|
Thanks to GATA's friends
Lars Schall and Peter Boehringer
for the translation from German
to English.
* * *
CDU Politician Wants to Bring German Gold Home
By Daniel Eckert
and Holger Zschapitz
Die Welt, Berlin
Monday, October 22, 2012
http://www.welt.de/finanzen/article110105525/...ill-deutsche...
After members
of Parliament were blocked in their attempt to inspect the gold of
the Bundesbank stored at
the Banque de France in Paris, leading economists and politicians are calling to transfer the German gold to Germany. "We'd
prefer it to be kept in Germany," Philipp Missfelder, CDU politician, told Die Welt.
Together with
his colleague Marco Wanderwitz from his parliamentary group, Missfelder wanted to view the extensive German gold
stocks on site. In a letter
Bundesbank Board Member
Carl-Ludwig Thiele informed
them that the French
central bank does not
have appropriate premises
for visits. The same applies to the Bank of England
in London.
"The response by the Bundesbank has made us even more suspicious. This secrecy is not good," Missfelder told Die Welt. Dozens of letters have gone between him and Bundesbank until this final cancelation of his visits to the Bank de
France and Bank of England vaults.
...
The CDU politician now
encourages transferring the precious
metal back to Germany. If it
was so complicated to inspect the gold
on site, he says, it would seem
better to bring the bars
back to the Federal Republic.
Economists also support his call.
In September Banque de France Chief
Christian Noyer replied to the question about the status of the Bundesbank's gold
in Paris: "Please be
assured we guard it very
well. ... Our clients can
inspect this whenever they want."
Responding to an inquiry
by the Die Welt, the Bundesbank said
Noyer's statement related only to institutions
and not to individual members
of parliament.
On Monday the Federal Court of Auditors demanded regular physical monitoring of
the German gold reserves stored abroad. The Federal Court recommended for
the Bundesbank to renegotiate the authorization for physical examination of the reserves held in the three foreign repositories.
The Bundesbank has
so far never fully examined the ingots stored outside German borders. The institution has, however,
now succumbed at least partly to the pressure
and announced the transfer
of part of the German gold reserves
from the United States to Germany. Here the ingots are to be melted down to check the quantity and authenticity of
the precious metal, a spokesman said. The Federal Court of Auditors, however, was not satisfied with this, but described the transfer from the US Federal Reserve only as a
"first step, but not a comprehensive
procedure."
"With gold reserves, direct access is crucial," says Folker Hellmeyer,
chief economist at Bremer Landesbank, and the precious
metal is an "ultima ratio" of monetary policy.
Experts estimate that only a fraction of German precious metal reserves are stored domestically. The Bundesbank itself
states --
http://www.bundesbank.de/Redaktion/DE/Down...chungen/Gesc...
-- that two thirds
of its gold are kept beyond German borders. "This is based on historic developments so and makes business sense," a
Bundesbank spokesperson explained
to Die Welt.
The gold reserves date back to the times of the Bretton Woods international monetary system (1944-1971), when
nations with current account surpluses built up gold reserves. This included Germany. "These reserves were and are held at the major gold
exchanges, so that the
Bundesbank has access in case of an
emergency," according to statements
from the Bundesbank.
But experts such as Hellmeyer have doubts that this
argument still stands: "Today
gold is no longer used as
compensation for current balances as was done in the Bretton Woods era," Hellmeyer says. "Storing the gold reserves at the major exchanges
is therefore no longer mandatory." He believes that within 10 years the bulk of central bank gold reserves will be stored in the respective
nations and no longer at the major exchanges in New
York, London, or Paris.
Thorsten Polleit,
chief economist at Degussa Goldhandel
gold trading has similar views. "In a time of unbacked
fiat currency the storage
of gold at exchanges abroad
is becoming an economic and political risk," Polleit says. The argument is that the gold will be needed if the paper currencies without gold backing start suffering serious credibility problems. This, in Polleit's view, would be
related to major economic
and perhaps also political upheavals. In such circumstances "it is no longer possible to rely on the contractual loyalty of foreign central banks where the gold is held."
The Bundesbank is one of the world's major
gold holders. The German
gold holding is stated to
be 109.2 million ounces. Those reserves have a current market
value of about E144 billion. This would suffice to free all German cities and communities from their burden
of debt, with their current liabilities amounting to E133
billion.
Only the US Federal
Reserve own a larger gold
treasure with 261,5
million ounces. A gold ounce
equals 31.1 grams.
In the meantime, a citizen initiative
has been started --
http://www.welt.de/106315242
-- demanding "Bring home our gold!" --
http://www.gold-action.de/campaign.html
-- with Hellmeyer as well as the FDP financial spokesman with responsibility for Bundesbank policy
Frank Schaffler and the former president
of the Federation of German
Industries, Hans-Olaf Henkel being among the supporters of the initiative. According to the initiative, more than
10,000 citizens have joined
the initiative, including many
prominent figures from politics, science, and the economy.
"We hope that
this matter will evolve now,"
says Missfelder. He perceives the clear statements from the Federal Court of Auditors as a
partial success.
|
