Germany is rapidly returning gold reserves from the United States
366 tons of precious metal worth 11.5 billion euros have already been delivered to a special storage facility in the city of Frankfurt am Main from the USA and France
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
The Deutsche Welle radio station recently reported about the “accelerated pace.” Referring to Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann. They say that 366 tons of precious metal worth 11.5 billion euros have already been delivered to a special storage facility in the city of Frankfurt am Main from the USA and France. In total, about 1,400 tons or 41.5 percent of the country's gold reserves are collected in Frankfurt. The radio station's website features an impressive photo of Germany's top banker, Weidmann, in a vault filled with precious bullion. Like, sleep well, dear Germans. Everything's under control!
Is it under control? And where is more than half of Germany’s strategic reserve, almost 2 thousand tons, still hidden from the German burghers?
TUNGSTEN Dummy
This exciting detective story worth billions of dollars began back in 2012. Several professional dealers (not suckers!) then purchased counterfeit gold bars in Manhattan, the financial center of the United States. One of the buyers carefully checked the purchase with an x-ray. Everything was in order, as was the weight, a perfect Swiss hallmark. And the bars turned out to be... gold-plated tungsten.
Tungsten is an ideal metal for counterfeiters. The specific gravity is the same as gold. And the price at that time was about a dollar per ounce (31.1 grams). An ounce of its noble brother cost $1,774.80 in those days. Can you imagine the scammers' profits? One dealer admitted to buying $72,000 worth of counterfeit bars. Many fools kept silent so as not to spoil their reputation. Otherwise, you can say goodbye to the profession. Who will buy from a screwed up dealer? Counterfeits have occurred before, but extremely rarely. They cheated ordinary buyers. But what about professionals?! And in large quantities?
Panic set in. There were persistent rumors and press publications that gold bars had long been replaced with tungsten ones in Fort Knox and other official US storage facilities. And the precious metal went to the side. The rumors were fueled by the fact that there had been no audits of gold reserves in the United States since the early 50s. A furious critic of the Fed (Federal Reserve System), Congressman Ron Paul demanded a complete audit of all “gold vaults” in the United States. It wasn’t here! Under a barrage of criticism, financial authorities reluctantly agreed only to a very selective inspection of the New York Fed Bank in Manhattan. Although the main reserves of US Treasury gold are located in Fort Knox, West Point, and the Denver Mint. There are only about 530,000 gold bars in Manhattan. The audit team selected just 350 to drill through. And I started to procrastinate with the results...
Against the background of the American scandal with the precious metal, German deputies were surprised to learn that at home, in Frankfurt, less than a third of the country's gold reserves, the second largest in the world after the United States (3,396 tons), are stored. Only 31% (1036 tons). As much as 45% (1536 tons for 60 billion euros!) are hidden in the basements of the same New York Fed Bank. 13% (450 tons) - in London, 11% (374 tons) - in Paris. Bundestag deputies Philipp Misfelder and Marco Vanderwitz decided to go abroad and personally check the safety of their native gold. However, they were refused. They say that the banks do not have suitable premises for the visit of respected deputies. This increased suspicions that someone had quietly privatized German treasures.
And then it turned out that employees of the federal Bundesbank never personally checked the quantity, authenticity and weight of bars in New York, London, and Paris. Sacredly believing the written reports of foreign bankers.
The German Audit Chamber subjected the Bundesbank to severe criticism for the lack of control and demanded a large-scale inventory of foreign reserves and regular inspections from now on. The press sounded the alarm. In Germany, a social movement “Bring Back Our Gold” was even born!
According to Germany's chief banker Weidmann, “everything is under control”
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
"GALACTIC BLACK HOLE"
“Experts have long had doubts that in the storerooms where the official gold reserves of the United States are stored, partly the reserves of other countries, there is still something left, and if there is something there, then this “something” is gold,” says Doctor of Economics, Professor at MGIMO Valentin KATASONOV , author of the book “Golden Scam, New World Order as a Financial Pyramid.” — In 2012, there was a series of publications in the world media that irrefutably proved that a large number of counterfeit bullions appeared on the market, where the “yellow metal” was replaced by tungsten... There are many indirect signs that banksters (as many in the West already call bankers!) have long been put their hand into the gold bins of the American Treasury (the official gold reserve has been on the balance sheet of this department since 1933).
“The desire of the Germans to return their gold reserves is understandable.
“However, the public unexpectedly encountered mute opposition. Someone really does not want German gold to be returned to their homeland.
