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Dutch central bank moves share of gold from U.S., Canada to London

242 points by TechTechTech 15d ago

hd4 15d ago
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/06/bank-of-england-venezuelan-gold-nicolas-maduro-us-uk https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/06/bank-of-eng...
jmclnx 15d ago
This shows how much trust in the US has declined due to Trump. Netherlands is not the only or first country to do this, other countries have started this too.
- appleappleapple 15d ago
  And this lost trust will not suddenly reappear when he leaves office. He has damaged our reputation for a generation
  - TalkingCodeMonk 15d ago
    [flagged]
  - kingleopold 15d ago
    No it's not simple to call "he" did this. WH people, half? of the country supporting him for 2nd time, and wealthy people that donated so much too, it's never "he". Nothing big like that is one persons responsibility. Actions have cons. ? All elected and supported, especially AFTER how he and his supports lead the so many extra deaths in covid. I know your media does not bring facts but truth is out there.
    - andsoitis 15d ago
      Voters cannot be held accountable for all the specific things the person they elected do. That much should be self-evident.
      - deleted 15d ago
        [deleted]
      - dhosek 15d ago
        He’s doing exactly what he said he would do when he ran. People who voted for him can very much be held accountable.
        AnimalMuppet 15d ago
        When he ran, did he say that he'd make tariff rates bounce around like a kangaroo on speed? No, I don't think he did. Did he say that he'd threaten to annex Canada and Greenland? Not that I recall. Did he say that he'd start a war with Iran? No, I'm pretty sure he said "No new wars." Look, he's a loose cannon. Everyone who voted for him should have known that. But no, he's not doing "exactly what he said he would do when he ran". Some of what he's doing is what he said, and some is completely contradictory to what he said. (Credit where due: I stole the "kangaroo on speed" line from an unpublished short story. Don't remember the author, or I'd give them credit by name.)
        triceratops 15d ago
        Is this sarcasm?
        mylies43 15d ago
        So what? None of this is a surprise at all, if his voters fell for his "president of peace" bit then thats on them, at minimum they KNEW they were voting for a loose cannon who had no morals, cared about himself, insulted everyone around him, had terrible monetary and international policy... He bank rupted CASINOS for gods sake. They had every sign the 2nd time around, anyone who voted for him and regrets it now mainly does so because his bad choices are now personally affecting them lets not get it twisted. They were all happy as long as "others" got owned and not them
        pebble 15d ago
        If you found anything he did surprising you haven’t been paying attention to him at all.
    - wartywhoa23 15d ago
      The legend about the sole man in charge has been carefully crafted and cultivated for ages, but it's never the puppet and always puppet masters in this clown show.
    - gwbas1c 15d ago
      Sadly, the way people vote is more complicated than you might believe. Trump is the symptom of malfunctioning system that doesn't give people good options in the ballot box.
      - rootusrootus 15d ago
        That explains how he got almost half the votes on election night, but it does not explain the 1/3 that still to this day support him 100%. There is a pretty substantial underlying problem in play and Trump is the symptom, but the problem is deeper than a malfunctioning political system.
        lokar 15d ago
        It is almost unheard of in the US for an elected politician to poll lower than 30%, it seems to be a floor. This is for both parties, and all sorts of terrible behavior.
        SideburnsOfDoom 15d ago
        > almost unheard of in the US for an elected politician to poll lower than 30%, it seems to be a floor Alan Keyes apparently set the floor at 27%, which is not far below 30% > Obama vs. Alan Keyes. ... Keyes was plainly, obviously, completely crazy. But 27% of the population of Illinois voted for him. They put party identification, personal prejudice, whatever ahead of rational judgement. https://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lunch-discussions-145-crazification.html https://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lunch-discussions-145-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_Senate_election_in_Illinois https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_Senate_elec... And lizardman's Constant is 4% https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lizardman%27s_Constant https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lizardman%27s_Constant
        BoggleOhYeah 14d ago
        To drive that home, Alan Keyes got to 27% by - running against a charismatic Obama - being a last minute insert when Jack Ryan was caught in a sex scandal (who was already fighting an uphill battle with sharing a last name with the corrupt former governor) - being a carpetbagger (he didn't live in Illinois at any point until running for senate) - running as a hard-line social conservative in a state where the GOP is torn between appealing to suburban Chicago fiscal conservatives and downstate Illinois social conservatives
    - appleappleapple 15d ago
      Totally valid correction, thanks !
    - verelo 15d ago
      This! I get frustrated when i hear folks in the US claim Trump has failed them. You failed yourselves. The system is falling apart and barely half of people turn up to participate in elections? What are the rest of us expected to take away from this? Apathy is what I take away from it, and that does not earn my trust.
    - lokar 15d ago
      Not half the country. Almost half of the people who voted.
      - Laurel1234 15d ago
        [dead]
      - _whiteCaps_ 15d ago
        IMO if you don't vote, you're tacitly agreeing with whoever gets voted into office. (Although US voter suppression weakens this argument)
        toast0 15d ago
        That's reasonable enough, but you have to consider it in the context that we don't vote for president, we vote for state electors to vote for president. If you live in a 'safe' state, tacitly agreeing with your state's electors doesn't mean tacitly agreeing with the electoral college result.
        lotsofpulp 15d ago
        If you can’t be bothered to make your disapproval seen at least once every 4 years, then I consider it a tacit approval. So that actually makes 2/3 of Americans in support of Trump’s brand of America.
        rdm_blackhole 15d ago
