JohnF, know you have frequently posted along the lines of "Why do expats want to hold their savings in lira accounts when Turks don't do that?". I believe you to be right about this but wanted some statistical measure of how important it is to the economy. Similarly, I don't question your arithmetic on gold holding per head but I would suggest a different measure. If we assume children aren't the actual holders of gold, and nor - in many parts of the country - will women hold the wealth, I think a gold per household measure is more appropriate. There are about 20 million households in Turkey. So $300, 000 divided by 20 million = (I hope) $15,000 of gold per household on average. That does strike me as a really substantial wedge spread across the population.