TOKYO — As if US Treasury Security Scott Bessent didn’t have enough stuff with which to deal, gold is literally exploding higher on his watch.
In any discussion of the global “debasement trade” gaining momentum in real time, the dollar is written between the lines in bold font. Gold is now at $5,200 for the very first time, and silver is trading more like a cryptocurrency than a precious metal — up 50% year-to-date.
“The rise in precious metals prices is breathtaking and profoundly scary,” says Robin Brooks, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He warns that this month’s head-spinning gold rush is “part of something much bigger.”
One of those bigger things is the interplay between the US and China. And the battleground of the moment is currencies.