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.
Hot water and soap is what I used to use on black powder muzzle loaders. SMELLY yeck. I just use nitro and oil on the old primers in my modern guns.
After I posted I realized that Berlin was a composer and now a decomposer. I had an uncle who was a conductor for Norfolk Southern. But now he is a decomposer too.
The nuance is maddening.
Or worse yet, potted meat.
In somebody elses name
There. Think about that for awhile.
The same thing would be true for ordinary dirt from Mars....
Just as arbitrary as paper money, when looked at that way.
Gold really is of limited use. Decoration, some electrical connectors.
Platinum, in contrast, has serious industrial uses.
About $150 billion.
Well, if you obtain and quantify dirt from Mars, we’ll probably look at that, too.
Hey!
You can’t eat gold!
Can’t eat spam either, but that’s another story...
;-)
Paper money can be counterfeited. Gold cannot be counterfeited, gold survives all rot, gold can be divided up in amazing small amounts.
No other metal — not platinum, not silver, not palladium, not black gold (rhodium), or any other metal can make those claims.
Gold is the perfect measure of economic currency, and value storage. It is not arbitrary to pick it for that highly valuable use. And history agrees, even if present spirit of the times does not.
Besides, we are off paper money now. It’s all electronic ledger entries.
Couldn’t be identified as dirt from Mars, and this subject to counterfeiting. I do have some lunar rocks for sale of that same type, by the way. They are worn down and rounded from all the cosmic rays too.
Golden pills — http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1024865/Medicine-going-gold-experts-rediscover-ancient-properties-precious-metal.html
Ammo will last for many decades in stored correctly.
How much gold in Fort Knox is still the question.
I use gold to buy potted meat because bugs are free. Spam is a delicacy in Hawaii.
Just to set some ballpark figures:
The US Mint’s blurb figure for US holdings in Fort Knox gives 147.3 million oz, which is 4,600 toms.
http://money.howstuffworks.com/question213.htm gives a value of 1,555 tons of gold production a year, as of recent years — the article is undated but references a spot price of $256 an doz. Maybe 1998-2000.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Cash4Gold-How-Much-Gold-Is-Left-To-Mine-In-America gives a total gold ever mined figure of 158,000 tons, as of 2006. Where’d they get that figure? Unknown, but it’s consistent with other estimates of that total, from Wiki, Kitco, etc.
Wiki gives total US gold holdings as 8,134 tons. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_gold_reserves
But the key question is where’s the independent audit?
It’s OUR gold.
All the gold in Fort Kox is there. The owners of the gold know who they are. Mostly the Chicoms.
Do you work for Geithner or the Fed? That answer is up to par with them. Not with me. Shouldn’t be for anyone.
The answer is several levels above the question. How many grains of sand are on Virginia Beach and what is their origin?
I need the answer now!
Get off your high horse and walk a while.
If you don't have the solution, you're part of the problem. I can see the Obama stickers on your 74 Ford Maverick now. I can't read that worn out ecology sticker though, due to the soot.
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