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Name The New Reserve Currency: China Imports More Gold In 2012 Than All ECB Holdings
The last time we looked at monthly Chinese imports of gold from Hong Kong in 2012, the comparable country in question was Portugal (whose citizens, if not central bank, incidentally have run out of gold to sell), because that is whose total gold holdings (at 382.5 tons) Chinese imports had just surpassed. Fast forward a month later, and the update is even more disturbing. In July, Chinese gold imports from HK, after two months of declines, have picked up once more and hit a 3-month high of 75.8 tons. While it is notable that this number is double the 38.1 tons imported a year prior, and that year-to-date imports are now a record 458.6 tons, well over four times greater than the seven month total in 2011 which was 103.9 tons, what is far more important is that in the first seven months of 2012 alone China has imported nearly as much gold as the total holdings of the hedge fund at the heart of the Eurozone, elsewhere known simply as the European Central Bank, and just as importantly considering the import run-rate has hardly slowed down in August, which data we will have in a few weeks, it is now safe to say that in 2012 alone China has imported more gold than the ECB's entire official 502.1 tons of holdings.
What is most amusing is that China, via the IMF, still wants the world to believe that total Chinese official holdings are just 1040 tons (double the ECB's), when it has imported half this amount in 2012 alone.
As a reminder, the last time China gave an update of its official gold holdings was in April for 2009. This means China has been aggressively hoarding gold for the past three and a half years without issuing an official peep about where its inventory stands now.
Luckily, those who keep track of the newsflow have some idea.
As an even more important reminder, in December 2009, the China Youth Daily quoted State Council advisor Ji as saying that a team of experts from Beijing and Shanghai have set up a "task force" last year to consider growing China's gold reserves. "We suggested that China's gold reserves should reach 6,000 tons in the next 3-5 years and perhaps 10,000 tons in 8-10 years," the paper quoted him. Has China managed to accumulated 6,000 tons yet? We won't know for sure until the official disclosure which will come when China is ready and not a moment earlier, but at the current run-rate of accumulation which is just shy of 1,000 tons per year, it is certainly within the realm of possibilities that China is now the second largest holder of gold in the world, surpassing Germany's 3,395 tons and second only to the US.
Going back to the "important things", here is another one: in all of 2012, according to Treasury International Capital flow data, China has increased its Treasury holdings from $1,151.9 billion as of December 31, 2011 to just $1164.3 billion: a total increase of just $12.4 billion in 6 months: the slowest run-rate since China started to recycle in budget surplus into US paper.
Whether this dramatic slowdown (and no, China is no longer rerouting purchases via the UK whose holdings have, unlike prior years, hardly budged in 2012) is due to a plunge in the Chinese trade surplus due to the ever more obvious Chinese hard landing, and the lack of recyclable dollars, is unknown and largely irrelevant. What is known, and what is relevant, is that at Friday's closing price 458.6 tons of gold translates into over $25 billion worth of gold imports.
For the first time in history China has imported twice as much gold as it has "imported" US Treasurys.
But most importantly, and perhaps tying it all together, is what the deputy director of the Chinese central bank, the PBOC, said overnight at a conference in Xiamen. What he said is that the financial crisis has shaken confidence in the U.S. dollar. We knew that. What he added is that
the sound performance of China’s economy during the crisis boosted demand for yuan. This was also more or less known, although with the Yuan peg it is somewhat difficult to determine objectively. It is what he said last that is most important: "The financial crisis that started in 2008 has provided China with a good opportunity to promote the yuan as a global currency."
A global currency that is now backed by the second largest hoard of gold in the world, and targeting to be over 10,000 tons in a few years, and is supported by the fastest growing "developing" economy in the world, $14 trillion in deposits rising at an exponential pace, and well over one billion in population.
Can anyone guess which currency is next in line of succession:
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So what has happened with the amount of Copper and Iron being imported and what has happened with the amount of gold being imported?
"I just want to tell you not to overestimate the intelligence of the Chinese."
Compared to what, the U. S. Government?
If Chinese government officials have three brain cells amongst them they can outthink our government using only two.
Did you know that ancient Chinese also used paper currency with all the hyperinflationary luster that imparts?
