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Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Gold Revaluation: Nuclear Option America Might Pull Again
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. The U.S. is sitting on an enormous pile of gold, and pretending it's worth $11 billion. As America's debt explodes and credibility cracks, a century-old trick might be back on the table: reprice the gold, fix the balance sheet, and pray the world buys it. Why Would The US Revalue Its Gold? The U.S. gold reserve, the largest of its kind, has sat in the background of financial policy for a decade. Yet, as the budget deficit widens, a radical idea of revaluing this gold is starting to catch traction. The logic? Leverage what you already own. The U.S. Treasury claims to hold over 261 million troy ounces of gold at Fort Knox, West Point, and the Denver Mint, valued on the books at just $42.22 per ounce. The 1930s 'official' price implies a total gold reserve value of around $11 billion — barely a rounding error on the $34 trillion-plus national debt. Mark that same gold to the current market price at $3,300/oz, and suddenly it is worth over $861 billion. At $8,000? Try $2.1 trillion. And if you entertain the more aggressive estimates, things get wild. Crescat Capital strategist Tavi Costa explained the situation for Kitco. "Even marking to market where gold prices are currently, we're about 2% of those Treasuries outstanding. If we go back to the 40% [backing ratio seen during WWII], it's close to $55,000 an ounce." And the motivation? It's as old as debt itself: avoid default, buy time, and do it in a way that doesn't look like outright money printing. Revaluing gold offers a way to juice the federal balance sheet without raising taxes, slashing entitlements, or — God forbid — reducing spending. Trending: 7,000+ investors have joined Timeplast's mission to eliminate microplastics— Flashbacks From the Roosevelt Era In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pulled a monetary rabbit out of his hat. Faced with deflation, collapsing banks, and dwindling public confidence, Roosevelt invoked the Emergency Banking Act to issue Executive Order 6102. The order criminalized private gold ownership and compelled Americans to surrender their bullion at a fixed rate of $20.67 per ounce. Then, after the gold was safely in federal hands, the government revalued it to $35 per ounce, devaluing the dollar by nearly 70% in gold terms and instantly boosting the Treasury's balance sheet. It was a move of pure financial engineering. Through a single political maneuver, Washington recapitalized itself without raising taxes or issuing more debt. The playbook worked then, and in theory, it could work again. Revaluation today would look different. There's no gold recall coming. However, the motive would be consistent — to restore confidence, recapitalize a bloated balance sheet, and shift financial gravity back toward hard collateral. How Would the Revaluation Happen? You'd expect this kind of monetary ninjitsu to require Congressional action or an act of God, and you'd be wrong. The steps are technically simple and legally viable. A four-part maneuver could turn an $11 billion gold stash into a multi-trillion war chest, almost overnight: Redeem the Certificate: First, the Treasury buys back the $11 billion gold certificate sitting on the Fed's balance sheet. Easy enough. Reset the Price: The President issues an executive order to increase the statutory price of gold to, let's say, $8,000/oz. Sell at the New Price: The Treasury then "sells" its gold to the Federal Reserve at the new price, and receives $2.1 trillion in newly printed digital dollars in return. Run It Back: Then, in a sleight-of-hand move straight out of FDR's playbook, the Fed is forced by law to return the gold to the Treasury... in exchange for a new gold certificate. Critics could call it gimmickry. Supporters could call it an elegant balance sheet repair. And here's the kicker: because gold certificates aren't counted as debt, this maneuver shrinks the national debt on paper while handing the government a massive budget surplus. It's financial alchemy, but it's legal and it's been done before. Per Discovery Alert, Andrew Maguire, precious metals analyst at Kinesis Money, framed it this way: "Most likely, gold will rally to $8,000/oz to unwind decades of derivative positions and properly reflect expanded money supplies." And here's where Basel III comes in: under post-2008 reforms, monetary gold is now a Tier 1 asset, as good as cash on bank balance sheets. A revalued gold price wouldn't only help the Treasury but also significantly strengthen the banking sector's capital positions. The move would likely be couched as a "technical accounting update" rather than a monetary regime shift. But make no mistake: the effects would be global and for the Market A gold revaluation of this scale would be a financial earthquake. First, the gold price would likely spike. Not slowly. Not methodically. Think of a vertical takeoff. You don't reprice a Tier 1 sovereign asset by 10x without igniting a frenzy of front-running and sovereign copycats. The baseline projection — echoed by both institutional and independent analysts — falls in the $7,500 to $8,500 range. UBS's monetary expansion model pegs the fair value around $8,000. Discovery Alert cites similar levels to reach full Basel III compliance. However, the range between UBS and Andy Schectman of Miles Franklin is quite broad. "$142,000 an ounce is not a fantasy—it's a math-based outcome if you want gold to absorb current global debt imbalances," Schectman said in an interview on the Soar Financially YouTube channel. He admits this is the extreme end, but in a crisis moment, extreme often becomes the new baseline. Gold miners would go supernova, especially low-cost producers like Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM) and