Selects: All the Gold In Fort Knox: Meh | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

hey everybody it's me joshh and for this. week's select I've chosen our episode on. all the golden Fort Knox from November. of 2020 one of the most surprising. things we learned of this episode isn't. that there might not be any gold left in. Fort Knox there most likely is plenty in. there but that because of the size of. our economy it doesn't really matter at. this point if it's there or not hope you. enjoy this Brain Buster of an. [Music]. episode welcome to stuff you should know.

a production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh Clark and there's Charles W Chuck. Bryant and Jerry's out there somewhere. and uh this is stuff you should know. million carat plated Gold. Edition. goldplated isn't that what happens like. if you put a bunch of gold together it. it means more carrots I think so I'm.

afraid to doubt you though because I had. a movie Crusher say that I'm all I do. lately is say you're wrong to you what. what do they mean lately I know I don't. know they must be a newcomer to the. podcast slightly distressing says Josh. has is all the time lately Josh makes. really good points and all Chuck does is. poooo it by just saying no you're. wrong like has that even happened once. if it makes you I'm sure it's happened. more than once but if it makes you feel.

any better I haven't noticed then that's. what really counts don't you think yeah. I guess although there are like a. million plus people listening so I guess. their opinions count as well you're. wrong oh man you know what's funny is I. didn't even see that coming chuck oh see. there yeah that was good good stuff and. I almost just said the SW word that was. good stuff you're wrong it was. mediocre oh let's just do this for 45. minutes yeah no let's do a real podcast.

episode this uh this was interesting all. I could think about was uh heist. movies oh really I don't know what I. thought about I think I was kind of. stuck in the 30s I just thought of. everything as kind of old timey and. quaint sure you know all right because. it's kind of in a way where the story. really kicks off the story of Fort Knox. in case anybody's listening and didn't. check the title Oh I thought we were. doing an episode on the United States. bullion depository buddy that is the.

same exact thing in a lot of ways but. actually they're different too let's. talk about this right So for anybody who. is outside the United States and I would. wager that a lot of you I'd wager all. the golden Fort Knox that a lot of you. are very familiar with Fort Knox because. it does seem to be kind of like this. world famous place where the United. States hoardes its gold and it's just. totally impenetrable so don't even try. um but there's also like a a lot of.

conspiracy theories too that there's no. gold in there and we'll talk about all. this and why there's gold in there too. but I feel like we should at least give. like a a background on Fort Knox and the. ins and outs of it don't you yeah uh in. 1903 this is where it all started um the. US Army said you know what I think we. need some training ground out here in. Kentucky in West Point Kentucky and. everybody said why yeah I don't know. good place as any I guess okay and they. use that area they got a um they got a.

few counties to uh kindly hand them over. some land and they use that area for. training and stuff uh made it a. permanent training camp in. 1918 and then named it after Henry Knox. a revolutionary war officer as Camp. knocks and someone very quickly said. that doesn't sound at all tough it. sounds like children belong here and. people roasting s'mores so they that's. what I was going to say how about Fort. Knox they saids like all the best forts.

started out as camps yeah so they said. sure in 1932 it became officially Fort. canox right nice one um so yeah so it. was started out as a legit army base um. but then eventually in the 30s which is. why I've been stuck in the 30s because. so much of the story takes place there. um the United States Mint said hey we. could use a new spot to store some gold. cuz we got a lot of gold and this isn't. even all of it but we need a new spot to.

store some gold and they actually took. possession of part of Fort Knox um and. built what's known as like you said the. United States bullion depository um. there in Kentucky and it is legitimately. Fort Knox is now not just the army camp. even more famously it is really what you. officially would call the United States. bullion depository yeah and the camp is. still there and some say it is um there. as sort of a a means of maybe.

intimidation maybe back up like hey. there's an army camp right next door MH. uh but they you know also asked to. borrow that name because it sounded. tougher than the bullion. depository and they said sure you can go. ahead and just call that building Fort. Knox as well MH and that's where we. moved um a well not all of it but we had. a lot of gold at the time as you were. saying and it was. um it was a little unnerving I think to.

have most of the gold in the country. stored in Philadelphia the me there and. in New York because it was so close to. the coast and if some Waring Nation. wanted to invade us and grab our gold. then it they wouldn't have far to go to. get it onto a boat yeah no truly which. is you know pretty sensible really and I. never really thought about that but yeah. New York's not very far from water and. neither is Philly so why not so they. they decided to move um as much as they. could and there was silver moved too.

there was a lot of stockpiles of silver. that we're not even going to bother with. in this story cuz it's silver we're. talking gold here yeah and they moved a. lot of it to Denver and they very. quickly said well Denver mint's a great. place because it's protected from the. from the Pacific Ocean by the Rocky. Mountains which would make it that makes. it much more difficult for an invading. Army to come in from the Pacific and. steal it but we we've run out of space. and we need some some more space for all. the spillover gold and that's when they. decided to build in Fort Knox which in.

