I can't seem to find an answer to this question. What I would like to know is how many dollars worth of gold is held (yes, I know the gold standard ended way back when) in relation to how much currency is in circulation.

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I needs government help to live.
I must be a liberal.

Now this is over 10 years old BUT I remember reading that we had something like 11 Billion. We crossed the gold standard back up point as to the gold needed to back up dollars in circulation ( I think we had to have 25% back up in gold to dollars) in the 70s' as nixon took us off the gold standard.

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

just found this that speaks to some of the peripheral issues so I was wrong its 1/35th of dollars in circulation. In 71 we apparently had 280 millions ounces....I don't know if we have degraded that since...


Congress created the Federal Reserve System in 1913. Between then and 1971 the principle of sound money was systematically undermined. Between 1913 and 1971, the Federal Reserve found it much easier to expand the money supply at will for financing war or manipulating the economy with little resistance from Congress-- while benefiting the special interests that influence government.

Dollar dominance got a huge boost after World War II. We were spared the destruction that so many other nations suffered, and our coffers were filled with the world’s gold. But the world chose not to return to the discipline of the gold standard, and the politicians applauded. Printing money to pay the bills was a lot more popular than taxing or restraining unnecessary spending. In spite of the short-term benefits, imbalances were institutionalized for decades to come.

The 1944 Bretton Woods agreement solidified the dollar as the preeminent world reserve currency, replacing the British pound. Due to our political and military muscle, and because we had a huge amount of physical gold, the world readily accepted our dollar (defined as 1/35th of an ounce of gold) as the world’s reserve currency. The dollar was said to be “as good as gold,” and convertible to all foreign central banks at that rate. For American citizens, however, it remained illegal to own. This was a gold-exchange standard that from inception was doomed to fail.

The U.S. did exactly what many predicted she would do. She printed more dollars for which there was no gold backing. But the world was content to accept those dollars for more than 25 years with little question-- until the French and others in the late 1960s demanded we fulfill our promise to pay one ounce of gold for each $35 they delivered to the U.S. Treasury. This resulted in a huge gold drain that brought an end to a very poorly devised pseudo-gold standard.

It all ended on August 15, 1971, when Nixon closed the gold window and refused to pay out any of our remaining 280 million ounces of gold. In essence, we declared our insolvency and everyone recognized some other monetary system had to be devised in order to bring stability to the markets.

Amazingly, a new system was devised which allowed the U.S. to operate the printing presses for the world reserve currency with no restraints placed on it-- not even a pretense of gold convertibility, none whatsoever! Though the new policy was even more deeply flawed, it nevertheless opened the door for dollar hegemony to spread.

The End of Dollar Hegemony

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

IF we still have 280 million ounces how about we sell some? We cannot because we cannot allow rates to go higher , it would wreck what’s left of the housing economy. IF we don’t do something to strengthen the dollar inflation will sooner or later wreak its havoc.

So lets see so many zeros how much of that gold at say 900 dollars an ounce would we have to sell to say clear a trillion and buy down our debt. With interest due on the bonds?

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

My calculator doesn't work with numbers that large.

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AMERICA'S GOLD FUND LARGEST IN THE WORLD; The Treasury Vaults Contained $504,354,297 Yesterday. France Comes Next with $478,258,230, Russia Third -- Bank of England Holds Only $183,330,681. (In 1901)

But..... Who has the largest unmined gold in the world:

NationTalk - 2009 mineral industry awards announced by Prospectors ...Jan 19, 2009 ... The association hosts the world's largest annual mineral industry ... Creek deposit could be one of the largest unmined gold reserves in the world. ... The company has strong growth potential and is expected to increase ...


nationtalk.ca/modules/news/article.php?storyid=16931 - 36k - Cached - Similar pages
TheStar.com - Business"The mine is a piece of Canadian mining history and its restoration has created ... deposit could be one of the largest unmined gold reserves in the world. ...

Also:
Dances With Bears » 2005 » OctoberRussia’s largest unmined gold deposit, and the second largest unmined deposit in the world, Sukhoi Log is located in remote forests northeast of Lake Baikal

500 million? thats it? wtf?

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

I think they leased our gold to the banks, at a rate of 2%-3%/year, and the banks sold it and used the money to make real-estate loans. Don't ask them to give it back, since it was at $200-300/oz when they leased it, and they can't afford to buy it back at over $900/oz.

It may be time to sell my gold necklace and earrings!

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The source I first used did not have a date shown untill I read the entire article. Unfortunately I posted before I got that far !

Many ,mamy years ago I was told by an economics prof. that if we used gold as the standard of wealth Russia would simply out produce us. The value of diamonds as gold depends on their scarcity. Both however have portability wide acceptance and artificially controlled production to support the surmised value. If we were to solve the problem of discovering and introducing renewable energy to the extent we could replace fossil fuels now our debt would appear inconsequental.

Damn, had to go to page 5 of the search results to find a decent source. Not great, but decent and only 1 year old......

The vaults hold 147.3 million ounces of gold, all of which is owned by the United States. The gold, which is worth more than $100 billion, is stored at the United States Bullion Depository in Fort Knox, Ky. That's part of the U.S. Mint, which makes the nation's coins. The Fort Knox depository is a classified facility; no visitors are permitted.

Interestingly, Fort Knox isn't the largest depository of gold in the country -- a full 216 million ounces of gold, worth $160 billion, is stored at the New York office of the Federal Reserve. Tours of the Fed's gold vaults are available to the public.

The gold at the New York Fed belongs to foreign governments, central banks and international monetary organizations, with only small portion belonging to U.S. government.

Jeannine Aversa

AP Economics Writer

Washington

Ask AP: Gold at Fort Knox, jobs sent overseas - USATODAY.com

This piece was interesting.......

Gold holdings peaked during World War II at 649.6 million troy ounces (20,205 metric tons). Current holdings are around 147.3 million ounces (4,570 t) in around 368,000 standard 400 troy ounce (12.4 kg or 27.4 lb avoirdupois) gold bars. At April 2008 rates of $913 an ounce it is worth roughly $134 billion.

charles hugh smith-Friday Quiz: How Much Gold Does the U.S. Government Own?

So, to round off, we had 650 million ounces and now we have 147 million. After some simple math, it becomes clear that 77% of our gold reserves are gone. Where did they go?

?

Mostly to European countries, I guess. Remember the collapse of Bretton Woods?

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I remember reading about it. I was only 9 when it happened.

It is a shame really, as we had huge gold reserves that we let slip away when we really didn't need to. The bankers sure are good at what they do.

Oh well, at least they let us keep 1/4 of our gold.