Greenspan's Greatest Gift                                         October 1 , 2005

Over the past decade there has been a growing controversy over whether or not the precious metals markets are being manipulated. As time has moved forward to the present, those studying this subject intensively and continuously have little doubt that this is indeed so. The brilliant and meticulous studies and reports issued by the likes of Ted Butler, Bill Murphy, David Morgan, John Embry, and more recently Jason Hommel, leave little doubt that the evidence supports overwhelmingly that the markets that trade gold and silver are not free markets. Letter writing campaigns to the regulators of these markets may have resulted in at best, a toning down in the blatant, against all odds price movements in these “markets?”, as well as a withdrawal of some of the savviest and most instrumental participants. American International Group has withdrawn from its activities in the silver market while the investment bank, NM Rothschild has withdrawn from its participation in the twice daily London gold price fix.

The original idea of manipulating the precious metals markets has been attributed to Lawrence Summers with the support of Robert Rubin. The theory that keeping the gold market in check would contribute to the legitimacy of government financial policies by helping to subvert an ongoing inflation has proven remarkably successful in fooling the masses. In addition, it has led to a cancerous form of manipulation that has metastasized to the bond market, the stock market, government statistics, and corporate financial statements. Paul Volcker even went so far as to say the one big mistake he made was in not capping the gold price. What this, in effect, has done was to provide a long period of time in which to accumulate real money, gold and silver, at below market prices.

While in no way condoning Greenspan’s policies and realizing they will result in an economic disaster eventually, I must admit one can’t help being impressed with his mastery of the press, Wall Street, and the common man to perpetuate this fraud. I, for one have been amazed at how long this has gone on. It has been over five years since the stock market bubble burst yet he has managed to float the economy on a sea of debt while not only convincing the masses that everything is all right, but also that they were getting rich on real estate. The hollowing of the economy through the loss of the country’s industrial base went unnoticed largely through the silencing of the traditional alarm system – gold. The foundation of the economy described by Wall Street “experts” as resilient and flexible is a house of cards held together by artificially low interest rates, inflationary money expansion, and borrowed funds. Retail stores increasingly give away items today for payment several years from now. Auto manufacturers sell cars with below market interest rates, 0% interest rates, and now employee discounts for everyone. The economy is so consumption dependent, extreme measures are taken to keep it going.

A wide range of commodities are hitting multi-decade and all-time highs including oil, natural gas, copper, uranium, and now gold among many others. The inflation induced economy hit industrial commodities first as the ever increasing expansions sucked up the normalized supply levels. Gold has lagged many of these since the big demand for gold materializes once the inflation is widely recognized. A dumbed down public easily fooled by bogus economic statistics and hedonic measurements are only now awakening to accelerating inflation. Gold is close to record low levels in terms of many other commodities such as oil. With only a reasonable amount of economic understanding one should have identified the unsustainable nature of the last few years’ expansion. Thanks to Alan Greenspan’s skillful manipulations not many have identified the opportunity at hand. For those of us that have, the apparency of a healthy economy has prolonged our opportunity to accumulate gold and silver at bargain levels. In due time this, will be seen as Greenspan’s greatest gift.

Richard J. Greene                                                                                                      October 1, 2005
Clearwater, Florida