another spin on this story could be equally: the gold that is kept in trust for other countries, soverign wealth funds, businesses, commodity trust funds and US Banks,,,, might have instructed the Fed, through the complex communication networks (simply calling in one's margin) to sell their holdings to meet current obligations..... just a thought......
convicted felon Howard Dean, on television interview had alluded to this White House team as doing the same things they did, only on a far grander scale with no conscience what so ever, and much more corrupt and deceptive.... ((words not exact quote, just best recollection available at this time....))
I recall hearing a few weeks back that Congress was debating to allow the IMF to sell some gold reserves - http://www.imf.org/External/NP/EXR/faq/goldfaqs.htm numbers 4 & 5 are of particular interest.
You nut bags with these theory's about the Fed and or the Central Banks selling gold as a conspiracy need to be sent back to 4th grade arithmetic. There is not enough AU on the Planet Earth to capitalize one GSE such as FNM much less enough to be able to affect anything having to do with global capital flows. Christ...the dumb on this board is huge.