Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee

The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) is an American non-profit organization whose charter purpose is to advocate and undertake litigation against purported illegal collusion by a "gold cartel" to control the price and supply of gold and related financial securities. It solicits financial and moral support from gold mining companies, investors in gold mining companies and physical gold, and other advocates of a vital monetary role for gold in the world economy.

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History

The committee arose from essays written by Bill Murphy, a financial commentator, and by Chris Powell, the editor of a newspaper in Connecticut, which were published at Bill Murphy's Le Metropole Cafe website. Mr. Murphy's essays reported evidence of collusion among financial institutions to control the price of gold. Mr. Powell, whose newspaper had been involved in antitrust litigation, replied with an essay proposing that gold interests should act on Murphy's essays by bringing suit against the financial institutions suspected of involvement in the collusion against gold. The response to these essays from segments of the pro-gold investment community throughout the world was sufficiently favorable that the committee was formed in 1999. Murphy is the Chairman of GATA and Powell is the Secretary/Treasurer.

GATA supporters

On February 14, 2002, Congressman Ron Paul cited GATA's allegations as a basis for legislation which he introduced to prevent the U.S. government from intervening in the gold market without authorization from Congress. [1]

John Embry is a fund manager based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. John is the first author of a report entitled Not Free, Not Fair: The Long-Term Manipulation of the Gold Price, in which he endorses the work of GATA. In the press release that announced the availability of the report, dated 24 August 2004, Embry stated (in part):

"We, at Sprott Asset Management, have felt for some time that the gold price has not remotely reflected its true underlying fundamentals. In response, we have conducted a comprehensive study of available information on the subject and have concluded that the evidence strongly supports those who believe that the gold price has been and continues to be suppressed."

"A great deal of what follows is based on research completed by the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA). We consider their work to be excellent in scope, yet chronically under appreciated by gold market observers. Disdain for GATA's allegations is not justified in our opinion. Quite the opposite: more than all others, GATA displays an appreciation and understanding of the gold market's structure and dynamics. Whereas consensus forecasters see a free market roughly in equilibrium, GATA has amply shown that the gold market is both controlled and seriously distorted with respect to gold's fundamentals."

GATA critics

Dennis Gartman is the author of The Gartman Letter, an investment advisory letter which at times, includes specific trading recommendations on the gold market. Gartman has often dismissed the claims by GATA that the gold market has been manipulated, mainly through comments in his advisory letter. From The Gartman Letter, dated 5 January 2004:

"... The GATA folks are again aflame as they blame the weakness [in the price of gold] upon various market machinations by governments and large Wall Street organizations. This is utter nonsense, of course, but we shall never be able to convince GATA of that fact. ... Even if it is not nonsense, even if GATA were truly on to something, we should care not a whit for the market will move where the market needs to move. The gold market had become far too heavily invested-in by the public, and those public investors have to be taken out."

Dennis Gartman and Bill Murphy have debated publicly on some issues related to gold on Report On Business Television (ROB-TV), a cable television network that airs in Canada. Dennis Gartman and John Embry were publicly scheduled to appear on the Market Call program segment, hosted by Jim O'Connell, on 1 March 2006. The host had also secretly invited Bill Murphy, his appearance on the show was a surprise to both guests, and the viewing audience as well. [2]

In February 2007, market analyst Clive Maund published an article questioning what he dismisses as conspiracy theories; he described GATA's response as "emotional and petulant" and dismissed their efforts with "attempting to aggrandize yourself or any organization you are involved with by means of personal attacks is doomed to fail - it belittles and brings disgrace upon the perpetrator and his associates. A cottage industry has been built up based on this conspiracy nonsense which is distracting some more gullible investors..." [3]