Kentucky is protected from the Atlantic. Ocean by the Appalachian Mountain so. it's pretty pretty clever why they why. they chose Fort Knox yeah so the. treasury uh like you said took control. of that land in 36 and then in 37 they I. mean they started building you know. their you know they couldn't just keep. it intense even though those. intimidating appalachin mountains were. right there they're like we need a. building here so they built a building. over um just a few months cost about a.

half yeah um cost about a half a million. bucks and in 1937 they said we're open. for business um bring that gold from New. York City they did and they they did it. the way exactly the way that you would. think they would do it they had um a lot. of um they had a secret location where. they were loading it they sent a bunch. of trains out um that were. decoys um and it didn't all happen at. once it wasn't one shipment uh that made. made its way from New York and.

Philadelphia over to um Kentucky it. would have been in the movie I think. exactly yeah but um it happened like. actually in in many shipments over. several years but supposedly they did it. like sometimes darkness of night some. there was decoys um and they were always. protected by a a number of groups from. the post office um uh inspectors that. are licensed to carry guns yeah which. would I hate to say it everybody but the. one that you would try to hijack if you.

were going to hijack yeah I mean let's. be honest like yeah right um yes Chuck. uh all the way to the Army you know. which I would I would probably not try. to hijack that one if I were going to. hijack one which I wouldn't do it would. probably be the Postal Inspector one. yeah and you know I'm I'm sure that. they've someone has written a movie. treatment at some point for a. 1937 train on the way to Fort Knox High. type of thing right and they surely.

would have cast the those poor post. office Gunslingers as the uh the likely. train that's right those poor guys um so. we've got the gold showing up at Fort. Knox and the thing is is like this was. like people knew about this it wasn't. done in secret like this was this was. known about um and I think I get the. impression that the reason that it was. talked about and discussed and there. were like little tidbits here there in. in the um in the popular media um to.

give this idea like okay yes we're. moving this gold but like don't even try. it like here's just enough that you need. to know to not even come anywhere near. this place and over the years little. tidbits have kind of been released here. there that give a pretty complete. picture of what you would be dealing. with if you did in fact try to uh. impregnate Fort Knox. o pretty sexy.

so uh first of all you can't just take a. tour I me you can tour almost anything. in this country except for Fort Knox. even if you're a sitting Congress person. the chances are you're probably not. going to get a tour yeah I I mean if Ed. is correct here who helped us put this. together there have only been three. official tours is that right yeah that's. what I saw so there's there was one from. FDR himself which is pretty. understandable sure um there was one in.

the 70s which we'll talk about um which. made sense but it was a Congressional. Delegation and then I think in. 2017 Steven minian and a delegation. toured it so at there's at least three. but those are the three that we know. about there may have been more but that. I would think they would kind of. publicize that because the whole point. of being a delegate to two or for Knox. is to basically reassure the public. there's there's a lot of gold in there. don't even worry about it yes the Gold's. there that's pretty much the reason why.

anybody gets a tour of Fort KNX I wonder. if they let FDR in and just to say hey. you might as well just urinate on this. golden person because that's what you're. about to do with policy that's that's. probably what happened we'll get to that. later with the gold standard uh and of. course you didn't urinate on it even. with policy you don't know you can't. ever tell what that FDR so here's a. bunch of things and this this next bit. is going to be just sort of a lot of the.

facts and figures that we know and we've. gleaned over the years some comes from. official releases some comes from an old. 1930s issue of Popular Mechanics which. is kind of cool uh but should we take a. break first oh sure man yeah I think. that's a great Cliffhanger all right. great we'll be right. [Music]. back. [Music].

you all righty so we promised you stats. and figures about Fort Knox and 1930s. issues of Popular Mechanics I know uh. how's this for you the Vault requires of.

course multiple people to open it up and. each person Nobody Knows the entire. combination each person knows only a. part of it and even if you got it open. there's a 100h hour time delay lock so. you got to wait if you have them at. gunpoint and you all force and you force. them all to open it you got to sit. around and wait for four days no matter. what that's my favorite one it's pretty. great that and the fact that it's really. just artificial intelligence from the.

future is the only one that has the. entire combination in its possession uh. what else um well let's see there the. The Vault itself is actually inside a. building so you remember in our Alcatraz. episode where the cell blocks were. buildings inside of the larger prison. building yeah that's exactly the same. thing and not coincidentally they were. built around the same time um so I think. there was that kind of you know. impenetrable building within an. impenetrable building in the Zeitgeist.

kind of thing going on um and the the. only way the only place the Vault and. that building are connected is on the. floor but don't even think of coming up. from under the floor because um the. flooring is 2 feet thick of granite um. which you are not going to get through. even if you successfully dug under and. I'll just go ahead and tell you why you. would not be able to successfully dig. under the building from the outside is. because you have barrier after barrier. after fence after razor wire separating. you. from the building there's a huge blank.

