four billion dollars in gold

 So, this news item in the Guardian this weekend caught my eye:

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US banking giant JPMorgan plans to deliver $4bn of gold bullion to New York this month, before an anticipated escalation of Donald Trump’s trade-rebalancing tariff moves planned for Saturday.

The US bank, the world’s biggest bullion dealer, said it would deliver the hefty raw material, weighed as 30m troy ounces of gold . . .  against contracts that will expire in February.

The delivery comes as the price of gold has surged to $2,813 per ounce, and the delivery notices are the second largest ever in bourse data going back to 1994, according to Bloomberg.

The outlet has also reported that tariff-war fears have made it profitable to fly silver into the US – a commodity that typically is transported by ship because it is considered too cheap and bulky to justify the costs.

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--And here I thought Smaug had a fabulous fortune.

I wonder how much a dragon considered enough to keep him respectable. 

Not to mention how much gold and silver Bilbo packed away in that pony's saddlebags.  

And what Gandalf did with his half of the treasure he and Bilbo lugged all the way back to Bag-End.

--John R.

--current reading: Tanith Lee, THE BIRTHGRAVE