We Left Gold in 1971... Now the World Is Leaving the Dollar
We Left Gold in 1971... Now the World Is Leaving the Dollar
Peter Schiff: 8-17-2026
Peter Schiff on plunging retail sales, sticky inflation, the Fed's stealth QE, and why the world is now leaving the dollar standard.
Retail sales just plunged, producer prices are still rising, and the Fed is quietly expanding its balance sheet again.
The July data tells the story the markets keep ignoring. Retail sales fell 0.6 percent, the biggest drop in over a year, and since those numbers are not adjusted for inflation, real spending fell even further.
We Left Gold in 1971... Now the World Is Leaving the Dollar
Peter Schiff: 8-17-2026
Peter Schiff on plunging retail sales, sticky inflation, the Fed's stealth QE, and why the world is now leaving the dollar standard.
Retail sales just plunged, producer prices are still rising, and the Fed is quietly expanding its balance sheet again.
The July data tells the story the markets keep ignoring. Retail sales fell 0.6 percent, the biggest drop in over a year, and since those numbers are not adjusted for inflation, real spending fell even further.
Consumer sentiment sank to 51 as households braced for 4.3 percent inflation, more than double the Fed's 2 percent target. Producer prices rose 4.7 percent year over year, and instead of rallying on the weak data, the bond market sold off to its lowest weekly close of the year, with the 30-year at 5.27 percent.
Meanwhile the Fed expanded its balance sheet by more than 21 billion dollars in two weeks, with the national debt about 80 billion dollars away from 40 trillion.
Peter marks 55 years since Nixon closed the gold window and calls it what it was: a 100 percent default on America's creditors.
His father Irwin testified against removing gold backing in 1968, and the 1970s proved him right. Now the sequel is underway.
The world is going off the dollar standard the way America went off gold, and the next leg down in the American standard of living has already started. Gold near 4,400 dollars and silver above 66 are the market's verdict.
Chapters:
00:00 Middle Class Squeeze
01:01 PPI Breakdown
04:08 Fed Balance Sheet Surge
05:23 Stagflation Signals
08:28 Bond Market Warning
11:39 Greenspan and 1987 Echoes
14:48 Stocks vs Bonds Diverge
15:33 Gold Shines Bitcoin Slips
18:16 Bitcoin Bear Case
21:08 Iran Sanctions and Oil
26:30 Nixon Gold Standard Legacy
28:52 Inflation Math Reality
29:30 Video Plug Fiat Failure
30:19 Electric Catamaran Tour
34:30 Cruising Plans Tax Credit
37:02 Gold Standard Break Explained
48:09 Dollar Standard Ending
Central Banks Choose Between Gold and Dollars. Gold Is Winning
Central Banks Choose Between Gold and Dollars. Gold Is Winning
Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man) August 10, 2026
Every country on earth keeps a rainy-day fund: a pile of emergency savings, managed by its central bank, set aside for wars, crises, and currency runs.
These stockpiles of cash around the world are known as a nation’s “reserves”, and the people who manage those funds are called reserve managers.
Central Banks Choose Between Gold and Dollars. Gold Is Winning
Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man) August 10, 2026
Every country on earth keeps a rainy-day fund: a pile of emergency savings, managed by its central bank, set aside for wars, crises, and currency runs.
These stockpiles of cash around the world are known as a nation’s “reserves”, and the people who manage those funds are called reserve managers.
Due to America’s superpower status, managers tend to hold the vast majority of their nations’ reserves in US dollars— most commonly in US government bonds like the 10-year note.
Now, every year, a London institute called OMFIF surveys dozens of these reserve managers who collectively hold more than $10 trillion— and OMFIF asks the same question each year:
What does your central bank plan to do with its US dollars?
This year, for the first time, more reserve managers said they planned to cut their dollar holdings than increase them.
Reserve managers are the least excitable people in finance. Their job is to be boring, to hold safe assets, and to never make news. So this is not an emotional knee-jerk reaction. It is a decision that has been decades in the making and accelerated over the past few years.
