Euro banknotes - Wikipedia -Andrew Netzler
Germany will not sell-off or allow any of its over 3400 Tonnes of gold reserves held by its central state bank, ‘Der Bundesbank’, to be used to bolster the rescue fund for crisis bound Euro-zone countries. So said the Germany Economy Minister Philipp Rösler today.
For the sake of clarity one ton or ‘tonne’ of gold equals 1000 kilograms of gold except in the UK and the US – those still backward countries refusing to adopt the modern metric system – where it equals 1016 kilo.
Rösler was reportedly speaking to reports coming from various sources saying that German gold reserves would be used for just such an eventuality.
Earlier in the week speculative newspaper reports stated that ‘certain G20 leaders’ wanted the Bundesbank to sell about 15 billion Euro worth of the reserves, which at today’s valuation has an estimated total value of circa 139 billion Euro. [http://www.bundesbank.de/ ]
A gold reserve is the gold held by a central bank or nation intended as a store of value and as a guarantee to redeem promises to pay depositors, and secure and back-up paper money currencies.
Euro-zone finance ministers met this evening in Brussels to discuss yet again the mechanics of how to accelerate and strengthen the at present 440 Billion Euro strong European Financial Stability Facility, or the ‘EFSF’.
No result of this meeting has of yet been reported but rumors suggest that the fund could be ‘leveraged’ to the amount of 1 trillion Euro – this to support indebted Euro countries.
The increase of the fund’s lending abilities are meant to prevent a Greek type debt-contagion spreading to Italy, whose borrowing costs have hit their highest level compared to German debt since the euro was launched 10 years ago.
Private German banks are reportedly against the move and want emerging economies like China, India and Brazil to invest more in the EFSF via a guarantee fund linked directly to the IMF.
Meanwhile loser George Osborne, the British finance minister, or Chancellor, who represents perhaps the biggest ‘basket-case’ of all the European economies reportedly said at the G20 summit in Cannes last week that ‘he has plans ready in case the euro would disappear’.
If anything is going to disappear in Europe it will most likely be the hackneyed shrill of the anti-Euro UK Conservatives and not the Euro.
He is reportedly to have said that his government should ‘prepare for everything because ‘that is what is expected of us’ and is our responsibility to the British people to prepare plans’.
As if the chaos in the present UK economy had in any way been ‘planned’!
The Treasury in the UK has had to rely on ‘Quantitative easing’ - namely the printing of money as a last resort - or the printing of money foolishly to ward off deflation. http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/10/13/no-to-quantitative-easing-no-to-privatizing-of-profits-and-the-socializing-of-losses-says-german-minister-of-finance-wolfgang-schauble-by-ota-berlin-constituency-blog-contributor-mr-w-van/
Me thinks it is in fact just more UK anti-Euro rhetoric to take British peoples’ minds of the complete pigs-breakfast that the present economic situation the UK finds itself in after decades of allowing ‘The City” speculators to run rough-shod over the economy.
A blog article dealt with the other loser in the UK government, a certain William Hague in a previous article also regarding the Euro - http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/09/29/eu-bailout-fund-vote-in-bundestag-today-%E2%80%93-loser-william-hague-very-clear-%E2%80%93-uk-will-tie-itself-to-us-dollar-not-europe-commentary-by-emil-hoogensteyn/
‘People who live in Glass houses should not throw stones’ the UK ministers Cameron, Hague and Osborne would do well to remember.
In actual fact the UK faces the prospect of the longest economic downturn in a century, with figures of anemic growth and a stagnant economy struggling to avoid a recession.
George Osborne is in fact under a lot of pressure to create a convincing plan to jump-start a faltering recovery and 100 leading economists have said he ‘must change strategy and enact emergency measures to avoid a double-dip recession’. [Read full article at - http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/29/george-osborne-plan-b-economy ]
German gold reserves sacrosanct says German Finance minister & UK Finance minister should not criticize Euro – ‘People who live in Glass houses should not throw stones’ – by ‘OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog’ Economics contributor Mr W van Coeveren from OTA Berlin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany License. If you use this article or parts of it, please refer to http://www.ota-berlin.de.
Tags: EFSF, European Financial Stability Facility, German gold reserves, German gold reserves sacrosanct, German gold reserves safe, Germany Economy Minister Philipp Rösler, IMF and EFSF, loser George Osborne, ‘People who live in Glass houses should not throw stones’
