In a recent GQ thread we learn that 99.99 gold, 9999 gold, .9999 gold and 999.9 gold (but NOT 9.999 !) are all different names for the same thing.
With that question out of the way, I wanted to post a follow-up. But this forum seems better suited than GQ.
Is there any gold in Fort Knox?
Perhaps citizens should feel much more at ease now. The Fort Knox Depository was visited two years ago by Steven Mnuchin and Mich McConnell. (Rand Paul had been whining for such a visit for decades, and was invited, but had a prior engagement on the day of the visit. :smack: )
The news articles do not mention whether Mnuchin or McConnell took along an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to make sure the bars weren’t gilted tungsten. This program shows what the honored guests were shown. Treasures included a 1974 aluminum penny, but only a single bar of bullion is mentioned (unless mentioned in the redacted portions).
I was reminded of the incident — which I find interesting for several reasons — by the recent 999.9 Gold thread, but I realized it didn’t belong in the GQ thread.
So much to Pit from the news article:
Mnuchin, himself almost a billionaire, loves to arrange personal holidays at government expense.
Paul father-and-son, so eager to prattle gibberish about whether the gold is really there, couldn’t bother to show up when the tour was arranged for them.
the tour seemed to emphasize trinkets like the aluminum penny, rather than the alleged billions in gold bullion. Surely they should have been allowed to see stacks of the glittery metal, or even observe an actual spectroscope test. (Gold or Tungsten? You decide.)
and what’s with the redactions? Are they worried about revealing security details that would help Auric Goldfinger?
I’m gullible enough to assume that the Fort really does have the gold it claims to have. … But what did the conspiracy theorists make of that strange “tour”?
Years ago there was a wine called Chateau Luzerne; while the name sounded fancy & European it was actually named for the street it was made on (3rd & Luzerne Sts).
They used to have a commercial of a wealthy guy & younger female in the back of a limo. He starts to pour from his gallon jug of Chateau Luzerne & she asks why if he’s so rich he drinks such [del]cheap[/del] reasonably priced wine.
What should we believe when told Ft Knox is or isn’t stocked as advertised? How do we KNOW the vaults haven’t been emptied so the White House can be gilded after the Senate votes Not Guilty? Maybe the stash was taken to an undisclosed safe location, or lost in accounting errors, or traded for black caviar and pee-tapes. Who knows?
So Steve Mnuchin went to Fort Knox, claiming he was there to visit the US gold reserve, but really to see an eclipse. But he did visit the US gold reserve. And we are mad because…?
8/21/17: mad; 8/21/18, still mad; 8/21/19, still mad and thinking about starting a thread; 9/21/19, still thinking, but not worth a thread; 10/21/19, stewing, the thread somehow beginning to make sense; 10/31/19, no sleep, shouldn’t have gone trick-or-treating with a shot glass, damn, America needs my thread; 11/2/19, what the hell, here goes, I’ll… ask if there’s gold in Fort Knox! That’ll show 'em!
I was curious how much the gold is worth, and found that all US gold reserves (not just Fort Knox, but the NY Fed too) amounts to “only” $400 billion. Sure that’s a lot for you or me, but it’s only about ten percent of annual Federal spending or about as much as the government has spent on the F-35 fighter jets. Total gross domestic product is about 19 trillion. In short, even if the gold disappeared, it really wouldn’t matter. Perhaps a hundred years ago, the gold reserves mattered to overall Federal spending or the economy as a whole, but no longer.
The second link in the OP says Fort Knox was 147 miles north of the path of totality. That’s hardly “ground zero” as described in the OP’s (unattributed) quote. Hardly even worth watching unless you happen to be there and have a rooftop at your disposal, which they did. Bringing the wife along is a little :rolleyes:, but I imagine Mnuchin is guilty of far worse.
Pro-tip: (Although this may be harder for masochists posting via smart-phone) you can use your mouse and the control-C/control-V shortcuts to paste a long excerpt from any quote into the Google search bar, add quotation marks at each end, and click on Search. I do try to be helpful, but there’s diminishing returns in listing many many links, when I know some will never be clicked by anyone.
In this example, when I proceed as described the first hit is to this SDMB thread. (Go, SDMB!) The second hit, which may address some of your concerns, is
Sure, this junket won’t make any Top List of Trump and Trumpist crimes. I found the whole story more amusing than anything else; I posted in BBQ Pit so we could all say what we felt about it.
