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No, if everyone had access to that much metal it wouldn't be precious. If only the US government has access to it then it's up to them how much gold costs sure

No, if everyone had access to that much metal it wouldn't be precious. If only the US government has access to it then it's up to them how much gold costs surely.

KRAKRISMOTT 3y ago
The Bretton Woods are calling, Kissinger is alive, time to revive the gold standard?
SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
> if only one party has access a resource, then it's up to them how much the resource costs. This is how the DeBeers diamond cartel works.
- dylan604 3y ago
  The banks looked at the DeBeers model with the inventory of homes they foreclosed on and said, hold my beer
  - hazmazlaz 3y ago
    Hold DeBeer.
imiric 3y ago
Which raises the chances of conflict over said metals. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. On one hand, a single country can't just flood the market with a valuable material. But at the same time it can't hoard it indefinitely, as other countries will want a piece of the pie.
- PaulHoule 3y ago
  See the self-titled story in the anthology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Element_79_(anthology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Element_79_(anthology) That story foreshadows the way many think the UK economy was saved in the 1980s by the discovery of oil in the North Sea. (As opposed to Margaret Thatcher.)
- bojo 3y ago
  > On one hand, a single country can't just flood the market with a valuable material. Why not? Seems like the start of the path to post-scarcity civilization. Once nothing has value and everyone has everything I'd say that's a win.
  - filoleg 3y ago
    > Why not? Because then it loses value. Think of it as if a publicly traded company just issued bajillions of shares onto the market. This is what dilution is, and the price of each individual share plummets, thus screwing over all existing shareholders. Normally, dilution is limited, but with this, i would be like issuing many times more shares than already exist on the market.
    - Larrikin 3y ago
      Shares in a company only have value because society assigns them value. If you hold them until the company no longer exists or go back in time before the company existed they are inherently worthless. If you have more gold than everyone on earth and you flood the market people can use it for any numerous uses that help humanity instead of making people rich. Science research is often hurt by the fact that materials like gold and diamonds have such high prices.
    - PaulHoule 3y ago
      It also depends on where the bottlenecks are. More platinum group metals and gold might not make a big difference on Earth. On the other hand decadbonization requires metals like nickel and cobalt as well as methods for producing steel that don’t release CO2 in the atmosphere. Trouble is it is still hard to be terrestrial sources.
    - bojo 3y ago
      I was trying to make a point about post-scarcity, but sure, let's continue to focus on capitalism I guess.
- david-gpu 3y ago
  > On one hand, a single country can't just flood the market with a valuable material Can you elaborate? A few centuries ago Spain extracted so much silver and gold from the American continent that the price of those precious metals suffered in consequence.
  - PaulHoule 3y ago
    … as far as China!
  - mikhailfranco 3y ago
    No, only silver, not gold. There is no Potosi of gold.
    - david-gpu 3y ago
      Thank you, I mistakenly believed that there had been substantial amounts of gold as well, but it appears like it was insignificant in comparison to the silver from Potosí.
      - woleium 3y ago
        Nonsense! I have it on good authority that Eldorado is just over that ridge. /s
- bequanna 3y ago
  Spain did exactly this as they brought back huge amounts of gold and silver from the new world!

No, if everyone had access to that much metal it wouldn't be precious. If only the US government has access to it then it's up to them how much gold costs surely.

KRAKRISMOTT 3y ago

The Bretton Woods are calling, Kissinger is alive, time to revive the gold standard?

SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago

> if only one party has access a resource, then it's up to them how much the resource costs. This is how the DeBeers diamond cartel works.

dylan604 3y ago
The banks looked at the DeBeers model with the inventory of homes they foreclosed on and said, hold my beer
- hazmazlaz 3y ago
  Hold DeBeer.

imiric 3y ago

Which raises the chances of conflict over said metals. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. On one hand, a single country can't just flood the market with a valuable material. But at the same time it can't hoard it indefinitely, as other countries will want a piece of the pie.

PaulHoule 3y ago
See the self-titled story in the anthology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Element_79_(anthology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Element_79_(anthology) That story foreshadows the way many think the UK economy was saved in the 1980s by the discovery of oil in the North Sea. (As opposed to Margaret Thatcher.)
bojo 3y ago
> On one hand, a single country can't just flood the market with a valuable material. Why not? Seems like the start of the path to post-scarcity civilization. Once nothing has value and everyone has everything I'd say that's a win.
- filoleg 3y ago
  > Why not? Because then it loses value. Think of it as if a publicly traded company just issued bajillions of shares onto the market. This is what dilution is, and the price of each individual share plummets, thus screwing over all existing shareholders. Normally, dilution is limited, but with this, i would be like issuing many times more shares than already exist on the market.
  - Larrikin 3y ago
    Shares in a company only have value because society assigns them value. If you hold them until the company no longer exists or go back in time before the company existed they are inherently worthless. If you have more gold than everyone on earth and you flood the market people can use it for any numerous uses that help humanity instead of making people rich. Science research is often hurt by the fact that materials like gold and diamonds have such high prices.
  - PaulHoule 3y ago
    It also depends on where the bottlenecks are. More platinum group metals and gold might not make a big difference on Earth. On the other hand decadbonization requires metals like nickel and cobalt as well as methods for producing steel that don’t release CO2 in the atmosphere. Trouble is it is still hard to be terrestrial sources.
  - bojo 3y ago
    I was trying to make a point about post-scarcity, but sure, let's continue to focus on capitalism I guess.
david-gpu 3y ago
> On one hand, a single country can't just flood the market with a valuable material Can you elaborate? A few centuries ago Spain extracted so much silver and gold from the American continent that the price of those precious metals suffered in consequence.
- PaulHoule 3y ago
  … as far as China!
- mikhailfranco 3y ago
  No, only silver, not gold. There is no Potosi of gold.
  - david-gpu 3y ago
    Thank you, I mistakenly believed that there had been substantial amounts of gold as well, but it appears like it was insignificant in comparison to the silver from Potosí.
    - woleium 3y ago
      Nonsense! I have it on good authority that Eldorado is just over that ridge. /s
bequanna 3y ago
Spain did exactly this as they brought back huge amounts of gold and silver from the new world!