There is some question as to whether or not the gold vaults of the U.S. Government still have any of the yellow metal in them. The question is inaccurate in that it focuses on whether there is any gold left, instead of how much gold is left.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury is no help in this regard, at least as far as the public information disseminated by the Financial Management Service goes. In a deliberate case of who cares what we say, the FMS has gone to great lengths to hide how much gold is being sold by the government and how much is still in the vault. Although the US left the gold standard decades ago under the Nixon Administration, the FMS currently still values the gold that it claims to possess at the ridiculous price of $42.22 cents per ounce.
In March of 2006, FMS issued the last of what could be considered accurate statements regarding the amount of gold held by the US Mint in working stock. At that time, some 2.8 million ounces of gold was declared as being the Mint’s possession. The following month, this figure was reduced to 2.78 million ounces, where it has remained unchanged, each month for the past two and a half years. In fact, the figures from April of 2006 appear verbatim in the latest report from November of 2008. By this public report, the mint has not gained or lost any gold for two and a half years!
Even so, the Mint has sold gold every month. Gold Sales in 2006 from April through December totaled 135,500 ounces. 2007 sales were 198,500 ounces and 2008 sales were 860,500 ounces. Even though the 30 month period shows total gold sales of some 1.19 million ounces, the working stock of the US mint as reported by the FMS is still 2.78 million ounces. (Actual figure is 2,783,218.656 ounces - yes they have it counted to the 1/1000th of a ounce.)
By this single line item, the FMS would appear to be off by nearly 1.2 million ounces of gold. Yet attempts to contact the FMS by email for an explanation have been met with silence, not to mention a continuation of the same figures, month to month for 30 straight months.
One cannot judge the entire monthly report by this single line item, but it does call into question the entire report. If this single line item is off by some 40%, then what about the rest of the gold supposedly held by the US Treasury? The Federal Reserve Bank-New York Vault is supposed to hold nearly 74,000 ounces of gold coins. According to the FMS, this amount is unchanged in the past 30 months, as is the supply of Gold bullion in Denver, Fort Knox and West Point. Without a reliable, accurate report, the public is left to guess as to which shell the gold is really under.
Stock position: None.
