what is bernanke's game plan ?, page-9

great reading RB

some thoughts on US gold:

I think the Fort Knox bit is not the issue but rather just how much gold is in the hands of those bankers and their mates who make up the Fed Reserve - quite a wide net I would suggest

and here are some thoughts on Bernanke having just read a speech entitled: Money, Gold and the Great Depression

http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/200403022/default.htm

remember this is a speech from March 2004 on the causes and possible policy mistakes of the Great Depression

He makes a good case for using monetary policy (as in don't kill everything by tightening) and that very low interest rates are not going to do it alone and that banks should not be allowed to fail... I guess he is on track with all that 6 years later

He makes a good case that the gold standard was not co-ordinated internationally which caused problems and "as reconstituted in the 1920's proved to be unstable and destabilising" and lacked credibility after WW1. In general his comments seem to point to the ineffectiveness and political interfering that came with a standard as being a -ve in the Depression

He seems to echo Armstrong here in that it is the games played with a standard that are a problem - "the gold standard orthodoxy"

So Ben is doing his thing with monetary policy and does not have a problem with gold in Martin Armstrongs words: "as the free HEDGE against the mismanagement of the state"

He mentions China as not having a Depression as it was on a silver standard
And he mentions what an opportunity it was for some great social reforms (as in when we are all down and out)

I realise this is all rather simplistic - perhaps the main point is that Bernanke (like Greenspan) is not so uninformed as to be "anti-gold" (could be something of a closet goldbug even!)

here's Armstrong on Gold - he is always an interesting read (he mentions the monthly turning point in Nov):

http://www.scribd.com/doc/22417671/GOLD-5000-11-11-09