80 Percent of the Gold the World Owns Doesn't Exist

Chris Powell, Secretary and Treasurer of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee told Bernie Lo on CNBC Asia overnight that central banks are continuing to manipulate the gold market as they are interested in supporting government bonds and the dollar and keeping interest rates low. Powell warns about “paper gold” and says that we “try to persuade investors that if they are purchasing gold, they had better get real gold – metal.

They should not get “paper gold” and keep it within the banking system.” He says that “there is huge naked short position in gold” and estimates that perhaps “75% to 80% of the gold that the world thinks it owns does not exist and is just a claim on a bullion bank that is underwritten basically by the central banks.”

Bernie Lo asks what is the “end result”?

With regard to price Powell said that he does not make predictions but he wonders “what the value or the price of gold will be if the world ever discovers that 80% of the gold that it thinks it owns – does not exist.”

“There may not be enough zeros in the world to put behind the gold price then.”

Powell said that buyers should own gold in “your hand”or in allocated format outside of the banking system.

He concluded by saying that surreptitious intervention in the gold market can continue as long as gold buyers do not own real physical bullion.

We do not endorse GATA’s opinions however some of their evidence and many of their arguments are persuasive. We have yet to see any analyst or commentator address the substantive issues they have raised and debunk or refute their allegations.

Free markets need freedom of speech and a plurality of opinion.  Group think and cosy consensus got us into today’s the financial and economic mess. Therefore, open, frank and rational debate about all aspects of the precious metal and other markets and our current monetary system is important.

Being fully informed of all of the facts and fundamentals driving markets are essential in order to protect and grow wealth.