        I disagree with your take. You have the right to not vote when you disagree with all parties running. In fact, from a moral point of view voting for the lesser evil is highly objectionable because you are voting for someone who you do not even support just so that another person you support even less does not get elected. Its perfectly fine to say, I don't agree with either and I am going to sit this one out otherwise you end up in weird political dynamics that you can see playing out in real time in France for example.
        15d ago
  - wccrawford 15d ago
    And I'd argue that it should. He opened the door, and I find it very, very unlikely that either side will close it after this. Dems and Reps will both use this to take control in ways that would have been unthinkable prior to Trump's first election. The only way to restore any measure of that trust would be to pass laws that prevent this kind of abuse, and there's no way that politicians will give up power they've gained.
    - bluealienpie 15d ago
      They had the laws to stop him but since congress stopped legislating, it gave the supreme courts wide discretion to approve executive actions. Strong executive isn’t a flaw of the system, it’s the inevitable consequence of years of media illiteracy and vast sums of money in politics enabled by citizens united.
    - unethical_ban 15d ago
      The ideal would be that a new president is elected who uses current powers to reverse/rebuild what Trump has torn down and have their "one big bill" that Congress seems to pull off per president be a reforms package that locks in additional checks and legislative powers against the Executive. The Unitary Executive theory is the most dangerous attack on our Constitution in a long time. On the other hand, a right-wing Supreme Court may try to block any reforms that check the Executive. The Legislature's ultimate oversight power of the Exec is impeachment, and they have decided that no amount of corruption or crime or destruction should be checked as long as it "feels right".
    - toast0 15d ago
      Passed laws don't seem very constraining. Between simple disregard and disregard plus eventual compliance after lengthy court review, there's a lot of time spent under unlawful orders and regulations. There's no personal liability for (most?) of these unlawful actions and Trump doesn't seem to care about continuity of government or having a legacy of doing unlawful things. Impeachment could be a check on his power, but impeachment is a kangaroo court with a political jury, so he would need to piss off a lot more Republican senators than he has. A few presidental impeachments over unlawful acts ending in conviction would change future behavior. But it seems unlikely that we'll get there.
  - petre 15d ago
    Trust in the US started to decline dating back in the Obama era when they listened to Merkel's phone etc. Trump has finally eroded what was left of it. Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe are still trying to keep a good relationship with thd US regardless, because they don't want to lose US support due to Trump's whims… err transactional diplomacy.
    - pvaldes 14d ago
      The weapons of mass destruction happened much before Obama
- mikewarot 15d ago
  [flagged]
  - watwut 15d ago
    It is result of long term conservative project. And somehow you managed to blame non-conservatives for it. Trump is a cause of destruction. He is literally making those decisions. He is to blame. Trump and project 2025 are what republicans and conservatives were trying to achieve for years and years. Again, it hapened intentionally. But noooooo, must blame Obama. Anyone except directly responsable organizations and people.
    - mikewarot 14d ago
      There are always insane people waiting with a plan, its the job of government, and politicians to keep them at bay. [1,2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
      - watwut 14d ago
        People pushing for project 2025 are conservative politicians and republicans. They were in government the whole time. And they were in government because conservatives and republicans want that plan. They are not some kind of insane people outside of politics and government. They are literally the republican party.
        mikewarot 12d ago
        I get that the Project 2025 is an evil plot, but that's missing the existing duopoly that allows the Donor class, and their alliances, both foreign and domestic, to override the will of the people. Even if every single Republican got voted out, the rot is still there, just wearing the other hat.
  - graemep 15d ago
    Interesting. I am always suspicious of "great man" explanations of history and the same applies to current events - not that individual choices do not matter, but they are constrained and influenced by bigger social forces. Something similar happened in the UK, as the major parties moved towards a consensus as they both went after critical centrist voters (because the left and right voters were not going anywhere else - at the time anyway).
- retired 15d ago
  In the end it is all about money. Putin killed hundreds of EU citizens and we are still buying his gas, oil, uranium and fertilizer. Trump can bomb cities in Europe and we would trade with the US. I doubt we will ever fully separate from the US.
  - pvaldes 14d ago
    > Trump can bomb cities in Europe and we would trade with the US This is the same level of delusion that: And Iran will never dare to close the strait.
kaon_2 15d ago
It may be quirky for Americans to hear this, but one pivotal moment when it truly dawned on the average european citizen how corrupt the US has become, was when Trump phoned Infantino to drop a red card during the world cup. Blatant corruption for zero gain that even the Putin's and Xi Jin Pings never attempted. Any toddler could see how wrong it was and it was felt deeply in many hearts. Needless to say trust is close to 0% throughout the population - even the right wing populists distance themselves from Trump - and this is the consequence. I fear we are heading into dangerous times.
- lemoncookiechip 15d ago
  Unironically true. The average person could care less about following politics, but Europeans live football.
  - vman81 15d ago
    > The average person could care less about following politics Could they?
    - dododore 15d ago
      [dead]
    - SAI_Peregrinus 15d ago
      If they isolated themselves from all news, social media, and lived as a hermit, yes. They could care less, but it'd be difficult.
  - GJim 15d ago
    > could care less Surely you mean couldn't care less.
    - ButlerianJihad 15d ago
      Well, I could care less, personally. I wish I did care less!
andsoitis 15d ago
> “A more equal spread of the gold supply between North America, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. also helps to spread the risk.” They’re not exiting all the gold held in North America; instead they’re rebalancing so that for more resilience against a backdrop of increased geopolitical risk.
