Thursday , 28 March 2024

Texas Plans (Hopes) to Launch Its Own Gold Bullion Depository

Texas plans to launch an official state gold bullion depository, the first Texas-Gold-2_jpg_312x1000_q100state-level facility of its kind in the nation, to increase the security and stability of its gold reserves and keep taxpayer funds from leaving Texas to pay for fees to store gold in facilities outside the state…

The copy above and below consists of edited excerpts from the original article* written by Aman Batheja (texastribune.org).

Some supporters of the Texas depository have framed it as a challenge to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s control of the U.S. dollar, a view with a long history among the state’s grassroots Republicans.
Former Texas Congressman Ron Paul is often viewed as the leader of a national campaign to have the United States return to the days when the dollar was pegged to the gold standard. In the most recent Republican presidential debate, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz made a similar suggestion stating, “I think the Fed should get out of the business of trying to juice our economy, and simply be focused on sound money and monetary stability, ideally tied to gold.”
The project is drawing a wildly eclectic range of proposals, some more ambitious than others. More than a dozen companies responded to a recent request from Comptroller Glenn Hegar for input on the first-of-its-kind project.
  • Texas Precious Metals, which runs a private bullion depository in Shiner, Texas proposes the construction of a 46,000+ square foot independent depository… with 12-inch-thick reinforced concrete walls and a roof designed to “withstand the weight of a Boeing 767”…and has suggested that the depository could serve as “a unique alternative to the federal monetary system” in the event of a banking crisis.
  • Brink’s has argued that the state doesn’t need to build anything to launch its depository stating that “Brink’s has several secure branch locations in the State of Texas so we would look to utilize existing facilities to provide the vault storage services.”
  • Anthem Vault of Las Vegas proposed “multiple vaulting locations throughout Texas to enable all Texans access to their bullion within a reasonable distance from their homes.” The company also offered to set up a network of “coin shops and retail storefronts” to accept deposits on behalf of the state depository.
  • GoldMoney, based in Toronto, suggested in its proposal that Texas “develop a legal strategy to defend its constitutional monetary rights and obligations. Any attempt by the federal government to tax gold bullion within the Texas Bullion Depository would, as is the case with confiscation, effectively nullify Texas’s constitutional monetary obligations.”

Hegar’s office is still evaluating the responses…but, eventually, the agency is expected to issue a formal solicitation for bids on the project, detailing more fully what the state envisions.

Along with ideas on the depository’s design, Hegar has requested thoughts on whether the state should vie for membership in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s COMEX platform, where gold futures contracts are traded. The question is crucial to whether Texas will be able to achieve a widely reported declaration by Abbott’s office in June that Texas would “repatriate $1 billion of gold bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to Texas.”

Several companies told Hegar they were skeptical that the Texas depository could ever gain membership in COMEX, which currently requires that all its licensed gold depositories be located within 150 miles of New York City.
  • Loomis International of Switzerland wrote that they were skeptical that the Texas depository could ever gain membership in COMEX…unless the State of Texas could make provisions an exception…
  • Dillon Gage of Addison, which runs private precious metal depositories in Delaware and Toronto, noted that CME membership would give the Texas depository a “certain reputational weight” and predicted that the CME would likely waive its geographic restrictions “for a state-run depository.”
  • Delaware Depository, a precious metals dealer, wrote. “The State of Texas should carefully consider the consequences of moving the gold bullion to Texas. The cost of relocation, internal cost of storage, and negative impact on liquidity may greatly exceed the storage savings.”
  • Malca-Amit, a Hong Kong-based logistics and storage firm, offered through its U.S. subsidiary a possible compromise stating that “Should the state of Texas wish to establish a COMEX gold vault, in order to expedite the process, Malca-Amit would happily operate that vault within NYC on behalf of Texas” although Texas lawmakers aren’t likely to welcome it.
The gold bullion at issue is actually worth only $647 million and is owned by the University of Texas Investment Management Company, which oversees the assets of both the University of Texas and Texas A&M systems. UTIMCO currently pays about $647,000 a year to store the gold at the HSBC Bank headquarters in New York City…
The new law does not require UTIMCO to move its gold to the state’s depository. UTIMCO has said it will only do so under two conditions: that it cost less to store the gold in Texas than it does in New York and that the depository is a member of COMEX.
[The above article is presented by the editorial team of munKNEE.com (Your Key to Making Money!) and the FREE Market Intelligence Report newsletter (see sample here – register here) in an edited ([ ]) and abridged (…) format to provide a fast and easy read.]
*Original Source: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/10/30/gold-firms-hope-help-texas-build-gold-depository/ (© 2015 The Texas Tribune)
Related Article from the munKNEE Vault:

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