Did you know that they were an empire before your ancestors had managed to crawl out of their own shit and learn to read?
Please...buy Chinese apartments...I hear they have a whole bunch available for some reason.
"You can't eat land" is what I think Charlie Munger said.....
"You can't eat land" is what I think Charlie Munger said.....
Plus you can NEVER own it.
but iPads are another story ...
Of course! I will sell out everything incl. gold bar as necessary to get the latest iStuff... now i'm eagerly awaiting the iPhone 5!!!
And how exactly is gold gonna crash dude?
The Chinese may appear unsophisticated to jaded Western eyes but their culture is a lot older than ours. They have experienced inflation many times and it is part of their psychological makeup to distrust banks and politicians.
The Chinese people have a good understanding of gold as a store of value.
I gotta call bullshit on their culture being more ancient; the sacred sites, monuments and mounds of northern Euroe are now recognzed as being much older than those of Egypt and the fertile crescent and China by far. Due to the great forests most everything was constructrd of wood and is long gone. The horthern story is just beginning to unfold and the real history is more mind-blowing than any extant science fiction. The Indo-European diaspora came from the North and is connected to the catastrphic celectial events of 6,000 years ago and the eye witness accounts of our antecedants are still extant in myth and 'sacred' literature.
And while your nose is buried in "Typing for Dummies" manuals and anthropological snipe-hunting guides, the Chinese can actually trace their national existence all the way back to the Egyptians and their pyramids, the temples of the (capitalized) Fertile Crescent, and *ahem* the "sacred sites and (dirt) mounds of northern Euroe" (sic)
The only other people who have such distant and continuous connection to their ancient past are the sub-continental Indians and the Persians. So put that "bullshit"in your pipe and smoke it.
Vlad - You seem to be a fount of misinformation - a lot has been discovered in the past few decades on the history of the Bronze Age The IE diaspora noted above came down along the coast of Western Europe and down the great rivers of Eurasia (into Persia and India BTW)The blond haired seafaring Achaeans migrated to mediterranean shores bringing with them the sagas and stories that are at the core of our civilization. You probably are not aware that the Trojan War and Helen are history brought south from Baltic lands... As I said the Northern story is just coming to light. Try googling the Baltic origins of Homer for some info on recent developments.
"The Chinese people have a good understanding of gold as a store of value."
Not where I'm standing. Not meaning to sound unnecessarily confrontational. But I think if you replaced the word 'people' with, 'oligarchs', or possibly 'mandarin', I would say it should be more accurate.
Back in college my Chinese roommate from Hong Kong always wore a gold chain of high purity -just in case, he said. They know what's what.
I guess they are finally getting smart. Makes you wonder though. Why didnt they buy gold when it was $35. an oz.? Or $250. for that matter.
The Asian have been saving their wealth in barbarous relic since long ago. Of course they bought some when it's $35, even when it's less than that. From time to time they have been accumulating more and more, converting the big portion of the household's surpluses ... at various price levels. The rate of accumulation is getting accelerated since the 2008 Financial Crisis (remember, the Asian already underwent the 1997/1998 Asian Financial Crisis... and their memories aren't that short). As the US and EU financial & economy conditions are increasingly in trouble, the buying intensity doesn't cease until today for sure.
The sane people prefer to keep most of their wealth in physical than paper assets!
btw property/land is quite obvious, taxable, hard to evade :-) yet the barbarous relic is relatively tiny in size, may easily drop into water during boating and so on...
What will happen to non-physical with the FOMC-minutes this week?
The last time the gold flowed to China it was in the 1500's .. and Spain went bankrupt in 1562? ..
Whenever I say this I get trashed, but forget anything else, whoever has most powerful military has reserve currency, simple as that.
The brits devalued the pound in 1931 and they lost their reserve currency status. The british empire was going belly up economically to sustain, even though it had won WW1...So it's not as simple as that.
Economics and the war machine are interlinked, now with oil to run the overmechanised supply chain. Guerrilla wars make military hegemony difficult as the urban guerrilla can create awesome mayhem. Now we have the cyber war it can come from anywhere. Complex game military hegemony...not easy to sustain competitive advantage either on ground or in the cyber air.
