The real reason Germany wants its gold back from France

Germany wants its gold back. The German central bank, the Bundesbank, is laying out plans to bring a big chunk of the gold it has stored overseas back to Berlin. That’s a lot of gold. In absolute terms, only the US owns more gold than Germany. Why does this matter? Well, for one thing, it suggests the Bundesbank doesn’t trust other central banks to look after the country’s gold. But perhaps more importantly, it rather suggests that Germany has serious doubts about the ability of the euro to hold its value