Continuing doubts are being expressed that all the gold claimed to be held by Central Banks and others may not be there, or title is being held by several parties as the statistics just don't appear to add up.
(MineWeb)It doesn't just seem to be GATA which nowadays is questioning whether the volume of gold held in ETFs and in official reserves is really there - or perhaps there is more than one title to what is actually in the world's gold vaults? Would a run on gold bullion thus create panic among the Bankers?
Banking has run for centuries with the banks themselves only keeping on hand a fraction of the money owed to depositors with the balances loaned out and not always immediately available, if indeed it is even there at all, so when there is a run - like that on Britain's Northern Rock last year - the bank concerned can find it tough to keep its head above water. Northern Rock, in the event, needed to be bailed out by the U.K. government.
There are plenty of theories that the gold markets also operate on a similar principle - or perhaps worse. Not only may the banks not hold the amounts of physical gold they say they do, say the doubters, having loaned much of this to third parties, but there are now analysts and observers expressing doubts over the actual title to the gold that is still seen to be in the vaults, feeling that perhaps some of it has been sold several times over. Central Banks, for example, seem to hate being questioned over gold loans preferring to duck the question and keep any such arrangements under wraps, although most will admit to gold swaps and loans being made - but little or no detail.
It may be no coincidence that the recent surge in the gold price which burst it through the $1,000 barrier followed shortly after Hong Kong demanded repatriation of its gold held in London banks and reports suggest that Germany is also looking for its foreign-held physical gold to be returned from overseas repositories. Has this created shortages of physical gold which holders are now trying to cover?
The latest commentator to express doubts is Paul Mylchreest in his Thunder Road Report. Mylchreest has calculated that, using GFMS figures, that data on the volume of gold traded on the London market (about 90% of gold traded worldwide), if put in its proper context, does not tally with his estimate of the amount of gold that is held in the form of bars which conform to "London Good Delivery" standard. He has thus come up with two alternative possible reasons for the anomaly:
"Alternative 1:"
On average there is more than one ownership claim on each gold bar conforming to London Good Delivery (LGD) standard on the "pool" of gold which acts as liquidity for the massive OTC gold trade based in London. Essentially, the market operates on a fractional reserve basis, but if a sufficient number of market participants become concerned about this and there is a stampede to take delivery of physical bullion, there is a risk of market failure. Such a process could be delayed by central banks lending gold to the market, although this would likely be obvious by a spike in gold lease rates, or by a much higher gold price in order to encourage holders to sell bullion. In this scenario, the gold price could SOAR at any time and the gold market, which is subject to little regulation, is basically an accident waiting to happen; "
Or:
"Alternative 2:
"There is FAR more gold bullion held in private hands than is acknowledged by current industry estimates. It is the large amount of additional gold on top of known gold stocks which provides sufficient liquidity to support the high volumes traded through London. The most likely source for this gold dates back to the Japanese conquest of Asia from 1894-1945 when Japan is alleged to have looted the gold and valuables of 12 nations - it is best known as the story of Yamashita's Gold. If true, my[Mylchreest's] analysis shows that particularly heavy volumes of this gold may have been laundered into the London market during 1986-90 and the mid/late 1990s. In this scenario, the continued evolution of the gold bull market could be more protracted, if supplies of this gold continue to enter the market periodically."
Under either scenario Mylchreest remains positive on the future of the gold price with the proviso that if the Yamashita's Gold theory proves to be in any way correct there could be occasional pullbacks in price as further amounts of clandestine gold are released onto the markets.
[Yamashita's gold is a fascinating story and does appear to have some historic backing, but volumes, and who may control it, are shrouded in mystery
Subsequent to our commencing this article, Adrian Douglas - a member of GATA's Board of Directors and publisher of the Market Force Analysis letter - has also commented on Mylchreest's analysis. He has largely concentrated on Alternative 1 and concludes that the global gold market is in a precarious position. He reckons that the panic at the end of September, which drove the price rapidly up through the $1,000 psychological barrier, suggests that liquidity is very tight, in which case only a small percentage of investors asking for their gold to be delivered or placed in an allocated account could blow up the gold market and expose what he describes as a ‘scam' and one that has been repeated time and time again throughout history. "Why should this time be any different?" he asks.
The big problem, though, with much of this kind of analysis is that the analysts and observers are working with a mixture of real and assumed figures. It thus tends to rely on statistics being manipulated, perhaps subconsciously, to support pre-conceived theories. It does not mean necessarily that the conclusions are incorrect, but they could be. Whether they are or not there are some major anomalies in the gold marketplace out there that deserve better explanation from Central and bullion holding banks. Impartial audits of global gold holdings may well be necessary to clear up these matters once and for all - although should such an audit, or series of audits, conclude that the gold is indeed there, will those who have set their hearts, and investment strategies, on the premise that it isn't, believe the auditors? Conspiracy theories will likely continue to abound.
Author: Lawrence Williams
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