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Ron Paul: Time for transparency with the U.S. gold reserve
Opening Statement by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul
Committee on Financial Services
Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology
Hearing on HR 1495, the Gold Reserve Transparency Act
Thursday, June 23, 2011
For far too long the United States government has been less than transparent in releasing information relating to its gold holdings.
Not surprisingly, this secrecy has given rise to a number of theories about the gold at Fort Knox and other depositories. Some people speculate that the gold has been involved in gold swaps with foreign governments or bullion banks. Others believe that the gold has secretly been shipped out of Fort Knox and sold. And still others believe that the bars at Fort Knox are actually gold-plated tungsten.
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Sona Drills 85.4g Gold/Ton Over 4 Metres at Elizabeth Gold Deposit,
Extending the Mineralization of the Southwest Vein on the Property
Company Press Release, October 27, 2010
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Sona Resources Corp. reports on five drillling holes in the third round of assay results from the recently completed drill program at its 100 percent-owned Elizabeth Gold Deposit Property in the Lillooet Mining District of southern British Columbia. Highlights from the diamond drilling include:
-- Hole E10-66 intersected 17.4g gold/ton over 1.54 metres.
-- Hole E10-67 intersected 96.4g gold/ton over 2.5 metres, including one assay interval of 383g of gold/ton over 0.5 metres.
-- Hole E10-69 intersected 85.4g gold/ton over 4.03 metres, including one assay interval of 230g gold/ton over 1 metre.
Four drill holes, E10-66 to E10-69, targeted the southwestern end of the Southwest Vein, and three of the holes have expanded the mineralized zone in that direction. The Southwest Vein gold mineralization has now been intersected over a strike length of 325 metres, with the deepest hole drilled less than 200 metres from surface.
"The assay results from the Southwest Zone quartz vein continue to be extremely positive," says John P. Thompson, Sona's president and CEO. "We are expanding the Southwest Vein, and this high-grade gold mineralization remains wide open down dip and along strike to the southwest."
For the company's full press release, please visit:
http://sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR19_2010.pdf
Historically, the Treasury and Mint have dismissed these theories, rather than addressing these concerns with substantive rebuttals. No one from Congress has been allowed to view the gold at Fort Knox in nearly 40 years, recent photographs of the gold holdings seem to be hard to come by, and the Mint's and inspector general's audit statements contain only the bare minimum of information.
Because the government has for so long refused to provide substantive information on its gold holdings, it is not surprising that so much confusion abounds, both within and without the government. The difference between custody and ownership, questions about responsibility for U.S. gold held at the New York Fed, and the issue of which division at Treasury is ultimately responsible for the gold reserves are just some of the questions that have come up during the research for this hearing.
In a way, it seems as though someone decided to lock up the gold, put the key in a desk somewhere, and walk off without telling anyone anything. Only during the preparation for this hearing was my office informed that the Mint has in fact conducted assays of statistically representative samples of gold bars, and we were provided with a sample assay report. This type of information should be reported or at least tabulated and published, so that the public knows how many bars of gold exist, what their fineness is, and whether they are encumbered in any way through loans, swaps, etc.
While the various agencies concerned have been very accommodating to my staff in attempting to shed some light on this issue, it should not require the introduction of legislation or a congressional hearing to gain access to this information. This information should be published and available to the American people. This gold belongs to the people, especially since much of it was forcibly taken from them in the 1930s, and the government owes it to the people to provide them with the details of these holdings.
We would greatly benefit from a full, accurate inventory, audit, and assay, with detailed explanations of who owns the gold and who is responsible for ownership, custody, and auditing. While the Mint and the inspector general trust the accuracy of the audits performed between 1975 and 1986, this still means that at least two-thirds of the gold reserves were last audited over a quarter century ago. Surely a full audit every 25 years is not too much to ask.
I look forward to the testimony of the witnesses regarding the condition of the gold reserves, the accounting audits that are regularly performed, and the inventories and assays that have been conducted on some of this gold over the years. I am also very interested to hear their comments on the Gold Reserve Transparency Act so that we may put forward a measure that provides the public with accurate and complete information on their gold.
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Lewis E. Lehrman on How to Solve the U.S. Debt Problem
Lewis E. Lehrman, chairman of the Lehrman Institute, sponsor of The Gold Standard Now project, advises that to reduce the $1 1/2 trillion U.S. deficit, the Republican Party must initiate an investment program.
Working Americans are not saving, which enables the banks to lead the country into a cycle of debt, leverage, boom, panic, and bust.
Lehrman says: "Eliminating the budget deficit of a trillion and a half dollars cannot be done overnight. The proposal by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan was very dramatic -- one Republican called it radical -- but it was not happily received. The solution, of course, is to design an American program for prosperity, because you can solve these entitlement problems with a growing economy.
"We need a tremendous program of investment, and investment comes from savings. When you pay savers, middle-income professionals and working people, 0 percent at the bank, you are not going to encourage them
to save. Then we are left with a bank cycle of debt, leverage, boom, panic, and bust."
To read more and to sign up for The Gold Standard Now's free, noncommercial, weekly report, "Prosperity through Gold," please visit:
http://www.thegoldstandardnow.org/gata
