> They didn't physically ship any of it, they sold it and rebought in Europe

This is effectively outsourcing that process to the banks.

Banks can keep it in US and stay happy, they don't necessarily immediately need physical gold. So it's quite efficient, lots of govts do similar stuff.

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JumpCrisscross 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Banks can keep it in US and stay happy

If the Banque de France holds physical in New York and sells it to JPMorgan (nothing moves) and then in Paris buys contract for physical from UBS, there will probably need to be physical gold that moves.

In all likelihood, Swiss gold held by e.g. a Gulf customer might be sold to Paris (nothing moves) and JPMorgan may entice Venezuela to take those contracts on its balance sheet (nothing moves). But if it’s a big trade, the price of delivering physical in Paris (or Genève) will go above spot in New York at which point it’s profitable for JPMorgan to take delivery, load up planes and physically ship gold.

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roenxi 16 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

To supplement this, there was an interesting situation in 2025 [0] where a financial signal developed and we saw physical gold flows from London to New York. A very similar mechanism; governments do something, price signal develops, gold starts flying around.

[0] https://www.usagold.com/gold-arbitrage-trade-winds-down-amid...

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Gravityloss 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I imagine a convoy of small but heavily armored ships leaving New York, with nervous sailors clutching machine guns on the decks.

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monomania 11 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

This actually happened in 1965. De Gaulle, the president of France at the time, sent the French Navy over to America and took their reserve gold back home. This prompted other countries to do the same and by 1971 America had switched from a gold standard to a fiat currency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorbitant_privilege

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JumpCrisscross 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> I imagine a convoy of small but heavily armored ships

It’s typically flown [1].

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

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m-i-l 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

And in the past it has been shipped in boxes labelled "fish"[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fish

	▲	JumpCrisscross 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Alas, goldfish wouldn’t be invented until 1962 [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfish_(cracker)

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curmudgeon22 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Not that that stops heist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Pearson_International_...

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tarsierscripter 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The Yapese people have been doing the same thing [1] for centuries.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stones

	▲	Loughla an hour ago \| parent [-]
		It does amuse me greatly that major world powers are trading large piles of stones in a place without moving them just like that. That's deeply satisfying.

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napierzaza an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

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