Elusive reserves gold Europe: are the Greece, the Portugal, sitting on billions of Dollars? (Time.com)

By DANIEL ECKERT and HOLGER ZSCH?PITZ / DIE WELT / WORLDCRUNCH Daniel Eckert and Holger Zsch?pitz / Die Welt / Worldcrunch - 1 h 50 minutes ago

This position is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global news site translated stories of note in foreign languages in English. The following article was published in Die Welt.

The first thing that insolvent private person is forced to is waive the silver family. But other rules seem to apply to the Governments. If they have lived beyond their means for a few years or decades, some countries hold on tight to their credit, declare unable to repay their debts and to turn to other countries for help.

The European Union (EU) has seen many example. For now, the Greece is in negotiations with the troika EU-European Bank Central-International Monetary Fund for a new rescue plan - all Athens sits on an impressive four-million-ounce (125 U.S. tons) cache of gold, which could carry four large trucks, fully loaded.

Brilliant in the Greek National Bank coffers are EUR 4 billion. If Athens were selling only gold, the Greek State would be theoretically capable of at least part of the due debt payments soon without any outside assistance. (Read how the economic crisis of the Greece is threatening the Euro).

Another country in crisis, Portugal, also holds significant amounts of precious metals, dating back to the time of the regime of Ant?nio de Oliveira Salazar. Instead of using, Lisbon could converted value of the euro for its 13 billion dollars in liquid gold.

Nick Moore, chief strategist of commodities to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in London, reported that a question often asked by clients of the Bank is why these Governments do not sell some of their gold. After all, it is recognized worldwide as an asset that can be sold even in difficult economic times. Gold in the central banks of the members of the euro area is some 375 billion euros.

With that, 4.5% euro EUR 8.3 billion public debt could be paid in one fell swoop. Its debt, the Portugal is particularly rich in gold. Lisbon could bring 383 tonnes on the market and at the current rate, to EUR 13.3 billion.

The problem is particularly unstable because the Portuguese pressed just a program of 80 billion euros from the European Union. The reason given for the application of the aid was that the country would not be fair conditions of capital markets, but he needed money to repay outstanding loans. With the money they have are derived from the sale of gold, they would have been able to repay a large part of an older debt that they have been carrying which is due this year.

In comparison with the rest of Europe, Lisbon is disproportionate accumulation of large amounts of gold. No other country has as much precious metal in their foreign currency reserves. In the Euro for the first years, the National Bank is shy on the sale, the reducing its gold reserves of 20 to 12 million ounces and raising liquidity of approximately 2.8 billion euros. (Photos: see the events in Athens.)

But Portugal stopped selling in 2007 and it was the Greece. At the beginning of the new millennium, Greeks sold large quantities of metal, but when the crisis strikes, they left intact supplies and the Europeans for help.

This cannot, however, be entirely due to the lack of will on the Government to use their gold reserves to repay the debt. There are institutional barriers: Ministers of finance have no direct access to gold reserves. Central banks are independent institutions not subject to the orders of the Government - a requirement of contracts monetary union European. Yet, these same contracts contain other passages that Europeans were not met, as the Article 125, known as the "no clause bailout." "

Article 123 prohibited funding for the budgets of the State through the European Central Bank, but de facto happened when the ECB buy Greek bonds in May 2010. Then there is Article 126, which governs the policy to deal with excessive deficits in the Member States. These procedures were invoked pro forma but never actively implemented. Before the financial crisis, 13 cases have been opened and closed.

There is an excellent opportunity to put the gold on the market today. The price of the precious metal is just below Records. It is also quite latitude with respect to the Washington Central Bank Gold Agreement (CBGA), a number of central banks is signatory, agreeing not to bring more than a specific amount of metal on the market each year.

To 400 tonnes allowed, only 53 tonnes were sold during this accounting period, whose 52 tons of reserves of the Monetary Fund International. If central banks want to sell under the agreement, they are free to do so until 26 September, when sales quotas expire. Several central banks around the world are doing just the opposite and yet continues to be stored.

