Bundesbank to Repatriate 374 Tons of Gold From Bank of France

[Serpo]

While Bernanke spent his afternoon today outlining why the gold standard can never work (never mind the fact that it worked perfectly for 2 centuries in America), the Bundesbank has just shattered the remaining confidence in the fractional bullion banking system, announcing that it will repatriate a portion of its gold reserves from the NY Federal Reserve, and ALL 374 tons of its gold held at the Bank of France!In the months that followed Hugo Chavez’ 110 ton gold repatriation request in the summer of 2011, gold exploded nearly $400 as the bullion banks panicked. As the Bundesbank’s official gold holdings held at the Fed and the Bank of France dwarf Venezuela’s 110 tons, don’t be surprised if the price of physical gold goes super-nova as Germany’s repatriation request plays out, as paper gold rehypothecated 100 times over must suddenly be conjured up in physical form.


The Handelsblatt (http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/reserven-bundesbank-will-deutsches-gold-zurueckholen/v_detail_tab_print/7629600.html) reports that Germany wants its gold back from the allies, and that 374 tons of gold will be repatriated from the Bank of France, as well as a portion of the gold held on deposit at the NY Fed:

The Bundesbank has developed a new concept as to where she should continue storing her gold reserves. According to information of the Handelsblatt, this approach which will be announced next Wednesday will repatriate the domestic gold, and store less gold in New York, and will hold no more gold in Paris.
Currently, the gold of the Bundesbank outsourced their claims to New York, London, Paris and Frankfurt. In the American Federal Reserve the Bundesbank stores 45 percent of the total 3,396 tonnes of gold, in the Bank of England in London, 13 percent, in the Bank of France in Paris eleven percent and 31 percent at its headquarters in Frankfurt. This distribution is about to change.


While the Bundesbank does not specify the amount of gold it will repatriate from the NY Fed, 11% of its total 3,396 tons of reserves held at the Bank of France amounts to 373.56 tons, or 12+ million ounces of physical gold held at the Bank of France.In other news, a tungsten shortage was announced this evening.
It appears that the game of musical chairs known as the fractional/rehypothecation bullion banking system is nearly over, as the German Bundesbank has officially had a come to Jesus moment regarding The Doc’s favorite phrase:
If You Don’t Hold It, You Don’t Own It!






http://www.silverdoctors.com/bundesbank-to-repatriate-374-tons-of-gold-from-bank-of-france-yet-to-be-announced-portion-of-gold-held-at-the-ny-fed/#more-20047

[ArgenteumTelum]

Does the pedal hit the metal a bit now or will there be yet another false start?
AT

[Serpo]

As Germany Prepares To Repatriate Its Gold, We Hope They Have Learned From The "Monetary Sins Of The Past" http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Submitted by Tyler Durden (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) on 01/15/2013 13:35 -0500



Bank of England (http://www.zerohedge.com/taxonomy_vtn/term/9226)
France (http://www.zerohedge.com/taxonomy_vtn/term/12348)
Germany (http://www.zerohedge.com/taxonomy_vtn/term/8300)
Global Economy (http://www.zerohedge.com/taxonomy_vtn/term/10655)
Great Depression (http://www.zerohedge.com/taxonomy_vtn/term/9586)
The Economist (http://www.zerohedge.com/taxonomy_vtn/term/11063)
William Dudley (http://www.zerohedge.com/taxonomy_vtn/term/9061)



