University of Texas Endowment Holds $1 Billion Gold, 5% Of Its Portfolio

OK, so when I testified this year before the Georgia House Financial Institutions & Services Subcommittee (a Banks & Banking Committee subcommittee) on HB 3, the Constitutional Tender Act, in one part of my testimony I was very specific:

I told these legislators that, because they failed to pass the ConTen Act two years ago when it was first introduced in the GA legislature, "the pension funds managed by the State of Georgia lost over 40% of their purchasing power. If we had simply returned to obeying the Constitution, some of the most vulnerable members of society -- those on pensions -- would now have 40% more funds to live on than they have ended up with."

I don't think they were able to wrap their heads around that completely. But, once again - just like happened when Utah beat us to the punch this year, as I had warned them would happen - OTHERS are showing them the way: this time, to public investment in sound money. And this time, by the University of Texas Investment Management Company, which has put 5% of its nearly $20 billion endowment into actual gold.

C'mon, guys and gals -- this isn't rocket science. Obey the Constitution, and save the money of the citizens of Georgia! -- BG

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University of Texas Endowment Holds $1 Billion Gold, 5% Of Its Portfolio
by Robert Lenzner
Forbes.com

It should come as no shock to financial markets that university endowments have followed in the wake of central banks and hedge funds to become the newest major investors in precious metals like gold.

Just as central banks in China, India, Russia and many other nations view gold as a monetary reserve protection against the falling dollar, major academic institutions are looking for new asset classes like precious metals and commodities to produce returns that can be put to work as a source of funds for a large portion of college operating expenses.

Friday, as gold prices hit a new all-time high – $1486 an ounce($1500 is around the corner),the University of Texas Investment Management Co., revealed that 5% of its $19.9 billion endowment(it handles Texas A&M as well) was in actual bars of gold bullion in a New York bank vault owned by HSBC Holdings, the London based global banking institution. Not in any gold ETF or individual gold mining shares, or in gold futures;l Texas took delivery of 6,643 actual bars of bullion, or 664,300 ounces– a quite unusual transaction for a university.

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GOPers embrace unorthodox tax plans

The time is politically ripe for a return to sound money. Now we need to get the candidates talking about enforcing the Constitutional requirements for that sound money: gold and silver coin.

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POLITICO: "GOPers embrace unorthodox tax plans"
By BYRON TAU & BEN SMITH | 5/20/11 6:19 PM EDT

In this Republican primary season, no economic or monetary policy is too unorthodox for an electorate hungry for change.

The Republican field is filled with potential candidates who have called for radical overhauls of the tax code, the abolition of the IRS, an end to the Federal Reserve central bank— and even a return to the gold standard... mainstream figures in the Republican Party — including [former Minnesota Gov. Tim] Pawlenty and Indiana Rep. Mike Pence — have flirted with monetary theories like the gold standard or fixing the U.S. currency to a commodities basket.

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