Gold is not something to get paid for by sitting on. Its hard core defensive. I have some, if I ever sell, it won't be for profit; it'll be because things have gone belly-up, and I need a reset on the other side of hell. Banks are seeing this too; a whole bunch of currencies are on teeter-totters right now, pushing hard to stay low enough to encourage exports, dancing to stay strong enough to buy fuel; problem with pushing low is that x/y goes to infinity as y->0, and infinity in this case is very, very bad. Gold gives you a constant "value" that can reset your 'y' exposure, and move purchasing power to a different z until things settle.
People trading gold daily aren't really doing that game, but they do keep things liquid for holders.
Agreed. I've got gold too. But why do people expect government to tie their currency to gold standard. Are you crazy?
When things go bad the government will confiscate all the nations gold and put it in a reserve, like FDR did in the 30's. Gold should be left entirely to private citizens. In India, the central bank has 397 tonnes of gold. That is the gold that was mostly confiscated from smugglers from time to time. But the private citizens own more than 13000 tonnes.
Take America for example. At last count the total gold reserves at fort knox was 147 million ounces. Also the price of oil in gold has historically been 8 to 10 barrels per ounce of gold. So 147 million ounces will buy you 1.47 billion barrels of oil. So considering your imports at 9 million barrels a day, all the gold in for knox will probably get you 163 days worth of oil imports. Most of these imports come from countries like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Mexico, Russia, Iraq, you get the picture. So if you want your gold back, you'll have to give these countries whatever they demand.
I have a feeling Gold standard is the dumbest thing to do for any country. Government should only rely on taxation and tariffs for their revenue. That's the only way a government can represent the interests of the public.