Hard assets become popular when confidence in government declines. However, having a large amount of hard assets does not necessarily mean a country is the most economically powerful. For instance, Russia has the largest reserves of hard assets, approximately 75 trillion. Yet Russian currency is not considered a reserve. Countries with little hard asset reserves do become reserve currencies. Japan, Germany, and others had little gold, but their currencies experienced significant growth after World War 2. It's the people, the production, and the consumer who create a powerful currency, not a hard asset. Otherwise, Russia would have the top reserve currency.
As you mentioned, silver has deep roots in economic history. Silver, at one time, was more valuable than gold. Silver has been used throughout every century. Silver is critical for industry. However, we currently face severe geopolitical issues, and the most significant factor affecting confidence in the currency is war. War destroys economics. Ignore all the talk of peace, it's not going to happen. Silver is not telling us that the US dollar is collapsing, but rather that we will see wars on an international scale starting in 2026.
Way too many people are asleep to this, and, what's about to happen. They are living in a fools paradise if they think things are going to continue like they are. The 'crooks'(Govs), 'deep state' etc, have for a long time now, known what's about to happen, and are just lying through 'their' teeth to the voting people of the Countries they are supposed to be 'running', and i use that term loosely. How many people out there know that the 'banks' have, or, are about to, dump your Super, and then apparently, it ends up in the hands of the 'taxation' Dept, a bit like giving a kid a jar of lollies with out a lid. Kiss your 'Super' good bye if that happens, nothing surer.
The silver price rose 10% the other day and 20% in the last 2 weeks. The majority of buyers are demanding delivery of the actual silver since it has been sold over and over again on paper. We may be seeing the crash of the silver derivative market just like the crash of derivatives in previous financial crisis's. Remember, the financial system is tightly connected. The crash of one can have a domino effect on all the others.
Many say the price of silver has been controlled /kept repressed for decades by the too big to fail banks who have massive short positions. Their 'shorts' just imploded with the current rise in prices so they turned to the FED repo market to bail them out. A $17 billion bailout happened on Dec. 26th. So the Fed is going to be printing lots of money again, leading to hyperinflation.
The rest of the world is getting rid of the dollar (de-dollarization) and Treasury bonds and going into the BRICS system. The BRICS system is currently in test mode and may be operational very soon. They will use gold as part of their formula for international settlements. This will eliminate the other countries need to own dollars to do international trade.
Many central banks are buying lots of gold as well as silver and putting it in their vaults. The US financial system has become too risky after the confiscation of the Russian assets as well as the size of our debt and the need to continually borrow just to function.
Silver has just been declared a strategic mineral by the US gov't and China has put export controls on it after Jan. 1. The world uses more silver each year than is mined and it can't be recycled from the missiles, solar panels, EV and electronics that heavily depend on it.
Ed Dowd called the 10% rise in the price of silver in one day a 4 to 5 sigma event. That's like getting struck by lightening.
It could be a bumpy ride for the next few years for the fiat dollar and the US economy.
The silver standard will not return because there is too much industrial demand for silver to permit that to happen. The consequence of any attempt to do so is industrial demand draining the money supply as happened in the past.
and I believe that the following are true:
(1) the US continued to mint silver coins up until 1965, and issued redeemable silver certificates until 1964. These certifcates remained redeemable until 1968.
(2) Nixon removed gold backing in 1971 - there was no silver backing at that time.
"I was reminded of the magic of highly polished silver in September 2013, when my brother and I were able to attend a friends and family breakfast for Oracle Team USA at the 2013 America’s Cup yacht race on San Francisco Bay."
Not many classical pirates made it to 40. Nor should they have.
Steve Jobs —“It’s better to be a pirate than to join the navy!”— made it to 56.
Larry Ellison is 81.
I read (in a book … the marvel(comics)ous internet doesn’t disclose any such dirty laundry, at least not on the first page of search returns) that five of the pirate tribe that flew the flag Medici were tried & convicted & executed before one of them figured out smooth criminality —banking— papered over & protected from consequences better even as it facilitated robbery & theft & “profitable” mayhem-carnage on a much grander scale.
“Lycurgas,” of the land-pirates who flew the Spartan flag, “created this bizarre iron money -Pelanor- … heavy, bulky … crucial step: deliberate destruction of its commodity value: quenched the still hot iron discs in vinegar making them brittle, weak & prone to rust & useless as metal … “value” was pure fiat…” cult of personality-persona to fill the tigerless tanks with vicarious verisimilitudes of virtue & virility & Vendetta V’s for as far as immobile history can oh, say can you see … or holy see. From this “mysteriously” out of print book, comes the red in tooth & claw read morsel of cannibalized human flesh:
Lycurgas’s posterity, or reincarnation —COMEX (whoever the pirates wielding that cutlass were)— showed those Hunt bros who was alpha & that their dogs wouldn’t be allowed to hunt.
