Dutch repatriate gold.

[ZenOps]

http://online.wsj.com/articles/dutch-repatriate-some-gold-reserves-1416568527

Nine days before the Swiss gold repatriation vote, the Dutch have decide to repatriate 612.6 tons of gold from the United States of America.

[ianmcc]

One-is the gold really there? Is that why Germany, Switzerland and now the Dutch want their gold back?
And two-did the Americans rehypothecate the gold in order to secure a loan?
It's like using your neighbors home as collateral on your own personal loan. And what happens when he wants it back....

[phreezee]

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_liiryvS4bp1qzactqo1_500.jpg

[TurboMedic]

Its really inconsequential though, not sure of the reason for the news release on this......They store gold elsewhere as well, and it was just a move to keep the largest holding close to home more than anything....and it was only 130t not 612t which is the entire gold holdings of the Dutch gov't. There is still some in the US. And Canada. And the UK. Sensationalizing?

[ZenOps]

Germany asked for its gold from the US before the Dutch.

And as far as anyone can tell, the Germans only got about 5 tons so far (of the 300 tons Germany initially requested)

I liken it to 1968, when coinage was still silver in Canada. Its like a banker giving a few coins to one guy who asks for $100 paper bill worth saying its "all we got" right now, and then giving a full box to someone else.

No doubt it appears the US is playing favorites.

[ExtraSlow]

How are these large amounts of physical gold stored? In a bank vault somewhere? Presumably they aren't directly under the control of the US treasury, or stored in Fort Knox or anything.

[InRich]

Why did they ask for their gold back? why does the US have it in the first place?

[ZenOps]

http://www.newyorkfed.org/aboutthefed/goldvault.html

The New York Fed holds bars for several countries and larger institutions.

Surprisingly 99% of the time, when ownership of one bar is bought and sold by countries, it technically only moves a few feet from one "cage" owned by the seller country to another cage owned by the buyer country, but its all in the same vault in the basement of the New York Fed.

Canada also holds fairly substantial (hundreds of tons of gold) holdings for Europe especially, but on the books - We as Canadians only own 3.4 tons (which works out to be about 0.1 grams of gold for each of 34 million Canadians)

Germany has never asked for its gold to be moved to its physical shores in decades, pretty much since the end of WWII.

And the NY Federal Reserve is not a part of the US government, it is a private entity.

Ideally, 20 grams of gold per person is probably more in line with the rest of the world. But then again, in Canada gold is not money, nickel has been money for the last 45 years.

[broken_legs]

See Nixon Ends Bretton Woods to learn why this is important today.

Until Nixon ended BW, the USD was defacto convertible to gold.

Charles Degalle didnt trust the US and requested Frances gold to be repatriated. Because there wasnt enough gold to back up all the USDs that the US had printed out of thin air, Nixon was forced to end the gold convertibility of the USD.Nixon took the usd off BW which was an effective default by the US

If it turns out, as many "conspiracy" theories say, that the US doesnt have the gold they say they do, it will cause the price of gold to rise in USD, the USD would lose reserve currency status, the world financial order would be flipped upside down.

[ianmcc]

Sensationalizing? No. There is fear of a global currency collapse (the euro due to multiple economic collapses without a unified treasury to back it) and the US dollar perched on a pyramid of debt. Think of a third reserve currency-a new gold standard.

Pressure at home as well is fueling the repatriation push-distrust of the entire US banking system means many feel that the gold is better off at home where they can actually see it (the Fed refuses to allow Germany to inspect it's own gold stored at the Fed). And once again the question remains-is the gold really there? Has the US looted the gold holdings of other countries? Replaced it with gold plated tungsten bars? Have they used foreign gold holdings as collateral for multiple loans? One can hypothesize that Germany is moving the gold over several years in order to allow the Fed to save face. And once there is a run on repatriation gold from several countries at once does the Fed then start printing money and buying up gold, driving the price of gold up and up?

[ZenOps]

A worldwide gold standard would be horrifyingly terrible for Canada. For the US, owning 8,133 tons spread out over 360 million citizens - It actually wouldn't be too bad.

Canada's safety net is made of carbon (oil, natgas) and nickel.