[notaddicted]

A reason to hold gold instead of oil, bullets, bacon, or liquor is that gold is used to make jewelry. Since jewelry is purely a luxury, there isn't really some line that people cross where they have "enough jewelry", theoretically the appetite for gold is limitless ... at least when compared to our earthbound supplies.

[pedrocr]

The fraction of gold that's actually used (for jewelry or other industrial uses) is very very small. Gold's market value has everything to do with the perceived risk of holding currencies and basically nothing to do with supply and demand for it's actual uses. Hence why most of it is locked away in vaults, never to be used.

[notaddicted]

According to Wikipedia new gold production is consumed 50% by jewelry, 40% by investment, and 10% by industry. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Consumption)

[pedrocr]

Sure, but the value is over the total available, not the amount mined per year. I don't have the number now but I'm pretty sure most of the gold ever mined is today sitting in central bank vaults, we just keep mining small amounts to use as the central banks like to sit on their reserves.

[seanos]

The estimated worth of the gold in jewellery privately owned in India alone (mainly by housewives) is estimated to be worth $600 billion. To put that in perspective, total US gold reserves are valued at around $420 billion.

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/07/14/indias-600-bil...

[pedrocr]

That's very interesting. My hypothesis would be that even in that case the value Indians give to gold jewelry isn't just because they like shiny yellow metal, it's because they're using gold as a way to keep savings in a place where they don't trust the currency. In fact, from your article:

It’s in steel cupboards and in bank vaults across the country, where India’s housewives and other private owners have stashed their jewelry and gold savings.