Hedge funds’ bullish bets on gold jump to four-year high
Hedge funds and other large speculators boosted their net-long position in gold.
While there have been petitions to build a death star and deport CNN host Pier Morgan, the Gold Anti-Trust Action and Zero Hedge support a public audit of US Treasury’s claimed 8,100 tons of gold net of swaps, loans and sales.
The petition launched Wednesday. As of mid-morning Saturday it had 2,500 signatures.
It must reach 25,000 signatures by Feb. 8 to receive a formal response from an administration official.
The petition has three parts:
Zero Hedge “wholeheartedly endorses” the initiative but expects nothing beyond a formal response. The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee expects the same.
“Of course we don’t expect the petition itself to extract any honesty, candor, or information from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department — only more freedom-of-information lawsuits such as those contemplated by GATA are likely to accomplish that,” writes the group.
Text of the petition is the following:
Perform an assayed public audit of all the Treasury’s claimed 8,100 tons of gold and net of swaps, loans & sales.
As of 12/31/2012 the US Treasury claims to hold 261 million ounces of gold at Denver, Fort Knox, West Point and at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This bullion was last subjected to a full physical audit in 1953. The gold bars need to be assayed and weighed. Once the gold is verified the paper trail must be audited to determine who really owns the gold; i.e. how much has been loaned to bankers and dealers and sold or swapped to non-Treasury entities including foreign governments. The audit must include professional auditors outside of the Mint, Treasury, GAO, Inspector General and Federal Reserve system.
Hat tip, Zero Hedge