The critical moment came in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine; the US government froze roughly $300 billion of Russia’s reserves, i.e. assets that were held outside of Russia.
Interestingly enough, many of those frozen Russian assets were actually held in EUROPE, not the United States. But the US government still exerted control, pushing Europe to freeze those Russian-owned bonds.
Every reserve manager on the planet learned the same lesson that day: if you ever land on America’s bad side, the US government will lock you out of your national savings in an instant.
And it was at that point that central banks around the world started shopping around for more secure reserve assets that the Treasury Department cannot freeze.
Given that foreign countries collectively hold tens of trillions of assets (most of which is denominated in US dollars), they couldn’t exactly dump their holdings overnight. No one is willing to shout “FIRE” in a crowded theater; but they are, however, calmly making their way to the door.
But this process will take years, perhaps even a decade or more.
The key question is— where are they going to park their reserves, if not US dollars? There certainly have been a number of lingering options, from the “BRICs dollar” to China’s digital currency.
But the obvious answer (as we have been writing about for years here) is gold.
From 2022 through 2025, central banks bought a few hundred billion dollars worth of gold (above their normal purchases). This amounts to roughly 2% of their reserves.
Yet by parking just 2% of their reserves into gold, gold prices more than doubled from ~$1,600 back then to more than $4,000 today.
It’s important to note that the sudden spike in gold prices to $5,600 early this year wasn’t from central bank purchases— that was mostly hedge funds and retail investors piling in.
Gold prices slid back down to $4,000 as those investors exited. But central banks have started buying again; net central bank purchases amounted to 244 tonnes in the first quarter of 2026— well above their five-year average. And net purchases continued in April and May.
The big headline is that those same central bank reserve managers recently told OMFIF that they plan on moving AT LEAST another 7% of reserves out of dollars over the next decade.
Most likely the bulk of this reserve diversification will go into gold.
In other words, 2% of reserves more than doubled the gold price between 2022 and 2026. Now they plan to invest over three times that amount over the next decade. Any guesses where the gold price is headed?
These bankers also expect to pay more for gold; 61% of the central banks OMFIF surveyed estimated a gold between $5,000 and $6,000 an ounce by June 2027. And yet, even at record prices, most of them still plan to buy gold over the next two years.
Think about that. The institutions that just bought the gold price dip expect the price to go up within a year… and their stated plan is to keep buying more.
Most individual investors are very short-term in their thinking. They look at day-to-day price fluctuations and tend to follow popular trends.
Central bankers, on the other hand, ignore daily, monthly, and quarterly noise. They think strategically... and their time horizon is in years if not decades.
They’re not doing this to make money; they aren’t planning to trade their US dollars for gold, only hoping to trade their gold back for more US dollars down the road.
Rather, they’re trying to protect their national savings by purchasing strategic assets that the US government cannot confiscate.
Ultimately this is why we believe that the long-term direction of gold is still much higher— because the largest buyers in the market are still buying, and they plan to continue buying for years to come.
To your freedom, James Hickman Co-Founder, Schiff Sovereign LLC
P.S.
When retail investors dumped gold this year, they dumped the gold producers too. But these companies were built to survive far lower prices, so at today's gold they are still enormously profitable, still throwing off cash, and still trading at low multiples of the cash they generate.
Schiff Sovereign's Strategic Assets is monthly investment research on exactly these kinds of businesses: already profitable, little or no debt, trading at a low multiple of free cash flow, with catalysts the market has not priced in.
US & China are Quietly Buying Gold to Devalue Currency | Andy Schectman
US & China are Quietly Buying Gold to Devalue Currency | Andy Schectman
WTFinance and Miles Frabklin Media:
On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Andy Schectman. Andy is the CO of Miles Franklin Precious Metals.
During our conversation we spoke about the current situation in the economy, the structural issues that are facing the monetary system, what this means for gold and precious metals, creation of multipolar systems and more.