- consp 15d ago
  No, but "removing" around half of it from one place is quite a bit. Though I doubt any single physical kg ever moved more than a few meters to the buying countries vault. edit: They physically moved 27 tons, the rest was traded away and bought again in London.
  - deleted 15d ago
    [deleted]
  - jbverschoor 15d ago
    Can’t move what isn’t there
  - TheRealPomax 15d ago
    That's the fun thing about gold. It's literal gold, not numbers on a spreadsheet. Moving it really means moving it: bars are stamped and owned, and if the owner wants to move them, those bars need to get transported to wherever the owner says they should be. It's also the idiotic thing about gold, a metal that has no more or less inherent monetary value than a fiat currency =)
    - lotsofpulp 15d ago
      That is the non idiotic thing about gold, since it is not fiat, is not easy to produce, and it is easy to verify, it can be used as a currency in less stable times/places. It’s a redundancy. Perhaps bitcoin satisfies many of these properties without the high costs to secure and move gold, but it needs electricity and a network? https://www.macrotrends.net/1335/dollar-vs-gold-comparison-last-ten-years https://www.macrotrends.net/1335/dollar-vs-gold-comparison-l...
dododore 15d ago
[dead]
expedition32 15d ago
[flagged]
- consp 15d ago
  It's the 11th largest in the world, or about 7.5% of the US reserves which is a lot more than the gdp difference (4.4%)
  - downrightmike 14d ago
    I think fort knox has long been pillaged
josefritzishere 15d ago
Is this to prevent the Orange man from stealing it? What do they imagine the risk is?
- dukeyukey 15d ago
  Would you put it past Trump to use gold stores as a threat?
- consp 15d ago
  Stated in another article it said the reason is it cannot be used as a bargaining chip during trade disputes. They specifically mentioned it would likely be more difficult to use in emergency situations when located in North America (without mentioning specific reasons).
  - deleted 15d ago
    [deleted]
- ben_w 15d ago
  Well, one of their near neighbouring countries is currently worried about Trump stealing their territory, and he's made threats to annex Canada too, so it's not exactly an unreasonable fear.
- weatherlite 15d ago
  Their national color is orange so they should get along with him fine
  - midasz 14d ago
    America first. The Netherlands, second?
- insane_dreamer 14d ago
  the orange man is so unstable that the specific risk is a known unknown
maxdo 15d ago
Just in time before major European continental war begin. Strategic move. For the context : German airport was officially attacked by Russia . And that’s only one of many incidents. UK is on the radar of official Russian hawks for a very long time
- bell-cot 15d ago
  > For the context: Comparing that German airport "attack" by Russia to the 9/11 attack by Mr. bin Laden - would you say that all gold reserves should have been moved out of the USA back in 2001?
  - jabroni_salad 15d ago
    Looking at TFA, they are moving it to a venue where selling off the gold can happen quickly. This kind of thing was not necessary for the USA's approach to funding the War on Terror because we decided on a really innovative combo of Taking On Debt and also Just Not Accounting For Things which will surely have no consequence later on.
- ben_w 15d ago
  More a vs. US strategy than a vs. Russia strategy. Russia has been weird for a long time, they are doing sub-threshold-of-war attacks for a while now. But the USA? Outright threatening allies, talking about annexing some of them, making more threats against other allies who make moves to defend those allies? And he's got a known love for gold, started wars without bothering to inform allies he's now trying to punish for failing to provide help that he told them he didn't even want.
  - Muromec 15d ago
    US is doing now to Europe and Canada what russia was doing for the last 30 (or 300) years to their neighbours. No response -- push further is the game
  - kakacik 15d ago
    Yeah russia has been waging war against the west basically since putin came into power. That paranoid kgb fuck sees anything free as direct threat to their model of how to run a dictatorship and very much a personal threat on top of that (he may not be completely wrong given how proactive cia has been and their general methods of subversion). Divide and conquer, subvert EU and produce infighting on some emotional topics with ideal goal of breakup to pick countries one by one, subvert US to focus more inward and stop policing the world, ideally weaking it long term. This is nothing new for anybody interested in the topic, its all very open and public (which is kind of the point I guess to manipulate public perception too). Every single secret service know this as 101 reality. In same way ie war in Ukraine started in 2014 in all measurable ways, not 2022. US part... well its painful to watch, especially the incompetence or elephant-in-porcelain-shop part, of a shop that took many decades to build. But its good long term for Europe and rest of west - we became uber weak and over-reliant on US bases, their tech and power projection, and even if its 2026, influence not backed by real power means very little in actual world out there. Be provably strong or vanish seems to be mantra. Its smart to adapt to reality rather than expect the world to rearrange itself to some idealistic wishful thinking, however nice it may feel and however well it may have worked during easy peaceful times.
nfrankel 15d ago
Fun fact, France did exactly the same earlier this year (though the trend has been there for decades). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_repatriation#France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_repatriation#France
- petre 15d ago
  France made an even a smarter move as it sold its reserves in the US and bought higher purity gold locally.
  - stpedgwdgfhgdd 15d ago
    Nl sold some part as well
    - benj111 15d ago
      NI? Not Northern Ireland...
      - nuthje 15d ago
        NL, Netherlands
      - pseudohadamard 14d ago
        Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say NI at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred.
  - newtwentysix 15d ago
    wow! that would have saved some shipping expenses ?
  - crote 14d ago
    That's also what mostly happened in this case. 59 tonnes was sold in the US and bought back in London, 27 tonnes was physically transferred from the US to The Netherlands, and 27 tonnes was physically transferred from The Netherlands to London.
adolph 15d ago
