Harry Schultz: 8 of November, a Day to Remember

Yesterday, Nov 8, 2010, was a day I've awaited for 40years, since President Nixon shut down the last vestiges of the gold standard. Yesterday, at last, a respected member of the ruling classes called for a discussion to readopt a modified global gold standard as a lynchpin for the monetary system. Robert Zoellick, World Bank President and a former US Treasury official, says a new system is needed (as called for in HSL for 20 years), using 5 main currencies, with gold as the international reference point for future currency values. He wondrously said "Although textbooks may view gold as the old money, markets are using gold as an alternative monetary asset today." I couldn't have put it better and in fact I have put it in those exact words, as has Jim Sinclair and a number of free market analysts.

RZ said "The development of a monetary system to succeed Bretton Wood II launched in 1971, will take time. But we need to begin." Amen, Mr Z and thank you! Also, thanks to the Financial Times for making this the leading page one headline story, despite their traditional aversion to gold. Ethics won! This story broke in the early AM Nov 8th and halted a correction that began in the gold price, after which gold rose to a new high. The story freaked out ruling politicians around the world who despise gold because it acts as a governor on government spending. After Nixon closed the gold window, government spending and deficits rocketed, as the data charts prove, from that exact moment. Germany, the US Fed, and Trichet of ECB all patted Mr. Z on the head, but said it's not practical.

What would you expect them to say dear reader? They will fight a gold-linked system, but in the end they will give in, because the system is dying, fast, as the gold price reflects. How good a new system will be, whether it will have only a symbolic link or a strong one, can't be guessed today, nor how soon. The gold price will tell us. My prediction on Bloomberg TV in Paris a few years ago was that "Gold will force a system change when gold hits $1,650, but that it might need $2,000 to bring a change." That may still come true, because, as you see in the press today, most political leaders tried to discount Mr Z's brave, but wise recommendation.

I shall frame this FT front page and hang it on a wall. It was a watershed day.

Harry Schultz