field around the building so it's not. very easy to kind of walk up to it. and they apparently have said that the. field around the building is a mine. field yeah which means that they. apparently studied cartoons to design. Fort Knox which I love they're like what. would while E coyote do exactly um yeah. it is I mean it's it's it's definitely. worth Googling a uh like an aerial image.

of this building it's it's pretty. interesting I mean it it does it sits. out in the middle of nothing uh in this. big flat area and they there's like a. circular uh driveway around it and you. know it it's made of what you think it's. made of which is granite and concrete. and steel uh They said that the walls. are uh also 2 ft in thickness and inside. those walls are fabricated steel coils. that are so close. smush together that they say a human.

hand can't even get between them right. uh so you need a baby or a child yeah. you need a baby hand so you got to bring. a baby you have to bring diapers and. food to last the baby four days until. the time lock opens yeah of course don't. forget a gun to hold people off with. yeah and uh probably some people you. don't like to send through the Minefield. to clear a path for you yeah and you got. to get one of those diaper Genies to put. the diaper in otherwise it's just going. to smell in there oh man it would smell. so bad in that little building uh here's.

another cool thing well the whole the. whole building isn't huge I mean it's. it's not small it's 10,000 square feet. but it's not I I don't know you think of. Fort Knox and you think of um something. the size of like a a Maximum Security. Prison or something like that MH um it's. not huge but um the building inside the. building so the Vault inside has an 18in. space clear on every side and they have. all these mirrors everywhere and of.

course now they have real cameras I. guess this was from the Popular. Mechanics pre camera you just use. mirrors to make sure that you can see. every square inch of this thing yeah so. if you did somehow manage to get inside. the Vault the people who whose job it is. is to watch The Vault would see you. immediately and Postal Service. workers yeah they would just start you. know lobbing dead letter office packages. at you until you got annoyed left uh and.

of course there's Heavy Artillery there. are um four corner machine gun turrets. essentially uh on the outer building. just looking down so I'm sorry I was. confused is that on the outer building. or is that part of the Vault I think. that's. outside no okay I I don't know I. couldn't quite tell I didn't and I. didn't see it outside did you see them. outside well I mean I saw I mean I. didn't see any really close-ups. everything was kind of an aerial mhm and. I did see it look what looked like.

Corner turrets but maybe they are inside. okay I don't know if I'd be shooting up. machine guns inside a granite. room yeah that's actually probably a. pretty bad idea I mean I've seen Wally. Coy too those bullets bounce all over. the place that's right um so you've also. got a door to contend with so so so far. you've got 2 feet thick everything to. get through um which means that your. best bet is to go through the door. because rather than 24 in it's only 21. in thick but you should probably be.

dissuaded by the fact that it's blast. drill and torch proof said the US Mint. director from back in 2016 Philip deal. yeah and again this is all under the. banner of don't even think about it. buddy right um between the uh there's a. corridor that encircles the Vault and. then the outer wall of the building they. do have some offices I guess that's. where doy the secretary has been since. 1950 something answering phon Danny. Danny that's true sure I don't think.

they gave jobs like that to Danny in the. 1950s okay maybe not in the 50s that's. fine but I got called out for letting. that Stooges comment pass and I'm not. gonna I'm not going on the grill again. for you pal what the ladies don't like. The Three Stooges M we got not one not. two but Thrice emails about that and. most of them were not happy well uh. actually two of the three were very fun. about it and said that they love the. three stoes but yes but they weren't. happy uh one one I couldn't tell and I. even wrote her back and I was like I.

can't tell if you're really mad well and. I said but I said I was just uh if you. Google women don't like three stoas it's. a it's a Trope I mean it's a familiar. Trope I wasn't like inventing some. sexist thing I was just kind of funning. around with it yeah it's like everybody. not liking Detroit or Kentucky like. Google that right or Google women don't. like Rush the band hey hey hey let's. just let's bail out of this while we. still have our limbs no people can like.

what they like but trust me I've been to. a rush concert and there was there was a. lot of masculinity in that room what. year was that cuz I I'll bet I was at. the same concert depending I went to it. must have been 88 or 89 oh no I wasn't. at that one okay yeah you were this. would have been maybe like 92. 93 we just missed each other yeah just. by a few years had I just hung out at. the Omni for three or four more years or.

had you we would have passed each other. uh but you're right women like all sorts. of things and men like all sorts of. things that's right and Danny and doy. can both be secretaries that's right and. we don't even call them secretaries. anymore Chuck we should just stop. podcasting all. together we have aged out of it so to me. the only way in would be uh the Escape. tunnel yes which they thought of that. they they realized that they actually. put a tunnel under ground that you could. use to get.

into the um the depository the actual. Vault um which they installed in case. somebody got locked in there which I'm. really surprised they even installed. that um or or designed that in there I. would think like if you have people. guarding it as closely as it's being. guarded all the time that if you got. locked in there they could let you out. or just give you food or something. through those those slots that for the. four days yeah or just there.

