Ron Paul has often told the story of visiting Fed Chair Paul Volcker at his office and Volcker would immediately ask what the price of gold was that particular day. Perhaps he was checking on the damage to the dollar that he had done. Volcker had been “the point man at the Treasury Department in 1971 who managed the dollar’s untethering from gold,” wrote Christine Harper.
The current and soon-to-be ex-Fed Chair Jerome Powell doesn’t care much about the price of precious metals. When asked by CNN’s Matt Egan during the January 28th Q&A,
…as I’m sure you’ve noticed, gold and silver prices have experienced historic gains of late, and I’m wondering how much attention, if any, you pay to those moves and what message you may take from these significant price increases we’ve seen for precious metals.
“Don’t take much message macroeconomically. The argument can be made that we’re losing credibility or something. It’s simply not the case,” the chairman sniffed.
If you look at where inflation expectations are, our credibility is right where it needs to be. So we look at those things. We don’t get spun up over particular asset price changes, although we do monitor them, of course.
In the real world, where people actually buy things, those who can, dictate what currency they wish to be paid in. Seven years after the Volcker Group report summarily dismissed the alternative of raising—possibly doubling—the dollar price of gold (i.e., “devaluing the dollar”), which would have increased the value of the US gold stock and facilitated the restoration of a genuine gold standard.
Singer Bette Midler (influenced by manager Aaron Russo) insisted on payment in gold bullion for a planned British concert tour in the fall of 1978. The “Divine Miss M” is believed to be the first major performer to be paid in bullion. At the time, the price of the yellow was ascending from $112 in 1976 to $850 in 1980. In 2007, Patricia Bundchen—manager and twin sister of super model Gisele—said, “Contracts starting now are more attractive in euros because we don’t know what will happen to the dollar.”
Fast forward to 2026. Wasteland Capital posted on X, “The big news from Davos is that the luxury hookers have stopped accepting Bitcoin but are happy to take Gold bars and DRAM sticks.” Almost Daily Grant’s (ADG) reports the bloom has come off of Gold 2.0 (Bitcoin).
Weekly trading volume on Polymarket has accelerated to nearly $6 billion from $500 million in June 2025, while Kalshi has seen monthly downloads jump to 1.3 million from 80,000 at this time last year according to Sensor Tower. “Over the same stretch, crypto exchange Binance has seen its own pace of monthly downloads drop by more than 50%,” reports ADG.
“Crypto is so ruggable,” digital asset enthusiast turned prediction market devotee Nikshep Saravanan told Bloomberg. “People are tired of the game.”
The New York Post reported, “Demand for sex workers in Davos skyrocketed during this year’s World Economic Forum — including one client who allegedly shelled out a whopping $114,000 for four days with five women.”
The world’s elite made 79 requests for erotic services on January 19, the opening day of the World Economic forum, reported the Swiss edition of 20 Minutes. Titt4Tat, which connects sex workers with potential clients, said typical traffic is two requests per day in Davos. Attendees for the US, Russia, and Ukraine made an “unusually high” number of requests.
For those workers who held on to their gold bars, Friday was a tough day. From Wasteland Capital on X,
Grok estimated that $5.4 trillion in gold and silver wealth was wiped out today.
That’s more than the $5 trillion in combined market cap of $MSFT and $META.
Bitcoin has its own troubles, falling 10 percent to $75,709.88 during New York Saturday afternoon trading hours, while other tokens posted steeper losses, reports Bloomberg.
David Lee writes on X:
The day after Gold Silver price collapse, Shenzhen Shuibei Gold Market is packed with people. But pricing of merchandise (jewelry price, not just metal) is becoming tricky The shops are selling at SGE+ price $5640 for #Gold and $136.8 for #Silver while buying back at global price $4827 for Gold and $91.6 for Silver.
No wonder consumer confidence is low.
