GOLD COMPARED WITH TRADABLE GOVERNMENT BONDS
The table below displays the size of the national bond markets of various countries and includes the size of the gold market. The data is as of March 31, 2013, when the price of gold was higher. Today’s gold number would be much lower.
Table 5: Size of the Market in Tradable Gov’t Bonds (in billions of USD)
| Switzerland | $134 |
| Australia | 460 |
| Denmark | 593 |
| Canada | 1,134 |
| China | 180 |
| United Kingdom | 1,524 |
| Eurozone | 9,314 |
| United States* | 10,521 |
| Japan | 12,143 |
| Gold | 3,437 |
*Excludes agencies, central bank holdings, Soc. Security Trust, etc.
Source: World Gold Council
The table includes Switzerland, Australia, Denmark, Canada, the People’s Republic of China, the U.K., the Eurozone—which are all the nations denominated in the euro—the United States, and Japan, measured by the market value of their tradable bonds. In this context, for the U.S., the term ‘tradable bonds’ excludes central bank holdings of Treasuries and Treasury holdings by institutions like the Social Security trust fund and others. It includes only the bonds that are tradable, so it is a lower number than the value of the U.S. debt.
Continue reading here.
