Posted on 01/16/2013 2:16:56 PM PST by Former Proud Canadian
While moustachioed managers, contrary to the far better insight of their superiors, and mainstream spivs are trying to talk down Germany's somewhat stunning shift in thinking - i.e. to repatriate its gold - as nothing but political pandering (or cost-saving); it seems, just as we predicted, the rest of the world are seeing this crack-in-the-confidence-armor the same way we have suggested. As we noted here, the first party to defect from the prisoner's dilemma of all the bulk of global gold being held by the Fed, defects best (then the second, or even the third perhaps) and sure enough, via RTL, we see the Dutch CDA party has requested that Holland's gold supply be repatriated. Who next?
The Dutch government says it has 612 tonnes of gold - with a value of around E24 billion - and is thereby in the top 10 of countries with gold reserves. The bulk of the Dutch gold reserves is in America and, to a lesser extent, in Canada and the United Kingdom. The rest, about 10 percent, is in Amsterdam.
The announcement was this morning, and the gold bugs were pretty excited. But when it came, it was pretty disappointing. Germany will start bringing its gold back from NY and Paris, but it will do so very slowly, in small yearly installments.
Barry must have leaned on Angela Merkel.
Leaned on or gave her fashion tips?
The gun debate is not only a gun grab (never waste a good crises), but it's also a distraction. The economy is about to get hit hard, and the Oboma administration is working on finding a way to blame it on fiscal conservatives. They're going to use the debt celing as their excuse, because most people don't understand what a debt celing is. Be prepared for this.
We have a lot of troops there. We send a lot of money their way. If we were to pull out all our troops, Germany would not only lose a huge part of their economy, they'd lose the additional defense.
Yeah. I think someone got a phone call.
Perhaps the Dutch will settle for some tulip bulbs? So valuable. Look at the pretty flowers!
US military presence in Germany does not constitute “a huge part of [Germany’s] economy.” A welcome part, no doubt, but a very small part.
Conversely, the US would lose strategic bases close(r) to all the Mid East trouble spots. Including medical facilities used to treat troops wounded in Afghanistan etc.
The respective interests are pretty even, I’d say.
.
In most cases, the thoughts are NOT complimentary, IMHO.
Why, indeed? Repatriating gold reserves is something a country preparing to go to war does, and I highly doubt Germany is preparing for war. Maybe they think we’re planning on stealing it?
So what other weapon could Oboma use. I couldn't think of anything else he could use on them, but I'm not that well versed in German affairs - obviously.
LAST GOLD AUDIT...by Arthur Anderson, right?
The bottom line here, I suspect that when Germany first asked for its gold back, it got a runaround, excuses why its gold could not be returned “right now”.
This was actually the third really huge red flag. The first was when it was noted that the public gold repositories in the Forex were not returning “original gold” that had been deposited with them, but “just any old gold”, to make good on its calls.
The second was after the hurricane, which was quickly used to justify not returning the gold “right now” again.
So Germany is probably so desperate to get its gold that it is willing to take partial payment, and the promise that it will eventually get all its gold back.
This current bunch in the administration, FED and treasury are so flaky that they might very well decide to either refuse to return it, or send Germany obvious fakes, then lie saying they were genuine when we sent them.
“And what will you do about it? Go to war with us?”
Thanks for posting. Very interesting. Also, at zero hedge...
It Will Take The Fed Seven Years To Deliver 300 Tons Of German Gold
HOORAY Tyler Durden and the fantastic posters at zero hedge.
Or they suspect it doesn't exist.
Perhaps the Germans and Dutch watched this...
“How much of your wealth is allocated as zeroes and ones on computer servers? How much is physical, in your possession and defensible? If you can’t stand in front of it with an assault rifle and physically defend it, it’s not really yours.”
Around 4:00 minute mark...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfcSHlkDRLA
A reasonable fear. I’d check the serial numbers and weight of the returning bars if I were the Germans. There have been a lot of gold bars that were just plated tungsten being passed around lately.
All aboard the gold train...(sorry O’Jays)...music to read this thread by... (H/T zh posters)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvsAqkOhI48
Canada Ping!
I don’t think it’s completely unwise to question the stability of the US. if my country’s assets were held by a power of questionable stability I’d want to bring it home too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.