"The bigger you get....the wider you spread....ya gotta depend on me now....your vision is dead..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PMGabbWM5s
Falak,
please get your facts straight to avoid confusing non students of history, ie Americans.
The pound came off the gold standard in 1925 and was devalued then.
That haoppened because of debts incurred in WWI ,and the loss of nearly an entire
productive generation in the trenches of France made those debts almost impossible
to repay.
Even so,the pound remained the reserve currency until 1940ish,when the US dollar
became the de facto RC .
Debt and demographics,the Us's current problem,killed the British empire,
WWII was just the coup de gras.
The Brits did not win WWI. That was their problem. The Germans were winning, or it was a stalemate at best. The US won WWI. If the US had not entered WWI, after the Russian Revolution Germany probably would have won.
Big difference in WWII, which would have been won by the allies w/out US (eventually). WWI--not the same case.
"...WWII, which would have been won by the allies w/out US (eventually)."
Not likely.
Yes, very likely. Hitler could not have kept up both fronts. The Russians had his ass.
and do not count out the lil babe deterrence of WMD, hence go MAD !
for a nation as big as China, there's quite a limited room for accepting any bullying practice, even less for blackmailing deed.
Nuclear weapons are a great equaliser of the forces. It doesn't matter what kind of planes and ships you have, or how many soldiers you can bring to the fight, when you know that the moment the other side starts loosing, it has the power to make your home and contintent a radioactive wasteland. For that reason China can choose new currency when they are ready. Only question is the timing.
I don't get it? What are they gonna do with all that gold? What will they trade it for later? Dont they know we can just buy it all back with printed $$$? Oh wait maybe Our food but wait all the gold in the world will not feed your people IF AMERICA DOESN'T WANT YOUR STINKING GOLD! or maybe NG? Oooooh wait, prolly wanna trade it for our iCrap yeaaa that's what they want they want our iCrap! I sappose they could invade but I'm sure our leaders are crazy enough to nuke the whole stinking planet before that happends. If we can't have it NO ONE can! Right!? I'm stocking up on iCrap!!
I don't get it? What are they gonna do with all that gold?
**************
Maybe they're loading up on gold to prevent their currency from collapsing?
All the Yaun bulls should maybe have a look at who is really out printing who-
http://bit.ly/L9EotK
The explicit race is for the Chinese to unload their USD reserves into gold before the Bernake destroys the dollar. This is the race to control global trade for the next 100 years.
The meetings at MinFin and PBOC are about this race and not being held responsible if (when) the USA finds a "justifiable" reason to give China the shaft.
The FACT that China is running around setting up trade settlements bypassing the dollar and most importantly settling oil/gas contracts in yuan, AND getting bigger in supporting debt issuance in yuan to big banks and corps telegraphs their (and everyone else's) intention.
A reserve currency is backed by gold and machines. The last sting is for China (and others) to physically remove their gold from US vaults. I can't find the location of China's "Fort Knox," but it's not Xianggang. That will be the day China has more gold than the US. For the Chinese, this is like a race to the Moon.
For the US, it's another day of Cheetos, Red Bull and Xbox.
See you at the new Honduras' private cities - Costa del Corzine.
Let's not ignore China's big move into Africa. They are buying up natural resources and moving thousands of Chinese nationals in to run the operations. They let the blacks control the political side of things, while they strip the countries as fast as they can of anything worth while. They aren't there to settle and farm, they are there to smash and grab. They will leave the Africans with worthless dollars, while they take the oil, minerals and gems.
They'll probably pick up some HIV and syphilis too
Celente Predicts Revolution, Food Riots, Tax Rebellions By 2012
predicted; in 2008.
And without 50 million Americans on food stamps, it would be happening right now. And millions more are not paying their mortgages or taxes either. So is Celente wrong? No, not really. His timing may be off a bit is all.
Reminds of the people who continually slam PM commentators around here. Buffoons.
Yeah, but--
Isn't he the genius that got swindled by MFG and then went around squealing about it? I guess he didn't see that one coming? I don't know how?
Yes, you are correct on that. Celente obviously should have known better than to bank with MFG and Corzine.
