We don't really know what's inside the Fort Knox gold depository because the government refuses to do a comprehensive audit. But even if we take the government's claims at face value, we do know that the bulk of the U.S. gold reserves is made up of impure "non-standard" bars that don't qualify for use in international settlements.

In this episode of the Midweek Memo, Mike Maharrey explains the Fort Knox audit problem, how all that impure gold got there, and why it matters. Along the way, he also underscores the failure of the fiat money system.

This week, Mike also covers an interesting move by the Chinese that could exacerbate shortages in the physical silver market.