Tailmon wrote:
Considering that our money is really worthless and has nothing to back it these days?
Investing in gold is never a bad idea. I'd rather be paid in gold than paper money any day.
Currently, gold is about $1500 per troy ounce. Globally, around 2000 tons of gold are produced a year. This would be 64,301,493 troy ounces.
1,500*64,301,493 = $96,452,239,500.
Right now, US GDP growth is at about 1.8%. The 2010 US GDP was 14.72 trillion. 1 percent of that is 147 billion.
Even with a growth rate at a record low, and gold at a record high, the global output of gold still wouldn't match the growth of our economy. So, to make it work, we'd have to set the value of gold ourselves rather than go by its intrinsic value.
Welcome to fiat currency.
edit: **** long division
Edited, May 5th 2011 2:27pm by Sweetums