As initially reported here yesterday (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-14/it-begins-bundesbank-commence-repatriating-gold-new-york-fed), in what is the biggest news of the week, and possibly the year, the Bundesbank has broken away from its "all is well" posturing exhibited as recently as three months ago, and in a dramatic reversal of its diplomatic position, has demanded repatriation of some of its NY Fed and all of its Paris-domiciled gold. We applaud Herr Wiedmann for this move, although we hope that the German people are allowed to witness, and verify, the arrival of the actual gold as opposed to simply empty crates. Of course, at the end of the day the actual delivery is irrelevant: what matters is this first shot across the bow of the current monetary system - one which juxtaposes sound money versus infinitely dilutable electronic fiat more than ever before - by a major conservative central bank, one in possession of the second largest official gold reserve, second only to the Fed itself. That said, we can only hope that the German request for gold repatriation is not met with the same enthusiastic response that France encountered when it too attempted to repatriate its gold held by London back in the 1930s, just before a whole lot of things in the global economy went horribly wrong...
Specifically, in 1965 The Economist interviewed Jacques Rueff, a French economist and advisor to the French Government. In the following exchange (caught on pages 84-85 of the pdf "Monetary Sins of the Past (http://mises.org/Books/monetarysin.pdf)", which are required reading to anyone who thinks what is going on now is in any way new or different), the Economist blames France for exerting pressure on London during the 1930s, through the withdrawal of sterling balances held at the Bank of England. We thank Martin Sibileau for the reminder about this key exchange.
What is disclosed is enlightening and entertaining, and may well serve as the basis for what the response Buba may encounter today.
Jacques Rueff: In 1930 I was financial attache in the French Embassy in London, and in that capacity I was responsible for the deposits of the French Treasury with British banks. They were the direct result of eight years of the gold-exchange standard, because we had kept the pounds sterling in London, as my colleagues in New York had kept in the American market the dollars that had been pouring into the French Treasury from 1927 onward. Then, in 1931, the failure of the Austrian Creditanstalt caused successive waves of repatriations; and it was this collapse of the gold-exchange standard that, without any possible doubt, transformed the depression of 1929 into the Great Depression of 1931.
The Economist: While you are on this historical episode, what would your comments be on the very widespread view that it was to a substantial extent French pressure on London at that time, through the withdrawal of sterling balances, that was in part responsible for the general collapse later on?
Jacques Rueff: Let me tell you that, unhappily for the world, the French pressure did not exist, or was so mild that it had no effect. There is a very interesting document from this period, a letter from Sir Austen Chamberlain, who was then Foreign Secretary in London, to M. Poincaré, who was Prime Minister and Finance Minister in France; it must be of 1928. Sir Austen said, "We know that you are entitled to ask gold for your sterling, but in the frame of the close friendship between Britain and France we ask you, so as to avoid trouble for the City of London, not to do that." And we were, I must say, weak enough to comply with this request and not ask for gold. The fact that I had such important sterling deposits in London shows that we did not use this right to ask for gold. The adjustment, which would hardly have been felt if carried out on a day-to-day basis, was not made, and we had the fantastic boom of 1927, 1928, and 1929. This explains the depth of the collapse and of the depression, because the adjustment was so long delayed. We were too gentle in complying with official appeals not to convert our sterling balances into gold.
Fast forward to today, and we can't help but wonder if some 30 years from today, an advisor to the Bundesbank will not rewrite the above to something as follows:
BUBA Advisor: ...There is a very interesting document from this period, a letter from William Dudley, who was then Head Of The NY Fed, to Herr Weidmann, who was Head of the Bundesbank; it must be of 2013. Dudley said, "We know that you are entitled to ask gold for your sterling, but in the frame of the close friendship between the United States and Germany we ask you, so as to avoid trouble for the Wall Street, not to do that." And we were, I must say, weak enough to comply with this request and not ask for gold. The fact that I had such important sterling deposits in New York shows that we did not use this right to ask for gold. The adjustment, which would hardly have been felt if carried out on a day-to-day basis, was not made, and we had the fantastic boom of 2013, 2014, and 2015. This explains the depth of the collapse and of the depression, because the adjustment was so long delayed. We were too gentle in complying with official appeals not to convert our USD balances into gold.
We can only hope that the Bundesbank is not quite as "gentle" as Paris was some 80 years ago in complying with London's equally as gentle denial to comply with the French repatriation request. In fact, quite the opposite: we hope Bundesbank pulls all of its gold, as do all other nations because in the aftermath of the "collapse and depression" that will soon follow, he who defected first, will have defected best.
Everyone else will be left with paper promises of repayment by a broke and insolvent government which went as far as suggesting the minting of a trillion dollar coin to absolve it of its own particular monetary sins. Seriously.
h/t Martin Sibileau
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-15/germany-prepares-repatriate-its-gold-we-hope-they-have-learned-monetary-sins-past

