Hello Bill,
I’ve followed GATA and LeMetropoleCafe since 1999. Following the work of you, Chris and GATA contributors has been most interesting. I follow a lot of media, including many sites not under the control of the Russian government, such as the Wall Street Journal. For an American who is not an insider GATA is the single best source news and analysis of the economy and financial markets. GATA is a free service and the Café has a modest annual fee. Anyone interested in learning about the Café can sign up for a two-week trial subscription. When referring to ‘GATA’s web site” I mean both gata.org and lemetropolecafe.com.
Glenn Reynolds, a law professor, wrote a book called An Army of Davids that discusses the role small web sites have in checking the power of big institutions. In Reynolds thinking the little web sites are modern Davids taking on a range of Goliaths.
People who follow GATA are very few in numbers. GATA has about 9,400 in its subscription list while the Café numbers 1,500 followers. Those tiny numbers are in a world of 7.3 billion people. That is the equivalent of about 400 Americans reading GATA dispatches (which are free) and only about 100
American subscribers to the Café. Given that the USA has about 323 million people, GATA is the smallest David and it is taking on the largest and most criminal Goliaths in the world (the Gold Cartel and Money Interest).
As small and obscure as it may be, GATA is the most important and influential web site in the history of the Internet. Years ago Bill Murphy and Chris Powell threw a wrench in the machinery of global crime and set in motion a process of cleansing the world economy and political system. At this point the process is irreversible and when it comes to fruition the world will be a better place for GATA’s work.
As stated previously, GATA’s web site went on line in 1999. In 2003, the GATA folks had three conference calls with the Chinese sovereign wealth fund. After the Chinese were satisfied they told Bill Murphy that China was in the market buying gold (through intermediaries, of course).
I wasn’t involved in those conference calls so I’m just applying common sense to what happened. The Chinese government is very standoffish to outsiders, especially obscure American web sites. They don’t return phone call or emails to unknown folk who are pushing causes, ideas or products. We can’t know how GATA came to the attention of the Chinese government. But once it happened the Chinese would have studied the work on the GATA web site and called around to their numerous contacts to research the character of the GATA principals. Only after deciding GATA was on the level would they have reached out to GATA.
What followed were three conference calls with an important branch of the Chinese government. Both sides would have gone into the first call having done their homework. The GATA folks gathered their documentation and martialled their arguments. The Chinese would have prepared their questions. During the first call views were exchanged, documentation was offered and questions answered. The Chinese went away to do more research and come up with additional questions for the next session. After the third conference call their issues were resolved. We know that, as a fourth call did not take place. This alone is probably unprecedented in the history of the Internet.
On the Chinese side probably more departments than merely the sovereign wealth fund were listening in. People from Treasury, intelligence services, military and more would have listened in. After each conference call ended all the Chinese actors would have conferred and attempted to verify GATA’s thesis and evidence. Not just one department but the flower of the Chinese government would have listened to and analyzed GATA’s arguments.
Something similar happened on the American side. US citizens were talking to Chinese government officials on an open telephone line. In all such cases operatives from the NSA listen in. That is just how things work, and every reader knows this is true. And that is a fortunate thing as it means at least since 2003 that the US government knew the US government was manipulating gold.
In June 2004 the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) held a conference in Moscow. Oleg V. Mozhaiskov, Deputy Director of the Central Bank of Russia delivered the keynote address. The speech was in Russian except for four words in English—Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee. That surprised the GATA folks, as they never had contact with any Russians who were in or out of the government.
GATA asked the LBMA for a copy of the speech but they declined to provide it. So GATA got the address of the of the Russian official and contacted him directly. He wrote back that he sent his speech to a Russian bank in London, asked them to translate it and send a copy to GATA. A copy of that speech and the correspondence from the Russian official is posted at the GATA web site. (A)
Mr. Mozhaiskov’s response to GATA’s request follows:
“Dear Sir,
Re: Your fax message of June 20, 2004
I thank you for your interest to my speech at the Moscow LBMA Forum in early June. Since it was made in Russian it can hardly be of use to you unless translated in English. My friends in Moscow Narodny Bank, London, promised to do the translation within a reasonable time. As soon as it is completed you will received the text by E-mail. After you get it you will let me know whether you wish to carry on the dialogue.
With best regards
Oleg V. Mozhaiskov” (B)
I added the emphasis. This is how a high-ranking person at Russia’s Central Bank treated Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer of GATA. Chris usually doesn’t get that kind of respect from the Western media nor at gold conferences in the USA and Canada. However, whose opinion is more credible and valuable: that of Mr. Mozhaiskov or GATAs critics? This knowledgeable and important Russian official all but asked for further dialogue with GATA! Where have you ever heard of that? Obviously, the Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia would never deal with GATA in such a respectful manner unless he was certain GATA had the goods. And Mr. Mozhaiskov has better sources of information and intelligence that any of GATA’s critics.
If anyone reading this post has another example of an obscure web site getting such a response from an important institution, either in the USA or abroad, please email Bill Murphy so he can report it on his blog.
