Gold (33 page)

As the gold price fell
:
Julie Creswell, “A Gold Rush Wanes as Hedge Funds Sell,”
New York Times,
September 22, 2011,
http://www.ny times.com/2011/09/23/business/economy/after-huge-gains-in-gold-hedge-funds-sell.html
.

As it happened, this quality was crucial
:
The WGC's position is laid out in three documents: “The Importance of Gold in Reserve Asset Management,” June 2010; “Gold as a Source of Collateral,” May 2011; “World Gold Council Position on Capital Requirements Regulation,” August 2011.

Barrick Gold's research department once determined
:
Jim Mavor, phone interview with author.

The gold price dropped like a shot crow
:
London afternoon fix September 6, $1,895, London morning fix September 7, $1,844,
http://www.kitco.com/londonfix/gold.londonfix11.html
.

Suspicion turned to Libya
:
“Libyan Central Bank Sells Gold, Says Assets All Safe,” Reuters, September 8, 2011,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/08/libya-centralbank-idAFV9E7J300N20110908
; Michael Peel, Jack Farchy, and Rouala Khalaf, “Gaddafi Regime Sold $1bn of Gold,”
Financial Times,
September 8, 2011,
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/85c0912a-da1e-11e0-b199-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2NiR9WqWu
; “Gaddafi May Escape with Central Bank Gold, Says Ex-Libyan Governor,”
CentralBanking.com
, August 25, 2011,
http://www.centralbanking.com/central-banking/news/2104624/gaddafi-escape-central-bank-gold-libyan-governor
.

Europe was in danger of unraveling
:
“In the Brussels Bunker,”
Economist,
September 17, 2011,
http://www.economist.com/node/21529064
.

Meanwhile, American stocks lost $1.1 trillion
:
Nikolaj Gammeltoft, “Dow Falls Most Since October 2008 on Economic Growth Concerns,”
Bloomberg,
September 23, 2011,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-23/dow-average-declines-most-since-october-2008-on-economic-growth-concerns.html
.

Bitter partisans haggled in the Congress
:
See for example Jennifer Steinhauer, “Dispute on Disaster Aid Threatens Bill to Avert Government Shutdown,”
New York Times,
September 21, 2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/us/politics/dispute-on-disaster-aid-threatens-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown.html?_r=0
.

In a single week it lost $200
:
London morning fix September 19, 2011, $1,817; London morning fix September 26, $1,615,
http://www.kitco.com/londonfix/gold.londonfix11.html
.

In the face of increased volatility
:
Garry White, “Gold Slumps as CME Ups Margin Requirements,”
Telegraph,
September 26, 2011,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8788926/Gold-slumps-as-CME-ups-margin-requirements.html
.

The aggregate increase, according to a client note
:
September 26, 2011, client note from BMO Capital Markets.

Also preying on the gold price were suspicions about ETFs
:
Chris Flood, “Commodities: Investor Appetite for Gold ETPs Wanes,”
Financial Times,
September 23, 2011,
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/657a9358-e14d-11e0-ac59-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2NiR9WqWu
; Agustino Fontevecchia, “Is GLD Really as Good as Gold?”,
Forbes,
November 15, 2011,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2011/11/15/is-gld-really-as-good-as-gold/
; Joe Weisenthal, “MYSTERY: Why Did GLD's Published List of Gold Bars Shrink?,”
Business Insider,
October 27, 2009,
http://www.businessinsider.com/mystery-why-did-glds-published-list-of-gold-bars-shrink-2009-10
.

September 2011 closed with words like “bruising,” “brutal,” “turbulent”
:
Eric Dash and Julie Creswell, “Investor Fear over Morgan Stanley Sharpens,”
New York Times,
September 30, 2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/business/investor-fear-over-morgan-stanley-sharpens.html
.

In 150 years the world supply
:
From Hartwig Frimmel, head of Geodynamics and Geomaterials Research, Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Würzburg.

C
HAPTER
10: S
HADOW
G
OLD

Consider the arcane practice of fixing the price
:
See note in Chapter 9 above (
page 264
),
Most of the trade is in the hands of a cabal of banks in London.

