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28th April 2010, 06:07 AM
Five Questions About Gold The IMF Refuses To Answer
By Vince Veneziani | Apr. 27, 2010,
You'll recall that a few weeks ago, we interviewed the IMF on why it had blocked investor Eric Sprott's attempt to buy gold from the fund. We then spoke with Eric Sprott and the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, better known as GATA for their take on the matter.
Along the way, both GATA and Sprott suggested we ask the IMF some questions that the fund has avoided answering in the past. So we did. They were:
1) What are the incentives for the IMF not to sell gold on the open market or to investors, be it institutional or retail?
2) What are the designated depositories for gold?
3) Did gold physically change hands with the banks you have sold to so far or was the transaction basically bookkeeping stuff (the IMF still holds the physical gold in this case)?
4) Are there available records on the actual serial numbers of bullion? How is the gold at the IMF tracked and accounted for?
5) When the IMF says it will "phase out" the sal of available gold, could you be more specific? What amount of gold in regard to what amount of time.
6) Does IMF support a need for total transparency in the sale of gold despite the effects it could have on various markets?
The official response from Alistair Thomson, the IMF's media guy, was:
"I looked through your message; we don’t have anything more for you on this."
Interesting, considering the IMF refused to answer similar questions posed by GATA and Sprott. Some are perfectly reasonable questions too, like did gold physically change hands? What does the term "phase out" actually mean?
Certainly this unwillingness is only fodder for skeptical gold folks out there.
http://www.businessinsider.com/we-asked-the-imf-questions-from-eric-sprott-and-gata-and-got-no-response-2010-4#ixzz0mLdspRp9
And from a GATA Email:
Business Insider exposes IMF's gold cover-up
Submitted by cpowell on 05:08PM ET Tuesday, April 27, 2010. Section: Daily Dispatches
8:07p ET Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
At the urging of GATA and Sprott Asset Management CEO Eric Sprott, Business Insider reporter Vince Veneziani recently put to the International Monetary Fund five specific questions about the IMF's supposed gold reserves, questions similar to those put to the IMF by your secretary/treasurer in April 2008. (See http://www.gata.org/node/6242.)
Business Insider's two most important questions may have been: 1) Exactly where is the IMF's supposed gold? And 2) When the IMF sells gold, does any real gold change hands or are such sales essentially just bookkeeping transactions among central banks?
Tonight Veneziani reports that IMF spokesman Alistair Thomson replied to Business Insider's five questions as follows: "I looked through your message; we don't have anything more for you on this."
How's that for accountability from an international governmental organization?
Veneziani concludes: "Certainly this unwillingness is only fodder for skeptical gold folks out there."
Indeed, the IMF's refusal to answer Business Insider is more evidence that the gold it has been threatening the gold market with for years is an illusion -- that the IMF has no gold at all but only a tenuous claim on the gold reserves of its member nations, nations that, the ever-more-valuable CPM Group reports today, seem not at all inclined to part with it anymore:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2746801820100427?type=marketsNews
Thus Veneziani and Business Insider have accomplished something apparently not yet accomplished by any major news organization in the world: They have put important, critical, inconvenient, and direct questions to a central banking institution. Further, Veneziani and Business Insider have been treated with contempt for doing so and have publicized the refusal to answer.
Not even The New York Times, Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal have yet dared attempt such ordinary journalism in regard to central banking.
The Business Insider report is headlined "Five Questions About Gold the IMF Refuses to Answer" and you can find it here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/we-asked-the-imf-questions-from-eric-spro...
Or try this abbreviated link:
http://tinyurl.com/29nbte8
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc
By Vince Veneziani | Apr. 27, 2010,
You'll recall that a few weeks ago, we interviewed the IMF on why it had blocked investor Eric Sprott's attempt to buy gold from the fund. We then spoke with Eric Sprott and the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, better known as GATA for their take on the matter.
Along the way, both GATA and Sprott suggested we ask the IMF some questions that the fund has avoided answering in the past. So we did. They were:
1) What are the incentives for the IMF not to sell gold on the open market or to investors, be it institutional or retail?
2) What are the designated depositories for gold?
3) Did gold physically change hands with the banks you have sold to so far or was the transaction basically bookkeeping stuff (the IMF still holds the physical gold in this case)?
4) Are there available records on the actual serial numbers of bullion? How is the gold at the IMF tracked and accounted for?
5) When the IMF says it will "phase out" the sal of available gold, could you be more specific? What amount of gold in regard to what amount of time.
6) Does IMF support a need for total transparency in the sale of gold despite the effects it could have on various markets?
The official response from Alistair Thomson, the IMF's media guy, was:
"I looked through your message; we don’t have anything more for you on this."
Interesting, considering the IMF refused to answer similar questions posed by GATA and Sprott. Some are perfectly reasonable questions too, like did gold physically change hands? What does the term "phase out" actually mean?
Certainly this unwillingness is only fodder for skeptical gold folks out there.
http://www.businessinsider.com/we-asked-the-imf-questions-from-eric-sprott-and-gata-and-got-no-response-2010-4#ixzz0mLdspRp9
And from a GATA Email:
Business Insider exposes IMF's gold cover-up
Submitted by cpowell on 05:08PM ET Tuesday, April 27, 2010. Section: Daily Dispatches
8:07p ET Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
At the urging of GATA and Sprott Asset Management CEO Eric Sprott, Business Insider reporter Vince Veneziani recently put to the International Monetary Fund five specific questions about the IMF's supposed gold reserves, questions similar to those put to the IMF by your secretary/treasurer in April 2008. (See http://www.gata.org/node/6242.)
Business Insider's two most important questions may have been: 1) Exactly where is the IMF's supposed gold? And 2) When the IMF sells gold, does any real gold change hands or are such sales essentially just bookkeeping transactions among central banks?
Tonight Veneziani reports that IMF spokesman Alistair Thomson replied to Business Insider's five questions as follows: "I looked through your message; we don't have anything more for you on this."
How's that for accountability from an international governmental organization?
Veneziani concludes: "Certainly this unwillingness is only fodder for skeptical gold folks out there."
Indeed, the IMF's refusal to answer Business Insider is more evidence that the gold it has been threatening the gold market with for years is an illusion -- that the IMF has no gold at all but only a tenuous claim on the gold reserves of its member nations, nations that, the ever-more-valuable CPM Group reports today, seem not at all inclined to part with it anymore:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2746801820100427?type=marketsNews
Thus Veneziani and Business Insider have accomplished something apparently not yet accomplished by any major news organization in the world: They have put important, critical, inconvenient, and direct questions to a central banking institution. Further, Veneziani and Business Insider have been treated with contempt for doing so and have publicized the refusal to answer.
Not even The New York Times, Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal have yet dared attempt such ordinary journalism in regard to central banking.
The Business Insider report is headlined "Five Questions About Gold the IMF Refuses to Answer" and you can find it here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/we-asked-the-imf-questions-from-eric-spro...
Or try this abbreviated link:
http://tinyurl.com/29nbte8
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc