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S&P Priced In Gold: Comparison Between The Great Depression And Now
For those looking at the recent moves in the gold chart with disenchanted amusement, here are some scenarios to ponder. Below are the recent cycles associated with the S&P priced in gold, where it can be seen that the ratio is once again climbing minutely to the upside, just below 0.96. That's fine, although as the chart demonstrates the lower low moves occur with greater frequency and greater downward momentum with each iteration.
Yet where this chart gets interesting is when it is recreated from the perspective of the 1930s. As can be seen, the recent lows in the ratio at around 0.9 are a joke compared to the nearly 0.2 achieved in 1932... just before FDR decided to make gold ownership illegal (and an implied gold price of over $5k in today's terms).
Are we at a point where the market's own voluntary establishment of a gold standard, or an alternative currency, is sufficient to see the "now" chart take the next decisive move in the ratio lower? And ignore the "stability" of Europe - it is all a scam predicated upon a systematic farce, and the very same conditions that caused spreads to blow out in May and June are still there - the only thing that has changed is how Europe deals with the symptoms: just like our Fed, the solution to all manifest symptoms is for them to be drowned in ever more money. Yet neither Europe, nor the US, has still addressed the actual cancer at the heart of the system which makes symptomatic breakouts all the more prevalent. And as the market once again realizes this simple truth, look for the SPX-gold relationship to take out recent lows. The only question as far as we are concerned: will Obama "learn" from the past, and do to gold what FDR did?
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I liked this honest header from reuters on kitco. Usually msm doesn't touch too much on option expiry as a price driver. No body to the story though
U.S. gold ends down 2 pct on option expiry, weak data
Now, compare it to the SP performance between 1967 and 1980, and ask yourself the question: If a depression happened and no one noticed it, did it really happen?
I think they called that one stagflation...so no, it didn't really happen. See, wordsmithing is really powerful. Now go back to work!... People are starting to catch on that your labor theory of value was financed by the oligarchs, what do you plan to do about it?
And the inflation was produced by what? Why would a depression result in inflation, not deflation, Uncle?
BTW, Uncle: If gold says the Great Stagflation was really an inflationary depression, but Federal Reserve Notes tell us it was a period of uniterrupted growth, which will you believe? And, why would the plutocracy want you to know about the discrepancy?
I want to pick my words carefully here....while it is true that FDR killed gold and spiked it to control/manage the depression, Homestack Mining, the stock did phenonmenally well in and during the depression. Up A LOT. I don't have the chart on this but if you go to the records you will see that a gold stock in the depression/deflation did well.
Watch out, or you will be accused by UncleFester of being a plutocrat for admitting that depressions lead to the outperformance of gold...
Sorry Charley,
Maybe you didn't catch my humor. Because unemployment rose at the same time inflation increased 1973-75, economists declared that the general period in question was somehow different from deflation and coined the term stagflation. Hence the sarcastic explaination that "there was a depression, but no one noticed" was entirely due to doublespeak or wordsmithing.
My second piece of humor was aimed not at you but at your avatar. Marx used the labor theory of value to "predict" that capitalism would give way to socialism then to communism (look around). However there is an alternate theory that Marx was financed by (and in league with) the plutocrats/oligarchs, and that his "prediction" was actually their stated plan for the world.
Yes, gold tends to outperform all else during a depression (including the 1970's) and no, you are not a plutocrat for admitting it...just astute.
DOH!
Whoa.
Tyler, might I be so bold as to ask what proxy you are using for the S&P 500 which did not exist as such in the 1920's-30's?
This should have been outlined in the post but I am genuinely curious. Did you just box up the 500 largest-cap stocks from that era (even though that's not precisely how S&P 500 is constructed)? I didn't think B-berg even had that kind of data. Does SPX<index> have some sort of backward looking extrapolation built into it - like the 1957 members projected 20 years back?
I was wondering as well.
Thanks for the charts. Kick ass.
As long as they don't take the alcohol away again, I'll be fine.
+ 80 proof!
CHARLES HUGH SMITH applies the principles of ecology and natural selection to evaluating the future of the U.S. financial system in Natural Selection, Finance and Extinction| Of Two Minds | (July 27, 2010)
“The current U.S. financial sector has been selected to reap enormous profits off a very narrow ecology of speculation, credit, risk and leverage. That parasitic specialization makes it highly vulnerable to extinction.”