Horace Tabor, The Bonanza King of Leadville & The Silver King, was shown the great & powerful Oz’s door similarly. Along with the Free Silver populist movement — a whole lot of normal, average, ordinary people.
Horace spent his devastated last years laboring in the mines & his last year as a postmaster. “Baby Doe” Tabor returned to Leadville & froze to death there after Horace died.
Piratical pens are bloodier than cutlasses.
And it doesn’t take an oracle to know that piratical pens have been continuously writing the tag teaming of “america” —the natives who were here first & the notionals/collateral who flooded them out— so as to cups runneth over for the pirates.
And, just in case the false compartment isn’t yet found, the navy —gunboat diplomacy & Venezuelan drugrunners— *is* pirates.
So,I’d be interested to know how & why ya’ll are “friends & family” connected to the pirates.
Because, like Kennedy’s dream of all good little populists being “wearables” en-strapped by ’28 (& is it true he has committed sizable treasure chest to “investments” in those jolly roger gadjeteers?) that kind of name-drop tell & Fight Club Janus-facedness is a bold contradiction … like Palantir patria’s claims of libertarianism is a hairy-bald contradiction.
John, if you have not read Cathy O'Brien's book Transformation of America yet, please do. Jimmy Buffet is not one to be celebrated. Get her book from her website or from the Amazon link on her site. There are fake, altered copies of her book circulating.
Martin Armstrong, who has insight into trading currencies, has consistently argued against the "hard asset replacement of the dollar" arguments. Here's a Grok4 summary of his views, based on my prompt asking if Armstrong Economics forecasts replacement of the dollar by hard assets in U.S. and global transactions:
No, Armstrong Economics (Martin Armstrong and his Socrates forecasting platform) does not forecast the replacement of the US dollar by hard assets (such as gold, commodities, or other tangible assets) in US or global financial transactions.
Armstrong consistently argues against a return to a gold standard or any hard asset-backed system for currencies. He views such ideas as misguided, stating that precious metals are useful for personal wealth preservation during crises but have never prevented economic collapses and are not a viable solution for monetary systems. He criticizes gold-backed currency proposals (e.g., from BRICS) and calls the gold standard "garbage."
Instead, his forecasts emphasize:
* The dollar remaining the dominant reserve currency well into the future, with meaningful de-dollarization "nonsense" until at least after 2032.
* A strong dollar rally in the near term (into 2025 and beyond), driven by global capital flows, sovereign debt crises (especially in Europe), and geopolitical tensions.
* Potential long-term risks to the dollar from excessive deficits or loss of confidence, but these lead to inflation or crises within the fiat system, not a shift to hard assets replacing the dollar in transactions.
* In crises, tangible assets like gold may rise alongside the dollar and US stocks as safe havens, but this is portfolio diversification, not a systemic replacement of the dollar.
Armstrong dismisses perpetual predictions of dollar collapse (common since the 1970s) as based on outdated mercantilist theories requiring commodity backing, which he argues history disproves. He sees alternatives like CBDCs or IMF digital currencies as more likely threats, but not hard assets taking over transactions.
Sounds like Armstrong is a MMF disciple. I don’t care what I hold in my hand when I make a purchase - whether it’s my phone, a plastic card, a paper note or a gold coin. That by itself is irrelevant. What I do care about is the soundness of my money, for me and for my grandchildren. Gold and Silver were valuable in the US monetary system because they kept the system honest, they prevented the bacchanalian looting of the US Treasury via the printing of trillions of USDs(most of it in the past 10 years!) out of thin air, with nothing behind the new money other than a keystroke. No collateral, no savings, nothing. This is the wildly irresponsible problem that is going to bring the whole system down and which the powers that be are trying desperately to avoid with some kind of digital magic(which will certainly leave many holding the digital bag). This is the “you’ll own nothing and be happy” vision. The problem gets solved by the Great Reset, which financially looks like a global scale bail-in, what David Webb warned us about in The Great Taking. Armstrong is correct in noting that physical metal currencies probably won’t be back, that is if the globalists have their way. Time will tell.
I've was recently wondering where you have been John? But with the overwhelming incidence of true and unexplained crime of late, I just figured you were working on a new book (or two).
Our teen Son has been learning about investing in precious metals including silver so I found this interesting and enlightening! Will share with him.
Hard assets become popular when confidence in government declines. However, having a large amount of hard assets does not necessarily mean a country is the most economically powerful. For instance, Russia has the largest reserves of hard assets, approximately 75 trillion. Yet Russian currency is not considered a reserve. Countries with little hard asset reserves do become reserve currencies. Japan, Germany, and others had little gold, but their currencies experienced significant growth after World War 2. It's the people, the production, and the consumer who create a powerful currency, not a hard asset. Otherwise, Russia would have the top reserve currency.
