Yes, there are shocking scandals that appear now and again. Yes there is increasing levels of debt. Yes, there is tension among nations as Mr Trump looks to 'make America great again.
BUT
What has that got to do with gold?
The world overall is a far better place than it was 5, 10, 15 years ago. Wealth and living conditions are improving everywhere.
There appears to be plenty of cliché around gold - at the top of the list is that gold is where money flows when everything else is too risky. A problem is there is little evidence of that.
Just because it has behaved in a way in the past doesn't mean it will again in the future.
I see it as little more than a pseudo-currency. It will move up and down within a range without breaking out massively, indefinitely. A slight modification to that is add a little value (very little) each year to allow for inflationary costs in mining the stuff.
Anything could happen. There might be a financial eruption that dwarfs the GFC; asset growth fueled on monetary support suggests that could be possible - and a return to gold-backed money. Now that would put a rocket up gold. Then again, electronic money might takeover and turn gold into nothing but a decoration sideshow. Now that would curtail any great growth spurt.
As a non-incoming producing asset it is highly unpredictable. It seems to me, gold is more akin to a gamblers chip, speculative movements.
Despite all that, I do wonder why some nations appear to be hoarding gold. Therein might be a clue to the future but it is all guesswork. I suppose in the scheme of things the heading of gold is like shoving a few notes under the mattress to nations. It is irrelevant to the scale of money supply.
Not a purposeful dig at gold. I am actually positive in the medium term but only because I 'guess' speculators, having driven paper gold down, will soon reverse to continue the yo yo process.
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