We live in a time when events unfold at an ever-accelerating pace. The quote erroneously attributed to Lenin, “There are decades in which nothing happens, and weeks in which decades happen,” now seems to be our reality. Certainties of decades past are being made obsolete overnight. As we follow the news, many of us experience uncertainty, trepidation, and overwhelm. The global pandemic, the inflation crisis, increasing political polarization, technological breakthroughs such as artificial intelligence – which, by the way, we used to create the cover of this In Gold We Trust report – but also the impending geopolitical realignment are changing our lives in ways that were unimaginable to many of us just a few years ago.

We have referred to these looming epochal changes many times in past In Gold We Trust reports. We chose titles such as “Gold in the Age of Eroding Trust” (2019) and “Monetary Climate Change” (2021) for good reason. And this year, too, calls for a pointed title that captures the complexity of the current situation. We’re going with Showdown.