Grab your gold, and hold on!
The financial wizards who have declared precious metals to be a treasure
of the past in this interconnected and digital world of currency and trade
may have a few things to reconsider.
It is now official – Texas House Bill #483 was passed and signed into law by
Gov. Abbott, establishing a Texas Bullion Depository to house billions of
dollars in gold owned by Texas’ university
investment firm UTIMCO, as SHTF has long reported, and, of course,
other interested parties looking for a safer haven than the notoriously
corrupt banking sector in New York.
As Money Metals Exchange explains, Texas’ move to repatriate
gold is a big deal, centered around distrust of Wall Street financial markets
and a keen eye on schemes surrounding the physical possession of gold.
When Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill Number 483 in his own hand on
Friday, Texas gave a big gold “finger” to Wall Street and will soon
bring $1 billion in gold bars back to the Lone Star State.
[…]
In fact, those with the fiduciary responsibility for managing the
Texas gold are feeling less certain than ever. That’s why they
convinced state officials to build a depository and move the gold bars home
from Wall Street. Texas joins Germany, Venezuela, the Netherlands, and other governments
that have lost trust in New York depositories for safeguarding their metal.
While many nations in Europe and Latin America have demanded the return of
their physical gold holdings AFTER DECADES of trusting the Fed with it, Texas has now passed a bill going even further –
by deciding to build their own repository.
Moreover, they are inviting others to trust in the Lone Star state above
the sketchy financial dealings of the New York Fed and the closely-connection
megabanks who have been caught in episodes of financial mischief, fraud and
insolvency.
Banking crimes typically only result in fines and headlines, not jail time
for the principal actors in often very serious misdeeds. However, the
accumulation of shady practices is apparently contributing to the lost
confidence that is driving Texas’ decision:
Who could blame them? Gov.
Abbott indicated on Friday in his signing statement that some of the Lone
Star State’s gold is actually in the grubby hands of the New York Fed itself.
And HSBC, the
bank reported to be storing some of the gold, has been the subject of
criminal investigations and lawsuits.
HSBC’s suspected activities range from manipulation of metals and currency
markets to rigging LIBOR interest rates. And the bank avoided prosecution for
laundering Mexican drug cartel money in 2012 by paying nearly $2 billion in
fines instead.
Texas could have chosen to store with another bank. The problem is the
alternatives aren’t much better. Virtually all of the major Wall Street banks
appear to be engaged in some pretty unsavory activity – including ripping off
their own customers. In recent years, banks have paid nearly $200 billion in
fines.
This is hardly a small-time showdown.
Whether or not the NY Fed and HSBC make good on returning Texas’ gold, or
whether they show signs of inventory strains (read: shortage)
forcing them to buy back from the market, will all have a bearing on whether
this decision will prompt other actions in this new gold rush. As Money Metals notes:
The story will bear close watching as HSBC and the New York Fed
prepare for Texas to take actual delivery down the road.
The state’s gold holdings are reported to now total $1 billion in value. If
those gold bars have been surreptitiously leased out, pledged, hypothecated,
or even sold, then we could see a scramble for the physical metal.
And that scramble could lead to a musical chairs on the scale of global
world order, with seats in the new global currency, and the solvency of major
states and institutions determined by who holds the gold, and who is short on
collateral to back their leverage. (SHTF recently called it “The Ultimate Call”)
The actual infrastructure to keep Texas’ gold has yet to be built, but
that’s hardly the point. Those decisions will be made in due time as the
announcement meanwhile signals a major turning point that could have major
impacts on the gold market the world over.
Superpowers like China are scrambling to accumulate as much gold as
possible, and smaller countries are wondering how safe their own gold
deposits will be… until they are, of course, in hand.
The age of fiat faith in the power of governments is cracking, and the
foundation of the new world order still rests on the idea that he who holds
the gold makes the rules.
Are your holdings safe and secure?
