The central banks are very crafty beasts, been playing this game for many years and love their gold oh so very much.
I dont think they do love gold, those guys are buried and gone. Who in living history really relied on gold for their job security. Ben Bernanke isnt faking about this, fort knox is about important as a museum full of bones to him and to be fair I can see why he'd think that. Gold is a relic, you go see how the world used to work and its covered in dust and quite boring and now we have technology and hauling some heavy metal is antiquated, archaic and if nothing else, insignificant. The knox gold doesnt have enough worth to do anything much, he is correct right this moment to think it makes no difference. The price of gold would need to go up alot to actually counter all the new money produced.
The swiss used to be on 20% backing and are now at 10% after tracking the Euro with a fixed rate. USA however must be a complete joke now, I dont think its near even 1%. Its probably about the same as silver coins, dollar was silver and now its copper so all those guys that used to lean on that solid value exchange have been gone a while I think.
Nobody thinks like that, till you get a total exchange of everybody in government out of their jobs and a whole new education and paradigm I dont think it'll change what or how they use knox. More likely to me is they dump out that useless gold for some low price, like rubbish out of a wheel barrow to make way for something far superior and less cumbersome in their view. Its just a weight on their back
Nowadays (after 1970) the banks drive gold price down by issuing derivative certificates, the real gold stays safely locked up
Banks lease gold and maybe Germany has to wait six years to receive delivery because it must be bought before it can be shipped or for the leases to expire naturally. All banks lend out their deposits so I guess thats normal though Im sure Germany itself should have been doing this, Im not sure its that closely controlled when abroad.
Probably the biggest interest in keeping gold price low is the biggest buyer of gold which would be China. As they had no gold under communism and is a large percentage of the world, they must now come upto speed in a short time or this appears to be their actions quietly done. Rickards says they have got 3000 tons in the last decade by his estimates which is alot of transfer.
I think its more because we are excluding that China also buys gold mines, many of which will not operate with a high oil price and a lower gold price but are worth alot more if any government were to switch to solid exchange instead of debt; gold being alot more compact and worth exchanging of course.
GLD has sold alot of gold, the fund is smaller now. If it was bought on the market or cashed out directly Im not sure but that is transfer also. That appears as a lower price, lower value to the market but like a delisted company share it doesnt mean the company is worth less just less well known and the market is less accurate when its not reported, of course gold has no revenue really visible to estimate worth on. Bitcoin worth and volume has alledgely dropped to 2012 levels I read recently, if use dictates value that is. With gold, its tricky as you say the deeds of ownership are not always reported publicly. China recently denied any new ownership of gold in the last few years
Gold is locked up but transfer must occur, I think of it like an ice age. Water is largely frozen but must liquidate to transfer, so there are changes ahead
