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Posted on 07/25/2026 3:01:50 PM PDT by delta7
I’ve got some fantastic news.
We don’t need to worry about that Fort Knox gold audit anymore.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent assured us all the gold is there.
His comments came during an interview on Fox News. Host Jesse Watters asked the Treasury Secretary point-blank, “Have you visited Fort Knox?”
"I haven't. People on my staff have. The treasurer has been to Fort Knox, and I'm happy to say all gold is present and accounted for."
There you have it. The fox guarding the henhouse says the hens are all accounted for.
Case closed!
Or maybe not.
Consider this: would you trust a bank that never conducted an external audit?
Would you trust a bank that insisted a thorough audit wasn't even necessary because "everything is fine?"
Would you trust a bank that constantly says, "Trust me!"
You shouldn’t.
Audits serve a variety of functions. In the first place, they catch honest mistakes. Second, they ensure that the players in control of assets and reporting on the organization’s financial dealings are operating above board. Any business that does not implement a regular and rigorous external audit program should be viewed with suspicion.
Now, if you ask, the powers-that-be will assure you that the Fort Knox gold has been thoroughly audited. That’s a little like the kid who stuffed all his dirty clothes under the bed claiming that his room is thoroughly cleaned.
No Real Audit
If you ask anybody in the government, they will tell you the gold has been audited.
It has not.
Not in any meaningful way since at least the 1970s.
Now, there was a TV show posing as an audit.
In 1974, the government put together a publicity stunt in the name of an audit. The U.S. Treasury opened just one of its 15 Fort Knox vault compartments to politicians and reporters to view the gold and confirm its existence.
Matthew Cortez described this dog-and-pony show:
For about two hours, multiple film and camera crews and smiling politicians filed into a hallway for the chance to hold a gold bar and peek into a room full of gold stacked up to the ceiling.
On their way out, each visitor had to pass by a metal inspector to ensure that none of the gold bars were being snuck out in the process.
Notably, throughout the visit, none of the bars being passed around were matched to a serial number, assayed or tested for purity, or even verified as part of the United States’ holdings. (Foreign countries have at times stored gold there as well.)
It seems the made-for-TV spectacle in 1974 was more of a pep rally than any credible proof of what the amount of U.S. gold purported to be in So, yeah. That's not an audit. It's political propaganda.
In a proper audit, every bar would be counted and inspected. Serial numbers would be matched to records. The gold would be assayed to verify its weight and purity. And the details of the audit would be published and available for public inspection.
None of that has happened.
Following the 1974 publicity stunt, the U.S. Treasury says it conducted a multi-year process of opening and inventorying vault compartments and affixing new tamper-evident seals to the doors of each compartment upon completion.
They call these audits.
They are not.
These so-called audits failed to meet basic transparency or accounting standards.
Some reports have since gone missing, and there is no record of comprehensive assaying, weighing, or transactional history available to the public.
Furthermore, there is evidence that seals on vault compartments have been broken over the years, bars have been moved for unknown reasons, and seals have been re-affixed without fresh auditing. Subsequent annual reviews of the schedules of compartment seals simply whitewash prior discrepancies.
In sum, the U.S. Treasury's management of U.S. gold reserves is replete with audit "no-nos" that would never pass muster at a responsibly run private depository.
If You Have Nothing to Hide...
The other curious thing is that anytime somebody like me says we should audit the Fort Knox gold, a bunch of government apologists come out and indignantly insist, “We don’t need to!” And then they attack me like I’m some kind of kook for even suggesting such a thing.
I guess I can understand if you opposed an audit due to the cost or some other practical reason. I can't understand why you would become indignant at the mere suggestion of an audit. That's not normal behavior.
Maybe it’s just me, but when somebody gets all upset when I suggest checking their work, I suspect their work might not be up to par.
I mean, think about it; you don’t have anything to hide, why wouldn’t you want the gold holdings to be verified? What’s the harm in an audit? Why this insistence that it isn’t necessary (when audits are necessary in every other business setting)?
In fact, if I were running a gold depository, I'd be clamoring for a public audit, if for no other reason than to calm the public fears. I would want people to know everything is on the up-and-up. The only reason I would resist an audit is if I knew I was hiding something.
So, what's it going to be?
Are we going to take Bessent's word for it? Or is somebody finally going to step up and do the right thing
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> “Have you visited Fort Knox?” “I haven’t. People on my staff have.” <
In other words, some guy told some other guy.
Good enough for me.
Not.
A few Polaroids wouldn’t hurt.
Fine. Now, let’s audit the Federal Reserve.
Surely they don’t have a problem with that.
Your bank just telephoned. They won’t be sending you any further monthly account statements but “Trust us, all your money is still in the bank.”
I remember the movie, “Dumb and Dumber.” The heroes had a briefcase full of signed IOU’s. They assured, “That’s as good as money, Sir. These are IOU’s!”
SHOW ME THE MONEY!
Reminds me of My Cousin Vinny when Pesci is trying to collect the $200 from Lisa’s pool game.
“How do I know that’s not a bunch of ones with a twenty wrapped around them?”
Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.
Yes. I am going to take Scott Bessent’s word. Bessent is a very impressive man with outstanding career accomplishments. His service as treasury secretary is as a patriot, since he has and could make many multiples of his salary as treasurer.
Yeah okay,👍
I suppose a lot of people will take this as gospel truth, if only because of their faith that President Trump picks only absolutely honest, wise and brilliant people for his Cabinet.
Probably also an attempt by the fiat printers to lower the price of gold; Can’t stand the competition.
I believe that the United States holds a lot of gold. Our own and foreign holdings.
I think that during the Cold War our holdings were dispersed from Ft. Knox into many other places. Underground places safe from Soviet attacks. Famous Ft. Knox is an attractive target for our enemies. (see the Goldfinger Bond movie, 1964).
Why would the United States store all their golden eggs in one basket?
Logic says the United States does not hold our precious metal holdings in just Ft. Knox. And we haven’t for decades since the Cold War.
No one can go to Ft. Knox to inventory our gold. Most of it ain’t there. It is disbursed across dozens or hundreds of locations.
Use your ‘eed.
Focus, people.
Banking is the Holy Grail of the deep state cabal. It’s everything.
If you expect Bessent to just come out and tell us all the details, then you don’t understand the complexity of the situation.
I love that scene. Love that movie. See my post at #12.
heck, ill settle for a crayon drawing of it
Chump Change compared to the National Debt [and the other off the books liabilities].
Eliot Ness: “Mr. Capone have you engaged in illegal alcohol sales, illegal gambling, prostitution, etc.”
Mr. Capone: “Certainly not Mr. Ness. That is all illegal.”
Mr. Ness: “Uh okay. We are done here now. I wish there was a place to buy a beer.”
Mr. Capone: “Perhaps I can help you with that.”
Look at the guys who robbed the Louvre in broad daylight.
The Louvre isn’t guarded by tank battalions.
Rosland Capital was also highly lauded and so respectfully criterializeredly staffed trustingly so, yet they bamboozled their depositers.
The feds have all our money????
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