Central banks

In a world awash with money-printing, a currency backed by gold would have great credibility. And China – with designs on the yuan becoming the world’s reserve currency – has a lot more gold than anyone else. But how much?

In the decades which have passed since Greenspan became the Fed template and “stimulus” supplier of Wall Street’s post-87 debt (keg) party of free money, repressed rates and hence massive stock and bond bubble-to-burst cycles, where can informed investors find value, safety and a comfortable nigh...

The current silver price has nothing to do with supply and demand. In a real market the Price of Silver would be substantially higher. In a fake market, the manipulators have no problem to suppress the price by selling virtually unlimited fake paper silver.

To protect ourselves from these unavoidable effects of the monetary policies implemented for more than 10 years, now is the time for a return to tangible assets for increasing numbers of investors.

The inflationary pressure is likely to remain with us for a while, despite the pundits’ claims that it’s triggered merely by temporary factors. In the 1970s, they were talking the same – until stagflation emerged and gold shined.

The trillions of U.S. dollars created out of thin air in 2020, as well as the trillions which preceded this printing-frenzy between 2009-2014 (QE1-QE4), have dire consequences on the purchasing power of America’s once sacred but now totally inflated, and hence debased, currency.

It seems that the decline in bond yields allowed gold to catch its breath, and that the macroeconomic outlook – including the credit spreads, interest rates, inflation, monetary policy and fiscal policy – will remain the key driver of gold prices throughout the year.

China has given domestic and international banks permission to import large amounts of gold into the country.

Derivatives can only be netted down on the basis that counterparties pay up. But in a real systemic crisis, counterparties will disappear and gross exposure will remain gross.

The increase in expected and actual inflation rates combined with the Fed’s dovish stance could create downward pressure on the real interest rates and the U.S. dollar, thus supporting gold prices. The yellow metal could also benefit from the elevated demand for inflation hedges in an environment...