can someone answer this?

[10001]

how much money is running the world at the moment?
or
how much money is circulating at any given time?

the figure does not have to be accurate.

Just a passing thought occurred to me today.

there are so many millionairs and billionares on this planet.

And we all know that about 10% of the population holds 90% of the worlds money.
Which means... in theory, 90% of the worlds money is basically not used. just kept some where, by the 10% of the people who owns it.

So... just how much money is being used to run countries and economies?

And why do we ' the ones with no savings, and 10 credit card bills.' just go on livng making these rich people just richer? and ... be treated as second class citizen, when we re the ones who make the economy go round.

just a thought...

i will be thinking of what to use my money for when i wke up tomorrow... or just use it without thinking.....

[TriangleMan]

And we all know that about 10% of the population holds 90% of the worlds money.
Which means... in theory, 90% of the worlds money is basically not used. just kept some where, by the 10% of the people who owns it.

So... just how much money is being used to run countries and economies?

You appear to be assuming that rich people just take that 90% and throw it into big vaults ala Scrooge McDuck. That is incorrect. Wealth is generally invested, whether in bank accounts, various types of investments, businesses and so forth. Bill Gates is the richest man but much of his wealth is due to his shareholdings in Microsoft. Warren Buffet's wealth is primarily shareholdings of Berkshire Hathaway. Some millionaires where you live probably have successful businesses that made them wealthy. Or own land. Or inherited fortunes including various investments. In other words most of the 90% is in the ecomony.

[Kerberos]

Futhermore money and wealth isn't exactly the same. If I took some money and burn it the world does not becaome poorer, it simply causes a bot of deflation (or smaller inflation).

[strathmeyer]

And we all know that about 10% of the population holds 90% of the worlds money.
Which means... in theory, 90% of the worlds money is basically not used. just kept some where, by the 10% of the people who owns it.

Even worse, think of this: 90% of the population hold 10% of the world's money. If we add this to the money that 10% of the population has, this equals 100%. OH MY GOODNESS 100% OF THE WORLD'S MONEY IS NOT BEING USED!

[slingblade]

And why do we ' the ones with no savings, and 10 credit card bills.' just go on livng making these rich people just richer? and ... be treated as second class citizen, when we re the ones who make the economy go round.

Some of us with no money also have no credit cards. Amazing, isn't it?
Some of us figure if we don't have any "real" money, we probably shouldn't be messing about with the plastic fake kind.

just a thought...

For instance, almost everything I have, I own. It isn't worth crap, but by golly, I own it.

I have only one debt: my student loans. I will never finish paying for them before I die. I thought an education was the one thing worth going into debt for, however.

Wrong again.

[balrog666]

400 trillion dollars.

An average of 30 trillion is exchanged every day.

[rtalman]

400 trillion dollars.

An average of 30 trillion is exchanged every day.
I don't doubt your figure, but do you have a source on this?

According to http://money.howstuffworks.com/question237.htm there is about 6 trillion in money in the U.S., which would only account for a small percentage of the worldwide total.

[Puppycow]

400 trillion dollars.

An average of 30 trillion is exchanged every day.

So if there are about 8 billion people that's an average of about $62,500.00 per person.

[Puppycow]

I don't doubt your figure, but do you have a source on this?

According to http://money.howstuffworks.com/question237.htm there is about 6 trillion in money in the U.S., which would only account for a small percentage of the worldwide total.

The 6 trillion figure given there is the total of cash, money in savings accounts, money market funds, and CDs (cash deposits, not compact discs). It doesn't include tangible and intangible property, stocks, etc.

My guess is that the 400 trillion figure was supposed to mean all forms of wealth in the world.
I searched for an answer, and I found this article (http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1965149,00.html) which gives the figure $125 trillion for "all the most significant components of household wealth, including financial assets and debts, land, buildings and other tangible property." So I wonder if there is $275 trillion in other categories, or if the $400 trillion figure is not right. I guess that doesn't include intellectual and other intangible property so maybe it is right.

[Thunder]

How do we create new money when, say, a house is bought for $100k, refurbished for $20k, and sold for $200k? Does the governmant constantly print new money? Boy I should read about the Dept. of the Treasury.

[Puppycow]

How do we create new money when, say, a house is bought for $100k, refurbished for $20k, and sold for $200k? Does the governmant constantly print new money?

The short answer is yes. Although only a small fraction of total wealth is in the form of cash money.

For the long answer: read about central banks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_banks).

Unusually, however, central banks in jurisdictions with fiat currencies may "create" new money to back its own liabilities, to theoretically unlimited amounts.

However, if they create too much it will cause inflation.

[Alt+F4]

How do we create new money when, say, a house is bought for $100k, refurbished for $20k, and sold for $200k? Does the governmant constantly print new money? Boy I should read about the Dept. of the Treasury.

In the U.S. it's the Federal Reserve Bank that controls the money supply. It can increase or decrease the amount of money in circulation by: buying and selling government securities, adjusting bank's reserve requirement and determining the prime rate.

[Beerina]

How do we create new money when, say, a house is bought for $100k, refurbished for $20k, and sold for $200k? Does the governmant constantly print new money? Boy I should read about the Dept. of the Treasury.

You aren't creating money. In a free society, people decide if something is worth it to buy, or not. If someone believes a $100,000 house plus $20,000 of improvements (and the effort made) is worth $200,000 to them, congratulations.

People create value thru effort, with the presmption they're doing something some other free person wishes to pay them for. They can, of course, do something nobody thinks is worth anything (such as some artists do), but whether that's really a value is open to debate.

[10001]

assuming 400 trillion is close enough, and 30 trillion is traded every day...

of the trillion... I wonder just how much is traded by the common people? and rich people?

I spose I should clasify the people group... which i hate to do...

common people: pays rent, goes to movies and have a dinner at a restaurant once a week. No savings... no debt.

common people B: pays rent, does all the things he/she wants. have at least one credit card debt.

poor people: third world, developing countries.
ultra poor: 4th world and above countries. drinks dirty water, starvation, gets help from world organisations for food.

common people C: students
common people C1: rich students

the others: rich people

who spends how much?