Quote
Thus the Central State's political leaders are trying desperately to do the impossible: to limit the opportunities for profitable windfall exploitation without undermining the entire narrow financial ecology upon which all the sector's huge profits depend.
Exquisitely sensitive to the possibility that limiting the sources of profit--the shadow banking system, the leverage, the derivatives--might end up killing off the highly specialized species of finance which feeds their re-election campaigns, the politicos have engaged in a convoluted facsimile of reform which leaves the ecology open for exploitation by money-center and investment banks even as it attempts to rein in the most extreme exploitation.
But the foundation of the financial sector's gigantic profits are not broad--they are very narrow. The financial sector does not depend on the sprawling U.S. economy for most of its profits--it depends on a narrow slice of fecund financial territory that would wither under transparency and strict regulation.
The irony is that State manipulation and a studied lack of oversight enabled the blossoming of this highly specialized species of profit, and now State manipulation threatens to undermine it.
But Nature itself may foil the plans of both the supremely specialized financial sector and its State toadies. The financial sector is now so specialized and so dependent on dwindling sources of profit that even State manipulation cannot broaden its withering supply of financial fodder.
The financial system cannot go back to the slow-growth, unleveraged transparent financial environment and retain its vast profits. So as it clings to the dwindling ecology of leverage, risk and shadow banking, the system is selecting itself for extinction.
Given its parasitic, predatory nature and the little value it adds to the real economy, that extinction of the shadow banking system would be a highly positive prospect for everyone but the parasites themselves, who can always choose to become lower-paid bankers doing traditional, transparent low-profit banking.
http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html#jump
Interesting. But they'll probably just get the Environmental Protection Agency to declare them an 'Endangered Species' and devote untold zillions to ensure its survival, with penthouse suites designated as 'critical habitat.'
Save the Banksters!
I'm just wondering if it isn't just a question of plunder. The elite is now plundering the middle class and when that is done, they will just insinuate themselves into other venues, such as China, Brazil, etc. Perhaps that's why they feel the need for a new world order. It's just a question of finding another host. I think CHS would go along with this idea since he does talk about parasite-host relationships and uses "cui bono" as a guiding principle.
It's a one way trade forever, the same way it is with the volume correlation pointed out earlier. Buy gold, short stocks, short bonds, you can't lose. LMAO!!
Tyler,
Why didn't you use the DOW instead of the S&P. Aahh, I'm not sure if you were aware of this but the S&P wasn't around in the 30s.
Did you know that at the worst of the Depression 1oz of Gold was worth the Dow. And during Gold's peak in 1980 Gold and the Dow were 1 to 1.
Wouldn't that have more illustrative that your cryptic .SPYGLD b.s. that I have no idea what it means?
Eh... just hold on. Gold is long term insurance. The 2nd wave of the financial turmoil is about to hit probably starting August.
Don't know when but those loud market rumbles indicate it's close and Bernanke and company are as clueless as ever.
To the MOON Alice!
Gold is now down $100 from the peak it made last month, sentiment is nearly as bad as it was in late 2008 (some $400 +Dollars ago) and the commercial shorts seem to be sneaking their way out.
This morning on CNBC a guest was lamenting that something seemed to be wrong with the Gold market,..... ya think"?
He said that last quarter "retail investors" bought some 270+ tons of Gold yet the price went down so there must be something wrong.
Well, THERE IS!
Some day the financial press will have someone on that spills the beans and tells the truth. This guest was spouting about all of the "demand" that went into ETF's.
How foolish, disingenuous, lazy (if he really doesn't know) or just a Goddamn liar!
The ETF's cannot have bought everything they say they have and are simply a relief valve to steer physical demand into the paper toilet.
It would not even surprise me if some of this "long" capital from investors even found it's way to the "short side" of the market in our perverse world of fraud.
All of this so called demand that has entered ETF's, COMEX futures, LBMA storage (ha ha), and unallocated accounts at bullion banks (bullshit banks) does not take physical supply off the market.
What it has done is retarded what the real price rise would have been and has set up a situation where a panic of epic proportions will occur once the curtain is pulled back!
Can you imagine where the price of Gold will go once investors find out that their "insurance" that they believed they had turns out to have been a fraud from the moment they wrote their check?
