Peter C. Earle

At the end, Earle argues fundamental value has always resided in commodities and hard goods such as land, gold, and silver, while much of financialization is built on flimsy foundations. In a real economic collapse or hardship, those real-asset values would be rediscovered, making commodities and hard assets a crisis hedge.

Earle argues the gold move is a structural remonetization, not a speculative spike: central banks are buying at the fastest pace in decades, especially BRICS including China and India, and institutions are hedging away from the dollar after Russia was cut out of SWIFT. Dollar-policy uncertainty from the Mar-a-Lago Accord and tariffs, plus broad geopolitical instability, add demand. Gold has risen despite decent equities and still-high nominal rates, and ETF and physical demand has absorbed large Russian liquidation supply, indicating deep demand. He expects precious-metals exposure, specifically gold and silver, to become more imperative in portfolios in the short-to-medium term, playing a role similar to bonds as fiat currencies weaken; he does not claim a precise price path, saying gold could fall to 2,000-2,500 or rise to 6,000.

Earle argues the gold move is a structural remonetization, not a speculative spike: central banks are buying at the fastest pace in decades, especially BRICS including China and India, and institutions are hedging away from the dollar after Russia was cut out of SWIFT. Dollar-policy uncertainty from the Mar-a-Lago Accord and tariffs, plus broad geopolitical instability, add demand. Gold has risen despite decent equities and still-high nominal rates, and ETF and physical demand has absorbed large Russian liquidation supply, indicating deep demand. He expects precious-metals exposure, specifically gold and silver, to become more imperative in portfolios in the short-to-medium term, playing a role similar to bonds as fiat currencies weaken; he does not claim a precise price path, saying gold could fall to 2,000-2,500 or rise to 6,000.