Free Republic

Since 2007, major currencies have lost roughly 85% of their purchasing power relative to gold. Whenever gold rises and I get excited as a gold investor, I’m often met with the familiar refrain: “Gold isn’t really going up, the dollar is just losing value.” I used to brush that off as a cliché or a game of semantics, and honestly, it annoyed me. But over time I decided to dig deeper. I started analyzing the data visually, which is my favorite way to learn, and that’s when it finally clicked. They were right. Gold wasn’t truly soaring; fiat currencies were...

Our headline chart shows silver storming ahead amid reports of backwardations and soaring lease rates. Will it continue, and will gold be next? A graph of a line graph AI-generated content may be incorrect. Driven by poor liquidity, in Europe this morning silver was $45.03, up $2.00 from last Friday’s close. Gold was up a less spectacular $68 at $3750 on the week, but with a firm undertone. In this report, we look at what is currently driving gold and silver prices higher, and whether it will continue. The chart below illustrates the paper market problem with the silver futures...

New all-time High Today 3,813.60 up+38.50 (+1.02%)

Earlier this month, an ancient Egyptian bracelet was stolen from a restoration lab in Cairo's Egyptian Museum. Dating back 3,000 years, the gold artifact had belonged to Amenemope, a pharaoh who ruled during Egypt's Third Intermediate Period.Now, investigators have discovered the artifact's whereabouts: They say a museum employee stole the bracelet and sold it for less than $4,000. The buyer melted it down...Museum staffers discovered the bracelet was missing when they were itemizing artifacts for shipment abroad last week, reports the London Times' Magdy Samaan... the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities... found that the artifact had passed from a museum...

Hong Kong’s push to become a global gold trading and reserve hub highlights a sharp contrast between real assets and endlessly printed fiat money. While the United States continues expanding its money supply — diluting purchasing power through debt-driven policies — China and now Hong Kong are moving in the opposite direction, stacking tangible wealth in the form of gold. By targeting storage capacity of over 2,000 tonnes within three years and rolling out tokenized gold investment tools, Hong Kong is positioning itself at the center of a new gold-based financial system. Unlike dollars that can be created with a...

Beaver Crrek, Colo. – Canadian dealmaker Frank Giustra says the age of paper gold is ending as BRICS nations stand up a parallel financial system that routes around the U.S. dollar and prizes deliverable metal. “We’re now, believe it or not, in the era of hard money,” Giustra said Tuesday in a conversation with Alex Deluce of the Ontario-based bulletin Gold Telegraph at the Precious Metals Summit. “If you own paper gold, you do not own gold. When the crunch comes, it will not be there.” China and partners among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations...

The chart below shows gold holdings (in yellow) and US Treasuries holdings as a percentage of foreign reserves. Gold is now a larger holding than US Treasuries for the first time in 30 years. We might be witnessing one of the most significant global rebalancing we’ve experienced in recent history, in my view. Where’s the World’s Gold Really Sitting? This chart shows the official gold reserves by country and the numbers are surprising. US has 8,133 tonnes—by far the leader. Then comes Germany (3,350 tonnes), Italy (2,452 tonnes), France (2,437 tonnes), Russia (2,330 tonnes), China (2,299 tonnes) and Switzerland (1,040...

Executive order effective September 8 exempts gold bullion, graphite, tungsten, and uranium while extending reciprocal tariffs to silicone products, resin, and aluminum hydroxide.The Trump administration exempted graphite, tungsten, uranium, and gold bullion from US country-based reciprocal tariffs, while adding levies on silicone products—and extending those tariffs to resin and aluminum hydroxide.The move, set to take effect today under an executive order, formalizes the planned bullion carve-out after a recent US Customs and Border Protection ruling sowed confusion by implying certain gold bars could face import taxes.TRUMP EXEMPTS GRAPHITE, TUNGSTEN, URANIUM & GOLD FROM COUNTRY-BASED TARIFFS; SILICONE PRODUCTS TO FACE LEVIES—...

Gold is on a record run — here’s how to invest, according to experts….

Gold prices reached unprecedented territory on Tuesday, breaking through the $3,500 per ounce barrier and establishing a new all-time high. This milestone comes amid a combination of market factors that have strengthened the precious metal’s position as a preferred investment. The price surge occurred as the U.S. dollar weakened against other major currencies, making gold more affordable for international investors. Simultaneously, financial markets have increasingly priced in expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its September meeting. The dollar’s recent performance has played a significant role in gold’s ascent. As the greenback loses value relative to other...

Are we living through the biggest market mania ever? In this hard-hitting update, Mike Maloney lays out why he believes today’s setup outstrips 1929 and the dot-com era—and why stocks and real estate could correct together. Inside you’ll see: • The valuation dashboard (Buffett Indicator, Tobin’s Q, CAPE, P/B) and why “long-term averages” may be misleading when you add an extra century of data. • How index concentration, mega-cap cash-flow multiples, and extreme P/Es mirror late-stage bubbles. • Classic warning lights: Dow Transports diverging, insiders dumping, and a yield-curve signal with a track record before major selloffs. • Why housing...

