Rickety

Mostly about Utah

Archives for December 2009

Central Bank Gold Reserves

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The Top Twelve Central Banks Gold Reserve Holdings

The Top Twelve Central Banks Gold Reserve Holdings

With China and India acquiring gold it is interesting to see that the United States still holds almost eight times the gold that China does and more than fourteen times India’s reserves.

Of note is that the United States has 78% of its foreign reserves in gold. Of the countries listed below only Greece (91.6%), Portugal (90.3%), and the Slovak Republic (83.3) have higher rates. However, China has only 1.8% of its foreign reserves in gold. India is looking a little better at 6%.

Only the top 50 countries by gold reserves are listed below. Of course the IMF and a few others are not countries but they do own substantial holdings.

Click on the column headers to sort.

Country Tons1 Percent2 $ Billion3
United States 8,966 78.3 313.80
Germany 3,762 69.5 131.66
IMF 3,546 N/A 124.13
Italy 2,703 66.1 94.59
France 2,701 73.0 94.55
China 1,162 1.8 40.66
Switzerland 1,147 37.1 40.13
Japan 843 2.1 29.52
Netherlands 675 61.4 23.63
Russia 592 4.0 20.71
India 615 6.0 21.52
ECB 553 18.3 19.34
Taiwan 467 3.8 16.34
Portugal 422 90.3 14.76
Venezuela 393 36.5 13.75
United Kingdom 342 17.9 11.97
Lebanon 316 26.8 11.07
Spain 310 39.0 10.86
Austria 309 56.3 10.80
Belgium 251 40.4 8.78
Algeria 191 3.4 6.70
Philippines 170 11.2 5.94
Libya 159 4.3 5.55
Saudi Arabia 158 11.9 5.52
Sweden 146 13.5 5.10
Singapore 140 2.1 4.92
South Africa 137 10.4 4.81
BIS 132 N/A 4.63
Turkey 128 4.9 4.48
Greece 124 91.6 4.34
Romania 114 8.1 4.00
Poland 114 4.8 3.97
Thailand 93 2.0 3.24
Australia 88 7.0 3.08
Kuwait 87 18.6 3.05
Egypt 83 6.3 2.92
Indonesia 81 3.8 2.82
Kazakhstan 80 10.6 2.80
Denmark 73 4.0 2.57
Pakistan 72 17.5 2.52
Argentina 60 3.4 2.11
Finland 54 17.7 1.89
Bulgaria 44 7.2 1.54
WAEMU 40 10.6 1.41
Malaysia 40 1.2 1.40
Peru 38 3.2 1.34
Brazil 37 0.5 1.30
Slovak Republic 35 83.3 1.23
Bolivia 31 10.4 1.09
Ukraine 29 3.1 1.03

Not all countries are listed.

Notes

1. 1 tonne = 1.10231131 short tons.
2. Percentage share in gold of total foreign reserves.
3. 1 short ton = 29,167 troy ounces. Worth is calculated at $1,200 per troy ounce.

Sources

“International Financial Statistics,” International Monetary Fund, 2009.
“Gold reserve“, Wikipedia.
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Mongolian Moments #5

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Mongolian Moments #5

I was raised in socialist England and Santa Claus was mostly referred to as Father Christmas. Father Christmas is used in many other English speaking countries. A similar figure with the same name (in other languages) exists in several other countries, including France (Père Noël), Spain (Papá Noel), Portugal (Pai Natal), Italy (Babbo Natale), and Romania (Moş Crăciun). In past centuries, the English Father Christmas was also known as Old Father Christmas, Sir Christmas, and Lord Christmas.

Since emigrating to the United States all I hear is Santa and I find most people unfamiliar with Father Christmas.

Click on comic strip for larger image. Created using Strip Generator. See all the comics on the Comics Page.
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Missionary Dan Email #6 from Choibalsan, Mongolia

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The house looks really comfortable. Thanks for sending pictures. I liked the comics too. Good job Dad :). Congratulations on losing weight too. That graph looks really fancy. I think I have gained a few pounds since I’ve been here, but there is really no way to tell.

Daniel wearing someone else's glasses.

Daniel wearing someone else's glasses.

Jargal Caikhan got baptized this Saturday. It was really good. He has been an investigator for quite some time. He is 12 years old and his aunt who he lives with is a returned missionary.

The church opened this week so we got to have church. The branch president forgot his paper when he went to announce newly arrived missionaries, so he didn’t even get close to saying my name right. It was funny. Later as I bore my testimony I said a little joke how Mongolians can’t say Willoughby at all. That made them laugh. I need to remember to record them trying to say it, it is funny. I have already met a lot of church members, so it didn’t seem like I was a new missionary in the branch. Church was really great; my other new member who is 60 years old received the Priesthood. That was a really good thing that happened and it made me happy.

We worked hard to find new investigators this week. We didn’t have much success until Sunday. I met a really nice person on the street earlier and he said we could come by. He talked to us for quite a while. He lives in the countryside though so we may not get to teach him that much. It is always exciting to find new investigators.

It’s not hard to deal with the cold really. You wear a coat and its fine. Later this month is when it really gets cold as the 9 nines starts. That will be fun, I’ll probably wear my bigger coat.

Well that’s all I have for this week. The computer’s USB isn’t working so I’ll send some pictures next week.

Love Elder Willoughby.

Daniel by the river in Choibalsan

Daniel by the river in Choibalsan


Presented have been portions of an email from Elder Daniel Willoughby serving in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission. If anyone wishes to send Daniel a message, write it in the comments and I will make sure he receives it.

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U.S., U.K. and Canadian LDS Church Membership

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LDS Church AlmanacThe complete updated membership statistics are available at United States LDS Membership.

Three days ago I updated the World LDS Membership Statistics using the Deseret News 2010 Church Almanac.

The membership numbers are interesting in tabular form where one can make comparisons. So to the world’s LDS membership’s sortable table I have added U.S. LDS Membership, U.K. LDS Membership Statistics, and Canadian LDS Membership sortable tables. As a bonus I include the change in membership from 1 January 2008 to 1 January 2009 that is not present in the Almanac.

By sorting on the U.S. Membership “Change” column I found that only one state, South Carolina, had a decrease in membership (-173). The three biggest increases came from Utah (34,054), Texas (8,822), and Idaho (7,337).

The largest LDS populations by percentage are in Utah (68%), Idaho (27%), and Wyoming (11.5%). The states with the most members are Utah (1,857,667), California (755,747), and Idaho (406,764). The District of Columbia has the least members (2,200), followed by Rhode Island (3,661), and Vermont (4,323). The most temples are in Utah (14), California (7), and Arizona (5). There are 18 states (including the District of Columbia) without temples.

Canada is interesting in that eight provinces lost members, led by British Columbia at -572. In the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland lost five members but the Kingdom as a whole gained 1,916.

There are many more permutations to be found. How many states do not have a mission? Which state has no stake? Where are the least number of wards? Which state has no branch? Try it.
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New Home In Layton

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Steven, Adelaide and Aurora's new home.

Steven, Adelaide and Aurora's new home.

If you are a friend of Steven and wonder why he has not been online much in the last two days here is the explanation. Steven and Adelaide have purchased a home in Layton. Jill and I helped them move in today a few hours after closing. Two of Steven’s brothers and two of his cousins were also heavily involved in the move. To unload the refrigerator two of Steven’s friends kindly assisted.

Steven and Adelaide are very deserving home owners having worked and saved hard for this day. We are all very happy for them.
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