How would you like to have been 300 miles inland from New Orleans as Katrina approached only to hear on the car radio that your insurance company declared bankruptcy that morning? You did everything you were supposed to do, cut the electricity and gas, boarded up the windows and had carried insurance (their Cadillac policy no less) with a "AAA" insurance company. You got up and left in plenty of time with a full tank of gas so you felt pretty good until...the bad news. Yep, you got scammed BIGTIME!
THIS is exactly what is and has been happening in the Gold market for years! You either own Gold and Silver and have them in your own hot little hands (or YOU deposited into an overseas safe deposit box) OR "you got squat"
I'm sorry to say. If the 100-1 fractional reserve estimate turns out to be true (I personally believe it may even be higher), the coming panic will be rivaled by no financial event in history!
My question above "can you imagine...how high the price will go" is unanswerable...by anyone!
I recently saw an article listing something like 72 market prognosticators forecasting $2,000+ up to $15,000 Gold in the future.
With all due respect to each and every one of them, I believe they are wrong!
We have NO IDEA of how much so called physical Gold that "doesn't" exist. We also have no concrete idea of how much paper really exists (can you wrap your mind around the number "QUADRILLION's"?...I can't), so how can anyone come up with a number?
Can you say "garbage in, garbage out"?
I go on the record here and say "Gold will go to a number that no one has forecast yet"! The number is potentially mind blowing! Don't get me wrong, I don't pretend to have a clue what the number is or even how many digits this number will have.
The only thing I do know is that the fiat system is mathematically broke which indicates that paper currencies will eventually approach ZERO.
Mathematically when a currency approaches zero, even a cup of coffee will approach INFINITY! So in cups of coffee terms Gold could approach "infinity times 1,000". It is for this very simple mathematical analysis that trying to put any number on Gold is an impossible task!
There, I said it, Gold is going to the Moon but we just don't know the distance to the Moon (let's just say it's pretty far)!
That said, anyone who sells their "in hand insurance" now or until the fraud is exposed is a fool and anyone shorting Gold is an idiot with a paper "dunce cap" on!
If you do not know for sure and verify that what you have is truly "Golden", you will get what you deserve and can forget about your Golden years!
I am sorry to have been so harsh in this piece but someone needs to tell it like it really is!
Bill H. @ LeMet
Thanks!
fofoa's most likely price is a breathtaking $55,000 / oz (non-inflated 2009 dollars).
I have learned a lot from fofoa, and many here at ZH also like him too.
Everyone who has children or otherwise cares about the future should own physical gold and have it in their hands / safe / back yard.
If guns are the backing for power in the world, Then whywould anyone think the quiet majority in the US don't hold all the cards? It's said it's not the size but the quality that matters, and gun holders in the US are some of the best I've met.
Gold is on the US balance sheet at $42 per ounce.
Simply mark it to market and you have cleaned up the worst of the mess.
As yourself why would any accountant not bring up that point and you will have your answer.
What about the ECB/euro's marked to market gold reserves, the most prominent asset on it's balance sheet - http://www.ecb.int/press/pr/wfs/2010/html/fs100707.en.html
My question is "ask yourself why" the US does not do the same.
Really wouldn't matter, as most of the assets on the books are held at "strange" values. Most of the national Park system is held for a pittance. Grand Tetons carried at $1, for example.
Debt service is not a function of asset valuations, as the sub-prime crisis showed. Debt service is a cash flow/liquidity problem. Mark the gold to infinity and it changes Naught.
Again, part of the reason that the balance sheet of the nation is flawed.
The market has tried to parse what the real value of 'merica is. It is getting harder and harder to justify the p/e, even taking into account the voodoo, never mind the ghost assets on the sheet.
Too many assumptions there....you don't know for sure...and since Ron Paul reports the Gold Commission checks 5% every year in person, on site I would think you're wrong.
Maybe Obama will use the same complexity that FDR used to revalue gold.
When Roosevelt told Morgenthau he was thinking of raising the price of gold by 21 cents, his entourage asked him why. "It's a lucky number," Roosevelt said. "Because it's three times seven." As Morgenthau later wrote, "If anybody knew how we really set the gold price through a combination of lucky numbers, etc., I think they would be frightened."
Rest assured, everything will be all right.
Don't panic.
Panic is your enemy.
Embrace the change, and you shall prosper.
Everything is all right.
Believe
Hope
Obey
Barack Hussein Obama is here.
