How much Gold did the Romans have - and where is it now?

YouTube ^ | December 7, 2022 | toldinstone

[Jumper]

Thanks for sharing.

[telescope115]

What would be an alternative to use as a standard? If gold is too volatile and our current “magic wand”standard is a sham, what vehicle could we use to place value on our money? It’s an interesting subject, I am not trying to be a smart ass.

[DannyTN]

I believe Fiat money backed by a large government such as the US, is the best there is.

You could use literally any commodity from sea shells to shiny metal or dull metal, but the underlying value is subject to inflation or deflation according to the laws and supply and demand. And supply can vary from over production to shortages if you can’t produce enough.

The official value is still the government’s word and the people’s faith in that.

Bottom line fiat currency is more manageable by a central bank and a government and provides for less economic disruption than does any commodity backed currency.

And the truth is, the moment you allow debt or loans of any type, then Congress can borrow way beyond it’s means and promise your children will pay it back in gold or platinum or oil or sea shells or whatever commodity you chose. So fiat money is actually far less dangerous.

With fiat currency, you can literally unprint money the same way you created it in the first place. It’s just that deflation tends to cause depressions as people start hoarding money, thinking it will go up in buying power. Mild inflation is actually good for the economy, because it’s a disincentive to hoarding cash and an incentive to invest to get a return greater than the inflation rate.

[telescope115]

Thanks for the Econ lesson! I probably learned this in high school, but that was 50 years ago. A little I remember, you explained it to where even I can understand it!🙂

[Robe]

Oak Island ?

[Robe]

Oak Island ?

[wildbill]

Gold of Tolosa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Boums lake
Boums Lake in Haute-Garonne, one of the many lakes near Toulouse suspected to have held the ‘cursed’ riches
The Gold of Tolosa (also the aurum Tolosanum) is the appellation used to refer to a semi-legendary treasure hoard seized by the ancient Roman proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio from the Volcae town of Tolosa, modern-day Toulouse.

Near-contemporary Cicero briefly mentioned it in his philosophical dialogue De Natura Deorum, referencing political scandal in the late Roman Republic with the line “Consider other judicial inquiries, the one in reference to the gold of Tolosa, and the one on the Jugurthine conspiracy...”[1] The treasure itself was discussed by several ancient historians, including Strabo and Cassius Dio. huge

[desertfreedom765]

Our Fiat money should be issued by the Treasury and not the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve should be audited and then done away with.

[DannyTN]

The Federal Reserve is audited by an independent auditor and the audits are online.

Federal Reserve System Audited Annual Financial Statements

The Treasury actually prints the cash. The Federal Reserve doesn't "print cash" but it does create money. Money is created every time a loan is created. Any bank in the system can and does "create money" by issuing loans.

The Federal Reserve is a banking system construct that enables the implementation of monetary policy. By law the Federal Reserve has 3 mandates: Full Employment, stable currency and moderate interest rates in that order.

And no, the Treasury should not be in charge of monetary policy. Do you really want Joe Biden or Obama delegating our monetary policy? ARE YOU INSANE!!! Be careful what you ask for.

The system as designed has worked amazingly well for the last 100 years. They tightened too much when they were new and caused the great depression. But they learned from their mistakes and we've not had a major depression since.

In the 1800's we had major deflationary depressions every 20 years, when we were on the gold standard. Oh and every time there was a crisis, Congress devalued the currency on the gold standard.

[crusher2013]

The Federal Reserve is audited? It is a private banking system and we don’t even know who owns it.

The only answer they will give is the member banks own it.

Does the FR buy securities? Does the FR loan money to foreign governments without congressional oversite? They won’t answer.

Yes, it would be better for the Treasury to issue the money.

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, it’s as likely as any other ‘explanation’ for the Oak Island ‘mystery’...

[SunkenCiv]

Toga! Toga! Toga! ...

[SunkenCiv]

I'd never heard of that one.

The Spanish pulled a LOT of gold, silver, and gems out of the ground (using slave labor for the most part), such that, when Sir Francis Drake went on his circumnavigation, he took some time out to plunder some Spanish ships.

When he returned to Britain, the value of the booty was sufficient to pay off the entire national debt (which means, QE I's debt), plus a nice fact profit, and in gratitude she gave him £10000. And the Spanish sent hundreds of treasures ships back to Spain.

The Spanish used their ready cash to buy what they needed from foreign sources, and never developed an educated population that could develop the Spanish economy. Lots of palaces, and the servants went home to their own servants.

There's a book about Stalin's demand for specie, it's called "Stalin's Silver", the sub carrying a fortune in silver to The Great Helmsman during WWII went down off Arabia somewhere. Still down there.

[SunkenCiv]

The Tyrians colonized Carthage around the time the Rome started to grow under Etruscan rule, so, no. The foundation story (Elissa, princess of Tyre, a.k.a. Dido, fled her murderous brother's rule) suggests a foundation date of late 9th c BC, but the earliest strata are Egyptian (!).

But Barry Fell reports that Columbus was the first post-1492 European to record evidence for Precolumbian contact. On one of the islands and old guy who used to be a young free-diver was wearing a necklace, and according to Columbus the amulet turned out to be an ancient coin from the Med.

[SunkenCiv]

Sabay was his real last name, and he’d survived cancer treatments, which is how he got the nickname chemo-Sabay.

[SunkenCiv]

Hell, if I had a fraction of the Roman gold, I’d probably not be doing this right now. ;^)

[SunkenCiv]

Used to be Byzantine gold coins were relatively cheap, because they are still plentiful. Or rather, were plentiful, I’d guess a lot of surplus were processed into numbered bars during the early years of gold as a commodity.

[SunkenCiv]

Dang.

[DannyTN]

Of course we know who owns it.

Its ownership is unique, being unlike any other corporation in America. It's all right there in the Federal Reserve Act that created it. If I recall correctly...

From an Accounting standpoint, the capitol stock is owned by member banks for which they get paid 5% on the amount contributed annually. Each member bank gets one vote in electing the board of directors for the district bank, no matter how large or small the bank is.

But most of the profits, those in excess of the 5% paid on the member bank's capitol stock gets paid every year to the US Treasury. The payments get announced every year.

From a control standpoint, each Federal Reserve District bank is controlled by a board of governors that is must be 1/3 from the banking industry elected by member banks, 1/3 from businesses served in the district elected by member banks, and 1/3 presidential appointees.

About the Fed

The Board of Governors are appointed by the President in staggered 14 year terms.

And if you want to know what types of securities are owned by the FED, go to page 5 of the 2020 combined report and look at the assets. A link to the audited financial statements was previously posted by me in this thread.

[bunkerhill7]