We have seen the venom with which governments have targeted Swiss banks, and all offshore tax havens. Governments have gone so far as to break their own laws by buying stolen personal information. The official line is that only terrorists, drug dealers and tax dodgers use such corrupt places. (We can add to the list dodgy despots from third world countries fleeing the wrath of their populations with their countries stolen gold.
The narrative we see building is to extend gold into the fight against the evil tax dodging, drug dealing, terrorist despots. How many good citizens would defy government crackdowns and diktats and risk imprisonment?
Fortunately, current estimates are that gold ownership, including ETF’s, is down to only one percent of total global wealth. This compares to the historical average around eight percent of global wealth held in gold. Maybe the rich know something of gold you and I don’t?
Saying that, we doubt anything will happen until holdings of global wealth account for ten to twenty percent and maybe as high as fifty percent. After all, estimates by Matterhorn Asset Management suggest that to back every paper note by its gold standard equivalent would need gold to hit around $50,000 per ounce, against $1,400 today.
