Ron Paul Hearing on Auditing Fort Knox's Gold -- 6/23/11

This was a legislative hearing of the Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee to receive testimony regarding H.R. 1495, "The Gold Reserve Transparency Act of 2011." The hearing was held to: (1) discuss the audits of U.S. gold reserves conducted in recent decades; (2) examine changes to legislation that would best accomplish the goal of fully and accurately auditing, assaying, and inventorying U.S. gold reserves; and (3) discuss obstacles to a full audit of the gold reserves, including gold swaps or other encumbrances.

The hearing was held on Thursday, June 23, 2011, at 2 p.m. in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building and was titled, "Investigating the Gold: H.R. 1495, the Gold Reserve Transparency Act and the Oversight of United States Gold Holdings."

Witnesses:
§ Gary T. Engel, Director of Financial Management and Assurance, Government Accountability Office

§ The Honorable Eric M. Thorson, Inspector General, Department of the Treasury

• Category

  News & Politics

[sciflyer67]

Who replaces the seals? Who breaks the seals? Who get to see the seals?

25 years is far too long a time to believe anything has not changed.

How hard can it be to audit the gold? We know where it is, it's not like we don't know where to find it. Or do we...............?

If we have Billions to spend on illegal wars, we can afford to audit the gold reserves.

[jjcale1111]

No one can say this hearing was a wast of time - we found out they dont know the status of the gold pledged to the IMF... amazing.

[spassycar]

You cannot audit that which is not there.Simple.

[m015094]

Check out the lady's face when Engel says at 103:30 that part of the gold bars are destroyed during the assays. I guess she's never done a metal assay.

[m015094]

I like Ron Paul, but he's being stupid about this. If Ron Paul wants a list of every single gold bar and go through 10,000 pages of numbers he's more than willing to.

[suddenlyitsobvious]

...read a few files on it the previous evening...

[suddenlyitsobvious]

I think it's obvious, after listening to Schweikert's and then Paul's last questions that these hearings are pretty much a farce and haven't elucidated even the most elementary basics of the gold-situation. No hard questions were asked besides the inventorisation of IMF pledged gold.

It is clear that noone on the panel besides Paul has tried to even scratch the surface. In fact, they hardly look interested at all, as if they've allocated an hour for some quick questions before lunch, having...

[suddenlyitsobvious]

...transparent, wherefore Mrs Maloney's line of inquiry, that's basically the exact same as Jones' earlier inquiry, is bizarre. Doesn't she realize that if the auditors can't even give a basic pic of IMF-pledged gold, there's a real problem? Apparently she's just about capable of reading a question from a piece of paper & not intellectually equipped to follow the proceedings. How pathetic to keep asking about the cost for taxpayers of a transparent audit.

[suddenlyitsobvious]

*Rep Luetkemeyer

And what's with the 5 minutes? Doesn't seem a way to get to the bottom of anything.

At last!! 0:48:00: FINALLY a slightly more interesting question & Thorson immediately starts to sweat, spin & get confused. How amazing he keeps spinning even after Ron Paul reformulates Luetkemeyer's question in the most perfectly clear terms!

That Thorson can't answer an exceedingly simple question about the auditing & accounting of US-gold pledged to IMF shows NOTHING is...

[suddenlyitsobvious]

...Jones' 5 minutes: wasted. He's basically apologizing to these respectable men for the public's paranoia.

0:36:45: Lietmeyer's unspecific & hyothetical question about how the agencies' operations would be affected & transformed in case of a return to the gold standard is equally an utter waste of time.

One would expect these congressmen to have done some homework b4 such hearings but it's becoming apparent that they are pretty much as unfamiliar as any youtuber is with the entire situation.

[suddenlyitsobvious]

...through asking the right questions. It would seem that Clay isn't too smart...