that's an even better idea actually now. that now that you mention it but no they. didn't do that they actually put an. escape tunnel in so that you can crawl. out it's not like a pleasant walk or. anything you crawl like through this. tunnel and then out into the Minefield. basically but the door that you reach. that lets you outside um only opens from. the inside it's impossible to open from. the outside which I take to mean it. doesn't have a door knob on the outside. right and then um it's it's guarded 24/7. by people who are ready to just shoot.

you up if you try to approach this door. with your own door knob that you brought. to open it from the outside right. because you're not going to come in here. uh with a presumably a freight train to. steal all this gold where where are you. going to put the tracks you can't do it. how you gonna get that gold out of there. I just love the fact that we're we're. try you know we're doing a podcast in. 2020 explaining and dissuading people. from trying to get into Fort Knox I mean.

it's just so like 70s to me or 30s or. 50s you know I love it uh the other cool. thing is is that it can go off grid it. has its own water and power so if you. you know in the movie version of course. once again I would think you would try. and knock it offline somehow get those. cameras down but they say no no no we. have those generators uh we can live off. grid there's a gun range in the basement. so if you want to brush up on your. machine gunning down there you can do. that I know that's kind of like a little.

little Lan Yap to the whole thing like. by the way these guys are training um. with guns downstairs in the basement for. fun because they've got nothing else to. do they're just waiting for you to come. now who is guarding it though um from. what I understand they're treasury. agents right and the Army um can be. called in if needed because again it's. like right there yeah the US Mint police. force yeah which I imagine is a it's. probably a pretty cool gig to have.

I don't know where they would have come. up but I swear we've mentioned that they. exist before it seems familiar to me. have we done this all before no we. haven't done this one but we have talked. about money and currency before yeah um. and I I feel like that's where that's. where we're at don't you like that that. maybe we should talk about the gold. itself because I mean yes it's cool that. there's a 21in blast door and there's a. door that only opens from the inside uh. in the Escape tunnel but but I think. what everybody's really fascinated with.

as much as anything is the fact that. there is a a lot of gold inside of Fort. Knox yeah and this will um kind of hit. home too if you've ever seen movies. where you're bringing gold out of a. place in a duffel bag those gold bars. weigh almost 28 pounds a piece just one. yeah just one of those things so if you. see people throwing them around in a. movie or putting 10 of them 15 of them. in a duffel bag and slinging it over. their shoulder. that is not realistic at all they're 7.

in Long 3 and 5/8 in wide 1 and 3/4 in. thick and weigh 27.5 pounds each yeah or. 400 troy ounces if you know what that. means I have no idea um and I think it's. what about 10 12 kilos a piece for those. of you who aren't listening in the US. and the weird thing I didn't realize. this but as far as the treasury is. concerned and to me this really kind of. goes to demonstrate like how little the.

actual value of maintaining this gold. horde is that just for bookkeeping they. they assign like a an arbitrary value. the statutory value of gold it's what. it's called at $424 24 cents an ounce so. that they can keep track using that. dollar amount of how much gold is in uh. Fort Knox rather than you know tracking. it as it as it relates to like the. international gold market yeah so I did. the math this time I did too let's see.

if we can came up with the same figures. so the supposedly there are 4600 metric. tons of gold uh which by the way is. about 2.5% of all the gold ever mined in. the world in human history that's pretty. impressive uh and if we're just going I. want to make sure we use the same. numbers here 4600 metric tons and uh use. that. 4244 cents per ounce okay I did it. differently but let's see if we came up. with the same figure well what what. value did you use like oh no you go.

first Mr GE wrong. guy so using the statutory value of gold. that the US has Set uh I came up with. $6.8 billion doll worth of gold close. for mine close for mine I used a. different method and this is one of the. great joys of math is there different. approaches to the same problem what did. you do um I took that 4600 metric tons. of gold and um divided it by. pound 27.5 lbs so I came up with the the.

number of uh individual bars then I. multiplied that number of individual. bars which is. 368,000 Bars uhhuh by that $. 6,888 per bar okay I came up with in the. neighborhood of $6.25 6 billion worth of. gold well first of all there's a a. psychologist that's listening to this. that is really yeah looking at what that.

means for both of our personalities for. sure got to say a lot you know did you. use are you sure you use metric tons and. not just. tons yeah I I I did um a pound to metric. ton conversion you know how you can go. on the internet and just say pound. metric ton and like it brings up a. little conversion thing for you yeah I. was just I was just making sure because. at first I didn't do metric ton and that. was different you did a short ton I did. a short ton and that came to about six. closer to year. number oh okay yeah no I and I actually.

rounded a little bit cuz I I was like e. what the heck is that when the the the. total came up uh so I went back and. redid it and I didn't feel like plugging. in all the same numbers so I rounded it. a little bit wonder what I did was I. just took uh uh how many ounces are in. 46 in a t in a metric ton multiplied. that by 4600 and then multiplied that by. 4244 right well I propose that move. along because I just suddenly res. there's probably people who's like their.

