In a report published today, the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), a global organization of central banks and sovereign wealth funds, recommends that gold be remonetized for use as international money, alongside major currencies. OMFIF gives a number of reasons for this but they boil down it to gold's historical role in establishing and maintaining confidence and stability in international monetary relations. Such confidence and stability have dramatically declined as a result of the global financial crisis that began in 2008, to the detriment of the global economy. Falling back on the solid foundation of gold is the best available way to eventually move forward with healthy and sustainable growth in global trade, to all countries' mutual benefit, and to bring an end to the escalating 'currency wars' that increasingly threaten the global economy.
The link to the report, Gold, the Renminbi and the Multi-Currency Reserve System, can be found here.
This development is one that I have predicted in some detail, for example in THE BUCK STOPS HERE: A BRIC WALL, and also through chapters 6-10 of my book, The Golden Revolution (Wiley, 2012).
I believe this is of great historical significance. The economic and financial market implications are substantial. The global 'savers', that is, the countries that export more than they import, are finally forcing the world back onto a more stable monetary foundation that will make it far harder to print money to paper over fundamental economic problems and 'kick the can'. Yes, this implies that profligate governments will find it more difficult to finance deficits in future.
Globally, interest rates may now be on the way up. Dollars, euros, yen, sterling, etc, will now need to compete more directly with gold for use not only as reserves but as actual international money to be used to settle international balance of payments transactions between countries. And as those currencies find it difficult to compete and one country after another expresses a preference to settle transactions in gold primarily or exclusively, well then the world is going to end up on a gold standard. It is just a matter of time.
Investors should continue to accumulate gold as it is almost certain to rise in value as the re-monetization takes place. But beware: Risk premia for financial assets are also likely to rise as paper assets in general 'de-rate' and gold, silver and other hard, liquid real assets 're-rate'.
