-- Posted Friday, 21 October 2011 | | Disqus
Listen to the audio here.
[Music Playing]
Chris Waltzek: I’m glad you’re back with us for another GoldSeek.com Radio Gold Nugget segment. Today’s special guest, Bill Murphy, from GATA.org and Le Metropole Café.
[Bell Ringing]
Well, my featured guest today was recently interviewed by former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura on the hit TV show Conspiracy Theory. Bill Murphy has been a leader in the gold crowd and he runs the Gold Anti-Trust Committee. Welcome back, sir.
Bill Murphy: Good to be back here. Thank you, Chris.
Chris Waltzek: Bill, I wanted to start off, if we could, with your televised discussion with Jesse. You outlined the gold and silver market manipulation. Did Ventura’s people contact you and how did this interview come about?
Bill Murphy: Yeah, they set it up, actually, a little while ago, but – and he’s quite a character and he was in town also to do some work on the JFK assassination thing and we got together and he’s the same in person as you see him on TV and, of course, he’s got quite a background.
Chris Waltzek: Did he seem concerned to you regarding the gold and silver situation and were there any restrictions?
Bill Murphy: No. No, he stuck with it all and he asked some very good questions. And I think once you get into something like this, that he’s got into some other things, you realize that there’s more than meets the eye to, it’s not just because what GATA has, it to manipulate special of gold and silver prices and, you know, one thing leads to another. I don’t anything would surprise him these days, especially something so simple as, you know, rigging the gold and silver market, so it just profits. Just, we’ve been dealing with it for 13 years. That’s just the way it is.
Chris Waltzek: It sure is. And I’d like to discuss the silver backwardation story. You know, the silver NYMEX contract remains backward dated, going all the way to July, 2016. The contract is more than $1.00 lower than the current spot price. You worked for Merrill and had your own brokerage firm, so you’re probably quite familiar with the significance of this. Do you agree that this could indicate that there are no longer ample silver stockpiles to make delivery and, perhaps, we could see a default on the COMEX?
Bill Murphy: Well, it’s hard to know about a default. It’s a big subject. I mean, I think the silver market is very tight and it’s gonna be reflected in the prices in the months to come, and I think it’s, actually, probably gonna go ballistic. And one thing I do know I speak about all the time because J. P. Morgan’s a bit short and we exposed their position in front of the CFPC hearing. There’s five class action contingency lawsuits against them. They’re being investigated. But, what I – my big thing is that now there’s new position limits. If there is ever a problem, J. P. Morgan had better not declare a fourth or is either unable to deliver silver, physical silver, because they’ve been playing these games of, “We think”; and they better not make that excuse in the CFPC or COMEX. CME let them get away with it. So, that’s something I’m on top of. Where they will get a default down the road, sure, it’s very possible. But, so far, well, we haven’t had it.
Chris Waltzek: You know, one source claims that the last time silver behaved in this manner was back when Warren Buffet cornered one quarter of the global silver stockpile in the 1990s. Do you agree with the statement that this rare event could lead to a touchdown pass for silver investors?
Bill Murphy: Sure, it could. And it’s funny, you bring up the Warren Buffet and silver because I remember the time when he was heading up Salomon Brothers and Timmy DePiazzo was the broker and they had silver they put on – they bought silver on $5.00. They had a whole bunch of options at $5.25. They were way out of their money and everybody was laughing at them and they said, “We’ll take them anyway” and the market started to go berserk, and the government came in and said Cybro was the subsidiary at the time, and then, “You’re gonna be audited with us for the rest of your lives” ‘cause they had a guy named Meriwether. They had a big bond problem at the time. By the way, bottom line, the government said none of this. That was my first exposure to how concerned the U. S. government is about gold and silver.
Chris Waltzek: Let’s talk about how backwardation might spread to the gold market. You know, if the yellow metal also becomes backdated, some analysts believe that it would indicate a total loss in confidence on the U. S. dollar. What are your thoughts?