A group of London criminals discovered this painful truth
:
Tony Thompson, “Curse of the Brink's-Mat Heist Claims Its Latest Victim,”
Observer
, November 24, 2001,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/nov/25/ukcrime.tonythompson
; Mark Townsend, “Trail of Gold Grains Offers £8m Clue to Mystery of Brink's-Mat Robbery,”
Observer,
June 7, 2008,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/08/ukcrime
; Matt Roper, “Fool's Gold: The Curse of the Brink's-Mat,”
Mirror,
May 12, 2012,
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/the-curse-of-the-brinks-mat-gold-bullion-robbery-829220
; Wensley Clarkson, “The Curse of Brink's Mat: An Ex-Cop with an Axe in His Head—And a Great Train Robber Shot Dead in Marbella,”
Daily Mail,
May 5, 2012,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2139945/Brinks-Mat-An-ex-cop-axe-head-Great-Train-Robber-shot-dead-Marbella.html
; “Road Rage Murderer Kenneth Noye Loses Attempt to Appeal Sentence,” BBC News, March 12, 2013,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21760003
.

One of the sublime rituals of money
:
http://www.royalmint.com/discover/uk-coins/history-of-the-trial-of-the-pyx
.

One such passage shook the market
:
See for example Rowena Mason, “Secret Gold Swap Has Spooked the Market,”
Telegraph,
July 11, 2010,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/7884272/Secret-gold-swap-has-spooked-the-market.html
.

Suspicion switched to the IMF
:
Ibid.; see also for IMF as gold seller: Sandrine Rastello and Kim Kyoungwha, “IMF Sells Gold to India, First Sale in Nine Years (Update2),”
Bloomberg,
November 3, 2009,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ac4.u0JfPtWE
.

No sooner did opinion settle on the IMF, than the BIS itself torpedoed it
:
For BIS announcement and general analysis: Carolyn Cui and Liam Pleven, “Commercial Banks Used Gold Swaps,”
Wall Street Journal,
July 7, 2010,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704545004575353403943560776.html
.

As the speculation crackled on
:
For GATA conspiracy belief: “About GATA,” at
http://gata.org/about
.

In 2000 a GATA-funded litigator sued the bank
:
For details of the GATA suit, see presiding judge's order posted at
goldensextant.com
. Scroll to “Legal Materials,” click on “Gold Price Fixing Case,” and select “Memorandum” and “Order for Dismissal.”

Chilled by the steady drizzle of apprehension
:
Swap explained: Jack Farchy and Javier Blas, “BIS Gold Swaps Mystery Is Unravelled,”
Financial Times,
July 29, 2010,
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3e659ed0-9b39-11df-baaf-00144feab49a.html#axzz2Nv4F1Xkn
.

A reasonable suspicion about the gold-for-dollars swaps
:
Ibid.; Cui and Pleven, “Commercial Banks Used Gold Swaps.”

The banks had borrowed it, mostly from their own customers
:
Farchy and Blas, “BIS Gold Swaps Mystery Is Unravelled.”

As long as the hoard has not been compromised
:
Felix Salmon, “The Problem of Fake Gold Bars,” Reuters, March 25, 2012,
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/03/25/the-problem-of-fake-gold-bars/
; Robert Cookson, “HK Gold Market Hit by Sophisticated Scam,”
Financial Times,
December 2, 2010,
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f7b05cf2-fcfc-11df-ae2d-00144feab49a.html#axzz2Nv4F1Xkn
.

A Zurich-based executive of Stonehage
:
Martin de Sa'Pinto, “Fund View: Rich Trim Gold Holdings, Buy Art,” Reuters, September 1, 2011,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/01/us-stonehage-id USTRE7803NM20110901
.

Among those battered in the fall was John Paulson
:
Julie Creswell, “Even Funds That Lagged Paid Richly,”
New York Times
, March 31, 2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/business/01hedge.html
.

The
New York Times
calculated
:
Azam Ahmed and Julie Creswell, “Bet on Gold Nets Paulson $5 Billion,”
New York Times
, January 29, 2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/business/29paulson.html
.