Another interesting aspect to this story is the flow of value from US Treasuries to gold. Total gold held by central banks globally was valued at approximately $4tr at the start of 2026, surpassing, for the first time, the roughly $3.9tr in US Treasuries held by the same institutions. This marked a reordering of reserve asset preferences with significant long-term implications. [0] 0. https://www.investing.com/analysis/why-central-banks-are-bringing-gold-home-again-200678403 https://www.investing.com/analysis/why-central-banks-are-bri...
- bix6 15d ago
  What are the long term implications? Gold can’t reasonably be the medium so new currency baskets?
  - megagpt3 15d ago
    Implications are on the treasury side. Without treasury buyers the US dollar collapses or hyperinflates or the US government is bankrupt or some other widespread system failure, in any case the entire US economy falls apart without treasury buyers. But these things move slowly.
    - bix6 14d ago
      Bot?
roromainmain 15d ago
Considering the Netherlands’ strategic ties with the US, this sounds like quite a bold move. France doing so was one thing, but the Dutchs have always been rather Atlanticists.
- Deukhoofd 15d ago
  For what it's worth, the Dutch Central Bank argues that this is simply because it'd be easier to sell in London in a crisis situation. They've previously stated to be far more worried about the dependency on VISA and MasterCard than the gold reserves in the US. https://nos.nl/artikel/2560460-dnb-maakt-zich-zorgen-over-amerikaanse-invloed-op-pinbetalingen https://nos.nl/artikel/2560460-dnb-maakt-zich-zorgen-over-am...
- 1attice 15d ago
  They are also consummate antifascists, which I suppose is in tension now with atlanticism
- Rover222 15d ago
  They're still hoping to get back New York City some day.
- stpedgwdgfhgdd 15d ago
  That was indeed the case
- ozim 14d ago
  Well they had to because UK across the Northern Sea was their competition and so France just below, while having Germans next door and Spain not being an ally. Did I mention they are bunch of tall assholes anyways?
- bithammerthunde 14d ago
  > strategic ties with the US Yeah, that isn't really a thing anymore.
MadrasThorn 15d ago
Everyone now has to hedge against the dollar because Elon, bank run Thiel, and Trump have taken over the system. I will not get better until they are removed. It is not in their interest to save the federal government, US dollar, or the economy. They are all BRIICS backed and want the dollar and trans atlanticism, backed by the US military, to fail.
- Rover222 15d ago
  What do you even mean by 'removing' Elon from 'the system'?
- y-c-o-m-b 15d ago
  > It is not in their interest to save the federal government, US dollar, or the economy. I think "save" is not even in the room with us; they seem to be actively harming every industry: farming, food, oil, electronics, manufacturing, healthcare, etc. It's a full on assault. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity", but in this case we're dealing with malicious actors and it's apparent these are malicious actions. DOGE was just the first step. At first I thought they were trying to establish something that looked closer to Russia, where they can make life just hard enough for them to keep accumulating wealth indefinitely. Now I'm worried they're going for something that resembles Africa's poorest nations, where we fight amongst ourselves over resources that are increasingly constrained.
  - MadrasThorn 14d ago
    Thiel himself said he wants to turn the US into a Weimar republic
- megagpt3 14d ago
  Sadly nobody is hedging against the dollar
Nathanael_M 15d ago
Literally moves? Physically moves? Come on, doesn't this make your hands itch? Is it heist time folks?
- jsiepkes 15d ago
  It's in the article; They sold gold in NYC and with that money bought gold in London.
  - mapleoin 15d ago
    But how did they move the money between NYC and London?
    - deleted 15d ago
      [deleted]
    - mavbo 15d ago
      They traded some 1s and 0s for some different 1s and 0s
      - xxs 14d ago
        likely at some point the gold bars would be ferried as well if the 1s and 0s fail to balance anytime soon(ish)
  - sprremix 14d ago
    The article also mentions a physical movement: "A total of more than 27 tonnes of gold was physically transferred from the locations in North America to DNB Cash Centre in Zeist, Utrecht, between March and August. Another 59 tonnes of gold kept in New York was also sold off during this time, while the equivalent amount of gold was purchased in London." They do not explain _how_ it was moved, though.
  - lostmsu 14d ago
    Who bought it?
scottLobster 15d ago
One of the crazier ideas to address the deficit is revaluing gold reserves and throwing them at the deficit. Does anyone really think the Trump admin wouldn't consider seizing foreign gold reserves as part of such a move? I know that instinctively sounds crazy, but this administration attacked Iran without a plan for their closing the Strait of Hormuz, and tariffed uninhabited islands based on an AI-generated list. They're rational, but they're aggressive and dumb. Treat them as you would treat a guy who starts bar fights; one strategy is quietly moving to the far side of the bar, which is what this appears to be.
- midasz 14d ago
  > Does anyone really think the Trump admin wouldn't consider seizing foreign gold reserves as part of such a move? There has to be an adult in the room there to tell them this is a really bad idea. I mean I didn't think Putin would invade Ukraine so my track record is iffy but there's a reason the Belgians refuse to use Russian frozen assets - no one would ever put money there ever again. That'd be the end of their banking sector basically.
  - scottLobster 13d ago
    If we've learned anything from the last year, any such adult won't be listened to. Trump's a bully, he feels that America should use whatever hard power it has to enforce its interest and damn the soft power or the 2nd order effects that the "adults" care about. He also feels that Europe is or should be America's vassal, and is annoyed that they don't go along with his every whim. Seizing gold reserves would likely be an easy way to bring an uppity vassal to heel in his mind. The long term ramifications won't even be considered.
jurmous 14d ago
Location Before After Change New York 31.3% 18.5% −12.8 pp Ottawa 19.7% 18.5% −1.2 pp London 18.1% 32.1% +14.0 pp Zeist 30.8% 30.8% 0 pp Seems it is mostly because there was less trust in the USA, and added a little bit from Canada to make it less obvious.
MentatOnMelange 14d ago
https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2025-02-11/unseen-forces-moving-lot-gold-back-us-whats-really-happening-josh-phair https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2025-02-11/unseen-forces-... A year ago the opposite was being reported on. No clue of the relative numbers, but its telling none of the stories about this are providing the long-term data.
Havoc 14d ago
Hedging against US risk is definitely sensible right now

