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erm67
Tux's lil' helper
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 Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 1:41 pm Post subject: Germany would like to have its gold back, thanks. |
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http://qz.com/43727/germany-would-like-to-have-its-gold-back-thanks/
| Quote: | Germany thanks you for keeping its gold, but it would very much like to have it back now.
According to Handelsblatt (in German), the German Bundesbank will suspend its gold reserves in Paris and move them to Frankfurt. Gold reserves in New York will also be reduced. And the bank will present a new plan this week describing the future handling of Germany’s gold assets and where they will be stored.
German plans to repatriate gold have been in the works for a while. Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele said last autumn that the bank will bring back and inspect 150 tonnes (165 US tons) of gold from New York to Germany over the next three years. Last autumn the Bundesrechnungshof, the German court of audit, criticized the Bundesbank because, with the exception of a perfunctory examination in 2011, it has never itself checked the quality and weight of the 1,536 tonnes of gold stored in New York (as it has for other holdings, by melting down some of the gold bars to test their purity).
While it is freighted with symbolic meaning, gold plays a minor role in the world financial system at the moment. So why do central banks even have it? Well, until 1971 foreign governments or central banks could show up at the “gold window” of the Federal Reserve and convert dollars into gold. Much of the German gold at the Fed was amassed during that era. Today central banks keep it as a kind of insurance policy against currency collapse. If a country’s money all of the sudden becomes worthless, the central bank could sell some of its gold reserves to buy the foreign currency the country needs to pay the nation’s bills.
Those bills would most likely be owed to a nation’s largest trading partners, which is why gold reserves are often kept abroad. If the euro ever collapsed and Germany wanted to buy a lot of US dollars, it would be easier and faster to use the gold stored in New York to buy it, rather than get a freighter to ship loads of the metal out of Hamburg to lower Manhattan.
But looking at the map above, you can also see there is an important symbolic value to where a nation keeps its gold. You tend not to entrust billions of dollars worth of precious metals to the care of unfriendly states. For that reason it’s also a symbol of political and military alliances. During the cold war, for example, Germany also took to storing gold in New York as a way of protecting from any potential Soviet invasion.
From that perspective, Germany’s decision to start toting gold back to Frankfurt speaks volumes about the corrosion of trust between partners in the global financial system. It’s yet another symptom of how the global financial crisis—and the European government debt crisis that followed—has altered the international ties that served as the foundation of the global economy for decades. |
Paranoia is spreading about this story, but it is very likely this has something to do with the fact that the ECB started recently to accept gold as collateral. Probably this will lead soon to the creation of a eurozone gold reserve somewhere ...
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Muso
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| Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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The Fed needs to be audited. Ron Paul had been pushing for that for years, and both parties blocked his attempts.
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erm67
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| Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 7:01 pm Post subject: |
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As I said I don't think is a matter of mistrust in the FED, but there are rumors about gold bars filled with tungsten around 
1536 short tons = 1 393 435 000 grams x 40€/g = 55 737 400 000 ~ 56 billions €
Well it is not a huge amount of money compared to the sizes of public debts/deficits in the EU, the move of the ECB to take gold as collateral can ease a bit the current situation. Portugal, Italy, France have large gold reserves and are very likely to use them to get fresh € from the ECB, it is very likely that Germany will do the same, maybe to speed-up recovery.
| Quote: | | If the euro ever collapsed and Germany wanted to buy a lot of US dollars, it would be easier and faster to use the gold stored in New York to buy it, rather than get a freighter to ship loads of the metal out of Hamburg to lower Manhattan. |
Since the euro is not collapsing and Germany is a lot more likely to buy € from the ECB than USD, for the same reason cited in the article is a lot wiser to have the gold in Frankfurt.
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John-Boy
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| Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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Heard something, on the wireless, about Germany flirting with recession.
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energyman76b
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| Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:45 pm Post subject: |
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weak 4th quarter. Nothing new.
I heard that England has no economy - just a couple of banks?
