May 19 was a big day for gold prices worldwide - perhaps the biggest this year. That's when the European Central Bank (ECB), along with the other 20 most powerful European central banks, announced the signing of the fourth Central Bank Gold Agreement (CBGA).
Applicable starting Sept. 27, the CBGA is an agreement over how much gold these banks are willing to sell over the next five years. (At the end of 2013, they collectively held approximately 30,500 tons of gold - one-fifth of the total gold mined on the planet, ever.)
The stated reason for the CBGA is to attempt to coordinate gold transactions to avoid market disturbances - it limits the amount of gold signatories may sell in any one year.
In other words, the CBGA agreement has immense power over gold prices across the globe.
"While that sounds harmless and perhaps even helpful, it's not," Money Morning Resource Specialist Peter Krauth said on Thursday. "We just can't count on central banks to help maintain a free market to set gold prices."
In fact, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA), a gold price manipulation watchdog group, just put out a statement about how dangerous this agreement is...
You can learn more about this central bank pact, the members' real goal behind influencing gold prices, and the country that's just fallen victim to gold price manipulation here in Krauth's latest, "The Important Impact of This 'Secret' Agreement"...
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