From wiki: According Forbes, Rubenstein has a net worth of $3.4 billion. These guys are worth listening to atm. A refreshing change from Mickey Boloney..
Central banks buy gold when they don't want too much gold in the hands of speculators that buy it. Central banks sell gold when they don't want too much of their currency in the hands of speculators that sell it.
Trust. It is about trust... pure and simple. Good link. Central banks don't trust one another.... nor should they. No country or govt trusts another to not print over-print their currency and try to give their country an advantage in standard of living, materials, weapons, or whatever. Gold is the one thing you can't print, create in a lab, etc. Gold is basically a pile of money that can exchange for any world currency (doesn't matter if one currency fails or deflates... you can use it as any other one instead). Oh, and it naturally keeps up with inflation. The banks know that gold is their way to call one another's bluff... but sometimes the bluffing guys still have the biggest guns It's a trust thing, but no big bank or central bank would ever admit that:
It's rather the opposite: all national / central banks cooperate closely. They clearly trust eachother alike a same club with differently named member. Acting together worldwide, against currency holders that try to avoid their planned theft.
being IMF members they subjected themselves to give up the freedom of touching gold they just dump the gold to never the light of day again