There was an interesting story in the Washington Post a few years ago about the Bank of International Settlements in Switzerland flat out refusing to answer some pretty elementary questions from the Saudi royal family regarding money which was effectively theirs. Hardly used to being told to "get stuffed" the Saudis were understandably furious. Made no difference though. The BIS didn't budge so much as an inch.
As for arriving at any kind of reliable figures on gold reserves held throughout the world - good luck!
I mean, the entire financial system is deliberately opaque making questions such as these pointless to even attempt.
However, on those incredibly rare occasions when one of the major banks hits the skids the observant can often glean some pretty illuminating truths about what lies at the heart of the global financial system.
I remember when the
Banco Ambriosiano in Italy collapsed. As usual the major news channels were spinning the affair as though it were a storm in a teacup and people needn't worry one iota. Yet it was pretty difficult to reconcile this position with the sudden - and
"completely unrelated" - spate of suicides out of nintieth-story windows and senior execs getting whacked in the streets. Then when "God's Banker", Antonio Calvi, turned up swinging from Blackfriars Bridge the whole affair took on a completely surreal aspect.
It was a pretty similar story only years earlier when Michael Sindona was busted "investing" half-a-billion dollars of the Vatican's money in an entire panoply of mob-connected enterprises, all of which curiously then starting haemorrhaging cash faster than a demented ATM.
The BCCI scandal is perhaps the best of the lot. When that story broke the obituary department at the New York Times had to draft in new staff to cope with the glut of Washington lawyers, senior CIA staffers, GOP fund-raisers, mob dons and retired spec-ops experts who suddenly fell victim to what I refer to as "apparent heart attacks".
