Today the man who has become legendary for his predictions on QE, historic moves in currencies, told King World News this is when the global panic begins…

The Clock Is Ticking
Egon von Greyerz:  “There are lies damned lies and central bank gold statistics. Total official gold holdings are reported to be 33,000 tonnes. That is 19% of all the gold ever produced in world history. But how can anyone ever believe any of these figures. Because no central bank ever has a public audit of all its gold holdings. Since the gold belongs to the people, they have the right to know if the gold actually exists, especially since the gold reserves are backing the currency…

Egon von Greyerz continues:  “But no, the truth about these gold reserves are veiled in total secrecy. And why, you may ask? Why are the people as well as the creditors of a country not told the true financial position? What do these central banks have to hide? Let’s take the US. The US is allegedly holding 8,100 tonnes of gold, stored in Fort Knox, Denver and New York. The last official audit was 64 years ago, in 1953, when Eisenhower was president.  Since then, the US Government claims that the US gold has been audited over a period from 1974 to 2008. But no proper figures have ever been published.

FORT KNOX – WHERE IS THE GOLD?

The first question to ask is, how an audit can ever take 34 years? Only a government organization can take 1/3 of a century to audit their assets.  I know of no company in the world that can take 34 years to report their assets to the shareholders. The stakeholders of the US gold are the US people and they certainly have the right to know if the country really holds $332 billion worth of gold. Steve Mnuchin, the US Treasury Secretary, spent an afternoon in Fort Knox last week. After having seen a few percent of the total gold held there, he confirmed that it was SAFE! Well that’s good to know but he obviously hasn’t got a clue how much is there. 

Second, an audit carried out over 34 years cannot possibly be accurate. The movement in gold over that period would totally nullify the accuracy of the audit. 

Third, an audit should be carried out by independent auditors. This audit was done by a Government Committee for Gold and the Treasury. The exact method of the audit has not been revealed but according to some sources, the methods were highly suspect.

Fourth, and just as relevant, is the total balance sheet position of the US gold holdings. The physical gold is only one small part.  Central banks practice gold lending or leasing on a major scale. Thus, the US could lease its gold to another bank against a fee. Lending can take place without the physical position of the gold changing. Other banks borrow gold from the Fed without having it in their possession. There can also be swaps, forward sales, and other derivative transactions that reduces the holding.

The Gold Is Gone
Germany used to store 70% of its gold abroad, with the majority of it in the US. In 2013, they were under public pressure to repatriate the gold and declared that 674 tonnes would be repatriated from the US and France. They only received 5 tonnes in the first year because there was no gold available. It had probably been lent to someone else. Finally, they just stated that the 674 tonnes are now in Germany. This means that around 50% of the German gold or 1,665 tonnes is still held abroad. The obvious question is of course, why not hold it all in Germany? The official reason is risk spread and trading. It is dubious if the US or the UK are safer places than Germany. Financially Germany is clearly safer. All central banks trade part of their gold. To lease gold to someone, it doesn’t have to be held in New York or London.  The leasing could easily be done from Germany. 

Probably, the 1,665 tonnes held abroad have been covertly sold or leased to a bullion bank which has sold it to China. And China of course always takes delivery. They wouldn’t be stupid enough to keep a major part of their gold in the US or London. If the German gold has been leased and shipped to China, all the German government has is an IOU from a bullion bank. So instead of physical gold, they have a piece of paper.  

The same could easily be the case with the US gold or other central bank gold. With the massive buying we have seen from Silk Road countries in the last 10 years, it would not be surprising that a major part of the gold has come from Western Central banks……more here