Cairo: Hani Kamal El Din
For decades, the United States has been known for holding one of the largest reserves of gold in the world. But recent revelations have raised questions about the true state of these precious assets. Is the U.S. still the undisputed leader in gold reserves, or is there something more to the story that the public is not being told?
The Myth of America’s Gold Supremacy
Historically, the United States’ gold reserves have been a symbol of economic stability and power. The most famous location associated with these reserves is Fort Knox, a military base in Kentucky that has become almost mythical in its association with America’s gold. According to official reports, the U.S. Treasury holds over 260 million ounces of gold, worth approximately $450 billion at today’s prices. However, much of this gold has not been audited for decades, leading to speculation about the accuracy of these numbers.
In addition to Fort Knox, the U.S. maintains other significant gold vaults, including the West Point Bullion Depository and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Together, these sites hold the bulk of the nation’s gold. But despite this, many analysts have raised concerns about the real value and condition of these reserves.
A Growing Sense of Doubt
While the official narrative insists that the U.S. has an abundance of gold, there are growing doubts about whether all of this gold actually exists. Several experts have pointed out that the U.S. has not conducted a full audit of its gold reserves since the 1950s. The last comprehensive audit occurred in 1953, and since then, there have been no official efforts to verify the amount of gold in the nation’s vaults. This lack of transparency has fueled suspicions that much of the gold may not be there or could have been secretly sold or moved.
Moreover, the increasing demand for transparency in global financial systems has amplified the call for a thorough audit. Critics argue that in the modern age of digital finance, it is unacceptable for such a valuable asset to remain unaccounted for without clear oversight. Some suggest that the U.S. government could be hiding the true extent of its gold holdings, or worse, that the gold could have been used to back up debt or other financial obligations.
The Economic Implications of a Vanishing Gold Reserve
The implications of a disappearing gold reserve are far-reaching. If it were revealed that the U.S. was not holding as much gold as it claims, the fallout could be severe. Gold has long been seen as a store of value and a hedge against inflation. If the supply of gold in the U.S. vaults were shown to be inadequate, the global financial community could lose faith in the stability of the U.S. dollar, which is still the world’s dominant reserve currency.
Such a revelation could also trigger a massive shift in the gold market. Countries and investors might begin to question the true value of gold-backed assets, and this could lead to an increase in gold prices worldwide. Additionally, nations that hold large amounts of U.S. dollar-denominated debt might begin to diversify their holdings, potentially leading to a reduction in demand for the dollar and a decline in its value.
What Do We Know About the Gold Vaults?
Fort Knox, one of the most iconic sites associated with U.S. gold, has long been surrounded by rumors. Some believe that it houses the bulk of the U.S.’s gold reserves, while others claim that the vaults are empty or contain only a fraction of what is publicly reported. There are also those who suspect that the gold in Fort Knox may have been swapped for other forms of financial assets over the years. However, due to the secrecy surrounding these vaults, it remains impossible to verify these claims.
In 2017, the U.S. Mint attempted to address some of the concerns about the gold reserves by releasing new data on the contents of Fort Knox and other federal depositories. The Mint’s report, however, only provided vague statistics and did not address calls for a full, independent audit.
The Global Quest for Transparency
The issue of gold reserves is not unique to the U.S. In recent years, many countries have faced pressure to disclose the true state of their gold holdings. Some nations, like Germany, have called for repatriating their gold from foreign vaults, citing concerns about the safety and accessibility of their assets. Meanwhile, China and Russia have been rapidly increasing their gold reserves, which has led to speculation that they are preparing for a potential shift away from the U.S. dollar in global trade.
As global economic shifts continue to occur, the transparency of gold reserves will likely become an increasingly important issue. If the U.S. truly has nothing to hide, then it should have no objection to a full audit of its gold reserves. Until then, the mystery surrounding America’s gold continues to captivate both financial experts and the public alike.
According to one version, the gold in the vaults is real and in full, but does not belong to the Ministry of Finance. There is a fear that Fort Knox has already turned into a warehouse for storing other people’s gold. There is a convincing version that the gold of Fort Knox and other vaults of the Ministry of Finance was transferred to other organizations on the basis of gold leasing agreements or gold loans. Some people think that a gold leasing deal looks like this: a truck arrives, the leased gold is loaded into it and taken away from the vault. No, the metal remains in the vault, but is used by the lessee for sales, lending, as collateral, etc. There are suggestions that some of the gold in Fort Knox no longer belongs to the Ministry of Finance, but to the Federal Reserve and banks. As is known, in the 1930s, the American Treasury took gold not only from citizens, but also from banks. But since the end of the last century, gold from the Ministry of Finance has allegedly begun to slowly return to the banking world. The Treasury Department covered its obligations to the Federal Reserve and individual American banks with Treasury gold.
The “tungsten gold” version has recently become very popular. The vaults contain stacks of bars, the number of which corresponds to the reports of the Treasury Department. But these are completely or partially bars of fake gold – gilded tungsten. Tungsten is a metal that has exactly the same specific gravity as gold. Some experts believe that the tungsten gold bars in the vaults of the US Treasury Department could have ended up in the vaults of the US Treasury Department due to an oversight. Others believe that the Treasury Department is deliberately camouflaging the illegal use of the gold reserve by replacing real bars with “tungsten gold”. Previously, drilling was required to determine the authenticity of the bars. Now special verification methods have appeared that do not require mechanical damage to the bar. We know nothing about who and how checks the gold bars in Fort Knox and other vaults.
For at least the last forty years, the US Congress has been persistently demanding a full and thorough (i.e., with a full check of each bar) audit of the US Treasury’s gold reserves. Capitol veteran Ron Paul was particularly active in Congress, seeking to allow auditors into the Treasury’s “gold vaults.” The “gold vaults” are not only Fort Knox. Some of the Treasury gold is stored in other vaults on US territory – in West Point, in Denver (the US Mint), in the basements of a number of Federal Reserve banks. This gold is sometimes called “other Treasury gold” for short. Of particular interest was the gold stored at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. According to some sources, this is where the bulk of the “other Treasury gold” is located. If the gold of Fort Knox was subjected to at least partial checks (in the period 1974-1986), then auditors never looked into the other “golden coffers” at all.
I will note once again that the last official who was in Fort Knox and who reported on his visit was the Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (from the team of the then American President Donald Trump). On August 21, 2017, he spent several hours in the premises of Fort Knox. Returning to Washington, he joyfully and solemnly declared: “I saw the gold in the Fort Knox vault. It is in place. Leave all doubts and fears behind.” The words of the minister “the gold is in place” caused bewilderment among knowledgeable people at the time. To make such a statement, it is necessary, at least, to count the gold bars and weigh them. And in addition, to check the markings, compare them with the entries in the registration journals and accounting books. By the way, as reported by the American media, there are 13 compartments in Fort Knox, and the Minister of Finance looked into only one.
I have already lost count of how many bills have been prepared in the US Congress to conduct a full audit of the US Treasury’s gold reserves. But none of them have become law. Active opposition to gold auditing further strengthens the experts’ confidence that America’s “golden coffers” are empty, or at least their size is much smaller than the official figures.