Buying gold is the safest, least confrontational, way for the Chinese to become financially dominant. If they aren't doing it, they're pretty dumb.
Moo Goo Gold Pan
With Six You Get Eagle Roll
The ECBs owners have slave plantation investments in China........and the rest of the BRICs...
Any look at the crazy energy balance figures from Europe over the past 20 -30 years will show you they are exporting capital to these plantations so that the owners could earn a labour arbitrage...off our backs...
Europe is a conduit for these Bastards....China is a conduit ....everything is conduit.
During the beginning of the end for Greece during its balance of payments crisis it actually increased its transport BTU ration between 2007 & 2009 while its Industrial oil use dived..
More recently its energy ration is declining yet its $ exports for the spice remain.
Greek oil balance
jan -june
y2010 : -4,442 million euros
Y2011 :-5,591 million euros
Y2012 :-5,661 million euros
meanwhile its trade balance in goods excluding oil and ships is down down
2010 : -8,890 million euros
2011 :- 6,742
2012 : – 4,756
This is the albainisation of the Euro periphery in action…..
Exhibit A : A non - national economy - stripped bare.
This is not how national economies operate -The European experiment is obviously a gigantic equity extraction device which kils all rational domestic demand.
The EU is a nation killer.
Might it be more likely that private citizens in China are the primary source of demand for gold given: 50% savings rate; negative real interest rates; well-founded distrust of the equity market; high and volatile real estate prices?
Slightly OT:
In some quarters(Pettis) I hear of Chinese kleptocrats (ie. CEO of SOEs) using "adjusted" invoices as a means to export wealth.
Seems this could be accomplished by either overstating charges on an import, or understating charges on an export.
<quote>Do you know that ancient Chinese often used COPPER, IRON and sometimes CLOTH as their currency instead of gold and silver? According to my experience with the Chinese, land and apartments are their first choice as the store of value instead of gold or silver. I just want to tell you not to overestimate the intelligence of the Chinese. </quote>
That may be because at those times in history they were valuable and scarce items that couldn't be printed into existence. I thought that should have been obvious. My extensive experience with Chinese and SE Asians is that gold and silver are it, you see the number of gold shops in Thailand, where gold chains are like a pesonal bank. Mainland Chinese are only just being reintroduce to bullion, and are taking to it like a duck to water.
I think we are over estimating the intelligence of ourselves if we think the Chinese individuals not too smart. Mate they will be drinking your milkshake before you know it. And you will be shining their shoes.
Some say the tipping point is 2017
All currencies depend upon trist. The Chinese will not control the world currency because the world simply does not have sufficient trust in a communist state to be at its mercy. WE could migrate back to a gold standard because of what the Chinese are doing, which is the key strategic reason the US inflate the hell out of gold so Chinacannot accumulate the reserve on the cheap... The treasury ought to be accumulating itself...
Which particular communist state are you referring to?
Probably USa ...
I tend to agree but lately have been worried that I suffering some degree of normalcy bias myself in that regard. Rather, I have been leaning towards the thought that democracy (even if fake) may be over and the next chapter of human existence may be more... rough around the edges. That if our "republic" is lost, what comes next might look more like something else... and from here, the idea of another reserve currency suddenly does not look so remote.
A republic/democracy (if that's what you call this) just doesn't "migrate" back to a true gold standard after being addicted (and dependent) on printed money for over half a century.
Do you realize the magnitude of sacrifice the people must make as well as the long-term political courage necessary from leadership? Keep dreaming.
If you think the Chinese are Communist, I have many empty, upscale apartments and commercial realty to sell you in Shenzen.
The price of gold is being inflated? Please explain that one to stupid folks like me.
.....while buying Africa, and mining companies.
Ownership they will only be able to keep at the barrel of a gun ...
...and check.
OK. China is buying. Russia is buying.
Who is selling and what? JPM, who has leased the metal from the Fed?
It might be rather interesting day when China announced that they have much more gold than what's anticipated AND when US had to admit that it has far less gold than what's commonly believed. Kind of double whammy...
