WSJ MarketWatch: America Just Imported A Mountain Of Gold. Here's Why That Should Scare You.
What do central banks know that the rest of us don't?
May 15, 2025
When a government drowns in debt it can't service, it pulls the only move left – it resets the game.
Something suspicious is happening with gold.
In the first two months of 2025, America quietly imported more than 600 tons of gold from London and Switzerland, according to World Gold Council data – enough to make King Midas blush.
The world's central banks – think of them as the world's biggest piggy banks – picked up 1,062 tons of gold last year, their third straight year on a buying binge. Countries haven't moved on gold this aggressively since the 1950s, back when Elvis was king and TVs were furniture. So here's a question: What exactly do they know that we don't?
Russia and China – America's two biggest geopolitical headaches – have spent the past two decades stockpiling gold at an unprecedented rate. Makes you wonder if they're anticipating trouble, or planning to cause it. Meanwhile, America's official gold reserves have sat at roughly 8,133 tons in total for years, according to the World Gold Council. There's about 4,603 tons of gold in Fort Knox alone.
Ever since Donald Trump returned to the White House, a flood of physical gold has poured into the U.S. – much of it rerouted from London and Switzerland, the world's main bullion hubs.
About 19 million ounces – almost 600 tons – of gold came into the U.S. in a single quarter from these two European sources. For perspective, that's 13% of what's estimated to be locked up in Fort Knox.
Gold markets usually traffic in paper promises, digital IOUs – transactions clean as a Las Vegas casino floor at dawn. Yet, now, actual gold bars are crossing oceans and landing in U.S. vaults. This isn't your usual market dance. Somebody, somewhere – someone with enough muscle to move bullion like Amazon moves books – is making a play.
Even Trump has suggested an audit of Fort Knox's gold – feeding, without evidence, conspiracy theories that the vaults might be empty – though officials insist nothing is amiss. Both the U.S. Mint and the U.S. Treasury have consistently stated that the gold is accounted for, with no significant movement in or out for years. In fact, in 2017 officials even visited Fort Knox and confirmed the bars were still there.
Why gold? Because when the money merry-go-round stops – and it always stops – gold is the last man standing. Paper currencies are group therapy with a printing press – we pretend they're stable, nod politely at the charts, and ignore the fact the whole room smells like someone lit the drapes.
A golden global reset
When a government drowns in debt it can't service, it pulls the only move left – it resets the game.
So picture this: a global reset. All those IOUs get reshuffled, the Monopoly board wiped clean. When a government drowns in debt it can't service, it pulls the only move left – it resets the game. Ray Dalio, founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, calls this the end of a debt cycle.
No fancy economics degree needed here. We're 81 years into the Bretton Woods system, when the typical cycle runs 50-75 years. The money printers run 24/7 until the music stops, the currency collapses like a shot horse, and everyone who bet on promises instead of hard assets finds themselves holding worthless paper.
This is not theory – it's the playbook governments have followed since Rome debased their coins. For the skeptics, Dalio lays it all out in his book "Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises," which you can download for free at Bridgewater.com.
When a currency is debased, folks holding gold will be the ones writing the new rules. It's not conspiracy; it's history. Bretton Woods? Gold-backed. Ancient Rome? Gold standard. Whoever has gold decides what money is, what it's worth, and who gets to spend it.
Keep an eye on gold
Portfolios filled with nothing but tech stocks, bonds, and vague promises might soon feel emptier than campaign pledges the morning after Election Day.
For investors, the message is simple and stark: Keep your eyes on gold. It hasn't climbed in price because it's pretty – it's climbing because a lot of smart, powerful people sense the ground shifting. Portfolios filled with nothing but tech stocks, bonds and vague promises might soon feel emptier than campaign pledges the morning after Election Day.
If central banks – those famously secretive, careful, cautious institutions – are stockpiling gold like paranoid survivalists hoarding canned beans and ammo, investors would be wise to reconsider their own financial basements.
** Information contained within this email should not be construed as Legal, Accounting, Tax or Investment advice. Patriot Gold Group is a Gold & Silver Dealer, representatives are NOT Licensed Financial Planners and do NOT give investing or tax advice.
|
