Business Insider: Conspiracy Theories Relating To Germany’s Gold Repatriation are “Bunk”

Much of the internet’s gold and precious metals sites are still buzzing over Germany’s decision to repatriate some of its gold.  Notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence suggesting there is no more to the transfer than meets the eye and the complete LACK OF EVIDENCE to support the conspiracy theories that are going viral, people want to continue to believe that something fishy is going on and that there is more to this story than meets the eye.

I wrote in my initial post on this subject that no matter what Germany did they were going to be the subject of conspiracy nuts who look for every news item to spin out of context to support their meme.

Germany was dammed if they chose a 7 year period or an immediate delivery. Here’s why;

• The fact they announced they will make this move over a period of 7 years has now been used by the aforementioned conspiracy theorists as a basis to spread their speculative meme that the gold isn’t there, something they’ve been arguing for years.
• Alternatively, if Germany claimed immediate repatriation, it is fair to suggest (given their history) that these same outlets would have started sensationalizing that an imminent currency failure was imminent which would be (in their eyes) the only reason for an immediate transfer.

You can’t win with these guys! That’s the bottom line. They would have found a way to spin this story to fit their meme. It happens every time.

I also emphasized in that post that while all of the conspiracy theory/gold bug sites were speculating that the Federal Reserve’s vaults had to be empty (which in their eyes was the reason why they agreed to a 7 year transfer of so little gold), that none of these sites were responsible enough to report Bundesbank member, Carl-Ludwig Thiele’s statements that refuted the main argument of the conspiracy nuts. Citing the New York Times, I pointed out;

Mr. Thiele denied there was any mistrust. “We have no doubts about the integrity of other central banks,” he said. “We’re not aware of any irregularities.”

The government auditing agency, the Bundesrechnungshof, called on Bundesbank officials in a report to Parliament to conduct an inventory of the thousands of bars of German gold that are stacked in foreign vaults.

Mr. Thiele said that he and other Bundesbank officials personally visited the German gold abroad and that he was satisfied that it was all there.

Again though, none of the conspiracy laden sites chose to report this fact (because it would destroy the allegations they made.  You see, it makes their claims baseless so they won’t include it in their ‘stories’.

Yesterday, I wrote about how it might be time to put this entire Germany/Gold conspiracy theory to bed. Carl-Ludwig Thiele’s comments were finally picked up by DW-Deutsche Welle who reported on the event in a web piece they wrote a few days ago.  Still, we have no official correction to the initial conspiracy theories by the usual suspects. This is not what they want out there … it doesn’t support their claims that something funny is going on.

Today, Business Insider weighed in with a story titled Why All Of The Conspiracy Theories About Why Germany Is Taking Its Gold Out Of America Are Bunk

The following chart shows how much gold Germany will have in Frankfurt, New York and London after their relocation moves are complete by 2020.  The only real noticeable difference is that the 375 tonnes they had in France will no longer be there, choosing instead to store all that gold on local soil.

You can see just how little will really change after their relocation is complete.

I choose again to harp on my comments made in my first post that spoke to no matter how the Germans chose to repatriate some of their gold, the story was going to spun by the usual conspiracy suspects in order for them to attempt to justify their long standing claims that the vaults in New York were empty.  Business Insider’s title actually goes right to the point.

Deutsche Bank commodity analysts Daniel Brebner and Xiao Fu recently weighed in on the German Bundesbank's decision for Business Insider and here’s what they had to say:

Brebner and Xiao write:

Given the highly ‘charged’ or politicised nature of the gold market as it pertains to central bank actions, particularly in the Western World, central bankers are generally highly sensitive to public perception and to perceptions of trust. In our view the Bundesbank is responding in large part to the Court of Auditors, who themselves have no doubt observed the increase in value of German gold reserves and may wish to raise the standard by which gold is treated on their books.

Furthermore, we believe that the slow transfer of gold from the US Fed in NY back to Frankfurt, at 50t/year, is partly a reflection of its wish to avoid any perception of a change in confidence in the US Fed. A secondary factor could perhaps be the reluctance to put undue strain on the gold refining sector.

Moreover, the Deutsche Bank analysts say the timing makes perfect sense:

For various historical/liquidity reasons many central banks have in the past held their gold reserves in multiple jurisdictions. These reasons are, in many cases, no longer valid. This and the increased value of gold holdings combined with heightened budgetary pressures that many governments are now facing is, not surprisingly, resulting in a greater call to track assets more closely. On this basis, we believe the timing of the high profile German repatriation process is not altogether unexpected.

So, this should put most of the major conspiracy theories to rest.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/deutsche-bank-on-bundesbank-gold-actions-2013-1#ixzz2Ip9r2jD3

I agree that the conspiracy theories should be laid to rest (as I wrote last night) but we all know that this evidence and all other evidence that dispels the conspiracy theories of those that stand to profit from ensuring those that seek their daily dose of silver and gold related market con-job stories will continue to be ignored. At the end of the day, conspiracy theories are often lacking in fact instead choosing to substitute fact for speculation. 

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