“The incredible gold scandal,” the German newspaper BILD began its article about the disposition of Germany’s mysterious gold holdings following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2009.
Growing pressure from the German people and politicians exerted upon its central bank, the Bundesbank, to audit the nation’s gold reserves intensifies, running parallel with escalating anxieties felt by German taxpayers for more than two years leading up to Greece’s to-big-to-pay $18 billion interest payment deadline of March 20, 2012. Sign-up for my 100% FREE Alerts
Everyone knows that Greece doesn’t have the money, and the big money has bet that Greece will have to officially default on the 20th, as evidenced by the one-year Greek bill, which topped 1,100 percent this week. Hedge fund managers have spoken: Greece is done with the euro.
Considering the ominous Greek sovereign debt backdrop, a suspicious Germany now wants to know where its gold is stored, as the last audit made in 2007 clearly indicates that the Bundesbank skipped its 2010 audit.
Just as pressure has been applied on the Fed by U.S .Rep. Ron Paul to agree to an audit of U.S. Treasury gold held at Ft. Knox and West Point, Germany may have to break the rules, too, by stonewalling the country’s elected representatives on the matter of its gold reserves.
“A clear breach of the law,” top Bilanzrechtler Prof. J?rg Baetge told BILD. “At least every three years to control counts the bars are made. [Google translation]”
When Germany’s controversial member of the Bundestag, Phillip Missfelder, inquired into the reason for the missed audit by the Bundesbank, the 32-year-old chairman of the Junge Union received a series of Fed-like responses from Germany’s central bank.
“I was shocked,” Missfelder told BILD. “First they said that there was no list. Then there were lists that are secret. Then I was told, demands endanger the trust between alliance bank and the Fed. [Google translation]”
A skipped audit, and now, peculiar responses from one of the most respected central banks, regarding the world’s second-largest sovereign gold stockpile (after the United States) has gold bugs wondering if German gold has been essentially held hostage at the NY Fed to prevent another explosive run in the gold price.
