# Texas creates a gold depository to rival the Federal Reserve **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 16, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692 "2015-06-16T18:46:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/21 "2015-06-17T01:16:40Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > The U.S. backed down against Cliven Bundy, who was backed only by a gang of bubbas armed with shotguns. > > Texas has a large number of military bases; the 36th Infantry Division operates under direct control of the Governor. The 7th Bomb Wing has a large number of B-52 and B-1 bombers. Texas has the capability to make “dirty bombs” easily, et cetera, et cetera. If attacked they may set their oilfields on fire. I’ve no idea how close they are to developing nuclear weapons. Would you want to mess with Texas? > > (I personally think the U.S. should have gone after the criminal Cliven Bundy with guns blazing. … And if Governor Abbott refuses to step down and open his country to inspectors, I think a Bush-Doctrine preemptive war – “Shock and Awe” – is called for.) President Obama has ordered that Operation Lone Star Freedom will commence at zero-four-thirty hours Central Daylight Time. To the long-suffering and oppressed people of Texas: We come not as invaders, but as liberators! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/22 "2015-06-17T01:27:58Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > The question is–_does the State of Texas_ own any gold? The only potential of that in the article is that the \*some 4,200 gold bars bought in 2011 by the University of Texas’s endowment fund \*. So, does the State of Texas own that gold? Or, is it owned by some legal entity other than “The State of Texas?” As Whack-a-Mole noted above, the gold is owned by the University of Texas Investment Management Company. This is a corporation which handles investments for the University of Texas and Texas A&M University. UTIMCO’s board of directors is appointed by the boards of those two universities. The members of those university boards are appointed by the Governor. So while the ownership is indirect, I think it’s reasonable to say the state of Texas owns the gold in question. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/23 "2015-06-17T01:30:41Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > I’m no economist, so this is going over my head, but does anybody see any pros or cons concerning Texas having created a gold and precious metals depository to rival the Federal Reserve? Well, for one no one is on the gold standard anymore. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/24 "2015-06-17T02:04:39Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > As Whack-a-Mole noted above, the gold is owned by the University of Texas Investment Management Company. This is a corporation which handles investments for the University of Texas and Texas A&M University. UTIMCO’s board of directors is appointed by the boards of those two universities. The members of those university boards are appointed by the Governor. So while the ownership is indirect, I think it’s reasonable to say the state of Texas owns the gold in question. I’d like a legal opinion from someone qualified to say so. Not dissing your opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/25 "2015-06-17T03:46:44Z")
You know, it’s stories like this one which confirm my belief that the US, and particularly Texas, are really just one big reality show to entertain the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/26 "2015-06-17T14:38:11Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I had no idea the radical left had attained so much power in Texas. Nothing new there. [Howdy, Comrade!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_R%C3%A9union_(Dallas)) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/27 "2015-06-17T15:02:37Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > The question is–_does the State of Texas_ own any gold? The only potential of that in the article is that the \*some 4,200 gold bars bought in 2011 by the University of Texas’s endowment fund \*. So, does the State of Texas own that gold? Or, is it owned by some legal entity other than “The State of Texas?” Endowments belong to the universities as charitable endeavors, rather than to the state. So the governor is sort-of in charge of the funds in his role as the head of the Texas university system rather than _qua_ governor. Under Texas law (Tex. Prop. Code §163.005, _et seq._), endowment funds are subject to the management of the institution, and may not be spent for purposes other than the “charitable purposes of the institution.” So the governor can’t spend or seize the UT endowment. Most large gifts also come with strings attached by the donor (must be spent upgrading the football stadium, building a new library wing, funding an underwater basket-weaving chair, whatever) which can only be relaxed by court order and only if impracticable (say, the school shuts down its basket weaving department.) There are also federal tax implications if the money is moved from the university. I would not say the money is “owned” by the State of Texas, since the state has no direct control over it. Rather, I would say the money is owned by the semi-autonomous state universities. If there was an “endowment” for the Texas Rangers or some other state agency that was not quasi-independent it might be different. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/28 "2015-06-17T15:11:35Z")
I kept saying to myself: This has to be a satiric article. It’s marked “Opinion.” The writer is doing a spoof on Jade Helm and other paranoias. This cannot be real. I have no other comment. My head has exploded. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/29 "2015-06-17T15:17:36Z")
The article in the OP does not allow copying. Briefly, the rep behind this is Giovanni Capriglione, an MBA private equity manager who got elected with Tea Party backing. His initial try at the concept, last session, failed after it was realized how much setting up a secure depository would cost. So his new plan is to have everything outsourced & privatized. What could possibly go wrong? ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/30 "2015-06-17T15:19:15Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > :dubious: > > And…uh…_why_ exactly would the federal government do anything other than tell the Great State of Texas to go pound sand in response to this .) I thought that the rule laid down in Lincoln v Davis et al was that if a State gets too upitty _it_ gets pounded. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/31 "2015-06-17T15:42:27Z")