China will announce that is has more, but no country would want to announce that has less, unless of course they want to devalue their own currency ... if such announcement is made anyway by US, the only thing that will be left to support the dollar is the US military machine. And the problem with this is, that while the dollar can be subtly, without acknowledging the "attacks" over the others, like exporting 90% of the US inflation from printing $ all over the world, the military machine can be used ONLY directly, and this makes it very inefficient control tool.
In ancient Rome returned or retired soldiers were not kept around for long. They were shipped out to the provinces not just to keep up influence but they were psychologically maimed from battle and were likely to dangerously react to everyday scenarios
Now our maimed troops are the same and need our support not the cold shoulder
China is buying, Russia is buying, everyone is buying... and JPM keeps pegging the lowest possible prices. JPM is silently and unwittingly targeting a gold standard allowing everyone to buy gold at affordable prices; an artificial suppression in favor of mass expansion. That's praiseworthy... but still not being announced enough.
Two quotes from the 'father of modern gold standard' Alan Greenspan I've just found:
"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value."
"An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense... that gold and economic freedom are inseparable."
I really didn't know Alan is, with all his heart, an Austrian economist... perhaps Benjamin Shalom is too just pretending to be Keynesianite.
"Everything he did in his public life rejected (his published opinion of a gold standard). He obviously doesn't endorse that policy." -- Ron Paul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjwuGHPilwI
Alan Greenspan used to believe those things, but when the puppetmasters told him to believe something else...he did.
Well, Greenspan is indeed a strange person. I simply can't believe anyone with such attitudes could, under normal circumstances, serve as a FED chairman. After all, there were no doubt other adepts with straightforward puppet-servility thinking, such as Bernanke who has never dared pronounce any such heretical ideas. I think he is sort of master-joker saying "sometimes I'll tell you the truth, sometimes a lie and I'll be laughing at you how confused and helpless you are sorting it all out". He was tacitly mirroring and ridiculing the stupidity, incompetence, timidity and corruptness of legitimate decision-makers.
Looks like you read Peter Schiff, too.
"Two quotes from the 'father of modern gold standard' Alan Greenspan I've just found:"
Anasteus, you missed the crucial adjective here! it's supposed to read as (young) Alan Greenspan. LoL
Perhaps a "currency lesson" from a YOUNG, Alan Greenspan would help?
"Young Greenspan and Gold"
"I am far from the first gold commentator to seize upon a famous essay by a young, Alan Greenspan – which eloquently and forcibly argues two, extremely important points.
The first is that a gold standard is the lynch-pin of a stable, global economy.
The second point is that destroying the gold standard and discrediting gold has long been an obsession of those who longed for the freedom to create infinite amounts of debt, and to print infinite amounts of paper currency: the bankers."
The Full story: http://bit.ly/KaOBDh
Let's cut through all the bullsheet shall we?? Let's kill the last sacred cow and check our 1st premise -- unless the paper government stink cheese is directly convertable into gold or silver on the spot (and even then you still have the issue of trust and quick rule changes) then as my buddy JP said GOLD IS MONEY EVERYTHING ELSE IS BULLSHEET!! The commie chinese can keep their paper currency same as oblamebusha and use it for their perpetual 5 year commie central plans. Reserve currency is a strawman argument to lead you away from coinage that is gold or silver or even copper (they don't make that anymore either baby!)
I have become a bit more of a FOFOA fan over the last few years in this regard. Pure gold systems don't work. Rome? But a dual system that properly seperates physical and paper does seem to solve some of the problems.
Unfortunately, getting from here to there is what concerns me. Between then and now there are too many people who have been promised too much that cannot be made whole... at some point cannot be supported by the system. We are grinding up against some serious resource constraints, environmental constraints, social complexity constraints, etc. The "purge" that is coming scares me more than the system that comes out of it (the journey, not the destination).
"The "purge" that is coming scares me more than the system that comes out of it (the journey, not the destination)."
Me too.
government paper money sucks I don't care what colors it has or whose picture is on it
And ours is completely worthless... Because it has so much cotton in it, it doesn't even burn well.
Wasn't it confucious who said, he who has the gold, makes the rules?
All your gold are belong to us...
China is simply trading worthless US currency for gold. It's the same thing we should be doing. The only difference is that ours will eventually be confiscated by the government and they will still have theirs.
