•  Gold is up 14% and silver is up 18% year to date. 
• Longer term gold and silver charts are now also in positive trends. These longer term trends are slower to reverse and suggest metals move may be longer in duration. 

• While some may feel reticence over missing gold’s move higher, per the chart above, commodities, including gold relative to equities, remain near all-time lows. Gold and other real assets historically benefit from persistent inflation, while inflation has been a negative for stocks and financial assets in the past. 
• And while Americans maintain physical gold allocations of less than 1% in their portfolios, confidence in investing in gold among Americans has been on the rise. Americans’ confidence in gold surpassed our confidence in stocks, according to a Gallup poll, hitting a level not seen in over a decade. 
• Notably corporate insiders are also displaying lower confidence in the outlook for their stocks as insiders appear to conclude equities overvalued relative to fundamentals.
• Americans’ wavering trust in stocks was punctuated this week when one of Wall Street’s largest firms, Morgan Stanley, was confronted with charges of money laundering.
• Another major institution, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, admitted this week that its staff broke its code of conduct and illicitly revealed market-moving information to certain Wall Street companies ahead of the public release of the data. The inflation data gave the firms an unjust advantage over the public. Bribery was the expected motivation behind the improper conduct. 

• Another example of a failed currency is Zimbabwe. The once-functional African nation saw its citizens’ wealth become eviscerated on the heels of the excessive national debt. The Zimbabwe currency lost another 80% of its value this year.
• Having no believers in its currency any longer, what does a nation do that needs a currency? Zimbabwe launched a new currency, ZiG (Zimbabwe gold), which is backed by gold to protect its citizens and investors. 

• The urgency to invest in gold stems from soaring global debt levels. Metals have acted as a hedge against depreciation throughout history.
• Inflation rose for the third consecutive month, with the rise in housing and gasoline being particularly problematic for Americans. The March CPI reached a seven-month high and remains well above the Fed’s 2% target. 
• The Federal Reserve has pushed back expectations for interest rate cuts once again, essentially admitting this week that inflation is out of its control and that Fed policies to fight rising prices have failed once again.
• Despite headlines speaking to a vibrant US economy, wage growth for working Americans continues to lag inflation. The true hourly wage in February 2024 decreased from 2021. 
• Since the corona panic, the average monthly payment on the median US home has doubled, approaching $3,000. Home ownership for many Americans now is out of reach in these inflationary times. 
• CRE market faces challenges, with rising delinquency rates and vacancies; in February, more than 6% of these loans were not paid back, signaling ongoing distress. 
• US Public Debt Per Capita is at a current level of 101.7K, an all-time high.

Geopolitical Tensions 

• Equities erased the week’s gains as rising geopolitical tensions stoked risk aversion.
• Israel is bracing for an Iranian strike; the United States is dispatching additional warships and aircraft to the region in response to this heightened threat. Officials in the United States and other nations are engaged in a furious diplomatic effort to try to prevent a response from Iran that could spiral into a wider war.
• Gold and silver have historically withstood such turbulent times. Do not be left unprotected. 
• Central banks who control the world’s paper currencies continue to sell paper assets and buy physical gold. Globally central banks have bought gold for nine consecutive months while China added to its gold holdings for a 17th consecutive month.