Warren Buffett once famously chided that all the gold in the world would form a cube of 67 feet (20 meters) on each side.

In doing so, he was attempting to argue that there was no point in owning gold since all the gold in the world would be an unproductive, useless hunk of metal.

What’s ironic (and completely lost on the venerable Mr. Buffett) is that you could make the same argument about the paper-based financial system.