Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

DJ asked in Business & FinanceInvesting · 10 years ago

Gold standard question?

From what I understand, if all the above ground gold was given a value of $1900 an ounce, it would equal roughly 9.2 trillion. Also, the gold America has in reserves, using $1900 an ounce, is about $500 Billion. Is that more or less correct? If not, what are the correct estimates?

Assuming my numbers are close, how could $500 Billion be used in a gold standard economy?

This is not a debate question, I just want to know./

2 Answers

Relevance
  • ?
    Lv 7
    10 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Theoretically speaking,

    There are two ways to revert from fiat money to honest money. The most common way is for the fiat money to have a catastrophic collapse, which is what happened to the continental dollar, and why our constitution prohibits the fiat money system we tolerate today.

    The second way is for the fiat money to be redeemed in an orderly fashion, as was done with Lincoln's illegal greenbacks after the war of northern aggression: 1) you stop issuing any more of the fiat money. 2) you figure out what par value can realistically be set for the fiat money, and then 3), you redeem the fiat money for gold or silver coin over several years.

    I suppose a third way would be to repeal 'legal tender' laws and allow the free market to decide which private currency(ies) are best. Allow external competition to expose the Fed notes as the toilet paper they are.

    The morally correct thing to do would be to steadily deflate the dollar until it was back to 1/16th of a troy ounce, and then abolish it altogether. But there would be ramifications of such a great deflation.

    But we'd better pay off a bunch of our debt first before too much deflation. And if people expect the money they hold to increase in value they'll just hold on to it, so there's all kinds of problems.

    Would probably have to transition to something new, something other than the US Dollar, then allow the USD to wither away.

    The biggest transition problem is the mismatch between the value of official gold holdings and the size of the monetary system. The value of gold held by central banks is apparently about $1,300bn, while global deposits of the banking system were about $61,000bn in 2008, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. To survive the slightest financial panic, the ratio of gold to bank money would need to be perhaps an order of magnitude higher.

  • 5 years ago

    the reason that Ron Paul needs to pass to the main effective is this. interior the U. S. immediately the Federal Reserve (that could be a private company owned with the aid of elitist such by way of fact the Roschild kin) is to blame for pumping money into the financial gadget as quickly as we choose it. the project with it fairly is the fee of the greenback gets weaker and weaker as extra money is outlined. working example, in case you had 10 money stored out of a todal nationwide pool of a hundred money. Now permit's say a year later you nonetheless have the ten money, yet interior the final year the Fed has revealed 200 extra money out of skinny air. by way of fact which you at present only very own 10 money out of three hundred instead of 10 of a hundred the fee of your greenback went down. subsequently we are experiencing hyper inflaction ideal now. the government is barrowing billions of dollars from the Fed to pay for wars and interior the approach devaluing the greenback bill. If we went to a maximum appropriate we does not be allowed to only print off extra money, and in essence the money that have been revealed might merely exchange arms. that is form of like power and physics. power can neither be created or destroyed, yet only transferred. it is the way distant places money could be. as quickly as we initiate printing extra money every time we choose it we devalue the greenback. interior the tip we nonetheless have the comparable overall fee, yet we merely have extra money floating around. it fairly is tricky for the middle and decrease classes by way of fact we've much less money to pass around. the reason he factors to gold is that that could be a confusing commodity that holds worldwide fee particularly properly. that could be a confusing tangible asset which you will touch and carry so that is going to continually carry some fee. in assessment to the greenback bill it is merely particularly paper which would be valueless tomororw if we replaced distant places money. like all inventory/bond/commodity that is going to variety in value yet interior the long-term is a stable wager. i'm hoping that facilitates.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.