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With the price of gold going up so much how is the united states gold reserves compared to the debt? Could it be sold off to eliminate debt or is this supply of gold the reason we dont seam to care about the debt? Are we increasing value in gold by spending?
1. I don't think anyone knows how much the US gold reserve actually is so it cannot be compared to the debt easily. It also changes frequently as there are quite literally giant piles of gold under the Federal Reserve bank of NY and as deals are made gold is moved from one pile to another (Yes that place in Die Hard with a Vengeance actually exists).
2. I suppose you could sell off gold, but mostly it is for a Forex reserve.
3. In the end gold is just a commodity as such any inflation will cause commodity prices to rise.
My question wasnt to actually do it, but when gold goes up why are we not showing it as a assest? We show a debt as a country and all the talk about defalting as we go over the cliff. Well if we were going bankrupt as a person we would liquidate assests to pay debtors. Here we have a nation in debt and we dont even know our assests?
I don't think you could sell off an amount that would make a meaningful impact to the debt without actually impacting the market price for the gold. I think it would be kind of like the whole E=MC2 thing. You can never go fast enough to break the speed of light because mass gets increasingly heavier the faster it goes. I think with the gold you could never sell enough because flooding the market like that would keep making it cheaper, the more the US sold the cheaper it would get. Just a VERY rudimentary example, but conceptually I think there might be a similar impact.
My question wasnt to actually do it, but when gold goes up why are we not showing it as a assest? We show a debt as a country and all the talk about defalting as we go over the cliff. Well if we were going bankrupt as a person we would liquidate assests to pay debtors. Here we have a nation in debt and we dont even know our assests?
We know our assets we just don't freely and publically divulge them. I seriously doubt most individuals do that. We are also not going bankrupt. The fact is we are the dollar is the reserve currency of the world and USTBs are still considered the world's premier safe harbor. There are and will be for the foreseeable future lots of people willing to lend to the US based on the full faith and credit of the US federal government.
We know our assets we just don't freely and publically divulge them. I seriously doubt most individuals do that. We are also not going bankrupt. The fact is we are the dollar is the reserve currency of the world and USTBs are still considered the world's premier safe harbor. There are and will be for the foreseeable future lots of people willing to lend to the US based on the full faith and credit of the US federal government.
Then why all the debt bs when in reality we dont know if we are truly in debt? Our assests shouldnt be sold but somewhere we should show assests vs debt ie like a business.
Then why all the debt bs when in reality we dont know if we are truly in debt? Our assests shouldnt be sold but somewhere we should show assests vs debt ie like a business.
Because governments are not like businesses at all. We are in debt, but we are not bankrupt. Basically, it is a giant balancing of things and right now they are pretty balanced. Aside from that if the US paid off all of its debt it would probably do more harm then good to the world economy.
Instead of paying off debt by selling gold why not just give enough gold to our debters to oay them off?
Thats pretty much the same as selling it. Here is an ounce of gold, now you give us $1700, just subtract it from our negative balance with you. No cash changes hands but its a sale of gold still.
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No cash changes hands but its a sale of gold still.
