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President Obama's Debt, Measured in Gold
Townhall.com ^ | November 6, 2012 | Political Calculations

Posted on 11/06/2012 8:07:09 AM PST by Kaslin

How much gold would the U.S. Treasury have to pay out from the nation's bullion depository at Fort Knox to fully pay off the national debt of $16.222 trillion (as of 1 November 2012)?

Quick side note: That figure is some $5.595 trillion higher than the $10.627 trillion it was back on 20 January 2009, when Barack Obama was sworn into office.

To answer the question, we've updated our tool for converting cash into an equivalent value in gold! Now, in addition to figuring out how big a solid gold cube would have to be to correspond to a given amount of gold at current spot market prices, it will now figure out how many standard 20-feet long by 8.5 feet wide by 8.0 feet tall intermodal shipping containers would need to used to transport the gold to all the people to whom the government owes all that government-issued debt!

What we find when we plug in the numbers as of 1 November 2012 is that the entire national debt of the United States is the equivalent of a solid gold cube that is nearly 80 feet tall by 80 feet long by 80 feet wide. Transporting all that gold would require over 431 of those standard 20-foot long intermodal shipping containers.

For our tool click here.

The only problem with that is that all of the gold that has ever been mined on Planet Earth would only make a solid gold cube that is 66.1 feet high by 66.1 feet long by 66.1 feet wide, which would work out to fill just over 249 of those 20-foot standard shipping containers. Even if Fort Knox held all the gold in the world, the U.S. Treasury would still be more than 182 shipping containers short of being able to pay off the national debt in gold at today's spot prices.

President Obama's contribution of $5,595 billion to the U.S. national debt during his term in office through 1 November 2012 would be represented by a solid gold cube that is 55.7 feet high by 55.7 feet long by 55.7 feet wide, which would represent about 60% of all the gold that is known to exist in the world. It would take just over 149 standard shipping containers to hold all that gold if each container were completely filled with no air gaps.

Laid out end to end, those 149 standard shipping containers would be almost six-tenths of a mile in length. That's just over one-third of the length of the 431.5 shipping containers that would hold all the gold representing the United States' entire public debt outstanding.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: debt; gold; uscrisis

1 posted on 11/06/2012 8:07:13 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

How much gold is actually in Fort Knox?


2 posted on 11/06/2012 8:11:48 AM PST by Defiant (If there are infinite parallel universes, why Lord, am I living in the one with Obama as President?)
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To: Defiant

Not as much as people think. About 200 billion worth at today’s prices.


3 posted on 11/06/2012 8:14:55 AM PST by mnehring
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To: Defiant

Nothing.

It’s all yellowed tungsten.


4 posted on 11/06/2012 8:15:10 AM PST by Hardraade (http://junipersec.wordpress.com (I will fear no muslim))
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To: mnehring

Yeah, that will support the currency...not! But at least we still have our full faith and credit, right?


5 posted on 11/06/2012 8:16:58 AM PST by Defiant (If there are infinite parallel universes, why Lord, am I living in the one with Obama as President?)
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To: Defiant

Assuming it’s there, and assuming it’s not swapped, lent, pledged, pawned, hypothecated or re-hypotecated, about 2 to 3 months worth of government spending.


6 posted on 11/06/2012 8:17:06 AM PST by Freedom4US
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To: Defiant

They claim to have about 300 million ounces of Gold and 30 million ounces of Silver, enough to Give every American 1 ounce of Gold and one thin Silver Dime.


7 posted on 11/06/2012 8:23:23 AM PST by eyeamok
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To: Kaslin
I keep harping on it, but $6T is more than the U.S. spent for World War II -- every plane, ship, tank, gun, bullet, meal, uniform, and gallon of gas. In inflation adjusted terms, total spending for WWII was $4.1T.

Amazing.

8 posted on 11/06/2012 8:25:32 AM PST by cincinnati65
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To: Kaslin

maybe you don’t know about a 43 trillion$ lawsuit to go to the nation treasury....eric holder and timothy geitner are just several of the infamous defendants..

http://beforeitsnews.com/2012/2012/10/major-banks-govt-officials-target-of-43-trillion-dollar-lawsuit-2438918.html


9 posted on 11/06/2012 8:25:39 AM PST by freedommom
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To: eyeamok

Doesnt that make it impossible to return to a gold standard even if we wanted to? One quick trip to the window and it would all be gone.


10 posted on 11/06/2012 8:25:52 AM PST by Defiant (If there are infinite parallel universes, why Lord, am I living in the one with Obama as President?)
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To: Kaslin
I’m in Upstate NY. Voted a straight Republic ticket. It’s not ALL about the Presidency.

So if there are only 249 containers available and 431 containers are required, then, in dollar terms, gold should be worth $2,930.45 per ounce. At today's spot price of $1,693.30 per ounce, this looks like a buying opportunity to me.

11 posted on 11/06/2012 8:30:56 AM PST by immadashell
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To: Defiant

If you read G Edward Griffins book “The Creature from Jekyl Island” He lays out a pretty nice plan to do exactly this. Basically The Bankers become Bankrupt and the People become Solvent and FREE.


12 posted on 11/06/2012 8:35:18 AM PST by eyeamok
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To: immadashell
The quote should have been

Even if Fort Knox held all the gold in the world, the U.S. Treasury would still be more than 182 shipping containers short of being able to pay off the national debt in gold at today's spot prices

So if there are only 249 containers available and 431 containers are required, then, in dollar terms, gold should be worth $2,930.45 per ounce. At today's spot price of $1,693.30 per ounce, this looks like a buying opportunity to me.

Sorry, my bad.

13 posted on 11/06/2012 8:38:51 AM PST by immadashell
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To: Kaslin

bkmk


14 posted on 11/06/2012 8:50:25 AM PST by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: cincinnati65

Hah! What’s even more amazing is that the national debt was around 1 Trillion in 1980! The GOP and Dems have expanded the debt that fast just since then!!


15 posted on 11/06/2012 8:58:33 AM PST by Theoria (Romney is a Pyrrhic victory.)
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To: Kaslin

Inflation helps debtors, in this case the US federal government. Since Inauguration Day 2009, US federal debt in ounces of gold has DECREASED 23%. The losers have been savers.

Let’s look at the math:

SPOT GOLD $ PER OUNCE
January 20, 2009 : $853.25
November 7, 2012: $1,692.80
INcrease: $839.55, or 98.4%

US FEDERAL DEBT IN TRILLIONS
January 31, 2009: $10.632
November 1, 2012: $16.222
INcrease: $5.59, or 52.6%

US FEDERAL DEBT IN BILLIONS OF OUNCES OF GOLD:
January 2009: 12.46 billion ounces
November 2012: 9.58 billion ounces
DEcrease: 2.88 billion ounces, or 23.1%


16 posted on 11/06/2012 8:58:39 AM PST by Praxeologue
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