THATS WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT HITLER.....IDIOT..YOU EMBRACE FEMA AND THE RUIN THE BANKERS WILL BRING..I WILL EMBRACE ONLY THE CONSTITUTION....MAN ARE THERE ALOT OF MORONS ON THE SITE TODAY..OR WHAT..I GUESS THEY SEE THE DOW UP..AND TELL THEMSELVES..ITS ALL GOOOOD NOW..BECAUSE OF THE DOW.....WAIT TILL THE JOBS REPORTS FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS COUPLED WITH HOUSING AND DEFICIT...THE DOW WILL GO DOWN LIKE NO OTHER...
Dear Zeitgeist,
How can you compare Obama to Hitler? Obama is superior to Hitler in so many ways.
Rest assured, you have nothing to fear from Obama.
Obama cares for Americans.
We understand that vast majority of Americans have been shattered by recent economic hardship. However, you should be careful not be swayed by opportuntists who wants to channel your anger to someone who is trying to do 'good'. Remember, Obama cares for all Americans.
We will get back to where we started in near future.
Believe in Hope. Believe in Obama. Believe in America.
America needs every citizen to work for change and to build a better future. Together, we can. With Obama, you can.
Thank you,
And let us build a better America!
http://thepostamericanpresidency.com/en/
Superbull,
Lets just say we don't see Obama in the same light.
Obama is a Marxist racist.
Alas! As any "Progressive" would tell you, apparently Obamatron does NOT care enough, because if he did, these problems would be solved! (Magically, I guess)
sarcasm off?
Apparently most here cannot see the sarcasm dripping from every word of SuperBull's posts, even with his nice avatar. Perception of one's surrounding is not as contagious as it is in NY.
zombo.com
Best website every on the intertubes.
How in the World (Wide Web) did you find this?
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 19:59
#491274
THATS WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT HITLER.....IDIOT..YOU EMBRACE FEMA AND THE RUIN THE BANKERS WILL BRING..I WILL EMBRACE ONLY THE CONSTITUTION....MAN ARE THERE ALOT OF MORONS ON THE SITE TODAY..OR WHAT..I GUESS THEY SEE THE DOW UP..AND TELL THEMSELVES..ITS ALL GOOOOD NOW..BECAUSE OF THE DOW.....WAIT TILL THE JOBS REPORTS FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS COUPLED WITH HOUSING AND DEFICIT...THE DOW WILL GO DOWN LIKE NO OTHER...
ZEITGEIST,
Go down like you do on little boys?
that fast or faster?
Bush ='s Obama ='s whoever you vote in next time... there is ZERO difference between them. Team Abortion getting ready to elect Palin?
What is Obama doing different than Bush? tell me.. line item and please source your "Feelings... whoooaaaaa. whooooooaaaa.. whooooooaaaa... Feelings!"
The Lobby owns all and until you get that thru that thick special needs helmet protected skull of yours... we all will be forced to ride the short bus to school with you.
So how do we dump them all .. and would those replacing the currents rats be any better or just less obvious about how they were financed?
crooks destroying america to benefit themselves
latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-0728-campaign-finance-20100727,0,4699988.story
latimes.com Republicans block campaign finance measureBy James Oliphant, Tribune Washington Bureau
2:11 PM PDT, July 27, 2010
advertisementWASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a vote on a bill that would force special-interest groups to disclose their donors when purchasing political ads, defeating an effort to impose new campaign finance regulations in advance of the November congressional elections.
As the Senate's 41 Republicans voted in unison to filibuster the bill, Democrats vowed to bring the legislation up again. "This fight will continue," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the bill's sponsor.
The result had been expected, as Democratic leaders failed to round up the necessary 60 votes to move the bill forward, and came a day after President Obama spoke in favor of the bill from the White House Rose Garden.
Even so, Democrats saw an opportunity to use the debate Tuesday to tie the GOP to corporate interests, which has emerged as a key election-year line of attack. "Make no mistake, with today's vote, we're picking sides," Schumer said on the floor.
Republicans, in turn, termed the bill a politically-motivated attempt to curb free-speech rights.
"This bill is about protecting incumbent Democrats from criticism ahead of this November's elections," said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate minority leader. "It's a transparent attempt to rig the fall elections."
The legislation, a form of which has already passed the House, was offered in response to a Supreme Court decision earlier this year, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, that erased federal limits on campaign expenditures for corporations, labor unions and interest groups. Limits still exist on the amount that corporations or individuals can directly contribute to campaigns.
