Loading ...A bungled exit from a pointless and costly war? Check: Vietnam then, Afghanistan now.
Rising inflation due to excessive debt and artificially easy money? Emphatic check. The current US CPI is showing a consistent 5%, while debt levels pretty much everywhere are off the charts.
Leadership that seems less competent and trustworthy every time they speak?Check: Jimmy Carter then, Biden/Harris now.
A rising power that threatens US military and financial hegemony – and by implication the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency? Double check: China and (again) Russia.
Energy crisis? Check: Natural gas and coal prices are soaring, stockpiles are at historically low levels, and winter is coming. Gas hoarding in the UK is likely to spread to Continental Europe and beyond. See here for more detail.
Toss in the pandemic that just won’t die, a labor shortage, supply chain disruptions, immigration chaos, and a weirdly-general societal shift away from discipline and rationality, and you get an economy that’s locked into an easy-money, soaring leverage trajectory until no one in their right mind will want anything to do with traditional financial assets.
In this environment, the boring market action in gold – a form of money that has protected against financial and societal chaos for all of recorded history – looks like the calm before the storm.