US & China are Quietly Buying Gold to Devalue Currency | Andy Schectman
WTFinance and Miles Frabklin Media:
On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Andy Schectman. Andy is the CO of Miles Franklin Precious Metals.
During our conversation we spoke about the current situation in the economy, the structural issues that are facing the monetary system, what this means for gold and precious metals, creation of multipolar systems and more.
Gold at $42.22 and "One of the Great Mysteries" | Phillip Magness
Gold at $42.22 and "One of the Great Mysteries" | Phillip Magness
Kitco News: 8-4-2026
Economic historian Phillip Magness tells Kitco News anchor Jeremy Szafron that Americans who surrendered gold in 1933 at $20.67 an ounce got none of the gain when Washington repriced it at $35 less than ten months later.
"It's always the private sector that gets the bad end of it." America's 261.5 million ounces are still carried on the federal books at $42.22 an ounce, about $11 billion against more than $1 trillion at market.
Gold at $42.22 and "One of the Great Mysteries" | Phillip Magness
Kitco News: 8-4-2026
Economic historian Phillip Magness tells Kitco News anchor Jeremy Szafron that Americans who surrendered gold in 1933 at $20.67 an ounce got none of the gain when Washington repriced it at $35 less than ten months later.
"It's always the private sector that gets the bad end of it." America's 261.5 million ounces are still carried on the federal books at $42.22 an ounce, about $11 billion against more than $1 trillion at market.
Economic historian Phillip Magness tells Kitco News anchor Jeremy Szafron that Americans who surrendered gold in 1933 at $20.67 an ounce got none of the gain when Washington repriced it at $35 less than ten months later. "It's always the private sector that gets the bad end of it."
America's 261.5 million ounces are still carried on the federal books at $42.22 an ounce, about $11 billion against more than $1 trillion at market. Magness traces the line from the 1933 gold surrender and the Gold Reserve Act through Bretton Woods, the 1971 Nixon shock and the Smithsonian Agreement, to the accounting price still sitting on the federal books today.
Two billion dollars of the Treasury's 1934 revaluation gain went into the Exchange Stabilization Fund, which the Treasury can still use in currency markets. Magness calls the $42.22 valuation "one of the great mysteries that comes out of the Nixon era."
Also in the interview: whether anyone holding coins participates when a government reprices its gold, what would actually have to happen for a revaluation to become money the government could spend, why revaluation keeps returning whenever Washington wants financial room without raising taxes, how much public warning there was in 1933, and the single condition Magness says made it possible.
Plus why Spain grew poorer despite receiving enormous quantities of New World bullion, and when America's gold was last independently audited.
00:00 1933: AMERICANS ORDERED TO SURRENDER GOLD
01:46 HOW THE 1933 GOLD ORDER WORKED
03:12 WHY FDR BROKE THE GOLD LINK
05:51 PHYSICAL GOLD VS. PAPER CLAIMS
07:36 THE $2.8 BILLION GOLD REVALUATION GAIN
09:15 FROM BRETTON WOODS TO THE NIXON SHOCK
13:03 WHEN GOLD WAS MISTAKEN FOR NATIONAL WEALTH
16:54 WHY U.S. GOLD IS STILL BOOKED AT $42.22
20:21 WHO CAPTURED THE REVALUATION GAIN?
23:40 REVALUING GOLD TO HELP FUND BITCOIN?
25:59 HOW MUCH WARNING DID AMERICANS RECEIVE?
27:20 EMERGENCY POWERS THEN AND NOW
29:04 THE FORT KNOX AUDIT DEBATE
31:18 WHY CENTRAL BANKS ARE BUYING GOLD
32:20 WHAT HAPPENS WHEN MONEY LOSES TRUST?
34:15 COPPER AND THE RETURN OF MERCANTILISM
39:33 WHAT GOLD HOLDERS SHOULD LEARN FROM 1933
Andy Schectman: Every Signal Is Screaming Buy Gold
Andy Schectman: Every Signal Is Screaming Buy Gold
VRIC Media: 8-2-2026
Andy Schectman argues that rising bond yields, persistent inflation, and declining confidence in U.S. debt are creating a powerful long-term case for precious metals.