Endeavour Mining (OTCQX:EDVMF). Capex spending would go ballistic. Every single hole in the ground that was once a mine would be on the menu. Drilling prices would rise as junior miners rush to explore their properties, raising cash at new, higher valuations right, left, and center. What about other assets? A gold revaluation would likely result in a relative decline in the purchasing power of fiat currencies. Inflation would re-accelerate, especially for commodities. Bond yields would pop unless yield curve control were reintroduced. The S&P 500? Mixed. Companies with pricing power and real assets would fare well. Overleveraged growth names? Not so much. Currency markets would become chaotic. A gold repricing would instantly signal dollar weakness, triggering safe-haven flows into non-U.S. currencies, gold-linked assets, and crypto. Expect EM central banks to respond quickly — China's PBOC already hoards gold, and a U.S. move would likely be mimicked to prevent FX imbalances. Could this really happen? Well, as Schectman says, "It's not about what they want to do — it's about what they'll be forced to do when the debt ceiling meets the credibility floor." And with debt-to-GDP ratios entering uncharted terrain, something will eventually have to give. As Tavi Costa points out, we've already drifted so far from monetary anchors that even a partial return to historic backing levels would represent an unprecedented revaluation. "Those are crazy numbers," he says. "And I'm not here to say those are price targets or anything like that, but I think that's important to put into perspective how much we've gone away from the anchor of owning an actual monetary metal." Read Next: $100k+ in investable assets? Match with a fiduciary advisor for free to learn how you can maximize your retirement and save on taxes – no cost, no obligation. If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it? Image: Shutterstock This article Gold Revaluation: Nuclear Option America Might Pull Again originally appeared on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Insider
19 hours ago
- Automotive
- Business Insider
I toured the train car presidents used for travel before Air Force One. Climb aboard the 'White House on wheels.'
Long before there was an Air Force One, US presidents traveled the country aboard a 10-foot-wide train car. Rebuilt in 1942 for presidential use, the Ferdinand Magellan, also known as US Car No. 1, was the president's official mode of transportation between 1943 and 1954. Made with detailed security features and enlarged spaces for President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the height of World War II, the armored car became the heaviest railcar ever built in the US, and today, it is the only passenger train car to ever be declared a National Historic Landmark. The Ferdinand Magellan allowed the president to continue his duties in comfort while on the move. It often traveled with other cars dedicated to radio communications, White House staffers, and members of the press. Take a look inside the "White House on wheels" that predates Air Force One. US Car No. 1 was presented to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in December 1942. On December 18, 1942, the Pullman Company presented a luxury train car that had been rebuilt at the request of the US Secret Service, which had determined that the president needed a secure way to travel during wartime. Roosevelt most often used the car to travel from Washington, DC, to his home in Hyde Park, New York. The president insisted on not surpassing a speed of 35 miles per hour when traveling aboard the Ferdinand Magellan, making his journeys less efficient and heightening security measures, per the White House Historical Association website. He last rode the car on March 30, 1945, when he visited his Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, where he died a few weeks later. During his time, the president rode over 50,000 miles aboard the presidential train car. It was most famously used in 1948 during Harry Truman's "whistle-stop" campaign tour. While the car was built with Roosevelt in mind, including certain designs that would allow him to use a wheelchair on the train, it was his successor, President Harry S. Truman, who used it the most. The president, who, unlike Roosevelt, opted for a speed of 80 miles per hour, employed the car in his iconic 35-day whistle-stop tour during his reelection campaign in 1948, where he delivered 356 speeches from the back of the Magellan, per Architectural Digest. By the time Truman's successor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, took office, more efficient air travel was starting to replace rail travel, and the US Car No. 1 was used for the last time in 1954. The car was last used by Ronald Reagan during a commemorative whistle-stop tour in Ohio in 1984. In 1984, Reagan brought the Magellan out of retirement for a one-day whistle-stop tour through Ohio during his reelection campaign. The president traveled from Dayton to Perrysburg and stopped at five locations to give speeches from the rear platform of the presidential car. Today, the US Car No. 1 sits in a small museum near Zoo Miami. In 1959, the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami, Florida, acquired the car, which had been declared surplus and donated to the Smithsonian — which had no way to store it — in 1958. Since then, the car has stayed in South Florida, where it is now open to the public. The Gold Coast Railroad Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. A regular adult ticket for the museum costs $12, and tickets for the presidential train car cost an additional $10. To carry the president, the unique armored car had enhanced security features. The car, which is 84 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 15 feet tall, was covered with over 1/2 an inch of nickel-steel armor on its