[Serpo]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/gold/9804444/Bundesbank-to-pull-gold-from-New-York-and-Paris-in-watershed-moment.html

[Large Sarge]

I think the watershed moment is that most of the gold is not there, Jim Willie has said for awhile now most of its gone, and when it leaks out (very soon), he expects gold to clear $6000 in short order, like a month or so

there is no gold there, and we all know it, and Germany is telling the world that there is no gold, read between the lines folks

[Serpo]

Does the pedal hit the metal a bit now or will there be yet another false start?
AT

Germany wants its gold back because it feels insecure without it .......now......

.shouldnt hurt the gold price at all..........

[joboo]

This should be interesting.

Tungsten detector...check.

[osoab]

Looks like the FED and France have 7 years to pony up the gold.


http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
It Will Take The Fed Seven Years To Deliver 300 Tons Of German Gold (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-16/it-will-take-fed-seven-years-deliver-300-tons-german-gold)

From a comment at the above ZH article.



Wed, 01/16/2013 - 17:32 | 3159944 (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-16/it-will-take-fed-seven-years-deliver-300-tons-german-gold#comment-3159944) AlaricBalth (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/alaricbalth)

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-46814.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/alaricbalth)

Germany wants their gold holdings repatriated to home soil. They have asked the French to return all of their gold, at a rate of 50 tonnes per year until all 374 metric tonnes are received.
The French have just commenced military operations in Mali. Mali is Africa's third largest gold producer. Mali, this past year, increased its gold production by just over 50 metric tonnes.
Is anyone else seeing the connection here?
I'm willing to bet that France does not have Germany's gold and the Bundesbank has given them a few years to mine it from Mali. Yet the Mali source must be secure, hence the military must make sure the gold flows.

[joboo]

^ +1


I f you can't load up the truck, how fast can you dig it out of the ground is what it seems like.

[mick silver]

I think the watershed moment is that most of the gold is not there, Jim Willie has said for awhile now most of its gone, and when it leaks out (very soon), he expects gold to clear $6000 in short order, like a month or so

there is no gold there, and we all know it, and Germany is telling the world that there is no gold, read between the lines folks
dont get me wrong here i think you maybe right ,,, but but they alway find away to cover this shit up

[Mouse]

Helicopter ben tells Germans: You don't like 7 years? You do realize the gold was rehypothecated and leased and sold again and again to support your monetary system as well as ours, right? You make nice and we make nice, but don't put a gun to my head. Your country would have been dead in 1971 with the rest of us.

ALL the central banks are coordinated. It is already the NWO, they just didn't roll back the curtains yet. The gold and the other scams, any country with a central bank is in on it. Any country that is without a central bank is wanking the IMF. The deed is already signed, they haven't come to collect our stuff yet.

[Sparky]

To clarify, it doesn't really say that the Fed is requiring 7 years for payment. It says the Germans plan is to repatriate over 7 years. They may be choosing to do this so as to not cause a big stir.

This story will become much more interesting when the NEXT European country announces a similar intent. At that point it turns into a race for the exit. I know Venezuela has already done this, but it's easy to pass that off as Chavez being a lunatic tyrant. Germany is a respected and important mainstream player in the world financial market.

I wonder what other countries hold a large portion of their gold reserves in New York or London. This would be an interesting piece of information if someone can track it down.

[osoab]

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8493/8387472483_630c52da11_o.png