If the US dollar stopped being backed by gold in the 70s, what has the gold in Fort Knox been used for over the past 50ish years?

Question

If the US dollar stopped being backed by gold in the 70s, what has the gold in Fort Knox been used for over the past 50ish years?

In: Economics

Answer 1

Just because currency isn’t backed by gold anymore doesn’t mean gold isn’t valuable by itself. As of 2018, there are 147,341,858.382 ounces of gold in Fort Knox, worth roughly $190 billion at the current price of gold. That’s $190 billion that belongs to the federal government.