Gold Holdings By Country
We present another datapoint for the ultimately futile debate of what the true value of gold is, this one coming from the IMF's International Financial Statistics data. On the attached chart you can see the gold holdings in tonnes of the top 10 holders of gold in the world. Not surprisingly, the US is #1 with over eight thousand tonnes of official holdings. Following the US are Germany, the IMF, Italy and France.
The combined official holdings for all countries amounts to 30 thousand tonnes, which at today's spot value of $1,143 amount to $1.1 trillion.
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| All Gold Holdings.pdf | 704.21 KB |
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on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 16:56
#136371
For all those who think gold's value is imaginary; why does the US hold so much?
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:02
#136383
LOL - I'd like to see an audit done of those holdings. Somehting tells me a little slight of hand may have inflated those numbers (for everyone).
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:57
#136492
Nice point, there hasn't been a proper independent audit since the Eisenhower administration. Makes you really wonder how many gold the US government still owns.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:08
#136389
We're holding it for the owner, China.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:38
#136454
Gold held by the US at today's price comes to a valuation $328 billion. Our Federal deficit last month alone was $180 billion.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 19:51
#136677
you must mean so much tungsten?
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 01:40
#137018
Tungsten bitches. Everybody needs light bulbs!!!
I am not Chumbuwamba.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 20:04
#136694
This is complete, total B.S.
As others have pointed out, there's been no audit.
This is just the same as the AAA rated mortgage backed securities which turned out to be complete fraud.
People seem to have forgotten that completely, and are back to believing whatever numbers that are made up and put down on paper.
I think we'd be lucky to have a third of what's printed. And I wouldn't be surprised if it were only one tenth.
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 04:47
#137079
You betcha. I don't believe that most of the listed gold holdings actually exist anymore. Leased out and delivered to actual current owners over at least the past 15 years.
We will see what exists when someone [individual or central bank] puts in a buy order for "Any And All Gold For Immediate Delivery: At Your Price."
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 21:09
#136788
Because after Germany sent a battleship over here to cash in its federal notes into gold in 1970, and Britain cashed in its federal notes and transfered the gold to another depository a month later, Nixon took us off the gold standard. If gold is so precious and valuable, why is it on the books at $42 per oz?
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 02:20
#137041
France sent a ship, not Germany....
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:01
#136380
Make that graph per inhabitant and the number on will be Switzerland
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 00:14
#136976
Great part of that gold would be nazi-gold, stolen from countries like Belgium and the Netherlands and never returned by the Swiss [with a lot of help from the US, UK and France].
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:02
#136381
Although silver is not recognized as a
monetary metal by all countries it would
be nice to see the official numbers for
the treasury's silver holdings.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:04
#136386
That's easy:
0
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:04
#136387
Where are the Zionistas keeping theirs?
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:08
#136390
Amazing to think that Germanys gold is held by the US for safekeeping...
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:22
#136421
Did anyone ever confirm that they had asked for it back as reported by Jim Willie on Kitco.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:27
#136434
suckers!! hahaha
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 19:04
#136602
Former head of German military intelligence claims Germany has been under control by the US since 1949. According to him, this secret pact remains in force for another 90 years and is one of the reasons why German gold reserves are stored in the US.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 19:26
#136637
Yah, that $125 billion is really important to a country which produces $3 trillion in GDP every year.
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 07:48
#137112
Kinda odd right that such a large stash of gold is worth only $125 billion at the current POG? That's because the gold market is not a free market, it is heavily manipulated so we don't know the real value of gold.
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 06:59
#137101
If that's so then why would Germany back the euro, seemingly a direct threat to the dollar? Or is Deutsche Bundesbank not under US control?
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:09
#136394
The U.S. owns about $300 billion worth of gold. Our national debt is $12 trillion. We need to come up with another $11.7 trillion to pay off the bill. How much is the Liberty Bell worth? Yellowstone national park?
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:34
#136445
There was another website that had the ratio of Gold Holdings to Debt and Gold to GDP ratio. That would be interesting to see again.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:39
#136456
no silly, the nice federal reserve men will inflate the monetary base until they will magically come up with $12 trillion worth of gold...
and everybody will live happily ever after....... aaaaaaa
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:14
#136399
Are we sure these aren't tungsten holdings?
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:24
#136425
EXACTLY!!
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 18:32
#136554
that's the question i was going to ask!
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:16
#136409
is this all physicall gold?
is there anyway to find out how much physical gold is being held by non-government entities?
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:20
#136417
Gold is the substance that keeps currency issuers honest. THAT, in the end, is it's greatest value!! Bring back the Gold standard.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:26
#136431
Ohhhh it's coming, but not at all how you think it is.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:47
#136467
How don't we think?
