Zero Hedge tonight calls attention to and mocks a statement given two days ago by Carl-Ludwig Thiele, a member of the Executive Board of Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, to the German Press Agency (Deutsche Presse-Agentur), that the Bundesbank's gold reserves are stored securely abroad.
Carl-Ludwig Thiele
Zero Hedge notes that the Bundesbank official's statement fails to explain the recently disclosed withdrawal of German gold from the Bank of England: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-24/why-did-bundesbank-secretly-wit... The Bundesbank's statement further fails to answer the questions GATA long has raised: 1) Does the Bundesbank have gold swap arrangements with any agency of the United States government or any other government? 2) Have such gold swap arrangements ever been implemented and, if so, how and why? 3) Exactly what are the "strategic activities" facilitated by the Bundesbank's placement of the German gold reserves abroad, "strategic activities" admitted by the Bundesbank to the German journalist Lars Schall in December 2010?: http://www.gata.org/node/9363 Interestingly, while the Bundesbank told Schall in December 2010 that the identity of the depositories of the German gold and the exact amounts kept at each were "confidential" and could not be disclosed, the Bundesbank's statement to the German Press Agency two days ago discards that confidentiality and identifies the depositories and the amounts of gold kept at each. Apparently enough clamor has been raised in Germany and internationally to show that this claim of confidentiality was not persuasive and has embarrassed the Bundesbank into a tiny bit of accountability. But so much more accountability remains to be achieved. Will the Bundesbank disclose its gold swap arrangements? Will the Bundesbank disclose all its gold records and its "strategic activities" in the gold market and explain their purposes? Will Germany ever reclaim its rightful, hard-earned place as a sovereign nation? Why not? The Bundesbank's statement to the German Press Agency is posted at the Bundesbank's Internet site here: http://www.bundesbank.de/Redaktion/EN/Interviews/2012_10_25_thiele_dpa.h... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
