You are most definitely not free to just trade gold holdings for anything without disclosing it to the authorities in the US, or any other nation I know of. Th

You are most definitely not free to just trade gold holdings for anything without disclosing it to the authorities in the US, or any other nation I know of. That it can be done illegally, I may agree with. At that point, it's not just criminals who will steal your gold (in the sense of taking it away without compensation), but the state as well.