Gold, How much is there?

T

taclander

Anyone with an idea of how much gold is out there in governments and private hands? How much is pulled out of the ground annually? Has there ever been talk of a gold production peak, ie we are not finding any new and will run out of sources in X amount of years?
I ask as I had an arguement/discussion with an econ professor at a dinner I was at about why a gold standard based economy is any different than the current basis for value of a dollar now. Isn't gold value simply a psychological, feel good concept? And that in turn drives a perceived value, real or not. Couldn't gold be compared to tulip bulbs? I haven't heard that gold is in finite supply, just that there are groups that hoard tremendous supplies of it as a fall back for their own piece of mind. Why not diamonds instead of gold? Or water which to me is potentially an infinitely more valueable commodity, and if you don't believe so just do some reading and look at various countries, states, communities that are battling for fresh water supplies currently. We have a huge battle in the Great Lakes region going on currently.
In other words, isn't gold value based on perceived value of gold and supply just the same as the dollar is based on perceived value and supply. Or is it the idea of having a fall back an extra feel good for the masses whether it is any more real than the current system. I would think gold based is open to manipulation as much as the current.
Gotta run for now, I hope for some good input.
Thanks
 
Here is another article about the supply and demand of silver. Just by looking at the graphs you can tell that silver should be worth more than it is right now.
 
Excerpt from:
http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Gold-reserves-China-needs-to-acquire-more-gold-18195-3-1.html dated 5/29/09


"The advanced economies in Europe and North America (here termed .advanced economies excluding Asian 54), hold most of the world.s official reserves of gold (20,541t out of a total of 29,602t) and that makes up a high share of their reserves (47.5%).

No other region holds more than 10% of their reserves in gold, with the Middle East next highest at 8.7%. If we look at it on a per capita basis, it is reasonably similar. The advanced economies (excluding the Asian 5) have vastly more official gold than any other region, at 26.4g per capita, with the Asian 5 next on 6.3g per capita and then the Middle East at 3.6g per capita. China has just 0.8g per capita, the world 4.5g."


btw: 1 troy ounce = 31.1034768g (grams)

btw: when was the last time "official" reserves (of any govt, exchange, or Intl financial institution) of gold (or silver) were audited? To prevent cheating, you can not ask the RCM. :eek:
 
Quote from peilthetraveler:

In 2008 about 75.7 million ounces of gold was pulled out of the ground. Gold production has actually been in a slight decline since 2005.

Its hard to find information that tells you how much gold is consumed in industry though. But here is an interesting article regarding silver and its relation to gold.

http://www.resourceinvestor.com/New...--The-World-s-Cumulative-Gold-and-Silver.aspx
More...
They definitely need to limit gold production to keep the price up because it will be hard to keep gold price up just based on fear and greed.

Perhaps some of these hedge fund managers can do this job better than what the Hunt brothers tried to do with silver. Paulson may yet succeed in cornering the market on gold with his hedge fund.

Diamond is another example of a commodity that is well hidden and supply limited by the De Beers company. They have also done a good job of increasing consumer demand for something that is basically crystalized carbon, another fairly abundant and otherwise not commercially important element (the type of large carat size diamond).

That is why you must heavily market gold coins and buillons to consumers to increase gold demand - you do this by encouraging hoarding of physical gold. In addition, also limit production, increase fear (a bit of fear mongering never hurt anyone) and greed (is good), in order to succed in catapulting gold prices to the next level.

Let's get going on this, hedge fund guys, you can do it.
 
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