242 points by TechTechTech 15d ago

hd4 15d ago

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/06/bank-of-england-venezuelan-gold-nicolas-maduro-us-uk https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/06/bank-of-eng...

jmclnx 15d ago

This shows how much trust in the US has declined due to Trump. Netherlands is not the only or first country to do this, other countries have started this too.

appleappleapple 15d ago
And this lost trust will not suddenly reappear when he leaves office. He has damaged our reputation for a generation
- TalkingCodeMonk 15d ago
  [flagged]
- kingleopold 15d ago
  No it's not simple to call "he" did this. WH people, half? of the country supporting him for 2nd time, and wealthy people that donated so much too, it's never "he". Nothing big like that is one persons responsibility. Actions have cons. ? All elected and supported, especially AFTER how he and his supports lead the so many extra deaths in covid. I know your media does not bring facts but truth is out there.
  - andsoitis 15d ago
    Voters cannot be held accountable for all the specific things the person they elected do. That much should be self-evident.
    - deleted 15d ago
      [deleted]
    - dhosek 15d ago
      He’s doing exactly what he said he would do when he ran. People who voted for him can very much be held accountable.
      - AnimalMuppet 15d ago
        When he ran, did he say that he'd make tariff rates bounce around like a kangaroo on speed? No, I don't think he did. Did he say that he'd threaten to annex Canada and Greenland? Not that I recall. Did he say that he'd start a war with Iran? No, I'm pretty sure he said "No new wars." Look, he's a loose cannon. Everyone who voted for him should have known that. But no, he's not doing "exactly what he said he would do when he ran". Some of what he's doing is what he said, and some is completely contradictory to what he said. (Credit where due: I stole the "kangaroo on speed" line from an unpublished short story. Don't remember the author, or I'd give them credit by name.)
        triceratops 15d ago
        Is this sarcasm?
        mylies43 15d ago
        So what? None of this is a surprise at all, if his voters fell for his "president of peace" bit then thats on them, at minimum they KNEW they were voting for a loose cannon who had no morals, cared about himself, insulted everyone around him, had terrible monetary and international policy... He bank rupted CASINOS for gods sake. They had every sign the 2nd time around, anyone who voted for him and regrets it now mainly does so because his bad choices are now personally affecting them lets not get it twisted. They were all happy as long as "others" got owned and not them
        pebble 15d ago
        If you found anything he did surprising you haven’t been paying attention to him at all.
  - wartywhoa23 15d ago
    The legend about the sole man in charge has been carefully crafted and cultivated for ages, but it's never the puppet and always puppet masters in this clown show.
  - gwbas1c 15d ago
    Sadly, the way people vote is more complicated than you might believe. Trump is the symptom of malfunctioning system that doesn't give people good options in the ballot box.
    - rootusrootus 15d ago
      That explains how he got almost half the votes on election night, but it does not explain the 1/3 that still to this day support him 100%. There is a pretty substantial underlying problem in play and Trump is the symptom, but the problem is deeper than a malfunctioning political system.
      - lokar 15d ago
        It is almost unheard of in the US for an elected politician to poll lower than 30%, it seems to be a floor. This is for both parties, and all sorts of terrible behavior.
        SideburnsOfDoom 15d ago
        > almost unheard of in the US for an elected politician to poll lower than 30%, it seems to be a floor Alan Keyes apparently set the floor at 27%, which is not far below 30% > Obama vs. Alan Keyes. ... Keyes was plainly, obviously, completely crazy. But 27% of the population of Illinois voted for him. They put party identification, personal prejudice, whatever ahead of rational judgement. https://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lunch-discussions-145-crazification.html https://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lunch-discussions-145-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_Senate_election_in_Illinois https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_Senate_elec... And lizardman's Constant is 4% https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lizardman%27s_Constant https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lizardman%27s_Constant
        BoggleOhYeah 14d ago
        To drive that home, Alan Keyes got to 27% by - running against a charismatic Obama - being a last minute insert when Jack Ryan was caught in a sex scandal (who was already fighting an uphill battle with sharing a last name with the corrupt former governor) - being a carpetbagger (he didn't live in Illinois at any point until running for senate) - running as a hard-line social conservative in a state where the GOP is torn between appealing to suburban Chicago fiscal conservatives and downstate Illinois social conservatives
  - appleappleapple 15d ago
    Totally valid correction, thanks !
  - verelo 15d ago
    This! I get frustrated when i hear folks in the US claim Trump has failed them. You failed yourselves. The system is falling apart and barely half of people turn up to participate in elections? What are the rest of us expected to take away from this? Apathy is what I take away from it, and that does not earn my trust.
  - lokar 15d ago
    Not half the country. Almost half of the people who voted.
    - Laurel1234 15d ago
      [dead]
    - _whiteCaps_ 15d ago
      IMO if you don't vote, you're tacitly agreeing with whoever gets voted into office. (Although US voter suppression weakens this argument)
      - toast0 15d ago
