Nowadays, it is central banks that steer economies, not governments. A central bank should act in the name and for the benefit of the people, but the policies of all central banks, starting with their abandonment of the gold standard, only lead to our currencies becoming increasingly worthless as purchasing power declines. This can be seen, for example, in the US, where consumers can now buy less and less due to the particularly weak dollar.
Currencies are just pieces of paper that we are supposed to trust. We are supposed to trust the notes issued by central banks, but it is all just an illusion. Jacques Delors’ famous quote, “Not all Germans believe in God, but they all believe in the Bundesbank,” may no longer apply since the introduction of the euro, because the euro is not the German mark and today’s dollar does not have the same purchasing power as it did in the 1960s.
Trust in central bankers is declining. Politicians are also less willing to cooperate with them. Trump’s dispute with Powell is well known. Less well known is the fact that the current head of Poland’s central bank is going against government policy. And the example of Italy shows that where the ECB has a say, there is no freedom of decision-making and no trust in this central bank.
At the end of November, Senator Lucio Malan of the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party, the party of Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, proposed an amendment to the draft budget. It was to be added that the gold reserves of the Banca Italia belong to the nation. The proposed amendment aimed to establish once and for all that gold is a national asset held in trust by the central bank for the benefit of the country. Those affected at the ECB immediately began to protest, and instead of the entry about “national ownership,” the law only included a confirmation that gold remains on the balance sheet of the Italian bank, which manages it within the Eurosystem.
This was no insignificant event, as Italy’s gold reserves are the fourth largest in the world and represent 14% of GDP. By comparison, Germany’s reserves represent 10% of GDP and those of the US 4%. We are talking about 2,451 tons of gold, which has been placed under the heavy hand of the bankers in their tower in Frankfurt am Main. If a crisis were to occur, the gold reserves would be “managed within the framework of the Eurosystem.” Another argument for being Eurosceptic.
