The European Central Bank's printing press is the only thing left to provide glitter, cheap illusions, stock market and real estate bubbles that will turn heads but will only last a short time. An ECB that will also hold at arm's length a banking sector burdened with bad debts... Our economy is definitely confined.

This deluge of liquidity with no counterpart in the real economy produces bubbles (shares, real estate in particular), crashes, and eventually a bubble on all prices, i.e. inflation, then hyperinflation if things really get out of hand.

It is spending at all costs that will be necessary in Italy, less to revive the economy (the aid plans have a limited real effect) than to save a very fragile banking system. Christine Lagarde won't find anything to complain about, so we can be sure that the ECB's printing press will continue to run at full speed.

With zero interest rates, the government has locked savers into a trap from which it is difficult to escape, but it is to its advantage, since it can finance its budget deficit at a lower cost. How does it do this? We must begin by asking the question: Why do banks and insurers buy debt that brings them little or nothing in return?

Gold, for its part, has an unrivalled track record in this category, it is simply number one. This is the best way to "flee" from money without going to an asset in a bubble situation, and thus risking collapse. It remains by far the best way to preserve the purchasing power of capital in the long term, and to escape the "invisible tax" that weighs on all savers.

CBDCs are part of a plan to eliminate cash: make it useless and then ban it. And when all our money exists in digital form, we will no longer be able to escape a negative rate of -0.5%, -1%, etc. (who knows where it will end), which will erode our savings.

As can be seen, public debt is found in the accounts of the ECB, either directly (by acquisition) or indirectly (as a guarantee of liquidity lent to banks). The snake bites its tail, the public deficit is financed almost entirely by the central bank: the money supply explodes, the spectre of inflation approaches, etc.

Is the French budgetary situation recoverable? Les Echos tells us that in 2020 and in 2121, the government will be financed as much by debt as by taxes, and the amount of debt issuances will be as high as tax revenues.

Governments can limit the number of bankruptcies by distributing money to companies and paying unemployed workers, with euros printed by the European Central Bank, but this "sovietization" of the economy only postpones the deadline, and it can also lead to a wave of hyperinflation that would ruin everyone- companies and savers alike.

Perhaps we will return to the gold standard... Will it then be necessary to bring back gold in exchange for banknotes? No, we won't be fooled twice. We'll have to keep our gold, we'll have to maintain, at least in part, its decentralized form to preserve its value, and to guarantee our freedom.

Are we witnessing a movement of European bank mergers? Rumors have been circulating for several years about a merger between Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank or with BNP Paribas, between Société Générale and Unicredit, but nothing has happened so far. But lately several mergers have taken place.

The main factor is the distrust of currencies; central banks are running their money printing presses at full speed, whereas with the recession due to the coronavirus, the production of real goods is falling. In this case, what is money worth? What are the major currencies, the dollar, the euro, the yen, the yuan, worth? Investors refer to gold, the ancient currency, the currency of trust, which nobody can print.

The ECB is substituting for the market. It's simpler that way, no need to convince investors, you print money and it's done. In this scenario, we are de facto witnessing the merger of the Treasury and the Central Bank: the financing of the government's deficit is directly connected to the printing press, money creation is in free flow.

Even the central banks are looking at the return of inflation, that's who should alert all savers and investors around the world. As a reminder, central banks were created in the 19th and early 20th centuries (for the Fed) in order to guarantee the value of the currency, i.e. to combat against price gouging.

I mean, what if the debt wasn't serious? What if the explosion of its amount all over the world since the coronavirus crisis had no harmful consequences? What if we could even get rid of some of it without incurring any damage? This is the little tune we hear from those who want more and more public spending, who believe that only public spending can get us out of the rut, that we have to keep printing money.

To the question that some will inevitably ask ("Isn't it too late to buy gold?"), the answer is clearly no. It is even becoming urgent in the face of the risk of mistrust towards currencies brought about by the crazy policies of central banks.

After several days of negotiations, the twenty-seven leaders of the European Union have finally reached an agreement on a €750 billion recovery plan, comprising €390 billion in grants and €360 billion in loans.

As the Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw said: "You have to choose between trusting to the natural stability of gold and the natural stability of the honesty and intelligence of the members of the government. And, with due respect for these gentlemen, I advise you, to vote for gold”.

By rolling over the debt of ailing banks (new loans to pay off old ones), the ECB is giving them a very bad habit, namely that of governments with perpetual deficits, which are thus exempting themselves from any budgetary effort. What is the point of cleaning up one's balance sheet if the ECB graciously provides the necessary liquidity? The intrinsic situation of the large European banks is therefore not going to improve, at the greatest risk to savers...

To what extent will European banks withstand the current crisis? This is a crucial question because the recession we are experiencing could be followed by a banking crisis that would affect the whole economy even more severely. A CEPII study, entitled "European Banks and the Covid-19 Crash Test", sheds an interesting light on this subject.