Wars and Rumors of Wars
Gold in times of chaos and conflict!
When things get bad enough, especially on the economic front, many governments follow the advice the dying king gives his son in Shakespeare’s Henry IV:
“Be it thy course, to busy giddy minds
With foreign quarrels.”
Now, with red-hot inflation, the national debt spiraling up over $31 trillion, and the Biden administration adding trillions in new spending, it stands to reason that it would intervene anywhere and everywhere to divert attention from the dismal performance of Bidenomics.
Along the way, the world is quickly growing far more dangerous, a veritable tinder box waiting for a spark.
The jury may still be out on the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, but for us, the key question is cui bono? Who benefits? In any case, it is clearly an act of war.
North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan just days ago; a South Korean display of its prowess in response went awry. When its own missile misfired and hit the ground inside its own base, nearby residents were fearful that a war was underway. It does underscore the likelihood of mistakes and miscues ratcheting up dangerous standoffs. The US and south Korean responded by firing missiles into the sea.
A New York Times headline and lead describe Washington thinking and the escalation of risk over Taiwan. “U.S. Aims to Turn Taiwan Into Giant Weapons Depot,” is the headline, followed by this lead: “Officials say Taiwan needs to become a ‘porcupine’ with enough weapons to hold out if the Chinese military blockades and invades it, even if Washington decides to send troops.”
After three weeks, demonstrations and counterdemonstrations continue in the streets of Iran. When Iran grows unstable, it is good to remember that more than 20 percent of the world’s oil flows through the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pointed a finger at the US for planning the Iranian protests. Those who watched the US intervention that toppled the government in Ukraine in 2014, are not willing to deny the charge.
Russia has annexed the occupied Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. Meanwhile, the US has committed some $16 billion in aid and armaments to Ukraine. As if that is not enough for busy giddy minds, President Biden is openly calling for the US to remove Putin.
But there is more. No American should miss the news that Washington is loading up on anti-radiation medication. Saber-rattling and nuclear threats have risen to a level not seen since the Cold War, when the Soviet’s invasion of Afghanistan, the Iranian Revolution, leftist militarism on the rise in Central America, and fundamentalists occupying a holy site in Saudi Arabia, all conspired to help propel gold and silver to new all-time highs.
We spend a great deal of digital ink on describing the latest developments on the monetary and fiscal fronts, but the escalation of nuclear threats is enough to remind us that gold is the wealth protection haven par excellence in times of chaos and war.