Yes, the US has a large pile of gold. I don't think it's much more than about half what you state, but undeniable, it is large. The value is also quite large if calculated at today's market prices. The same source of information will tell you that the Bank of Canada keeps about 3-1/2 ton or so of gold in reserve. Arguably, our currency has far outperformed the US dollar in relative terms over the past 10 years or so... as it was rising against other major world currencies while the US Dollar was falling. It obviously didn't do that on the basis of the amount of gold residing in the basement. That was the result of several years of austerity measures at the federal government level to bring spending under control... and much more to do with the amount of oil coming out of the ground in Alberta.
As far as keeping gold as a reserve against paper... there isn't really much compelling reason to get rid of it any more than there is reason to acquire it. I don't see too many central banks on gold buying sprees... The fact that Greece has floated the idea of selling theirs off to pay for some of their misdeeds is one of the reasons the price has taken a slide over the past week... so it could be argued that selling gold off into the commodity market would have a major negative on gold mining... and a resultant reduction in economic activity... quite contrary to the purposes of most central banks. So it sits, an assett to the treasure of some value... Perhaps to be needed some day to bail out a mess should there be a market for it.... but reality is that if that day comes, the only one who could afford to take gold would be someone who doesn't need it. It's just one of those things that goes with a mentality that's attracted to all things shiny. It still doesn't serve much real purpose other than for someone to say they have it and hold over someone who doesn't. Well... that and it's a great conductor in circuit boards.
While much time has been spent in this thread on condemning paper currency... mabey a better question would be... Why do you think gold has ~any~ real value? Given it's industrial uses are relatively small... why is it worth anything? Paper currencies have proven time and again that they support commerce on a daily basis. Why value gold?
My simple answer to that is this... you value gold because you ~think~ it's worth something. The same concept supports paper. Either will fail as a currency when sufficient numbers of people no longer believe in their value.
While I haven't gone and read the history of other failed currencies... I would tend to believe that their failure was more the result of political stability of the day (or the lack therof).
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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