We’ll find out on Nov 30th, when the Swiss are set to vote on a citizens’ initiative that will require their central bank to hold 20% of its reserve assets in gold.

As recently as the year 2000, the Swiss National Bank was required by law to hold 40% of its assets in gold. That made the Swiss franc a relatively hard/safe currency. But Swiss voters removed that requirement in a 1999 referendum. Oops.

The SNB soon undertook an orgy of gold-selling, as well as money-printing (keeping the franc pegged to 0.83 Euro). Today, the SNB holds maybe 7-8% of its reserve assets in gold. The new referendum would require the SNB to take it back up to 20% over the next five years. [Read more…]