The only reason central banks buy gold is to protect their balance sheets from their own monetary destruction programs; they have no choice but to do so.
What at first seem like gifts from the state (handouts for some at the expense of others) lead to unfortunate events that cannot be stopped once begun.
Central bankers follow inflation "target" in their pursuit of "price stability." Not surprisingly, they usually miss their targets -- quite badly -- and we now are living one of those moments.
Critics of capitalism claim that it is responsible for creating inequality in society. Yet the precapitalist societies enforced inequality in a rigid social structure.
The world's central banks ran up their risk, all together, and now the big risks they assumed are turning into losses all around the central bank club.
Politicians calling for student loan forgiveness or free college tuition have failed to understand the larger consequences of unlimited student lending. Henry Hazlitt would have understood.
A serious political discussion at the federal level would center on structural problems of war and peace, debt and the dollar, and entitlements. But America in 2022 is a deeply unserious country.
