A lot of the uber wealthy owned gold during the confiscation period. A crap load ended up in London and Zurich, poof! Got put on ships and sailed east.
I'm unaware of CBs buying silver. Gold, I know they have been buying. We just have to be able to service it and the U.S. is the global reserve financial currency. Ask yourself this....if Greece, a 3rd-rate tourist-driven economy, needed 30 years to implode from wreckless spending and socialism....how long do you think it will take to sink the United States, the largest most dynamic economy on the face of the Earth ? If AI increases real GDP by 1% -- a very reasonable assumption -- then the debt gets paid down within 20-25 years. Our debt is manageable, though I do agree we need to bend the cost curve downward on entitlements. He's talking his book, which is promoting the case for gold. I get it....but his statement that the government "forced" you into stocks, bonds, real estate instead of gold-backed currencies...was actually a PLUS. There's a bullish case to be made for gold and/or silver...even if it doesn't materialize, it's a legit argument....but cataclysmic apocalyptic talk about "fiat currencies" is not a winning hand. If currencies or Central Banks go wild, bond yields will move up sharply and politicians and Central Bankers will get the message as debt financing costs skyrocket.