Ron Paul Confronts Fed About Gold Dealings

The following comments come from Chris Powell of Gold AntiTrust Action (GATA):

During last Friday’s hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on his legislation to audit the Federal Reserve System, US Rep. Ron Paul asked the Fed’s general counsel, Scott G. Alvarez, whether the Fed has ever been involved in the gold market. Four days earlier GATA had disclosed the Fed’s admission that it has records of its “gold swap arrangements” with “foreign banks” that it wants to conceal from the public. (Click here.)

Replying to Paul, Alvarez professed to have no expertise in the matter of intervention in the gold market but added that he could get Paul such information. Paul replied that one purpose of his audit legislation was to determine whether the US government was intervening in the gold market by using other governments as intermediaries.

That surely is one reason for the Fed’s hysterical opposition to Paul’s bill. Let’s hope Paul followed up by asking for the gold intervention information Alvarez claimed not to have.

You can watch the exchange between Paul and Alvarez at YouTube below. (The section involving gold begins at about 5 minutes and 30 seconds into the video.)

Source: Chris Powell, GATA, September 28, 2008 and YouTube, September 27, 2009.

And while we are on the topic of Ron Paul, his new book, “End the Fed” should be on your list of prescribed reading.

Comments

[Roger Knights:]

"Paul replied that one purpose of his audit legislation was to determine whether the US government was intervening in the gold market by using other governments as intermediaries. That surely is one reason for the Fed’s hysterical opposition to Paul’s bill."

The dragnet tightens. Dum-De-dum-dum.

Sep 30 07:04 PM

[Jasper M:]

Yeah. I am reminded of Nixon et al's frantic stonewalling in the final months.
TORPEDO IN THE WATER!

Sep 30 07:25 PM

[5catsondrugs:]

since when can you trust the government?

Sep 30 07:30 PM

[secmaven:]

The Senate Finance Committee will deep six any "audit the Fed" legislation that the HR passes.

Sep 30 08:32 PM

[Roger Knights:]

"The Senate Finance Committee will deep six any "audit the Fed" legislation that the HR passes."

If so, Paul could introduce a bill to look into the limited question of the Fed's gold trading. What objection could the Fed have to that, unless ...

Sep 30 08:52 PM

[waf76:]

I've been in full agreement with Ron Paul abolishing the Fed but there is no chance of disrupting the current world order. There is no chance that an audit will be allowed, and if so, roadblocks will put in the way, or the audit will be wide in scope but shallow in terms of depth.

The fact that Ron Paul has zoned in on a specific action, the US government intervening in the gold market by using other governments as intermediaries, would lead me to believe he already has a narrow scope and wants to get into details, thus, granting the right to audit the Fed at zero percent.

Sep 30 09:39 PM

[waf76:]

Hit publish a tad too quick.

A Ron Paul investigation, an unfettered, legitimate one would bring down the dollar as quick as the stock market was plummetting day by day this time last year.

Sep 30 09:42 PM

[nobby73:]

The problem is, if they decide to focus on the gold issue, and discover that the Fed orchestrates trading in the gold market to support all fiat currencies with the agreement of other central banks, I can't see there being any smoking gun. Central banks should be helping to stabilize currencies and it is hard to prove that gold is deliberately undervalued. More importantly, it is hard to prove that by keeping the price of gold lower than it otherwise would be, this has harmed the US economy... If everyone invested all their wealth in gold, the economy would come to a grinding halt as we all sit at home polishing our (tiny) piles...

Oct 01 02:33 AM

[Laurence Hunt:]

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I don't understand why the government has a problem with openness. Let's be above board with this information.

Oct 01 02:41 AM

[grey road:]

well its not a conspiracy than , call it what you want , but they have never told you everything... or anything for that matter .. At what point will you, the american people stand up, riot and say you are not taking anymore lies deception, fraud and theft? Its in your hands.


On Oct 01 02:41 AM Laurence Hunt wrote:

> I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I don't understand why the government
> has a problem with openness. Let's be above board with this information.

Oct 01 08:54 AM

[jhm47:]

There is NO WAY that a meaningful, in depth audit will ever occur. They may audit the "coffee cans" that the employees have in their break rooms to buy coffee filters and snacks. To even entertain the notion that there would ever be a true audit, conducted by an independent firm is ludricrous. IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!

Oct 01 09:41 AM

[fireball:]

i do not expect the private bankster cartel to submit unless it is to their advantage.

Oct 01 12:42 PM

[The Recusant:]

nobby73 -- The point is that manipulating the price of gold in effect hides the true inflation rate of the dollar. Being a de facto currency, gold has historically been the benchmark to which all currencies are unofficially measured. With the massive quantities of U.S. dollars in circulation, by consistently lowering the value of gold, the banks can hide the gradual inflation that the dollar has been accumulating since the 1970's. We will have a dear price to pay when all those treasury notes (IOUs) and dollars come back to our country someday.

There is something terribly wrong with our country. End it...buy gold.

Oct 01 01:07 PM

[Tony Petroski:]

Let's suppose that the Fed has a useful purpose in intervening in the gold market (I can think of many good reasons). The normal action would be to buy or sell. "Transparency" in those situations would be as useful as having "transparency" in the CIA.

Thus we've got to grapple with this: Is the Fed a 4th branch of goverment? If so, and if that's useful, then let's make it legal--an amendment to the constitution would be in order. If not, then it should be managed by the executive branch and it would be up to the sitting President to decide how much transparency to allow.

The present arrangement will not hold, and Ron Paul is on the right track.

Oct 01 07:38 PM

[sixpackistan:]

Ron Paul is the last patriot in government. It will be a sad day when he is gone.

Oct 02 01:12 PM