International Man: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently declared that all US gold is "present and accounted for" and said the country's stockpile is now worth more than $1 trillion at current market prices.

What's your take on this?

Doug Casey: How does he know it's "present and accounted for"? There hasn't been an audit for many decades.

Assuming that the government has 265 million ounces of gold, as they say, it's worth over a trillion dollars at current gold prices.

Unfortunately, a trillion dollars doesn't go very far these days. The US Government is officially in debt for $40 trillion. It also has actuarial liabilities to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and contingent liabilities to various other insurance programs. They're said to add up to another $100 or $200 trillion. Giant numbers, but nebulous accounting.

There was a senator named Everett Dirksen in the 60s who once famously quipped, "A billion here, a billion there… pretty soon you're talking real money." Now we're talking trillions, and a trillion is a thousand billions. I suspect a lot of congress critters can't understand the arithmetic.

International Man: During the same interview, Bessent suggested that anyone holding an old gold or silver certificate could take it to Fort Knox and redeem it for the underlying metal.

What do you think about this?