Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said he plans to introduce legislation next year to force an audit of U.S. holdings of gold. Paul, a longtime critic of the Federal Reserve and U.S. monetary policy, said he believes it’s “a possibility” that there might not actually be any gold in the vaults of Fort Knox or the New York Federal Reserve bank.
The libertarian lawmaker told Kitco News, a website tracking news about precious metals, that an audit was necessary to determine how much the U.S. maintains in gold reserves in case the government were to use gold to back the dollar.
“If there was no question about the gold being there, you think they would be anxious to prove gold is there,” he said.
“Our Federal Reserve admits to nothing, and they should prove all the gold is there. There is a reason to be suspicious and even if you are not suspicious why wouldn’t you have an audit?
“I think it is a possibility,” Paul said when asked if there was truth to rumors that there was actually no gold at Ft. Knox or the New York Fed.
Paul tried to get an audit of the Federal Reserve, too. Didn’t happen and neither will the gold audit. I find it extremely unlikely we have anywhere near enough to service our debts and it would be disastrous to the economy if that got out.
“…said he plans to introduce legislation next year…”
Can we set the bar ant lower?
He doesn’t say he will, but that he “plans to”.
and, of course, he doesn’t say he will find the support to get it passed & signed by Obama… No. Just that he will “introduce” a bill [of some kind] next year.
Yeah, and I plan on introducing toilet paper to my butt the next time I take a dump.
#27 – bobbo,
Respecting politicians is a foolish notion.
Ack. Perhaps we need a different word for respect that means respect relative to other major-league scumbuckets willing to run for public office despite having to compromise every principle they’ve ever held. I guess that word wouldn’t really be respect, would it? What word would you suggest for the less bad politicians who have only compromised 99.44% of their principles?
I think this is Ron Paul’s plan to enable him to retire from politics. :).
For those who claim that releasing the figure of how much gold is there, it was never a particular secret. Wikipedia reports 147.4 million troy ounces at Fort Knox.
Sure, an audit is probably in order, if for no other reason than to out Paul’s outrageous conjecture and let him retire in peace. If there is any kind significant discrepancy, I’ll eat my hat. (my LA Dodger’s hat to be specific)
I want so much to like Ron Paul, but his religious and conspiracy beliefs make me shudder. I DO believe that he is straight forward and honest in what he says; that he actually believes it all. Same goes for George W. Bush though.
Oh, and Scott, I agree that a Paul/Kucinich race would be a great thing to have! I would have to take a long, hard look to decide between the two. As for loonyness, I’ll take the UFOs over God as by far the more likely to actually exist. But note that despite one being an “honest conservative” and the other being an “honest liberal” they are both very decidedly anti-war.
#23 – David,
Why is it “lunacy” to ask for some transparency and do an audit to find out what our obligations are to various governments and banks around the world? You’re saying you prefer government secrecy to an open and honest accounting of our public assets?
No David. It is not lunacy to ask for an audit and transparency. It is, however, lunacy to suggest that there is no gold in Ft. Knox or the Fed. You can take a free tour of the Fed. I’ve done it. Have you? There’s gold in them thar vaults!! I know this to be true, personally. Why has Ron Paul not simply taken the tour?
This statement is indeed lunacy:
35. spsfan- “Wikipedia reports 147.4 million troy ounces at Fort Knox.”
Debates over, Call Ron Paul and tell him to Google it. So, you sticking with that?
#35 – spsffan,
I agree that W probably believed what he was saying too, probably not a neuron of a doubt since he has so precious few neurons.
The difference is that his delusions were far worse and had not even an air of potential respectability.
Regarding peace, his view appeared to be ‘Armageddon: Bring it on! Here comes The Rupture.’
Regarding economics and taxes: “Let the next poor schmuck pay back the debt I run up. I’m not going to be the guy who raised taxes. I’m just going to be the guy who mortgaged the country to China.”
And, it only got worse from there.
BTW, no matter who gets into office, this past decade will require that taxes will go up. Trillions in Iraq; trillions to the banks*. A trillion here a trillion there, sooner or later it adds up to real money.
Yes, borrowing trillions from China at treasury rates (2.x – 3% or so) to lend to the banks at 0.5% interest so that they can lend it to us at 5% is a gift to the banks. There is no other way to view that. And, let’s hope no one is silly enough to get partisan on this. All of this, and the paltry little $700B bailout, had full bipartisan support.
#37 – McCullough,
The beautiful thing about most wikipedia pages is that they cite their sources.
http://tinyurl.com/j7cka
Paul is a moron. Plain and simple.
And to all those in this thread do we have it, do we really know.
http://gold.org/assets/file/value/stats/statistics/archive/pdf/World_Official_Gold_Holdings_June_2010.pdf
Yes we do and look at who is number one.
Obviously Paul can’t Google.
I am so glad that his wife has the food business or he would starve.
Cursor_
We don’t have enough gold to cover what is borrowed so what difference does it make?
Yeah, I suppose somebody does need to an audit once in a great while.
If it is not important to have a gold standard….then why does the USA even have a gold reserve???
They need an old-fashioned inventory! Businesses do this periodically.
#42 – Rick Cain,
If it is not important to have a gold standard….then why does the USA even have a gold reserve???
Good question. I have no idea.
because the price of Gold is comparable to the price of oil..
Ron Paul is probably right. Most of the gold in Fort Knox was necessary when the U.S. was on the gold standard. That ended under Nixon in 1971. Since then, it seems that virtually no one speaks of what is actually in Fort Knox.
When I was a kid, movies like Goldfinger glamorized Fort Knox. Everyone knew it was full of gold and it was widely known and discussed often.
Since 1971, there has been less and less mention of Fort Knox. Today’s kids, those under 25 years old, probably don’t even know what Fort Knox is. Why is that? It was of supreme national importance in the 60’s. So why would trillions of dollars of gold in Fort Knox not be discussed by the government or the media for the last twenty to thirty years when we are running gargantuan deficits? Because it is highly likely that all the gold has been spent to pay down the debt to the Federal Reserve. A debt that should never have been allowed to happen.
Go to YouTube and search for “The Money Masters” and watch through the 3+ hours of this very historical and enlightening documentary. It explains it all, the origins of money, the origin of banks, the origin of the world’s central banks, the nature of fractional reserve banking, the Great Depression, FDR’s confiscation of all privately owned gold, the origin of Fort Knox, the gold standard, Nixon’s elimination of the gold standard, why money always decreases in value, EVERYTHING. It is long but worth the watch if you want to truly understand what is happening to us and the world.
For those that can get past the narrator’s waggling of his pen at the camera, it is highly educational. This is not taught in any school.