As part of the sanctions against Russia, seven Russian banks have been cut off from SWIFT. We start by discussing what SWIFT is, and then the implications of completely cutting Russia out of SWIFT. What is SWIFT and Why Russia is Being Excluded SWIFT – The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication is a messaging system that links more than 11,000 banks in 200 countries. The system doesn’t move actual money between the banks but...
Read More »Demand for Gold is Expected to Grow Exponentially in 2021
The difference between physical gold investing and ETF investing was stark in the first quarter 2021 according to the World Gold Council’s Gold Demand Trends data released last week. Before focusing in on investment demand below a few notes on overall gold demand in the first quarter. Total gold demand in the first quarter of 2021 was down 4%. However, because gold production and gold demand (jewellery, bar and coin etc.) are decentralized around the globe, and no...
Read More »“More of the same” at the ECB increases gold’s appeal
“The intellectual leaders of the peoples have produced and propagated the fallacies which are on the point of destroying liberty and Western civilization.” Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos It took multiple meetings and over 50 hours of official negotiations for EU leaders to reach an agreement on the appointments for the top jobs of the EU and the ECB, but in mid-July the results finally came in. The ECB was particularly in focus, as bad news keeps piling up for the...
Read More »“More of the same” at the ECB increases gold’s appeal
“The intellectual leaders of the peoples have produced and propagated the fallacies which are on the point of destroying liberty and Western civilization.” Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos It took multiple meetings and over 50 hours of official negotiations for EU leaders to reach an agreement on the appointments for the top jobs of the EU and the ECB, but in mid-July the results finally came in. The ECB was particularly in focus, as bad news keeps piling up for the Eurozone economy and...
Read More »Gold’s Price Performance: Beyond the US Dollar
With the first half of 2018 now drawn to a close, much of the financial medias’ headlines and commentary relating to the gold market has been focusing on the fact that the US dollar gold price has moved lower year-to-date. Specifically, from a US dollar price of $1302.50 at close on 31 December 2017, the price of gold in US dollar terms has slipped by approximately 3.8% over the last six months to around $1252.50, a...
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