For the first time since 1996, foreign central banks hold more gold than U.S. Treasuries as the world continues to de-dollarize. Crescat Capital macro strategist Tavi Costa highlighted the crossover moment in a post on X, saying it is “likely the beginning of the most significant global rebalancings we've experienced in recent history.” Central banks have been aggressively adding gold to their reserves over the last three years. Last year was the third-largest expansion of central bank gold reserves on record, coming in just 6.2 tonnes lower than in 2023 and 91 tonnes lower than the all-time high set in...

Kazakhstan has revealed a major natural resource breakthrough with the discovery of 38 new mineral deposits, including 19 tons of gold and a vast reserve of rare earth metals. The discoveries mark a strategic shift for the Central Asian country, signaling its ambition to become a key supplier in global clean energy and tech supply chains. These findings, published in the journal Minerals, were made during the first quarter of 2025 as part of a national initiative to accelerate geological exploration by 2026. Gold And Rare Earth Metals Found Near The Capital One of the most significant discoveries is a...

Gold prices surged to a one-month high above $3,400 an ounce Thursday, supported by persistent U.S. dollar weakness. Analysts at Bank of America expect the rally to continue, maintaining their forecast that the yellow metal will hit $4,000 an ounce by the first half of 2026. In a report published last week, the bank said falling interest rates and a weaker dollar will underpin the metal’s gains. “Potential rate cuts amid increasing inflation create fertile ground for dollar depreciation,” analysts wrote. “Rate cuts in an environment of continued elevated inflation would, in all likelihood, push the precious metal higher.” Spot...

The US dollar is not what most people think it is. There are a constitutional dollar (C$) and a Federal Reserve dollar (F$). The former is money; the latter is a money-substitute circulating in place of money. They are fundamentally distinct with different definitions. Many modern economists struggle to define money. Often beginning with an historical overview of the concept of moneyness, they generally end by describing the functions of money. What money ‘does’ is not a definition of what money ‘is’. Throughout history, money has always been defined as a specific weight of gold or silver. In colonial America...

A new and potentially significant source of demand is that of demand from Iran. Iran imported a massive $1.2 billion worth of precious metals from Turkey in April alone. Turkish exports of gold, precious metals, pearls and coins to Iran rose to $1.2 billion in April from a tiny $7,500 a year earlier, according to figures released by the state statistics institute in Ankara yesterday. This is a massive increase in demand and suggests that there may be official involvement in the imports from the Central Bank of Iran. This trend continued in May when Turkish gold imports leapt by...

Harvard Management Company made substantial new investments in exchange-traded funds tracking the value of gold and Bitcoin during the second quarter of 2025, marking a sharp shift in its directly held public equities portfolio after it backed out of many Big Tech positions last quarter. The endowment purchased 1.9 million shares of iShares Bitcoin Trust, valued at $116.7 million, and 333,000 shares of SPDR Gold Trust, valued at $101.5 million, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. SPDR Gold Trust — one of the world’s largest gold ETFs — is backed by physical gold stored in...

Expectations for Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska have been downplayed but diverted attention from a stalling US and global economy. Any independent observer will note that the outlook for the dollar is deteriorating, credit risk rising, and a debt trap is being sprung on the US Treasury. Tonight’s Alaska circus is a diversion from this reality. Gold and silver continued to consolidate earlier gains this week, but the market underneath continues to tighten. In European morning trade today gold was $3340, down $60 from last Friday’s close, and silver was $37.90, down 40 cents. Comex volumes in both contracts...

In the quiet woods near Kalisz, Poland, a group of amateur archaeologists uncovered not one, but three extraordinary treasures over the span of just five weeks this summer...The Denar Kalisz Group, in cooperation with the Voivodeship Office of Environmental Protection in Kalisz, conducted their exploration in the Grodziec Forest District of Zbiersk.Their work began in early June with the discovery of a Roman-period burial ground linked to the Przeworsk culture. Among the finds was the grave of a warrior, complete with a spearhead and shield boss.Just days later, they recovered a coin from the 11th century alongside a small ceramic...

If gold were judged in an impartial court of law, the jury would find the majestic metal a superior form of money. Fiat currency advocates would lose the legal battle and debate, and the sound money defense would rest and win the case with overwhelming documentary proof and supportive testimony. A growing body of evidence provided by central banks, national governments and a global banking regulatory body reveals an irrefutable and long-known truth. The bulleted evidence: • The world’s central banks officially hold some 38,000 metric tons of gold, an all-time record according to one estimate, and around 20 percent...