppression policy undertaken largely surreptitiously by the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury Department, and Bank of England.

In a letter sent in September 2009 to GATA's lawyer, in response to GATA's request under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act for access to the Fed's gold records, Fed Governor Kevin M. Warsh confirmed that the Fed has gold swap arrangements with foreign banks and insists on keeping them secret:

http://www.gata.org/node/8192

GATA urges its supporters to bring Schall's correspondence with the Bundesbank to the attention of financial journalists everywhere and particularly in Germany. This correspondence is another acknowledgement of secret central bank intervention in the gold market and of surreptitous central bank market manipulation generally. Central banks cannot answer questions about their custodianship of national gold reserves without exploding the gold price suppression scheme, and most financial journalists -- particularly those at the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the London Times, the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Reuters, and the London Telegraph -- don't dare ask such questions lest they commit actual journalism and spoil their cozy relationships with official sources.

Schall's report on his exchange with the Bundesbank about the German gold reserves is headlined "Some Justified Questions for the German Bundesbank" and can be found at his Internet site here:

http://www.larsschall.com/2010/12/01/some-justified-questions-for-the-ge...

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



ADVERTISEMENT

Sona Drills 85.4g Gold/Ton Over 4 Metres at Elizabeth Gold Deposit, Extending the Mineralization of the Southwest Vein on the Property

Company Press Release, October 27, 2010

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Sona Resources Corp. reports on five drillling holes in the third round of assay results from the recently completed drill program at its 100 percent-owned Elizabeth Gold Deposit Property in the Lillooet Mining District of southern British Columbia. Highlights from the diamond drilling include:

-- Hole E10-66 intersected 17.4g gold/ton over 1.54 metres.

-- Hole E10-67 intersected 96.4g gold/ton over 2.5 metres, including one assay interval of 383g of gold/ton over 0.5 metres.

-- Hole E10-69 intersected 85.4g gold/ton over 4.03 metres, including one assay interval of 230g gold/ton over 1 metre.

Four drill holes, E10-66 to E10-69, targeted the southwestern end of the Southwest Vein, and three of the holes have expanded the mineralized zone in that direction. The Southwest Vein gold mineralization has now been intersected over a strike length of 325 metres, with the deepest hole drilled less than 200 metres from surface.

"The assay results from the Southwest Zone quartz vein continue to be extremely positive," says John P. Thompson, Sona's president and CEO. "We are expanding the Southwest Vein, and this high-grade gold mineralization remains wide open down dip and along strike to the southwest."

For the company's full press release, please visit:

http://sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR19_2010.pdf



Support GATA by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:

http://gata.org/tshirts

Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:

http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal

Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon:

http://www.goldrush21.com/

* * *

Help keep GATA going

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:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:http://www.gata.org/node/16



ADVERTISEMENT

Prophecy Drills 71.17 Metres of 0.52% NiEq
(0.310 % Nickel 0.466 g/t PGMs +Au and 0.223% Copper)
from surface at Wellgreen Project in the Yukon

Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX-V: PCY) reports that it has received additional assays results from its 100-percent-owned Wellgreen PGM Ni-Cu property in the Yukon, Canada. Diamond drill holes WS10-179 to WS10-182 were drilled during the summer of 2010 by Northern Platinum (which merged with Prophecy on September 23, 2010). WS10-183 was drilled by Prophecy in October 2010. Highlights from the newly received assays include 71.17 metres from surface of 0.52 percent NiEq (0.310 percent nickel, 0.466 g/t PGMs + Au, and 0.233 percent copper) and ended in mineralization. For more drill highlights, please visit:

http://prophecyresource.com/news_2010_nov29.php