Historical ratios: population to available gold?

Weiss

Anyone know if there is data that shows estimated ratios of the amount of gold available vs. the number of people either on earth or in countries developed enough to be consumers of gold?

Seems like that would be a pretty good indicator of where the price of gold may go

ProofCollection

There's been a lot of articles posted on here. Here's one of them: http://news.silverseek.com/GoldIsMoney/1241373241.php

gecko109

I believe the best current estimate is about 1/2 oz of gold currently available if equally dispersed to each human on earth. My wager is that number gets smaller the more time goes on.

On a side note: With about 600 million oz annual worldwide production of newly mined silver, that is just 2 oz per man/woman/child just in THIS country per year!!! Thats less than 1/10th of an oz of silver per person on earth per year. That means that if you spent just $150 right now on silver, you wouldnt have to buy any more for 100 years, and you would still have what the average human could theoretically aquire in that time frame! WOW!

coynclecter

Gecko

if you have one dollar in change in your pocket then you currently have more wealth than the average human on the planet. If you have $150 to your name then you have way more than the average human will every accumulate in thier liftime.

Weiss

<< <i>Gecko

if you have one dollar in change in your pocket then you currently have more wealth than the average human on the planet. If you have $150 to your name then you have way more than the average human will every accumulate in thier liftime. >>



You know that's probably correct. And a little humbling. Easy to forget how the average American is better off today than 99% of the people who have ever lived. At the risk of high jacking this thread: remember those who fought and died for us this weekend.

RedTiger

<< <i>Gecko

if you have one dollar in change in your pocket then you currently have more wealth than the average human on the planet. If you have $150 to your name then you have way more than the average human will every accumulate in thier liftime. >>



20% of the world's population lives on $1 USD or less per day. That's $1 for food, shelter, medical, transportation, everything. Another 20% lives on $2 USD per day, making for 40% that live on $1 or $2 USD a day. Those numbers were compiled before the recent economic storm hit. It is probably more like 50% at the severe poverty line now. I would guess that most of the world's poor will never save more than a week's worth of living expenses or $7 to $28 USD.

roadrunner

The pog has more to do with the balance of gold held per country vs. its foreign obligations. I don't think the equation works when figuring out how many ounces there are per person considering that 90-99% of all people won't ever own any investment gold unless you include a small amount of jewelry which is typically way overpriced any ways.

The US claims to have 261,500,000 ounces of gold in inventory. In 2002 the US foreign obligations were on the order of $ 1/2 TRILL. which would have gotten one to $1600-$1800/oz. Today our world obligations are several times larger (FRN's held overseas plus US bonds). Doug Noland listed current foreign USTreasury and Agency Debt at $2.71 TRILL (+$433 BILL since last year). This alone would require a gold price of $10,000/oz. Toss in FRN's circulating overseas and this goes up a few more thousand dollars per ounze. The amount of T Bills and T bonds held by foreign nations is $3.265 TRILLION. China holds the most at $744 BILL. Using the $3.2 T figure comes out to be a pog of $12,500/oz.

If one starts to toss in future entitlements or derivatives the number goes off the charts. No matter how you slice up these numbers you don't end up with anything much under $3000-$4000 and you can go as high as $50,000/oz or more. If you use the total value of just the FRN's circulating around the world of which about 2/3 are held overseas, you end up in the $6K to $8K range as well.

For comparison purposes the 1980 peak price in gold ($875) ended up very close to the number which would have covered all of the US foreign debt ($900/oz). Today that would require $10,000+/oz.

roadrunner

Bear

What is the hysterical ratio?

OnlyGoldIsMoney

<< <i>

<< <i>Gecko

if you have one dollar in change in your pocket then you currently have more wealth than the average human on the planet. If you have $150 to your name then you have way more than the average human will every accumulate in thier liftime. >>



20% of the world's population lives on $1 USD or less per day. That's $1 for food, shelter, medical, transportation, everything. Another 20% lives on $2 USD per day, making for 40% that live on $1 or $2 USD a day. Those numbers were compiled before the recent economic storm hit. It is probably more like 50% at the severe poverty line now. I would guess that most of the world's poor will never save more than a week's worth of living expenses or $7 to $28 USD. >>




Recently we gave $20 as a birthday gift to a child we support in Gambia through a charitable fund. It might have been one of the smaller checks we wrote that month. My wife and I were both surprised after we did some checking on the internet and realized that $20 in Gambia amounted to 2 weeks of income for a typical family. That realization put our affluence in perspective and made our daily concerns seem trivial.