He explains why central banks and major buyers continue accumulating physical gold despite recent price weakness, how China is building the vaults, exchanges, and payment systems needed to challenge Western paper markets, and why the shift toward physical settlement could reshape global price discovery.
Andy also compares the outlook for gold, silver, and platinum, with gold remaining his preferred asset for a changing monetary system.
Andy Schectman: Every Signal Is Screaming Buy Gold
VRIC Media: 8-2-2026
Andy Schectman argues that rising bond yields, persistent inflation, and declining confidence in U.S. debt are creating a powerful long-term case for precious metals.
He explains why central banks and major buyers continue accumulating physical gold despite recent price weakness, how China is building the vaults, exchanges, and payment systems needed to challenge Western paper markets, and why the shift toward physical settlement could reshape global price discovery.
Andy also compares the outlook for gold, silver, and platinum, with gold remaining his preferred asset for a changing monetary system.
0:00 Is gold preparing for another major move?
1:49 Interest rates, bond yields, and America’s debt trap
8:38 The real inflation rate and gold’s performance
11:30 Central banks and major buyers accumulate physical gold
13:32 Stablecoins, Treasuries, and the future of interest rates
18:10 When will gold respond to money creation?
20:18 Who is taking delivery from COMEX?
23:38 Could higher gold prices weaken the dollar?
24:00 The Global South builds a new gold settlement system
28:15 Hong Kong’s vault expansion and China’s long strategy
32:33 How much gold is China really buying?
36:01 Falling mine supply and rising physical demand
40:01 Gold revaluation and the July 4 prediction
45:04 Paper markets versus physical price discovery
49:15 Gold, silver, or platinum?
China Lights Fort Knox Gold Revaluation Fuse!
China Lights Fort Knox Gold Revaluation Fuse!
Kinesis Money: 7-30-2026
In this week's Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire explores reports on how gold has overtaken US Treasuries as the world's top reserve asset, as central banks lose trust in dollar-based systems and accelerate repatriation of their sovereign assets.
With Fort Knox back under scrutiny following the launch of the Hong Kong SGE gold link, the precious metals expert reveals why a full audit of US gold reserves is imminent, while the gold revaluation process has already begun.
China Lights Fort Knox Gold Revaluation Fuse!
Kinesis Money: 7-30-2026
In this week's Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire explores reports on how gold has overtaken US Treasuries as the world's top reserve asset, as central banks lose trust in dollar-based systems and accelerate repatriation of their sovereign assets.
With Fort Knox back under scrutiny following the launch of the Hong Kong SGE gold link, the precious metals expert reveals why a full audit of US gold reserves is imminent, while the gold revaluation process has already begun.
Timestamps:
00:00 Start
03:40 Hong Kong-SGE launch puts Fort Knox back under scrutiny
10:53 Gold overtakes Treasuries as the world's top reserve asset
14:44 How China quietly accumulated 40,000+ tons of Western physical gold
18:25 Why Hong Kong marks a structural reset, not just another gold venue
28:17 Reading the charts: why the short squeeze is coming
36:10 Laos adopts the SGE price standard as de-dollarisation spreads
41:16 CME's desperate 24-hour futures gambit to stay relevant
COMEX Crisis & China’s Gold Revolution | Andy Schectman
COMEX Crisis & China’s Gold Revolution | Andy Schectman
Liberty and Finance: 7-28-2026
China is rapidly building a new financial infrastructure centered around physical gold, same-day settlement, and alternatives to Western paper markets, according to Andy Schectman.
In this interview, Andy breaks down China’s gold accumulation, record silver imports, COMEX leverage, and why he believes the world may be shifting toward physical price discovery.
He also discusses growing BRICS cooperation, new payment systems outside SWIFT, and the potential impact on the dollar’s global role.
