Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

In his latest market letter, John Hathaway of the Tocqueville Gold Fund notes what seems like the record bearishness in the monetary metals sector, what with huge short positions by speculators, a washout in metals shares, and huge long positions by speculators in the U.S. dollar. He also notes that this bearishness contradicts what seem like the fundamentals for the sector.

Hathaway doesn't attempt to explain what has brought the metals to this low estate, but then he also makes no inquiry into the metals market positioning of governments and central banks, a largely prohibited subject in the monetary metals business though it might offer some insight.

Inquiry in that respect is left to GATA, whose board members long have been resigned to doing without invitations to the lovely Christmas parties sponsored by financial houses and indeed without invitations to speak at financial conferences whose primary objective is to unload more mining stock on investors who still think there are markets rather than interventions.

But the most recent monthly report of the Bank for International Settlements, as parsed by GATA consultant Robert Lambourne, might contain a clue to the situation in the monetary metals that Hathaway is only marveling at. That is, in July the BIS' surreptitious intervention in the gold market on behalf of its member central banks increased by 17 percent:

http://www.gata.org/node/18419

Hathaway warns gold shorts and dollar longs that they better run for the hills and encourages those still invested in the monetary metals to hang on. Of course GATA hopes he's right, insofar as restoration of free markets in the monetary metals is a prerequisite of individual liberty and the defeat of imperialism. GATA also understands that greater awareness of central bank intervention against gold will not necessarily help Hathaway and mining company executives sell shares in the short term.

But the longstanding policy of Western governments and central banks to suppress the gold price, a policy painstakingly summarized and documented by GATA here --

http://www.gata.org/node/14839

-- is the proverbial elephant in the room wherever metals prices are discussed, and not mentioning the elephant has not prevented it from stomping metals investors, including Hathaway's own. If he thinks, as his long avoidance of the subject suggests, that governments and central banks are not manipulating the monetary metals markets, he'd do his investors a favor by telling them so. If he suspects that governments and central banks are manipulating those markets, he would seem to have an obligation to tell them.

Hathaway's letter is headlined "Gold: A Case of Extremes" and it's posted at the Tocqueville internet site here:

http://tocqueville.com/gold-a-case-of-extremes/

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

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 -- Published: Thursday, 23 August 2018 | E-Mail  | Print  | Source: GoldSeek.com

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