by Peter Schiff, Schiff Gold:

The Texas Bullion Depository officially opened for business this week. The creation of the facility represents a power-shift away from the federal government and sets the foundation to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

Countries that stockpile gold create a foundation of stability for their monetary systems. This is precisely why China, Russia, Turkey and several over countries are increasing their gold holdings. But it’s not just countries looking to gold to provide political clout and economic power. Texas recently laid the groundwork for its own gold depository. The reason? To wrest some economic power from the Federal Reserve by bringing some monetary autonomy to the Lone Star State.

In June 2015, Gov. Greg Abbot signed legislation creating the state gold bullion and precious metal depository. In his signing statement, Abbot emphasized the autonomy the new facility will provide the state.

…the Texas Bullion Depository will become the first state-level facility of its kind in the nation, increasing the security and stability of our gold reserves and keeping taxpayer funds from leaving Texas to pay for fees to store gold in facilities outside our state.”

University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus said a state depository can serve a similar function for Texas.

“This is another in a long line of ways to make Texas more self-reliant and less tethered to the federal government. The financial impact is small but the political impact is telling, Many conservatives are interested in returning to the gold standard and circumvent the Federal reserve in whatever small way they can.”

The facility will not only provide a secure place for individuals, business, cities, counties, government agencies and even other countries to store gold and other precious metals, the law also creates a mechanism to facilitate the everyday use of gold and silver in transactions. In short, a person will eventually be able to deposit gold or silver – and pay other people through electronic means or checks – in sound money.

The Texas facility began accepting deposits of precious metals on Wednesday, June 6. Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar became the first depositor. He praised the depository as a secure place to store gold and silver.

“Once you’ve made that deposit, it is going to be there tomorrow and in the future, until you make a decision to withdraw it or you want to sell it,” he told the Texas Tribune.

Rep. Giovanni Capriglione sponsored the legislation creating the depository. He also deposited gold on Wednesday. He said he thinks the Texas facility could be the first of many across the US.

“I can’t think of any place else in the world that could create a bullion depository this way, and I’ve heard from legislators across the country who want to do what we are doing, from Tennessee to Utah,” he said in a statement. “We will see a lot of financial interest in this depository, with gold, silver and other commodities coming here.”

Austin-based Lone Star Tangible Assets runs the depository for the state. It currently operates it out of its existing facility in Austin, but plans to open a new building for the depository in Leander sometime in 2019.

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