sides and featured 3-inch-thick bulletproof glass windows. It was also the heaviest train car built in the US. After it was refurbished for presidential use, the train car weighed 285,000 pounds, making it much heavier than modern-day war tanks, which often weigh around 100,000 pounds. The car also had its name, Ferdinand Magellan, removed from its sides in an effort to conceal the president's presence, although its design often stood out. Other security features included two escape hatches and a complex security protocol, which included diverting traffic on the rails to ensure that no train traveled ahead or behind the president for at least 30 minutes. Operating under the code name POTUS, the president's train always had the right of way. Passengers boarded from the front of the train, which housed the staff quarters and kitchen. In the kitchen, an onboard chef had access to ovens and refrigerators. The train's dedicated chef prepared the president and guests' meals inside this kitchen. On the other side of the kitchen, the staff had pantry space to plate the dishes. The kitchen was also equipped with a pantry and a full-size metal sink. The car housed two staff members: one chef and one porter. Near the kitchen, a chef and a porter had sleeping quarters that featured an upper and lower berth. The dining and conference room was in the main cabin of the car. The presidential car's main cabin featured a 6-foot solid mahogany table where the president and his guests — often diplomats or foreign leaders — could gather for dinners or meetings. The dining room had its own set of presidential china. Today, the room displays an example of the glass used in the car's windows. The 3-inch-thick laminated bulletproof glass windows were installed when the car was refurbished for the president's use. The windows were sealed, so to keep the car ventilated there was a simple form of air conditioning in which fans pushed air cooled by blocks of ice. The car included two guest bedrooms along with a presidential suite. The first of two guest bedrooms aboard the US Car No. 1, Stateroom D, included an upper and lower berth, where guests could sleep, and an in-room bathroom. In these guest rooms, Truman welcomed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during his visit to the US in 1946, during which he delivered his iconic Iron Curtain speech. The presidential suite included the president's sleeping area. Designed to accommodate Franklin D. Roosevelt's wheelchair, the president's room included a full-size bed, a dresser, and an in-room toilet. Like most rooms in the car, it was also connected to a telephone, which was extremely rare at the time. The connecting bathroom inside the presidential suite had a bathtub, a toilet, and a sink. The presidential suite bathroom, equipped with a bathtub, toilet, and sink, connected the president's and the first lady 's rooms, staterooms B and C. The bathroom also contained an escape hatch, which was added as a security measure during the car's refurbishing. The first lady's room paralleled the president's. The secondary guest bedroom could also be used as a breakfast or gathering room. Located towards the back of the car, Stateroom A, the second guest room aboard the Magellan, featured convertible berths, like the other guest room, that could also be used as a breakfast, gathering, or office space for the president or his guests. The upper berth could be raised into the ceiling, and the lower one could be converted into a sitting booth with a pull-out table. The presidential car was often attached to train cars housing Secret Service, White House staffers, and the press. The Ferdinand Magellan functioned as a White House on wheels, and was often attached to train cars dedicated to Secret Service, White House staffers, and reporters traveling with the president. The US Car No. 1 was also often accompanied by two communications cars equipped with control consoles for radio broadcasts and telegraph communications so the president could be reached while he was on the move, per Atlas Obscura. A narrow hallway led from the staterooms to the observation deck. A slim, wood-paneled hallway led from the four staterooms to the observation deck at the rear of the car. The observation lounge featured some of the presidential car's original furniture. The observation room was also enlarged during the refurbishing of the car, allowing it to function as a secondary gathering room for the president and his guests. During the refurbishment, a submarine escape hatch was added to the car. Part of the car's security modifications included the addition of escape hatches, like this submarine hatch on the observation lounge. Today, the observation lounge shows signs of hurricane damage that the car has sustained. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida, and among its many damages were some sustained by the Magellan. Although minor, a small window crack shows how the presidential car has stood the test of time. Traveling presidents could address crowds from a podium on the car's rear platform. At the end of the presidential car was an exposed podium from where the president often addressed crowds. During Truman's whistle-stop tour, he spoke from the podium repeatedly, often addressing crowds in different cities within the same day. The preserved train car stands as a remnant of US history and of how presidents spread their message. Inactive as the president's main form of transportation for over 70 years, the Ferdinand Magellan stands as a memory of America's past. However, our tour guide pointed out that the car is still on a track connected to current-day railroads and can be requested for use at any moment by the sitting US president. Although I doubt Donald Trump would want to travel aboard the historic cabin, a modern-day president going on his own whistle-stop tour on US Car No. 1 remains a possibility.
