Three Things I Learned Last Week

You are never too old to learn something new.  Hopefully, this will become a regular feature on BeeLine.  Three Things I Learned Last Week.

• The United States is reported to have 261.5 million ounces of gold in its vaults.  The tightest measure of the money supply is currency in circulation (greenback and coins) which totals $909.2 billion.  The broadest measure of the money supply is M2 (which includes all checking account and savings account deposits in addition to currency in circulation) which totals $8.764 billion.  If we went to a gold standard and had full backing of the dollar it would require a gold price of between $3,477 (only currency in circulation) and $33,514 (backing for all currency, demand and time deposits).
• Source: Early Warning Report, January, 2011 issue

• There are an estimated 80 million to 130 million Christians in China according to a report by Fox News.  This is a 100-fold increase since China became a Communist country in the late 1940's. 

• In New York City, bed bugs now are 250 times more resistant to standards pesticides than they are in Florida according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.  Lab tests indicate that the pesky creatures have evolved in such a way that they can survive insecticides up to thousand times greater than a lethal dose a decade ago.