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:57
#136486
Well I would assume by the posters language that moving to a gold standard would solve the general currency problem(crisis, insert choosen adjective, ect.). But taking a que from kudlows' piece on the dollar (hey I watched it on ZH!), the new flavor to solve the problem is a "...world wide currency co-operation, that is essentially tied to gold and commodities..."
In more or less words, your gold standard would be more of a gold/oil/food standard, and the currency would be a one world currency.
If that is what you were thinking the return to the gold standard would be, then kudos. But that is not the color of language I read from the post.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 18:08
#136510
I was "lucky" enough to see the entire Kudlow program. He wanted to know why we could not have a "commodities backed currency". Ha! I'm thinking, here we go again. Didn't we try that gold thingie some time ago? Where were you Kudlow?! Funny how people can reinvent the wheel when the going gets rough. Enough already! If we really have all that gold (good title), let's put it where our mouth (money/currency) is. Why else would be proudly report having that much gold on hand? Washington doesn't need any paper-weights.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 23:34
#136949
RR, it's important to remember when watching a show like The Kudlow Report, that there is literally thousands of man hours going into that 1hr episode (which is really only 30mins content), and they work very, very hard at making it seem "off the cuff", a diamond in the ruff... But nothing, and I will repeat NOTHING is over looked... which reminds me, did you see the photoshop fail of Demi Moore? (Kutcher?!!? whatever...)
My point is, little phrases are farrrrrrr less "random" then they would have you believe. I have posted this vid before, but I think it's a must see for anyone who wants to understand how they have been deceived and programed by the corporations.
Remember Sigmund Freud, well he had a nephew, his name was Eward Bernays. Bernays is credited with re-coining the term propaganda into public relations. Possibly the most influential person in your life today, that you may never have heard of; at least I hadn't before I saw this vid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
The Century of Self : Happiness Machines part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUYFr-uDQgg
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 23:57
#136965
That's all well and good. I was just pointing out that any positive spin on gold (or any other commodity) as a dollar platform is out of character for Kudlow's conservative (not libertarian) philosophy. [Side note: Interesting video series.]
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 00:40
#136993
"I was just pointing out that any positive spin on gold (or any other commodity) as a dollar platform is out of character for Kudlow's conservative (not libertarian) philosophy."
right, I'm just saying, out of character though it maybe, it is by design, and that is what I find interesting.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:30
#136439
Gold dissolves in mercury.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:47
#136465
Then you can separate it by destillation.
Please collect the fumes, mercury is toxic.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 18:21
#136536
aqua regia!
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:35
#136447
When was the last time this gold was physically audited ... and apparently much of the US gold is NOT 24k.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:37
#136453
Where were the ETFs?
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:48
#136469
I would like to buy Credit default on US that it will default to pay back germany holding.....lolzzzzz
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:50
#136470
total world gold 150,000 mt, total world GDP 60trln, total US monetary base 8trln so at about 10,000 (give and take +/- 1,000) per troy oz we should be fine to use gold as world reserve currency. At this level we should be able to cover world GDP with world gold and US monetary base with US gold. If gold gets above 10,000 per troy oz is irrational exuberance and time to sell
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 01:24
#137014
That would be a hell of a lot of monetization if that is true.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:51
#136474
Now when we say 'Gold' holdings, right, you said 'Gold', so when we say 'Gold' holdings, you know, "Gold" ..holdings..then are we to infer that what you actually mean is the metal Gold or some standard of sorts by which we can measure the relative worth of items because factually, we've determined that it's acceptable to simply define a standard of sorts by means of "Gold" ...so that's what I mean when I say 'Gold Holdings' so I accept that that's what you mean when you say 'Gold Holdings' although I accept that it might in fact be different on some procedural level going forward.
*takes sip of water*
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:53
#136483
Total eurozone reaches nearly 10800 tonnes...
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 17:57
#136491
I believe that in 1963 there was an attempt to irradiate our entire supply of gold with a small atomic weapon, and that this plot was only thwarted by the amazing efforts of a single member of British Intelligence. Soon after that, Nixon took us off the gold standard because he didn't want America to be at the mercy of such international criminals again. In his own prescient way, Nixon could see that you didn't want to use anything whose value could so easily be destroyed used as the basis for a country's wealth.
Thus, it is easy to see why all of our gold in Fort Knox was secretly replaced by gold-painted lead bars and then sold off to China in exchange for Darth Vader keyrings and "I'm With Stupid ===>" T-shirts.
JTS
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 20:09
#136704
+1 humor
That was enjoyably funny.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 21:58
#136865
If it was our Govt, it would be "I'm with Squid===>" T-shirts.
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 01:39
#137019
Happy meal toys!!!! Worth thier weight in GOLD.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 19:29
#136641
http://www.treas.gov/tic/mfh.txt
As of Sep 2009 China holds about 800 billion of our treasury toilet paper bonds. If we give them all of our gold, it's still not enough to pay off our debt to them.