fingertips have dug under their eyeballs. they're so they're in such Agony hearing. us discussed math like this well what's. what's important is that uh the FED in. New York actually has more gold in their. Manhattan vault which was in a movie uh. 6,000 tons of gold that would have been. die harder uh Die Hard three I believe. it may have been Die Another Day I don't. know but it was a good one that was the. one with Sam Jackson yeah that was. pretty. good um and by the way I need to say.

something I realized that I I said Event. Horizon is a good movie and holds. up I went back and saw it again again. and I was like this is way jier than I. remember from last time oh really yeah. and sadly there's a there's a Sheen or a. coating of. hoiness that I guess maybe they brought. in somebody to punch up the script or. something and that was their. contribution but it's not so it doesn't. hold up anymore no and it's it's a. great Galactic lovecraftian horror movie.

in concept and in some parts but no it's. unfortunately rather hokey I'm I'm a. little gutted to say that as our British. friends would say maybe you should watch. it again in like three years and it. might be back on track for you I well. maybe maybe it's me that's the problem. well you know taste waxes and Wes yeah. that's true that's true Chuck uh there's. another there's some other stuff in Fort. Knox and there has been other stuff. through history. in Fort Knox because it's just a great.

place to keep stuff if you don't want to. lose it or have it stolen uh they have. some rare coins in there uh these are. coins that were not released to the. public uh they may have been promotional. coins or test pressings um and so. there's some of that stuff including uh. The Saga dollar coins that flew in the. space shuttle is that funny yeah that's. sakaia yeah that's like the American. bastardization it's Chicago way oh well. maybe we should keep this in okay.

because I've never heard anybody say. that I really thought you just. mispronounced it other people say it. like that yeah I think it's one of those. things where like the the native. pronunciation is Sago in Americans were. like saaka jaia no oh my God my I've got. so much egg on my face maybe we won't. keep this part in you have to say it you. said it wrong though you have to be like. that's wrong that's wrong okay thank you. so it is Sago huh is it Saga I think.

it's just Sago and I only learned that. from uh Ken. Burns God bless Kim burn haut and you. man thank you for setting me straight in. front of a million people uh let me see. here a. 1933 gold Double Eagle $20 coin that's. kind of cool yeah sure there's an. aluminum dime no Penny an aluminum penny. from 1974 which I'd love to see that. thing I would too but It just strikes me. as a little sad sure um the the there.

there have also been because Fort Knox. is just so well known as this. impregnable place and it really is you. know legitimately you you cannot get. into it no matter how hard you try um. it's actually served as the site the. storehouse for some like truly valuable. stuff um like the the Declaration of. Independence the Bill of Rights um the. Gettysburg Address a Gutenberg Bible um. the magnet cart actually during World. War II England's like hey can you hang. on to this for us cuz the Germans are.

really like up our butts right now. that's kind of cool yeah so they so we. held that at Fort Knox during World War. II um which is I mean that's just. fascinating to the idea that some. apparently some secret service agent. traveled secretly with a bunch of these. documents from Washington DC uh and put. them on a train out to Kentucky to go to. to be held in Fort Knox during World War. II I love it that's really cool and that. was uh temporary I think didn't they. return them right afterward oh yeah for.

sure apparently they dedicated the. Jefferson Memorial in 1943 and they're. like we need to get the the um the. Declaration of Independence out there. and they found out that the guards were. using it as a placem to eat their. dehydrated Foods no they they'd swapped. it with with something that they only. use crayon to forge kept the original. themselves so should we break now before. conspiracies or wait and break before. gold standard we break now and I'm not. 100% sure I'm going to be able to come.

back from that cicago way thing okay so. it might just be you and we come back. from from break no. [Music]. never. [Music]. you. [Music].

okay Chuck so one of the things one of. the favorite things Americans love to do. is to suggest quite seriously in a lot. of cases that there is no such thing as. gold in Fort Knox and that there hasn't. been gold in there for a very long time. and if you went there and you saw gold. well you're a fool because the best. thing the best possible scenario is that. you saw something like. tungsten that was spray painted or.

plated in gold and that the golden Fort. Knox is not there and hasn't been there. for a very long time and not only that. it was sold for the most nefarious. outrageous purposes we can possibly come. up with yeah so they audit uh Fort Knox. and they count the gold allegedly. supposedly Dy and Danny get in there. with their adding machine and they type. everything out um and I love how Ed put. this he said that all the conspiracy.

theories rely on quote some fundamental. misunderstanding of how currency Works. how the gold standard worked or just. outright. nonsense but it's kind of true yeah no. it totally is because there's this call. for which we'll talk about the the gold. to be used again the way it originally. was which is to back our. currency if that's the if that's really. the basis of your problem with the idea. that the gold was secretly sold off in. Fort Knox then then yeah you you. misunderstand how currency works or how.