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Book Review: 'Victory ‘45' chronicles the long, winding road to ending WWII
Most wars begin with a unilateral act. Americans fired 'the shot heard round the world' in Lexington in 1775, the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, and the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. To call off a war, however, the belligerents must agree to terms and conditions, a collaborative and convoluted process. In the popular imagination, World War II concluded in 1945 with the deaths of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Europe, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. As historians James Holland and Al Murray chronicle in their finely detailed book 'Victory '45: The End of the War in Eight Surrenders,' those events alone were not capable of halting the colossal military might unleashed over the previous six years. Consider how the ultimate aim of the Allies — unconditional surrender as set in a joint declaration — contrasted with the Nazi blood oath calling for a '1,000-year Reich or Armageddon.' President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, meeting in Casablanca in January 1943, outlined the strategic, political, and moral clarity necessary to fight a global conflict. By spring 1945 Hitler and his supporters were rotting in his Berlin bunker. Holland and Murray use the bunker setting — depicted in the 2004 German film 'Downfall' featuring a meme-able Hitler tirade — as the predicate for the multiple European surrenders to come. If rehashing Hitler's suicide, in April 1945, early in the book seems anti-climactic, 'Victory '45' justifies itself by moving on to the unsung but equally dramatic tales of those who navigated the confusion of a war that was won but hardly finished. The first significant capitulation began weeks earlier when two backstabbing rivals in the Nazi SS high command in Northern Italy separately schemed to save their own postwar skins. Their intrigues delayed the first of Europe's unconditional surrenders, limited to their sector, signed just a day before Hitler's demise. A recurring motif was the futile attempts by the Germans to only yield to the West in hopes of splintering the Allies and escaping Soviet vengeance. While Holland and Murray include brief profiles of famous politicians and commanders as further European surrender ceremonies were staged and announced, 'Victory '45' finds its relevance and poignancy when it directs its focus downward. There, ordinary individuals journeyed to the intersections of triumph and despair, relief and revulsion. Examples include the Jewish-American college student haunted by the atrocities at a slave compound in Austria seized by his Army unit. Those rescued included a Jewish-Czech teen who lied about his age to avoid extermination at Auschwitz and joined his father in surviving stints at multiple camps. Liberation was punctuated by grief just days later in a makeshift hospital when his father died in his arms. On the Eastern Front, a young female translator in Soviet military intelligence was integral to a search in Germany's devastated capital. Were the reports of the Fuhrer's death Nazi disinformation? She interrogated captured witnesses, attended the autopsy of the burned corpse, and was even given custody of the teeth that were eventually confirmed as Hitler's. Not much further west, a bedraggled teenage German conscript who did escape Berlin's aftermath lived on the run until captured by a Russian soldier who simply told him, 'War is over! All go home!' Turning to the Pacific Theater, 'Victory '45' examines the grim prospect the Western Allies faced in 'unconditionally' conquering a warrior ethos in Japan, epitomized by their civilians' suicidal resistance to the Allied invasion of Okinawa. The necessity of the atomic bombings was proven by the attempted military coup staged by high-ranking Japanese holdouts who wanted to defy Emperor Hirohito's orders and continue fighting despite the threat of nuclear annihilation. Not simply targeted to WWII enthusiasts, 'Victory '45' illustrates for those with a broader historical interest the myriad challenges in bringing to heel the dogs of war. Brits Holland and Murray cannot be expected to quote Yankee baseball legend Yogi Berra, but their book deftly explains 80 years later why in war as well as sports, 'It ain't over 'til it's over.' ___ Douglass K. Daniel is the author of 'Kill — Do Not Release: Censored Marine Corps Stories from World War II' (Fordham University Press). ___ AP book reviews:
Chicago Tribune
6 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Tom Montgomery Fate: Bears, oh my! Why national parks are our country's treasures
My family and I arrived at Grand Teton National Park on the Fourth of July weekend — with our tents and chuck box and backpacks — hoping to explore an iconic bit of American wilderness. And it did not disappoint. We arrived to find a mama bear and her two cubs nosing around the campsite. More bears appeared the next day. I have seen black bears before, but usually from a distance, not digging in our fire ring. Thankfully, though, I remembered a park ranger's bear talk from a recent trip to Rocky Mountain National Park: First, don't get between the mama and her cubs. Second, stay calm, make noise and raise your arms to appear larger — which is what I did. I abruptly raised my arms and began to yell. 