My latest blog for Motley Fool Canada was posted today: click on The New Case for Gold.
That headline also happens to be the title of a new book by global currency guru James Rickards. You can find the book here.
What does Rickards mean by the NEW case for gold? When I say gold here, by extension I mean silver and other precious metals, preferably in bullion or coin format, not “paper” or electronic substitutes.
Rickards does go beyond the familiar arguments of gold as a combined inflation/deflation hedge, and does so in a 21st century context. He breaks new ground by referring to gold’s role in cyberfinancial warfare, its importance in economic sanctions in nations like Iran, and gold’s future as a competitor to the world money system known as SDRs: the Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund.
G-Day approaching
HIs main thesis is that G-Day is rapidly approaching: an ominous day when all the investors with mere paper or electronic claims on bullion actually attempt to procure the actual physical underlying metal. Like a run on the bank, the claims would far exceed the actual amount of the available metal. If and when that occurs, he believes the price of the metal would soar to over US$10,000 per ounce, in which case even a 10% insurance position would nicely cover losses in other asset classes should such a global monetary collapse actually occur.
The Real Crash
The Motley Fool blog also looks at another “bear” book that is similarly bullish on gold: the updated 2016 edition of Peter Schiff’s The Real Crash: How to Save Yourself and Your Country. Continue Reading…