And the new depository will not just be a well-guarded warehouse for that bullion. The law Abbott signed calls for the creation of an electronic payments system that will allow gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and rhodium depositors to write checks against their accounts, making the depository into a bank – one that will create a metal-backed money supply intended to challenge the paper currency issued by the Federal Reserve - or "Yankee dollars" as one of the law's top supporters calls them. 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.
The depository law is the brainchild of a second-term state representative in the Texas legislature named Giovanni Capriglione, a 42-year-old Republican from Southlake, just northwest of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. A private equity manager with an MBA, Capriglione was elected in 2012 after beating an seven-term incumbent with the backing of Tea Party activists. He told the Star-Telegram that when he first announced his interest in establishing a depository in Texas in 2013, he “got so many emails and phone calls from people literally all over the world who said they want to store their gold … in a Texas depository. People have this image of Texas as big and powerful … so for a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold.”
The only thing big and powerful in Texas are the egos.
I don't know about everybody else, but my very first thought on reading this is that Texas is getting ready to secede, because a state run gold depository would be essential to making that happen.
The place is already overrun with sovereign citizens who are constantly freaking out about the federal government, as was demonstrated by their crazed response to military maneuvers in their state, and some have even gone so far as to start printing their own money.
Personally I hope that they ARE preparing to secede from United States of America. Having them leave would significantly raise the IQ level in Washington since one of their Senators is freaking Ted Cruz, and they count among their Representatives the like of Blake Farenthold, Pete Sessions, and Louis Gohmert.
I just have to wonder how safe Texans will feel once other countries learn that Texas has their own gold reserves and are no longer protected by the United States military?
I'm moving closer and closer to the belief that our Governor is clinically insane. Bizzaro World.
ReplyDeleteHe's certainly detached from facts. Texas has NO gold bullion stored in the NYC Federal Reserve vaults. None. There is bullion that's part of the Texas State University endowment fund that's stored in the HSBC NYC branch. Not near $1billion worth.
DeleteMy sympathies to you for living in that loony bin of a state.
I'm with you Jim. How much more of this bizarre crap will we have to deal with? Hmmm, maybe time to move!
DeleteI hate being stuck here with Abbott, who is a thousand times worse than Perry. You know things are bad when you wish Perry were still governor. Greg Abbott is a a very dangerous ideologue.
DeleteI'm no Constitutional scholar, and I'm pretty sure that Capriglione isn't, but isn't the production and management of currency Constitutionally defined as a Federal responsibility?
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe Texas is planning to secede, but that's not something that worked out last time. OTOH, I don't know anyone who wouldn't be glad to see it go. Buh-bye, Texas, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
OTOH, Federal money paid for the military bases and equipment there, so post-secession, if, as, and when, all that military equipment in Texas should be shipped North. As far as the troops go, anyone who wants to secede should be allowed to do so with a dishonorable discharge, given that they swore an oath to uphold the Constitution.
Actually, DO let the door hit them in the ass. Don't just let them secede, let's make them secede!!!
DeleteJoin me in the founding of the "Let The Door Hit Them" party!! Do you think Ted Cruz might agree to be a charter member?
It means they will need their own army. Also who is going to back the money?
DeleteAnother thing TX doesn't belong to TX let these nuts find their own goddamn land.
So this could disqualify the Cruz missile from running? Oh yes, please proceed Texas!
ReplyDeleteHe'd still run - to be president of Texas!
DeleteLet them secede. Red states are a drain on the working states anyway. One stipulation we should make, they have to keep the entire Bush family plus all the politicians that are in office right now.
ReplyDeletePlease secede, Texas. And build a 20 foot concrete border fence around your entire sorry ass state.
ReplyDeleteUp fist 100000000
DeleteThen fill it up with water.
DeleteI agree, except for three places, Austin (the blue capitol of Texas), San Antonio (also blue) and corpus Christy (also blue). Remove all the army, air force, guards, reservist's, Marines and coast guard members...suddenly they may have a change of heart, but probably not I have family I refuse to see, because they are all bigots, racists, right wing tea baggers, all wealthier than they deserve and gun slinging idiots...they are in Plano/Dallas area...let em drown
DeleteFirst thing Governor (or will it be president?) Abbott will do is petition DC for foreign aid 'cause you can't eat oil.
ReplyDeleteOkay. If Texas is so awash in gold, why the please for federal help for this spring's flooding or for the drought of the previous five years? Texas doesn't even pay its way among the states; it receives more from the federal government than it gives it.
ReplyDeleteHow did the GOP get itself so completely co-opted by the teabaggers that they're falling for this nonsense? And what does Jeb Bush have to say about it? Or his father or his brother, both of whom (unfortunately) have been president of the US?
Beaglemom
Don't let the way it's worded fool you. The governor looks and sounds like a mob guy. He DID alude to, TEXANS can deposit gold etc and they can use it like a bank, bit noone can extradite anything back out of the bank if you are from a government (or a convenient off shore, laundry money, brought right into Texas heartlands).
