Casey’s Extraordinary Technology explains the details here.
On June 18, the Federal Reserve and FDIC circulated a letter to banks that proposes to harmonize US regulatory capital rules with Basel III.
BASEL III is an accord that tells a bank how much capital it must hold to safeguard its solvency and overall economic stability.
It's a global standard on bank capital adequacy, stress testing, and market liquidity risk.
Here's the important bit:
At the top of the proposed changes is the new list of "zero-percent risk weighted items," which now includes "gold bullion," right after "cash."
That's the part to take notice of.
If the proposals are approved by regulators – and that seems likely since adoption of Basel III will be – then this is a momentous change for the gold market.
Now banks will be allowed to hold bullion in their vaults and count it among their Tier 1 assets – in other words, the least risky assets.
That by itself would be bullish for the gold price, as banks that recognize gold's unique characteristics seek to stockpile more of it.
But that's not the whole story…
Gold Regains Money Status
For one thing, Basel III also stipulates that a bank's Tier 1 holdings must rise from 4% of assets to 6%.
That means that banks may not only replace a portion of their existing paper with bullion, but may use it to meet some of the extra 2% as well.
In addition, this vote of confidence from the highest monetary authorities gives further impetus to the remonetization of gold.
In essence, what's happening is that from now on gold will be considered "money" in virtually the same way as cash or bonds
I don't like gold to be placed in the hands of the banksters. I'd rather everyone kept it in his/her garden or under the mattress.
ReplyDeleteThis would mean that Jordan Weissmann is wrong.
ReplyDeleteFat finger error? I just can't find the "gold bullion" button on my keyboard...
ReplyDeleteMaybe they've got those new-fangled Golden Dvoraks at the Fed?
"... gold will be considered "money" in virtually the same way as cash or bonds".
ReplyDeleteBonds are money? To me, bonds are the opposite of cash... debt, but then, a Federal Reserve Note is somewhat a bond, now isn't it. At least the convenience store will take Federal Reserve Notes (tries to buy a pack of smokes and a 12 pack of beer with a 10-year bond) :)
I read a similar story on King World News (at the URL below) but that was in June. Was this a new development?
ReplyDeletehttp://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/6/28_Hathaway_-_Confidence_Severely_Damaged,_Chaos_to_Accelerate.html
Hathaway also added: “The ray of sunshine is the reintegration of gold back in to the financial system. I am seeing increasing discussions, on both sides of the Atlantic, of elevating the status of gold as a reserve asset. There are proposals, under Basel III, to increase gold’s status from a Tier-3, to a Tier-1 asset. So gold will become ‘good collateral,’ meaning you don’t have to haircut it. It’s good capital.
So does that mean they will be eliminating the capital gains tax?
ReplyDelete