Here's a little story that would be equally at home in the business section on merit, the sports section from the "where are they now" standpoint, the editorial section from the "who they are now" standpoint or perhaps even the society section based on some of the personalities involved.
This tale begins in Glen Ridge, New Jersey and a brush with Tom Cruise - then winds its way to Cornell University in upstate New York [Ithaca] where single season Ivy League receiving records were broken before an NFL pro football career as a wide receiver commenced with the Boston Patriots in 1968. The plot then shifts to Wall Street and a career in the futures industry as a commodities broker with such venerable names in finance as Shearson Hayden Stone and Drexel Burnham before the establishment of a private Fifth Avenue introduction brokerage.
From there the tale turns to an internet "start up" and a partnership with a newspaper man - of editorial ilk - forming a renegade contrarian's organization called GATA; whose earliest supporters [sometimes referred to as 'gold bugs'] included none other than the late great Arthur Hailey, and many notable others who choose to remain nameless in their support of GATA. GATA's expressed purpose is to uncover and illuminate a global conspiracy of the world's Central Bankers against one of the world's most enduring symbols of wealth and value - gold.
One of the latest chapters in this ongoing saga took place in Dawson City, the Yukon on August 8th and 9th where GATA [Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee] held Gold Rush 21 - an assemblage of 100 or so of the foremost international gold, mining and economic luminaries from all parts of the globe.
Ripley's believe it or not, the outline above is not a rip off of a 'would be' Hollywood script - at least not yet. It's a biographical sketch of a tenacious Irishman; ex pro footballer and Wall Street commodity broker William [Bill] Murphy, proprietor of Lemetropolecafe.com and chairman of GATA - an organization he founded in 1999 with Chris Powell, the managing editor of Journal Inquirer, a daily newspaper in Manchester, Connecticut.
GATA was formed soon after Murphy began writing essays about perceived irregularities in the world's gold market - ones that by their nature he felt they had to involve complicit acts at the highest levels of the financial world and as such contravened Anti Trust laws in the United States. GATA [www.gata.org] is set up as a Delaware corporation to advocate and undertake litigation against illegal collusion to control the price and supply of certain financial securities, particularly securities involving gold. By exposing the perceived ill doings in the world's gold market, Murphy's GATA and its supporters hope to return transparency to the world gold market and rekindle/invigorate the global movement toward sound money.
GATA's latest event, Gold Rush 21 , was staged in Dawson City in Canada's Yukon the center of the Klondike Gold Rush at the turn of the 19th century. Its intent was to expand GATA's role as an advocate for the precious metals industry to what Murphy describes as a credible alternative to an 'ineffective' World Gold Council. With the mining industry being such a vital part of the Canadian economy, Gold Rush 21 was covered by the CBC [Canada's National Broadcaster] - in both televised and radio media.
As Murphy is quick to point out, gold bugs come from all walks of life - as evidenced by the late Arthur Hailey who was one of GATA's earliest and most fervent supporters. Murphy also revels in telling stories. One of my favorites that he has shared with his readership at his subscription based Lemetropolecafe.com is one of his late father [another accomplished collegiate footballer] who in Glen Ridge, New Jersey befriending a hungry young wannabe actor [who then was a senior at Glen Ridge H.S. and busboy at Glen Ridge Country Club] to his first pro football game at Giants Stadium - the hungry actor, his name just happened to be Tom Cruise. As Murphy relates, Tom Cruise fortuitously told his Dad way back then - that he intended to make it big as actor.
It's a good thing Murphy has a thick skin, Irish tenacity and enjoys incessantly telling his story, since the GATA / Gold conspiracy has been slow to catch on or be widely reported in main stream media. The mainstream media have typically reported, if at all, by publishing articles mocking and denigrating organizations like GATA as "conspiracy theorists", members of the "black helicopter crowd", they wear "tin foil hats", etc. In stark contrast, the secondary media, small financial sites littered across the internet, have steadfastly remained supporters of GATA.
It was about 7 years ago that "Midas" Bill Murphy made his first [and only to date] appearance on a national business television channel [CNBC] to put forward the gold bug's case. CNBC has not seen fit to ever ask him back - even in the face of mounting empirical evidence that his assertions of market inference on the part of officialdom in the world's precious metals markets become more poignantly believable. In fact, he has been clearly 'shunned' by the entire mainstream financial media over the past 7 years. Well, that's all about to change on Dec. 16/05, when Canada's Report on Business Television has invited GATA Chairman Bill Murphy to appear for an interview of about eight minutes at 11:42 a.m. ET Friday. While the interview will be seen live only in Canada, ROB-TV puts its programs on its Internet site for a week, so the interview quickly will be accessible around the world.
Then again, given the gravity of what's being alleged, perhaps this should not come as such a surprise since it is the main stream financial order that stands so much to lose if Murphy's and GATA's assertions of ill doings are either proven or accepted to be unequivocally correct. Since the GATA gathering [gold summit] in Dawson City, Aug. 8th and 9th [which was attended by none other than Russian President Putin's economic advisor Andrey Bykov] gold has rallied as much as $94 in 4 short months. In light of these recent happenings in the gold market, perhaps the main stream financial press is finally waking up to the notion that there's a little more meat on the bones of Murphy's and the gold bug's contentions after all.
Who knows, if Murphy plays his golden hand correctly - he might find himself guest hosting CNBC's Squawk Box or perhaps even doing a guest spot on Jim Cramer's Mad Money if he's truly got the luck of the Irish.
