India buys 800 tonnes of gold every year (33 per cent of fresh production) whereas ‘the dumb central bankers around the world have been selling this precious metal for over two decades,’ says Anil Selarka in <b> ‘ Sub Prime Resolved ’ </b> (www.anilselarka.com). He computes the cumulative gold held by Indian households at over 20,000 tonnes, valued at $611 billions, or nearly 8 years of global annual gold production.
His suggestion, therefore, is that the US should deploy 0.5 per cent of its overall tax collections of $3 trillion to buy gold on a continuous basis. “The spending of say, $20 billion at from $600 per ounce downward, may fetch 1,100 tonnes of gold per year. In 10 years, whatever gold was lost in last 40 years since Nixon era will return to the Treasury to impart the real strength to the dollar.” Also, through tax breaks, encourage the Americans to save part of their income in gold, Selarka advises. “Make them realise that paper assets make a person pauper.”
Urging the US to make gold an active asset in liquidity adjustment, he reminds that Japanese T bills or notes with near-zero yield for over 16 years have lost value whereas gold with equally zero yield has risen 269 per cent. “If gold being non-interest bearing is a ‘dead asset,’ how come nearly zero-rate T bills and notes are suitable replacement? They are also dead assets.”
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Provoking thought.