This is what I suggest we do. Sell Alaska to China. This has come up before. I think they'll be willing to buy Alaska for one trillion dollars.
George Orwell
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 20:03
#136693
That'd be a better idea if Palin was still govenor.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 20:12
#136712
I thought it was more like $2 Trillion.
In any case, wait a year, and sell them New Orleans.
I was going to say Washington D.C., but they already are joint tenants in ownership there along with Goldman Sachs.
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 04:21
#137076
Alaska ouh, give finally Taiwan to them
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 19:45
#136662
8000 tons of gold plated tungsten!
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 20:40
#136753
one more arrow in the quiver for the long dollar trade. so, when to launch that first arrow...
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 20:59
#136780
Don't you just love trend investors. The chasers of the leading pack, the last to get in.
If you own gold stock in a company that has a majority of its assets in a country that you would never live in, you better sell it.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 21:14
#136798
Only 8155 tons eh? I wonder how much more gold the US Gov. will have after the invoke the fine print in the Homeland Security Act.
The fine print that allows the US Gov. to seize all safety deposit boxes in the USA and retain ownership of all contents for it's own use and purpose.
I know where to NOT keep your gold!!!
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 21:47
#136843
you guys have it all wrong. lets stay true to form, and sell them the phillipines.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 22:00
#136867
Awe shucks, India didn't make the list?
Run Gold Bugs, Run! The margin man is coming!!!
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 22:07
#136874
Oh I'm sorry did I forget to mention U.S. holdings are pyrite?
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 22:39
#136897
So all Greece and Portugal have to do is buy another 10%, go to a strict gold exchange standard, adopt tax haven secrecy and taxation policies and let the rest of the world's wealth beat their doors down.
on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 22:49
#136915
Zero Hedge: The contention that gold cannot be ascribed a value IS NOT DEFENSIBLE on the basis of various countries' extent of gold-backed currencies. A non sequitur.
Is there any expectation that all the world's currencies shall be backed by gold--if there were, you would have had an argument. Besides, if there were to be any backing, why only gold? Not also oil, iron ore, wheat, rice?
For hundreds of years--until London bullionists usurped the crown's prerogative to coin currency--the relative value of gold to silver and others was set by those powers that controlled the stock of gold, and that value was set by FIAT. In Rome, Julius Caesar set it at 12-1, Vespasian at 16-1, eventually at millions-1; the US set it at 16.1-1, etc
Just as the value of gold is arbitrary, its price is quite clear through the ages, and measured neither in terms of fiat paper (as you suggest) nor in terms of silver (as past powers did), but in terms of the human freedom/dignity denied to conquered peoples enslaved to work on mines past, as well as in terms of the environmental and community integrity destroyed by today's mining giants.
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 01:31
#137017
I remember reading that Timmy Geithner had already told the chinese that he would have no problem with IMF special drawing rights (SDR) replacing the dollar as the reserve currency. If you look at SDRs, its a basket of fiat currencies with a small percentage of gold.
If or when SDRs become the reserve currency, in my mind the world is again on a gold standard. Even though gold is a small percentage, it is like mixing water and oil. It's like the IMF is taking a large barrel, and saying that each country can add so much water to the barrel and the water represents the value country's currency. The IMF then takes this barrel of water and adds a drop of black dye to the water. Well that black dye is gold, which will stain all fiat currencies.
I read today some news reports, which are trying to downplay the possibility of SDRs replacing the dollar. So, someone must be trying to take down gold.
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 08:13
#137125
We really should have other backings such as drinking water, sugarcane, coffee, soy, orange juice, rainforest and caipirinhas. You know what I mean? lol
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 00:53
#137002
Indian citizenry holds 25,000 tons
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 04:16
#137074
US Gold holdings are more likely zero.
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 08:48
#137148
"sleight" of hand
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 09:05
#137160
See ML Global Fund Manager Survey: Goldilocks with a small "g"
http://www.slideshare.net/guestb72f91/ml-global-fund-manager-survey-goldilocks-with-a-small-g
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 11:16
#137331
My understanding is that if you count the overall amount help within the physical borders of a country, India is #1; if you count official state held amount, US wins.
on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 11:39
#137379
Anyone by chance been tracking the price of Goldschläger? Remember, biggest night out of the year is the night before Thanksgiving...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldschl%C3%A4ger
on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 01:13
#139103
And when last was the US claimed gold holdings audited?
Does Tungsten count as gold holdings?
What's the figure when you subtract the gold that has been 'leased'? (i.e. sold and owed back to the central bank)
How much of Germany's holdings are physically in Germany? Likely very little - it's been sold by America.