'Da Bears! Da Bears! Go home, Bears!' I shouted, over and over, and kept waving, my nervous humor somehow helping to calm my fears. Finally, the massive mama bear ambled back into the woods, and her cubs eventually followed. When my daughter and her husband originally reserved these campsites nine months prior — securing the last two spots available for the holiday weekend — I had imagined chaos. I feared the crowds: long lines for drinking water, crowded restrooms and the inevitable bottleneck at the park's most popular scenic overlooks. I pictured throngs of families jostling for space, moms and dads snapping selfies while trying to wrangle kids in front of tumbling waterfalls. And, my fears were realized — the park was crowded. Dozens of sweaty kids and their parents trudged up and down the trails. I chatted with many along the way. But I was pleasantly surprised by how attentive and thoughtful and even thankful people seemed. 'Mom, this is amazing,' one teen boy said as they approached the rocky, roaring marvel of Hidden Falls. I just didn't expect the overt expressions of awe and wonder. So what was going on? It was vacation, so people were more relaxed. But maybe, I finally decided, it was also because for a few days we were not focused on ourselves but on other animals, the ones who lived there — the bears, moose, elk, wolves and bison. And perhaps we were again remembering our own sense of belonging to the natural world? Our time at Grand Teton was part of a two-week road trip that included visits to three other national parks: The Badlands and Wind Cave in South Dakota and Yellowstone. Each park offered something unique, but the thread that wove them all together was the same: a public space in which you would encounter the wild beauty in the ever-changing flora and fauna and landscape. In an August 1934 live radio address to the nation from Glacier National Park in Montana, President Franklin D. Roosevelt reiterated this commitment to the parks as a public space. 'There is nothing so American as our national parks,' Roosevelt said. 'They are not for the rich alone. Camping is free, the sanitation is excellent. You will find them in every part of the Union. You will find glorious scenery of every character; you will find every climate; you will perform the double function of enjoying much and learning much.' 'The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in the process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbol of this great human principle,' he continued. The accessibility and public aspect of the national parks has been protected since their inception in the mid-19th century — the parks as a natural treasure, open to all. And that 'treasure' is not just a metaphor. Last year, a record 331 million people visited our 63 national parks. That's more than twice as many people who voted in the 2024 presidential election. The national parks are loved by Democrats and Republicans alike. And all that popularity resulted in a $55.6 billion benefit to the nation's economy last year, supporting over 400,000 jobs. To put it simply, the national parks are hugely successful, and supporting them may be one small way to help bring our deeply divided country together. Researchers: How do we help America's national parks? Make global visitors pay it comes as no surprise that the rangers and visitors I talked with during our trip were baffled by the recent budget cuts to the national park system and the talk of privatizing them. These changes were proposed by President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a former real estate developer. This trio of billionaires does not seem to recognize the value of public lands –– or of public housing, or public education, or public broadcasting, or public transportation. Or that that word — 'public' — is synonymous with our nation's core democratic ideals. Since the Trump administration took office, the National Park Service has lost 24% of its permanent staff, a crippling reduction that has left many parks scrambling to operate with stripped-down crews. Those who remain must do more with less, and it's not sustainable. What the politicians don't realize is that the national parks already operated on a tight budget and rely heavily on unpaid volunteers. There is no waste to cut. Nevertheless, the president's new budget proposal would claw back $267 million already committed to the national parks for 2026. This could perhaps all be resolved if we would only elect a few black bears to serve in Congress, or appoint an elk or moose to head the Department of the Interior. And perhaps an owl as head of Housing and Urban Development — given their skills at restoring abandoned housing? A gray wolf or grizzly for the Department of Defense? And why not a red fox as secretary of commerce? But I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, all the other animals have to rely on is us — the supposedly 'smartest' animal — the one whose choices can and should be guided by conscience.
Epoch Times
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Theodore Roosevelt: Architect of America's Navy
On Sept. 2, 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech at the Minnesota State Fair. Addressing a large crowd about national duties, he said, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far.' These famous words summed up Roosevelt's approach to foreign policy. Above all other things, the most central aspect of this 'big stick diplomacy' was his advocacy of naval power. A Defining Book 'The history of sea power is largely, though by no means solely, a narrative of contests between nations, of mutual rivalries, of violence frequently culminating in war.' This is the wordy opening sentence to Alfred Thayer Mahan's 'The Influence of Sea Power Upon History.' The book, published in 1890, examined how the rise of the British Empire was made possible by naval supremacy.
