Germany wants it’s Gold Bullion Reserves back.
German gold bullion coin
Germany has the second largest gold reserves in the world. Or at least it should do. A quick look at the Wikipedia gold reserves chart shows that as of year end 2011 total official holdings are 3,396 metric tonnes of gold.
- Gold Bullion Reserves of top 10 nations
The thing is, as with most central banks (that are not BOE, or Federal Reserve) some portion of these reserves are held off-shore. This is mostly a relic of Nixons tyrannical dismantling of the gold standard back in 1971 (August 15th – A very Black Day), when gold was actually used for settlement, and if not shipped at least moved from one part of the vault to another (I kid you not).
Anyway, back to Germany. They want their gold back. Who wants their gold back? Good question, depends who you ask:
Here are the players:
* The People (Das deutsche Volk) – Would like their gold back
* The Bundesbank – Seem strangely ambivalent about the whole affair
* German Parliaments Budget Committee – pushed by the people to take action
* Germany Audit Court – pushed the Bundesbank to do something by the Parliament
* Federal Reserve Bank of New York – claim it’s too secure to audit
After years (maybe decades) of asking, they have got to the point that our good old friends at the Federal Reserve stated that it would not be possible
“in the interest of security and of the control process”.
Excuse me?
Imagine going to your bank to get a bank balance, asking to see your safe deposit box (you do have one right?), or otherwise access to your property and then being told – “No. In the interest of security and of the control process”. How would you feel? How would you react? What would you do next?
Germany is believed to have approximately 2,000 tonnes (a lot) overseas in foreign central bank (evil corp) vaults: Federal Reserve, BoE, Bank of France. Notice a connection between those names? Yeah, they are the so called *Allies* at the end of the 2nd World war (Russia strangely missing). How helpful they were to protect Germanies Gold in it’s vulnerable state after the end of the war. Here is an interesting picture of US Soldiers from 1947 in Germany getting ready to export that wealth – for safe keeping (for the record – General Patton Third Army unit – 1947):
US Soldier in 1947 removing German Gold Bullion Reserves to America
Resolution – It seems that the Bundesbank (probably not the German people) are quite happy to work out the details off-line over time and determine what to do next :
“The discussions have been fruitful and the Federal Reserve has expressed a commitment to work with the Bundesbank to explore ways to address the audit observations, consistent with its own security and control processes and logistical constraints.”
It also appears that they have lots of trust in their US compatriots:
“had no doubts about our American partners, at no point in time. For us it’s a question of regularity and how we’ll proceed in the future”
Why?
With this much money at stake – how would you accept anything other than an audit? The gold have never been audited once since it was moved to US. No wonder the German people are furious about this – I know I would be.
In the meantime the Bundesbank has come up with an incredibly under whelming solution – repatriate 50 tonnes of their Gold every year for three year. Oh, so that would be a grand total of 150 tonnes…Leaving let’s see…2,000 – 150 is about 1,850 tonnes unexamined, unaudited, and unproven. There is something fishy going on here.
If you believe that the big guys (Federal Reserve, BoE, etc) really do not have any gold left anymore, and let’s suppose further that the Bundesbank either know or suspect this, then maybe this is a “get me off the hook” move. This would give the Federal Reserve time to buy Gold on the open market and ship it back to Germany – a reasonable amount. The illusion is maintained that all is well. I suspect this is what is going to happen. Maybe even the Audit court, and the German Budget Committee know this too?
Questions to ponder:
* If the gold really is gone – where is it now?
* If the gold is gone was this done with or without the knowledge/permission on the Bundesbank?
* Which countries will be next to move on this *touchy* subject?
One other thing – A similar move has been requested in Switzerland to repatriate their off-shore gold reserves. This will become very interesting because in Switzerland the people have the right to a referendum (just need 50,000 petition) on any topic they so wish….Things should be hotting up soon…
Stay tuned, buy physical gold and silver, store it wisely, and start thinking hard and deep, and take action…More about that soon
References:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve
* http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/rechnungshof-fordert-bundesbank-zur-inventur-der-goldreserven-auf-a-862719.html
* http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-25/new-york-fed-to-help-bundesbank-meet-gold-audit-requirements
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