COMEX Crisis & China’s Gold Revolution | Andy Schectman
Liberty and Finance: 7-28-2026
China is rapidly building a new financial infrastructure centered around physical gold, same-day settlement, and alternatives to Western paper markets, according to Andy Schectman.
In this interview, Andy breaks down China’s gold accumulation, record silver imports, COMEX leverage, and why he believes the world may be shifting toward physical price discovery.
He also discusses growing BRICS cooperation, new payment systems outside SWIFT, and the potential impact on the dollar’s global role.
Beyond precious metals, Andy warns about the risks surrounding AI development, private credit, and an increasingly digital financial system.
With central banks reportedly accumulating gold at record levels, Andy explains why investors should pay attention to deliveries and physical ownership rather than short-term price movements.
INTERVIEW TIMELINE:
0:00 Intro
1:35 Shanghai physical gold exchange
18:20 Bullion update
27:40 AI & BRICS
The Gold Reset Already Happened and Almost Nobody Noticed | Willem Middelkoop
The Gold Reset Already Happened and Almost Nobody Noticed | Willem Middelkoop
Kitco News: 7-27-2026
Willem Middelkoop says the monetary reset isn't coming. It's already underway, quietly, in the accounting. He also argues China is now the dominant force in the gold market, buying on every dip while the West still trades paper.
Kitco's Jeremy Szafron sits down with Willem Middelkoop, author of "The Big Reset" and founder of the Commodity Discovery Fund, for a wide-ranging hour on why both Washington and Beijing may want a cheaper gold price, the state gold buyers that don't show up in official numbers, gold overtaking US Treasuries as the world's top reserve asset, the move of price discovery to Shanghai, China's shift from paper to physical, silver's path to a possible $500, and where the gold miners go from here.
The Gold Reset Already Happened and Almost Nobody Noticed | Willem Middelkoop
Kitco News: 7-27-2026
Willem Middelkoop says the monetary reset isn't coming. It's already underway, quietly, in the accounting. He also argues China is now the dominant force in the gold market, buying on every dip while the West still trades paper.
Kitco's Jeremy Szafron sits down with Willem Middelkoop, author of "The Big Reset" and founder of the Commodity Discovery Fund, for a wide-ranging hour on why both Washington and Beijing may want a cheaper gold price, the state gold buyers that don't show up in official numbers, gold overtaking US Treasuries as the world's top reserve asset, the move of price discovery to Shanghai, China's shift from paper to physical, silver's path to a possible $500, and where the gold miners go from here.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Gold's Wild Year
0:50 Meet Willem Middelkoop
1:46 Big Reset Thesis
3:56 Central Banks Drive Gold
6:57 Hidden China Gold Hoard
9:34 Reset Through Accounting
13:21 US Gold Politics
17:13 Custody and Sanctions Risk
19:03 BRICS Parallel Rails
22:57 China Shifts to Physical
28:27 Hong Kong Clearing and mBridge
30:23 Gold for Trade Settlement
32:56 Debt Crisis Warning
33:39 Gold Bonds Speculation
34:56 Gold Replaces Treasuries
36:22 Peak Supply Metals
37:05 Silver Shortage Signals
39:48 Paper Market Breakdown
42:29 Perfect Storm Thesis
45:29 Miners Leverage Valuations
47:38 Mergers Discovery Arbitrage
54:00 China Buys in Ground
56:40 China Russia Calculus
1:00:47 Investor Takeaways
1:03:40 Closing
Alasdair Macleod: China Ends Retail Paper Gold & Opens the Floodgates
Alasdair Macleod: China Ends Retail Paper Gold & Opens the Floodgates
Mining Network: 7-23-2026
Alasdair Macleod, economist and leading voice on sound money, returns to Mining Network to break down China’s rapidly accelerating gold strategy and what it means for Western paper markets, the dollar, and global monetary order.
Earlier this month Hong Kong launched its new gold central clearing and settlement system.
