Claudio Grass

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...

Interview with Simon Hunt: Part II of II Claudio Grass (CG): Taken together, the moves by Russia and China, especially on the monetary front, with their plans of a gold-backed digital currency, appear to pose a direct challenge to the status quo and America’s central role in it. Do you think we might be witnessing a tectonic shift already, and do you expect to see the US and the USD decline in influence and relevance? Simon Hunt (SH): As I shift through your questions, none can...

Interview with Simon Hunt Part I of II As my friends and clients know very well, but also anyone who has read any of my writings before, I always held that understanding history and geopolitics is one of the most important elements of sound investing. Most mainstream investors, “experts”, as well as the financial press tend to ignore these forces, as does the public at large, of course. “Who cares what happened decades ago in some faraway land? I just need someone from Wall Street...

Part II of II, by Claudio Grass Slippery slope  However, interesting as those experiments and observations might be, they are still the result of specific parameters within a particular setting and an environment that doesn’t resemble real life. Serious and honest behavioral economists both understand and freely admit this. Just because there was one experiment in which 12 university students chose to receive 1 chocolate today rather than 2 tomorrow, one cannot extrapolate from...

Part I of II, by Claudio Grass The field of economics has long and often very embarrassing history of absurd theories, blatantly wrong assumptions and hypotheses, spectacularly wrong predictions and entirely avoidable policymaking blunders; a few of them hilarious, most of them catastrophic, some of them literally murderous.  Overconfidence and a generous amount of hubris appear to be at the heart of the problem, as is so often the case nearly every time that “experts” and...

Over the second half of January, we witnessed a fresh wave of volatility in equity markets, culminating in a pullback that caused widespread concern and endless headlines in the mainstream financial press. There was speculation of a full blown correction, other “experts” disagreed and predicted that central bankers would never allow that to happen, while others still tried to account for the market’s moves by using the same explanations we’ve been hearing throughout the covid crisis...

According to recently released data by the World Gold Council (WGC), as of September 2021, the total amount of gold held in reserves by central banks globally exceeded 36,000 tons for the first time since 1990. This 31-year record was the result of the world’s central banks adding more that 4,500 tons of the precious metal to their holdings over the last decade and it provides ample support for the investment case for gold, in both directly performance-related terms, but also from a...

Planet Lockdown in the United States 🇺🇸 released their feature-length documentary in ten languages on the 15th of January 2022.  “For Planet Lockdown we spoke to some of the brightest minds in the world including epidemiologists, scientists, doctors, lawyers, protesters, a statesman and a prince. These brave souls had the courage to speak truth against all odds and inspire us to do the same. We must have the courage to overcome our fears. And once we do, it gets easier every...

This week’s episode of the Gold Exchange Podcast, Keith Weiner interviews independent precious metals advisor Claudio Grass. Claudio explains his sound money origin story and how the rest of the world understands gold vs Americans' understanding. The wide ranging conversation spans everything from history, to covid lockdowns, to how societies change, to our relationship to money and even political principles and philosophy. Highlights from the episode include: -Independent thinkers...