OT. Ten percent.

[Windmill]

But if 60 million people owe about 20 thousand on average, that's a bit more than a trillion in total.

[Windmill]

10% compounded over about 7 years doubles your money. But at 1% it takes about a century to double. (So someone saving to buy a house can't expect much help from interest; they're going to have to save large amounts every month, or wait maybe 80 years, before they can pay cash for a house.)

[Tony Bryer]

He wasn't the only one:

2In November 1997 the then [Australian] Treasurer, Peter Costello, [Liberal = UK Conservative] shocked some people when he announced he'd signed off on the sale of $2 billion worth of Australian bullion. On the day he announced the sale the price was around $US306.00 an ounce. At the time, according to Mr Costello, gold "no longer plays a significant role in the international financial system ...

So here it was 1997 and Australia had sold two thirds of its gold assets in a single day, and sold into a buyer's market. While the sale helped pay down debts, the deal was to cost Australia billions of dollars in the long run. But at the time people were lining up to congratulate the Treasurer."

If you want to run this argument, you can argue that whoever was Chancellor in 1980 cost the UK billions by not flogging off all the UK's gold while it was around $800 a ounce, then buying it back at half this price a few years later. But as with all investments, it's obvious when to buy and when to sell ... in hindsight.

[bert]

Gold goes in cycles generally out of phase with share prices. Just look what happened after the credit crunch. The fact that your Treasurer was also a pillock along with thousands of your fellow countrymen doesn't alter the argument.