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Venezuela claims he enjoys oil world reserves (AFP)

CARACAS (AFP) - Venezuela exceeded the Saudi Arabia to become the nation with the largest proved reserves of crude oil worldwide to 297 billion barrels, oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Wednesday.

"At the end of 2010, we had a level of 217 billion barrels of oil, and now we can certify 297 billion barrels at the beginning of this year", said the Minister during a press conference.

Saudi Arabia, long first world producer and exporter of crude oil, has some 266 billion barrels of oil, according to the Organization of the countries exporting oil.

Member of OPEC to Venezuela, first Latin America of crude oil exporting countries stated regularly increase proved oil reserves in recent years, including a 23% increase a year earlier, due largely to the Venezuela oil-rich Orinoco Belt.

Southeast of the Venezuela region saw a boon in domestic and foreign investments in recent years, Caracas is looking to exploit reserves vanished and heavy oil Orinoco Belt.

For years experts believed that it was too expensive to extract and refine vanished and heavy oil in the region. But the increase in world oil - prices currently about 100 dollars per barrel, against $ 20 per barrel during the 1990s, has reignited interest among foreign companies who are committed to tens of billions of dollars in investments.

Last year, some 30 companies from over 20 different countries were operating in the Orinoco Belt a few square kilometers 55,314 (21,360 square miles) oil reserve in the Orinoco region.

But Orinoco oil has been a point of contention in the world of oil.

Last July, Prince Turki al-Faisal, a Chief of intelligence Saudi former claims rejected by President Hugo Chavez, who says Venezuela perhaps more proven reserves of the Saudi Arabia.

"These claims are completely on unproved reserves, so that they are completely hypothetical and, in my view, entirely without merit," prince said at the time.

"Were Saudi Arabia down the path to claim non-proved reserves, is there still no competition," he added, saying that the Kingdom of desert perhaps more 700 billion barrels underground.

Silver China: reserves of the Bank passes top weapon in the struggle of liquidity

By Lu, Jianxin and Jacqueline Wong

SHANGHAI | Thursday January 6, 2011 11: 23 pm EST

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - changes in how China handles massive liquidity into the financial system and the faster influx of persistent capital chasing appreciation of the yuan may be sales auctions of short-term debt a key indicator of Beijing policy intentions.

Bank of China uses increases targeted in reserve requirement ratios of banks (RRR) Bay and bubbles in prices in recent months as one of its main tools to prevent inflation.

In arriving at this new clamping lever, the Central Bank was remote from the open market operations, mechanism relied for years, absorbing the excess of money.

Change announce a milestone in reform overdue in rigid rates of China's system.

Observers of the market that the Central Bank may be slowly changing to use bill auction yields to signal its intentions future interest rates, a step towards transparency in an otherwise cloudy and centralized financial system.

"Looking at what the PBOC was done since October, you get printing that RRRs are used as the key tool to adjust the liquidity of the market", said a dealer in a Chinese State Bank.

"Open market operations have become somehow a rate barometer".

Major central banks in market operations global use of index interest rate moves, but the PBOC was widely used to balance the money supply since the beginning of regular operations on the open market in the 2000s.

China's interest rate regime is still tightly controlled. Banks are allowed to define the deposit rates slightly lower than the rate of reference of the Government, while the rate of loan may be slightly higher.

The PBOC is not the last word in farming or cutting official rates. The Council of State, or the cabinet is the final arbiter on rate movements after consultation with the PBOC.

The market is often left in darkness before official rate changes, and the lack of transparency in the overall process has been a source of financial market volatility and one irritating to traders.

Beijing has promised to reform the rigid system, but these movements have been slow to materialize. The Government, to guard against social instability, feels obliged to protect the interests of depositors in a country with a very high savings rate.

PBOC TAKES THE INITIATIVE

The PBOC raised twice the interest rate and RRR for all banks three times since October, partly to Don a cap asset price at a time where announced U.S. a second quantitative easing series, growing nearly stream record money in China.

He has also twice used increases differentiated in RRR selected for some banks for three months without officially announcing it. Dealers see this opening the way for more repressive measures against the banks who have lent excessively.