Germany has now decided that its gold is safe in the hands of the Federal Reserve after all. The budget spokesman for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, Norbert Barthle, said “The Americans are taking good care of our gold.”
Germany initially made the request in January of 2013 after attempts to inventory the gold in 2012 were rebuffed. Juergen Hardt, also from the Christian Democratic Union party told reporters in May that there was no concern that German gold in the New York Fed has been tampered with.
“It’s my view that the gold reserves should be stored wherever they might be needed in an emergency.” Of course Germany has never seen or possessed its gold. It obtained the gold in exchange for its surplus dollars in international trade prior to the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system. So I guess there really is no cause for concern.
