{"id":255299,"date":"2025-10-24T16:54:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T14:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/?p=255299"},"modified":"2025-10-24T16:56:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T14:56:06","slug":"al-zantouti-where-to-turn-gold-the-dollar-or-perhaps-the-yuan-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/al-zantouti-where-to-turn-gold-the-dollar-or-perhaps-the-yuan-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"Al-Zantouti: &#8220;Where to Turn \u2014 Gold, the Dollar, or Perhaps the Yuan Soon?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Financial analyst <strong>Khaled Al-Zantouti<\/strong> wrote: &#8220;<em>Where is the safe haven \u2014 gold, the dollar, or perhaps the yuan soon?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of us still believe that the dollar and gold represent eternal safe havens \u2014 but the question is, <strong>for how long?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wouldn\u2019t disagree that gold is a safe haven \u2014 given its precious nature, rarity, and multiple uses. But does all that justify the <em>insane rise<\/em> in its price, which has touched <strong>$4,400 per ounce<\/strong>, increasing by about <strong>55.28% since the beginning of the year<\/strong>? Does it justify the long queues to buy gold jewelry in Japan, Singapore, and Australia \u2014 and perhaps even in Libya, albeit less visibly? Could there be <em>other<\/em> reasons behind this surge, even psychological ones? If we rule out the logical motives for buying gold, what remains?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I mentioned earlier, while gold is indeed a rare and valuable metal and a store of value, this <em>sudden and sharp<\/em> rise in its price over recent months likely has other causes \u2014 chiefly, a <strong>decline in confidence in the dollar<\/strong> as a safe haven. Even central banks around the world have accelerated their gold purchases to strengthen their reserves. According to some reports, <strong>for the first time, total gold reserves held by central banks have surpassed their holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both individuals and nations buying gold seem to share a growing sense of concern over the <em>internal and external \u201cwars\u201d of the dollar<\/em> \u2014 notably the U.S. <strong>external debt<\/strong>, which has exceeded <strong>$37 trillion<\/strong>, roughly <strong>35% of total global debt<\/strong>. Add to that the <strong>trade wars<\/strong> led by Trump and the <strong>ongoing U.S. government shutdown<\/strong>. (Though I am firmly convinced that Democrats and Republicans will reach an agreement soon \u2014 simply because they know full well the dangers of a prolonged shutdown.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s worth noting that if the U.S. government shutdown continues, it could lead to <strong>America\u2019s inability to repay its maturing bonds (a default)<\/strong> \u2014 in financial terms, that would amount to <strong>U.S. bankruptcy<\/strong>. And if that happens, the consequences would be catastrophic \u2014 something the U.S. will surely avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we all know, the main driver behind the dollar\u2019s reputation as a safe haven \u2014 after it was unlinked from gold \u2014 is <strong>the strength of the U.S. economy<\/strong> along with its <strong>political and military power<\/strong>. Thus, those turning to gold today, whether individuals or nations, do so out of <em>distrust<\/em> in the dollar. But the question remains: <strong>for how long?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some studies predict that gold\u2019s price may continue rising to <strong>$7,000 per ounce<\/strong>, while others argue it\u2019s merely a <strong>bubble waiting to burst<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can all agree that the dollar\u2019s status as a safe haven has been tainted by the many economic issues plaguing the U.S. \u2014 the issuer of the currency. However, gold too carries risks, such as speculative trading in global markets. This points to the need for a <strong>new safe haven<\/strong>, which I am convinced will be <strong>the Chinese yuan<\/strong>. It\u2019s only a matter of time \u2014 perhaps not soon, but inevitable \u2014 when <strong>China becomes the world\u2019s largest economy<\/strong>. When that happens, the <strong>IMF and World Bank headquarters may well move from Washington to Beijing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I write this article, I am reminded of <strong>Milton Friedman\u2019s<\/strong> famous words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe dollar is not merely a currency; it is a political opinion in circulation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Are we now witnessing the <strong>dollar being shaken from its throne<\/strong> due to America\u2019s economic and political decline?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Financial analyst Khaled Al-Zantouti wrote: &#8220;Where is the safe haven \u2014 gold, the dollar, or perhaps the yuan soon? Many of us still believe that the dollar and gold represent eternal safe havens \u2014 but the question is, for how long? I wouldn\u2019t disagree that gold is a safe haven \u2014 given its precious nature, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":255300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[683],"tags":[858,613],"class_list":["post-255299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-articles","tag-gold","tag-libya"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255303,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255299\/revisions\/255303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}