Market Analyst Veneroso Says GATA is Right: Central Banks Are Suppressing Gold Price

Business Wire, Oct 1, 2003

Business Editors

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 2003

In his first interview in four years, renowned market analyst Frank Veneroso has told CBSMarketWatch Editor Thom Calandra that central banks are suppressing the gold price just as the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee has claimed since its founding in 1999.

Veneroso, global strategist for Allianz Dresdner and manager of two international investment funds, makes his comments about the gold market in the September 30 edition of Calandra's newsletter, The Calandra Report, a summary of which was posted Tuesday at the CBSMarketWatch Internet site. Veneroso calls the central banks' suppression of the gold price a form of currency intervention.

Speaking of the gold market and GATA Chairman Bill Murphy, who is also proprietor of the Internet site of financial commentary LeMetropoleCafe.com, Veneroso tells Calandra:

"Bill Murphy used to work with me. Bill was convinced this was a managed market. He went off to create LeMetropoleCafe.com and GATA in 1999. As time passed and with the 1999 Washington Accord (limiting central banks' sales of gold), it became clear that the logic of his analysis had to be correct. The implications of all this were huge....

"The reality of the gold market, and the gold equity market, is that it is manipulated....

"GATA has made a lot of publicity about management of the gold market, and they are basically correct. Three years ago this was regarded as crazy talk. Now, when I am in Europe, I am shocked by the number of serious investment professionals who take this position, that the gold market is manipulated....

"How do I know this intervention continues? There are 500 or 600 metric tons of speculative long positions on the COMEX, but that is the tip of the iceberg. The big market is the over-the-counter market. The total net speculative position is probably many times what we see on the COMEX. Thousands of metric tons? Who is taking the other side of that trade?

"In the old days, it used to be the producers, setting up their hedge books and selling forward. Now they're covering hedges.

"Who else? There are gold dealers, and a lot of the people think these are the short-sellers in the market. After the price spike in '99, they have closed such positions.

"So there is only one possible counterparty now, and that is the official sector. This is just like currency intervention."

Excerpts from The Calandra Report's interview with Veneroso are posted in Calandra's "StockWatch" column at the CBSMarketWatch Internet site here: http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid={6FEFCC80-A7C1-41 02-8B07-B962F76BC15A}&siteid=mktw

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field.)

The complete interview with Veneroso is available only to subscribers of The Calandra Report. Subscription information is available here: http://cbs.marketwatch.com/commerce/theCalandraReport.asp?iteid=mktw&d ist=hfdtab&pname=tcr

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field.)

Veneroso, Murphy, and Calandra will be featured speakers at the New Orleans Investment Conference, to be held Wednesday, October 29, through Sunday, November 2. Also attending the conference will be a delegation of GATA's expert consultants and researchers -- including James Turk of GoldMoney and the Freemarket Gold and Money Report, Reginald H. Howe, Michael K. Bolser, Andrew Hepburn, and Robert K. Landis.

Information about the New Orleans Investment Conference is available on the Internet here: http://www.neworleansconference.com