Is there enough gold on planet earth to return the US to a gold standard for currency?

Answer 1

Yes.
Cheney and bush have it all buried in Paraguay.

Answer 2

I'm sure there is, but the issue is getting to it.

Just like oil, we have more than enough on the planet. The issue is how can we afford to dig to find it. At some point we hit diminishing returns, and the cost necessary to find it outweights the value of the resource itself.

If you mean quantity of gold already accessed, I'll be honest and say I don't know, but my guess would be that it's an economics issue, rather than a physical quantity issue.

Answer 3

Well of course not.

But it is not really the quantity of gold that is the problem, but how it grows. An economy could theoretically adapt to any amount of money at all, as long as we all magically accepted it and could price our goods in it. So 1 oz of gold could by an apple or airplane.

But as the economy grows, you need the money to grow as well. And that's why modern economies don't use gold, since it does not grow at the same rate as the economy. Using gold would result in deflation and stagnation of the economy. Until there was a gold discovery, then you would have an inflationary boom for a while then stagnation.

Gold is sort of good as a store of value - since you might think the quantity is fixed. But that is ironically it's problem at the same time.

Answer 4

Of course there is. Just devalue the dollar, if there's not X-dollars worth of gold. As excess dollars go out of circulation, the value of each dollar will rise.

The problem with returning to the gold standard, I think, is that national and international banks are so entangled with the global money system.

Besides, gold is worth so much now, it probably weighs less than dollars. So what's the benefit of carrying bills that represent gold? Just eliminate the dollar and use gold instead.

Answer 5

gold is 19th century way of doing monetary policy, and wont work today in the complex finanical world. Floating exchange rate is the best system in todays economy, and gold as used in the past creates bottlenecks in liquity because gold can never keep up with money supply, or the complexity of liquidity in the market. Im a working peons, but I know Ron Pauls thinking on finance will not work in the 21st century.

Answer 6

Very definitely, YES!

This is what Ron Paul says:

Myth #1
There isn't enough Gold.
"I find it amazing that economists can make a statement like this, for it's an elementary 'law' of economics that if one raises the price of a commodity, one will always have enough of that commodity.

What we saw in the run-up of Gold prices is in fact the raising of the price of Gold to match the depreciation of the dollar that has occurred, and still is occurring.

From The Ron Paul Money Book Published in 1991 page # 213.
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Answer 7

Gold standard is irrelevant today. Currencies are valued strictly by supply and demand. If more people want dollar, it will appreciate, if more people dump dollar it will fall.