Central banks, the people who gave us fiat currency, have been net buyers of gold for 8 years. Far and away the biggest buy is the Peoples Bank of China. But it is just a "barbarous relic" after all.
Posted on 03/03/2016 10:29:50 AM PST by blam
Tyler Durden
March 3, 2016
One month ago, when looking at the latest Canadian official international reserves, we noticed something strange: Canada had sold nearly half of its gold reserves in one month. According to the February data, total Canadian gold reserves stood at 1.7 tonnes. That was just 0.1 per cent of the country’s total reserves, which also include foreign currency deposits and bonds.
As we noted, the decision to sell came from Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s office.
“Canada’s gold reserves belong to the Government of Canada, and are held under the name of the Minister of Finance,” explained a spokesperson for the Bank of Canada on Wednesday. “Decisions relative to gold holdings are taken by the Minister of Finance.” Reached by Global News on Wednesday evening, a spokesperson for the finance department said the sale “was done in the normal course of business for the government. The decision to sell the gold was not tied to a specific gold price, and sales are being conducted over a long period and in a controlled manner.”
This latest sell-off is indeed part of a much longer-term pattern of moving away from gold as a government-held asset. According to economist Ian Lee of the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, Ottawa has no real reason to keep its gold reserves other than adhering to tradition.
"Under the old system, (gold) backed up currencies,” Lee explained. “The U.S. dollar was tied to gold. One ounce was worth US$35. Then in 1971, for lots of reasons I won’t get into, Richard Nixon took the United States off the gold standard.”
Gold and dollars were interchangeable until that point, he said, but in the modern financial world, the metal is no longer considered a form of currency.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
If that is the case, they’re now busy selling it off to support their currency.
“Because THE WORLD still values gold as currency........”
Yep. Pretty sure if I offer a contractor, or limo driver, or even my tax accountant gold coins for their services, they would gladly accept it. I guess you could say that is just barter, but those same people wouldn’t accept a goat or a coupon for 10 foot massages :)
Not if there are time travelers among us.
“Texas establishes own gold depository independent of Federal Reserve”
https://www.rt.com/usa/267916-texas-independent-gold-depository/
Russia understands it too.
Well, it's warming up again so it should be moving soon.
Central banks, the people who gave us fiat currency, have been net buyers of gold for 8 years. Far and away the biggest buy is the Peoples Bank of China. But it is just a "barbarous relic" after all.
“Next year, we’ll tax all IRA money over $50K at 25%; they’re rich anyway.”
If you are in the 15% bracket, retired and drawing social security, the social security ramp makes your IRA withdrawals taxed at over 25%.
Bear market bottom signal.
There are rumors that Ft Knox is empty, but the government continues to guard it to maintain the charade.
I haven’t watch it this season..................
Still great. The kid is doing good.
Good to know.
What’s Tony doing with his floating dredge?....................
Tony and his dredge are lagging behind. He is going to finish a distant third this year. Under a $million. The other two teams near $3 million.
... waiting...
Nope, never met one.
Great!...................I’ll haveta catch the reruns!.................
Goldbug ping.
I moved gold at Fort Knox in 1977 as temporary labor supporting a GAO / Treasury audit. There was quite a lot there. We moved / audited 47,000 bars that were in the 27# range. This was supposedly about 10%, which felt right, given all the sub vaults (we moved gold out of 2).
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