economies work and you probably don't. fully understand how the gold standard. was not really great and that America. actually blew up and the whole world. blew up after we switched off of the. gold standard that's how the the global. economy really started to take off was. when we decoupled our currency from. being pinned to Gold so that's another. seems to be another um factor in in kind. of banding about conspiracy theories. about Fort Knox gold too yeah and a lot. of these conspiracy theories are.

anti-semitic yeah um there are Believe. It or Not There are some really smart. people who think who who may or may not. believe in some of these theories and. some that believe we should go back to. the gold standard uh including Alan. Greenspan um a woman named Judy Shelton. Who uh Trump tried to push for. appointment to the FED to the Federal. Reserve um and I'm not sure if she. believes in the conspiracy theories or. she just wants to go back to the gold. stand. yeah they're not I mean it's not hand in.

hand it's just if you do think we should. go back to the gold standard it's. basically impossible for your attention. not to fall on Fort Knox and then you. may be like well is there even gold. there yeah true but there are some truly. Wackadoo things out there uh this uh. Peter better guy oh is that how you're. saying his name what is it better better. if his yeah if his name's not Peter beer. then I'm sad I am too Peter Peter bet t. r that's what I'm gonna call him at.

least yeah it's like Peter with a B yeah. but his first name's Peter it's. magnificent it's perfect so he uh has. thrown a lot of conspiracies out there. since the. 70s uh including a popular one that we. sold off all the gold to these Global. Elites for next to nothing so they could. hoard that gold and then one day uh just. destabilize the economy of the world and. uh and you know Ascend to power. basically yeah because they would have.

all the money and they sunk the value of. the money so they could buy everything. else at rock bottom prices like they. bought the gold apparently this involves. the Rothchilds which automatically makes. the whole thing anti-emetic because the. Rothchilds started out and you know are. still around as far as I know um as a. Jewish banking family uh many many. centuries ago um and Rose to power and. wealth pretty quickly and actually had a. huge. um role in a lot of world affairs like.

were able to bail out entire nations. like France after they went into debt. over War like this family could do that. and it started a lot of conspiracy. theories so um they're kind of like one. of the OG conspiracy theories and. usually it was based on a combination or. it was based on suspiciousness of a. combination of them being Jewish and. them being extraordinarily wealthy yeah. there's this other guy is uh his name is. Yan nean h i I'm sure that's wrong um he.

had an alias named KZ Jansen. Kos and I listened to and read some. interviews with this guy and he did you. check into him he seems he seems like a. pretty level-headed Economist right that. just seems to think that these audits. aren't correct and there is something. kinky going on he didn't seem really out. there though no it I it seems like a. case of paying too much attention to.

details and and starting to see things. that aren't necessarily there or if you. do turn up a discrepancy assuming that. it does reveal some larger plot rather. than just being a mistake or an. accounting error or somebody forgot to. carry the one that's my impression I I. could be wrong I don't know much about. Kus Jansen yeah but the interview just. seemed very levelheaded um he wasn't. talking about um robotoids which is what. Peter beer talks about right uh.

literally talks about stuff like that. well that's what makes it believable is. the oids on the end if it were just. robots it would just seem rather. far-fetched what about Ron Paul his is a. little out there he thinks it's all fake. right so Ron Paul I can't tell if Ron. Paul is the source of a lot of this or. was an amplifier for a lot of it but he. he's tapped into or is part of one of. the larger um kind of followings of of. conspiracy theories as far as Fort Knox.

is concerned which is that that either. like I was saying earlier there's either. no gold there really or the gold that is. there is fake and the real gold has been. sold and that the US has been doing this. for a very long time for all sorts of. Uncertain reasons um like that and that. usually these days that China's been the. big recipient of cheap gold and maybe. we've been doing that because if we sell. China a bunch of cheap gold will um. actually keep the dollar low and will.

strengthen our. exports I'm not quite sure how that. works um there also seems to be a. certain amount of like national pride. associated with it where like no that's. our goal that's the people's goal it. can't be sold off secretly by the. government and here's to me where it's. like even if there isn't any gold in. Fort Knox at some point in in the not. too distant past but the past for sure. we've gone so far beyond that having any.

importance whatsoever yeah based on the. dollar value of the golden Fort Knox. that it it legitimately doesn't matter. but that's why I think some people are. like no it does matter that is our gold. that's America's gold um I've seen it. referred to I think Ed said somebody. referred to it as the equity of our. national wealth um and there seems to be. like a certain amount of like American. Pride or. patriotism in in being really mad about. the idea that Fort Knox doesn't have any. gold anymore that the American people. were duped by you know whatever Elites.

are running the show at the behest of. whatever Jewish people are running the. elites right uh because here's the deal. and this is where we kind of get in more. to the of the gold standard and we. talked about this in currency and how. both of us are kind of consistently. blown away that money all money is is. just something that everyone is agreed. on has value yeah and that's which we've. been doing of it yeah since there has. been little ingots and trinkets yes as.

