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.

Joe Cavatoni of the World Gold Council, is a market strategist with over 30 years of financial services experience and helps us make sense of how gold has reacted and likely will react in the face of dizzying geopolitical and war headlines that constantly change.

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The French central bank recently sold all of the gold it had stored in New York and replaced it with higher-quality bars that will remain in France. French officials say the move was to increase the quality of its reserves and was not politically motivated.

Mike Maharrey doesn't think that's the entire story, and in this episode of the Midweek Memo, he says the quiet part out loud. This move was almost certainly motivated in part by politics. Mike explains why France (and many other countries) want to minimize their exposure to the U.S. and the potential ramifications for the American economy.

In this episode, he also covers last week's "blockbuster" jobs report and explains why it wasn't probably as great as the headlines indicate. (Hint - it has to do with revisions.)