Saturday, October 15, 2011

Is Fort Knox Empty?

I love a good conspiracy theory and this one has it all.
It has pedigree, the rumor has been circulating for over 50 years. Ron Paul, Fox News, neo-Nazis, and fiction writer Brad Meltzer all subscribe to the theory. Russia's spy agency, the FSB, claims the vault is empty and the International Monetary Fund knows it.

It has real world consequences far more serious than whether an alien spacecraft crash landed in Roswell. The US and global financial systems would collapse overnight if it became known that the US gold reserves were figments. Welcome to the Dark Ages.

What happened to it? Many say it was stolen by Nelson Rockefeller, the Jews, Bill Clinton, or space aliens. Others claim it was pissed away over the years to cover the federal debt and balance of trade.

Some claim the vault is empty, that only dust and spider webs remains. Others say the gold was replaced with fake bars made of either lead or tungsten and painted gold.

Where's the Proof?
Some say that the over-the-top security around Fort Knox is proof the vault is empty. That the goal isn't to secure gold but secure the secret. Another proof, they claim, is that the book value of the gold hasn't changed over the years. The first is a classic logical fallacy. The latter ignores the standard accounting practice of listing book value as the original value on acquisition and not adjusting it for the whims of the market. Value is only established when something is bought or sold.

Actually the best argument the theorists have is that nobody has been inside the vault in 37 years. Fort Knox would make one hell of a tourist attraction. People would pay a lot for an admission ticket to view the gold stockpile. It would go a long way to balancing the budget.

What's the Truth?
The government (yeah, like they wouldn't lie) says that Fort Knox holds less than half the federal gold reserves. Some 147 million troy ounces of gold rests in Fort Knox while over 220 million troy ounces is stored in the basement of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

The Fort Knox repository is holding far less gold than it did at its peak (650 million troy ounces during WWII). But some of that extra gold was being held in safe keeping for US allies (like the UK). The rest is either in New York or was used in not at all secret transactions.

What's the Reality?
Who knows? But as I always say, never let the truth in the way of a good story.

16 comments:

Nick S said...

I think the story is very interesting to say the least. I will however share my own personal opinion to what I think is really going on at fort knox. I personally belief that for the us government to be dumb enough to actually put gold in fort knox would really be disappointing. Theres no doubt gold was there at one time but that was before the world knew what fort knox was. Now i belief that ft knox is only a decoy for the real gold deposit. I find it impossible to believe that the government would leave the gold in such a well known location. I mean really, lets logically think this through. We are not talking about a few million dollars of gold boullion here, we are talking about life as we know it. So moral of the story is, NO, theres no gold at fort knox but it is somewhere, and I for one hope its secret location remains secret!

Anonymous said...

Would it really affect confidence if the gold is not present? The total value of the gold reserves is listed as a few hundred billion. This is 1/5th of the deficit run in 2010 by the US federal government and far from the 13 trillion dollar debt the us federal government maintains. Gold / no gold - irrelevant

Anonymous said...

Its clear to me, with all the evidence of secret societies mainly the illuminati, the gold is gone. They have one objective and that is a totalitarian state...New World Order....like "they" give a shit about the people. Just look at their symbolism EVERYWHERE. We the people are at ground level of the "pyramid".....they're obviously at the top...and have been for a loooong time. Life as we know it is a LIE, because of their GREED.

Anonymous said...

@ the last comment your a gullible idiot you would believe a conspiracy theory website or tv show (or anything that has anything to do with secret societies or the new world order) over the Federal Goverment or any Goverment , which one seems more trustworthy a website run by ONE person or a Goverment run by MORE THAN ONE person if it was true it would have happened already , "Life as we know it is a LIE, because of their GREED". If anyone was really that powerful and wealthy they would not be trying to expand there wealth and power any more they would just kick back and relax trust me I know.

Filthy said...

It doesn't matter if it's empty. This may shock a lot of amateur economists but the world is not on a gold standard anymore. Precisely because a gold standard is nonsensical. Money is worth whatever people are willing to pay for it, so it's just like gold but lighter. Gold has no inherent value other than what people are willing to pay for it - vegetables have no inherent value apart from what we are willing to pay for them etc... So to imagine that money has to relate to another physical commodity, something other than itself is really quite retarded.

It's true that you can print as much money as you want, but that will make it's value go down, just as creating gold or vegetables lowers the cost of gold and vegetables.

If you purchase Chinese goods, you have to buy Chinese RNB to pay for it, and in turn they have to buy dollars to buy American goods. If you have RNB or dollars and people want them then the price goes up. Just as it does with gold... or vegetables.

TonyPiffins said...