458 tons? Pretty soon we are talking real money!
Although diversification is good, I wouldn't read too much into the Treasury purchases. I don't even think it is a diversification ploy. That just proves that China believes it is good to give out charitable contributions
And please put an asterisk beside the US gold total since it has been loaned out more than a $20 escort on Friday night.
All hail Johannes Gutenberg and the printing press.
China had been a gold pygmy for a long time, now they are catching up. Perhaps gold prices have been suppressed to allow some countries some time to level the playing field... one world government, and all that. It does seem like it might help avoid some wars once SHTF.
Lemme see now...
Uuuuuhm....
Of course!
THE EURO!!
China may have all the gold, industry, R&D, population, wealth, infrastructure, transportation, technology, and guts but we in America have gay rights, celebrities, Obama, and $350 million dollar fighter planes.
Not to mention
ZERO HEDGE!
Registrant:
ABC Media Ltd
P.O. Box 3
Sofia, Sofia 1784
BG
Domain name: ZEROHEDGE.COM
Why are you always going on about Zerohedge being owned by ABC/Disney?
Maybe it's Australian Broadcasting Co. owned.
Maybe ABC = "Already Been Chewed"
Just be thankful Bulgarians are such a sensible bunch.
Are you confused or is it me? I mean I'm sure that I am but is it possible that you are as well?
You forgot $16T in government debt.
But rely on aircraft carries for force projection.
The carriers are no longer any more relevant than battleships were at
Midway.Nice fat targets is what they are now.Even against a third rate power like
Iran.
MAd is dead,long live MAD.
We can still beat China by reevaluating treasury bonds to zero value (or by waiting until they naturally go bust). That would be a revenge!
75 tons = 4 billion dollars.
Yawn.
4 billion dollars in measurement terms that do not account for "creative" leverage that is orders of magnitude larger and virtually worldwide circular counterparty exposure?
Yawn for now, but not for when the first real player goes for the exits (or the throat).
You are right. Just think what will happen when gold fever sweeps the world
Tyler, judging by the amount of gold sold by different joints all over China, the 485 ton import has clearly not landed on central bank vault, instead, the gold ended up in Jeweller's stores, China Gold Coin retail stores, commercial banks (most of which sell gold bars). TV news said one guy went to a jewelry shop, broke a glass cabin with a hammer and stole 5 1kg bars. Guess what? 3 of those bars were plastic display items but 2 of them were real! The 485-ton import Is not even enough to provide one such bar for each store. I doubt PBOC has over 3,000 tons
Right, now does anyone really believe China isn't manipulating it's own currency? - FAIL.
http://maxkeiser.com/2012/09/05/jim-willie-60000-metric-tons-allocated-g...
Jim Willie: 60,000 Metric Tons of ALLOCATED Gold Likely Used by Cartel to Settle Asian Margin Calls@ Oldrepublic, thanks for the Max Keiser link, an interesting read... incl. the commentary section whereas some readers posted about the late Congressman, Larry Patton McDonald, eliminated thru the KAL Flight 007 shoot down by the Soviet interceptor on September 1, 1983. Larry was killed because of his adamant attacks on the CFR!
There's also a mentioning about Bernard Lietaer, The Future Of Money
This is how today’s money system pits the participants in the economy against each other. This story isolates the role of interest – the 11th round – as part of the money creation process, and its impact on the participants.
"When the bank creates money by providing you with your £100,000 mortgage loan, it creates only the principal when it credits your account. However, it expects you to bring back £200,000 over the next twenty years or so. If you don’t, you lose your house.
Your bank does not create the interest; it sends you out into the world to battle against everyone else to bring back the second £100,000. Because all the other banks do exactly the same thing, the system requires that some participants go bankrupt in order to provide you with this £100,000. To put it simply, when you pay back interest on your loan, you are using someone else’s principal.
In other words, the device used to create the scarcity indispensable for a bank=-debt system to function involves having people compete for the money that has not been created, and penalizes them with bankruptcy whenever they do not succeed."
