Here's the latest (9-08) figures for country-based gold reserve assets from the WGC. This is PD data. lj
Just did the math. If you took all the gold in the world, then sold it all at 900 dollars per ounce, it still wouldnt be enough money to cover the 700 billion dollar bailout. (We would be short about 57 billion dollars)
Gotta love Costa Rica, with 200 pounds of gold at the bottom of the list. Let's see, about 3200 ounces*900 = $2.9 million. Not much... but I'll take it! Their national vault must be a Bank safe deposit box...
You'll notice a country or two which aren't on the list but an interesting no show is Canada. They liquidated all their gold reserve assets sometime ago, I don't remember exactly when. Have always wondered how that little manoeuver fits into the scheme of things. lj
If it is held as a stragic item, such as Petroleum, helium, uranium, copper, whatever, it makes sense. But I don't see how NOT having it hurts either - less storage charge. There is no Gold Standard... On the other hand, the US Reserves and Petroleum reserves have actually gained a huge amount of value...
Even though we are not on the gold standard, if our dollar completely lost its value overnight, the government has the gold to back up any neccesary purchases it might need and it could pay any employees it needs to keep with gold backed paper if the need should ever arise. Also, imagine if governments suddenly put gold on the open market. It would lose its value so fast, gold would be practically worthless.
09-25-08 01:13 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote from TraderZones: If it is held as a stragic item, such as Petroleum, helium, uranium, copper, whatever, it makes sense. But I don't see how NOT having it hurts either - less storage charge. There is no Gold Standard... On the other hand, the US Reserves and Petroleum reserves have actually gained a huge amount of value... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Even though we are not on the gold standard, if our dollar completely lost its value overnight, the government has the gold to back up any neccesary purchases it might need and it could pay any employees it needs to keep with gold backed paper if the need should ever arise. Also, imagine if governments suddenly put gold on the open market. It would lose its value so fast, gold would be practically worthless. I think I'd be going along with what piel has expressed above in the sense that if the shit really hit the fan and the dollar became catastrophically debased, then gold would prove useful. Actually one of the reasons put forth for why gold was stuck at $250-$300 for so long was precisely because central banks were dumping it on the open market. lj
Peil, that puts it in an interesting perspective. My math comes out pretty close to yours for purposes of a big picture discussion. World official gold holdings (includes IMF, et al.): 29,784 tonnes 1 tonne = 1 metric ton = 1,000 kg Convert 29,784 tonnes to troy ounces: 957,577,836 troy ounces GC front month most recent settle: USD $877.70 per troy ounce World: USD $840 billion All countries (excludes IMF, et al.): USD $745 billion United States: USD $230 billion Largest holders of gold, in order: United States, Germany, IMF, France, Italy, Switzerland, Japan.
What about silver? 90% of the world's gold is above ground (it has already been mined). 90% of the world's silver is still in the ground.