THE LONG VIEW

What if the true measure of a civilization isn’t its GDP or military might, but the weight of gold it quietly hoards when no one is watching? Long before Bitcoin, before paper money, even before coins, human societies have turned to gold when trust in authority collapses. The Medici stashed gold during the chaos of Renaissance Italy; Dutch merchants fled to gold during the Napoleonic Wars; and in 1933, as banks failed across America, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 to seize private gold—precisely because he knew it was the people’s last refuge from a broken system. Today, we’re witnessing the same silent migration. As Trump threatens new wars and Japan slashes taxes to win votes, the script hasn’t changed—only the actors. The Wei family office didn’t allocate 25% to gold because it’s trendy; they did it because history whispers what the headlines ignore: when politicians play to the crowd and generals sharpen their swords, gold doesn’t rally—it remembers. And it is remembering now. Not because of speculation, but because the conditions that birthed every great monetary crisis—debt, distraction, and desperation—are aligning once more. The dollar’s dominance, like the British pound before it, is not eternal. And when the next crisis strikes, the question won’t be who predicted it, but who listened to the oldest signal in finance: the quiet shine of gold. Citations: - Keynes, J. M. (1923). *A Tract on Monetary Reform*. Macmillan. - Ferguson, N. (2008). *The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World*. Penguin. - World Gold Council. (2024). *Central Bank Gold Reserves Report*. - U.S. Treasury. (1933). *Executive Order 6102*. —Sir Edward Pemberton