Don’t look now, but gold is back – in a big, big way.

On Friday, gold prices hit an all-time high, with U.S. gold futures hitting more than $2,700 an ounce and hovering around that threshold. And it’s finding renewed appeal among ordinary American investors who’ve never turned to this stuff before.

Gold is the big recommendation in the bullish investor reports from Citibank, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase (the latter of which previously had to pay nearly a billion dollars to the government for manipulating precious metals markets). It is on the overpriced Trump campaign watches and is present in several other merchandise items. It’s the new fashion statement for white men, with gold chains around the necks of celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg and Justin Theroux. It was at the Republican National Convention. Its biggest proponents are touring with Tucker Carlson. It’s on the shelves of Costco, which reportedly sold $200 million worth of gold bars earlier this year. every month– and the supplies are now running out quickly. The precious metal is even part of a revived business strategy for luxury watch brands, whose yellow gold timepieces were the accessory of choice for Ryan Gosling in Barbie.

Gold also regularly appears in the ads sponsoring the podcasts hosted by far-right conspirators Charlie Kirk, Matt Walsh and Candace Owens – and yes, it’s also on Fox News and Newsmax. You can also find more on Rumble and Truth Social, where you can find everything from ‘free’ gold bars to collectible gold coins with Trump’s mugshot to ‘info kits’ about investing. There is gold in Senator Bob Menendez’s basement, and also in Sam Altman’s. No wonder we’re still looking for it beneath the hills of South Dakota.

Gold has always been an American status symbol and an object of fascination for doomsday preppers, evangelical end-timers and right-wing commentators like Glenn Beck; it’s an easy bait for older retirees, worried about the savings they’ve built up all their lives and alienated by the changing world around them, and it’s always been a wise advertising choice for the kinds of radio stations and TV networks they tune into. But this moment of peak hype is particularly notable because we are not in a typical environment for such a massive, sustained rise in precious metals. Gold and silver purchases (and their prices) usually skyrocket during economic conditions that don’t quite resemble the current ones: eras of poor GDP prospects, low interest rates, a weak U.S. dollar, and skittish investors and consumers. Yet, consistent with the much-examined economic weirdness of the past half-decade, gold has remained elevated even as the economy booms, interest rates remain largely high, consumer confidence improves dramatically and the dollar’s muscle value dominates.

Normally, the price of gold is as reliable an indicator of economic orthodoxy as any other. But now it appears to be the outlier. And ironically, Bitcoin has gone from a standalone “digital gold” status and financial hedge to a commodity that moves with stock market trends.

As the Wall Street Journal explained earlier this year, a curious trend gripped the gold bug universe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before then, most gold-curious people had gotten their hands on physical manifestations of the metal (jewelry, doubloons, etc.) but also showed a healthy interest in gold-backed exchange-traded funds, an easier and more virtual way to make your money to place. trust in the metal. But in 2020, demand for both physical gold and ETFs reached equivalent levels, only to see demand diverge in subsequent years, with physical gold reaching new heights and ETFs plunging straight into negative territory. Meaning: Many gold bugs lost their confidence in the market model for gold trading and decided to ditch it in favor of the real stuff. Understandable, considering how the apocalyptic atmosphere of the pre-vaccine era and the systemic effects of the shutdowns prompted more ordinary consumers to hold on to gold as a safe backup when things started to nervously recover. (Only recently have gold ETFs regained some of that lost demand.)

Another key trend in the 2021 recovery: Central banks began stockpiling gold bullion as a hedge against the U.S. dollar, whose home government has been reluctant to raise rates even as inflation started to become a problem. The resulting “de-dollarization” panic among emerging economies, amplified by the huge global impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, made gold even more attractive for international reserves.

The global economy certainly improved, but also: everything was chaotic, countries around the world saw their currencies lose value due to inflation, the United States and its dollar no longer seemed as solid as they once were, and wars broke out. . Why wouldn’t countries like China, Singapore, India, Zimbabwe, Poland and Turkey set aside some gold for themselves as a treat?

Financial analysts are exuberantly claiming that we are barely at the peak of gold’s rally and that we could see even more records in the near future as geopolitical jitters and distrust in institutions drive massive interest in the metal. And when the demand and price of gold rise on such a far-reaching scale, the ripple effects are inevitable. Controversial, exploitative mines across West Africa are opening or reopening for business. Far-right propaganda outfits like the Epoch Times (particularly run by Chinese expats) often include gold advertisements in their influence operations.

Traders put off by the strange nature of this economic moment are embracing gold’s stability on financial television, just a few channels away from all the other right-wing media backed by gold sponsors – who then point to messy current events to keep elderly retirees scared and wondering if everything is still safe and stable. Forget the meme stocks. Gold does forever.