As far as I know, 32 trillion is only the tip of the iceberg.

From the Guardian article:

It is estimated that more than $20tn acquired by wealthy individuals could lie in offshore accounts. The UK-controlled BVI has been the most successful among the mushrooming secrecy havens that cater for them.

It is highly likely that at least that amount of assets of US citizens is concealed in other jurisdictions. Diversify, diversify, diversify.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

I wonder what would happen if that money simply disappeared?  Erased from the books?  Gone forever?

The infamous "dark pools", much discussed on Zero Hedge, would evaporate. A light just went on above many, though whose assets correspond to which "dark pool" remains unclear. Consider that they are the monsters of the deep in our free (fair and balanced) markets for stocks, bonds and, especially, derivatives. We might see a reset of valuations on stock markets in particular.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

How ICIJ's Project Team Analyzed the Offshore Files

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' exploration of the secretive world of offshore companies and trusts began after a computer hard drive packed with corporate data and personal information and e-mails arrived in the mail.

Gerard Ryle, ICIJ's director, obtained the data trove as a result of his three-year investigation of Australia's Firepower scandal, a case involving offshore havens and corporate fraud.

The offshore information totaled more than 260 gigabytes of useful data. ICIJ's analysis of the hard drive showed that it held about 2.5 million files, including more than 2 million e-mails that help chart the offshore industry over a long period of explosive growth.  It is one of the biggest collections of leaked data ever gathered and analyzed by a team of investigative journalists.

The drive contained four large databases plus half a million text, PDF, spreadsheet, image and web files. Analysis by ICIJ's data experts showed that the data originated in 10 offshore jurisdictions, including the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and Singapore.  It included details of more than 122,000 offshore companies or trusts, nearly 12,000 intermediaries (agents or "introducers"), and about 130,000 records on the people and agents who run, own, benefit from or hide behind offshore companies.

Likely we are talking about a number of wealth holders in the low thousands world wide.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Could such a hoard be confiscated by a government?

Insofar as we are talking about financial instruments, this could only be done by or with the (at least implicit) consent of the issuing country or the country of residence of the debtor. Meaning that...

What sort of economic oddity would that be, a government in possession of a financial pile many times greater than the size of the world's largest economy?

... cannot happen. The (say) US government never has any US$, in the same way the referee at a football field never has any points: A US$ exists only when someone who is not the US owns it and the US government does not dispute the ownership.

The countries in which the banks are located could, however, erase this money from existence, by the simple expedient of blowing up the banks.

I wonder what would happen if that money simply disappeared?  Erased from the books?  Gone forever?

The only impact of any consequence would be that some of the 1 % would become unable to buy quite as many politicians as they currently do.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

why is it even there? Why don't the owners spend it? Get that new yacht you saw someone else using the other day. Invest in new technologies to make you even richer, more powerful, having an infinite lifespan, etc.

The only real use for that $$$ is to make sure that when the time comes, and it is definitely on its way, the guns will be protecting you and not pointed at you, and in that game, it will be a bidding war for the merc industries. Even the US Pentagon will be even MORE up for sale.

Such cheery thoughts on a Saturday AM.

They tried to assimilate me. They failed.