global gold demand slumps , page-6

72%? A verifiable statistic? The US govt hasn't published audit figures for decades. I'll bet the figure is substantially less.

Currently, they claim that they do not sell gold reserves. They have let it slip that they lease it. It is also known that they count the leased gold as reserves. They don't say how much is leased or whether it could be recalled at need without exploding the price. If physically recalling all the leases is not possible because it would bankrupt the counter-party, the gold is as good as gone forever.

I'd go so far as to say that a significant amount of that leased gold has found its way to China and Russia gold reserves making it counted twice!