Sunday, November 20, 2011

Ford Library Confirms in Writing the Fed Letter Tying Germany to Gold Price Suppression

Below is a note from Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. that includes a letter from Mark Fischer, Archivist at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Fischer's letter references an EPJ post I wrote on September 29, 2009 about a 1975 Fed Chairman memo, U.S. Government Gold Manipulation Document Declassified.

In part, I wrote:
Although the document appears to have a declassification date stamped on it of 6-28-05, Fischer tells me that the document was declassified just recently on 9-15-09.
I recall specifically asking Fischer about this discrepancy and it appears, as you will note in the letter below, that he must have done further research on why the discrepancy occurred. The explanation appears satisfactory to me. Although, at the time of my original post, an explanation was not available, so I simply noted the differences in declassification dates.

Aside from all this, it is good to now have in writing a confirmation that the then Fed Chairman Arthur Burn's memo in which he details a secret agreement with Germany to suppress the price of gold is genuine. The entire document is worth reading but the secret agreement with Germany is disclosed on page 6 and states:
I have a secret understanding in writing with the Bundesbank---concurred in by Mr. Schmidt---that Germany will not buy gold either from the market or another government, at a price above the official price of $42,22 per ounce.

Here is Powell on the written confirmation:
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Thanks to our friend A.F. in Australia, the Gerald Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has confirmed the authenticity of the letter written to the president by Federal Reserve Board Chairman Arthur Burns on June 3, 1975, revealing the participation of the West German central bank, the Bundesbank, and the chancellor of West Germany at that time, Helmut Schmidt, in the international gold price suppression scheme.

The Burns letter long has been cited by GATA among its proofs of the scheme, and it was cited in an essay by the German journalist Lars Schall, distributed by GATA on November 13, about his unsuccessful effort to obtain comment about the letter from Schmidt:

http://www.gata.org/node/10668

The letter itself can be found here:

http://www.gata.org/files/FedArthurBurnsOnGold-6-03-1975.pdf

The e-mail from the Ford library confirming the authenticity of the letter is appended.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

* * *

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Dear A.F.:

This is in response to your e-mail of November 15, 2011, concerning the authenticity of the June 3, 1975, memorandum from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Arthur Burns to President Ford located at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I can confirm that the original copy of the seven-page memorandum from Chairman Burns to President Ford is among our holdings at the Ford Presidential Library. It is open to the public and available to any on-site researcher who might request to view it in our research room.

Here is its exact file location:

White House Central Files, FI - Finance, FI 9 Monetary Systems, Box 23, Folder FI 9 1/16/75-6/30/75.

This is the link to the FI-Finance finding aid from our website.

See FI 9: Monetary Systems.

http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/guides/Finding%20Aids/WHCFFI.HT...

The declassification of this document is as follows:

In 2004, a researcher submitted a request to Ford Library Mandatory Review rchivist Donna Lehman for declassification review of the document. Mrs. Lehman accurately determined that the Federal Reserve Board and the Department of State were the equity holders for this document.

Review decisions by both the FRB and State Department resulted in the document being declassified in full, and the document was marked accordingly by Mrs. Lehman on June 28, 2005 -- hence the initials "dal" on the declassified stamp -- and placed in the open WHCF-Finance, FI 9 file.

I also want to clarify a possible discrepancy concerning when the document was actually declassified and opened at the Ford Library. In his September 29, 2009, Internet article on the website EconomicPolicyJournal.com, Robert Wenzel indicated I stated that the Burns memo to President Ford was not declassified until September 15, 2009. At that time, in confirming the existence of the Burns memo to Mr. Wenzel via telephone, I located a photocopy of it in another open collection within our holdings, the Arthur Burns Papers (Box B52, FRB Subject File, Folder: Gold, June 1975). This photocopy of the memo within the Arthur Burns Papers was marked for declassification and released on September 15, 2009.

If you have any further questions, please contact us via e-mail.

Thank you for your interest in the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.

Sincerely,

Mark Fischer, Archivist
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
1000 Beal Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Phone: 734-205-0558

4 comments:

  1. Hmm. Ann Arbor is about an hours drive. I may go check this out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Robert, could you clarify a bit...I think I may be misunderstanding something but isn't making a decision of not purchasing gold at a certain price just that..a decision...wouldn't a supresion of the price be, trying to sell it short...thanks in advance

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah, but it is all a "conspiracy theory". Conspiracy... Yes. Theory... not so much.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting much. Hmm, maybe I should take a visit and see the letter myself.

    -admin

    ReplyDelete