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In January 1934, the dollar was devalued against gold by 69% when the US federal government arbitrarily changed the definition of the dollar. What had been 23.22 grains of fine gold ($20.67 per ounce; $0.66 per goldgram) was suddenly cheapened with the stroke of President Franklin Roosevelt’s pen to 13.71 grains of gold ($35 perRead more

Gold may seem overvalued because of the recent record highs in its 6-decade ascent from $35 to $2500, but prices – like appearances – can be deceiving. What’s more, the value of any asset is more important than its price. Price and value are too often conflated, which is a mistake. An asset’s price andRead more

Monetary and banking crises are a recurring event. Sometimes their impact is contained, like occurred when three California banks collapsed in early 2023. Other times – like the Great Depression – the fallout can be calamitous. Large or small, these crises are inevitable and unavoidable. This observation is not only undeniable from even a cursoryRead more

Money is routinely defined by what it does, rather than what it is. That is unfortunate because its modern definition overlooks money’s important – but now forgotten – fourth function. Aristotle observed that money is a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value. This definition omits the fourth function needed to explainRead more

“The Earth speaks to us through the elements of nature. In every natural thing, we can find a hidden, powerful message.” Ralph Waldo Emerson Every natural element to which the earth has been endowed has a usefulness – a purpose. If we listen to gold, one of the earth’s natural elements, its message is loudRead more

Every bull market for each type of financial instrument has three phases: accumulation of an undervalued asset by so-called “smart money” that recognizes the undervaluation, growing public participation as the uptrend gains increasing attention, and inevitable speculation that leads to overvaluation of an asset and eventual resumption of a new downtrend.   Gold is nowRead more

Leverage is the use of credit or borrowed capital to increase the earning potential of your investment portfolio. But like everything else in finance, higher returns mean higher risk, so leverage is not for everyone. Nevertheless, leverage can be a useful tool for those accepting the risk. If you choose to use it to maximiseRead more

Transferring Power to the People Of the many significant statements made by President Donald Trump in his inaugural address, I believe the following stands out: Today, we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it backRead more

Here’s a question that might have you pondering: Is gold a commodity? More importantly, are we doing a disservice to the gold industry by calling gold a commodity? These may sound like silly questions, but hear me out. Last month I participated as a keynote speaker at the Asia Mining Conference in Singapore. There wereRead more

In an interview on July 8th in King World News I noted how gold that day had slipped into backwardation. Since then I have read a lot of commentary on various websites about backwardation, which made clear to me that this term and, more importantly, the implications to the gold price when backwardation appears areRead more