The gold per person statistics. Where am I wrong here ?

edmundfitzgerald

I've heard it been said on this board that there is approximately 0.75 ounces of gold per person using the statistics
that they are 161,000 tonnes of gold in the world and approximately 6,900,000,000 people on the earth today.

I agree with that part.

But with 30,000 tonnes sitting in central banks, and we the people will probably never be able to get a sniff of it, then
doesn't that come out to only 0.14 ounces of gold per person available in this world (if you take into account that only the top 20% of the people in this world have the means to purchase gold) ?

So isn't the real answer 0.14 ounces available to each person, or am I missing something ?

roadrunner

I would look at just the opposite way. The 30,000 tons of central bank gold will never be available to us. It's the other 131,000 tons that can be spread out
around the world if one has the means to be able to buy some. Then there is the minor issue of how much gold the CB's sold off/leased over the past 20 yrs to the
bullion banks. With double asset accounting their "official" books don't show this decline. They probably own somewhere on the order of 15,000 to 25,000 tons. And
I would guess towards the lower half of that range. During the 7 yrs in the 1960's when the London Gold Pool operated, they sold approx 3,000 tons of gold into the
market to supress its price. That was when there was only around 90,000-100,000 tons of gold in the world. I figure to achieve similar results over 15 years, the current
regime had to have sold at least 10,000 tons.

0.6 oz per person assuming 131,000 tons. But one should also probably subtract whatever amount of that is in very strong, long-term investor hands.

roadrunner

CoinCrazyPA

I know this sounds morbid, but I have often wondered how much gold is buried and will probably never recovered when a person dies and it goes in the grave with them, rings, charms, bracelets, teeth etc. Any stats for something like this?

GRANDAM

<< <i>I know this sounds morbid, but I have often wondered how much gold is buried and will probably never recovered when a person dies and it goes in the grave with them, rings, charms, bracelets, teeth etc. Any stats for something like this? >>



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I wouldn't worry about that most undertakers remove it before permentaly sealing the coffin

fiveNdime

<< <i>So isn't the real answer 0.14 ounces available to each person >>


still wrong.
i mess with the estimates

...since i already sold all the gold i owned. (unless electronics count in your calculations???)