It has been pretty clear for a while already that countries are considering returning back to gold pegged currencies... It would save the world economy but kill US economy in the process. US government would need to sell all privatized oil to restore value of US dollar, essentially pegging the value of US Dollar to oil like the krone in Norway.
Countries all around the world must decide fast if they want to peg their currency to gold or another precious metal (or valuable) as people are pressuring governments for violation of constitutional protection of assets.
Word has it that the Chinese are working towards backing the yuan with gold. For the past 10 years or so, China has been stockpiling more and more gold. It reports that it has only a few thousand tons, but most observers assume that China holds about 3–5 times as much gold as it claims to hold.
Once China decides to do so, the US dollar will be toast. Burnt toast.
It is known fact that China never tells the whole truth... China is pretty much the leading country when it comes to world economy... Before US cancelled trade agreement with China, trade with China accounted about 20% of US economy...
Good point. Actually, most governments do not tell anything near the whole truth.
As for the US, it claims to have over 8 tons of gold, but its holding have not been audited in decades, and nobody can confirm that it actually still has those 8 tons. Many believe that most of the gold the US used to hold has in fact been lent out or sold, and that the actual US gold holdings are minimal.
Why would USA need gold as it has no value inside their own borders ;)
Every country needs gold, as their own fiat currency has only phantom value. Without gold, a country has no "real" money.
There hasn't been real money in decades... Even Norway, which is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, has own currency pegged to oil, not gold.