Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn | Tumblr | My Blog
Gold and silver reached new record all time and 31 year highs again yesterday and this morning – both nominal highs. Silver has surged to a new 31 year nominal high of $40.28/oz and may now target next resistance at $50/oz – the 1980 nominal high.Gold is now targeting $1,500/oz after just reaching new nominal highs at $1473/oz. Gold is higher in all currencies this week but especially the beleaguered yen which has fallen 4% against gold in the week so far.
The gold price is hitting new all-time highs on a daily basis because many investors have lost faith in paper money. They believe that central bank printing presses are devaluing currencies on a daily basis.
It is the same lack of belief in paper money that has been boosting the Aussie dollar. Paper money used to be backed by gold held in a central bank, but this was abandoned all over the world, allowing central banks to print money via processes such as quantitative easing.
Today, no currency in the world is on the gold standard – all money is “fiat” money.
However, Australia has significant resources of gold, uranium, iron ore, coal and many other important and valuable commodities. They are in the ground, not in a central bank, but this is the nearest thing the world has to the old gold standard. That’s why the Australian currency is so strong.
The same is also true of currencies in Canada, South Africa and Russia. They are effectively backed by commodities in the ground.
“We are living in the worst monetary instability in the last 3,000 years. The prospect for precious metals has seldom been more promising.” -Robert Mundell, Nobel Prize-winning economist
“We are living in the worst monetary instability in the last 3,000 years. The prospect for precious metals has seldom been more promising.”
-Robert Mundell, Nobel Prize-winning economist