RE:more simple mathoops used regular ounces not troy ounces.....difference is 31500, instead of 33000 ounces per tonne....so debt is a higher ratio than I calculated, but not by much...123 billion instead of 130 billion, so deficit of 600 billion is 4.9 times world annual production and all debt is 8 times production...
here's another interesting one....all world production ever, ie all gold known in existence, is about 182000 metric tonnes. This has a value today of US$7.4 trillion. Thus, the value of all gold ever mined amounts to 36 % of the US national debt (as given by today's debt clock reading). Since debt is accumulating faster than gold is being produced, this percentage is declining every year (assuming no change in the price of gold).
This means that as we go forward there is a bigger and bigger chasm between the realty of the debt being accumulated and the value of the currency it is borrowed in. However this is not reflected in any meaningful way in financial circles.....yet. Will it ever? One would think yes, but the question is when. I suppose that the impact of such a change would be so catastrophic as to not bare thinking about, and so it is not even entertained as a possibility. Nobody seems to care! In fact Trump talks about reduciing taxes, thereby lowering government income, while serious spending cuts are not happening.
If the price of gold hit 78000, the US could pay off its debt with the gold in Ft Knox.. Can we have that kind of inflation without higher interest rates?
Of course we can all ask , why compare debt to gold? Why not compare debt to the DJIA, or bitcoin, or silver, or the price of fish? An excellent point. The best reasons I can think of are that gold is truly global, it's a commodity (ie it is tangible), it has scarcity value (more so than silver), it has limited use (so its value is highly reflective of sentiment), and it doesn't really get destroyed once made. Gold is the parent waiting at home for the wayward teen to come home from a party. It is the standard that our finances are compared to. Without it the worlds' currencies could stay out all night and never have a hangover...