There are a tremendous amount of structural benefits baked into the structure of US-dollar-demoninated world trade. 78.5% of all world trade is conducted in USDs; the second-most-used currency, the Euro, accounts for just 5.9%. The greenback remains, by far, the dominant means of worldwide commerce and exchange. 64% of all central bank forex reserves are held in dollars. Foreign countries ar... read more

Efforts by the US to suppress gold prices in order to prop up the dollar are allowing Russia and China to build up huge reserves of physical gold by purchasing large quantities of the precious metal at significantly lower prices. Net central bank purchases in the first quarter of the current year surged by 42 percent compared to the same period a year ago, totaling 116.5 tons, according to... read more

Trump backed out of a joint communique agreed by Group of Seven leaders in Canada at the weekend that mentioned the need for “free, fair and mutually beneficial trade” and the importance of fighting protectionism. The U.S. president, who has imposed import tariffs on metals, is furious about the United States’ large trade deficit with key allies. “Fair trade is now to be called fool... read more

Should the US government have let all the chips fall where they might have in 2009, as Wall St. interests twisted the arms of Congress, forcing them into a bailout? Maybe. But perhaps the systemic risks truly were so great that some manner of extraordinary market interference was required to prevent outright collapse. You can make an argument for either side. What is the argument for leaving... read more

The German public broadcast agency ARD is proposing structural changes. Due to the low-interest rates, the ECB has placed the agency in hard times with its pensions. Karola Wille, the director, has called for structural reform to reduce costs. The proposal centers on technological change to increase efficiency in the performance of its mandate. They are also looking at developing cross-media ap... read more

Jim Rickards believes the Fed has no way out of the mess it has created. But in true Fed fashion they will keep on robbing us through inflation, devaluation and force us to spend when they go to negative interest rates. Just make sure you spend on solid investments like precious metals that can't be trashed by the Fed. In short, there’s a very high probability that the U.S. economy will go... read more

Gold may have posted two straight months of declines, but is set to shrug off the blues and rise in 2019 as the dollar weakens. The precious metal will start to rebound in the final quarter of this year to average $1,375 an ounce in the last three months of next year and could touch a high of $1,400, said Bart Melek, global head of commodity strategy at TD Securities in Toronto. That’s a... read more

Nearly everyone who appears on CNBC is primarily concerned with one thing: Seeming like an authority on their particular sector of the market. They make their calls with as much confidence, poise, and well-spoken soothsaying as they can. That they’re usually wrong, often dramatically so, is beside the point. You’re watching them. They’re getting more famous. CNBC is selling advertisers... read more

Dear investors and friends, We are delighted to send you the 12th edition of our annual "In Gold we Trust" report titled “Gold and the Turning of the Monetary Tides”. The report’s Leitmotif of the turning of the tide refers to three fundamental changes that are currently unfolding: 1) Change of the tide in monetary policy: the reversal from QE to QT will lead to a net decrease in ce... read more

As Italian bond yields soar, will this be what triggers a broader European market crash? Italy’s problems are very directly the problems of all other euro-denominated countries. Germans will view this market upset with little surprise, their patience tested once again as a eurozone economic weak sister sees signs of panic. The remedy for more debt is not more debt. But if the Italian crisi... read more