Great thoughts about #TRUST by the one and only Tony Deden: "Trust cannot be manufactured. It must be earned. It emerges slowly—through consistency, clarity, and moral courage. And it vanishes quickly—through duplicity, evasion, or shallow opportunism. And above all, we must reward trust—deliberately and visibly. Not just in outcomes, but in process. In an age when short-term performance is often mistaken for integrity, we must remember that character compounds more slowly, but far more enduringly. When uncertainty rises and institutions falter, it is trust—not trendlines—that preserves continuity. It is trust that enables action without perfect knowledge and cooperation without constant supervision. In that sense, trust is not a luxury. It is a form of capital. And in the end, it may be the only one that truly endures. Trust is perhaps the fundamental First Principle."

After 20 years of research and 19 editions of In Gold We Trust, this might be the most elegant case for gold I've come across. Michael Weeks of Edelweiss nails it — not by arguing what gold promises, but by cataloguing what gold spares you from: No duration risk. No credit risk. No liquidity risk. No dependence on cheap energy, cheap credit, or cheap trade. No balance sheets to blow up. No cash flows to dwindle. No management to misallocate capital. Gold demands no counterparty's faith — only a safe place to store it. This "via negativa" approach to portfolio construction resonates deeply with our philosophy. It rests on a simple recognition: the risks you eliminate by holding gold may matter far more than the returns you project without it. We're working around the clock on the 20th anniversary edition of In Gold We Trust Stay tuned. This one's going to be special. #Gold #InGoldWeTrust #IGWT2026 #SoundMoney #ViaNegativa @ttmygh @IGWTreport #Edelweiss

Sound advice from Tony Deden: "Governments and politicians lie. The press lies. Treating official narratives as solid ground, especially in war, is a mistake. In wartime, truth is obscured by design."

Cicero, so that means...

Most discussions about precious metals end up somewhere between insanity and inanity - between crank conspiracies or stupid speculations about price. How refreshing to hear two *sane* men discuss something so important to so many! Worth a listen - and a subscription.

New Post: I list what I think are the traits of an ideal industry (eg pricing power, recurring revenue, economically agnostic), and offer a case study of such an industry. Enjoy! fortunefinancialadvisors.com…

👇Gold is a "crowded trade" that almost noone owns.

We are about to learn this lesson again, the hard way.

“It is so easy to be wrong – and to persist in being wrong – when the costs of being wrong are paid by others.” - Thomas Sowell

On gold bugs, a corollary: If you can’t buy shares when times are easy, you won’t buy shares when times are hard.

When should I sell? Ask an economist, an investor, and a business owner this question and you will get three different answers: a theory, a formula, and a decision. The theory is universal and true, but not practical. The formula is universal and practical, but not true. The decision is true and practical, but not universal. My answer is simple: You sell when it makes sense. Not a theory. Not a formula. Always a judgment call, based entirely on experience and circumstance.

Steven’s latest is worth reading. When we define ‘the market’ to exclude real owners, we remove the only people who actually pay a price for being wrong.

"Inflationism, however, is not an isolated phenomenon. It is only one piece in the total framework of politico-economic and socio-philosophical ideas of our time. Just as the sound money policy of gold standard advocates went hand in hand with liberalism, free trade, capitalism and peace, so is inflationism part and parcel of imperialism, militarism, protectionism, statism and socialism." Ludwig von Mises

I have a sneaking suspicion that, after years of hard work, we inevitably reach the same conclusions that smarter and wiser investment practicioners made clear 50 years ago. That’s the nature of investment work. We operate in different circumstances, and make different applications, but all the investment wisdom we need is already out there. Our challenge is simply keeping our heads on straight - and recognizing the difference between wisdom and mere convention.

This whole Dean Williams speech was absolutely fantastic - something worth reading again and again.

Hayek compares inflation to taking drugs Both are “immediately pleasant” but cause “much greater harm that will be felt only later”

"What we’re watching is not just a rally, but a repricing of trust itself. Gold isn’t yielding, innovating, or compounding. It’s simply absorbing the market’s collective disbelief in paper promises. ...it’s a referendum on the system." thedarksideoftheboom.substac…

Economic aggregates compound error. They are the noise - not the signal.

"So knowledge grows by subtraction much more than by addition—given that what we know today might turn out to be wrong but what we know to be wrong cannot turn out to be right, at least not easily." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

"The main difference between government bailouts and smoking is that in some rare cases the statement “this is my last cigarette” holds true." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb in The Bed of Procrustes amazon.com/gp/product/198481…