According to the "Catholic Standard" (Oct 14th), in speaking about IMF & World Bank debt relief for those poor innocent 3rd world countries that can't pay their debts:

"The IMF - which by charter cannot forgive debts owed to it - also developed a creative way to contribute to debt reduction. It will revalue 14 million ounces of its gold reserves to generate about $280 million for a cash fund whose earnings will be used to help poor countries pay off their IMF debts".

In my opinion, the timing of this seemed to coincide quite closely with the run-up in gold prices in the last couple of weeks.

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), October 16, 1999

Answers

I have this nagging suspicion that the "Jubilee" debt forgiveness program is gonna role out here soon. That would be so large an economic event as to stop the trading world in it's tracks for a few days. Don't be surprised to see some rather weird shit happen this weekend or early next week.

These guys are working up some response to this crisis as we write this, I guarantee that they aren't gonna go down without a fight.

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), October 16, 1999.

Anonymous99,

IIRC, the IMF books list its gold reserves at a very low price per ounce, perhaps less than $100 per ounce. Even with the change, their gold reserves would still be on the books at much less than current prices.

I do not recall how long ago this was making the rounds, nor do I recall if it is a done deal, or just a proposal that may or may not happen.

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), October 16, 1999.