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Fun (scary) gold factoid
gecko109
Posts: 8,231 ✭
Was just messing around with a calculator and was shocked to come up with this number.....had to re-check my math 3 times just to be certain!!!
Its widely accepted that all of the gold found by man so far totals around 4.5 billion oz. At the current price of $1375/oz, all the gold known to man right now would be valued at about 6.1 trillion dollars. Not enough to cover just HALF of the United States debt...which currently stands at around 13 trillion!!!
Thats scary!
Its widely accepted that all of the gold found by man so far totals around 4.5 billion oz. At the current price of $1375/oz, all the gold known to man right now would be valued at about 6.1 trillion dollars. Not enough to cover just HALF of the United States debt...which currently stands at around 13 trillion!!!
Thats scary!
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About 40% of the nation's gold backs the FRN's in circulation. Less than .03% backs the public debt.
roadrunner
<< <i>Should one also include the sum of all the other tangible hard assets such as oil, silver, uranium, rare earths, copper, lead, zinc, moly, nickel, coal, natural gas, fresh water, land and timber etc.? Doesn't all the nation's sovereign wealth also implicitly back the dollar?
About 40% of the nation's gold backs the FRN's in circulation. Less than .03% backs the public debt.
roadrunner >>
RR, your statement that all other assets should be included is a valid point, but ONLY IF we deduct from the value of those other hard assets the 13+ trillion of debt. I doubt there would be much left in regards to a positive balance!
As for your assertion that 40% of the nation's gold backs the FRNs in circulation, that is obviously false as well. It should read that "about 40% of the nation's gold COULD back the FRNs in circulation".
And only that is true if you are using the 2007 numbers that there is about 879 billion in circulation....and nothing has been added to that in the past 3 years!
It's not an assertion, but a basic fact. The FRN's actually printed only number about $800 BILL today with a large % of that circulating overseas. Wouldn't be surprised if physical FRN's actually circulating in the US is roughly equal to the value of our nation's reported gold stocks ($360 BILL). But that's just a guess. There's less than $879 BILL FRN's in circulation today so the number has decreased over the past 3 years. That's probably because a larger % of transactions now occur by check, credit or debit card, etc. Any gold the US govt claims to have implicitly backs whatever liabilities are out there: FRN's, national debt, future liabilities, etc. All in varying percentages. Physical FRN's are actually a fairly scarce item even if their comparable key-stroked brothers and sisters are >17X more common. But that doesn't mean you want to invest in physical FRN's as a store of wealth.
roadrunner
Fred, Las Vegas, NV
Thanks, that's one of the numbers I've wanted to know. Unfortunately all that gold is not owned by the U.S.
I'm wondering how many dollars the U.S. has printed as FRNs. They used to release the numbers for M1, M2, and M3; M3 is the money supply which is no longer published. If that number was known I could figure what the price of gold would have to be to cover the money supply. The other number I need clarified is the Fed Reserve gold stock. In Barron's magazine it list Gold Stock: 11,041 is that million ounces? I just went back and pulled the Dec 28, 1998 issue and the number is the same 11,041 and noticed Year Ago Change -8.
12/25/1998 Gold $285.80
Silver $4.87
Wow, have the numbers for Federal Reserve Bank Data changed from Dec 1998 to now. If I scaned and posted Dec 1998 and Dec 2010 Fed Bank data can anyone explain what these numbers represent?
M3 14T
M2 8.8T
M1 1.8T
M0 2.0T
US claimed gold holdings are approx 8100+ (nearest hundred) tons or 260+ MILL ounces (nearest ten). That Federal Reserve number of 11,000 is probably tons but might also include holdings of foreign nations, many of whom keep their gold at the NY Fed reserve bank. You'd have to dig deeper into the FED/Treasury holdings to find the US gold inventory. I believe they list the gold holdings as part of the money supply numbers (ie M0).
shadow stats link
roadrunner
document page 61, .pdf page 63
As custodian, the United States Mint is responsible for safeguarding much of the Treasury-owned gold and silver bullion reserves, which include deep storage and working stock.
Deep Stroage Gold - 245,262,897
Working Stock Gold - 2,783,219
just for fun - Silver -
Deep Storage - 7,075,171
Working Stock - 8,924,829
In accordance with 31 U.S.C. § 5117(b) and 31 U.S.C. § 5116(b)(2), statutory rates of $42.2222 per fine troy ounce (FTO) of gold and no less than $1.292929292 per FTO of silver are used to value the entire custodial reserves held by the United States Mint.
Liabilities of the Mint
Liabilities not covered by budgetary resources represent the United States Mint’s custodial liabilities to the Treasury that are entirely offset by Treasury-owned gold and silver bullion reserves held by the United States Mint on behalf of the Federal Government.
(numbers in thousands)
Custodial Gold Reserves (Deep Storage) $ 10,355,539
Custodial Silver Reserves (Deep Storage) $ 9,148
Working Stock Inventory - Gold $ 117,514
Working Stock Inventory - Silver $ 11,539
I'll let you do the math to determine the ounces of each the above numbers represent.
anyone care to speculate as to what comprises these "odd lots"?
1933 Gold Double Eagles?
1964D peace dollars?
hehehe
roadrunner
<< <i>Official US gold stocks as of Dec 2010 are 8133.5 tons or 261,498,125 ounces (using a 32,150.75 Oz troy conversion) >>
I can see the discrepancy between the two numbers posted by me. one is rounded dollar figures that convert to ounces(rounded because of the dollar rounding)
But I'm not sure where the discrepancy lies with the 245mil number and the 260mil number. 15million ounces different is a lot. Perhaps it is a strategic reserve under the control of a different branch of the government.
I still have to wonder about the lack of whole numbers for the mints deep storage silver and gold numbers. those odd ball amounts have to be made in something, and I wonder what those somethings are.