Deletelook, generally speaking, texans seem to be congenitally nuts, but...when it comes to stockpiling gold, we would all be well advised to follow their example.
ReplyDeletethe empire is going down, it came within a whisker back in the financial crisis of '08.
the day is coming when russia and china make their move to supplant the us dollar as the worlds reserve currency. (both of whom are, guess what, stockpiling gold.)
and it will just get worse from there.
start stockpiling gold because come a time the us greenback won't be worth the paper it is printed on
Gee, I didn't realize Glenn Beck read here..hi Glenn! Are you behind this scheme, you and your overpriced gold sellers? And we thought Perry was the dumb gullible one...turns out it's Abbott and Costello in Austin now.
DeleteI do have a question. Who is going to determine the value of the gold that is placed in their Fort? Abbott? The depositor? And who determines what comes out, and at what price? Beware, Texans, if you give these fools your gold, I doubt you will see a penny back. The GOP LOVES to get hold of your wealth, and then squander it.
"I just have to wonder how safe Texans will feel once other countries learn that Texas has their own gold reserves and are no longer protected by the United States military?"
ReplyDeleteGood point! I think I will tweet that.
Agreed. They are not smart enough and cannot think critically enough to understand the ramifications of their actions.
DeleteStupid is as stupid does!
Mexico will own them within a month of succession. lol
DeleteI've run into more than one Texan who thinks that they aren't safe now, that they are not protected by the United States Military "because of Obummer" doncha know. They are convinced that ISIS is coming over the Border.
DeleteMind-boggling gullibility.
"A private equity manager with an MBA, Capriglione was elected in 2012 after beating an seven-term incumbent with the backing of Tea Party activists." I'm not clear here, which one was backed by the tea partiers: Capriglione or the 7-term incumbent.
ReplyDeleteIf it was the incumbent, this is a piece of precious news. That would mean TWO groups of nutcases are competing with each other over crazy ass schemes about Texas.
If it's not the incumbent, an equally good story about tea party quacktivisim working to make nutcases spend a lot of their precious money for nothing.
I can already see the book & movie being made " The Great Texas Gold Heist " It's already being planned : )
ReplyDelete@5:23. Anyone who believes that the Rouble has any chance of becoming the/a world reserve currency has been smoking way too much weed. The Yuan, maybe, but only if the historically closed Chinese financial markets are opened a LOT wider than they've been to date.
ReplyDeletechina will be the major actor here, not russia, but russia will help out around the edges, as best they can - like rattle their sabers and get us to spend billions more propping up nato - anything that brings us down a notch or two, or eight or ten, is right up their alley.
Deleteask yourself who owns the majority of america's debt? china, who is stockpiling gold like crazy ? china. what happens if they decide to call in our debt?
the former chinese communists are no different from leaders of many other empires - greed heads out to be in charge, call the shots and live the high life.
they have simply made the transition from communists to fascists. it is all about wealth. greed and restoration of the middle kingdom. they are looking to supplant the u s a as the worlds hegemonic power. and they will succeed, in time. all empires rise and fall, ours - and theirs - will be no different. only ours is going down first. - they are determined to see to that aided - unwittingly or at least unintentionally by wall street and american politicians more interested in short term gain and lining their own pockets than helping restore a stable american economy that works to the benefit of us all, rather than the one percenters.
and the first step is to destabilize the dollar and cripple our ability to do much in the world.
"Ask yourself who owns the majority of america's debt".
DeleteI did -- and the answer is WE DO. Far and away, WE DO. If you want to play Economics at least grasp a few of the essential facts first. ;-)
Well JimBob seeing how debt was created out of thin air, I owe nothing.
DeleteThat's JimBob Graduate Economist to you!
DeleteFor your attempted use of a Southern name slur (I'm originally from the North): C-
For your total avoidance of the original debt composition question: D-
For your total non sequitur regarding China and that debt: F
For your choice of a 'screen name' that accurately identifies your ignorance of actual Economics: A+
And now, paraphrasing Foghorn Leghorn:
"Go 'way, son. You're challenging my belief that most people are reasonably intelligent."
Enough with the "state bashing" that occurs too often on this blog. Jim in Texas is an intelligent & thoughtful commenter here from all I've read over the months. And his post above is hilarious. Go get em Jim!
DeleteI'm surprised that Co - Governor Todd Palin and Co-Governor Sarah Palin didn't think about creating the Alaska Gold Depository on their compound in Wasilly before Texas created their Texas Gold Depository . Of course SarahPac's Tim Crawford would run it along with the Wasilly girls who are on SarahPac's payroll.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Governor Sarah Palin didn't create the Alaska Meth Lab in Wasilla.
DeleteDoes this mean the Texas Gold Depository under the laws of the country of Texas can confiscate our gold teeth, watches, rings and everything else made of gold and in exchange they will give us Texas currency?
