Where is Americas Gold The Mystery of Ft Knox

good-as-gold-by-chris-weber-book-cover

We have featured an interview with Chris Weber previously.  (We subscribe to a paid newsletter of his and follow him closely as he profited handsomely in the 1970’s precious metals bull market).  He has just written a book on the conspiracy shrouded subject of America’s Fort Knox gold reserves (or maybe lack thereof??!!).  He has allowed this excerpt from his latest paid newsletter to be republished.  Worth a read, as might his new book be as a good detective yarn is always interesting…(If you’ve read our ecourse you’ll know we highly recommend “The Creature from Jekyll Island“.  An incredibly illuminating book on the Federal Reserve also written like a good whodunnit)…

Where Is America’s Gold? The Mystery of Ft Knox

What Do They Have to Hide?

(By Chris Weber: From The Weber Global Opportunities Report, 1‐April‐2011)

My new book, Good As Gold? is now available. I’ve tried to make it a clear and readable history of what happened to the gold confiscated from Americans and put into Fort Knox in the 1930s. I’ve used the government’s own words and statements to paint a picture I think is shocking. There has never been an accounting of this gold. There has never been a real audit of it. (I know people say there was one in 1953, but after reading my book, I wonder if anyone really can believe this.)

At every turn when the government was asked to provide proof of either the amount of gold they have left, or the quality of it, they have answered with lies and evasions. They have been acting like they have something to hide.

What we do know is that until August 15, 1971 any foreign central bank could go to the US Treasury and buy official US gold at $35 per ounce. It was the last link to the international gold standard. Before then, all currencies were defined in terms of the US dollar, and the US dollar was defined in terms of gold. A dollar equaled 1/35th of an ounce of gold; $35 equaled one troy ounce of gold.

But on that day the gold window closed. Since then, no more US government gold has been exchanged for US paper money. In my book, I uncover a 1975 letter from the Washington DC director of the General Accounting Office. Quoting US Treasury sources, the GAO director pretty much comes out and says that there was almost no more “good delivery” gold left. This means that the gold that would be acceptable on international markets and have a purity of .995 or better was almost gone by the time Nixon closed the gold window. They knew that there was almost nothing left that was of a purity acceptable to foreign central banks.

We can only guess at what remains, and the purity of it. In fact, we could do more than guess, if the government only let sunlight in. The technology now exists to scan each bar of gold and see how much gold it really contains. There could be independent accountants and a generally public procedure to show how much the US government has.

To be sure, the US government puts out a report each year detailing the official numbers of what they have. Here is the latest one from a few weeks ago:

Department of the Treasury
Financial Management Service
STATUS REPORT OF U.S. TREASURY-OWNED GOLD
January 31, 2011

Summary Fine Troy Ounces Book Value
     
Gold Bullion 258,641,851.485 $10,920,427,976.14
Gold Coins, Blanks, Miscellaneous 2,857,047.831 120,630,844.95
     
Total 261,498,899.316 11,041,058,821.09
     
Mint-Held Gold – Deep Storage    
     
Denver, CO 43,853,707.279 1,851,599,995.81
Fort Knox, KY 147,341,858.382 6,221,097,412.78
West Point, NY 54,067,331.379 2,282,841,677.17
Subtotal – Deep Storage Gold 245,262,897.040 10,355,539,085.76
     
Mint-Held Treasury Gold – Working Stock    
All locations – Coins, blanks, miscellaneous 2,783,218.656 117,513,614.74
Subtotal – Working Stock Gold 2,783,218.656 117,513,614.74
     
Grand Total – Mint-Held Gold 248,046,115.696 10,473,052,700.50
     
Federal Reserve Bank-Held Gold    
     
Gold Bullion:    
Federal Reserve Banks – NY Vault 13,376,961.126 564,804,727.98
Federal Reserve Banks – display 1,993.319 84,162.40
Subtotal – Gold Bullion 13,378,954.445 564,888,890.38
     
Gold Coins:    
Federal Reserve Banks – NY Vault 73,808.979 3,116,377.47
Federal Reserve Banks – display 20.196 852.74
Subtotal – Gold Coins 73,829.175 3,117,230.21
     
