Ron Paul wants to audit Fort Knox to make sure the gold is there.

[Sylvain]

Of course it is still there. Really, really it is. For reals.

And this is a TOTALLY unrelated question, but where would a guy sell a gold ingot anyway? Just idle curiosity. For real.

Im sure you can find many swiss banks that will cash your gold without asking questions.
They did it well during WW2 and still dont answer questions about it today.

 

[Mog]

So the man is just crazy to want to audit them?

Absolutely! Since we're off the gold standard why would we need that gold reserve?

This really should be in purple. . ..

 

[Sylvain]

What is crazy is that if they are ever audited it will cost $15 million.
Im not sure if it's worth losing $15 milllion to find out how many gold bars are missing (if any) or if they are real gold or not.
Im not sure any president would be willing to bet $15 million to find out.
No matter if we find out that all the bars are there, or that one single bar is missing, we would still have lost $15 million.

 

[JoshuaW]

And if one (or many) is missing, think about how much the resulting investigation would cost.

 

[jeremy]

So they are ESTIMATING the cost at 15 million, which means it will actually cost North of 45 million. We don't have better things that those funds could be used for?!

 

[teddy12b]

Keep in mind that RP is trying to cut 1 trillion in the first year, so if he decides to spend 15 million trying to account for our nations wealth of a few million ounces of gold I don't think that sounds to foolish. Sometimes spending money is a very wise move. If it's not there, people need to be held accountable and the gold needs to be recovered if possible.

 

[The Bubba Effect]

Of course it is still there. Really, really it is. For reals.

And this is a TOTALLY unrelated question, but where would a guy sell a gold ingot anyway? Just idle curiosity. For real.

If you're serious PM me, I know a guy in XianJou.

I'd like to see Ft Knox audited and assayed, but I'm still waiting to hear where the 2.3 trillion that the DOD could not account for in the fall of 2001 went. I don't have any real hopes for Knox getting a real audit.

If they did audit it and it was short or empty, it would:
1: Hasten the inevitable political change in this Republic.
2: Drive the Silver and Gold spots through the roof (with a high premium going to physical).

 

[EvilBlackGun]

Anybody with

any brains at all STILL IS on their own Gold Standard!! "He who owns Gold sets the standards."
Quoting Corzine 12/13: "Well, Mr Chairman, I don't know WHERE it went."

"<snip> We're not on the gold standard. Kinda moot, doncha think?

 

[EvilBlackGun]

Congress made such a fuss

About wanting the Swiss to reveal all their secret account-holders, until the swiss asked, "Does that mean we tell all about the U.S. Congress-persons' accounts also?" End of demand.

Im sure you can find many swiss banks that will cash your gold without asking questions.
They did it well during WW2 and still dont answer questions about it today.

 

[insanemonkey]

Why in the world would it cost 15 million. I will do it for 1 million. I will count and weigh every last bar for 1 million dollars.

I really don't get why it would cost so much. Maybe someone can explain it.

 

[Pocketman]

Let's just say an audit came up short. To whom would one point the finger?

 

[EvilBlackGun]

Be crafty:

If you get the job, take your swiss Army knife with you and shave a micro-sliver off into the cuffs of your pants, and go home richer.

Why in the world would it cost 15 million. I will do it for 1 million. I will count and weigh every last bar for 1 million dollars.

 

[Stschil]

Then the US dollar will be worth nothing and you will have to start trading goods or use your own gold to pay for stuff.

The dollars has not been backed by the supposed gold in Ft Knox since the inception (unholy birth I call it) of true Federal Reserve. It would be impossible anyway, there isn't enough existing unmined gold to even come close to the amount of electro-dollars that have been "created".

So if it's not there and it becomes public knowledge, the only thing that will have changed is the fact that the public would then know that .gov has lied, again. The people will once and for all lose confidence in the "Full Faith and Credit" of the US Govt and then it's collapse, SHTF time ala Argentina style.

 

[jeremy]

Keep in mind that RP is trying to cut 1 trillion in the first year, so if he decides to spend 15 million trying to account for our nations wealth of a few million ounces of gold I don't think that sounds to foolish. Sometimes spending money is a very wise move. If it's not there, people need to be held accountable and the gold needs to be recovered if possible.