The first line of resistance turned out to be, oddly enough, the Bundesbank itself, on whose balance sheet the official gold reserve is listed. They say that keeping stock in New York, London, and Paris is as secure as in a cash register. The authority of the German parliament was not enough to force it to begin the repatriation operation. The German Federal Court itself (!) ordered the Bundesbank to conduct an audit of foreign gold, moving small quantities of metal from abroad.
The second line of resistance to the German authorities was the US Federal Reserve System, in whose basements German gold is stored. The news agency CNBC, which is close to the Fed, was used. Editor-in-Chief John Carney released an article with a very intriguing statement: “It doesn’t really matter whether the New York Fed holds the German central bank’s gold or whether it is pure. If the Fed says it's there, it's just as good for all the practical uses it might be needed for. It can be sold, lent, used as collateral, to cover liabilities, and accounted for as bank capital whether it exists or not... For almost every conceivable operational purpose, the actual existence of gold in Fort Knox or in the Fed vault is not matter. What matters here is record keeping. So as long as the Fed says that the Bundesbank has an amount of gold equal to X, the Bundesbank can act as if it owns gold, even if it somehow miraculously fell into a gold-consuming galactic black hole... I'm sure the Bundesbank understands this good enough, even if the German court does not understand this. There is nothing to be gained from gold inspection. If it's there and it's pure, knowing it won't change anything. And if there is no gold, well, the result could be chaos as confidence in the central bank gold depositories would evaporate instantly.”
Germany is rapidly returning its gold reserves from the USA!
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
After such a “rebuke,” the Germans began to insist even more firmly on the return of the gold. Then more compelling arguments were put into play.
- Which?
- Forces of nature. At the end of October 2012, the east coast of America was hit by Hurricane Sandy. New York also fell into its zone. Allegedly, there was either destruction, destruction, or flooding of the underground vault of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Manhattan. Here, for example, is a message dated October 30, 2012 in The Daily Bail, part of the CNBC empire: “Stunning news from Washington, DC. At a hastily arranged press conference on Monday night, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced an explosion at a Con Edison station in New York City, resulting in the complete destruction of Germany's entire underground vault of gold reserves, thus nullifying all German efforts. repatriate the gold... It is reported that the gold reserves were not insured.”
Conspiracy theorists immediately began to hint that the hurricane was “man-made,” someone really needed it, and that “someone” was the Fed. They immediately remembered the “natural disaster” of September 11, 2001. After the collapse of the skyscrapers of the International Trade Center, several tons of “despicable metal” of a number of banks and firms strangely disappeared from the basements. Also, documents related to the investigation of illegal FBI and CIA gold transactions mysteriously disappeared under the rubble. After the documents went missing, the investigation was stopped.
— Did the hurricane really destroy the German gold?
— Later it turned out that Bernanke was “joking.” Being under the influence. The Internet even played videos of his “press conference” late at night in some bar. There was a smell of scandal in the air. Like, Bernanke is clearly not going to return the gold to the Germans! Maybe there is nothing left to return?
The story caused an unfavorable response for Washington and further strengthened the suspicions of the international community, because many countries hold gold in the Manhattan vault.
— Ever since World War II, when Europe was saving its treasures overseas from the Nazis.
— Holland, for example, demanded its reserves back. In order to somehow drown out the flaring scandal, Washington was forced to meet the Germans halfway.
ALIEN SUITCASE
“On January 17, 2013, the Bundesbank, which had previously been firmly on the defensive, suddenly officially announced that by 2021 it plans to keep half of Germany’s gold reserves in its own vault in Frankfurt,” MGIMO professor Valentin KATASONOV continues the story. — The second half will still remain in storage with partners in New York (37%) and London (13%). All 374 tons will be gradually returned from Paris. A schedule for the return of the precious metal from New York was announced. 50 tons each in the next three years. And in total - 300 tons. The public calmed down a little.
However, in 2013, only 37 tons were delivered to Germany. 5 from New York and 32 from Paris. It would seem that it would not be such a difficult operation to transport the promised 50 tons across the Atlantic! One or two flights. No, the Yankees gave the owners only 5 tons per year!
Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor at MGIMO Valentin KATASONOV, author of the book “Golden Scam, New World Order as a Financial Pyramid.”
— In 2011, Chavez returned 160 tons to Venezuela from European and US banks in TWO months.
“But the most important thing: before sending the gold to Germany, the American side... melted it down!” By the way, the Germans did not ask for such a “service”. It was only necessary to brush away the dust that could have accumulated on the precious bullion over half a century of their stay in the basements of Manhattan. Each country can have its own bullion bars, which cannot be confused with foreign ones. Its own stamps, hallmarks, sizes and weights. And the Bundesbank has all the documentation that allows one to distinguish German gold from Spanish, Russian or, say, Turkish. If you check your suitcase into a storage room at the station, you probably want to get yours, not someone else’s. So, Germany was not given her suitcase, but one of unknown origin. Yes, and they did not give it out on demand, but after a long delay.