@ the guy saying illuminati isn't real because it hasn't happened yet - look around, they're already winning! The poor are getting poorer and the rich (them) keep gaining power. Imagine they find out fort knox is empty, were all gonna be killing eachother over hotdogs and then they'll make this big proposal to save us all(AKA the new world order) pssibly the chips will come in too because were basically gonna begging for them with the state our country will be in. America in particular has been doing this for centuries. You create the problem yourself, leave everyone living in fear, and then eventually fix the problem YOU created and become a hero. Me myself I live in canada and could care less about what happens over there but fort knox holds the value of all north america so were all Fucked

DirusX7 said...

The Fed has admitted they have no gold. They claim they turned it over in the 30s. Where is the gold?

Anonymous said...

To the silly anonymous that called the guy above him a gullible idiot, should perhaps do some research for himself, instead of relying on approved history, and the "official" story, for anything. Think about it, history as you know it is always written by approved historians, and obviously you always want to keep the people that pay for your service happy. This is human nature. Of course American history wouldn't say the international bankers such as the Rothchilds, J.P Morgan etc started world war 1,2, Vietnam, the cold war and has crashed the economy, but actually they did!

Power from any source naturally leads to the desire to obtain MORE power. You sound like an ill educated clown, "trust me I know"... What the hell does that mean, are you a mega rich megalomaniac???

Perhaps you should take 3 hours out of your ass and watch this documentary.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936

Anonymous said...

listen we have a family friend who guarded the fort for 10 years and he said that they were armed with m4a1 but never once did they have the weapons loaded or ever ordered ammo for them so he thinks the reason is the fort is empty of gold but he does not know for sure

Anonymous said...

What does a cheating spouse do? They heighten their security by having passwords on things making any information to their lies inaccessible. Isn't that what's occurring in fort Knox? In the 70's when the vault was open there was normal amount of security there but until recently the security has been maximized. I do believe in the theory that the vault maybe a hoax and the gold is somewhere else that is very possible. But the people and staff that worked all mention there is no gold. Personally I feel like we have given our government too much control and we are hiding behind our Atvs and newspaper giving the control to the government to make decisions that they couldn't possibly relate to as the average Joe. Like Obama who has accepted to legalize gay marriage instead of worrying about the bankruptcy that we ordinary citizens have to deal with. Have you ever thought why are all the major corporations and the rich are all moving their money over seas? Why is it that the next major company that's should open in the U.S. being opened over seas? Have you ever wondered why no one (country or individuals) investing any money to property in the U.S.? Come on lets not be so naive. Now how do we resolve this issue? Every American should protest in front of the white house until we get all we need. The government doesn't know what to do they are polarized so their going to do what they all agree on which is to be greed. Whether you sit in your house or hide under a rock all this stuff is going to affect you. Just recently they cut food stamps so they invest the money into more defense. Really? You guys can walk around with a blind fold on but I refuse to suffer due to diurnal own negligence. We should be mad at ourselves and should stand up for our rights but I'm sure none you will do that so I will continue fighting for all of us.

Anonymous said...

What does a cheating spouse do? They heighten their security by having passwords on things making any information to their lies inaccessible. Isn't that what's occurring in fort Knox? In the 70's when the vault was open there was normal amount of security there but until recently the security has been maximized. I do believe in the theory that the vault maybe a hoax and the gold is somewhere else that is very possible. But the people and staff that worked all mention there is no gold. Personally I feel like we have given our government too much control and we are hiding behind our Atvs and newspaper giving the control to the government to make decisions that they couldn't possibly relate to as the average Joe. Like Obama who has accepted to legalize gay marriage instead of worrying about the bankruptcy that we ordinary citizens have to deal with. Have you ever thought why are all the major corporations and the rich are all moving their money over seas? Why is it that the next major company that's should open in the U.S. being opened over seas? Have you ever wondered why no one (country or individuals) investing any money to property in the U.S.? Come on lets not be so naive. Now how do we resolve this issue? Every American should protest in front of the white house until we get all we need. The government doesn't know what to do they are polarized so their going to do what they all agree on which is to be greed. Whether you sit in your house or hide under a rock all this stuff is going to affect you. Just recently they cut food stamps so they invest the money into more defense. Really? You guys can walk around with a blind fold on but I refuse to suffer due to diurnal own negligence. We should be mad at ourselves and should stand up for our rights but I'm sure none you will do that so I will continue fighting for all of us.

Anonymous said...

Now that gold investors are trending to metal possession what is going to happen when the gold isn't there to be had?

Anonymous said...

The KGB has come out and said the vault is empty and the IMF knows it. I think there is some gold there but the majority has been removed. They also might be protecting something else like the body of Osama bin Laden or some alien space craft.

Anonymous said...

It is full of drugs for illuminati

Anonymous said...

I want da gold. Give me da gold.

Unknown said...

Yawn