Month: July 2021

CNBC/Tanaya Macheel/7-13-2021

“Nassim Nicholas Taleb has reversed his stance on bitcoin.”

USAGOLD note: Bitcoin, says Taleb, “requires a sustained amount of interest to maintain it.” In direct contrast, “gold and other precious metals,” he says, “are largely maintenance free, do not degrade over an historical horizon, and do not require maintenance to refresh their physical properties over time.” It is not often in his career that Taleb has spoken favorably of gold – so these words came as a bit of a surprise. Ultimately, as history has shown time and again, there are only a few true stores of wealth, and gold and silver head the list. It is difficult to say the same thing about an instrument that would completely lose its utilitarian value, as Taleb points out, in the event of a grid shutdown – “particularly if it occurred during a financial collapse.”

The post Today’s top gold news & opinion first appeared on Today’s top gold news and opinion.

Singapore Bullion Market Association/Bart Malek/July 2021

“Silver tends to do well when there is a favorable environment for gold. Considering that the white metal has a historical volatility roughly double that of gold, and given that it is directionally synchronised, it should outperform gold into 2022. Indeed, this is exactly what has happened in a dramatic way since June 2020, as the gold-to-silver ratio fell by roughly half from the bad days of March 2020 to just 68 currently. Given our robust gold outlook and considering silver’s supply-demand fundamentals over the next few years, history tells us that silver still has plenty of relative value to recapture. TD Securities expects investors to favor silver for the same reasons as they do gold, but also desire it for its industrial bonafides.”

USAGOLD note: Malek goes on to say that “the investment community and traditional buyers of silver” bought 531 million ounces of silver in 2020 and will buy another 885 million ounces by the end of 2023. In other words, the torrid pace of investor interest in silver has not abated. It will be interesting to see how bar and coin premiums respond globally. Premiums zoomed higher beginning in 2020 and have not weakened in 2021. Premiums on the new American Silver Eagle are currently running at $10 to $12 over the melt value.

The post Today’s top gold news & opinion first appeared on Today’s top gold news and opinion.