Countries Clamor to Get Their Gold Back on Fears of GLOBAL CURRENCY COLLAPSES!

On the surface, that seems very odd. After all, gold  has no meaningful role in the financial system any more. After a two-year bear market, it is not even worth as much as it was. It hardly seems worth the logistical or diplomatic hassle of bringing it back home. 

Europeans are feeling increasingly nervous about their money, and in those circumstances they start to renew their interest in precious metals. What it reflects, however, is a growing public unease with the single currency  .

The point about having gold on your own soil is that it is an insurance policy against a chaotic return to national currencies. The fact that so many countries seem to want that insurance tells you something important about the euro — and it is hardly comforting. They still think there is a real possibility of collapse. 

Austria is the latest country to start discussing bringing its gold home. It has 280 tons of gold, 80% of which is stored in London, with another 3% held in Switzerland. Last week, it was reported that the Austrian Audit Court had ordered a review of the practicality of bringing a lot of that back to Vienna, presumably where the central bank could keep a closer eye on it. 

That is part of a growing trend.

In Germany, a high-profile press and public campaign has been under way for years to bring more of that country’s gold back onto German soil. Of its massive holding of 3,400 tons of the metal, much is actually stored in the United States, London, and Paris, but it has now been agreed that much of that will gradually be bought back under the control of the Bundesbank. 

Across the border in the Netherlands, there are similar pressures. Last month, we learned that the central bank — De Nederlandsche Bank — had quietly started bringing some of its 600 tons of reserves back to Amsterdam: 51% is currently held with the New York Federal Reserve, but that will come down to 31%, although some will still be kept in Canada and the U.K. 

Soon afterwards, the governor of the Belgium central bank, Luc Coene, said in a television interview that a repatriation of its gold reserves — much of which are in London, Canada, and Switzerland — was now being investigated. 

Some bigger nations could get in on this trend. 

France has some of the largest reserves in the world, with 2,435 tons. Last month, the leader of the populist National Front, Marine Le Pen, wrote an open letter to the Bank of France demanding that all the French gold be returned to Paris. For good measure, she urged the bank to take advantage of the fall in the price to buy more of the stuff.
 

Italy has not joined in yet. But with 2,451 tons, it has the fourth largest reserves in the world, Read the rest of the story here…