From the article:
“If history is any guide, storing gold abroad is critical.”
Flashback:
– Government Cracks Safe-Deposit Boxes
– James G. Rickards of Omnis Inc.: Get Your Gold Out Of The Banking System
– RED ALERT: World’s Biggest Gold Storage Company Dumps US Citizens (Sovereign Man, Feb 22, 2013):
ViaMat, a Swiss logistics company that has been safeguarding precious metals since 1945, is literally the gold standard in secure storage.
They have vaults from Switzerland to Hong Kong to Dubai, and they count among their clients some of the largest mining companies in the world. They know what they’re doing.
And now they’re dumping US citizens.
ViaMat does a great deal of business within the United States. As such, the company is heavily exposed to the insane US regulatory environment.
As an example, the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act turned into more than 500 pages of regulation! The costs and risks associated with compliance simply became too much for ViaMat to bear.
This matter-of-fact letter from ViaMat management explains their decision:
“We are currently experiencing rapid and substantial changes in the general regulations within this business. The changes mainly relate to the tax structures and taxation systems of various countries. As a consequence of these changes VIA MAT INTERNATIONAL has taken the decision to stop offering this service at its vault [sic] outside of the US to private customers with potential US-tax liability.”
This is huge. I can’t possibly overstate the potential ramifications.
For one, the big gold depositories like Gold Money and Bullion Vault ALL use ViaMat as a primary secure storage provider. So it’s only a matter of time before ViaMat’s decision cascades across these other firms.
I have written extensively about this to subscribers of our premium service, Sovereign Man: Confidential; most gold storage firms are all essentially different varieties of the exact same product. They are retail marketing channels that ultimately use ViaMat to store their gold bars. If ViaMat has US exposure, THEY have US exposure. It’s the same risk.
Now, if you’re in the United States in particular, one of the most important (and cost effective) steps you can take in international diversification is to store precious metals overseas.
Gold remains the most effective ‘anti-currency’ out there, a bet against a corrupt financial system and debt-laden sovereign governments. But remember– governments have an unblemished track record of plundering their citizens’ wealth. So if you store your gold in the US, you might as well ask Barack Obama to keep it under his mattress.
If history is any guide, storing gold abroad is critical. And it’s one of those things that you won’t be worse off for doing.
The thing is, it’s equally critical to work with a service provider that has no US exposure.
There are very few options out there. Again, most of the big boys use ViaMat, which has heavy US exposure. Or Brinks, which is a US company.
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