IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
 

<!--StartFragment -->IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
5:30p ET Thursday, December 7, 2006

Neal Ryan, research director for New Orleans coin and bullion dealer Blanchard & Co., plaintiff in the heroic and rather successful gold price-rigging lawsuit against Barrick Gold, reports in an interview today with TheStreet.com that the International Monetary Fund is about to propose proper and transparent accounting practices for leased and swapped central bank gold.

Ryan tells TheStreet.com's Simon Constable that he has written a study about the misleading accounting of central bank gold reserves, that he has made recommendations to the IMF, that the IMF has replied favorably, and that he expects an announcement from the IMF this month.

Of course the misleading accounting of central bank gold long has been a big issue for GATA, thanks largely to the investigation done by GATA consultants James Turk, editor of the Freemarket Gold & Money Report and founder of GoldMoney, and Andrew Hepburn of Sprott Asset Management in Toronto.

Re: IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
 

QWAK,Master_Ho,Guess you were a little quicker on the DRAW than this GOLD DUCK,good thing we are both AIMING in the same direction or I would be a GONER! :cheerful: :coolbeer:

the DUCK

Re: IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
 

I am surprised the IMF would do this! Aren't they just as crooked as any other central banker? What do you think Master Ho and Duck?

There must be some reason for it. The only thing I can think of is they need to know how much gold is there for their purposes, and if too much is missing, it will need to be made up.

The Great Ag

Re: IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
 

That was my first thought, too. My brother-in-law works for the IMF. He calls it The Death Star.

Re: IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
 

QWAK,The Great Ag,I believe I answered your question on my parrallel post. Some how, some way it benifits THEM, but we are a very tiney group no more than FLIES to them and they are only interisted in BIG FAT DEBT TURKIES! Hard to hit FLIES with a SHOT GUN just not very efective and likely to BLOW your own HEAD OFF trying!:cheerful: :haha: :getdown:

HE HE HE Wile the screen door is open a fiew FLIES always get in!:albertein :proud:

the DUCK

Re: IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
 

What Maddie and Duck said..........

But also - I read somewhere - that whenever they have sold, the gold gets bought (probably by banks in countries like China) and following their selloff, the price of gold has gone way up..........

If I find the article again in my work, I'll post it!

Cheers!

Re: IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
 

I.M.F. � Gold sales or no sales? <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
By: Julian D. W. Phillips, Gold/Silver Forecaster
-- Posted <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:date Month="12" Day="4" Year="2006">Monday, 4 December 2006</st1:date><o:p></o:p>
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We were surprised to hear that the employees of the International Monetary Fund have actually suggested sales of gold from their stocks to cover income shortfalls they have. We are even more surprised to hear silence from the Members of the International Monetary Fund. The calls they made echoed the calls from the German government and the French government to sell national gold for the same reasons, to shore up shortfalls of income.<o:p></o:p>
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Of course in the case of the I.M.F. the calls were made by people completely unqualified to make the call, as the gold is the property of their individual members and not the I.M.F. per se. <o:p></o:p>
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Permission of the members is needed before such sales can take place to the extent of 85% of the votes of the members including the U.S. Hence they well know that there are virtually zero chances of this happening. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
The IMF holds 3,217 tonnes of gold [103.4million ounces of gold], valued at today�s prices at over U.S.$66 billion. The I.M.F. acquired its holdings from member states through the original Articles of Agreement. [The Articles were amended in 1978, eliminating the direct use of gold in the exchange rate system]. The Articles of Agreement require any gold transaction to have an 85% majority of total voting power. The <st1:country-region><st1:place>U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> alone has 16.83% of the voting rights. For the <st1:country-region><st1:place>US</st1:place></st1:country-region> to support a sale, Senate approval is necessary. They have rejected any such call in the past and are more so likely to do so now. Other countries are also known to be against any sale. So these calls are likely to be ignored as ere the last calls.<o:p></o:p>
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In the past the I.M.F. did sell gold after the <st1:country-region><st1:place>U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> ceased to do so. The <st1:country-region><st1:place>U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> then supported the call to sell. Since then the <st1:country-region><st1:place>U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> has not sold its own gold or persuaded the I.M.F. to do so. The present I.M.F. attitude to Gold is:<o:p></o:p>
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�It is an undervalued asset held by the IMF, and provides a fundamental strength to its balance sheet. Gold holdings provide the IMF with operational maneuverability both as regards the use of its resources and through adding credibility to its precautionary balances. In these respects, the benefits of the I.M.F.� gold holdings are passed on to the membership at large, to both creditors and debtors. The IMF should continue to hold a relatively large amount of gold among its assets, not only for prudential reasons, but also to meet unforeseen contingencies. �<o:p></o:p>
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Having said that the function of the I.M.F. is to act as a central monetary body. As part of this function it issued what it had hoped would be the ultimate currency, the �Special Depository Receipt� or S.D.R. against which, nations could issue their own currencies. The I.M.F. would simply issue more S.D.R.�. But few nations fell for this as it would be another paper currency, but under the effective control of the <st1:country-region><st1:place>U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> That horse didn�t run and the S.D.R. is certainly not accepted as the globe�s pivotal currency. But we do expect the battle between government controlled paper currencies and independent gold to continue, ad nauseum.<o:p></o:p>

Re: IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
 

Re: IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
 

Perhaps their hand has been forced, don't worry I'm sure they've stored a few aces up their sleeves.

China might let its currency float now.

Re: IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
 

Pretty much an admission that they haven't been using proper accounting, no?

Which is what GATA has been saying all along.

Whether they do it or not, isn't the existence of a proposal from the IMF a big win for GATA?

LG :cool2:

Re: IMF said ready to propose proper accounting for central bank gold
 

The IMF has no power and is pretty much a beggar institution now that even emerging economies don't need to borrow from it. There were calls earlier in the year to disband the IMF as it serves absolutely no purpose currently, yet employes thousands of employees and costs millions to run (I agree). So the IMF has to quickly find another purpose to justify its existence. When faced with layoffs and the absence of fat paychecks for doing nothing, people will go to great lengths and try anything. This is the dying gasp of an un-needed institution. Now you know why it is so hard to get rid of these agencies once they've accomplished their mission and by all rights, SHOULD disband. That's why I'm very reluctant to support the creation of any new governmental or quasi-governmental agency as they will try to stick around like leeches even when they've outlived their purpose.