long as you agree I mean it could be a a. well it couldn't be a stick it has to be. something that you can't just go out and. forage although you can with gold which. is a problem yeah you can I mean like. think about Wampum that was um. extensively used in I believe the. Pacific Northwest by more than one um. tribe and Nation um wam was they were. like little little seashells that you. could go and collect if you wanted to. and they were considered valuable. currency and were for a very long time. too so it could conceivably be a stick. as far as humanity is concerned right.

but in our case in in the case of paper. money these days it it is uh we've had. to make make it incredibly hard to. recreate and counterfeit uh you can also. listen to our counterfeiting episode but. what really struck me kind of with that. thought experiment this time is that. gold really doesn't have much value. either as a commodity it's right it's. nice for making pretty trinkets but uh. and they use it in some electronics and. stuff like that but we've also just sort. of agreed that gold is valuable and the.

only thing that really has True Value is. food air and. water if you think if you think about it. and love and the irony is is that we're. doing our best to to kill all that stuff. away you know oh Chuck the stuff that. really matters man bravo bravo I want to. give you a hand to help you down from. your soap box and I'm going to put a. king robe around you okay okay is it. gold it's gold Fleck and it's got like.

the little white leopard um like like. collar yeah yeah whatever that is you. look great in it that was wonderful no. it's just it's just so funny these. things that we've agreed have value. really don't and the things that really. truly have value are really just the. things that keep people alive right. right but even like taking that hippie. stuff out of the equation there was a. time where people said um no gold gold. actually is valuable people have valued. gold for eons now like it's one of the. first things humans agreed had inherent.

value even though it doesn't really have. inherent value because it was shiny yeah. and so it made sense that we we would. say Okay Gold's really hard to Lug. around and like um it's you just you. don't want to actually trade gold how. about we make paper that represents a. certain amount of gold and um so that's. kind of where we got paper currency in. the world and and that's what we've been. using for a very long time but over time. the the problems the issues that can.

arise from pinning your your currency to. Gold um they became apparent for one. you're very you're limited to the amount. of gold that exists in the world which. is substantial I mean all the golden. Fort KNX is only 2 and a half% of the. all the gold that was ever mined so. there's a lot of gold in the world but. that's a finite amount which is why some. people are like yeah that's why we. should pin our currency to Gold it it it. prevents it from getting out of hand and. you can't just print however much you. want um the problem is is it's like you.

were saying like with a stick you can go. in the forest and go get a bunch of. sticks conceivably you a private company. could go mine a bunch of gold that you. found you found a horde and um you you. can mine it and that will affect the the. the value of not just gold but of entire. National economies and the global. economy as a whole if everybody's. pinning their currency to Gold yeah and. the thing is it it also so like if your. economy is backed only by gold it's.

really tough to make adjustments to the. economy as a government which is. something as things have become more. complicated over the years with Finance. throughout the world we've relied upon. um and I don't think we even mentioned. that the the reason we did this to begin. with is because when we first had the. idea of paper currency uh people were. like n I don't trust that at all right. like coins that people were kind of used. to because they'd been using Trinkets. and ingots and coins for many many years. but when they brought out paper dollars.

and part of this was because. understandable because private Banks and. I think we talked about this in currency. um and especially in the South pre Civil. War South there were all kinds of values. uh for their paper currency so none of. it really meant anything yeah a bank a a. company a a town could print their own. money there was no federal Monopoly on. printing money in the United States. until sometime after the Civil War I. think so people just said yeah we don't. like this paper currency thing so we.

came along and said all right well what. if we back it by gold and in theory all. the money has a real gold value attached. to it and you can even come trade it in. for gold if you want to right so that's. that's how we went forward for a very. long time and then kind of slowly but. surely we started to move away from it. particularly starting um in. 1913 uh where the Federal Reserve was. established um which a lot of people. especially ones who think we should go. to the gold standard and people who.

think that we shouldn't have um or that. there's no gold in Fort Knox believe. kind of ruined the the world when we. established the Federal Reserve um and. one of the first steps it said was like. okay we need to maintain 40% of the. value of all of our currency in. circulation in gold as a as a country. which was a lot different from 100%. that's a huge amount of money that can. can now be printed and more money that's. out there more things can be bought.

because that money can be traded for. services and goods and you can employ. people with it and all of a sudden your. economy can start getting bigger and. bigger and bigger and that's exactly. what happened and as that became more. and more evident um we started moving. further and further away from from um. the gold standard yeah and like I said. earlier kind of joke that Roosevelt uh. they allowed him to urinate in person on. the gold uh he really led the charge in. the 30s um because of World War I and. the and the Great Depression and said.