If Rep Paul was serious about wanting to inventory the Gold at Ft Knox he is in a better position right now to do something about that now, as opposed to if he were to be the POTUS...

 

[teddy12b]

Why in the world would it cost 15 million. I will do it for 1 million. I will count and weigh every last bar for 1 million dollars.

I really don't get why it would cost so much. Maybe someone can explain it.

Simply put the government can't do anything inexpensively or at the cost the free market can because of it's own red tape and having to be held accountable to the general public. That's particially my arguement for wanting smaller government and wanting the private sector to handle more of these projects.

 

[jeremy]

Why in the world would it cost 15 million. I will do it for 1 million. I will count and weigh every last bar for 1 million dollars.

I really don't get why it would cost so much. Maybe someone can explain it.

Credibility Costs...

Simply put the government can't do anything inexpensively or at the cost the free market can because of it's own red tape and having to be held accountable to the general public. That's particially my arguement for wanting smaller government and wanting the private sector to handle more of these projects.

The problem with handing stuff over to the Private Sector is that it is not always a cost savings...

 

[Sylvain]

Why in the world would it cost 15 million. I will do it for 1 million. I will count and weigh every last bar for 1 million dollars.

I really don't get why it would cost so much. Maybe someone can explain it.

From what I understand it's not just about counting how many bars there are and how much every one of them weight.
Anyone can do that and it wouldn't cost that much.
The most expensive, because it would take lots of time and because it's a technical thing to do, it to measure the gold content of each gold bar.
Some bars are 99.9% pure, some were made from gold coins and are only 90% pure.
Then they could even have 50% gold bars or whatever percentage they want to make a fake bar.
Some people even sold gold plated steel bars in the past, with fake seals and markings to make them look like real 99.9% pure gold bars.

But still, I bet a private company could have it done with less than $15 million.

 

[jeremy]

But still, I bet a private company could have it done with less than $15 million.

I would be willing to take that bet with you....

What ever Company decided to do this would be in for a LOT of expenses just to do the job. And I am not even thinking of the physical equipment to do the job. The amount one would have to spend to vet all the employees were of good character would be a SUBSTANTIAL amount of cash alone....

 

[Stschil]

Here's a blast from the past.

Fake gold bars out of tungsten a counterfeit story

And the precise reason why each and every bar would need to be verified.

I don't know if the people who pulled this off were ever caught or even if it was investigated.

The counterfeit story

This October, bankers in Hong Kong were in for a rude shock when they discovered some gold bars from the US to be actually gold plated tungsten i.e., fake gold bars. Acting fast, the Chinese officials found the perpetrators within hours. It seems that fake Tungsten blanks, between 1.3 and 1.5 million 400 oz, were manufactured in the US about fifteen years ago during the Clinton administration. Said to have been done by a very sophisticated refiner, 640,000 of these tungsten planks were gold plated and shifted to Fort Knox. The remaining also gold plated, but sold into the international market. (Fort Knox , as you may be aware, is the United States Bullion Depository, where the official gold reserves of the federal government are stored. This depository of about 4,603 tons (4 176 metric tonness) is the second highest gold depository in the US after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's underground vault in Manhattan (5,000 metric tonness of gold). Whoever pulled this one on the gold bars had connections inside the government, big banks and also a top-of-the-line fabrication facility. For, counterfeit is not something new for the US government, it did this is 1964 when zinc dimes clad in silver were introduced. That's why the pre 1964 coins are valued more. Elsewhere, early this year, another counterfeit story made rounds as some of the gold bars in the vaults of the National bank of Ethiopia were found to be gold plated steel. It made news when the shipment of gold was returned by South Africa. It only could have been the work of a genius as fake gold bars made of steel are among the easiest to detect as they are lighter. Among gold coins, 22k Gold coins such as Krugerrand, are less likely to be counterfeited because the density of 22k gold minted from gold alloy that is 91.67 percent pure, is far apart from that of tungsten. Tungsten has the same density (19.25g/cm3) as gold, so a fake bar is indistinguishable by weighing it. In comparison the density of pure 24k gold is within 0.26% of tungsten.

 

[Pocketman]

Does Haliburton have an inventory and minerals assay division?