Is Sharps Pixley's Ross Norman really a friend of gold, and his clients?
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Submitted by cpowell on 02:57AM ET Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Section: Daily Dispatches
11:19p ET Monday, April 9, 2018
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Ross Norman, proprietor of venerable London bullion dealer Sharps Pixley, writes today, "Gold is struggling to find friends."
Is Norman himself one? It apparently depends on the day.
He would seem to be one insofar as his firm sells the real stuff, not
mere paper claims against it that create the illusion of infinite
supply and thereby destroy gold's very purpose.
But in his new commentary at Sharps Pixley, headlined "Gold Says 'Peak
Complacency,'" Norman professes to wonder about gold's being "trapped in
narrow trading ranges and unresponsive to geopolitical events," about
the lack of news and substantial commentary about gold, and about the
seeming complacency of the financial markets.
This is strange, since just a month ago in an interview with Grant
Williams for Real Vision's documentary video report about gold, called
to your attention by GATA here --
http://www.gata.org/node/18088
-- Norman responded affirmatively to a suggested explanation for
gold's inertia: surreptitious intervention against the gold price by
central banks.
Norman was asked by Real Vision if central banks would do that sort
of thing. He replied: "You betcha," because "it's said that the gold
price is the reciprocal of trust in central banks. ...
Are they doing it? 'I don't know' is the answer." But he added, "They probably are."
Excerpts from the Real Vision documentary that include Norman's comments are posted at You Tube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjw1lduO6xw
Of course gold price suppression may be the longest-running story of
modern central banking. Prefacing GATA's Gold Rush 21 conference in the
Yukon back in 2005, South African market analyst and gold advocate Peter
George addressed the phenomenon that supposedly baffles Norman today.
"In the last 10 years," George said, "the central banks have effectively
shown that when there is a real crisis, gold actually goes
down -- and it's so blatant, it's a joke." See:
http://www.gata.org/node/20
For years GATA has documented the mechanisms, objectives, and
official confirmations of surreptitious intervention in the gold market
by central banks:
http://gata.org/taxonomy/term/21
Back in November your secretary/treasurer spoke at the Mines and
Money conference in London, not far from the Sharps Pixley showroom, to
summarize the last year's developments in central bank gold price
suppression policy:
http://gata.org/node/17836
Norman has attended and spoken at that conference before and, given
his comments to Real Vision a month ago, is plainly familiar with the
proof. Further, since the financial industry regards Norman as a highly
respectable person, unlike anyone connected with GATA, your
secretary/treasurer would have been glad if he had joined your
secretary/treasurer's typically fruitless tour of London financial news
organizations to supply the documentation and solicit journalistic
interest in the issue.
But with his commentary today Norman now professes to have no idea about what is going on with gold.
Were other respectable people appalled by Norman's candid comments to
Real Vision and did they demand a retraction of sorts from him, like
his commentary published today, so he might regain his respectability?
In any case, why should investors purchase the monetary metals from a
firm whose proprietor now professes not to understand their pricing,
just a month after he indicated that he
did understand it? Is the regard of other respectable people really worth this betrayal of clients and, really, humanity?
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org
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