— What are you hinting at, Valentin Yuryevich?
“Even for a person far from finance and gold, it becomes clear that someone was actively using the “suitcase” of a client named “Germany.” Experts from GATA (the public Gold Antimonopoly Committee - Ed.) have been saying for many years that the gold reserves of the American Treasury, as well as other countries, stored in the United States, were constantly “in operation.” The fact that Wall Street and City of London banks made a lot of money from this. The fact that, most likely, all the previously stored gold will never return to the “base”.
— Could the melted gold be of a lower standard than what the Germans “checked in as luggage”?
- Of course. There is one more important point. In the 50-60s of the last century, when Germany's gold reserves were formed, an ounce (31.1 g) cost 35 dollars. Now - more than 1200 bucks. In 2012, when the “tungsten” scandal broke out, it was generally over 1700! They took cheap bullion for storage. They thought - forever, the same Germany would not dare to take it back. But no, you have to return it. Hundreds of tons! It must be purchased at the new price and melted down. So they are dragging themselves overseas, they don’t want to fork out the cash.
— What then is behind the March phrase of the head of the Bundesbank about the accelerated pace of the return of gold from foreign storage facilities?
— I think it’s catching up on the delivery schedule for the yellow metal. In 2013 it was severely disrupted. Now, according to Mr. Weidman, it is being implemented. That's all. Another mantra from the country's chief banker to calm public opinion.
Let me remind you that only in 2021 Germany will concentrate only HALF of its gold reserves on its native soil. And that’s if nothing extraordinary happens. In the meantime, the burghers have only 41.5 percent of the strategic reserve at hand.
German history, like a golden drop from a crucible, reflects the situation in the world with “despicable metal.” There are still more questions than answers. Banksters know how to keep secrets. Although something is breaking through.
Experts have long had doubts that in the storerooms where the official gold reserves of the United States are stored, partly the reserves of other countries, there is still something left, and if there is something there, then this “something” is gold
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
WAS THE MONEY GREEN, WILL IT BE YELLOW?
There is another version why the Yankees do not want to return their rightful treasures to the German allies. Washington fears that Europe's largest economy, having collected all its gold reserves at home, may abandon the euro and return to the German mark. The eurozone will not survive Germany's exit from its membership. Including because the total gold reserves of the key European economy are half of all gold reserves of the central banks of the member countries of the European Monetary Union. And the United States really, really needs the European Union. It is not for nothing that they have been pushing for the creation of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the US and the EU for years. The world's largest free trade zone. According to many experts, profitable for the Yankees and ruinous for the Europeans. Without Germany, this zone will be covered with a copper basin. The gold German mark will hit not only the euro, but also the dollar. And then China and Russia have been quietly accumulating gold reserves for many years. And they are kept exclusively at home. And more and more often there is talk about the golden yuan and the ruble as competitors to the dollar. Recently, the German DieWelt published an article with the catchy headline “Why Putin is buying gold on a large scale.” The answer of the influential newspaper: “There is a quiet attack on the dominance of the American dollar. “Putin is trying to end the dominance of the US and Europe, as those who buy gold reduce the importance of Western currencies.” In short, he is preparing a golden weapon against the buck.
The Yankees quickly put an end to Gaddafi, who came up with the idea of a golden dinar for Africa and Asia ahead of time. They carried out a terrible execution as a warning to others. Putin and Xi Jinping are tougher nuts to crack. Moreover, they are not alone. There is talk of a whole group of global banksters, headquartered in London, preparing a “golden conspiracy” against America.
How realistic is the return of gold as the main world money and whether gold can beat the dollar, we’ll talk next time.
FROM THE KP DOSSIER
Photo: Dmitry POLUKHIN
ASKING QUESTION
Why is the national treasure of Germany kept over the hill?
This is a question many Germans still ask. There is no clear answer.
Dozens of countries during World War II sent their gold reserves overseas to save them from Hitler. But this is not the case here. We are not talking about Nazi gold, which was partly requisitioned by the Allies at the end of the war, partly hidden by the Nazis themselves in Latin America and other places.
Germany's gold reserves began to form only in 1951, when the “German economic miracle” began. That October we bought the first 259 kg. The peak was in 1968 4033.7 tons. Then the decline gradually began. Germany spends approximately 5 tons per year to mint coins.
