All About GOLD: Mining, History and Science (2)

what was out there. A lot of men with stable jobs  and established families were nonetheless enticed

by the possibility of making a fortune in a  short amount of time and so set off on what

was a life-altering journey, only to find that the  work was absolutely grueling and the payoff was

not anywhere near the tall tales they'd heard in  the papers and from the rumor mongers about town.

There was a great misconception that if you went  to California and were willing to work hard,

you could have your fill of gold and would  be able to go back home with great riches.

As most discovered, this was more often than not  nothing more than a pipe dream. Men would toil all

day long suffering persistent injuries, as well as  contracting scurvy and other illnesses, and would

dig up practically nothing at all. As reality  set in for many, they grew angry and depressed,

not a good combination for men with a wild streak  in a wild west type of land. In addition, the land

itself proved harsh and unforgiving, particularly  on the journey to California for many settlers.

Livestock were lost to famine and  disease and grass for the horses,

along with clean water, became scarce, causing  diseases like cholera to take their terrible

toll. The native Indian population also found  itself an unwilling casualty of the stream of

prospectors who now competed with them for  resources. Before the rush, the California

region was home to a sparse 170,000 inhabitants,  the vast majority being indigenous to the area.

As the pioneers marched forward, their  consumption of the Indians food supply,

land, and water created a burden for their  population that threatened their survival.

Attempts to push out foreigners from the rush  began around 1850. There were approximately 80

thousand Anglo-American miners in California and  competition was at its peak. Many of these men

had utterly failed in their quest for riches  and as is often human nature, they looked for

something outside of themselves to blame for their  misfortunes. As gold became scarcer and the number

of prospectors grew, white Americans started to  band together and threaten Mexicans, Chileans,

and other so-called foreigners, even those  who were originally born in the area.

The rule of these gangs was, if you weren't  American, you didn't have any claim to the

gold. They use threats of violence, sometimes  backed up by lynching to enforce mob rule.

Some of the best miners came from Latin America,  as that region already had a storied mining

history and many of these men had previous  experience. This caused a lot of jealousy and

resentment, so much so that the Anglo-American  miners ended up convincing the recently formed

California government to levy a foreign miners tax  on non-white workers. This tax was so prohibitive,

the Latin American miners ended up leaving in  droves, as it ate too much into their profits

to make the endeavor worthwhile. Others were not  so easily turned away however, and formed roaming

gangs on horseback that sequestered themselves in  the hills and raided Anglo-American mining, camps

stealing everything in sight often with deadly  force. As so often happens in times of turmoil,

violence begets violence, and the cycle feeds  on itself until nothing is left but the ashes.

The strength of a nation's currency is based  on the strength of that nation's economy,

and the American economy is by  far the strongest in the world.

Accordingly, I have directed the Secretary  of the Treasury to take the action necessary

to defend the dollar against the speculators.  I have directed Secretary Conley to suspend

temporarily the convertibility of the  dollar into gold or other reserve assets,

except in amounts and conditions determined  to be in the interest of monetary stability

and in the best interest of the United States.  That broadcast was from August 15, 1971

and in it, then president Richard "Tricky Dick"  Nixon gave an order that would alter the fate of

the U.S. dollar forever, and of course it wasn't  temporary. Today, as we approach the end of 2021,

inflation is rising at record rates and consumers  in America and many parts of the world are really

feeling the pinch when they go to the grocery  store, fill up on gas, or look to buy a home.

What if I told you this is all a culmination  of that one order Nixon gave to decouple the

U.S. dollar from gold? As mentioned earlier  in the program, gold is real money. It takes

effort and energy to extract from the earth and is  scarce, and it used to be tied to the U.S. dollar.

In other words, U.S. dollars were promissory notes  that could be exchanged for a certain amount of

physical gold, should the holder so choose.  But in terms of the U.S. paying off its debts

and funding the war effort in Vietnam at the  time, having the dollar tied to a real hard asset

was a pesky inconvenience that stopped them from  just printing up more. The details of why the

U.S. was in a position where they desperately  needed greater liquidity are very complex,

and entire books have been written about it but  suffice to say, Nixon found himself with his back

against the wall and the government looked like  it was going to default on its debt obligations,

which would have been catastrophic in the short  term. So like a drug addict who is willing to

sacrifice the foreseeable future for the present  relief from the dreaded symptoms of withdrawal,

Nixon effectively wrapped a rubber band around  the arm of America and shot a monster bag of

liquidity into the system by removing  the limitations of gold backing. The

effects on the American and global economy were  nothing short of catastrophic. Since that day,

wealth inequality between the one percent and the  rest of us has risen at unprecedented rates. Same

with the cost of living, particularly purchasing a  home. Wages and benefits, inflation rates, number

of countries with a banking crisis, federal debt  as a percentage of GDP, volumes of future trading

versus industrial production, U.S. personal  savings rates, net savings as a percentage of

gross national income, U.S. goods trade balance,  the cost of a barrel of oil, and on and on and on.

All of these have taken a massive turn in  the wrong direction and continue to do so,

like the most nightmarish come  down a junkie could ever imagine.

Yet so few understand this. As prices rise and  society continues to collapse all around us,

we are distracted by the same evil forces  that caused all of this in the first place,

as they line their pockets and seize more and  more power, they try to tell you that climate

change and social justice issues are the reason  your family will never be able to afford a home.

The truth is, they killed real money to benefit  themselves at your expense and the lifeless pieces

of paper in your wallet and the digits in your  bank account are a lie, and when the truth finally

comes to light, they might not be worth more  than the corrupt government cartel that claims to

back them. But gold will still hold its value and  that's why it remains as relevant as ever today.

When it comes to hard money outside  the clutches of government intervention

or other third party obligations and risks, gold,  along with silver, is about as good as it gets.

Recent innovations have brought forth a slew of  cryptocurrencies trying to compete but in my view,

the vast majority are destined for the history  books or the trash heap, to put it more bluntly.

However, Bitcoin, the original and the only truly  decentralized cryptocurrency, does potentially

pose a threat to gold's dominance as the hardest  money around. Debates are frequently sparked

online about which is superior over the long run  but in my view, precious metals and Bitcoin are

complementary, and not adversarial assets. In a  time of economic uncertainty due to government

overreach during the pandemic and central bank  money printing accelerating at an unprecedented

rate, Gold seems poised to reclaim its rightful  throne as real money in a world gone mad.

In addition to this, the space race is only  accelerating, with corporate titans like Elon Musk

and Jeff Bezos seemingly determined to make space  travel a reality for more people around the world.

Seeing as it's also essential for many  electronics, gold's demand as an industrial

component, though no match for its sibling silver,  still looks very bright in the years ahead.

From adorning the tombs of great pharaohs to  being an essential component in spacecraft

that may extend the horizons of humanity's domain,  gold has proven to be an incredible resource

that will continue to shine as civilization  advances. With the advent of cryptocurrencies,

some of the younger folks in the  audience may claim that gold is dead.

Not only do I disagree with that sentiment, but i  believe that gold's best years may yet lie ahead.

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