Germany Repatriates Its Gold - Mark Thornton - Mises Daily

Germany Repatriates Its Gold - Mark Thornton - Mises Daily: "On Wednesday, January 16 the German Central Bank (i.e., Bundesbank) announced that it was going to repatriate some of its gold reserves currently being held at the New York Fed and all of its gold reserves held by the Banque de France. It had previously repatriated 940 of the 1385 tons of its gold reserves held at the Bank of England, citing high storage fees as the reason (the New York Fed and the Banque of France charge no such fees). Three-hundred-and-seventy-four metric tons will be trucked from Paris to Frankfurt, representing 11 percent of its reserves, and 300 metric tons will be shipped from New York. By 2020, the plan is to have 50 percent of its reserves held in Frankfurt. Germany has the second largest stock of gold next to the US and has not bought or sold gold since 1973."

"It is startling that they (the shipments of gold) will last until 2020 in order to bring the gold back. This reinforces the suspicions that the Fed and other central banks have lent gold to bullion banks who have in turn sold the gold depressing its price. To unwind these contracts it will take some time without upsetting the gold market. The Fed needs time to get its gold back. For all we know, it may not be there physically. That is probably the reason it will take until 2020."