Bitcoin wins more : Bundesbank will deutsches Gold zurückholen

An exclusive in Handelsblatt reads ominous :

Derzeit lagert das Gold der Bundesbank ihren Angaben zufolge in New York, London, Paris und Frankfurt. In der amerikanischen Notenbank Fed lagern 45 Prozent der insgesamt 3.396 Tonnen Gold, in der Bank of England in London 13 Prozent, in der Banque de France in Paris elf Prozent und im Hauptsitz in Frankfurt 31 Prozent. Diese Verteilung soll sich nun ändern.

Bundesbank-Vorstand Carl-Ludwig Thiele hatte bereits vergangenen Herbst gesagt, es gebe keinen zwingenden Grund mehr für eine Lagerung in Frankreichs Hauptstadt. Ursprünglich hatte die Bundesrepublik zur Zeit des Kalten Krieges und der deutschen Teilung aus Sicherheitsgründen ihr Gold auf verschiedene Partnerländer, so auch Frankreich, verteilt. Dieses Argument gilt nicht mehr. Gegen Paris spricht noch ein weiteres Argument: Anders als in London oder New York bekäme die Bundesbank im Falle einer Weltwährungskrise keine Devisen.

That says that the current allocations of German gold to foreign banks, specifically 45% with the US Fed, 13% with the Bank of England and 11% with the Banque de Franceⁱ is about to change.

Obviously the Franco-German axis is a thing of the past. We knew this once the wrong socialistsⁱⁱ won the elections there. As such, the repatriation of 400 or so tons of gold from Paris isn't either shocking or the most notable icicle in those two countries' current bilateral relations.

The hinted repatriation from New York, however, may be the straw that breaks that camel's back. For one, a coupla thousand tons of gold (about sixty million fine ounces) are no straw. For the other, it's not even clear that the US nominally holds that much physical gold in its bank vaults, or how much of that actually is tungsten. For the third, if China follows suit that's the end of the current monetary system, plain and simpleⁱⁱⁱ (the beauty of economy being, of course, that it doesn't even matter if the new solution will nominally include Bitcoin or not).

The faith in both the US' general ability and willingness to pay continues to dwindle, at apparently an accelerating pace (too soon on that exponential to clearly see yet just how exponential it really is). Even so it still lags the US' actual ability to do useful work, which has actually crossed the zenith probably before 2001 and has been bathing deep in a red ocean of negative ever since. Add another country credit rating downgrade to go with S & P's move in 2011 and the punch is pretty much ready to serve.

On the positive side, dollar denominated securities of all sorts are slated to raise indefinitely, much past the point where a freshly printed thousand dollar bill won't suffice to pay for one of the two freshly baked loaves of bread in all of Manhattan.

1. And 31% at home in Frankfurt, note how through the magic of accounting Germany holds 101% of all it's gold for maximum infinite power. [↩]
2. There's nothing other than socialists in France, and consequently your choices are between the right ones, the wrong ones and I guess the Muslim Revolutionary Fatwah Party. [↩]
3. Something that Merkel and her then-ally, Sarkozy, both clamored for at G20-2008. [↩]