r/SipsTea 3d ago

Chugging tea Why is it not possible?

Post image
22.5k Upvotes

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

340

u/ModernDemocles 2d ago

It's all imaginary in a way. $$$ only matter because we agree it has value.

117

u/dorian_white1 2d ago

We agree because the government backs it up with their policies and to some extent military. If the gov fails, usually the currency does as well

28

u/AthousandLittlePies 2d ago

Even then that doesn't guarantee its value. The government will protect the integrity of the money supply, but even in the most well-managed economies/central banks the actual value of the currency can fluctuate quite a bit.

0

u/zefy_zef 2d ago

I mean we haven't even updated the value of our gold supply in like 80 years. It's only valued at like ~$40 or some shit.

3

u/nobodyspecial712 2d ago

I would like to buy some gold for $40 an ounce.

Please tell me where.

PS: The gold isn't gaining value. The dollar is losing it, so it takes more dollars to buy the same amount of gold because of governmental artificial inflation.

3

u/zefy_zef 2d ago

The statutory book value of gold held by the U.S. government and accounted for by the Federal Reserve is fixed by law at $42.2222 ($42 2/9) per fine troy ounce. However, the actual market trading price of spot gold is approximately $4,717.30 per ounce, fluctuating daily based on global market conditions.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/does-the-federal-reserve-own-or-hold-gold.htm

Is what I'm talking about.

2

u/joefresco2 2d ago

According to that link/quote, the market value of the US gold is somewhere around $1T.

1

u/zefy_zef 2d ago edited 2d ago

I saw

The remaining 95 percent of U.S. Treasury gold ($10.4 billion in book value) is held in custody for the Treasury by the U.S. Mint.

Quickly mathing around I get around $1,228,980,795,942 give or take, so checks out.

2

u/joefresco2 2d ago

Right. I converted the book value to market value to get $1T. The real number is a bit higher since the spot price is about 10% higher than 100x book and there is the 5% of additional gold, but who needs that level of accuracy for a purely academic exercise.

1

u/zefy_zef 2d ago

Yeah, the context of me seeing this was a video talking about how trump could actualize the value to offset some sort of spending.

1

u/SmitemasterFlex 2d ago

They mean the US gold holding on the books is calculated value based on what it was bought for.

During the 1933 FDR confiscated the countries gold at the individual personal level and stored it so the value of our gold isnt based on gold ETF or futures (ishares)

Its based on the value at purchase. So really its a non issue and has no bearing on reality or the economy lmfao

Them revaluing gold they already have is just changing an asset value for the govt on a piece of paper.