Federal Reserve

Author wonders if there's any gold in the central bank vaults.

"The U.K. has led the pack, up 362%, followed by the United States, which is up 223% – even before QE III. China is printing money as well, up 151% during the period, the European Central Bank, 146%, and Japan, 83%."

That's over the last five years, and the article claims that gold production from mining can't account for the increase in demand.

"Who is selling the gold that fills the gap between supply and fast-growing demand? Who is releasing physical gold to the market without it being reported, Sprott asks?"

And the selling of gold by central banks would keep the price artificially deflated.

""Under current reporting guidelines, therefore, central banks are permitted to continue carrying the entry of physical gold on their balance sheet even if they’ve swapped it or lent it out entirely. You can see this in the way Western central banks refer to their gold reserves.
"The UK government, for example, refers to its gold allocation as, ‘Gold (including gold swapped or on loan).’ That’s the verbatim phrase they use in their official statement.
"Same goes for the U.S. Treasury and the ECB, which report their gold holdings as ‘Gold (including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped)’ and ‘Gold (including gold deposits and gold swapped),’ respectively.
"Unfortunately, that’s as far as their description goes, as each institution does not break down what percentage of their stated gold reserves are held in physical, versus what percentage has been loaned out or swapped for something else.
"The fact that they do not differentiate between the two is astounding.""

Oh, boy.