"US government/Federal Reserve has significant negotiating ability" Yeah about that, in public, the only lever we can pull against Germany is stalling. Not ex

"US government/Federal Reserve has significant negotiating ability" Yeah about that, in public, the only lever we can pull against Germany is stalling. Not exactly a show of strength. If you take away our leverage over you by removing your gold, we'll... um... ah... we'll punish you by doing it really slowly, yeah that'll teach you a lesson. Like trying to cancel your cable TV or a gym membership, the only influence they can exert is to make the transaction as slow and painful as possible. Which has certain implications WRT perceived long term odds of reconciliation. In private more interesting deals might be going on of course. Just pointing out in public its the opposite of a show of strength LOL. Against the Swiss we can, and have, and will again, pull the privacy lever so holding their shiny yellow metal is unnecessary to retain leverage over them. You do what we say, because we have your computerized account records, not because we have your gold. I don't think we've powned the German financial system to the level we have the Swiss.