Slovak Gold

Slovakia is eying returning their gold stored in the Bank of England (BOE). The BOE and London have held much of the world’s official gold reserves as a consequence of Western Nations fearing invasions from the NAZIs and Soviet Union in the 20th century. Via Zerohedge quoting Bloomberg on Nov 29,[1]

“Take the latest example. Former Slovak Premier Robert Fico, who has a shot at returning to power, urges parliament to compel the central bank into bringing home gold stocks stored in the U.K.

The reason? Sometimes your international partners can betray you, Fico said, citing a 1938 pact by France, Britain, Italy and Germany allowing Adolf Hitler to annex a chunk what was then Czechoslovakia, and -- more recently -- the Bank of Englands refusal to return Venezuela’s gold stock over political differences.

‘You can hardly trust even the closest allies after the Munich Agreement,’ Fico told reporters. ‘I guarantee that if something happens, we won’t see a single gram of this gold. Let’s do it as quickly as possible.’”

With the Venezuelan gold in mind, the Slovaks have an additional reason to be wary of putting any new purchases of gold in London. In 1938 the NAZIs annexed the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. In 1939 the NAZIs invaded. The newly conquered Czechoslovakians had their gold transferred to the NAZIs by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in London.[2]

“The official history of the bank, written in 1950 but posted online for the first time on Tuesday, reveals how we betrayed Czechoslovakia- not just with the infamous Munich agreement of September 1938, which allowed the Nazis to annex the Sudetenland, but also in London, where Montagu Norman, the eccentric but ruthless governor of the Bank of England agreed to surrender gold owned by the National Bank of Czechoslovakia.

The Czechoslovak gold was held in London in a sub-account in the name of the Bank for International Settlements, the Basel-based bank for central banks. When the Nazis marched into Prague in March 1939 they immediately sent armed soldiers to the offices of the National Bank. The Czech directors were ordered, on pain of death, to send two transfer requests.

…

His decision caused uproar, both in the press and in Parliament. George Strauss, a Labour MP, spoke for many when he thundered in Parliament: ‘The Bank for International Settlements is the bank which sanctions the most notorious outrage of this generation- the rape of Czechoslovakia.’ Winston Churchill demanded to know how the government could ask its citizens to enlist in the military when it was ‘so butter-fingered that £6 million worth of gold can be transferred to the Nazi government.’”

It was a good question. Thanks to Norman and the BIS, Nazi Germany had just looted 23.1 tons of gold without a shot being fired. The second transfer order, for the gold held in the National Bank of Czechoslovakia’s own name, did not go through. Sir John Simon, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had instructed banks to block all Czechoslovak assets.”

Currently, Europe’s largest bank, Deustche Bank, is on the verge of bankruptcy.[3] They have created a subsidiary bank to shelve their bad loans. Again, according to Bloomberg via Zerohedge on Nov 27,[4]

“So far, Deutsche Bank's efforts to offload troubled assets included in its 'bad bank' have been successful. The troubled German lender has already unloaded some assets to rivals including Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas, and now Goldman is reportedly coming back for more.

Now, Goldman's coming back for what Bloomberg described as a ‘$50 billion book of assets.’ According to BBG, the assets are ‘tied to emerging market debt,’ and were housed in DB's 'wind-down' unit (or the 'bad bank', as it's otherwise known, which was initially set up over the summer).”

The EU tried to replace the Dollar with the Euro in 1999. The values of the Dollar and Euro are both tied to historic debt. The Euro is going the way of the Dollar. The dollar is being replaced by gold. Eastern European nations understand that you need to keep your wealth in your own country. You can’t trust your wealth with foreign banks.

Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, sums it up thusly,[5]

“Ask anyone in Germany what they associate with gold and, more often than not, they will say that it is synonymous with enduring value and economic prosperity.

Ask us at the Bundesbank what our gold holdings mean for us and we will tell you that, first and foremost, they make up a very large share of Germany’s reserve assets ... [and they] are a major anchor underpinning confidence in the intrinsic value of the Bundesbank’s balance sheet.

The Slovaks may be on to something.

[1] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-11-29/eastern-european-nations-buy-and-repatriate-gold-due-growing-risks-euro-and-dollar

[2] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/bank-of-england/10213988/Never-mind-the-Czech-gold-the-Nazis-stole....html

[3] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/deutsche-bank-death-watch-has-taken-very-interesting-turn

[4] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/deutsches-bad-bank-wind-down-continues-goldman-buys-em-debt-portfolio-50-billion-notional

[5] https://www.voimagold.com/insight/german-central-bank-gold-is-the-bedrock-of-stability-for-the-international-monetary-system