As you mentioned, silver has deep roots in economic history. Silver, at one time, was more valuable than gold. Silver has been used throughout every century. Silver is critical for industry. However, we currently face severe geopolitical issues, and the most significant factor affecting confidence in the currency is war. War destroys economics. Ignore all the talk of peace, it's not going to happen. Silver is not telling us that the US dollar is collapsing, but rather that we will see wars on an international scale starting in 2026.
that is what makes the brics money so intriguing....
they have a population. they have some production.
and they have energy.... which is needed in heavy manufacturing.
and nitrogen fertilizer....
The US dollar is a reserve currency due to oil, but that will change soon.
Way too many people are asleep to this, and, what's about to happen. They are living in a fools paradise if they think things are going to continue like they are. The 'crooks'(Govs), 'deep state' etc, have for a long time now, known what's about to happen, and are just lying through 'their' teeth to the voting people of the Countries they are supposed to be 'running', and i use that term loosely. How many people out there know that the 'banks' have, or, are about to, dump your Super, and then apparently, it ends up in the hands of the 'taxation' Dept, a bit like giving a kid a jar of lollies with out a lid. Kiss your 'Super' good bye if that happens, nothing surer.
Super?
The silver price rose 10% the other day and 20% in the last 2 weeks. The majority of buyers are demanding delivery of the actual silver since it has been sold over and over again on paper. We may be seeing the crash of the silver derivative market just like the crash of derivatives in previous financial crisis's. Remember, the financial system is tightly connected. The crash of one can have a domino effect on all the others.
Many say the price of silver has been controlled /kept repressed for decades by the too big to fail banks who have massive short positions. Their 'shorts' just imploded with the current rise in prices so they turned to the FED repo market to bail them out. A $17 billion bailout happened on Dec. 26th. So the Fed is going to be printing lots of money again, leading to hyperinflation.
The rest of the world is getting rid of the dollar (de-dollarization) and Treasury bonds and going into the BRICS system. The BRICS system is currently in test mode and may be operational very soon. They will use gold as part of their formula for international settlements. This will eliminate the other countries need to own dollars to do international trade.
Many central banks are buying lots of gold as well as silver and putting it in their vaults. The US financial system has become too risky after the confiscation of the Russian assets as well as the size of our debt and the need to continually borrow just to function.
Silver has just been declared a strategic mineral by the US gov't and China has put export controls on it after Jan. 1. The world uses more silver each year than is mined and it can't be recycled from the missiles, solar panels, EV and electronics that heavily depend on it.
Ed Dowd called the 10% rise in the price of silver in one day a 4 to 5 sigma event. That's like getting struck by lightening.
It could be a bumpy ride for the next few years for the fiat dollar and the US economy.
The silver standard will not return because there is too much industrial demand for silver to permit that to happen. The consequence of any attempt to do so is industrial demand draining the money supply as happened in the past.
and I believe that the following are true:
(1) the US continued to mint silver coins up until 1965, and issued redeemable silver certificates until 1964. These certifcates remained redeemable until 1968.
(2) Nixon removed gold backing in 1971 - there was no silver backing at that time.
Gold and silver are actual money and an excellent hedge against stupid government economic action.
"I was reminded of the magic of highly polished silver in September 2013, when my brother and I were able to attend a friends and family breakfast for Oracle Team USA at the 2013 America’s Cup yacht race on San Francisco Bay."
Not many classical pirates made it to 40. Nor should they have.
Steve Jobs —“It’s better to be a pirate than to join the navy!”— made it to 56.
Larry Ellison is 81.
I read (in a book … the marvel(comics)ous internet doesn’t disclose any such dirty laundry, at least not on the first page of search returns) that five of the pirate tribe that flew the flag Medici were tried & convicted & executed before one of them figured out smooth criminality —banking— papered over & protected from consequences better even as it facilitated robbery & theft & “profitable” mayhem-carnage on a much grander scale.
“Lycurgas,” of the land-pirates who flew the Spartan flag, “created this bizarre iron money -Pelanor- … heavy, bulky … crucial step: deliberate destruction of its commodity value: quenched the still hot iron discs in vinegar making them brittle, weak & prone to rust & useless as metal … “value” was pure fiat…” cult of personality-persona to fill the tigerless tanks with vicarious verisimilitudes of virtue & virility & Vendetta V’s for as far as immobile history can oh, say can you see … or holy see. From this “mysteriously” out of print book, comes the red in tooth & claw read morsel of cannibalized human flesh:
https://soundcloud.com/thedukereport/the-lost-science-of-money?utm_source=dukereportbooks.com&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fthedukereport%252Fthe-lost-science-of-money
Lycurgas Greek meaning is “wolf.”
