Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Fort Knox Gold Paradox

Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016 Apr 05, 2016 - 03:34 PM GMT

By: DeviantInvestor

Commodities

Officially the Fort Knox Bullion Depository contains 147.3 million ounces of gold.  However, the last audit was performed over 60 years ago.  According to reliable sources “audits” since then have been incomplete and inadequate.


Second Thoughts on US Gold Reserve Audits

Lost 7 Audit Reports

Hiding the Elephant:  Fort Knox’s Vanishing Act

Doubts about America’s Gold Holdings

Question:  If the Bullion Depository still contains over 147 million ounces of gold, why not audit it, prove the existence of the gold, and eliminate speculation?  The US government spends over $70 billion on “food stamps” every year and nearly a $Trillion per year on “defense,” so cost is not the issue.

Current policy seems to be “don’t ask, don’t tell” because the answer might be disconcerting, might destroy the narrative that the US gold still exists, and the revelation of missing gold might encourage other embarrassing questions …

Some speculation and possible scenarios:

Scenario One:  Fort Knox Bullion Depository contains 147 million ounces of gold, as claimed, but the Department of the Treasury ignores calls for a comprehensive audit.

  1. “Trust but verify” apparently applies to the nuclear weapons in other countries but not our gold. Why?
  2. Why refuse to perform a comprehensive audit? Cover-up?
  3. If an audit proved that 147 million ounces of gold were safely stored inside the vaults, it would be a political victory. Why would the Bush or Obama administration, such as in 2008 or 2016, NOT want a political victory when their credibility was weakening?
  4. The implication is that an audit would fail and no political victory was possible.

Scenario Two:  Fort Knox Bullion Depository is essentially empty – say it contains less than ten million ounces of gold.

  1. That begs the questions: Where did the gold go?  Who should be indicted?  Why have politicians for the past 50 years lied about it?
  2. Under scenario two the Department of Treasury cannot do an audit and desperately wants to avoid the scandal of missing gold.
  3. The only viable option is “stonewall.” Maintain that an audit is unnecessary, too expensive, or already has been done.

Scenario Three:  Fort Knox Bullion Depository is essentially empty of real gold – say it contains less than ten million ounces of gold but also contains perhaps 140 million ounces of gold plated tungsten.

  1. A comprehensive audit would easily detect the fake gold.
  2. The same questions from scenario two would plague the Department of the Treasury, the President, and the Federal Reserve.
  3. The only viable option is “stonewall.” Maintain that an audit is unnecessary, too expensive, or already has been done.

CONCLUSIONS:  

  • If the Fort Knox Bullion Depository gold exists, as claimed, there is little reason to refuse a comprehensive audit.
  • Since all requests for a comprehensive audit have been rejected, it seems likely that a “cover-up” continues.
  • If an unpopular President wanted a political victory, he would have ordered an audit of the Fort Knox gold if an audit had been a viable option. Since no audit was initiated, it seems likely that a gold audit would have produced problematic results with unanswerable questions.
  • Germany requested (several years ago) the return of a portion of their gold stored at the New York Federal Reserve, but Germany was denied access to their gold and denied the return of much of their gold for about seven years. If the German gold still existed in New York, why were they denied the return of their property?  If the gold in New York was “missing,” it could have been replaced by gold from Fort Knox, if the Fort Knox gold still existed.  Apparently that did not happen.  What is the rest of the story?
  • Gold “leasing” has been documented. Gold leased by a bullion bank from a central bank can be sold in the international market, yet is still officially listed in the vaults of the central bank.  Official gold can exist in two (or more) places at once …
  • It is possible that most sovereign and central bank gold in the United States, including the Fort Knox gold, the United Kingdom gold, and German gold is no longer stored in western vaults, and has been melted down and converted to the one kilo bars preferred in Russia, India and China.
  • An honest and credible audit would confirm or deny such speculation. Further “stonewalling” encourages such speculation.  What is the rest of the story?

Gary Christenson

GE Christenson aka Deviant Investor If you would like to be updated on new blog posts, please subscribe to my RSS Feed or e-mail. My books on Amazon

© 2016 Copyright Deviant Investor - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Deviant Investor Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in