Either way, this should strike panic in the hearts of Americans. If Germany starts to check if its gold is pure - others might follow... and while Wolfram (Wolfram is of course the correct name. Tungsten is not) is very important, it is not gold
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John-Boy
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| Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:52 pm Post subject: |
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| energyman76b wrote: | weak 4th quarter. Nothing new.
I heard that England has no economy - just a couple of banks? |
Glad we're wrong on both accounts then, 
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BonezTheGoon
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| Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:57 pm Post subject: |
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I love this part:
| Quote: | | It’s yet another symptom of how the global financial crisis—and the European government debt crisis that followed |
hahaha
That's one of the first things that the EU has actually been a leader in, they didn't have a debt crisis after the global financial crisis -- they were the front-runners of the global financial crisis!
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pjp
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| Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:43 am Post subject: |
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| Muso wrote: | | The Fed needs to be audited. Ron Paul had been pushing for that for years, and both parties blocked his attempts. |
Nothing more need be said. The difference between the parties is negligible. The obvious solution is to re-elect them, because you can't let the other party win. That would be bad.
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BoneKracker
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| Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:37 am Post subject: |
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I think we need to recalculate what the war reparations should have been from the two World Wars. The gold in Paris should be divided up among the French, Belgians, Dutch, and Poles. The Gold in New York should be divided up between the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine.
For their part, Italians should be forced to stop talking with their hands, and Austrians should just shut the fuck up altogether.
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energyman76b
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| Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:59 pm Post subject: |
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| BonezTheGoon wrote: | I love this part:
| Quote: | | It’s yet another symptom of how the global financial crisis—and the European government debt crisis that followed |
hahaha
That's one of the first things that the EU has actually been a leader in, they didn't have a debt crisis after the global financial crisis -- they were the front-runners of the global financial crisis! |
wrong. It was that 'save the banks' bullshit that started the debt crisis in Italy, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and pushed Germany's debt far into the red.
Greece was fucked the moment they asked AMERICAN BANKS to cook their books.
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Libertardian denial of reality is wholly unimpressive and unconvincing, and simply serves to demonstrate what a bunch of delusional fools they all are.
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Satan's got perfectly toned abs and rocks a c-cup. |
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energyman76b
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| Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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| BoneKracker wrote: | I think we need to recalculate what the war reparations should have been from the two World Wars. The gold in Paris should be divided up among the French, Belgians, Dutch, and Poles. The Gold in New York should be divided up between the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine.
For their part, Italians should be forced to stop talking with their hands, and Austrians should just shut the fuck up altogether. |
so - when are you going to pay Spain for the Spanish-American war? The ones YOU started on a lie?
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| AidanJT wrote: |
Libertardian denial of reality is wholly unimpressive and unconvincing, and simply serves to demonstrate what a bunch of delusional fools they all are.
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Satan's got perfectly toned abs and rocks a c-cup. |
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John-Boy
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| Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 8:57 pm Post subject: |
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| energyman76b wrote: | | Greece was fucked the moment they asked AMERICAN BANKS to cook their books. |
Why hasn't the EU done the sensible thing then ? Cut and run ?
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BoneKracker
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| Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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| energyman76b wrote: | | BoneKracker wrote: | I think we need to recalculate what the war reparations should have been from the two World Wars. The gold in Paris should be divided up among the French, Belgians, Dutch, and Poles. The Gold in New York should be divided up between the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine.
For their part, Italians should be forced to stop talking with their hands, and Austrians should just shut the fuck up altogether. |
so - when are you going to pay Spain for the Spanish-American war? The ones YOU started on a lie? |
It was no lie that they needed to get the fuck out. 
And, when are the Spanish going to pay reparations to Native Americans for killing 70 million of them with their nasty diseases?
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Last edited by BoneKracker on Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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BoneKracker
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| Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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| John-Boy wrote: | | energyman76b wrote: | | Greece was fucked the moment they asked AMERICAN BANKS to cook their books. |
Why hasn't the EU done the sensible thing then ? Cut and run ? |
Speaking of doing the sensible thing, remember to take some vitamin C and echinacea, sit far away from coughing people, and wash your hands frequently, so you don't get a cold.
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