Tag Archives: Gold

Part III of IV by Claudio Grass The Nixon Shock: Where we stand today A lot has been said and written about the inflationary effects that the closure of the gold window had on the real economy and on ordinary people’s lives. And rightfully so, as this has been among the most devastating consequences of the end of the gold standard and it affected countless workers and savers who have been seeing their incomes wither over time, thanks to the hidden tax of inflation. However,...

Part II of IV by Claudio Grass The lasting impact of the Nixon Shock The economic and monetary consequences of Nixon’s decision to end the convertibility of the US dollar to gold are as numerous as they are severe. It marked the start of five decades of monetary and fiscal insanity and it unleashed unprecedented borrowing and deficit spending sprees. Debt-fueled “growth” became the name of the game and currency manipulation came to define both political strategies and central...

Part I of IV by Claudio Grass What happened and why  This year marked the 50th anniversary of President Nixon’s decision to unilaterally close the “gold window”. The impact of this move can hardly be overstated. It triggered a tectonic shift of momentous consequences and it changed not just the global economy and the monetary realities, but it also shaped modern politics and severely affected our society at large. The Nixon Shock In July 1944, representatives from 44...

Gold leads the way Last week we wrote about the gold to silver ratio. Our points were that it measures the price of one metal against the other, just as we use the dollars per ounce to measure daily metals prices, and just as we use ounces per Corvette to measure purchasing power preservation. Also, we discussed the range of movement that silver has around gold over the past fifty years.  We laid out notes for when to buy silver against gold, and when not to. The...

It’s no secret that governments and central planners of all stripes have long detested the rise of private money and independent digital currencies. They have tried to stifle the burgeoning crypto industry from the moment it attracted mainstream attention. For years, they have continued to add regulatory hurdles and threaten crypto holders and investors, as well as companies in this space, with unreasonable tax burdens and unrealistic disclosure requirements that...

It’s no secret that governments and central planners of all stripes have long detested the rise of private money and independent digital currencies. They have tried to stifle the burgeoning crypto industry from the moment it attracted mainstream attention. For years, they have continued to add regulatory hurdles and threaten crypto holders and investors, as well as companies in this space, with unreasonable tax burdens and unrealistic disclosure requirements that come with hefty...

How planning ahead and preparing for what lies ahead is a lesson everyone needs to learn   Over the last couple of months, it has become clear from conversations with friends and partners from the gold industry that there is a marked increase in retail demand for physical gold from Swiss investors. The most interesting thing about this development is that the bulk of new orders is coming from smaller accounts, showing that it’s ordinary savers and citizens that are driving this...

In our post on August 11 titled End of an ERA: The Bretton Woods System and Gold Standard Exchange, we discussed the significance of then-President Nixon’s action of closing the gold window thereby ending the Bretton Woods Monetary system. Under the Bretton Woods monetary system, central banks could exchange their US dollar reserves for gold. This also ended the gold fixed price of US$35 per ounce. This week we explore the two questions that concluded last week’s...

Today is the 50th anniversary of the “Nixon shock”, the day President Richard Nixon closed the gold window and ended the post-WWII Bretton Woods currency agreement. That agreement, largely a product of John Maynard Keynes, pegged the dollar to gold and most other currencies to the dollar. It wasn’t a true gold standard as only other countries that were party to the agreement could demand gold in exchange for their dollars, but it was at least a standard of some...

Part II of II, by Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Switzerland Why Switzerland? There are many good reasons that could easily explain the flock of so many wealthy families and investors to Switzerland and all of them have been reinforced by the pandemic. For one thing, the local measures that were adopted to contain the virus were far less restrictive than those that were enforced in Germany, France, Italy or the UK. Business activity, freedom of movement, freedom of speech, all...