Repatriation of German gold ahead of schedule

Saw this February article in the Wall Street Journal:

Feb. 9, 2017 6:00 a.m. ET
FRANKFURT—The Deutsche Bundesbank last year brought back about 216 metric tons (238 tons) of gold to Frankfurt, it said in a press release Thursday, adding that its plan announced four years ago to move more of Germany’s gold reserves back home was far ahead of schedule.

The German central bank said that last year it moved 111 metric tons from New York and 105 metric tons from Paris.

“The transfers were carried out without any disruptions or irregularities. The gold storage plan for New York, which envisaged the transfer of 300 tonnes of gold from New York to Frankfurt, was fully realised in 2016,” Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele said in the news release. [more]

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Germany, umm, believes that gold in hand is better than paper gold, i.e., warehouse receipts... So do I.

 

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Well, they are going to look a bit silly if someone loses the key to the vault!

Although it will be handy to have some gold in hand if they want to go for the world's biggest gold coin record. Possibly a 100,000,000 Euro coin they could put in a museum. I know of a museum that is looking for such an object.

 

Maybe @chrisild could be a caretaker for his country's gold.

 

Gee, why didn't they tell everybody ahead of time when and where the shipping would happen?

 

Because our friend out in the Rhineland would be there waiting for his gold

 

Yes, it is all mine, dare not touch it. As for moving that gold to Germany, well, it partly makes sense, and partly it is (a reaction to) paranoia. For many years the Bundesbank's gold reserves have been stored in the US, the UK and France. Some people here had doubts about the gold still being there, a few politicians even wanted to see the bars. Not sure whether they also had plans to personally melt them to check whether it's actually gold ...

Calling this a "repatriation" is similarly alarmist, as most of that gold had never before been in Germany. Before the unification in 1990, only 77 (of about 3,400) tons were actually stored here, for various reasons. One of them was that locations "further west" were considered safer in the case of a military conflict, another one was that leaving the gold where you buy (and possibly sell) the gold is easier than shipping it to Frankfurt.

Also, currency diversification played a role, which is why the Bundesbank's gold at the Banque de France will be moved to Germany completely. Since 1999 the two countries have had the same currency after all. The reserves in London (Bank of England) and New York City (Federal Reserve), however, will just be reduced. This will hopefully make the Bundesrechnungshof (Federal Audit Office) happy too. It had in previous years criticized the practice of storing so much at third party facilities and paying for that storage.

And I do indeed hope that it will be more difficult to steal those bars, wherever they are stored, than stealing Mr Fuchsmann's gold beast ...

Christian

 

Bundesrechnungshof - say that five times quickly, while inebriated.

 

Bundesrechnungshof - say that five times quickly, while inebriated.


My experience is that German gets easier the drunker you are.

 

“Gold gets dug out of the ground, then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”

- Warren Buffett, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

 

True in western countries, but in India - a large consumer of gold, it is all worn as jewellry.

 

Ah yes, but much of the population of the west sees more familiar comfort with images from Mars than those from India. I know that given the choice of the two climates (aside from needing more oxygenation) I'd choose Mars.

 

Ignoring the peanut gallery that tries to de-rationalize the reality - gold is a store of value. Anyone else think Kurt would look great on Mars?

And Germany just pulled in hundreds of tons of physical metal behind their walls. Because they are in turmoil and need to protect wealth as they consider exiting the EU. In fact, I dare say they are counting on it, and preparing to re-value their own currency.

And while some may downplay that move - I would also suggest looking at what the UK is doing with physical metal.

Because BrExit is now happening - and solid. And Germany may be the next to cut loose the chains of the union.

As the euro loses value, the scramble to metals will increase throughout the union, and as a hedge by others.

I'm not saying gold $10k or anything crazy, but my opinion is that metals will strengthen as this progresses.

 

Germany leaving the EU? Huh? There might be some fringest parties there suggesting such a maneuver but they are the minority. The Euro skeptics were defeated in Netherlands and we will see what happens in France later this month and early next month with the preliminary and runoff elections.

 

My problem with that statement is that it is the same rhetoric that was spoken before the UK broke away, and even broadcasted as fact by the media.

The results were far different.

And I don't entirely trust news outlets to get the story straight, but there's more than just a fringe, there's a good portion of the population that is ready to support the move.

This is my favorite article from 2016.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politic...p-wont-be-president-and-britain-wont-leave-eu

 

Germany will depart the EU before the end of 2018. Follow the money.

 

Philosophical question: Does Germany depart the EU, or does the EU ask Germany to leave? Same result either way.

Look, no rational country wants to increase the value of their currency. It's a job killer. The huge run up in the value of the Swiss franc almost killed all Swiss retail.

 

That is a lie. Or whatever you call a deliberately incorrect statement these days. Sure, the UK is (or will soon be) out, but that's it.

Christian

 

Would that be 2018AH? I think the majority group will pull it out long before then.

 

Hey Christian, get used to it, buddy. All Brett, and longnine, and Sakata, and Doug "triple cuatro" and their ilk, trade in are lies. It all comes from the illegitimate sources they read day in and day out. They MAY actually believe the garbage they read. Who knows?

 

Get your facts straight, your posts are getting ridiculous...