Monetary Metals

China's citizens are not buying gold because they are bullish on gold. They are buying it because every other option has let them down.  Savings accounts pay close to nothing. Real estate is deflating.  The stock market has burned too many people. And capital controls mean you cannot simply move your money somewhere else. Joseph Solis Mullen (@solis_mullen), professor of politics, history, and economics and author of The Fake China Threat and The National Debt and You, joins The Gold Exchange podcast to work through what is actually driving China's gold demand, how the US debt situation compares, and why the gold-backed yuan is largely hype. Watch the full conversation here: youtube.com/watch?v=d1Twoz…

Most crypto enthusiasts believe Bitcoin was created to protect savings from the Fed printing money. As Jeff Snider explains, it was actually a response to the Eurodollar breakdown, even if its creators didn't fully realize that. What crypto built was another store-of-value asset, not a workable currency system. They were trying to solve the Eurodollar problem without realizing the Eurodollar was the problem they were trying to solve. @JeffSnider_EDU

History doesn’t repeat exactly, but the similarities are difficult to ignore.

Jeff Snider argues that 2008 was the moment for a deeper financial reset. His view is that policymakers stabilized markets through bailouts, emergency liquidity programs, and monetary intervention, but many of the underlying structural issues remained. That avoided a more severe short-term contraction. But in his view, it also extended some of the imbalances into the years that followed. He argues that delaying adjustment can make future transitions more difficult if underlying problems remain unresolved. In periods of long-term uncertainty and monetary transition, investors often revisit assets outside the credit system. Gold has historically been one of them. @JeffSnider_EDU

Click here to get the 2026 Gold Outlook Report: monetary-metals.com/insights/resea…

BRICS is often described as an emerging economic bloc. But Jeff Snider argues it has never functioned that way. “There will never be a BRICS currency or a BRICS currency block…” Even major members like India and China don’t have the alignment needed for a true monetary or structural union. A real BRICS economic bloc is unlikely to form. Instead, it is more political than economic. A platform for “Global South” countries to challenge G7 and G20 influence. “It’s more of a political animal than it is financial or monetary.” So rather than a unified system, BRICS is better understood as a political framework, not an economic one. @JeffSnider_EDU

Gold doesn't react to crises; it moves in anticipation of them.

The Eurodollar system is widely seen as broken, yet no real alternative has emerged to replace it. As Jeff Snider explains, what was supposed to be a short-term fix has now dragged on for two decades, with economic stagnation fueling political instability. While crypto should be the natural bridge to a new ledger-based monetary system, that transition still hasn't materialized. The current system persists not because it works, but because nothing else is ready to take its place. @JeffSnider_EDU

Click here to get the 2026 Gold Outlook Report: monetary-metals.com/insights/resea…

Gold remains the main safe-haven asset when people are uncertain about the economy. Silver, however, has a more complicated role. It used to function as everyday money, especially when industrial demand was lower. But today, rising industrial demand creates pressure on its monetary use. Over time, silver gradually shifts away from a monetary role and becomes more of an industrial metal. Not gone from money, but less central to it. Other metals like platinum and palladium are likely to be tokenized rather than following a monetary path. The idea isn’t currency use, but tokenization. Physical commodities can be represented on-chain as tokens and used as collateral for borrowing. So instead of becoming money, they become financial collateral, while gold stays the primary monetary anchor. @JeffSnider_EDU

Click here to get the 2026 Gold Outlook Report: monetary-metals.com/insights/resea…

Markets have been saying the same thing since 2021. Rates are going back down. Jeff Snider explains why the data already confirms it. "The yield curve, when it inverted in March 2022, however high rates were going to get in the short run, they're going to eventually go lower." The two-year Treasury went up to 5%. It's already down 140 basis points. It still has a long way to go. The 10-year sitting at 4.30-4.40 implies short-term rates around 2.20-2.30. "Interest rate swaps have been saying short-term rates are going to go down a lot. And they're going to stay there a very long time." The yield curve isn't predicting this. It's already showing it.

Click here to get the 2026 Gold Outlook Report: monetary-metals.com/insights/resea…

Jeff Snider on the biggest risk facing decentralized money. It's fraud. "Any disruptive technology will inevitably invite fraud and mistakes." The 2,000% crypto yields. The algorithmic coins. The hackable exchanges. People get burned. Then they learn. "Capitalism isn't about money. Capitalism is about competition." The scams shake out. The dependable ones survive. People start holding both. Nobody knows what the reserve currency of the future looks like. That's not a problem. That's the point. @JeffSnider_EDU

Central banks aren't abandoning gold. They're using it exactly as intended.

Axel Merk explains why gold is often favored over silver due to its simpler dynamics. Unlike silver, which is influenced by industrial demand and tends to be more complex and volatile, gold is more straightforward as a store of value. One key advantage is its density, with a high value per ounce, making it easier to store and handle. This is one reason large vault operators and even central banks tend to prefer gold over silver. @AxelMerk

Click here to get the 2026 Gold Outlook Report: monetary-metals.com/insights/resea…

Jeff Snider. Lightning round. Three big questions. Which country gets hit hardest in a dollar shortage? "I think Asia. Could be the Philippines, because the Philippines are really desperate for fuel, both supply as well as demand." How important is the election of Kevin Warsh to the Fed? "Completely irrelevant. To me, it's totally irrelevant." What is the Japanese yen actually telling us? "When the yen spikes, that's a bad signal. The Japanese carry traders in August 2024 were basically warning us about the private credit bust. They started to pull back, and when they pulled back, that's when the yen spiked, and it led to all sorts of disruption on the world."

For gold investors, the setup is in place. Gold's time is coming.

Even as prices move, gold remains constant. What’s shifting is the broader system. As Axel Merk points out, tariffs don’t just affect trade in goods, they also impede the flow of money, which can push borrowing costs higher and put pressure on central banks, an often overlooked factor behind gold’s movement. @AxelMerk

Millions hold gold that earns no income and costs money to store, while institutions know it can be made productive