Posted on 03/29/2009 11:07:39 AM PDT by bvw
Sorry, not taking Wikipedia as a source. Nor are spurious "conspiracy theory" comments welcomed. It's an honest question.
Answers should cite primary sources and such primary sources should cite date and type of audit. I also expand this question to include all US stores, where the gold is owned by the US.
Answers must distinguish between "holding" and "ownership", the question is to ownership!
I note that a great failing of our times is that people do not know how to keep books anymore, and even less how to audit. Too many make assumptions, or give a cheap pass to references that are poor, weak, secondary, misread, and often false in detail, as sources.
Sorry, young pervert, but that butt takes one to Wiki, which is not a primary source.
Yes, that’s a great idea too — also for fishing weights.
Do you think the US Mint is a bad source?
If so this link provides the answer:
http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/fun_facts/index.cfm?flash=no&action=fun_facts13
Helpful, but looking for more primary source stuff. Especially on audits.
--it's mostly available , dependent on what amount of paper or whatever you trade for it, subject to the holder's wishes--
No that’s no the answer. Too vague. Yes, it is close to a primary source, but it does not specifically speak either to ownership or audit records.
I was taught to read financial statements from the back to the front. The last thing in a financial is the auditor’s statement — who, where, when, how.
That US Mint web site is just a blurb.
I saw a TV show about this approx. a year ago. Can’t remember where. Maybe PBS or History Channel. They went thru all the myths and stories. Basically trashed the conspiracy theories. They said how much gold was there, but I can’t remember what they said. Some of it is not owned by us. They apparently store gold and jewels, etc. for a few foreign nations there. In one case, the nation in question sent their crown jewels to Fort Knox in order to protect them from dictators who’d overthrown the government about 60 or so years ago. They did an inventory (in the 70’s???). They interviewed the guys who did it. Because of the conspiracy theories, Congress sent a bunch of pols to Fort Knox to see if the gold was really still there. They came out with big smiles on their faces, saying stuff like “Wow!”
Irving Belin was a pretty good conductor.
I am not asserting anything. I’m looking for real data. That is all.
Yep. I admit it. So what? FR is full of smart people, experts in their fields. It’s a honest question.
OK. What is the square root of Texas?
Yes I saw that too. Not the same as a audit though. Dog and pony.
but the value of gold is in dollars, and as a method of barter, less interesting than food, liquor or ammunition.
> Actually, gold is an average conductor at best and silver is the best.
Gold is used on contacts for 2 reasons: 1) it does not corrode or tarnish, and 2) it is the only common metal that will not form a semiconductor PN junction.
There is, currently, no answer to you question.
Please try again when the sheeple give a . .. shoot, spilled my coffee.
Food liquor and ammo all spoil.
Although I have eaten thirty year old Civil Defense bisquits, and drank liquor older than that, and I know that ammo can last years — but not forever. Chemistry in those modern explosive formulations maybe be slow, but it goes on.
For the most part no one wants to eat food older than a few months — doesn’t taste very good. And no one wants ammo from WWI, except to dispose of it.
But a gold coin dug up from 3 thousand years ago is still almost as good as the day it was minted.
“the value of gold is based on psychiatry and not economics or physics or any such.”
Then you obviously don’t understand the economics of gold.
Let me help you with that.
Gold is a storage of wealth because it cannot be so easily created and costs lots of money to obtain.
There. Think about that for awhile.
I have been listenng to the book the Power of Gold that details the history of gold and monetary policy. It sounds dreary and boring but is really quite interesting.
It turns out that in the basement of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, there were vaults parceled out to various countries and in which was stored their gold. That is, the gold was the property of sovereign governments.
This gold was used when necessary to settle the balances in international trade. If it became necessary for France to settle with America, gold bars would be moved from one vault to the other and then proper accounting entries would be made between the central banks and the local banks.
In times of unrest, gold would depart the uneasy country and come to America, to the Federal Reserve Bank, for safe keeping.
In 1973, we went off the gold standard and physically moving gold bars around became unnecessary. What happened to the gold?
Is is still in the bowels of the Fed of NY?
(The last disk became corrupted and I didn’t get to hear the ending)
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