*Central Banks Buying Record Amounts of Gold* *By Geoffrey Pike | Friday, November 14th, 2014*
Gold has seen its role as a form of money reduced significantly over time. The U.S. cut off its last link to the gold standard in 1971 under Nixon. There are no longer any significant currencies in this world that are fully or even partially backed by gold. Yet it is a curious thing that central banks hold gold. Some central banks still buy gold for reserves. In 2011, then-Congressman Ron Paul asked then-Fed Chair Ben Bernanke why central banks hold gold (as opposed to diamonds). Bernanke’s response was that it is tradition. There could be worse answers... but why is it tradition for central banks to hold gold? The reason is that it was widely used as a form of money, as determined by the marketplace, for thousands of years. Central banks still hold gold because of its history as money. Even though there are no currencies backed by gold, gold reserves act as a backstop. It keeps an element of confidence in the fiat currency that is issued. [image: gggbars] Based on the most recent data, here is a list of the top 10 countries with the largest gold holdings: 1. United States: 8,133.5 tonnes 2. Germany: 3,384.2 tonnes 3. Italy: 2,451.8 tonnes 4. France: 2,435.4 tonnes 5. Russia: 1,149.8 tonnes 6. China: 1,054.1 tonnes 7. Switzerland: 1,040.0 tonnes 8. Japan: 765.2 tonnes 9. Netherlands: 612.5 tonnes 10. India: 557.7 tonnes The U.S. obviously holds the most gold by far. Of course, this is based on the official reporting numbers, and we can’t be certain of the true story. German officials attempted to repatriate some of their country's gold from the U.S. but then suddenly stopped pursuing it. We don’t really know if the gold is there because there are no true audits done on the gold holdings. For all we know, it is possible most of the gold has been leased out. . __._,_.___ ------------------------------ Posted by: "beowulf" <[email protected]> ------------------------------ Visit Your Group <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmOHFidG9jBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0MTYwMDIxNjE-> [image: Yahoo! Groups] <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlZDRyMDZxBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQxNjAwMjE2MQ--> • Privacy <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> • Unsubscribe <[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribe> • Terms of Use <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/> __,_._,___ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
