Why can't the US just buy more gold

[pa33]

We keep hearing all these people speculating that the US gold reserves are low, and one day the "game will end" when they can't continue suppressing the gold price.

My question is, lets assume all of that is true. Then why can't the US simply print money and buy more gold to replenish its reserves? The Chinese are seemingly able to buy thousands of tons every year without driving up the price, so why can't the US do the same?

 

[Zippyjuan]

The dollar isn't backed by gold and we already have more gold reserves than anybody. Why do we need more? (they aren't "low"). If we bought more gold, we would have to borrow the money to do so.

 

[fr33]

Gold costs money. When your 17 trillion in debt, you can't buy your way out of it in gold and there isn't enough gold being mined to cover that debt. Probably not enough gold on the planet for it.

 

[oyarde]

The dollar isn't backed by gold and we already have more gold reserves than anybody. Why do we need more? (they aren't "low"). If we bought more gold, we would have to borrow the money to do so.

Why would borrowing stop them ??

 

[thoughtomator]

We keep hearing all these people speculating that the US gold reserves are low, and one day the "game will end" when they can't continue suppressing the gold price.

My question is, lets assume all of that is true. Then why can't the US simply print money and buy more gold to replenish its reserves? The Chinese are seemingly able to buy thousands of tons every year without driving up the price, so why can't the US do the same?

Doing so would add a lot of demand for actual physical gold, which would make the price shoot the moon, which in turn would expose that the central banks have already destroyed fiat currencies and we're just waiting to go Weimar.

 

[jim49er]

Why would borrowing stop them ??

Buy that paper GOLD .

 

[oyarde]

We keep hearing all these people speculating that the US gold reserves are low, and one day the "game will end" when they can't continue suppressing the gold price.

My question is, lets assume all of that is true. Then why can't the US simply print money and buy more gold to replenish its reserves? The Chinese are seemingly able to buy thousands of tons every year without driving up the price, so why can't the US do the same?

Zippy is correct , the dollar is backed by nothing other than blind faith . Lets move forward to reality .I will say a US fiver , since you can already buy nothing with a one.Soon , you will be able to buy nothing with a fiver , but wages will not be higher. You see , the US has a spending problem . This is also a problem that will not be corrected with the current Senate.Therefore further decline is in order.

 

[Zippyjuan]

An estimate from 2012 said that all of the gold in the world would be (at that time) worth about $10 trillion.
http://www.businessinsider.com/buffett-on-gold-2012-2

If we had all of this gold, what would we do with it? Let it sit in a pile doing nothing? (we already do that with what we have). What would be the purpose of storing more gold? Would that make us any better or worse off?

 

[Seraphim]

Because it would drive the price up very quickly and in the process piss the Chinese off, who are America's primary creditor. It's that simple.

 

[Acala]

An estimate from 2012 said that all of the gold in the world would be (at that time) worth about $10 trillion.
http://www.businessinsider.com/buffett-on-gold-2012-2

If we had all of this gold, what would we do with it? Let it sit in a pile doing nothing? (we already do that with what we have). What would be the purpose of storing more gold? Would that make us any better or worse off?

Agreed. Sitting on a pile of gold is the dream of a king or a banker or some other kind of miser. Allowing the market to remonetize gold and put it into circulation is the dream of those of us who want peace and prosperity for the world.

 

[pa33]

Doing so would add a lot of demand for actual physical gold, which would make the price shoot the moon, which in turn would expose that the central banks have already destroyed fiat currencies and we're just waiting to go Weimar.

This does not seem to be true since the Chinese buy thousands of tons every year without driving up the price.

 

[oyarde]

This does not seem to be true since the Chinese buy thousands of tons every year without driving up the price.

How many thousands of tons ?

 

[pmbug]

...
If we had all of this gold, what would we do with it? Let it sit in a pile doing nothing? (we already do that with what we have). What would be the purpose of storing more gold? Would that make us any better or worse off?

Central banks don't just sit on their gold. They use it for swap agreements and they also lease it into the market.

 

[oyarde]

I never could figure out leasing gold.....

 

[VBRonPaulFan]

An estimate from 2012 said that all of the gold in the world would be (at that time) worth about $10 trillion.
http://www.businessinsider.com/buffett-on-gold-2012-2

If we had all of this gold, what would we do with it? Let it sit in a pile doing nothing? (we already do that with what we have). What would be the purpose of storing more gold? Would that make us any better or worse off?

I know, right? Why would anyone want to have asset reserves? After all, it costs money to save things, so we obviously shouldn't be saving for the future

 

[pmbug]

Fun reading:

http://www.goldmoney.com/research/research-archive/finlands-gold

http://bullmarketthinking.com/mario-draghi-central-bankers-are-powerful-they-are-also-not-elected/

and of course:

 

[Zippyjuan]

Central banks don't just sit on their gold. They use it for swap agreements and they also lease it into the market.

The Fed can't do that. They don't own any gold. The US gold supply is owned by the Treasury.

 

[Carson]

We keep hearing all these people speculating that the US gold reserves are low, and one day the "game will end" when they can't continue suppressing the gold price.

My question is, lets assume all of that is true. Then why can't the US simply print money and buy more gold to replenish its reserves? The Chinese are seemingly able to buy thousands of tons every year without driving up the price, so why can't the US do the same?

The government doesn't have any money. When they get money to spend they don't have they do it by giving the central bank interest bearing bonds.

So it would be like you buying gold on your credit card. You may get lucky.

Mostly what happens though is the more money they counterfeit or put on their credit card things inflate.

Say they double the money supply. Sure your Uncle Phil gets twice as many of something worth half as much for his stocks or commodities like gold. He kind of keeps up with inflation...

until he pays his capital gains taxes on the illusion of a gain.

It would be the same with you on your credit card or the government and the bonds they issued. You'd on average keep up with inflation but them have the interest taking all the fun out of it...

and then on top of the interest, you would have to pay taxes on the illusion of a gain.

 

[oyarde]

The Fed can't do that. They don't own any gold. The US gold supply is owned by the Treasury.

How much you think is really there ?

 

[FindLiberty]

...since you can already buy nothing with a one. Soon, you will be able to buy nothing with a fiver...

Ah, but you are ignoring all the US coins: SBA$1, .50, .25, .10, .05 and .01 What the country needs next is the $500 and $1,000 fiat bills. That will do the trick 4sure...