Tag Archive: Monetary

Gold: A use case for the modern era

2022-05-04

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2022-05-04

Part II of II The big picture here is clear and it is essential to understand that it represents a very significant paradigm shift. Whether it is online or offline, whether it is through a mobile app, an exchange or even through physical contracts, ownership titles to gold holdings keep changing hands. And thus, no matter the vehicle that is used to facilitate these transactions, the fact of the matter is that it acts as a gold-backed...

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Gold: A use case for the modern era

2022-05-03

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2022-05-03

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...

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Is Switzerland still a safe jurisdiction for precious metals investors?

2022-04-21

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2022-04-21

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...

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

2022-04-12

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2022-04-12

Putin
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.

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Cantillon effect: Who’s paying the highest price?

2022-04-06

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2022-04-06

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...

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Ukraine conflict: A dispassionate analysis

2022-03-30

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2022-03-30

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.

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Is gold too expensive?

2022-03-22

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2022-03-22

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...

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JERM WARFARE WITH ASTRID STUCKELBERGER & CLAUDIO GRASS & BREAKING FREE FROM COVID MADNESS

2022-03-09

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2022-03-09

Astrid Stuckelberger and Claudio Grass have been on my podcast before.

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Central Banks’ record gold stockpiling

2022-01-22

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2022-01-22

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...

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Lessons from 2021: The rational way out

2021-12-27

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2021-12-27

As we are all preparing to bid farewell to 2021, there is a general feeling that this year, much like its predecessor, will not be missed. To my mind, however, it is clear that even though the past 12 months didn’t really teach us anything new, they did help cement the lessons of 2020 and spread important ideas to people who might otherwise have never come to question anything about the status quo.

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Government interventions and the Cobra effect – Part II

2021-12-03

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2021-12-03

Of course, one of the most important and consequential parts of the incredibly complex organism that is the economy is money itself. It is its lifeblood and as the song goes, “it makes the world go round”. Therefore, manipulating the currency itself is one the most dangerous and hubristic things a central planner can do, which probably explains why it’s their favorite pastime.

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Government interventions and the Cobra effect – Part I

2021-12-02

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2021-12-02

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.

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Corruption of the currency and decivilization – Part II

2021-11-03

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2021-11-03

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.

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50 years since the closure of the “gold window”

2021-10-09

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2021-10-09

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 push ahead with populist, reckless and...

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The battle for control over the future of money

2021-09-09

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2021-09-09

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...

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The far-reaching implications of the amateur trading wave

2021-07-29

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2021-07-29

Part II of II by Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Switzerland Case in point: Silver “apes”  One of the most astounding elements of this shift in retail investing is the proof it offers for what many of us knew along: When people can freely and directly vote with their wallets and put their money where their mouth is, one gets a much clearer picture of what the public, the market or any other large group really thinks and really wants. In...

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The far-reaching implications of the amateur trading wave

2021-07-27

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2021-07-27

2020 certainly was a year of a lot of “firsts”, most them extremely destructive to the economy, to our societies and to our everyday lives. However, there were a few positive developments too, among them being the fact that it was the year that ordinary people discovered and entered financial markets. 

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Freedom Is Not Free You Have To Fight For It, The People Will Demand Decentralization

2021-07-26

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2021-07-26

Claudio begins his discussion with him taking a trip from Switzerland to Spain. On his travels he realized that the borders are open for cars and people were not asked for proof of vaccination. The people will begin to come together when they cannot function in everyday life because of inflation. People will look for decentralization because the globalist system does not work for the people.  Freedom is not free you have to fight for it.

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Quantitative Easing: A Boon or Curse?

2021-07-24

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2021-07-24

Central banks’ massive Quantitative Easing (QE) programs have come under scrutiny many times since the central banks fired up the printing press and began quantitative easing programs en masse after the 2008-09 Great Financial Crisis. However, the increase in central bank assets due to quantitative easing programs during the crisis pale in comparison to the QE programs during the Covid pandemic. As economies recovered after the...

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Inflation risk takes center stage – Part II of II

2021-05-31

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2021-05-31

A lot of people might be aware of historical cases of hyperinflation, like that of Hungary and the Weimar Republic, or even contemporary ones, like that of Venezuela. And yet, these are taught or reported like extreme cases, very far removed from the daily experience of most modern Western citizens.

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