As a result, companies, unions, and so-called "front" groups can freely spend millions of dollars on political advertisements without restraint until Election Day. The Senate bill, known as the DISCLOSE Act, would force issue groups to disclose their donors as well as require corporate chief executives to record messages saying they stand by their ads.
It also would bar government contractors, foreign-controlled corporations, or companies that received federal bailout funds from making campaign-related expenditures.
The bill contained an exemption crafted to benefit large, multi-state organizations, such as the National Rifle Association, a move that angered some Democrats, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Feinstein ultimately voted Tuesday to end the debate and move forward to a floor vote.
Joliphant@tribune.com
Copyright © 2010, Tribune Interactive
Why does Plato's cave come to mind when reading your post? Ah yes...the games children play. Are they playing rough here? I can't tell, so please let me know.
Wait! I've got a better idea. I think every pollie in DC should be required to wear their sponsors' logos on their pinstripe suits. Think Nascar! Include the shameless plugs on CNN and CNBC after they pass one of their sponsor-written bills to complete the image.
"I'd like to thank Halliburton, BP, and Boeing and all my sponsors for their support leading up to this thing. It was close there at the end and we didn't think we'd get the votes, but the Patton Boggs-Holland & Knight-BGR team did a great job prepping everyone on both sides of the eisle and we squeaked out a victory for America."
Sponsor logos! Great idea ... just post who supports who, with no exceptions ... the GOP problem with this was that a whole raft of liberal organizations were 'exempted' from reporting. If we focus on the Halliburton, BP, and Boeing we miss BAC, JPM, GS, etc. The banksters with a colluded FED are killing us.
Wasn't focusing on those three corps (or those three lobbyists), just using them in a general way. Nothing will get better until we end the Fed and restore money.
Unfortunately the USA hasn't won a war since the end of WWII. So much for military might.
Grenada?
B9K9 brings up a good point - the value of the U.S. military.
Why are the Zero Hysterics junking him?
1) You do realize that "realpolitik" refers to land, don't you? Not trying to be language police here, it's just something that annoys me.
2) History is littered with the bones of nations that built up powerful military forces that their economies could not sustain. The Soviet Union, the Sioux, the Romans, the Brits (several times), the French - I could go on and on. If you can't tempt some injit to go to school to learn how to steer your duperweapons, they are museum exhibits.
Don't forget the Spanish Empire, which bet much on an ultimately worthless Armada.
Or Constantinople, which believed in the security of thick walls.
Or Medieval China, which believed in its walled redoubts and organized armies as protection against the barbaric Mongols.
And on and on and on... hubris.
Land my ass....Bismarck is credited with "inventing" realpolitik. You don't need a wikipedia entry to define it. The ends justifies the means- PERIOD
Here's a prediction:
We seem to be due for a new, bigger and badder manufactured terrorist act in the near future. Whatever this event might be, I believe that one of it's main goals will be to initiate a media barrage associating precious metals ownership with financing terrorism. I know this has been a msm theme in the past, but it will be parroted much louder and further, inducing a rabid patriotic frenzy of gold hatred (the terrorist's money!). The goal being to convince the masses to sell their one asset which might eventually save their asses.
I don't believe that we will see confiscation, just villification. Gov't will come to the people's rescue by making further purchase very difficult through taxation, registration, and a law requiring the branding of all gold owners with a large scarlet G (except, of coarse, for the financial elite crowd who will be buying hand over fist),
Sponge,
There are already attempts to vilify and trivialize gold ownership. Think Soros suggesting gold as the ultimate bubble, think Ben saying he is puzzled by the gold rally.
Soros has disclosed owning $663 mil worth of gold and Ben, well who gives a fuck about him.
I'm thinking bigger, like freedom fries times a gabillion.
I agree they will say things like "the terrorists pay in gold and silver so their weapons purchases can't be traced" and they are already villifying gold dealers via the goldline/glenn beck proxy. If you own or buy PMs you must be a Glen Beck bot or something like that which means you also like Palin and Bachman yadda yadda.
Also you must be an elitist, wealthy, capitalist who doesn't care for the common man and such.
Silly, why would I trade my bullion for a few overpriced database entries that suggest ownership of some firm?
