Is There Gold In Fort Knox?

Fort Knox Gold
Real or Faux

The alarm raised today by critics of Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez because of his plan to transfer his country's gold reserves to Russia, raises the question about the status of the U.S. gold reserves.  It brings to mind Congressman Ron Paul's suspicions about the status and security of the United States' own gold reserves, especially those at Fort Knox. 

One can scarcely watch a television program today without it being interrupted by advertisements featuring a variety of spokespersons, some well known to the viewing public, endorsing the purchase of gold as a secure investment.  We know that the price of gold has risen to record high levels, and many investors are converting "from paper to gold."


Investors are asked to diversify their portfolios and to include a percentage of their investment into "physical gold" as a hedge against calamitous events, inflation or a catastrophic economic decline.


This week the Financial Times,  reported that President Hugo Chavez has announced the nationalizing of the Venezuelan gold industry and the repatriation of  almost all the country's $11 billion in gold reserves held abroad, and up to $6.3 billion in liquid reserves from the United States and Europe to banks in China, Russia and Brazil in order to prevent their assets from being frozen by the United States.  This has made investors world wide sit up and take notice.


 Analysts estimate that of Venezuela’s $29bn international reserves, the government will only be able to move about $5bn of its cash reserves. But with some two-thirds of its reserves held in gold, amounting to 364 tons worth $18bn, the government is allegedly also planning to move the 211 tons of gold that it keeps abroad, worth $11bn, to the vaults of the central bank in Caracas, according to opposition lawmaker Julio Montoya. (Financial Times)


Venezuela sits on one of the world's largest undeveloped gold reserves.  The government has been unable to develop it because the area is overrun by illegal miners and smugglers who take over half the gold mined in the country.

It is believed that Chavez  is  transferring the gold to Brazil, Russia and China because those  countries have asked that Venezuela transfer their gold reserves in order to guarantee the loans which the government has received in recent years.    Chavez on the other hand claims that it is being done to protect their reserves since the price of gold has increased. 


Despite the United States recent economic problems, the U.S. dollar is widely seen as the global reserve currency of choice.  Venezuela, an OPEC country, uses oil to pay its debts to Russia and China, but it uses its reserves primarity to make debt payments and to finance imports. 


Chavez' opposition claims that the move is politically motivated.  The Venezuelan government faces new elections in 2012 and the opposition to Chavez' dictatorship is growing.  Experts say that he often sees his country becoming another Libya.


 Sixty eight  percent of Venezuela's liquid reserves  are in U.S. dollars and 32 percent in euros and sterling. Only 11 percent of the total are actually held in U.S.-based banks -- $5 million with the Fed -- while nearly 60 percent are with the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland.


As Chavez continues to nationalize Venezuelan industries, the dictator and his inner circle  fear that the United States will seek to freeze Venezuelan reserve assets. 


The above is a well documented  accounting of where the Venezuelan gold reserves are.  The question that has been aked in the United States many times now is regarding  the status of our own country's gold reserves.  Are we being told the truth? 


According to the Financial Management Service in its May 31, 2011, report it was  noted that total U.S. gold reserves stood at 261,498,899.316 fine troy ounces. United States Mint held gold in Denver, Fort Knox and West Point account for 245,262,897.040 ounces of the total.   


Is there really gold at Fort Knox?  

According to the European Union Times, "A new report prepared for Prime Minister Putin by the Federal Security Service  says that former International Monetary Fund  Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged and jailed in the US for sex crimes on May 14th after his discovery that all of the gold held in the United States Bullion Depository located at Fort Knox was ‘missing and/or unaccounted’ for." [1]

"This FSB report further states that upon Strauss-Kahn raising his concerns with American government officials close to President Obama he was ‘contacted’ by ‘rogue elements’ within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who provided him ‘firm evidence’ that all of the gold reported to be held by the US ‘was gone’." [2]

The currency that we use in the United States is, to our understanding backed by the gold held at Fort Knox, and other depositories.   Yet other reports tell that gold bars sent to China in October of 2009, and used to pay our debt, were  tested by the London Bullion Market Association and to everyone's surprise, proved to be fake.

"They contained cores of tungsten with only an outer coating of real gold. What’s more, these gold bars, containing serial numbers for tracking, originated in the US, and had been stored in Fort Knox for years. There were reportedly between 5,600 to 5,700 bars, weighing 400 oz. each, in the shipment.” 

If indeed the gold is gone, what happened to it?  The American people have a right to know, and to be prepared for the devastating economic collapse that the country faces in its future. 

Recently presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry criticized Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke for continuing to print money if we don't have the gold to back it up.  Texas Congressman and also presidential candidate "Ron Paul has has long stated his belief that the US government has lied about its gold reserves held at Fort Knox."

So concerned had Congressman Paul become about the US government and the Federal Reserve hiding the truth about American gold reserves, that he put forward a bill in late 2010 to force an audit of them, but which was subsequently defeated by Obama regime forces." [3] 

Ron Paul has introduced legislation known as  the Gold Reserve Transparency Act of 2011.  Should the bill pass, it is still subject to Obama's approval.  Two Sisters From The Right are not economists and cannot predict the future of our county's economy.  However, as citizens we believe that the American public has a right to know  the facts regarding the status of The U.S. Treasury owned gold.  Is there really gold in Fort Knox.  We certainly want answers.  Do you?

TWO SISTERS