Selling Gold at Fort Knox Emerges as Next Big Question in Debate on Federal Debt Limit

The New York Sun ^ | May 17, 2011 | David Pietrusza

[Mariner]

This is one of the dumbest ideas I have heard in a long time.

We should DEFAULT on the debt and issue a new currency back by that gold.

[ml/nj]

Of course, the implied assumption is that the government hasn't been selling the Ft. Knox gold. Judging by what happened to the price of gold during the Geeenspan years when gold essentially held its dollar price in the $350-$400 range, I would think this only would happen if there were a big seller looking to control the price in a narrow range. And there aren't many big sellers who might want to keep the gold price in a narrow range.

ML/NJ

[dusttoyou]

klintoon gold plated tungsten bars.

[Venturer]

HMMMMMMM What would we sell when all the gold was gone?

[tbw2]

Good idea on the nuclear power plants. It also has the benefit of being a location with good security and infrastructure. Especially military bases in the middle of nowhere.

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

Where is all the gold stolen from bank deposit boxes back in the 1933 timeframe?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102

[grey_whiskers]

Kind of like a gold-bug version of Beau Geste.

Cheers!

[hinckley buzzard]

The idea of selling gold to pay off debt is a relic from the pre-Nixon era. In 1970 when Nixon closed the gold window to defeat an economic terrorist attack by France, The link between the dollar and gold was forever broken. We could hypothetically go broke even with the vaults of Ft Knox bursting with bullion, and no creditor could do anything about it.

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

50 Examples Of Governmant Waste

[hinckley buzzard]

Yep. The tenth ounce $5 gold piece is just about that size.

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

Is There Gold in Fort Knox?

by Constance Gustke | Jan 20, 2010 | 10 Comments

Protected by a 109,000-acre U.S. Army post in Kentucky sits one of the Federal Reserve’s most secure assets and its only gold depository: the 73-year-old Fort Knox vault. Its glittering gold bricks, totaling 147.3 million ounces (that’s about $168 billion at current prices), are stacked inside massive granite walls topped with a bombproof roof. Or are they?

It’s hard to know for sure. Few people have been inside Fort Knox, a highly classified bunker ringed by fences and multiple alarms and guarded by Apache helicopter gunships. When the U.S. finished building Fort Knox in 1937, the gold was shipped in on a special nine-car train manned by machine gunners and loaded onto Army trucks protected by a U.S. Cavalry brigade. And the fort has been pretty much off limits since then. A U.S. Mint spokesman said in an email statement to MoneyWatch that the accounting firm KPMG, which audits the Mint, “has been present in the vault at Fort Knox.” The Mint won’t comment on exactly how much gold is in there, though.

That’s why Ron Paul (R-Texas), a 2008 presidential candidate known for his libertarian streak, wants to have a look around. Paul introduced a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, which includes Fort Knox’s gold. “My attitude is, let’s just find out what’s there,” he says.

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/article/is-there-gold-in-fort-knox/385523/

[hinckley buzzard]

In the present era central banks routinely make gold transactions in the hundreds of tons. Four hundred tons is a conventional "round lot," like 100 shares of stock for us microbes.

In the thirties, governments routinely made payments in gold for public debts to foreign powers. If the US paid out some billions in gold to, say, Germany in 1937, it would have been an ordinary transaction and raised no eyebrows at all. It was a different world back then.

[RockinRight]

The deal would, for my approval, have to stipulate sale to a US citizen or US registered company.

[Carry_Okie]

I think Ron Paul knows there isn't any more gold left at Ft. Knox...he is just trying to bait them into admitting it.

My guess is it's there, but we're paying to store it for the actual "owners."

[NoLibZone]

Sell New York and California.

[RockinRight]

Who constitutes the “deadheads?”

[abb]

Approximately 38% of the federal payroll. The same percentages apply to state and local government.

[RockinRight]

Dumbass.

[RockinRight]

Just curious...why 38%?

[Future Useless Eater]

The U.S. also owns an ENORMOUS amount of real estate PROPERTY!

The feds should AUCTION off MOST unnecessary property before attempting to RAISE the DEBT LIMIT.