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to mention, that Texa$$ is demanding $1.5 Billion in gold to be moved from Fort Knox to Texa$$. Where he gets that number from (besides out of his a$$) is anyone's guess.
ReplyDeleteYeah, if I had a cache of gold and needed a safe place to store it, my first choice would be the place with the largest concentration of hallucinating dumbasses. What could go wrong?
ReplyDeleteNo matter what the TeaBagging Texans say, they will never secede. It won't happen. Once somebody drags out a calculator and explains to these simpletons that Farm Subsidies will stop when Texas secedes, that will be the end of it. Once Texans realize that all the oil drilled in Texas is drilled by and sold on the open market by oil companies -- IOW it isn't owned by the State of Texas -- then the idea of secession will end. They envision state wealth based on the oil industry without realizing that Exxon Mobile and all the oil companies are not state owned. How about oil that comes into Texas refineries from other states? Unless those states secede too, they could stop the oil at the Texas border. And, as someone above pointed out, if Texas secedes, disaster relief funds from the federal government will stop, Texans won't like that one little bit.
ReplyDeleteThere are some people who still own the mineral rights on their Texas land so they do get paid for what is drilled on that land but most Texans own the surface only and have no mineral rights. I've recently heard about people who buy a house but don't buy the land the house sits on -- that amazes me. What kind of dummy would buy a house if they won't own the land under the house? Screwball Texas laws.
Secession by Texas won't happen. It's just another way to get teabaggers fired up, buying guns and stockpiling ammo but at the end of the day, the idea will fizzle.
Speaking of guns and gunnutz, did you hear about the Texas grandpa who owns a "popular hunting ranch", and who "accidentally" shot his 9 year old grandson in the chest. Killed the child outright. The child's aunt immediately started a GoFundMe for the parents to "celebrate the child's life". Makes me sick to my stomach.
http://www.inquisitr.com/2180513/texas-man-accidently-shoots-his-9-year-old-grandson-in-fatal-hunting-accident/
I don't think Texas would seriously consider secession either. However, it is feasible, Texas would be in a better position than many states if it were to do such a thing. Texas does pay out to the Feds slightly more than they receive back in Federal dollars as it is, they are a 'giver'. They are a huge importer/exporter and hub, and that would not change as they have the geology, the geographical locale, and the infrastructures are in place. They could very easily operate a tariff system that would generate all the $'s they need.
DeleteYour post is the only place I've ever seen that has stated that TX gives more than it receives in federal money. Do you have a link to back up your statement?
DeleteHey, Tejanos: Be Careful What You Wish For.
ReplyDeleteIf Texas is moving their gold because they think the US government can't be trusted, it might be time to move the US gold out of Texas to a more stable state.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where these nuts are coming from. Texas is home to several large cities, Houston and Dallas. Both are major players in the global economy and we have some incredibly smart people who call Texas home. Who votes for these dumb asses like Gohmert and Cruz? It's just mind boggling.
ReplyDeleteTexasMel
I thought the primary purpose of this blog is to bash the Palins.
ReplyDeleteLet that be a lesson to you.
DeleteA quick look at the "labels" on the right of your screen shows the many, many facets of issues Gryphen has covered in the past. He was at this BEFORE Palin hopped on the the scene.
DeleteIronically, it was Sarah's own psychosis that catapulted his popularity.
Thanks a bunch, John McCain!!!!
Whatever winecooler, all one needs to look at is the comments on Palin posts vs all others, and that pretty much tells the whole story.
DeleteLOL!!!! Snort!!!!. Those are the best part!!!!
DeleteWe are not all the same here and I am tired of being painted with the same brush as the loonies. Due to many circumstances beyond my control including severe health issues, financial reasons and the fact my spouse will not leave, I am stuck with lunatic Greg Abbott as governor. I am absolutely appalled by the actions he has taken as governor and I am completely ashamed of him. There are sane people here you know and I doubt the majority of people want to secede. It would be a terrible move to try to make. Only idiots would think it would be good for the state. Abbott must go!
ReplyDeleteThank you anon @3:37! Very well stated.
DeleteIsn't it tempting to hope some sort of "Die Hard" heist is pulled on Texas, emptying their depository?
ReplyDeleteoff subject- have you seen the current news about Rush L, the imbecile?
ReplyDeleteOT Rachel Maddow just announced that Brian Williams is joining MSNBC. Congratulations Mr Williams, Second chances and redemption at it's best!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLol. Perfect fit.
DeleteSeems like folks are too busy throwing stones from their glass houses to notice a far more relevant story about RL. This place is the opposite side of the c4p coin.
ReplyDeleteTexas DVM
Since all Texans are sooo batshit cray cray i m sure Alaskans won't mind if our firefighters sit out helping you extinguish the wildfires that still rage
ReplyDeleteSounds like a precious metals embezzlement scam to me.
ReplyDelete