Central banks repatriating gold?
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There is still a difference. We can post pretty darn freely on Telegram or X without having the police show up and imprison us for "wrongthink". And we can still fly the American flag without getting in trouble with the law.
All that is subject to change once the America-hating democrats get back in power, of course.
The CME delisted "Enhanced Delivery" gold vault stock from their COMEX reporting as of September 21. That was 4,059,364.4 troy ounces or ~126.3 metric tons that just went "and ... poof! It's gone" with zero explanation as to what happened to it. In the absence of transparency, we are left to speculate and having some time this morning, that's what I've done.
It occurred to me that when a foreign nation repatriates their gold held in the USA, that gold isn't held inside the COMEX system. The Federal Reserve holds that gold in their vaults in NYC. The movement of gold when nations repatriate is opaque.
Around the beginning of this month (about 3 weeks ago), news broke that the Dutch National Bank had physically repatriated 27 metric tons of gold from the USA and Canada (exact breakdown not reported). We don't see these flows in COMEX vault reporting.
Within the last few months, several European nations have had politicians publicly call for repatriating at least part of their gold from the USA including:
Germany (still owns 1,236 metric tons in USA after repatriating 300 metric tons in 2017)
Italy (owns 1,061.5 metric tons in USA)
Spain (owns an undisclosed portion of 281 metric tons in USA)
It's not hard to imagine that the Bundesbank, Bank of Italy and/or Bank of Spain might have requested some gold repatriation without a formal requirement from their respective governments.
Suppose the Bundesbank or Bank of Italy asked for just 10% of their gold. That's more than 100 metric tons. Suppose that The Fed isn't able to deliver that gold (because the gold is encumbered or simply not there where it is supposed to be).
If the suppositions are correct, it puts a whole new light on the USA's recent custody of Venezuela's London held gold and the 4M ozt "Enhanced Delivery" enigma.
It occurred to me that when a foreign nation repatriates their gold held in the USA, that gold isn't held inside the COMEX system. The Federal Reserve holds that gold in their vaults in NYC. The movement of gold when nations repatriate is opaque.
Around the beginning of this month (about 3 weeks ago), news broke that the Dutch National Bank had physically repatriated 27 metric tons of gold from the USA and Canada (exact breakdown not reported). We don't see these flows in COMEX vault reporting.
Within the last few months, several European nations have had politicians publicly call for repatriating at least part of their gold from the USA including:
Germany (still owns 1,236 metric tons in USA after repatriating 300 metric tons in 2017)Italy (owns 1,061.5 metric tons in USA)Spain (owns an undisclosed portion of 281 metric tons in USA)It's not hard to imagine that the Bundesbank, Bank of Italy and/or Bank of Spain might have requested some gold repatriation without a formal requirement from their respective governments.
Suppose the Bundesbank or Bank of Italy asked for just 10% of their gold. That's more than 100 metric tons. Suppose that The Fed isn't able to deliver that gold (because the gold is encumbered or simply not there where it is supposed to be).
If the suppositions are correct, it puts a whole new light on the USA's recent custody of Venezuela's London held gold and the 4M ozt "Enhanced Delivery" enigma.
Dumb question: If the gold is owned by these sovereign players, why is COMEX even involved? Obviously, gold on the COMEX is held custodially - by the FRB or Chase or whoever is contracted.
I understand REPORTING this event to COMEX, as market information, but if it's just repatriation of gold that was owned and continues to be owned...the only issue should be, when delivery is delayed for confabulated reasons, it should raise warning signals worldwide about the security of gold stored in the USA.
COMEX is not involved in repatriation. What I'm suggesting is the Fed might have needed that "Enhanced Delivery" gold to satisfy repatriation obligations because their vaults didn't have the allocated gold that it was supposed to have.