        That's reasonable enough, but you have to consider it in the context that we don't vote for president, we vote for state electors to vote for president. If you live in a 'safe' state, tacitly agreeing with your state's electors doesn't mean tacitly agreeing with the electoral college result.
        lotsofpulp 15d ago
        If you can’t be bothered to make your disapproval seen at least once every 4 years, then I consider it a tacit approval. So that actually makes 2/3 of Americans in support of Trump’s brand of America.
      - rdm_blackhole 15d ago
        I disagree with your take. You have the right to not vote when you disagree with all parties running. In fact, from a moral point of view voting for the lesser evil is highly objectionable because you are voting for someone who you do not even support just so that another person you support even less does not get elected. Its perfectly fine to say, I don't agree with either and I am going to sit this one out otherwise you end up in weird political dynamics that you can see playing out in real time in France for example.
        15d ago
- wccrawford 15d ago
  And I'd argue that it should. He opened the door, and I find it very, very unlikely that either side will close it after this. Dems and Reps will both use this to take control in ways that would have been unthinkable prior to Trump's first election. The only way to restore any measure of that trust would be to pass laws that prevent this kind of abuse, and there's no way that politicians will give up power they've gained.
  - bluealienpie 15d ago
    They had the laws to stop him but since congress stopped legislating, it gave the supreme courts wide discretion to approve executive actions. Strong executive isn’t a flaw of the system, it’s the inevitable consequence of years of media illiteracy and vast sums of money in politics enabled by citizens united.
  - unethical_ban 15d ago
    The ideal would be that a new president is elected who uses current powers to reverse/rebuild what Trump has torn down and have their "one big bill" that Congress seems to pull off per president be a reforms package that locks in additional checks and legislative powers against the Executive. The Unitary Executive theory is the most dangerous attack on our Constitution in a long time. On the other hand, a right-wing Supreme Court may try to block any reforms that check the Executive. The Legislature's ultimate oversight power of the Exec is impeachment, and they have decided that no amount of corruption or crime or destruction should be checked as long as it "feels right".
  - toast0 15d ago
    Passed laws don't seem very constraining. Between simple disregard and disregard plus eventual compliance after lengthy court review, there's a lot of time spent under unlawful orders and regulations. There's no personal liability for (most?) of these unlawful actions and Trump doesn't seem to care about continuity of government or having a legacy of doing unlawful things. Impeachment could be a check on his power, but impeachment is a kangaroo court with a political jury, so he would need to piss off a lot more Republican senators than he has. A few presidental impeachments over unlawful acts ending in conviction would change future behavior. But it seems unlikely that we'll get there.
- petre 15d ago
  Trust in the US started to decline dating back in the Obama era when they listened to Merkel's phone etc. Trump has finally eroded what was left of it. Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe are still trying to keep a good relationship with thd US regardless, because they don't want to lose US support due to Trump's whims… err transactional diplomacy.
  - pvaldes 14d ago
    The weapons of mass destruction happened much before Obama
mikewarot 15d ago
[flagged]
- watwut 15d ago
  It is result of long term conservative project. And somehow you managed to blame non-conservatives for it. Trump is a cause of destruction. He is literally making those decisions. He is to blame. Trump and project 2025 are what republicans and conservatives were trying to achieve for years and years. Again, it hapened intentionally. But noooooo, must blame Obama. Anyone except directly responsable organizations and people.
  - mikewarot 14d ago
    There are always insane people waiting with a plan, its the job of government, and politicians to keep them at bay. [1,2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
    - watwut 14d ago
      People pushing for project 2025 are conservative politicians and republicans. They were in government the whole time. And they were in government because conservatives and republicans want that plan. They are not some kind of insane people outside of politics and government. They are literally the republican party.
      - mikewarot 12d ago
        I get that the Project 2025 is an evil plot, but that's missing the existing duopoly that allows the Donor class, and their alliances, both foreign and domestic, to override the will of the people. Even if every single Republican got voted out, the rot is still there, just wearing the other hat.
- graemep 15d ago
  Interesting. I am always suspicious of "great man" explanations of history and the same applies to current events - not that individual choices do not matter, but they are constrained and influenced by bigger social forces. Something similar happened in the UK, as the major parties moved towards a consensus as they both went after critical centrist voters (because the left and right voters were not going anywhere else - at the time anyway).
retired 15d ago
In the end it is all about money. Putin killed hundreds of EU citizens and we are still buying his gas, oil, uranium and fertilizer. Trump can bomb cities in Europe and we would trade with the US. I doubt we will ever fully separate from the US.
- pvaldes 14d ago
  > Trump can bomb cities in Europe and we would trade with the US This is the same level of delusion that: And Iran will never dare to close the strait.

