Long Term Capital Management - Death by Naked Gold Short, 400 Tons Worth

[abduLMaria]

It is fascinating to dig back into the failure of LTCM.

I remember it happening in 1998, but vaguely.  I remember it was a big deal at the time - that there was considerable counterparty risk and that an LTCM failure was considered threatening to the larger financial position.

Looking at what Wikipedia has to say about LTCM - maybe your eyes are better than mine, but I don't see anything about gold or naked shorts of 400 tons -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_ ... Management

It looks like LTCM was short 400 tons of gold at the time of their demise.  It also looks like the US government has worked very hard to keep this part of the story out of the public record, to the extent possible.

http://www.zealllc.com/2000/delta2.htm

"Persistent rumors exist that LTCM was short 400 tonnes of gold when it went belly up.  The US government arranged for someone to supply this gold owed to counterparties very quietly, and forbade any LTCM principals to ever discuss the gold position and disposition in the future."

http://hf-implode.com/imploded/fund_Lon ... ement(LTCM)_1998-12-31.html

Does anybody know anything more about the role of large naked short gold positions in the demise of LTCM ?

That is very similar to the shenanigans described in the recent webcasts and articles about fraud in the gold industry, in the London Bullion LBMA & the New York Comex/Crimex.

It looks to me like the US government is very, very sensitive about the discussions of fraud and vulnerabilities in the gold and dollar markets. In fact, they are so sensitive that I think they broadcast their vulnerability - JPMorgan and HSBC are vulnerable via their naked short gold positions, to a deep-pocketed investor who can go short the US $ and long gold, as spelled out in Andrew Maguire's interview at King World News.


Reference URL's


interview with Andrew Maguire, metals trader & whistleblower

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/ ... 3A2010.mp3

right click, "save as" or "save target as", to save the *.mp3.

/  more on the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) Hearings last week.
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/ ... 3A2010.mp3


Commentary @ Zero-hedge
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/former ... gold-ponzi

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/whistl ... ion-scheme


More interview, with GATA Founder Bill Murphy
http://www.iamthewitness.com/audio/Bill ... 4-2010.mp3


follow-up interviews

Harvey & Lenny Organ & Adrian Douglas
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/ ... 3A2010.mp3

John Williams on Unemployment & Inflation
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/ ... 3A2010.mp3


article, "Hong Kong Pulls All Gold Reserves From Depositories In London"
http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldn ... liver.html

customers sue Morgan Stanley for charging storage fees for Paper Gold
http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldn ... ansal.html


Financial Sense article on Tungsten Gold
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/edito ... /1118.html