Total – Federal Reserve Bank-Held Gold 13,452,783.620 568,006,120.59
     
Total – Treasury-Owned Gold 261,498,899.316 $11,041,058,821.09
     

Deep Storage: Deep-Storage gold is the portion of the U.S. government-owned Gold Bullion Reserve that the U.S. Mint secures in sealed vaults, which are examined annually by the Department of Treasury’s Office of the Inspector General. Deep-Storage gold comprises the vast majority of the Reserve and consists primarily of gold bars. This portion was formerly called “Bullion Reserve” or “Custodial Gold Bullion Reserve.”

Working Stock: Working-Stock gold is the portion of the U.S. government-owned Gold Bullion Reserve that the U.S. Mint uses as the raw material for minting congressionally authorized coins. Working-Stock gold comprises only about 1 percent of the Reserve and consists of bars, blanks, unsold coins, and condemned coins. This portion was formerly listed as individual coins and blanks or called “PEF Gold.”

So this is what the US government says they have, and where they have it. In fact, by their own words, nearly all of it is in what they call “Deep Storage”. The gold here is not examined annually. Instead, the “sealed vaults” are examined annually. But what this means is that they just do a cursory check to see if the seal has been broken.

By the way, the “book value” of this gold is absurd. It is officially valued at $42.22 per ounce. This is because that was the last “official” value of the US dollar. A few months after the August 15, 1971 closing of the gold window, Nixon devalued the US dollar. This was on December 17, 1971. The official gold price was raised from $35 to $42.22.

But this new price meant nothing. They still weren’t going to sell gold at this new, slightly higher rate. It was really a sham. Other countries had long been after the US to raise the official gold price, so Nixon finally did it. But what good did that do when this was the price at which the US would not –repeat, not– redeem its paper dollars into gold?

As I hope my book shows, there has been the atmosphere of a sham –even a fraud– about the US policy toward gold for generations. The Nixon fraud was only one in a series of sham acts.

I don’t understand why today’s government would be afraid to open the vaults and publicly count and assay the gold. After all, if a lie was revealed they could say that it wasn’t their fault: they weren’t even born when these policies were put into place.

Officially, the US has by far the largest government reserves of gold in the world. Here are the top eight nations and the amount they have in millions of troy ounces:

top-gold-holdings-by-country

So, officially, the US has much more than twice its nearest rival, Germany. It has nearly eight times as much as China–again, officially.

But China has quietly become the world’s largest producer of gold, and the Chinese central bank buys 100% of all production at the market price. I’m sure they make certain this gold is of the utmost purity. I’m suspicious of the ‘official’ Chinese total, which I really believe is a state secret, and may be much higher than they state here.

In any event, it is the US gold this article is all about. We need to finally see what is left of the gold that was confiscated from the American people in 1933. We need to know how much is left from the 702 million ounces the US had in 1949, when this was by far the most gold held by one owner in history.good-as-gold-by-chris-weber-book-cover

There are elected members of Congress, in both parties, who are ready to try to open the vaults. One of them, Ron Paul, wrote the forward to my book.

It is for sale at amazon.com, and through all of the Amazon affiliates around the world. For the US, the price of the book is $8.35. I wanted to make it this low so that no one could say it was too expensive to buy. Also, Amazon charges a shipping and handling fee of $3 for all orders up to $25. Above this, you can choose free shipping. It just so happens that $8.35 X 3 = $25.05. So you can buy three copies and give two away to people who may not realize what has been going on. Even if a person doesn’t understand the importance of gold as an investment, this is a sort of mystery story: What Happened to the Gold? Why have they been acting as if they had something to hide?

Finally, Kindle readers can get this as an e-book for $6.99 officially as of April 18, and quite probably before this, even in the next few days.

One thought on “Where is Americas Gold The Mystery of Ft Knox

  1. Pingback: Brad Meltzer's Decoded: Fort Knox - Is the gold still there? | Gold Prices | Gold Investing Guide

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