In August 2005 GATA held a conference at Dawson City, Canada. A Russian named Andrey Bykov attended. Mr. Bykov was a financial advisor to Vladimir Putin. After the conference Bykov said it was the finest conference he ever attended (Bykov also went to GATA’s 2011 conference in London). We can assume that Bykov then retuned to Russia where met with Mr. Putin and talked about what he learned at Dawson City. (C)
On November 23, 2005, the Moscow Times carried a story that Putin met with the media in a gold vault. He told the reporters, in effect, that Russia would be buying gold. A picture accompanied the story showing Putin holding a gold bar. Google “Putin with gold bar” and that photo will appear. (D)
Johnson’s Russia List is a web site that tracks policy and happenings in Russia. Their web site is www.russialist.com. On May 28, 2016 in a story analyzing Putin’s long-term plan for dealing with the West, it noted that Russia’s gold buying program started about January 2006. (E)
Can anyone see a pattern here? It all brings up a few points:
1) There is a direct line between the work of GATA, the picture of Putin holding a gold bar and the start of Russia’s gold buying program.
2) While we can’t know for certain how the Russian government learned about GATA we can make a reasonable assumption: the Chinese told them.
3) If, as some critics contend, the GATA people are liars, fools and charlatans would the Chinese and Russian governments have been fooled? No.
4) Who knows more about the gold market, the Chinese and Russian governments or Doug Casey and Jeff Christian? Gee, that’s a tough one. Need to give it some thought.
5) A recent dispatch from Chris Powell wondered if GATA has made a difference. In fact, GATA has made an historic difference and the people of this planet will be better off for it. When GATA began in the last century it was just Bill Murphy, Chris Powell and their band of merry non-entities like myself. Seven years later, because of GATA’s work, China and Russia were armed with information that would enable them to understand how the US government operates. The Gold Cartel and Money Interest can have their way when dealing with non-entities. However, contending with big countries armed with vast nuclear arsenals that know how the USA operates is rather more difficult.
6) Behind the scenes the USA is locked in a struggle with China and Russia for control of the gold market and to the winner goes economic dominance of the world. If the USA looses it means the American government and people will have to live by the same rules as every one else on the planet. Imagine, Americans forced to live like Canadians!
7) No other web site has done as much to bring about meaningful change and make the world a better place than GATA, the smallest David fighting the Gold Cartel and Money Interest, the ultimate Goliath.
The opinions in this essay are mine alone and, so far as I know, do not appear anywhere in GATA’s work.
Hank Fellerman
‘(A) http://www.gata.org/node/4235
For those new to the web site www.gata.com, a column of icons resides on the left of the home screen. The second icon down is labeled Dispatches, which is a fancy word for emails. All the emails sent out since the beginning are here.
‘(B) http://news.goldseek.com/LemetropoleCafe/1132758123.php
This link to www.goldseek.com reprints of the Midas commentary from November 23, 2005. The story has has a picture of Andrey Bykov at GATA’s August 2005 conference in Dawson City along with a picture of Putin holding a gold bar. The correspondence from Mr. Mozhaiskov is also in this issue
(‘C) http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/Pfv1.cfm?pfvID=4794&SearchParam=bykov
It may be necessary to signup for a trial subscription to www.lemetropolecafe.com to have access to this link. Mr. Bykov’s statement, "This Is The Finest Conference I Have Ever Been To" appeared in the Midas commentary of August 11, 2005.
“(D) Another source for Putin holding a gold is at the following link:
http://www.gettyimages.com/photos/putin-with-gold-bar?family=creative&li...
The Moscow Times story was reported on and reproduced at the following link. In the introduction Chris Powell makes reference to “…a wonderful photograph from the Itar-Tass news agency showing President Vladimir Putin holding a big gold bar…” This is from a GATA Dispatch dated November 22, 2005.
http://www.gata.org/node/3688
‘(E) I’m having trouble with the link so I will copy the relevant passage. This is from Johnson’s Russia List May 28, 2016. I copied from a saved PDF file and can’t get a good copy. The strange wording below does not appear in the original. However, the reference to the importance of buying gold and the reference to January 2006 is clear.
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, May 28, 2016)
But there is an even bejer indicaDon that PuDn is planning for a long- term confrontaDon with the West: his government is buying gold. While the Russian economy is gelng worse, the government’s stockpiles of gold are growing because if the sancDons regime intensifies, Illarionov says, Moscow can always use gold to purchase what it wants.
The Russian government’s purchases of gold in the first quarter of this year, he notes, “broke all previous records.” But it is important to recognize that these purchases began not at the start of the war with Ukraine but “already in January 2006. Therefore, the strategic planning of confrontaDon with the outside world began just over a decade ago.”
These gold purchases mean, he conDnues, that “preparaDon for global confrontaDon with the surrounding world not only has not stopped but is conDnuing and its tempo, if we are to speak honestly, is increasing.” There may be periods when it appears that PuDn is easing off as now in the view of some, but there is no indicaDon that he has fundamentally changed course.