Senator Rand Paul headed to Fort Knox this week to see the nation’s gold. According to the U.S. Mint, the gold was last inspected in 1974.
“The Congressional inspection adheres to the new open door policy of the government announced by President Ford,” former Mint Director Mary Brooks said at the time. “Treasury Secretary William E. Simon issued the invitation to Congressmen to inspect the gold at Fort Knox.”
“I’m at Fort Knox. We’ve come to see the gold. Our country has about 147 million ounces of gold, and about half of it is stored here at Fort Knox,” Paul said, adding, “We’re going to be going deep underground to see the gold, but more importantly, we’re going to be talking about what happened to the dollar when we separated from gold in 1971. Over 85 percent of the value of the dollar has been lost since we de-linked from gold.”
“So there is a problem. The media now calls this affordability, but what it really is is inflation.”
“We run a debt. As the deficit runs up — $2 trillion a year — part of that debt is bought by the Federal Reserve with newly created dollars. This leads to inflation, and prices are up,” he explained. “Prices are up 25 percent in the last five years. It’s inflation. It’s related to deficit spending. It’s related to unbalanced budgets.”
“I’m going down underground, and I’ll let you know what I see in a little bit,” Paul said.
Following his inspection, Paul said, “Yes, the gold is there all (approximately) 147 million ounces. It is impressive, but the real point is what it still teaches in 2026.”
“We run annual deficits of two trillion dollars. The Federal Reserve buys about a third of that debt by creating new money. Every new dollar dilutes the value of the dollars already in people’s pockets. Gold does not expand when Congress spends. Paper does,” he added. “That is the difference.”
