Who owns all the gold?

For the last four decades, China has been cornering the physical gold market. Now that the West is turning bullish, where will the gold come from?

The sums concerned at this stage of gold’s bull market are staggering. Large American banks manage portfolios worth trillions, and their analysts are belatedly turning bullish on gold. Already, demand for ETFs is picking up, and mining indices have doubled this year from depressed levels. A tsunami of currency is just beginning to roll gold’s way. But where is the gold going to come from?

You may need to read this article twice for its implications to sink in.

China has cornered the market