‘Repatriate the gold’: German economists advise withdrawal from US vaults
Germany is facing calls to withdraw its billions of euros’ worth of gold from US vaults, spurred on by the shift in transatlantic relations and the unpredictability of Donald Trump.
Germany holds the world’s second biggest national gold reserves after the US, of which approximately €164bn (£122bn) worth – 1,236 tonnes – is stored in New York.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/24/repatriate-the-gold-german-economists-advise-withdrawal-from-us-vaultsOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
28 replies
I wish the process of repatriating the gold would have been discreetly started already. Now, it might lead to a crisis straight away, since obviously Trump would not just let go of it.
Silverlinings: Trump putting a hard stop capital control will instantly shake the world out of it's stupor of normalcy. It would set all foreign capital into a panic and the value of USD would drop and the foreign holdings of debt and equities would stop, drop and roll.
Most of the biggest collective investors are pensions and insurance corps and they are legally obligated to buy only safe assets. Nothing about this administration is safe. Now the pressure on rating agencies would be enourmous to lie and say they are "safe" when that would just destroy their credibility. Memories of the 2008 bloodbath come to mind, but this time, no global coordination of a response.
Saying no to Germany's gold now would only start a massive financial shitshow of increadible speed and destruction.
I'm thinking that other countries might rush to withdraw their gold even if Germany get their gold. Because Trump might very well say something on social media about how awful Germany is when they are taking back their gold and that he maybe should stop it. Which could trigger other countries since no one will be the last one with large gold reserves in USA.
You mean a market opportunity?
What's the reason their gold is in US vaults in the first place?
Spread of risk was probably the reason. It is supposed to be the best secured place/ vault in the world. But since the Orange menace...nothing is.
As /u/[email protected] said, spreading the risk. During the Cold War, there was a real risk of West Germany being overrun within a week in case of an all-out Soviet invasion. In order to prevent all of the gold reserves being lost in that case, Germany chose to store significant parts of it abroad.
Right the gold is mostly in the Federal Reserve in New York. The big advantage of that is, that it is easy to both buy and sell gold from there. Basically the only thing they do, is to change the label and it is done. That is especially true, since it can be easily sold for US dollars, which still is the most important currency in the world.
However I would not be surprised, if a lot of potential buyers, prefer their gold to be in a large vault in Frankfurt over one in New York.
A lot of countries have gold reserves on the US, on the same place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaHkDYJ1Wko
That's one of those things the US profits from on which is getting destroyed by Trump. It's a great thing to have other countries conducting their trade with their gold reserves in your currency in your country. Trump is destroying exactly that trust that enabled that and if trust is gone, it's hard to reestablish again
Is this a joke? Does anyone realistically believe that gold will ever set foot on European soil again?
Having the US be forced to admit that the gold isn't there anymore would be even better. That is basically card blanche of leverage. Germany could single handedly strong arm the US into whatever they want lest the US wishes to risk a total collapse of their finances
America would have never granted that power if they wouldn't have an even bigger leverage, or trust.
Germany has given space to the US when trading gold in the past:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system
Smartass mode on: "again" isn't quite right, because the gold was never in Germany/Europe. It has been in the US since the beginning and has never been anywhere else.
why not?
If by any chance they haven’t spent it all and part of the gold still exists—which is really doubtful—I think they would have to go in there with tanks to be able to get it out, and this is not a Trump-related issue; it has been known for decades that the most likely scenario is that the gold is no longer there.
Known by whom?
Anyone who is reasonably informed
"We should give up because there is no hope"
The US cannot be trusted any more.
I smell a heist movie.
Ja! A German ”Ocean’s Eleven” starring Rolf from Düsseldorf! I’d be first in line to see that one
Trump: "Which gold?"
I distinctly remember him and Elon laughing about pillaging Fort Knox shortly after the inauguration. Ever since I've been like: guys... has anyone checked up on fort knox recently? Does anyone even care? Guys? Did people forget? Someone should have them check if the gold is still there, guys..
Italy too
I have some room under my bed, feel free to PM me.
Trying to take the gold away from the Nazi again!?
Oh yes! Let's repatriate the gold stolen from the African, Asian and Latin American colonies too, while we're at it.
You've been GEKOLONISEERD, Europe.