His fortunes started to turn
:
Kelly Bit, Christopher Donville, and Matt Walcoff, “Paulson May Deal Clients $720 Million Loss,”
Bloomberg
, June 21, 2011,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-21/paulson-dumping-sino-forest-may-deal-clients-720-million-loss.html
; Azam Ahmed, “Paulson Speaks Out on Sino-Forest,”
New York Times
, June 24, 2011,
dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/paulson-speaks-out-on-sino-forest/
.

In June that year a firm of short sellers called Muddy Waters
:
Ye Xie and Victoria Stilwell, “Muddy Waters Retreats on Short Selling Chinese Stocks,”
Bloomberg
, November 27, 2012,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-27/block-gives-up-as-short-selling-declines-china-overnight.html
.

One report said Paulson was so angered
:
Azam Ahmed, “Another Traumatic Month for Paulson,”
New York Times
, October 10, 2011,
dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/another-traumatic-month-for-paulson/
.

He sold a third of his company's position in the Spider
:
Kimberley Williams, “Paulson & Co Holdings in 3rd Quarter: 13F Alert,”
Bloomberg
, November 14, 2011,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-14/paulson-co-holdings-in-3rd-quarter-13f-alert.html
.

According to an unnamed source cited by Reuters
:
Eric Onstad, “UPDATE 3—Paulson Not Seen Deserting Gold After $2 Bln ETF Sale,”
Reuters, November 15, 2011,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/15/gold-paulson-idUSL5E7MF1SS20111115
.

The Oxford dictionary
:
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
(Oxford
:
Oxford University Press, 1973).

Gold is a doubtful sanctuary
:
Jan Harvey and Amanda Cooper, “Gold Tumbles as EU Leaders Reassure on Greece,” Reuters, September 15, 2011,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/15/markets-precious-idUSL5E7KF1A420110915
; Jan Harvey, “Gold Turns Lower as Wider Markets Slide,” Reuters, October 4, 2011,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/04/markets-precious-idUSL5E7L419F20111004
.

In
The Golden Constant
:
Roy Jastram,
The Golden Constant: The English and American Experience, 1560–1976
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1977), 177.

C
HAPTER
11: T
HE
G
OLD IN THE
B
AMBOO
F
OREST

He sits in audience
:
Al-Bakri, trans. J. F. P. Hopkins, in
Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History
, eds. J. F. P. Hopkins and N. Levitzon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 80. Bida legend:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/4chapter1.shtml
.

In 1698 the Dutch traveler William Bosman
:
David Crownover, “An Ashanti Soul-Washer Badge,”
Expedition
6, no. 2 (Winter 1964): 11–12,
http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expe dition/PDFs/6-2/An%20Ashanti.pdf
.

A Danish doctor wrote
:
T. Edward Bowdich,
Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee
(London: John Murray, 1819), 1.

The ground of our resting place was very damp
:
Ibid., 20.

They marched in at two o'clock in the afternoon
:
Entry to Kumasi, festivities, meeting the Asantehene: Ibid., 31–41.

The king's soul washers wore gold disks
:
Crownover, “An Ashanti Soul-Washer Badge.” See also “A Soul Washer with Gold Disk and Special Helmet,”
http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.CH.DOCUMENT.BFACP1B10189
.

The linguists were their living archive
:
See for example
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1986.475a–c
. The antler finial is in the Gold of Africa Museum, Cape Town.

Where is the Gold Stool?
:
“The Story of Africa: West African Kingdoms,” BBC,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/4chapter6.shtml
.

But that night, in a secret meeting
:
Yaa Asantewaa:
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History,
2008,
http://www.oxfordreference.com
.

The Mali Empire was unknown to Europeans until the appearance of its greatest ruler, Mansa Musa
:
See for example Hopkins and Levitzon,
Corpus of Early Arabic Sources,
341–47, and A. J. H. Goodwin, “The Medieval Empire of Ghana,”
South African Archaeological Bulletin
12, 1957: 108–12.