His heartfield opposition is also in the interests of certain regional US producers in the good old fashioned tradition of US pork barrel politics.
Well, if sales of gold and debt relief will not help the world's poorest, perhaps we had better start discussing global taxation systems again.
Chris Burford
London
___________________________________
Senators Oppose IMF Gold Plan
>Date: Wed Jun 23 15:20:19 CDT 1999
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- A plan by the International Monetary Fund to sell
>gold to finance debt relief for poor countries would hurt many of these
>nations and the U.S. gold industry, two senators said today.
> Sen. Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
>Committee, and Sen. Chuck Hagel, chairman of the subcommittee on
>international economic policy, said they have joined a bipartisan group to
>oppose the gold sales, which require congressional approval.
> In a letter to Treasury Secretary-designate Larry Summers, the
>senators said, ``We are unalterably persuaded that selling IMF gold reserves
>would adversely affect the very countries the administration intends to
>assist and further damage the U.S. domestic gold industry.''
> Opposition also came from lawmakers representing gold mining states.
>``It ain't going to happen,'' predicted Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev.
> Helms, R-N.C., and Hagel, R-Neb., said that in the past month, since
>Britain announced it was selling a portion of its gold reserves, the price
>of the gold has plunged to a 20-year low of $258 an ounce.
> They said they were concerned that the United States, the second
>largest producer of gold after South Africa, would lose jobs and companies
>would go bankrupt if the prices continue to fall.
>Originator: stop-imf at essential.org
>Sender: stop-imf at essential.org
>From: Robert Weissman <rob at essential.org>
>To: Multiple recipients of list STOP-IMF <stop-imf at essential.org>
>Subject: Senators oppose IMF gold sales (fwd)
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