Illustration: Xia Qing/GT
The safe-haven property of gold has fully manifested in recent weeks. Spot gold hit $1,535.11 an ounce on August 13, the highest level since 2013.
I believe the gold price could reach as high as $1,800 an ounce in the future, and in the meantime, there will be increasing discussions about the world's return to the gold standard. The global market structure has been undergoing tremendous changes these days. The US has been pulling itself out of the multilateral arena for the purposes of protecting and enhancing the value of its own market space. As a result, signs of structural adjustments in the world market have become increasingly evident, but are still far from raising the general attention of the global financial community. In fact, many people still hope that such structural adjustments won't happen, so the market can go back to the old days.
Yet, it's impossible to go back to the past because the structural adjustments are based on global capital surplus and severe overcapacity, which could cause serious world economic and financial crises.
So what would be the outcome?
The most significant change is a return to the gold standard. As capital surplus and overcapacity have exerted great pressure on the world market space, the world financial system is also trying to adapt to the huge change which is centered on the status of the dollar. From the perspective of the global financial system, the dollar is a super currency that has a strong backing of global geopolitics.
The status of the super currency is supposed to be unshakable, but the problem is that the US itself wants to give up this status and pursue a future characterized by US President Donald Trump's freestyle, thereby...