The Cork Board

[the cork]

State Dept. cable confirms gold futures market was created for price suppression
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA
Published: Wednesday, 4 January 2017


Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The U.S. gold futures market was created in 1974 as a result of collusion between the U.S. government and gold dealers in London to facilitate volatility in gold prices and thereby discourage gold ownership by U.S. citizens, according to a December 1974 State Department cable obtained by Wikileaks and disclosed today by the TF Metals Report:

http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1483543570.php

The cable was sent to the State Department from the U.S. embassy in London by someone named Spiers, apparently Ronald I. Spiers, the embassy's deputy of chief at that time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_I._Spiers

The cable describes the embassy's extensive consultations with London bullion dealers about the likely impact of re-legalization of gold ownership in the United States and possible substantial gold purchases by oil-exporting Arab nations.

The cable reads: "The major impact of private U.S. ownership, according to the dealers' expectations, will be the formation of a sizable gold futures market. Each of the dealers expressed the belief that the futures market would be of significant proportion and physical trading would be miniscule by comparison. Also expressed was the expectation that large-volume futures dealing would create a highly volatile market. In turn, the volatile price movements would diminish the initial demand for physical holding and most likely negate long-term hoarding by U.S. citizens." (hoarding? - disingenuous bastards!)

The cable is interesting not just for confirming the assertion of GATA and others in the gold-price suppression camp that futures markets function largely as mechanisms of commodity price suppression and support for government currencies, an assertion perhaps first made comprehensively in 2001 by the British economist Peter Warburton --

http://www.gata.org/node/8303

-- but also for showing the close connections between the U.S. government and London gold dealers, some of which are cited by name, including Samuel Montagu & Co., Sharps Pixley & Co., Mocatta & Goldsmid, and Consolidated Gold Fields.

The cable is posted at the Wikileaks internet site here:

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1974LONDON16154_b.html

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
[e-mail]

http://news.goldseek.com/GATA/1483548192.php