Where’s the Gold, Ben ?
Posted by slowsmile February 6, 2010
I’ve been saying for some time now that Fort Knox has no gold, probably hasn’t had any of the yellow shiny stuff for some decades now. Don’t believe me? Well, here is an exposé by Jeff Neilsen from Benzinga, having a quiet rant about the US Gold Reserves. I find his arguments fairly logical, irresistible and irrefutable.
There are many who — like me — believe that gold is the only answer to global monetary stability. And there are many who would also assume that the American govt actually has some gold, and simply refuse to believe that the dollar will fall — due to its importance as a reserve currency — and if it does fall, then the dollar is bound to rise from the ashes a winner. Of course, for this to happen and be true, the US govt would have to own some gold.
Reasonable?
Article from Benzinga
In discussing the “gold reserves” of the U.S. government, the first point to make is that the only way in which this topic can be discussed is from a retrospective viewpoint. The reason for this is that while the U.S. government claims to have the largest reserves of gold in the world (supposedly over 8,000 tons) it has not allowed anyone to see this ‘gold’ in over 50 years.
Would anyone believe the balance-sheet claims of a Wall Street bank, if it had not been audited in over 50 years? If not, how could we put any credence in the gold reserve numbers of a government which is totally subservient to its Wall Street puppet-masters?
The next, most-important point to make is that the U.S. government defaulted on its gold obligations in 1971, roughly a decade after the last time any U.S. gold was actually seen. At this point, I think it would be helpful to view Wikipedia’s definition of “default”:
failure to satisfy the terms of a loan obligation or to pay back a loan.
The U.S. owed the world ten’s of thousands of tons of gold – obligations it racked-up during the Vietnam Decade, and it failed to satisfy those obligations.
Here’s a question to test readers. How often does the party defaulting on a loan end up with more money than its creditors? Answer: never. Thus, an obvious observation (yet one which is never made) is that the claims of the U.S. government to still have any gold at all after its gold-default are absurd on their surface – and the only way to rebut that absurdity would be to prove that it still held the gold, by showing it to someone.
February 18th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Why are the world’s truthers/authors/investigators unable to get Geraldo Rivera in there to demonstrate live on film that there is nothing behind the lock and key? This kind of lie worked for a while for Saddam with his Golden WMD but it did get reconciled rather inelegantly for better as some think and for worse as others think.
Why has this not yet happened with the Ft Knox lie and have all American presidents known the truth about this?
Is this just an easy sensational allegation to make or have those damned Mason’s perpetuated more fraud? Or is it true? I really doubt it, although it is true that I have not been invited to see and salivate over the gold myself.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:08 am
Slowsmile, if you check your history you will find that during the Reagan administration there was an investigation into the Fort Knox gold theft conspiracy. There was a commission assigned to the task, the “gold commission”, and it was found that there was little gold left in the vault. What was left was held by the Fed in lieu of the federal government’s debt. The noise died down, the voice quieted, and all became history in a very forgotten way. Wasn’t it Eleanor Roosevelt who spread the notion that there were American gold coins aplenty in Europe? Insisting they all came form the greatest robbery perpetrated on the American people.
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:32 am
Proletarian…I’ve also realized, like some others, that Fort Knox has had no gold for some decades now. Why else would America tell Germany to go jump last year when Angela Merckel requested return of Germany’s gold? And there’s been at least one default on the NYMEX-Liffre gold exchange last year already, when ETF gold paper contracts expired and they paid out with WDRs or dollars instead of gold bullion as requested. The Western gold exchanges, that’s New York and London, are currently over-leveraged by a ratio of at least 1:4 wrt gold owned to gold sold.
My greater concerns are the foreign economic behaviours. It has also become apparent that the likes of Russia, China and the rest of the BRIC savers plus the Middle East Oil countries have all clocked that America’s dollar is running on empty regarding gold backing or, indeed, any backing at all - as evidenced by these nations plus, surprisingly, France dumping the petro-dollar for the euro so openly last year. Which is why China — soon to be joined by the other saver nations — is currently fighting the dollar/gold battle on the gold markets and, as far as I can see, China has already gained control of the gold price and therefore now controls the dollar’s value. So, one less monetary toy that the FED can play with…
China and the savers will continue to discreetly but significantly buy gold as well as other valuable commodities to build up their tangible assets and they will keep gold good and steady is my guess until they have rid themselves — slowly — of all their toxic dollars and US Treasuries. Our beloved Ben will have to turn up the speed of his printing presses a few notches it seems to cope with this dollar disappointment, because there are no other options for Keynesians here, except to invest in debt, whatever the hell that means……
So, while the US govt and the FED try to manipulate the dollar value so desperately upwards by selling gold to strengthen the dollar, China and the rest of the Mercantilists will gleefully spoil this intent by re-purchasing this same as real bullion on the market bounce to maintain the gold price rock steady in dollars - and only to their own preference and benefit. Such is the nature of the wealth that is transferring — from West to East now. It’s simple really, as China collects tangible assets like Gold, America just collects more Debt. And they will continue to do this until the markets eventually refuse to except anymore worthless, over-leveraged and over-printed paper gold contracts, such that the fall in the dollar will be likened to that of the Archangel Gabriel being cast down into the depths of Hell. The dollar has a few more years to run though, but this slow process must happen, so that all these devoted Mercantilist savers can safely slip out of all their various Dollar Traps. One thing’s is for sure — and you’ve gotta hand it to them — these primitive Mercantilists have certainly learned “The Dollar Game” fast and well, haven’t they ?
Meanwhile, and between the Pacific and Atlantic shores of America, the educated and parboiled media urgently takes note from their learned economic experts, and we hear from the likes of a bewhiskered Krugman screaming faintly but confidently from a very safe distance in the shadows, “No, no !! Don’t worry !!….Spend more….SPEND MORE..!!”. Well, yes, while you can I suppose. A bit like a VISA card ad isn’t it ?