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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the old Bretton Woods Fiat system. So that's the system we have all been dealing with since the end of the Second World War. There was a major shift if you will in that system occurring in 1971 when Mr. President Nixon pulled the United States off of, well how do I say this, “temporarily” closed the gold window, that's the way it is technically put. We effectively had the Petro Dollar system as engineered by Mr. Henry Kissinger since then. We are now transitioning into something new as I have discussed in many other videos. 

That said, I thought of that topic after reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, that's pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Gold market hits 30 trillion surpassing Bitcoin and Tech Giants as investors eye safe haven. Quoting directly: "Global gold prices surged to record highs, pushing the total market value of gold to $30 trillion surpassing both Bitcoin and the combined market capitalization of the world's tech giants known as the "Magnificent 7." Analysts say some Capital may shift into bitcoin next if gold buying slows." - I love the way this is sometimes presented like Bitcoin is this asset that has been around as long as gold. Bitcoin is a very new player on the block. I mean really, it's not much older than 2009 when I first started hearing about it in earnest, primarily from Mr. Max Kaiser and his days over on Russia Today and they talked a lot about Bitcoin. Frankly I wish I had gotten in on it in a way back then. I understand it conceptually, but I think when you are comparing Bitcoin to Gold it's comparing apples to bowling balls; they are just two very, very different things. That said, when it comes to gold, I think what we are seeing in many ways; there's a book called The Oligarchs. I'll try to put it up on screen here, the book. It talks about the unravelling of the USSR and what people need to understand is we in the West, if you will, had the Bretton Woods system from the end of the Second World War. The Soviets had their own system. That's where you get the term: First World, Second World, Third World. The so-called second world was always the so-called Soviet system, it was always “communism” or whatever if you will. Now what's interesting about the book The Oligarchs from a technical perspective, is they get into deeply how the banking system in Russia came apart at the end, where money became super attenuated and the attenuation occurred between cash rubles and ledger rubles and more and more, I worry about this. I'm not saying the sky is falling. I think the dollar system is ultimately pretty darn resilient but there is an increasing attenuation between some of the numbers they talk about in the tech sector with hundreds of billions of dollars for data centres and these types of things, and then meanwhile wages are stagnant in many ways or there is high inflation for consumers at the lower socioeconomic echelon. When this becomes super attenuated, you have real problems, and sometimes economic systems, I won't say necessarily always fall apart, but they fundamentally change, there's no doubt about that and The Oligarchs gets into that. 

Further, there is another issue with this and that is sort of why we have the thumbnail regarding Keynesianism because again I bring up the USSR. Stalin said, 'communism is socialism in a hurry'. I would add something to that, and I would say 'Keynesianism is socialism by subterfuge' and that's problematic. I get further into depth on these topics and how it pertains to expat land, how it pertains to folks who live abroad, live outside their home countries and sort of living internationally and following this deeply. If you are interested, you can come to our paid news service; you can email us for the long-form videos, [email protected] and we will send you long-form videos and information about the long firm news service. Also while I'm talking my book, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok, Pancake Palace. As the name implies, breakfast anytime as well as American Diner style food. Links in the description below to get to us by Grab, to get to us on Google maps and we would be happy to see you there, again Pancake Palace. 

That said,  quoting further, again from Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com: "Gold Prices have surged more than 64% so far in 2025, driven by a weaker US dollar, geopolitical tensions, and global trade uncertainties." Yeah, and this also is where McLeod, Alasdair McLeod, once of Goldmoney, now has his own Substack out there, has talked about this as well. Look, this is more the Fiat system in serious state of flux; he argues state of collapse. I don't quite know where one ends and another begins, but I do think the Fiat system as we've known it through the Bretton Woods sort of Keynesian system, that we've gotten used to heretofore, I'm not sure that it's going to continue in the future the way we're used to it and that's the thing that needs to be taken away from this, and gold's price and precious metals' “price” if you will is reflective of the changing circumstances. That said, quoting further: "Analysts expect some of this capital may eventually flow into Bitcoin, often referred to as "digital gold" - well I refer to it as an inflation sink is effectively what Bitcoin is. That said, quoting further: "As gold's price stabilizes after repeated record-breaking gains." Well stabilizes and then keeps going higher. 

Look, I think these trends are going to tend to continue in Fiat terms especially Western Fiat terms. Now what's going to be interesting to watch is if some of these Asian currencies start to break away from the trend and their gold prices and their local currencies actually settle while we see Western currency gold prices continue to accelerate. It's going to be interesting to see if that occurs. Not sure it's a foregone conclusion, but we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.