Are you planning to give gold jewelry as a Christmas present but haven’t yet found the right piece? Then it’s going to be expensive! The gold price recently reached a new all-time high and cost up to $2,100 per ounce in early December.

Therefore, I would like to take a closer look at the yellow precious metal with you today and in the coming days in this „Schlussgong“. „But all things cling to gold“, wrote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe more than 200 years ago in his masterpiece „Faust“.

The poet prince knew what he was writing, as he was responsible for mining and state finance, among other things, in the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. His late work „Faust II“ should also be compulsory reading at every school, as Goethe mercilessly reveals the possible weaknesses of the then still young paper money system (massive printing of paper money causes inflation).

What caused the recent inflation surge Exactly this effect was the starting point for the inflation surge we have been experiencing since 2022. The rapid rise in energy costs after the outbreak of the Ukraine war was the drop that overflowed the barrel. However, the basis for the widespread currency devaluation had already been laid before.

After the outbreak of the banking and financial crisis in 2008, the central banks lowered the key interest rates to zero and flooded the market with liquidity. This was understandable in the crisis. But in the later recovery phase, the central banks „forgot“ to tighten the monetary reins again.

Zero interest rate policy became the permanent state. In the background, the basis for the inflation wave was created. All that was needed was an external shock as a trigger. That was the war-related shock in the energy market.

Gold as a crisis protection Gold is a long-term effective inflation protection, but gold works even better as an insurance against crises. In the middle of 2020, the gold price – as a reaction to the Corona crisis – jumped for the first time above the $2,000 per ounce mark.

The next jump over the round mark followed after the Russian troops marched into Ukraine. And now, in December 2023, gold even reached a new all-time high. The crisis in the Middle East is also responsible for this.

Now the latest gold price rally must first be „digested“ by the market participants. Therefore, a consolidation is expected. Currently, the gold price is just below the $2,000 mark. After that, however, the rally could continue.

Tomorrow you will learn some more things about gold and get to know first investment possibilities in the precious metal, with which you can profit from high gold prices in the future and/or protect yourself against external shocks with gold.