Asia

Chindia & Silk Road gold consumption for March.

A war with Iran would eliminate the largest non-USD oil exporter. One thing leads to another. The gold repatriations are a precursor to a currency war and armed conflict. That’s what drives US foreign policy.

The time to own physical gold and silver is today and not when they move to new highs. Both metals are at inflation adjusted historical lows and the downside risk is minimal. Also, they probably are the most undervalued of all assets currently.

For many years I have warned people about the coming risks and changes that the world will experience. Very few people are aware of these risks and even fewer understand them. In this piece, I will make an attempt to summarise what I see coming.

If countries are unable to obtain dollars for their Central Bank reserves, they will have to look for a substitute. And the only substitute will have to be GOLD.

Russian Central Bank gold reserves rise to 1,857 tons in january, passing People’s Bank of China’s 1,843 ton gold hoard.

Gold and silver had a sharp run-up in the last two weeks of 2017. However, the abrupt move in gold was accompanied by a rapid rise in the gold futures open interest on the COMEX. The “commercial” – aka “the banks” – net short position in COMEX gold futures has increased by 100,000 contracts (from 120 net short to 220k net short) in just four weeks through the most recent COT report. That’s a net paper gold short of 22 million ozs, or 623 tonnes of paper sold short.

The combination of fundamental, technical and geopolitical factors is converging in 2018 in a way we have not seen since the late 1970s. The new bull market in gold will be even more powerful than the 1971–1980 bull market and the 1999–2011 bull market.

Rickards expects gold to go to $10,000 an ounce as some central banks may have to resort to the gold standard to restore confidence in the markets.

The physical fundamentals are stronger than ever for gold. Russia and China continue to be huge buyers. China bans export of its 450 tons per year of physical production.