Lycurgas’s posterity, or reincarnation —COMEX (whoever the pirates wielding that cutlass were)— showed those Hunt bros who was alpha & that their dogs wouldn’t be allowed to hunt.
Horace Tabor, The Bonanza King of Leadville & The Silver King, was shown the great & powerful Oz’s door similarly. Along with the Free Silver populist movement — a whole lot of normal, average, ordinary people.
Horace spent his devastated last years laboring in the mines & his last year as a postmaster. “Baby Doe” Tabor returned to Leadville & froze to death there after Horace died.
Piratical pens are bloodier than cutlasses.
And it doesn’t take an oracle to know that piratical pens have been continuously writing the tag teaming of “america” —the natives who were here first & the notionals/collateral who flooded them out— so as to cups runneth over for the pirates.
And, just in case the false compartment isn’t yet found, the navy —gunboat diplomacy & Venezuelan drugrunners— *is* pirates.
So,I’d be interested to know how & why ya’ll are “friends & family” connected to the pirates.
Because, like Kennedy’s dream of all good little populists being “wearables” en-strapped by ’28 (& is it true he has committed sizable treasure chest to “investments” in those jolly roger gadjeteers?) that kind of name-drop tell & Fight Club Janus-facedness is a bold contradiction … like Palantir patria’s claims of libertarianism is a hairy-bald contradiction.
John, if you have not read Cathy O'Brien's book Transformation of America yet, please do. Jimmy Buffet is not one to be celebrated. Get her book from her website or from the Amazon link on her site. There are fake, altered copies of her book circulating.
Martin Armstrong, who has insight into trading currencies, has consistently argued against the "hard asset replacement of the dollar" arguments. Here's a Grok4 summary of his views, based on my prompt asking if Armstrong Economics forecasts replacement of the dollar by hard assets in U.S. and global transactions:
No, Armstrong Economics (Martin Armstrong and his Socrates forecasting platform) does not forecast the replacement of the US dollar by hard assets (such as gold, commodities, or other tangible assets) in US or global financial transactions.
Armstrong consistently argues against a return to a gold standard or any hard asset-backed system for currencies. He views such ideas as misguided, stating that precious metals are useful for personal wealth preservation during crises but have never prevented economic collapses and are not a viable solution for monetary systems. He criticizes gold-backed currency proposals (e.g., from BRICS) and calls the gold standard "garbage."
Instead, his forecasts emphasize:
* The dollar remaining the dominant reserve currency well into the future, with meaningful de-dollarization "nonsense" until at least after 2032.
* A strong dollar rally in the near term (into 2025 and beyond), driven by global capital flows, sovereign debt crises (especially in Europe), and geopolitical tensions.
* Potential long-term risks to the dollar from excessive deficits or loss of confidence, but these lead to inflation or crises within the fiat system, not a shift to hard assets replacing the dollar in transactions.
* In crises, tangible assets like gold may rise alongside the dollar and US stocks as safe havens, but this is portfolio diversification, not a systemic replacement of the dollar.
Armstrong dismisses perpetual predictions of dollar collapse (common since the 1970s) as based on outdated mercantilist theories requiring commodity backing, which he argues history disproves. He sees alternatives like CBDCs or IMF digital currencies as more likely threats, but not hard assets taking over transactions.
Sounds like Armstrong is a MMF disciple. I don’t care what I hold in my hand when I make a purchase - whether it’s my phone, a plastic card, a paper note or a gold coin. That by itself is irrelevant. What I do care about is the soundness of my money, for me and for my grandchildren. Gold and Silver were valuable in the US monetary system because they kept the system honest, they prevented the bacchanalian looting of the US Treasury via the printing of trillions of USDs(most of it in the past 10 years!) out of thin air, with nothing behind the new money other than a keystroke. No collateral, no savings, nothing. This is the wildly irresponsible problem that is going to bring the whole system down and which the powers that be are trying desperately to avoid with some kind of digital magic(which will certainly leave many holding the digital bag). This is the “you’ll own nothing and be happy” vision. The problem gets solved by the Great Reset, which financially looks like a global scale bail-in, what David Webb warned us about in The Great Taking. Armstrong is correct in noting that physical metal currencies probably won’t be back, that is if the globalists have their way. Time will tell.
Armstrong is wrong. The US empire and its dollar are headed to the crapper.
I've was recently wondering where you have been John? But with the overwhelming incidence of true and unexplained crime of late, I just figured you were working on a new book (or two).
Thanks , fascinating post!