Richard Russell on Gold

From the 1830s to the 1930s, almost all the important currencies were on the gold standard and were backed by gold. The British sovereign had a gold content of .2354 oz, and was minted in seven countries including Australia, Britain, South Africa and Canada. In other words, the whole world was on the gold standard. This was a period of extraordinary stability among world currencies.

But war is the great destroyer of currencies. When nations wanted to spend more than the discipline of gold would allow, they turned to fiat currencies and printed what they needed out of a computer and thin air. Germany was a famous offender when it printed marks by the barrelful, during which time hyperinflation destroyed the purchasing power of the German mark. Today we have a comparable example in the US, which has not only left the gold standard, but to cover up its inflation, is depressing the price of gold through paper gold trading on the COMEX.

Because of our out-of-control US spending, the US is covering its outrageous debts by printing money.[amazon asin=0990463109&template=*lrc ad (right)]

The US is now $17 trillion in debt, which is being carried at near zero interest rates. Looking to the future, the US has two choices: one is to renege on its debts, which is unthinkable, and the other is inflation or hyperinflation. So far, the US has chosen the path of inflation. If continued, this will lead to the purchasing power of the dollar declining to close to zero and the dollar becoming next to worthless since it won’t represent anything but the full faith and credit of a bankrupt nation.

The only protection we have against the inflationary policies of the government is to turn to the items which historically, over 5000 years, have held on to their purchasing power. The items I’m referring to are physical silver and gold. Ironically, even here our modern financial alchemists have conjured up counterfeit precious metals, which we call “paper” silver and gold. There is far more paper gold than there is physical gold. a predicament that some day will come back to haunt us. Our best and safest protection in the current inflationary world is physical precious metals.

Excerpted from Richard Russell’s Dow Theory Letters Daily Remarks, August 11, 2014

Reprinted with permission from CMI Gold & Silver.

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