The breakup of the United State: Anyone post this article yet? Thoughts?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff328.html
Try: "Civil War Two, the coming breakup of America"
Available at America First Books
http://www.amfirstbooks.com/
Ben Davies on CNBC:
Despite gold's eight percent drop this past month, the commodity is still the world's "currency of first resort," Ben Davies, CEO of Hinde Capital, told CNBC.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232/?video=1552984313&play=1
He is right, of course. Gold underlies all the financial activity of importance.
Now is a good time to look at buying some physical for the stash.
Good technical article and some great graphs as well:
seem to be due for a new, bigger and badder manufactured terrorist act in the near future. Whatever this event might be, I believe that one of it's main goals will be to initiate a media barrage associating precious metals ownership with financing terrorism. I know this has been a msm theme in the past, but it will be parroted much louder and further, inducing a rabid patriotic frenzy of gold hatred (the terrorist's money!). The goal being to convince the masses to sell their one asset which might eventually save their asses.
not a chance...no way....never.
To the Moon, Alice,
Well said!
Just how clueless are these people? Here’s a little exercise to illustrate. Below is a series of graphs showing the Fed’s grasp of the economy over the past several years.
http://wallstreetexaminer.com/2010/07/26/the-fed-clueless-delusional-or-...
Dude.. if you're comparing this to the 1930s etc, shouldn't you be doing this with the Total Returns Index? I did a similar piece a month ago... though not with such a long-term perspective. But if there were long dividend paying periods, measuring the regular S&P 500 directly in Gold is kind of silly. How do the numbers stack up for the Total Returns Index?
Revaluing the world economy with gold as the unit of account isn't difficult. Assuming global GDP of about 60 trillion dollars and an IRR of 5%, the world's NPV would be about $1.2 quadrillion. Equating the NPV with the total amount of gold mined - about 120,000 tons - would value each (old) dollar at 1/(($1,200,000,000,000,000)/(120,000 tons * 31,250 oz/ton)) or 1/320,000,000 oz of gold. Which kind of dwarfs the concerns of longs with the recent $100 drop in gold. Except for those long with excessive leverage, of course. Leverage kills.
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&&sa=X&ei=ILRPTJqJN8T58Ab0zL2tAQ&ved=0CBQQBSgA&q=secret+of+oz&spell=1&fp=d02fdb297b7f62dd
Here Gold Bug... try to be more informed and less feelings? for the good of us all?! Seriously?! Please?! I said Please?!
One item to note: Your world economy numbers are due to a huge amount of leverage. To get to a baseline number some fractionalizing must be done. Therefore, the gold "price" would have to be adjusted down to meet that new adjusted total. Can you run those numbers for us as well?
Thanks in advance for your work.
FUCKING OUTSTANDING! Tyler!!
I love a good historical chart to review and considering that one is? how many years old, those guys would have killed to have real time charts! we are spoiled, and luving every minute of it! information wise, the world is still in the shitter.
are you scottish?
Revaluing the world economy with gold as the unit of account gives some perspective of where the gold price might go in terms of the current unit of account, the US dollar.
Assuming global GDP of about 60 trillion dollars and an IRR of 5%, the world's NPV would be about $1.2 quadrillion.
Valuing all assets in terms of gold involves comparing the NPV of world production to the existing stock of gold.
Equating NPV of world production with the total amount of gold ever mined - about 120,000 tons - would value each dollar at 1/(($1,200,000,000,000,000)/(120,000 tons * 31,250 oz/ton)) or 1/320,000,000 oz of gold.
This kind of dwarfs the concerns of longs over the recent $100 drop in gold. (Except for those long with excessive leverage, of course. Leverage kills).
The question is not if the revaluation in terms of real money will occur, but when. To think the owners of America have Clue One about how to get there is laughingly naive. They have lost control and the apparatus of state is running on acceleratingly expiring borrowed time. (It's an exponential thing).
The collapse of the greatest Ponzi scheme ever, the US dollar, can be delayed but it won't be denied.
The financial system will have to complete its current cycle of total collapse before a comprehensive reordering of the unit of account (money) takes place. No one knows the precise dimensions of the future but my money says gold will kill pixeldust.
The United States government is broke and the Fed is clueless. To protect the value of your assets, get physical gold while you still can, hide it and shut up about it. We are in what Jim Kunstler describes as a compressive deflationary contraction, aka, The Long Emergency.