Bill Murphy: Well, that’s where it’s gotta come from in the beginning is that maybe one of the main reasons is affecting the gold price is to make sure it doesn’t have an undo influence towards the dollar. So, whether it – silver is kind of a different situation because the physical supply. I mean, the U. S. government used to have a lot of silver and now it doesn’t have any, and whatever gold we have, we don’t know because it hasn’t been audited. But, there is gold around, I mean. But, silver’s a whole different story. All of a sudden, it can just completely dry up.
Chris Waltzek: It sure could, if for nothing else, the industrial demand components, which, you know, consumes so much of the annual supply. I wanted to move onto any other topicality that you are sharing with your folks there at GATA and Le Metropole Café.
Bill Murphy: Well, if anything, I don’t know, you may or may not be aware, but we’re having a debate at the silver summit this weekend with one of our critics, Jeff Christian, who’s claiming we’re bilking investors by getting ‘em into gold and silver, which I have no idea what’s going on.
[Laughter]
Because, if anything, I went over my load at the Lamatio Silver Summit and it was – the price was $23.00 and I said within six months, it’d probably be $30.00 or $40.00 and it’s got a real problem. Is this yours? I think he was ____ ____. Silver went within – it was seven months and going close to $50.00 and we’re bilking investors.
[Laughter]
I mean, I don’t – anyway, I think it’s – it’s almost a bit of a sideshow, but I think, at least, be very entertaining for people. Well, I can add one thing that’s of interest and I’ll never forget this ‘cause he’s gonna talk about the numbers and supplies and all this stuff. I think he never spotted a keynote speaker at the silver summit. I remember him, one of his reports or public presentation that he noticed, I think it was the CPM group, that they had another _____ for investment demand and Eric said that he said this, probably, that the more buying by himself and Sprott’s clients and all of Sprott, that one year, then the CPM will head for total investment demand for the world. And they bought more themselves than that number.
[Laughter]
So, I mean, what good are his numbers?
Chris Waltzek: No, you’re spot on and I’d much prefer to hear Eric Sprott’s and your comments, and I’d add to that, you know, The World Gold Council agrees with Mr. Sprott’s comments. Well over 50 annual increased in investment demand, that’s not including jewelry. That’s not including industrial demand. This is just purely investment demand. And, you know, Bill, that’s what so many of us in the gold crowd were waiting for, for people to step up to the plate and demand their bullion. That could be one of the impetus driving the metals forward.
Bill Murphy: I couldn’t agree more and especially silver because as gold keeps going up and up in price, a lot of people just can’t afford it. But, silver, they can afford and they wanna get on board, so they go to silver.
Chris Waltzek: Exactly. Are there any other interesting issues going on behind the scenes that most of us might be missing?
Bill Murphy: One of the most positive things for GATA is what my colleague, Chris Powell’s, been doing. He just went into to a – the biggest investment conference measure was invited to speak. He met with some very important hedge fund people. The person who followed him was their keynote speaker, George Clooney, of all things. That was kind of fun. And then, two weeks later – just a couple of weeks ago, last week, he went to London to another very impressive investment seminar group and the speaker the weekend before was former President Jimmy Carter and the following speaker the week after was George Soro. So, while the gold and silver world, the mainstream gold and silver world continues to ignore us, our message is getting out there and we’re being heard and it’s taken 13 years, but we’re getting there.
Chris Waltzek: Would you please share some contact information for our listeners who would like to access the GATA webpage, as well as Le Metropole Café?
Bill Murphy: Oh, my pleasure, of course. They may go to GATA.org – www.G-A-T-A.org and you can get on Chris Powell’s mailing. He does a great job and if people are interested to know what I have to say, it’s Le Metropole Café. You can sign up for a two-week free trial. It’s www.L-E-M-E-T-R-O-P-O-L-Ecafe.com and we’ve been at it 13 years. This is going on the 14th now, so it’s been some trek.
Chris Waltzek: And we wish you a very safe and profitable week ahead, sir.
Bill Murphy: Thanks, Chris.
[Music Playing]
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-- Posted Friday, 21 October 2011 | Digg This Article
| Source: GoldSeek.com
