Editor’s Commentary: Our primary allegiance in journalism is to the truth. The article below from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times does a fine job of highlighting both the positives and negatives anticipated for gold this year. That’s important to us because even though our main sponsors specialize in precious metals, we would never publish anything as news or commentary that spreads falsehoods for the sake of driving gold sales.
With that said, my personal opinion is that precious metals are the smartest money right now for protecting wealth and retirement from attacks on multiple fronts. We did not accept precious metals sponsors before mid-2021 because before then, I didn’t see a need. Even during the early stages of Pandemic Panic Theater I remained confident that Americans didn’t need to shift large portions of their portfolios to precious metals. Things have obviously changed now, which is why we vetted out 28 precious metals companies to see who was donating to Democrats, who was working with the Chinese Communist Party, and who was doing the bidding of the World Economic Forum. Out of those 28, we only found three we could consider to be true America First companies. With that said, here’s Fan Yu’s article about the future of gold…
After a tumultuous several months, gold prices have enjoyed a decent run up in Q4 2022. Recent price movement was helped by the dollar’s retreat, hopes that the Federal Reserve will slow down its aggressive monetary tightening, and renewed demand for the metal from emerging markets.
Is this the beginning of a multi-year bull market in gold? To be fair, gold investors have endured years of underperformance. Gold closed 2022 on two consecutive down years.
The World Gold Council, in its 2023 outlook report, said gold will enjoy a “stable but positive performance” in the year ahead. It’s not an outright bullish view, as central banks around the world will continue to maintain a strong bias to fight inflation—and keep interest rates high, a deterrent to gold price increasing. But recession is near inevitable in many economies. Gold typically performs very well in classical recessionary economic environment.
Another supportive fact pattern to a rebound in gold price is continued decline in the U.S. dollar. The World Gold Council’s research indicates that peaking dollar value has historically been positive for gold, with a positive spot price movement during the 12 months after the dollar has peaked.
Gold investors should pay close attention to the dollar. Gold’s approximately 10 percent price increase during the fourth quarter of 2022 very closely tracked to the dollar’s decline during the same period.
Cooling inflation—and therefore rate-hike expectations—is only one factor going against the dollar. Another factor is improving expectations for economic growth outside the United States, such as in China and Europe.
China’s reopening will put further pressure on the dollar. Beijing during the last week of December announced the rollback of inbound quarantine in January. This measure is expected to boost the local economy and stimulate foreign investment in the country.
Geopolitical risk is another major determinant of gold prices. Political uncertainty and war makes gold a valuable tail risk hedge.
Saxo Bank’s Head of Commodity Strategy Ole Hansen recently predicted that gold will top $3,000 per ounce in 2023 due to “war economy mentality of self reliance and minimizing holdings of foreign FX reserves, preferring gold.” This coincides with another prediction that countries will move to invest in locking in energy and commodity resources as well as supply chain security. In addition to gold itself, Saxo is also bullish on junior gold miners.
No doubt this view has been informed by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, and China’s continued saber-rattling against Taiwan. Russia’s largest bank—SberBank—on Dec. 26 announced launching a gold-backed digital financial asset, claiming that it offers an “alternative” investment amidst de-dollarization.
Central banks have been some of the biggest buyers of gold this year. In Q3 2022, central banks added a record 399 tons of gold, according to World Gold Council data. Among them, China has been one of the biggest buyers. Beijing is well known in its intentions to cut U.S. dollar dependency, and it had a front-row seat to Russia being locked out of the dollar-dominated global financial system, faced with price caps and sanctions against its energy exports and its overseas foreign exchange assets frozen.
There have been rumblings of BRICS nations (Brazil, India, China, Russia, and South Africa) and their allies banding together to develop a new reserve currency backed by commodities such as gold and oil. No such plans have been officially announced, but certain BRICS nations have been preparing to diversify away from the U.S. dollar for years.
Despite the positive backdrop, there are risks that gold will continue to underperform.
The worst-case scenario would include more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and keeping monetary conditions tight despite an economic recession. However, this policy path would go against the Fed’s recent history and philosophy.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
Here is the bottom line my friends, and this says it all: “If you do not have it in your possession, you don’t own it”. Always, always always purchase precious metals in small bar forms and do keep your purchase of them close to the vest. If you buy coinage because you believe they will be more fungible then you are paying a high price for that misconception. Not only are coins way over-priced with their high premiums, the dealers know you have bought into coins because they are pretty.
I try to have both. I do agree with your point. The counter argument is the coins are a lot harder to counterfeit and very few people will have the means to test bars. It’s why I try to have both, both sides of the debate make complete sense.
Hey. Gold was the best investment among all asset classes, exc maybe Real Estate, in 2022. I 2023 it will soar due to continuing inflation that will be accommodate by fed. and crypto collapse money looking to go somewhere. Rumple may be right exc gold bars at 2K+ an ounce is a little hard to barter with. Pre 1964 silver coins in good condition are not fakeable and easy to trade.
Gold one oz. coins and silver one oz. are the easiet to ‘turn’. I wouldn’t trust a ‘bar’ over a solid ‘coin’.