The Dragons Hoard--300 billion in Gold Sits Idle in U.S vaults

I do know that much has been posted and written about gold on ATS. However, I thought this article was interesting and worthwhile, especially in light of an apparent effort to drive gold prices through the roof. However, I am hesitant to speculate too much, as I must acknowledge my own limited understanding of finance.

So I post this in hopes that those with a firmer grasp of Austrian Economic Theory, and Keynesian Economics, and/or whatever other economic theory one may have would have a go at this.

www.theatlantic.com...

All of course, please feel free to discuss.

As this is my first thread, mods feel free to delete if this has already been posted (I couldn't find it), or move to the appropriate forum.

Kind regards all

Sorry mate,
Me and plenty of others think that this reported gold reserve has all but dwindled, it has been sold off in private, duplicated with gold plated tungsten bars and even some of them have been sold on. Truth is without an audit, joe soap will never know what is in the vaults and they will NEVER agree to being audited. Go figure.......

PEACE,
RK

reply to post by Rigel Kent


That very well could be, I would not be surprised. If you have any info or leads on that I would be interested.

Thanks

reply to post by redhorse



[url=http://numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=25824]> Perhaps this link will help? click here

1. Many question whether that gold is even in the US' government possession anymore. There is a lot of evidence that makes that question very plausible.

2. $300 Billion... IF the feds still possess that gold, uhm... yay? It can finance the government for what, 26 days? The 2013 *ahem* "budget" has $3.3 Trillion of expenditures in it. Now, if the suggestion was to block the government from borrowing and cut them off from the tax payers' mistreated teat and tell them "Here, take this $300 Billion in gold and figure out how to run the nation on it or get out." I'd be all for it. Hell, I'd be outside dancing in the street over it.

3. If the feds did dump $300 Billion in physical gold, the resulting crash in gold values would likely be counter productive, with quite a few Americans suddenly declaring investment losses on their physical gold holdings, tax revenue could very well exceed the stick price for the federal sell off.

burdman30ott6
1. Many question whether that gold is even in the US' government possession anymore. There is a lot of evidence that makes that question very plausible.

2. $300 Billion... IF the feds still possess that gold, uhm... yay? It can finance the government for what, 26 days? The 2013 *ahem* "budget" has $3.3 Trillion of expenditures in it. Now, if the suggestion was to block the government from borrowing and cut them off from the tax payers' mistreated teat and tell them "Here, take this $300 Billion in gold and figure out how to run the nation on it or get out." I'd be all for it. Hell, I'd be outside dancing in the street over it.

3. If the feds did dump $300 Billion in physical gold, the resulting crash in gold values would likely be counter productive, with quite a few Americans suddenly declaring investment losses on their physical gold holdings, tax revenue could very well exceed the stick price for the federal sell off.

I'm willing to bet that if the vaults at Ft. Knox were opened for inspection, the only thing that auditors would find would be a stack of virtually worthless I.O.U's in the form of US Treasury Bonds.

Cynical? Me?!

redhorse, I found it interesting that you said ' in light of an apparent effort to drive gold prices through the roof.'

There certainly has been an effort over the past decade to keep the price of GLD shares, XAU credits and other gold derivatives rising along with the value of physical gold, in order to keep the paper gold market and physical gold market linked together as one.

Central banks however don't hold GLD shares or XAU credits, only physical gold. They value the two markets differently, when the paper gold price finally comes crashing down this difference will be out in the open. What will physical gold be worth then? What will China pay for U.S. treasury gold? The current U.S. treasury listed price $42.22/Oz, the future crashed price $350/Oz, the old paper price higher levels around $1650/Oz, the physical only central bank wealth trading price $42220/Oz?

I think this is why the guy who wrote that article is getting such 'weird' answers and conflicting conclusions. Gold is useless economically but priceless as wealth.

"Wealth is simple. It is literally anything physical that you can possess or at least own unambiguously. Tradable wealth is that which many people value similarly, therefore it is tradable. Durability makes some forms of tradable wealth a better store of value than others which can decay and perish over time. Common forms of durable tradable wealth include fine art, antiques, classic cars and many other collectible hard assets.
. . . . . . .
Currency issuing governments like the USG can simply spend money into existence. The credibility of this common government system is generally maintained by three government abilities—the ability to tax, the ability to borrow and the ability to sell off or rent out public assets. To such an entity, the differences between windfall profits taxing gold miners and selling off public gold that is already in the vault are minimal. So if you believe that they will let all that newly mined gold hit the market for just a little extra revenue, you should also believe that they will simply sell their existing gold reserves outright in exchange for the same cash that they can print."
What is Gold?

the only 'roof' the price od gold is going through is the roof of a Lean To or tent canopy
[in the short term it is going to 1100-1150$ not 1900-2500$ ]


the well heeled elites (GS JPM et al) are pushing down the price of gold/PM so as to increase the apparent value of the garbage USD (FRN)


i do hope the 'Masters-of-the-Universe' (gold & silver Futures traders subset) keep pushing the paper, hence retail, price of gold & silver even lower~~~~~
at least until i hoard my desired 500 oz's of silver at under $20 USD a troy Oz


then they can default and let the price of silver/gold skyrocket against the fairytale value of the USD


another year plus will do me on silver

but i may just stop my gold acquisitions some 68 shares short of my goal...just because i druther buy silver assets which might have a greater increase of value % than gold.....
especially against the soon to be collapsed-unwanted- & (soon to be) hyper-inflated USD that is losing all global faith & credibility as a reserve currency


hey - my profile says i am a gold-bug ,,,,but i'm a rational gold bug !