Gold Drain at the New York Fed: Where's It Going?

Townhall.com ^ | December 7, 2014 | Mike Shedlock

[Kaslin]

Nick at Sharelynx Gold, also known as Gold Charts "R" Us emailed an interesting chart last week showing gold drain at the New York Fed.



Earmarked gold dropped 42 tonnes for the month of October as foreign countries repatriate their gold home.

Here's a link to Earmarked Gold with a second chart that shows all Fed holdings.

Gold Charts "R" Us has 1,000's of pages and over 10,000 charts on a subscription basis, but you can check out the site for free until December 14. Click on the first link at the top for a look.

Where's the Gold Going?

This was the largest monthly drawdown in 13 years and the largest series of drawdowns since 2007 (drawdowns in red on above chart).
So, where's the gold going? Three answers:

Germany

Koos Jansen at BullionStar reports German Gold Repatriation Accelerating.

That article is interesting because it takes to task extremely sloppy Bloomberg reporting regarding German golf repatriation.

Netherlands

On November 21, Jansen reported Netherlands Has Repatriated 122.5t Gold From US.

The Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), has repatriated in utmost secret 122.5 tonnes of gold from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) to its vaults in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, according to a press release from DNB published today (November 21).
DNB states it has changed allocation policy from 11 % in Amsterdam, 51 % at the FRBNY, 20 % in Canada and 18 % at the Bank Of England (BOE); to 31 % in Amsterdam, 31 % at the FRBNY, 20 % in Canada and 18 % at the BOE. According to the World Gold Council’s latest data DNB has 612.5 tonnes in official gold reserves.



Belgium

Yesterday, Jansen reported Belgium Investigating To Repatriate All Gold Reserves.

Countries want their gold back. Who can blame them?

[Vendome]

No. Actual story.

I know one of the attorney’s on the case.

I’ll try to find it later.

[mdmathis6]

How much gold of any type is owned by the US population at large?

The reason I ask this is because if there is an international call for all Gold owned by non US countries to be returned to those said countries...and that gold is found missing, would not a desperate US government attempt to shake down the domestic populace for the gold (right down to wedding rings and heirloom jewelry)?

[terycarl]

I cannot believe that rational human beings still believe that their currency that they use in everyday commerce has ANYTHING to do with the pretty, malleable METAL called gold...who the hell cares???????

[terycarl]

Indeed! China bought up 50% of the world's supply!!! China has 50% of the world's population.

I say let China have it all...then it would be totally worthless other than for its use in industry.....then we could offer $1,000 per ton for the pretty metal...

[grumpygresh]

“... and that gold is found missing, would not a desperate US government attempt to shake down the domestic populace for the gold (right down to wedding rings and heirloom jewelry)?”

Maybe. Like the Nazis took gold teeth from the Jews in the death camps. I sort of doubt this would happen as long as there is a functioning 2nd amendment. Too many people would hide their gold, others might give gold plated zinc fakes (yes you can buy these), and then run. Others would give them lead; center body mass or to the head.

[Smokin' Joe]

It has been a central tenet of the Left that it is nothing more than a metal historically favored by the unenlightened.

LOL! Even accepting that premise, there never has been a shortage of 'unenlightened' people, so gold will retain value.

[Elsie]

What I meant was no one went door to door and collected it at gun point, it was basically voluntary although ordered.

Like our moderate, voluntary Federal Income taxes; right?

---

MAke him an offer he can't refuse.

[Elsie]

I’d like to which nation is NOT a debtor.

[Elsie]

the unilateral cancellation of the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold.

Even more:

...to then be given to other countries.

[Elsie]

... would not a desperate US government attempt to shake down the domestic populace for the gold (right down to wedding rings and heirloom jewelry)?

No; we'd merely default on our payments; just like a multitude of countries HAVE DONE TO US.

[Elsie]

I agree! (at least on THIS point ;^)

[Elsie]

What costs MORE than gold now per ounce?

[Smokin' Joe]

Of more readily traded commodities, Rhodium, meth, and Cocaine come to mind...

[familyop]

Almost off-topic heads-up here. WTI oil price is $62.70 at the time of this comment. Future is $62.54.

[blam]

Thanks.

I read sometime back that if oil prices go below $75 a barrel and stay there for any length of time that the world economy would collapse.

Collapse?

I think the slow crash we're already in is causing the oil price to deflate...anyway, what do I know.

[familyop]

"I read sometime back that if oil prices go below $75 a barrel and stay there for any length of time that the world economy would collapse.

Collapse?

I think the slow crash we're already in is causing the oil price to deflate...anyway, what do I know. "

You know what's happening. Well said. Also, with the current oil price war, producers are tapping each other out. That is, many of them are depending on loans to keep going, and investors can only stand certain amounts of risk. If it keeps up, production will slow, possibly with much higher oil prices in the future.