This week several major Chinese banks (including ICBC) will end retail paper gold trading on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.
Alasdair Macleod: China Ends Retail Paper Gold & Opens the Floodgates
Mining Network: 7-23-2026
Alasdair Macleod, economist and leading voice on sound money, returns to Mining Network to break down China’s rapidly accelerating gold strategy and what it means for Western paper markets, the dollar, and global monetary order.
Earlier this month Hong Kong launched its new gold central clearing and settlement system.
This week several major Chinese banks (including ICBC) will end retail paper gold trading on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.
At the same time, Beijing is easing long-standing restrictions on gold exports between the mainland and Hong Kong.
Macleod argues these moves are not isolated — they form part of a deliberate, decades-long plan to secure the yuan against the eventual failure of the Western fiat system.
0:00 – Introduction
0:15 – Hong Kong gold settlement system & Chinese banks ending retail paper gold
2:20 – China’s long-term gold accumulation strategy
8:14 – New gold vaults, yuan convertibility & replacing Western paper markets
14:03 – China, Japan and the problem of US Treasury demand
19:37 – Commodity stockpiling and dollar dumping
21:16 – Sponsor: Copper Giant (Mocoa project)
22:50 – Timeline for the collapse of Western paper gold markets
26:45 – The history of central bank gold leasing
Insiders Are Betting Millions On Gold Reset By Year-End | Ed Steer
Insiders Are Betting Millions On Gold Reset By Year-End | Ed Steer
Liberty and Finance: 7-22-2026
Why are traders pouring millions into gold call options as high as $20,000? Precious metals analyst Ed Steer explains why he believes unprecedented positioning in the futures and options markets points to a potential historic shift in gold and silver pricing.
He also discusses unusual Commitment of Traders data, the role of commercial traders, and why he sees the balance of power gradually moving from Western paper markets toward Asia.
Insiders Are Betting Millions On Gold Reset By Year-End | Ed Steer
Liberty and Finance: 7-22-2026
Why are traders pouring millions into gold call options as high as $20,000? Precious metals analyst Ed Steer explains why he believes unprecedented positioning in the futures and options markets points to a potential historic shift in gold and silver pricing.
He also discusses unusual Commitment of Traders data, the role of commercial traders, and why he sees the balance of power gradually moving from Western paper markets toward Asia.
Along the way, Steer shares his interpretation of recent developments involving Chinese gold trading and what they could mean for the precious metals market.
Whether or not these forecasts come to pass, this interview explores the market signals and arguments that have many investors watching gold and silver more closely than ever.
INTERVIEW TIMELINE:
0:00 Intro
1:20 $20,000 gold call options
10:00 Short-squeeze
18:30 Gold & silver manipulation
23:25 Shanghai gold exchange
China Shuts Down Paper Gold in 24 Hours
China Shuts Down Paper Gold in 24 Hours
Taylor Kenny: 7-23-2026
China is shutting down retail paper gold trading at several major banks—and forcing investors to close positions or take physical delivery.
Is this the beginning of a major shift from paper pricing to real metal?
China Shuts Down Paper Gold in 24 Hours
Taylor Kenny: 7-23-2026
China is shutting down retail paper gold trading at several major banks—and forcing investors to close positions or take physical delivery.
Is this the beginning of a major shift from paper pricing to real metal?
CHAPTERS:
0:00 China’s Paper Gold Shutdown Begins
0:35 Why Paper Markets Control Gold and Silver Prices
1:27 How Rehypothecation Creates Multiple Claims on One Asset
2:21 Bank Spoofing and Precious Metals Price Manipulation
3:15 Why China Is Ending Retail Paper Gold Trading
3:43 China’s Bigger Physical Gold Strategy
4:41 Could Price Discovery Shift From Paper to Physical?
5:40 Physical Gold, Counterparty Risk, and Wealth Protection
6:38 East vs. West: Two Different Views of Gold
7:35 What This Means for Gold and Silver Investors