what is bernanke's game plan ?, page-6

Thanks Mike, Richard Russell is a very wise man, it pays to listen.

Whether you believe the US Fed has 8000 tonnes or not (I personally think they've accumulated much more than this in the past few decades), the fact remains there are 160,000 tonnes of bullion above-ground. At $5000 per oz this equates to $25 trillion, which starts to become significant next to global GDP of ~$50 trillion and public debt of $32 trillion. Gold could then repair a lot of balance sheets, whether held by governments, private banks or individuals.

(BTW, check out this global public debt clock courtesy of The Economist)
http://buttonwood.economist.com/content/gdc?source=features_box4

Furthermore, in 1935 the gold oil ratio was 35... gold $35 per oz and oil $1 per barrel. The same ratio with gold at $5000 would see oil at $143 bbl. Gold producers would become serious cash and dividend generators again. A blue chip like Newcrest would see its market cap rise from $17B into the hundreds of billions. The gold sector would dominate the stock indices. Serious wealth would be created (or transferred from the bubble FIRE economy) and one or two of the HC gold bugs would probably make the 200 rich-list.

Of course, before all this happening bullion needs to be redistributed (India, IMF, China, HK recalling its gold from London, Germany from America etc etc) and the big boys set. But I wouldn't rule out American bankers who are 10 steps ahead of everyone else IMO... Stewart Thompson wrote a thoughtful piece 12 months ago on this subject:

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/thomson_s/thomson_s_011409.html

Rowingboat