Blog at the Washington Post provides a little more information: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/26/texas-wants-its-gold-back-wait-what/](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/26/texas-wants-its-gold-back-wait-what/) I liked this bit: > [@](#): > > Texas, it is worth noting, is not the only large, prosperous economy with a hard-money mentality to look to keep its gold close to home. Earlier this year, Germany’s central bank said it will relocate billions worth of gold from vaults beneath the New York Fed and French central bank, guarding them in Frankfurt rather than entrusting them to central banks elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/32 "2015-06-17T16:47:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Texas, it is worth noting, is not the only large, prosperous economy with a hard-money mentality to look to keep its gold close to home. Earlier this year, Germany’s central bank said it will relocate billions worth of gold from vaults beneath the New York Fed and French central bank, guarding them in Frankfurt rather than entrusting them to central banks elsewhere. Germany can move its gold wherever it wants to. And Texas can move its gold wherever it wants to. The point, which has been noted repeatedly, is that Texas doesn’t want to move the gold it owns. Texas wants to keep that gold in New York. It wants the federal government to give it gold to keep in Texas. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/33 "2015-06-17T17:30:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I kept saying to myself: This has to be a satiric article. It’s marked “Opinion.” The writer is doing a spoof on Jade Helm and other paranoias. This cannot be real. > > I have no other comment. My head has exploded. A few thinsg which are hilarious: “…Paper currency issued by the Federal Reserve - or “Yankee dollars” as one of the law’s top supporters calls them.”:rolleyes::eek: “And in case the Fed or Obama wants to confiscate Texas’s gold, nice try Fed and Obama! In keeping with this suspicion of the Fed and Washington, the new law also explicitly declares that no “governmental or quasi-governmental authority other than an authority of [Texas]” will be allowed to confiscate or freeze an account inside the depository. Gold that’s entrusted to Texas will stay in Texas.” Yeah. Try this Texas: " This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, _shall be the supreme Law of the Land_; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/34 "2015-06-17T17:34:05Z")
Here’s another cool thing for the gold bugs: “Over more than four years that just a 3% gain for the fund before you account for the cost of housing the gold in New York and the transaction costs that will be incurred if and when the endowment fund ships the bars back to Texas or sells them to a buyer. Over the same period, the S&P 500 index - a broad measure of owning stocks - gained 60%.” In other word- they \*lost money investing in gold. \* Net. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/35 "2015-06-17T19:48:26Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Here’s another cool thing for the gold bugs: “Over more than four years that just a 3% gain for the fund before you account for the cost of housing the gold in New York and the transaction costs that will be incurred if and when the endowment fund ships the bars back to Texas or sells them to a buyer. Over the same period, the S&P 500 index - a broad measure of owning stocks - gained 60%.” > > In other word- they \*lost money investing in gold. \* Net. Who needs “money”?! They have gold! ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/36 "2015-06-18T13:21:31Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > In other word- they \*lost money investing in gold. \* Net. _ahem_ Post #5 by yours truly. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/37 "2015-06-18T13:48:22Z")
Good grief! I didn’t think it was possible to have a governor MORE embarrassing than Rick Perry. First Jade Helm, now this. ---
**Author:** ![TheSeaOtter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed655f/32.png) [@TheSeaOtter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSeaOtter)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/38 "2015-06-18T15:38:21Z")
Reading through it, I just discovered another amazing thing - the ‘local businesses’ they’re talking about? “IT security companies with underground storage facilities for data centers”. Seriously, they’re suggesting that these companies convert some of their unused server rooms into _gold storage_. “Oh yeah, we don’t use this space much - over here is the mail server, this rack is the internal database cluster, and over in the back corner is _fifteen million dollars worth of gold bars_.” Wat. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/39 "2015-06-18T15:45:26Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > So his new plan is to have everything outsourced & privatized. What could possibly go wrong? Texas gold storage is currently outsourced and privatized with HSBC. That’s not the issue. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692/40 "2015-06-18T16:33:31Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Texas gold storage is currently outsourced and privatized with HSBC. That’s not the issue. It certainly illustrates the issue. Their current outsourcing of their gold storage to a private entity is costing them more than a hundred times as much as if they let the Fed guard it. I think it’s obvious that if they outsource the storage of their gold to some less reputable and deep-pocketed outfit than HSBC, the storage costs could end up being the least of their problems. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-creates-a-gold-depository-to-rival-the-federal-reserve/722692.md?page=3)