Money

In this interview Max Keiser and Egon von Greyerz discuss the enormous pressures in the financial system and the coming stampede into gold.

Christine Lagarde was appointed President of the European Central Bank (ECB) on July 2, replacing Mario Draghi. But what can we really expect from the former IMF President, who never headed a central bank, unlike her predecessors?

With the economy as mismanaged as it is today, the government does all the work for us by unlimited money printing and credit expansion. And that work will now accelerate. So all we need to do is to ride the government wave of destruction. Gold will continue to reveal how badly governments are doing.

There’s a powerful constant amid the to-and-fro of the U.S.-China trade war as currency policy gets dragged into the standoff between the world’s two top economies: Beijing wants more gold in its reserves.

The autumn of 2019 will see a major shift in sentiment as markets turn from a secular bull to a secular bear. We are likely to see major crashes in many global stock markets. Virtually no one is prepared for this so there will be both panic and despair.

Gold demand was 1,123t in Q2, up 8% y-o-y. H1 demand jumped to a three-year high of 2,181.7t, largely due to record-breaking central bank purchases.

As panic in markets start and investors quickly turn from the stock market euphoria of the past to total fear, some investors will rush to buy wealth preservation assets. Initially there will be some willing sellers and gold will rise to multiples of the current price. But as the paper gold market collapses, there will be panic and at that point gold will go “no offer”.

European central banks have decided not to extend a 20-year-old agreement to coordinate their gold sales, noting that they have no plans to sell large amounts of the metal.

Confidence and euphoria will turn to fear and despair. Once the market realises that this time central banks have no weapons left in their armoury and that money printing or lower rates have no effect, there will be real panic.

Silver had risen to $ 50 in 1980 and I am expecting an identical increase towards $ 500 in the next years, in particular because of the RESET related to the Monetary Reform.