kaon_2 15d ago

It may be quirky for Americans to hear this, but one pivotal moment when it truly dawned on the average european citizen how corrupt the US has become, was when Trump phoned Infantino to drop a red card during the world cup. Blatant corruption for zero gain that even the Putin's and Xi Jin Pings never attempted. Any toddler could see how wrong it was and it was felt deeply in many hearts. Needless to say trust is close to 0% throughout the population - even the right wing populists distance themselves from Trump - and this is the consequence. I fear we are heading into dangerous times.

lemoncookiechip 15d ago
Unironically true. The average person could care less about following politics, but Europeans live football.
- vman81 15d ago
  > The average person could care less about following politics Could they?
  - dododore 15d ago
    [dead]
  - SAI_Peregrinus 15d ago
    If they isolated themselves from all news, social media, and lived as a hermit, yes. They could care less, but it'd be difficult.
- GJim 15d ago
  > could care less Surely you mean couldn't care less.
  - ButlerianJihad 15d ago
    Well, I could care less, personally. I wish I did care less!

andsoitis 15d ago

> “A more equal spread of the gold supply between North America, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. also helps to spread the risk.” They’re not exiting all the gold held in North America; instead they’re rebalancing so that for more resilience against a backdrop of increased geopolitical risk.

consp 15d ago
No, but "removing" around half of it from one place is quite a bit. Though I doubt any single physical kg ever moved more than a few meters to the buying countries vault. edit: They physically moved 27 tons, the rest was traded away and bought again in London.
- deleted 15d ago
  [deleted]
- jbverschoor 15d ago
  Can’t move what isn’t there
- TheRealPomax 15d ago
  That's the fun thing about gold. It's literal gold, not numbers on a spreadsheet. Moving it really means moving it: bars are stamped and owned, and if the owner wants to move them, those bars need to get transported to wherever the owner says they should be. It's also the idiotic thing about gold, a metal that has no more or less inherent monetary value than a fiat currency =)
  - lotsofpulp 15d ago
    That is the non idiotic thing about gold, since it is not fiat, is not easy to produce, and it is easy to verify, it can be used as a currency in less stable times/places. It’s a redundancy. Perhaps bitcoin satisfies many of these properties without the high costs to secure and move gold, but it needs electricity and a network? https://www.macrotrends.net/1335/dollar-vs-gold-comparison-last-ten-years https://www.macrotrends.net/1335/dollar-vs-gold-comparison-l...

dododore 15d ago

[dead]

expedition32 15d ago

[flagged]

consp 15d ago
It's the 11th largest in the world, or about 7.5% of the US reserves which is a lot more than the gdp difference (4.4%)
- downrightmike 14d ago
  I think fort knox has long been pillaged

josefritzishere 15d ago

Is this to prevent the Orange man from stealing it? What do they imagine the risk is?

dukeyukey 15d ago
Would you put it past Trump to use gold stores as a threat?
consp 15d ago
Stated in another article it said the reason is it cannot be used as a bargaining chip during trade disputes. They specifically mentioned it would likely be more difficult to use in emergency situations when located in North America (without mentioning specific reasons).
- deleted 15d ago
  [deleted]
ben_w 15d ago
Well, one of their near neighbouring countries is currently worried about Trump stealing their territory, and he's made threats to annex Canada too, so it's not exactly an unreasonable fear.
weatherlite 15d ago
Their national color is orange so they should get along with him fine
- midasz 14d ago
  America first. The Netherlands, second?
insane_dreamer 14d ago
the orange man is so unstable that the specific risk is a known unknown

maxdo 15d ago

Just in time before major European continental war begin. Strategic move. For the context : German airport was officially attacked by Russia . And that’s only one of many incidents. UK is on the radar of official Russian hawks for a very long time

bell-cot 15d ago
> For the context: Comparing that German airport "attack" by Russia to the 9/11 attack by Mr. bin Laden - would you say that all gold reserves should have been moved out of the USA back in 2001?
- jabroni_salad 15d ago
  Looking at TFA, they are moving it to a venue where selling off the gold can happen quickly. This kind of thing was not necessary for the USA's approach to funding the War on Terror because we decided on a really innovative combo of Taking On Debt and also Just Not Accounting For Things which will surely have no consequence later on.
ben_w 15d ago
More a vs. US strategy than a vs. Russia strategy. Russia has been weird for a long time, they are doing sub-threshold-of-war attacks for a while now. But the USA? Outright threatening allies, talking about annexing some of them, making more threats against other allies who make moves to defend those allies? And he's got a known love for gold, started wars without bothering to inform allies he's now trying to punish for failing to provide help that he told them he didn't even want.
- Muromec 15d ago
  US is doing now to Europe and Canada what russia was doing for the last 30 (or 300) years to their neighbours. No response -- push further is the game
- kakacik 15d ago
  Yeah russia has been waging war against the west basically since putin came into power. That paranoid kgb fuck sees anything free as direct threat to their model of how to run a dictatorship and very much a personal threat on top of that (he may not be completely wrong given how proactive cia has been and their general methods of subversion). Divide and conquer, subvert EU and produce infighting on some emotional topics with ideal goal of breakup to pick countries one by one, subvert US to focus more inward and stop policing the world, ideally weaking it long term. This is nothing new for anybody interested in the topic, its all very open and public (which is kind of the point I guess to manipulate public perception too). Every single secret service know this as 101 reality. In same way ie war in Ukraine started in 2014 in all measurable ways, not 2022. US part... well its painful to watch, especially the incompetence or elephant-in-porcelain-shop part, of a shop that took many decades to build. But its good long term for Europe and rest of west - we became uber weak and over-reliant on US bases, their tech and power projection, and even if its 2026, influence not backed by real power means very little in actual world out there. Be provably strong or vanish seems to be mantra. Its smart to adapt to reality rather than expect the world to rearrange itself to some idealistic wishful thinking, however nice it may feel and however well it may have worked during easy peaceful times.

nfrankel 15d ago

Fun fact, France did exactly the same earlier this year (though the trend has been there for decades). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_repatriation#France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_repatriation#France

petre 15d ago
France made an even a smarter move as it sold its reserves in the US and bought higher purity gold locally.
- stpedgwdgfhgdd 15d ago
  Nl sold some part as well
  - benj111 15d ago
    NI? Not Northern Ireland...
    - nuthje 15d ago
      NL, Netherlands
    - pseudohadamard 14d ago
      Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say NI at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred.
- newtwentysix 15d ago
  wow! that would have saved some shipping expenses ?
- crote 14d ago
  That's also what mostly happened in this case. 59 tonnes was sold in the US and bought back in London, 27 tonnes was physically transferred from the US to The Netherlands, and 27 tonnes was physically transferred from The Netherlands to London.

adolph 15d ago

Another interesting aspect to this story is the flow of value from US Treasuries to gold. Total gold held by central banks globally was valued at approximately $4tr at the start of 2026, surpassing, for the first time, the roughly $3.9tr in US Treasuries held by the same institutions. This marked a reordering of reserve asset preferences with significant long-term implications. [0] 0. https://www.investing.com/analysis/why-central-banks-are-bringing-gold-home-again-200678403 https://www.investing.com/analysis/why-central-banks-are-bri...

bix6 15d ago
What are the long term implications? Gold can’t reasonably be the medium so new currency baskets?
- megagpt3 15d ago
  Implications are on the treasury side. Without treasury buyers the US dollar collapses or hyperinflates or the US government is bankrupt or some other widespread system failure, in any case the entire US economy falls apart without treasury buyers. But these things move slowly.
  - bix6 14d ago
    Bot?

roromainmain 15d ago

Considering the Netherlands’ strategic ties with the US, this sounds like quite a bold move. France doing so was one thing, but the Dutchs have always been rather Atlanticists.

