Blog
The Discipline Volatility Demands
Yesterday morning, I woke up to a news notification that came through at 1:59am, one of those alerts that feels designed to intrude rather than inform, and it read, with characteristic economy and implied urgency, “Precious metals tumble”. It transpired, shortly afterwards, that silver had fallen by around six dollars on the news that there […]
Seven Risks For Silver Investors To Pay Attention To
The recent move in silver has unsettled a lot of people. It has unsettled people not because of the price itself, but because it no longer behaves the way many expected it to. Silver is no longer trading simply as gold’s understudy. Industrial demand has exceeded mine supply for five consecutive years, liquidity has thinned, […]
How Central Bank Independence Is Being Undermined in Plain Sight
You will have been aware of the news over the past few days regarding the Department of Justice investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Gold has moved decisively higher, setting new all-time highs above $4,600 per ounce. According to the World Gold Council, this move is not yet technically extreme, and importantly, it reflects […]
Real Assets in an Age of Resource Anxiety
In such an environment, ownership of real assets represents an adjustment to changing conditions rather than an expression of alarm. It acknowledges a world in which material constraints once again exert influence over economic and political outcomes. Resource politics has returned to the centre of economic life. The period that followed the collapse of the […]
Friday Read: The Price of Trust Is Rising
In the 18th Century, Britain discovered a modern miracle: a financial scheme that promised safety, yield, and national prosperity all at once. The South Sea Company would refinance government debt, enrich the public, and, by the logic of the day, turn paper into something close to certainty. Share prices rose, confidence rose faster, and for […]
Will This Private Company Move the Gold Price?
Gold and silver are both stronger this week, with gold above $4,130 and silver near $51. Markets are bracing for a wave of US data over the next 48 hours, from inflation numbers to GDP revisions, and it is already shaping sentiment across currencies and commodities. There is also movement on the geopolitical front. US […]
The Real Cost of Not Holding Gold as 2025 Ends
For many years the mainstream’s principal argument against gold was that it paid nothing. This was repeated often enough that it acquired the status of received wisdom. Investors were invited to observe the metal, observe the income generated elsewhere, and conclude that gold was an interesting but essentially idle asset. That view belonged to a […]
Algorithms, Confidence Games and the Fragility of Big Narratives
Every era has its preferred prophets. In the 1920s it was journalists urging households to buy stocks on margin. More recently it was the cryptocurrency evangelists who promised a future where you could buy bitcoin or a banana with the same keystroke. Today we have traded tarot cards for algorithms and convinced ourselves that the […]
Kintsugi and the Cracks in the Financial System
In Japan, when a finely made bowl is broken, it is not discarded or hidden away. It is repaired with lacquer mixed with gold powder, the seams left visible and gleaming. The practice is known as Kintsugi, or “golden joinery”, and it transforms what was once considered ruined into something of even greater worth. The […]
