Tag Archives: Gold

Part I of II Almost two decades ago, German economist Horst Siebert coined the term the “Cobra effect” to describe the real-world consequences of “well-intentioned” government interventions that go awry and produce the exact opposite results from what they aim for. The term was inspired by an incident that took place in India during the British rule, when the authorities tried to reduce the number of deadly cobras in Delhi by offering a cash reward to citizens for every dead...

Do governments hate gold? The answer: Yes — Governments hate gold because they cannot print it, and it is difficult for them to control. Because they cannot print it or easily control it, gold has little use to them during the never-ending schemes to tax and then redistribute wealth. India is a recent example of a government trying to control gold imports through increased taxation on imports and imposing rules, such as that importers had to re-export 20% of imports...

After months of outright denials and fiery persistence that inflation is not a problem and never will be, central bankers in the US, the EU and other advanced economies are now being forced to face reality, as well as the consequences of their own actions. Instead of doing that, however, they have partnered up with their peers from the political world and together, they have embarked on a campaign to disperse and deflect the blame and entirely avoid accountability. For months now,...

Gold and silver price actions have been the opposite of dramatic for months now, they have been boring. In the last 100 days, gold has moved sideways in the US$100 range between $1725 and $1825. Silver had a similar experience moving in a US$5 range between $21.50 and $26.50. These ranges are quite small when compared to exciting moves in Tesla shares and cryptocurrencies such as Shiba! Some people think that being boring this year means we should not own the...

Lessons from the Fall of the Roman Empire – Part II of II Gold-backed civilization vs. the Welfare State Many rational economists and students of history have written countless analyses on the gold standard and the terrible impact that its end has had on the world economy. However, as the Fall of Rome clearly demonstrates, the implications of the introduction of the fiat money system and of the limitless manipulation of the currency by the State reach much further....

Lessons from the Fall of the Roman Empire – Part II of II Gold-backed civilization vs. the Welfare State Many rational economists and students of history have written countless analyses on the gold standard and the terrible impact that its end has had on the world economy. However, as the Fall of Rome clearly demonstrates, the implications of the introduction of the fiat money system and of the limitless manipulation of the currency by the State reach much further. In fact,...

Lessons from the Fall of the Roman Empire – Part I of II The rise and fall of the Roman Empire is arguably one the most studied, written about and theorized over subjects in academia, with fiery debates raging for hundreds of years among historians, sociologists and political scientists. The explanations that have been put forward to identify the causes and the circumstances that led the end of this era of human history mostly tend to focus on geopolitical factors, on social...

The September 26 election was an extremely close race, with the eyes of the world fixed upon the country as it tried to find the successor of Angela Merkel, one the most influential and longest-serving leaders in Europe. But even after the results came in, the suspense was far from over. The two largest parties in the nation, the Social Democrats (SPD) and the center-right CDU/CSU are both scrambling to build a coalition government and they’re targeting the same smaller parties, the...

Part IV of IV by Claudio Grass The Nixon Shock: The way forward President Nixon’s unilateral decision to sever the last link between the dollar and gold had wide ranging and long lasting consequences for the global economy and for the entire monetary system. The end of sound money facilitated and accelerated the concentration of power at the top and the ability to manipulate the currency allowed politicians and central planners to further expand the state’s reach and...

In our post on January 28, 2021 “Gold, The Tried-and-True Inflation Hedge for What’s Coming!” we outlined four reasons that we expect higher inflation over the next several years. The brief bullet points are: Money Supplies have risen dramatically Commodity Prices are rising again Reduced Globalization as ‘Made at Home’ policies are proliferating Pent up demand Headlines such as this one last week from Bloomberg “Inflation gauge Hits Highest Since 1991 as Americans...