Date: Tue Oct 12 1999 10:54 ted butler (@the moment of truth) ID#370209: Copyright ) 1999 ted butler/Kitco Inc. All rights reserved Another day and still no one fessing up to owning a part of the $30 billion short gold loss. This is serious folks. It has never happened in history before that a loss of such magnitude has been so blatently contained. I don't see how it's possible that Goldman, AIG, Chase, UBS, and the Morgans, could hide such losses ( over a billion each, in my estimation ) without overt Fed involvement.

In a day or so, Barrick will report earnings. It is not legitimately possible for them not to show a big hit. They had the lowest real mining profits for the quarter in their history - look at the prices for the third quarter. Their hedge book was clobbered by the rise in gold and the fall in fixed income securities. What could go wrong, went wrong. If they report decent earnings, all it will prove is that the accountants were also got to by the Fed. I know these are serious charges, but I've made serious charges and accusations all along and not one of the vermin from Barrick or the Banksters will stand up and refute them. I stand by everything I've said. What should that tell you? It should tell you this - if Barrick reports everything is allright - the game is fixed at an unbelievably high level. In that case you should run, not walk, and buy as much physical gold and silver as you can afford and take it home and put it in a safe place and keep quiet. Do not let anyone hold it for you. It pains me to write this. Hopefully, Barrick and the accountants won't lie. bbl

-- no spam (nospam@spam.spam), October 12, 1999

Answers

Could you take a deep breath and explain in layman's terms just what this is about. I am interested but don't have a clue as to what you are talking about? Thanks

Taz

-- Taz (Taz@aol.com), October 12, 1999.

Taz -

I was confused by no spam's posting as well. Fortunately, the Net has beaucoup info:

Hedging a Mountain of Gold

...Hedging has been a cornerstone of some real success stories in the gold mining industry. With it, modern-day prospectors can guard against falling gold prices and thus guarantee future cash flow, which, in turn, improves their ability to raise financing. It generally means good returns for shareholders as well. "Placer Dome and Barrick Gold both hedge aggressively," says Bill Belovay, a mining analyst at Wood Gundy. "And they're two of the biggest gold producers around." Indeed, without hedging, several of the gold mines built in North America in the last fifteen years might still be mother lodes in waiting...

It appears that Barrick has been caught by the completely unexpected upswing in gold prices, and now has to pay the derivatives piper.

Derivatives. Hedging. Long Term Capital Management.

uh oh...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), October 12, 1999.

Simple: People sort gold futures when they didn't own the gold. They were "shorting." They expected the market to stay stable or to go down. It went up rapidly...and they got burned. Now (at least) some of them don't want to pay up... Naughty, naughty. Honest businessmen pay their debts.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), October 13, 1999.