Hilarity of the Day: China Telling US to Sell Gold To Balance Budget and Reduce Trade Deficit. Hahahahahaha...

Saw the link at Mish Shedlock's blogsite. The linked article (at Bloomberg) says:

The U.S. should cut its government spending and sell some gold reserves to balance its budget and fund its recovery, the People’s Daily overseas edition reported, citing Xia Bin, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China.

The U.S. has to resolve its “twin deficits” in the government budget and the current account, Xia was quoted as saying. Three ways that may help the U.S. achieve that target include reducing military expenses, selling part of its gold reserves and relaxing some export limits on technology, he said.

“The U.S. has more than 8,000 tons of gold reserves; why can’t it sell some of it since the country wants to raise funds for economic recovery but doesn’t want to add more burden to the fiscal deficit,” Xia told the newspaper. He didn’t mention whether China would be willing to purchase any gold from the U.S.

Well let's see.

The US is supposed to have 8,000 tons of gold.

1 ton equals 32,150 troy ounces.

8,000 tons equal 257,200,000 troy ounces.

With gold price at $1,360, that would be worth $349,792,000,000.

About $350 billion.

Do you know the budget deficit of the Obama government this year alone?

$1.3 trillion.

Do you know the national debt amount?

It is fast approaching $14 trillion, and that doesn't even count the unfunded obligations.

I don't think so, Mr. Xia. Selling gold wouldn't do a batsh-t to deficit reduction. As to the current account deficit, I know a good way to erase that deficit, and that is for the US to stop buying junks from your country.

Well, looking at the mob scenes on this Black Friday, I guess I'm just kidding myself...

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