Gold Switzerland, Released on 10/19/23

Egon von Greyerz joins his dear friends and Matterhorn Asset Management advisors, Grant Williams and Ronnie Stoeferle, to address the unique risks—economic, geopolitical, military—making headlines at an alarming rate.

This timely and highly important conversation opens with the financial, political and trade moves from West to East as evidenced by the growing BRICS momentum and its near and longer-term impact on the price of gold as prosperity moves from West to East. Consumer gold demand from India and China, increased central bank demand in the East and rising gold premiums on the Shanghai Exchange suggest that the LBMA hegemony over gold pricing is shifting, as Ronnie discusses.

As to rising gold prices, Grant reminds that gold does nothing, currencies just continue to weaken. Strangely, however, investors continue to erroneously wait for gold price spikes before investing in gold, a point which Egon addresses.

Grant unpacks the failure of Western sanctions and the weaponization of the world reserve currency as the key driver away from USDs/USTs and toward physical gold. We are entering a period of tremendous geopolitical shifts for which gold’s role will be central as a wealth preservation asset, a role which Egon has steadily maintained for more than two decades. Despite such a clear direction, many Western individuals fail to make physical gold a core part of their portfolios, an issue which Ronnie addresses at length—giving particular attention to misunderstood bond markets and the total return losses therein.

Grant adds his thoughts on gold allocation percentages in the context of gold’s global market share, which is finite despite fiat money’s infinite (and hence inflationary) range. The West, unlike the East, has not fully understood inflation risk and portfolio reactions to the same.

Egon then asks if we are looking at an existential crisis given increased global conflicts, to which Grant and Ronnie add their insights/concerns. Grant sees a complete failure of diplomacy before, during and after events in Ukraine and Israel made headlines. As Egon argues, it seems the US policy is little more than sending money and weapons at every problem, not statesmen.

Of course, gold can’t protect investors from every risk making headlines today, but it has a clear role in protecting against financial risk, a point which Ronnie, Grant and Egon address at length in the closing minutes of this spirited discussion.

Egon von Greyerz is founder and Managing Partner of Matterhorn Asset Management AG & GoldSwitzerland. Since the 1990s Egon von Greyerz has been actively involved with financial investment activities including mergers and acquisitions and asset allocation consultancy for private family funds. This led to the creation of Matterhorn Asset Management, an asset management company based on wealth preservation principles. MAM is part of the Aquila Group, Switzerland’s largest independent asset management group. Von Greyerz makes regular media appearances on CNBC, BBC, etc. and publishes articles on the world economy and wealth preservation.

Grant Williams is a portfolio and strategy advisor to Vulpes Investment Management in Singapore and an Advisor to Matterhorn Asset Management in Switzerland and the founder and publisher of Things That Make You Go Hmmm… and the Grant Williams Podcast. Grant has decades of experience in finance on the Asian, Australian, European and US markets and has held senior positions at several international investment houses, including Robert Fleming, UBS and Credit Suisse.

Ronald-Peter Stöferle is Managing Partner and Fund manager at Incrementum AG, based in the Principality of Liechtenstein. The company focusses on asset management and wealth management and is one hundred percent owned by its partners. Ronald manages a fund that invests based on the principles of the Austrian School of Economics.

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