Judy Shelton, who serves as the U.S. executive director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, wrote as recently as last year in support of pegging the dollar to gold prices.

Having tested $1300 numerous times over the past few years, gold has broken dramatically higher in the last month, hitting 6-year highs as President Trump rhetoric around the world raises tensions and increases the odds of WWIII.

On Tuesday after the close, the CFTC announced that Merrill Lynch Commodities (MLCI), a global commodities trading business, agreed to pay $25 million to resolve the government’s investigation into a multi-year scheme by MLCI precious metals traders to mislead the market for precious metals futures contracts traded on the COMEX.

“Shanghai Gold will change the current gold market with its ‘consumed in the East but priced in the West’ arrangement. When China has the right to speak in the international gold market, the true price of gold will be revealed.” – Xu Luode, Chairman, Shanghai Gold Exchange, 15 May 2014

The global monetary regime has collapsed three times over the past 100 years, in 1914, 1939, and 1971. They seem to happen about every 30 to 40 years on average. It’s now been over 40 years since the last collapse, so we’re due. Got gold?

China extended its gold-buying spree, adding to reserves for a sixth straight month, as the protracted trade war with the U.S. hurts growth expectations and boosts demand for a portfolio diversifier.

Venezuela has defaulted on a gold swap agreement valued at $750 million with Deutsche Bank AG, prompting the lender to take control of the precious metal which was used as collateral and close out the contract.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday proposed to create a new “special currency” for the region based on gold, replacing the existing currency trading regime.

Two more nations, Serbia and the Philippines, have boosted their national gold reserves. They follow a global trend of other central banks accumulating bullion in a move seen as a shift away from the US dollar standard.

Charts are suggesting that gold and silver are close to completing giant bottoming patterns that started to form (in the case of gold) as far back as 2013.

The central banks of Russia and China helped drive a 7% increase in global gold demand in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the World Gold Council, as they continued efforts to trim their exposure to US dollars.

The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) said Societe Generale had resigned as a market maker for gold and silver, as France’s third-largest bank pushes ahead with a downsizing of its commodities business.

Households in Germany have lifted their holdings of gold, meaning, along with the central bank, the country now holds 6.5 per cent of worldwide gold reserves.

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Yet while Moscow's appetite for gold, which has doubled Russia's international gold reserves over the past three years, remains unparalleled, Beijing has also quietly joined its northern neighbor in casting a smaller if just as material vote of no confidence in the dollar.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Italy’s ruling populists pushed ahead this week with efforts to seize control of the central bank and its gold reserves.

Global demand for gold in 2019 will rise to the highest in four years as higher consumption by jewelers offsets a fall in purchases by central banks, an industry report said on Monday.

Bank of Italy’s Governor Ignazio Visco said on Monday the country’s reserves of gold belonged to the central bank and could not be used to fund government spending.

Romania may be set to join a wave of countries moving their gold home from vaults abroad after the nation’s de facto leader started a push to relocate 61 tons of the reserves, worth about $2.4 billion, from the U.K.

At least 8 tons of gold were removed from the Venezuelan central bank’s vaults last week, an opposition legislator and three government sources told Reuters, in the latest sign of President Nicolas Maduro’s desperation to raise hard currency amid tightening sanctions.