Extract
Loosening the Golden Handcuffs.
Why selling our gold reserves is fiscally sound and environmentally correct
PICTURE YOURSELF AT THE BOTTOM of a pit the size of the Grand Canyon. Huge trucks rumble past taking 40-ton loads of rock to a mill. There, the rock is crushed into a fine powder, piled into a pyramid and sprayed with a cyanide solution--the same sort of poison that was used to kill people at San Quentin until the mid-1990s. The run-off is collected and strained for tiny flakes of gold--they are literally microscopic--and the mound of crushed earth is left there. A handful of men operate the machines, and the ore body of this mine will be depleted in a few years, forcing the company to move on to excavate another site. Welcome to the goldmining industry--one of the most environmentally damaging and wasteful businesses in the world. Now, teleport yourself across the country to a vault under the streets of Manhattan. Here the U.S. Federal Reserve holds more than ...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