The first version, the most common: they say that during the Cold War, Germany, fearing an attack by Soviet troops, hid its national treasure overseas. But why then were part of the reserves sent to neighboring France and Great Britain, economist professor Werner Abelshauser is perplexed. Indeed, the USSR could easily have captured Paris and London after Bonn. And goodbye, little darling!
According to the professor, there was an unspoken “gentleman’s agreement”: the Germans gave their gold to the United States, France, and England for safekeeping and informally allowed their governments to use it in case of urgent need. This strengthened confidence in the former military enemy, helped smooth out imbalances in trade, and at the same time served as an additional guarantee for the presence of Allied troops in West Germany. By the way, when General de Gaulle demanded that the United States sell green notes for real precious metal, the head of the Bundesbank in 1967 assured the head of the Federal Reserve System that Germany would not follow the example of France. But the Cold War ended long ago, the USSR is gone, why not return all the reserves?
The second version: they bought most of them abroad and left them there. To be able to quickly exchange for foreign currencies at gold trading centers. It is precisely this reason that the Bundesbank now explains that half of the reserves after 2021 will still remain in London and New York. But now there is electronic trading, and it does not matter where the gold itself is. What was popularly stated by the Fed's mouthpiece in 2012: Why not keep everything at home? It is known that one’s pocket does not carry enough reserves.
But there is a third version. Like, on May 21, 1949, the German government signed the super-secret Chancellor Act with the USA, England, and France. For 150 years. With its help, the Allies guaranteed themselves complete control over the media of the Federal Republic, the use of its gold reserves, etc., until 2099. Every new chancellor is required to sign this document. A sort of label for reign, an oath of allegiance. By the way, Merkel made her first visits after her election and re-election to the United States. This secret was first revealed in the book “The German Map. Secret game of the secret services” by retired Major General Gerd-Helmut Komossa, who headed the military counterintelligence of Germany. He was declared crazy. But this Act explains a lot about the gold story. Why, after 2021, should half of the reserves remain in London and New York for an indefinite period of time (until 2099?). Apparently, the Germans were able to fight off Paris. Because the French were on the side of the victors in the Western coalition. In Tehran and Yalta, Stalin resolved issues only with Roosevelt and Churchill.
TO THE POINT
Why is Russia buying gold, while Canada, on the contrary, has sold everything?
Russia has become the largest buyer of gold in the world. This data is provided by the International Monetary Fund. In February, our Central Bank increased its gold reserves by 11 tons. If you believe the information of the Chinese Central Bank, then the Celestial Empire is in second place in increasing gold reserves in its bins. Kazakhstan is in third place (details)
Why did it take so long?
Banca d'Italia, Bundesbank and the IMF are the three largest holders of gold at the New York Fed.
They account for 4,000 tons. However, there was no verification that this was the case. There is no evidence that these stocks have remained the same or changed since the 1970s.
When it came to repatriating the 474 tons from New York, many wondered why not return it all at once. Why do you have to wait 7 years?
Previously, Germany repatriated 940 tons from the Bank of England without any delay.
Numerous theories have been developed as to why things are this way.
But they all revolve around the theory that there is no gold in the vaults or that it has two or more owners in leasing agreements.
There were rumors that the gold had been “repledged.”
However, in reality, the United States repatriated virtually all the gold that Germany demanded three years ahead of schedule.
So will there be an audit?
No one knows exactly how much gold is stored in the United States. An audit is required to clarify this issue. A random inspection was carried out in 2012, the results of this inspection amazed everyone with their brevity.
The report said that the test was successful, the gold was counted and its value was equal to a certain number of millions, and the total amount was several hundred tons. That's all the information. So nothing concrete is known.
But the now-elected new President Trump has promised to look into this issue. He is sure that there really is no gold anymore. The new US president, as he himself put it, will strive to restore the former value of his country's currency.
I would like to note that Russia is one of the few countries whose gold reserves are stored exclusively in Russia.
Two anti-favorites in gold reserves
The lowest level of gold and foreign exchange reserves can be noted in two countries, such as Mexico and Ukraine.
Regarding Mexico, it is difficult to say anything precise - everything is too confusing. But as for Ukraine, everything is clear and understandable. Since 1999, and to this day, Ukraine’s gold reserves have been decreasing at a catastrophic rate, which is undoubtedly facilitated by events in eastern Ukraine and conflicts in the government.
In 2014, there was a massive export of gold, which threatened Ukraine with economic collapse. During the division of Ukrainian assets between the government and local oligarchs, a huge scandal almost broke out. The situation was softened only by a cash tranche from America.
