Central Banks Are Hoarding Gold. Governments are Starting to Hoard People.
Central Banks Are Hoarding Gold. Governments are Starting to Hoard People.
Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man April 13, 2026
A few months sago, the German government quietly passed a law requiring men between the ages of 17 and 45 to obtain permission before leaving the country for more than three months. It wasn't announced in a press conference. It wasn't debated on the front page of any newspaper. It was buried in a routine update to the country's military service law, tucked in alongside provisions about registration systems and NATO readiness targets.
Nobody noticed for months— until a local newspaper flagged it last week.
The defense ministry is currently "drafting specific regulations for granting exemptions from the requirement for approval."
Translation: the law is already on the books, and they'll tell you what it means later.
But don’t worry— a defense ministry spokesperson stressed that military service remains "voluntary."
Germany isn't at war. This isn't martial law. It’s preparing for a changing world. And they’re not alone.
The US is also making its own updates. Starting in December, eligible men will automatically be registered for the military draft. Instead of relying on 18-year olds to fill out Selective Service forms on their own, the government will simply pull from federal databases and register on your behalf.
Congress also appears to be working on making it harder for Americans to take their money and leave.
On March 26, Senator Elizabeth Warren reintroduced the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, backed by more than 45 lawmakers. The bill proposes a 2% annual tax on net worth above $50 million, an additional 1% surtax on billionaires, and a 40% exit tax on wealthy Americans who try to renounce their citizenship to escape it.
It also includes aggressive new enforcement provisions: third-party reporting on hard-to-value assets, formulaic IRS valuation rules for private businesses and real estate, and a 30% minimum audit rate on everyone the bill covers.
The most productive people in America will be forced to waste countless hours on compliance, instead of working to create prosperity.
That isn't just a tax. It's a framework for tracking private wealth— and penalizing anyone who tries to opt out and take it somewhere else.
Governments don't build this kind of infrastructure unless they think they might use it. Germany is making sure it can stop fighting-age men from leaving. The United States is making sure it is ready to press people into service.
And it is building a stronger fence around the most productive tax cattle so it can milk them for all they’re worth.
Governments are clearly planning for a period of conflict.
One other sign is that they are securing physical, real asset reserves.
For the last two years, the world's central banks have been buying physical gold faster than at any point in modern history.
At the same time, they have been quietly selling US Treasuries. And the old dynamic has inverted: the kinds of global shocks that used to send investors stampeding into Treasuries as the world's safe haven are now sending them the other way.
Take the Iran war as an example: normally when there’s a major conflict, foreign countries BUY lots of US government bonds as a safe haven. But since late February, foreign central banks have SOLD over $80 billion worth of US Treasury securities.
This reduction in foreign demand for US government bonds is also a key reason why interest rates have risen— from 3.97% before the war started, to 4.33% today.
But this isn’t a sudden change of heart. Foreign governments and central banks have been losing faith in the US for years.
For decades after World War II, countries around the world relied on an America-dominated framework regarding trade, capital, and energy.
This postwar system required trust in the United States, trust that the rules would be stable, and trust that agreements would be honored.
But that trust is vanishing quickly.
The humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan. Routine weaponization of the US dollar for political goals. Budget deficits spiraling and a $39 trillion national debt. A government that shuts down every time it tries to pass a budget.
From a foreign government official's perspective, physical gold sitting in a vault is a much safer bet than loaning money to the US Treasury.
Near-record gold prices and surging interest rates in the Treasury market are the surest signs yet that the postwar era of seamless global cooperation is unwinding... and inverting.
In a cooperative world, foreign nations are willing to depend on others. In a fragmented, conflict-prone world, governments secure resources. They secure their supply chains. They secure their energy. They secure their financial reserves.
And eventually... inevitably... they secure their people — the livestock can't be allowed to wander off the farm before it's time to milk them for taxes or march them off to war.
For now, capital can still flow somewhat freely. You can still apply for legal residency in another country. You can still hold gold overseas in a stable, neutral jurisdiction.
The window is still open to create a Plan B so you can have the options to come at whatever happens from a position of strength. And if you’re not sure how to get started, I would really encourage you to check out our publication Plan B Confidential.
To your freedom, James Hickman Co-Founder, Schiff Sovereign LLC