- "The two most important functions of gold reserves are to build domestic confidence and to ensure the option that the gold can be quickly exchanged into foreign currency," Carl-Ludwig Thiele, a board member of the Bundesbank, told reporters Wednesday.
Thiele said the move had nothing to do with the reliability of Germany's allies in storing the gold. Rather, he said, it was no longer necessary to maintain reserves in Paris now that France and Germany share a common currency, the euro.
I doubt that is the real reason. My guess is that the German government predicts possible instability in both the US and Europe, and feels that the reserves would be safer if kept by themselves. I can't imagine that domestic confidence was affected by the reserve being in NYC, or that exchanging it for foreign currency would really be seriously considered.
The reason for depositing the gold abroad was, that if - for one reason or another - the german currency tanked really really hard, it could instantly get liquidity by exchanging the gold for a foreign currency (british pounds, american dollars, french franc). Because France has the Euro as well, this tactic does not make sense anymore (as also explained in the article). This begs the question though, why the move from NYC to Frankfurt then? And why move the money out of France now and not much earlier?
bullion in London untouched.
Germany is an occupied nation. It is a servile nation. It has no sovereignty. This is bye bye for "Wall Street" and a overt re-assertion of primacy of The City.
| It has no sovereignty.| Yeah, no. Cessation of hostilities between the United States and Germany had been proclaimed on 13 December 1946 by United States President Harry S.Truman. End of state of war with Germany was granted by the U.S. Congress on 19 October 1951, after a request by President Truman on 9 July. Since German civilians were legally still considered enemy nationals for a long period this resulted in some peculiar effects, such as that marriages between white U.S. soldiers and white German women were not permitted until December 1946. (The U.S. army at the time still prohibited interracial marriages, so black soldiers had to wait until 1948) In January 1946 the Swedish Red Cross was permitted to send food to Germany, but earlier attempts to send food by relief agencies had been blocked by the US Treasury Department under the Trading with the Enemy Act 1917, and U.S. troops had been under orders not to share their food rations with German civilians.
Ink, Paper and practical realities. Governing State can't even tolerate guns in possession of citizens, much less coordinated gangs, and certainly not professional soldiers taking orders from heads of foreign states with divergent interests.Yeah, no