"Uncle Sam sitting on a goldmine"

As the value of gold approaches record high prices, it is good to know who holds the most gold around: The U.S. government. Currently, the government has 261.5 million of ounces in depositories around the nation. With gold selling at 1,100 dollars an ounce, this gold amounts to around 300 million dollars in inert metal. With a yearly deficit of nearly 1.7 trillion dollars, 300 billion would hardly make a difference in paying off the debt. So why keep the gold instead of selling it? Economist Judy Shelton says that if the U.S. sold the gold at today's prices, in raise in value in the future would be seen as an opportunity missed. Geithner doesn't want to be the Treasury Secretary who sells the gold for something less than it is worth in another time. Also, many countries are collecting gold in order to create a sense of financial security, so the gold the U.S. could sell would go straight to other countries. The one thing that I wonder the most about this article and this concept is the cost of actually holding all of the gold throughout the nation. For all we know, the cost to keep the gold up to this point in time (over all the years) might add up to an amount somewhat close to the actual worth of the gold. It seems that the only reason we are holding the gold is to say to other countries, "look, we have some too!" Article link here.