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Claudio Grass

Gold: A use case for the modern era

Part I of II For decades, physical gold investors have had to contend with superficial, naive and wholly ahistorical “arguments” from the mainstream financial press, from economists and experts of all stripes, claiming that gold is nothing but a barbarous relic. To them, the yellow metal is akin to investment superstition. It has no yield, it serves no practical purpose and the only attraction they could conceive of is merely symbolic, or perhaps, political. Thus, who in their...

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Is Switzerland still a safe jurisdiction for precious metals investors?

Over the last two years, we’ve all witnessed state abuses of power and extreme overreaches the likes of which many average citizens had never imagined they’d see in their own lifetimes. This caused a great part of the body politic in many Western nations to revisit their previously held beliefs about what is and isn’t possible for their governments to do and to question whether there really is such a thing as going “too far” or whether anyone in the political class is subject to the...

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Russia’s “gold peg”: Lessons for Western investors

It is undeniable that the ongoing crisis in Ukraine has polarized Western societies to an extent unseen in decades in any other foreign conflict. For over a month, we have been bombarded unceasingly by all mainstream media sources with reports and stories about Russia’s invasion and this conflict has already created deep social rifts in many other nations, and EU members in particular. No matter where one stands on this topic and no matter how passionate one might feel about it, I...

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Cantillon effect: Who’s paying the highest price?

Every time we hear government officials announce their big spending plans, their new welfare programs and their ambitious “job creating” schemes, they always present them as being in defense of the poorest and the most marginalized members of our societies. In coordination with their central bankers, they print and spend new money at will, claiming that it is all for the benefit of the weakest among us and that all the freshly created funds will support them without further burdening...

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Ukraine conflict: A dispassionate analysis

I realize that I shouldn’t be surprised at the way the crisis in Ukraine has divided our societies or at the blind fanaticism the conversations around it have provoked. After all, virtually every other development of consequence has tuned out exactly the same. From covid to the economy and from freedom of speech to science itself, rational, respectful and productive debates are nowhere to be found. Dogma, propaganda, and zealotry have prevailed, with the unrelenting help of the...

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Is gold too expensive?

Over the last couple of years we witnessed quite an extraordinary ride in gold prices. An impressive ascent until the last quarter of 2020 was followed by a pullback that scared many speculators away, which in turn transformed into a period of strength and then came another ebb… And recently, once again, we saw the yellow metal shoot up, fueled by inflation fears and the situation in Ukraine. Given that the fundamentals remain unchanged and that the only way is up for gold, another...

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The forgotten art of Debate

One quick glance at different news headlines or just 5’ switching between TV networks suffice to convince even the most naive news consumer that there is something seriously wrong with the way public discourse was (d)evolved in our societies over the last years. Of course, journalism was never entirely devoid of bias, not even in its “golden age”. Reporters and editors are merely human after all and their own views, beliefs, hopes and opinions have always tainted the products of...

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Václav Klaus: Remembering Gordon Tullock

It is a regrettable fact, but a fact nonetheless, that too many students of economic and monetary history have no idea where the principles and theories they espouse really came from. So many important thinkers, with unconventional and truly inquisitive minds, have been shut out of mainstream textbooks and were robbed of the prominent place they deserved in all our memories to make room for those with more expedient ideas.  One such man is Gordon Tullock, an economist and law...

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