A game of musical chairs has begun, and someone will be left standing when the music stops.

Texas has just taken it up a notch, with a high profile move to keep its gold holdings at home for safe keeping and strong collateral. The state legislature is making moves to allow housing the more than $1 billion investment in bullion gold by UTIMCO (the University of Texas Investment Management Company, whose directors are appointed to represent multiple university systems and other assets.

Texas — long known for cattle, cowboys and oil — could soon be on the map for something much different.

Gold.

State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione asked the Legislature to create a Texas Bullion Depository, where Texas could store its gold, which is now in New York, and where others could keep their precious metals.

The goal is to create a secure facility that would allow the state to bring home more than $1 billion in gold bars that are owned by the University of Texas Investment Management Co. and are now housed at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in New York. (source)