Are Central Banks Overstating their Gold Holdings?

Romania has demanded for many years that Russia return its gold.

Last year, Venezuela demanded the return of 90 tons of gold from the Bank of England.

As everyone knows, the German high court ruled that Germany must audit its gold reserves held in foreign countries such as the U.S., England and France. And German inspectors will actually travel to the New York Federal Reserve Bank’s gold depository and the Bank of England to inspect their gold.

Germany will also repatriate 150 tons of gold in order to test it for purity.

Germany’s not the only country. As Zero Hedge notes (quoting Bloomberg):

Ecuador's government wants the nation's banks to repatriate about one third of their foreign holdings to support national growth, the head of the country's tax agency said.

Carlos Carrasco, director of the tax agency known as the SRI, said today that Ecuador's lenders could repatriate about $1.7 billion and still fulfill obligations to international clients. Carrasco spoke at a congressional hearing in Quito on a government proposal to raise taxes on banks to finance cash subsidies to the South American nation's poor.

Some people in the Netherlands want their gold back as well.

Jim Willie says that the gold is gone.

The fact that CNBC head editor John Carney is arguing that it doesn’t matter whether or not the Fed has the gold does not exactly inspire confidence.

Gerald Celente notes:

It's not only Germany (who's gold is missing), it's the United Sates, it's all of the countries. Nobody knows what's in Fort Knox. They won't let anybody in. Where's the gold in the United States? How come we can't go in and look in Fort Knox?

***

How come the people can't have a reading? How come we can't look at it? How come politicians can't get in there? How come no one can get in there? The gold does not exist. All this does is confirm what so many of us already know, “The Emperor has no gold.”

Egon von Greyerz – founder and managing partner at Matterhorn Asset Management – agrees:

There probably isn't anywhere near the central bank gold (governments claim they possess).

Ron Paul has called for an audit of Fort Knox, based upon the suspicion by many that the gold was sold off years ago:

Others allege that the gold has not been sold outright, but has been leased or encumbered, so that the U.S. does not own it outright.

Read the rest of the article

George Washington blogs at Washington’s Blog.

The Best of George Washington

$post_author: WP_User Object
(
    [data] => stdClass Object
        (
            [ID] => 2178
            [user_login] => george-washington
            [user_pass] => babc78ae4bc88e4c96669afebe729a8f
            [user_nicename] => george-washington
            [user_email] => [email protected]
            [user_url] => 
            [user_registered] => 2012-11-02 08:11:15
            [user_activation_key] => 
            [user_status] => 0
            [display_name] => George Washington
            [type] => wpuser
        )

    [ID] => 2178
    [caps] => Array
        (
            [contributor] => 1
        )

    [cap_key] => wp_capabilities
    [roles] => Array
        (
            [0] => contributor
        )

    [allcaps] => Array
        (
            [edit_posts] => 1
            [read] => 1
            [level_1] => 1
            [level_0] => 1
            [delete_posts] => 1
            [email_single_user] => 1
            [contributor] => 1
        )

    [filter] => 
    [site_id:WP_User:private] => 1
)

get_the_author_meta: 

$bio: 

$bios: Array
(
)