you know what we really kind of need to. get away from this gold standard. officially and I'm going to take a. series of actions weakening that link uh. between gold uh dollars being backed by. gold and you can't exchange it anymore. everyone so don't even think about that. and not only that you can't hoard gold. like we we basically want all the gold. and we and we want to hang on to it yeah. and so for a very long time the only. only reason people maintain gold uh or.

countries maintain gold or the United. States maintain gold was to um to pay. off Foreign debts if need be uh and then. Nixon said nuts to that in 1971 and from. that moment on the United States. currency and economy was decoupled from. gold and has been ever since um and you. again you can look I'm not a a Rothchild. robot oid I just believe in progress. basically and if you go back and look at. the world economy and the United States.

economy since 1971 it's made some pretty. impressive gains since then um and. that's largely due to decoupling from. gold and being able to print money now. that said and this is an entirely. different podcast that I think we need. to do sometime there are massive. problems with paper money paper currency. what's called fiat currency um or a Fiat. system of currency where by Fiat by. proclamation we say our currency is. worth this amount and that's what we do. now which is totally made up and totally.

in the air but as long as people have. faith in in the government and the. economy and the the workforce um we can. survive those ups and downs through that. that that sense of faith not just in of. among our citizens but also people. around the. world understand yeah I mean let's just. all keep agreeing let's keep that pinky. swear going exactly so why do we value. why do we still have Fort Knox if we. don't need the.

gold well I mean they're not just going. to give it away you still got to keep it. in one in a couple of places right. that's I mean that's one thing I think. there is a certain amount of that. national pride too even among the. governments like we got we got a bunch. of gold and it's in Fort Knox and it's. almost like symbolic of America's wealth. and strength um one thing I did see is. there are like lots of other countries. have lots of other gold hordes. themselves. and although the gold market is. basically separate it's like its own.

thing that's you. know it responds and reacts to the the. um the stock exchanges um and other. markets but it's not it's not you know. entangled with it's its own thing so. really if you um released a bunch of. gold you're really going to mess with. the gold market but it's going to have a. ripple effect through the through the. world um in the other um markets in the. global economy so it would be really. foolish to release a bunch of gold onto. the market for the US to sell or any.

country to sell its gold hordes off it. would be a real big problem that you. don't need to have it's easier to just. keep the gold in Fort Knox instead. agreed that's why it's still around. you're not wrong this turned out to be. pretty good aside from sakaia and now. I'm wondering if I even pronounced. Wampum. correctly well how humiliating Chuck wam. was the real thing you know uh if you. want to know more about KNX and start. looking at pictures of it you'll you'll. see what we're talking about and since I.

said you'll see what we're talking about. it's time for listener. mail uh I'm going to call this Wetlands. followup uh from Donna hey guys been. listening for many years and always. enjoyed the shows in the banter uh today. out of my morning walk I was listening. to Wetlands Wetlands wetlands and. serendipitously Came Upon Cattails just. as you brought them up wow we love this. stuff these little Co coin incidences. yeah she's like now I'm listening to the. Fort Knox episode so lay it on me I'm.

tun I'm tunneling in as we speak uh it. was one of those weird coincidence. moments that I just had to record I. walked off the path into the grasses and. took a quick Cattail selfie which I. included in this email lovely picture uh. growing up in New Jersey in the'80s. Cattails were called punks and my dad. would take the dried out plants and. light them uh to keep away mosquitoes. that's what a punk is yeah never heard. of that have you heard of that uh-huh. never heard of that back then it seemed.

like a normal thing to do but having. grown up moved away from New Jersey boo. I have never come across anyone that. ever uh partakes in this practice. anymore it was such a huge part of my. childhood Summers I'd forgotten about it. until now until listening to the episode. and then I happened uh to walk upon some. in the adjacent Mar marshes in that. moment truly delighted me uh mosquito. season is over where I live now in DC. but on next Summer's to-do list is to. cut some Cattails from the Parkland and. introduce my two teen sons to that.

distinctive Punk smell that made me. against federal law now though oh really. taking punks from the the Parkland it. seems like against the law well I'll. tell you what Donna H look into that we. don't want you to get in trouble that's. right uh or to do anything you shouldn't. do but uh I I get the urge to want to. introduce things to your children that. you did back then that weren't. necessarily proper yes but but the nanny. state will say no and throw you in jail. so don't try it Donna yeah maybe I mean.

where I saw Wetlands recently where I. was hiking here in Arabia Mountain you. can't beautiful Granite outcroppings. part of Stone Mountain actually and you. can't uh my daughter wanted to take. those rocks I was like you can't take. the Rocks sweetie to go get thrown in. jail by the Nanny State can't do it got. to leave those. rocks um what else did Donna say. anything else no that's it that's from. Donna H that was great Donna thank you. very much be careful with the cat tails. we won't tell if you do but we just. don't want you to get in trouble um. we're no snitches uh if you want to get.

in touch with us like Donna did uh we. want to hear from you you can send us an. email to stuff podcast iheartradio.com. [Music]. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts iHeart. Radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite. [Music]. shows.