Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., has asked Treasury Secretary Lawrence
Summers and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to answer a series
of questions about national gold policy, in response to an inquiry from
a precious metals research firm.
The questions posed by the
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee initially
were published as an "open letter" to both officials in the Dec. 9 issue
of the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.
The public inquiry was titled, "What are you doing with America's
gold?" and was addressed specifically to Greenspan and Summers. Since
its initial publication, however, GATA Chairman Bill Murphy said neither
official has responded.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman |
Because both agencies have remained silent, Chris Powell, GATA
secretary/treasurer and managing editor of the Manchester, Conn.
newspaper, the Journal Inquirer, contacted Lieberman and asked him to
intervene on the group's behalf.
In his letter to the officials, Lieberman mentioned GATA's
unsuccessful bid for answers and asked if both men would address them
"at your first opportunity." So far neither official has responded to
the senator's request, either.
GATA, which has been monitoring U.S. and global gold policies and
markets for months, believes some elements within U.S. government
financial circles may be "intervening in the gold market" in an attempt
to assist major bullion banks in keeping the price down because, they
say, there are "millions" of ounces of gold loans on the books -- far
more than exists as hard currency in the world.
Murphy said such an action, if it is occurring, "is a clear and
illegal violation of the bank's purpose clause."
Murphy and GATA initially warned congressional leaders over a year
ago that the organization believed there may be some concerted effort to
artificially depress gold prices, but few listened, he said.
However after a brief gold price surge in October,
Murphy said he could sense that there was "near-panic in the gold loan
industry," which strengthened his belief that gold prices were
artificial.
Today, though prices have stabilized again, Murphy said he still
believes some of the world's most influential central and bullion
bankers have attempted to manipulate the gold market to their advantage,
and the advantage of key investors, by artificially depressing the price
of gold while making short-term loans on millions of ounces of
non-existent gold.