Imagine if you could gather all gold on earth on one place and melt it down into a cube. If you did, you would get a gold cube with a height, length and width of 20.3 meters. In today's financial market this 20 meter golden cube is valued at a higher price then the entire GDP of China and India together. That is: a 20 meter cube of gold is worth more money than the value of all goods and services produces in China and India during one year!

The gold bubble

Estimated value of all gold in the world: 13x more than the stock value of Microsoft, Apple and Google together. Total gold value on earth ~ 9 500 billion US dollars.

Each year approximately 2200 metric tonnes of gold is produces in gold mines around the world. It is estimated that the total amount of gold ever produces on earth is equal to 162 000 metric tonnes. Gold has been produces since ancient times.

Gold is priced in troy ounces. One troy ounce equals 31.1 grams (32 troy ounces on a kilo). The total value of all gold on earth is equal to about $9 500 billion = 162 000 (metric tones) x 1000 (kilo per tonne) x 32 (troy ounces per kilo) x 1850 (US dollars per troy ounce gold).

$ 9 500 billion is almost equal to the GDP of Japan ($ 5 069 bn) and China ($ 4 984 bn) togheter. In fact, the value of all gold on earth is exceeds the combined GDP of China ($ 4 984 bn), India (1 235bn), Indonesia ($540 bn) and Saudi Arabia ($376 bn). Those countries have a population of 2 800 million people. And the gold would still be worth $ 2 300 billion more than the GDP of these 4 large countries.

Gold weighs 19.3 times more water. This means that 162 000 metric tonnes of gold can be stored on 8 400 cubic meters. 8 400 cubic meters is equal to a cube with a length of 20.3 meters.

This 20.3 golden metal cube is worth more than China, India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia together if measured versus GDP! It is also worth 45 x more than Microsoft, the worlds largest software producer.

A 20.3 meter cube fits into a ordinary large house. For a normal human being it is hard to understand how a metal cube of some 20 meters can be worth more than all goods and services produced in India, China and Indonesia during one year by some 2.8 billion people.

10 years ago, gold was valued at $ 250 per troy ounce. If gold falls back to that level, losses of $ 8 200billion would occur in products made of gold.