The World Gold Council recently released an insightful report titled, Gold 2048: The Next 30 Years for Gold. This report looks at overarching demographic, technological, economic, political, and social trends around the world and their implications for the gold market.

The report has brought together top gold industry experts as well as world-renowned authors and economists who discuss the underlying macro forces that will drive gold in the next 30 years.

This is an eye-opening yet lengthy read that I highly recommend to all investors. To give you a glimpse of what’s inside the report, this short overview presents the highlights and takeaways from an investment perspective.

Continuing our series of stories about precious metals from our dear customers, we have an inspiring account from Bob W. He shares his experience of accumulating precious metals over more than two decades:

Two months ago, we hosted a conference featuring 25 world-famous asset managers, investment experts, and economists who discussed their economic outlook and predictions.

I’m talking big names like “bond king” Jeff Gundlach, David Rosenberg, Louis Gave, and others.

As you can imagine, these speakers usually don’t talk much about gold. They’re more concerned with stocks, funds, bonds, and the like.

But this year was different.

I’ve never seen so many high-profile investors mention gold as a safety net—and that includes some who were previously hard-core gold bears.

Unfortunately, the reason is not a happy one. All these “in the know” people are very worried about the direction the markets are taking.

This article is a short report that details what five of these well-known asset managers see coming down the pike over the next few years—and why gold is the best hedge against the looming crisis.

A while ago, I wrote a couple of stories about how gold had come into my life at an early age. 

The first story was about my Swiss grandfather during WWII. The other one was an account of refugees from Cambodia that became friends of my family when I was in my teens in France.

My belief was that many of our customers have similar life stories about gold that are worth sharing with our Hard Assets Alliance community. As such, I invited you to share your stories.

At the Strategic Investment Conference 2018, David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff warned investors of the coming mean reversion in the stock market, which can push down equity prices by 20% or more.

Rosenberg also admitted that this is one of the strangest rallies of all time. That’s because all asset classes went up, even the ones that are inversely correlated:

Whether it was bank stocks, emerging market bonds, Ant stocks, the CRB, oil—every single market, even global bonds. Barkley's Bond Index globally generated a 7.5% return. The least-risky asset class in a risk-on year generated an equity-like return of 7.5%.

He thinks that a breaking point is a year away and so investors should start taking precautions.

It was 1974, and I was a young teenager, when I had a defining experience that I remember to this day.

I grew up in a little medieval town in France, and my parents were very involved in our community of about fifteen thousand people. When a small group of Cambodian refugees arrived in France, my parents immediately agreed to “adopt” a family named Huu.  

Adopting refugees meant helping them with their basic needs: find accommodation they could afford, a first job, clothes, and all the other necessities to survive.

We also welcomed the Huus into our home on a regular basis. It happened so many times that the kids from both families became like stepbrothers and sisters.

To me, the story of this refugee family who became our good friends has always been an example of human courage and determination.

We’ve witnessed what I consider to be a turning point for the stock market.

Just when many predicted another growth year for the markets, on Monday, February 5, the Dow plunged by 1,600 points—its greatest point drop in history.

Jared Dillian is a former Wall Street trader and the editor of Mauldin Economics’ investment advisories Street Freak and The Daily Dirtnap, a newsletter for sophisticated investors that is published about 225 days per year.

Like us here at the Hard Assets Alliance, Jared believes cryptocurrencies could one day be successful, but is skeptical about the raging bitcoin bull stampeding through today’s investment landscape.

Here’s a snippet from The Daily Dirtnap issue of Jan. 4, 2018, that we thought you may find entertaining and enlightening. Enjoy!

The beginning of the year is a good time to take a step back, reflect on both our personal and professional lives, and maybe re-evaluate some decisions we made in the past year.

All too often, influential forces like the mass media and social networks—which are driven by sensationalism and glamor—distract us from what is important. That’s especially true in the investment world.

For this reason, I’d like to share with you a recent podcast from Peak Prosperity in which my business partner Ed D’Agostino breaks down the key principles of investing in precious metals and their role in every investor’s portfolio.

I grew up in a little town in Northern France that, from 1939 to 1945, was occupied by the Nazis. I hadn’t been born yet at the time, but my mother and her family were forced to live for five long years with two German officers as “guests” in their own home.

As a result, my childhood was colored by first-hand stories of life in a town where even in my youth, physical reminders of World War II still lurked around every corner.