The loop in which we’re caught is by now brutally transparent: central banks, led by the U.S. Federal Reserve, are forced to keep interest rates at virtually zero or numerous mainstream economies face ruin. We don’t need to economically define what that means: given the precarious state of the Eurozone, or Japan, or the bubble characteristics of U.S. stocks or Chinese or Canadian real estate, even a hiccup in interest rates could lead to economic pneumonia. It won’t take much to send the global economy into deep recession, massively swell the ranks of the unemployed, and thus even further aggravate the problem of wealth disparity.
Is there any asset class that offers value? The massive debasement of the world’s key currencies suggests that a gold holding, ideally in physical and segregated form, makes more sense than ever—especially at these prices.