The Fort Knox gold mystery

This column is about gold. There's nothing new in that - I've written about gold as an investment many times in the past two decades. However, this column was triggered by a couple of things I didn't see coming. One, US banks and others holding physical gold at the Bank of England are facing delays in acquiring the gold. Two, the Fort Knox problem. What is the Fort Knox problem? Well, here's an explanation. Over the past week, a remarkable drama has unfolded around Fort Knox, that legendary vault where the US government keeps its gold reserves. It started with Elon Musk wondering if anyone knew the gold was still there. This was quickly followed by Senator Rand Paul lamenting that he hasn't been allowed to visit Fort Knox in a decade and President Trump declaring that his administration would "go into Fort Knox to make sure the gold is there." The Treasury Secretary ins