Central banks

Escalating geopolitical tensions and the risk of aggravation in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are adding new challenges to a fragmented world. The international economic and financial system can only emerge from this situation weaker, as inflation persists and growth remains weak....

Increasingly, countries are beginning to openly express their intentions to strategically explore using gold as a medium of exchange in the coming years. The Malaysian government is now considering using the gold dinar as a reserve currency to reduce dependence on the US dollar.

The reshaping of the world economy and the global order is in full swing. There are powerful factors, such as the shift in economic, demographic and military weight, that are driving the readjustment in the (geo)political arena. And this readjustment is also reflected in the change in gold flows.

We now have two dangerous wars, maybe we will have a global war. We have a coming collapse of stock markets and debt markets and a banking system which probably will not survive in its present form.

The rise in interest rates initiated by the Fed has had a devastating effect on bonds, which were massively purchased by banks, insurers and pension funds when rates were low. The question is whether this fragility in the banking and insurance sector is likely to trigger a credit crunch.

Inflation seems to be picking up again in the United States. In addition to the geopolitical situation, there is also likely to be a great deal of unrest on the US debt front.

Fifty years to the day after the Yom Kippur War, the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel stunned the world with its brutality and suddenness. It was anticipated that this war would last longer than the previous one (less than twenty days, from October 6 to 25, 1973), with the threat of global repercuss...

The current bond crash is historic. The EDV ETF, which measures the price of very long-dated US Treasuries, has fallen by 58% in just over a year. The bond market's current fall is now greater than that recorded by the equity market during the last financial crisis in 2008 (-56%).

As central banks continue their headlong rush to the top, they are faced with a Cornelian dilemma: bring inflation down to 2% at the risk of triggering an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, or allow prices to rise, which would call into question their mandate and lead to social upheaval.

The price of gold falls in London while it rises in China. The divergence reported in my last article continues this week. The Chinese gold and precious metals market seems to be following its own trajectory.