Deukhoofd 15d ago
For what it's worth, the Dutch Central Bank argues that this is simply because it'd be easier to sell in London in a crisis situation. They've previously stated to be far more worried about the dependency on VISA and MasterCard than the gold reserves in the US. https://nos.nl/artikel/2560460-dnb-maakt-zich-zorgen-over-amerikaanse-invloed-op-pinbetalingen https://nos.nl/artikel/2560460-dnb-maakt-zich-zorgen-over-am...
1attice 15d ago
They are also consummate antifascists, which I suppose is in tension now with atlanticism
Rover222 15d ago
They're still hoping to get back New York City some day.
stpedgwdgfhgdd 15d ago
That was indeed the case
ozim 14d ago
Well they had to because UK across the Northern Sea was their competition and so France just below, while having Germans next door and Spain not being an ally. Did I mention they are bunch of tall assholes anyways?
bithammerthunde 14d ago
> strategic ties with the US Yeah, that isn't really a thing anymore.

MadrasThorn 15d ago

Everyone now has to hedge against the dollar because Elon, bank run Thiel, and Trump have taken over the system. I will not get better until they are removed. It is not in their interest to save the federal government, US dollar, or the economy. They are all BRIICS backed and want the dollar and trans atlanticism, backed by the US military, to fail.

Rover222 15d ago
What do you even mean by 'removing' Elon from 'the system'?
y-c-o-m-b 15d ago
> It is not in their interest to save the federal government, US dollar, or the economy. I think "save" is not even in the room with us; they seem to be actively harming every industry: farming, food, oil, electronics, manufacturing, healthcare, etc. It's a full on assault. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity", but in this case we're dealing with malicious actors and it's apparent these are malicious actions. DOGE was just the first step. At first I thought they were trying to establish something that looked closer to Russia, where they can make life just hard enough for them to keep accumulating wealth indefinitely. Now I'm worried they're going for something that resembles Africa's poorest nations, where we fight amongst ourselves over resources that are increasingly constrained.
- MadrasThorn 14d ago
  Thiel himself said he wants to turn the US into a Weimar republic
megagpt3 14d ago
Sadly nobody is hedging against the dollar

Nathanael_M 15d ago

Literally moves? Physically moves? Come on, doesn't this make your hands itch? Is it heist time folks?

jsiepkes 15d ago
It's in the article; They sold gold in NYC and with that money bought gold in London.
- mapleoin 15d ago
  But how did they move the money between NYC and London?
  - deleted 15d ago
    [deleted]
  - mavbo 15d ago
    They traded some 1s and 0s for some different 1s and 0s
    - xxs 14d ago
      likely at some point the gold bars would be ferried as well if the 1s and 0s fail to balance anytime soon(ish)
- sprremix 14d ago
  The article also mentions a physical movement: "A total of more than 27 tonnes of gold was physically transferred from the locations in North America to DNB Cash Centre in Zeist, Utrecht, between March and August. Another 59 tonnes of gold kept in New York was also sold off during this time, while the equivalent amount of gold was purchased in London." They do not explain _how_ it was moved, though.
- lostmsu 14d ago
  Who bought it?

scottLobster 15d ago

One of the crazier ideas to address the deficit is revaluing gold reserves and throwing them at the deficit. Does anyone really think the Trump admin wouldn't consider seizing foreign gold reserves as part of such a move? I know that instinctively sounds crazy, but this administration attacked Iran without a plan for their closing the Strait of Hormuz, and tariffed uninhabited islands based on an AI-generated list. They're rational, but they're aggressive and dumb. Treat them as you would treat a guy who starts bar fights; one strategy is quietly moving to the far side of the bar, which is what this appears to be.

midasz 14d ago
> Does anyone really think the Trump admin wouldn't consider seizing foreign gold reserves as part of such a move? There has to be an adult in the room there to tell them this is a really bad idea. I mean I didn't think Putin would invade Ukraine so my track record is iffy but there's a reason the Belgians refuse to use Russian frozen assets - no one would ever put money there ever again. That'd be the end of their banking sector basically.
- scottLobster 13d ago
  If we've learned anything from the last year, any such adult won't be listened to. Trump's a bully, he feels that America should use whatever hard power it has to enforce its interest and damn the soft power or the 2nd order effects that the "adults" care about. He also feels that Europe is or should be America's vassal, and is annoyed that they don't go along with his every whim. Seizing gold reserves would likely be an easy way to bring an uppity vassal to heel in his mind. The long term ramifications won't even be considered.

jurmous 14d ago

Location Before After Change New York 31.3% 18.5% −12.8 pp Ottawa 19.7% 18.5% −1.2 pp London 18.1% 32.1% +14.0 pp Zeist 30.8% 30.8% 0 pp Seems it is mostly because there was less trust in the USA, and added a little bit from Canada to make it less obvious.

MentatOnMelange 14d ago

https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2025-02-11/unseen-forces-moving-lot-gold-back-us-whats-really-happening-josh-phair https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2025-02-11/unseen-forces-... A year ago the opposite was being reported on. No clue of the relative numbers, but its telling none of the stories about this are providing the long-term data.

Havoc 14d ago

Hedging against US risk is definitely sensible right now