Dont forget that china's gold industry is required to sell 100% of it's production to the government. So news of them also importing more than any other country really paints a picture of what will be the largest holder of gold in the world very soon.
http://mlatrader.com/andrew-maguires-gold-trading-service/
The reason the US mentions considering the return of a gold standard (whatever that is) is that it is coming.
Whether that "standard" is gonna be the result of a Russia/China "cooperative" venture remains to be seen, but that is and always has been the goal.
China has a lot of "patience", something severely lacking with other countries.
The US and Eu are gonna speed up the demise of their currencies with the endless printing.
Fort Knox hasn't been audited because there is no gold there. So you can scratch the US off the top of the list as well.
Fort Knox hasn't been audited because there is no gold there. So you can scratch the US off the top of the list as well.
Well it's supposed to house 25%, WestPoint has 25%, and the FED BNK ofNY holds 25%,and one more holds 25%.
I seriously doubt there is ZERO at West Point.
Please dont spred this around. Its all per plan by Bennie to sell the Chinese all the sentimental yellow metal they want. They get the shiny stuff and we get our $$ fiat back. Its a great deal he will tell you.
Even better he has told this European and British friends in the London exchange and they too are eager to get rid on the shiny stuff. Its also very encouraging that the general public is getting into the act converting almost useless jewelry gold into real cash you can spend.
Lets hope the Chinese dont catch on these Western schemes. We would not want them to stop buying gold too soon.
Can't Benny just bake up a batch of gold in his Easybake oven?
Gold is no more the worlds reserve currency than US Corn, Wheat, Sugar. Duh. Take your archaic metal back where it came from.
Corn, wheat and sugar can be grown (at least it has always been this way so far). I do see that as a fundamental difference.
They also rot over time, becoming worthless.
Basel III, when describing capital requirments for Banks, declared Gold to be a Tier 1 asset. A tier 1 asset is MONEY. Gold is money that has no counter-party risk. Which is why Central Banks (and folks like me) want to hold it.
Gold is no more the worlds reserve currency than US Corn, Wheat, Sugar. Duh. Take your archaic metal back where it came from.
Anything that is perishable can never be the Reserve currency.
Rumour has it that during world warII Japan took a vast amount of Chinas gold, which then was taken by the U.S. and has since been used for various overt and especially covert actions around the world. Same type of thing that is rumored to have happened in libya, except on a much larger scale. I suppose one of the lessons of this is that if you are holding gold, shut up about it, which the Chinese are probably doing about the majority of what they are holding.
This obviously applies on a personal level also, along with the idea that if gold really does go to the stratosphere in fiat terms, it would be a safe bet that the power of the state will want what you have at the point of a gun.
Some seem to have forgotten that we are still in the Year of the Golden Dragon - and the tail end of the Dragon is very powerful.
"Name The New Reserve Currency..."
PONZUANS!
Meet the new boss - same as the old boss.
Unfortunately for the chinese, you cannot build aircraft carriers out of gold.
i think the argument that a change over of global reserve currency status will happen smoothly, from dollar to yuan, is absurd. it won't happen smoothly.
people say the transition from pound to dollar was smooth, without admitting the debt incurred by britian in world war II---resulted in bretton woods and everything that followed 'smoothly' from bretton woods until the IMF was forced to bail out london.
so too---a fairly large conflict will be required to unseat the dollar. a conflict where a friendly creditor is forced to lend the u.s. even MORE money----to win the next big conflict, from which it will emerge as a country with a nearly dying global reserve currency.
I do not think that is the case. this will not happen soon. and china , with all the gold it wants, is not going to suddenly bully the dollar off its pedastal.
what is the prognosis ? multiple competing currencies on the world stage? we already have 'competiting currencies. but in the end, only one can be king.
long live king dollar.
I do not think that is the case. this will not happen soon. and china , with all the gold it wants, is not going to suddenly bully the dollar off its pedastal.
I do not think it will have to BULLY it off, with all the nations except Western, going their own way, which would you prefer ?.
One backed by Gold, or backed by NOTHING.
TFFACOfTUSG is no longer going to be the GO TO.
http://www.kitco.com/charts/popup/au0365nyb_.html
Like China, I am worried about the dollar ponzi, I have stepped up my purchases of physical silver!