As the price per ounce gold has risen in recent years, so have the number of people who expect a bullish continuation of this trend. James Rickards, a well-known lawyer, is very passionate about precious metals, including gold and silver.

Who is James Rickards?

Most people may know the name James Rickards, as he is an American lawyer and media commentator. More often than not, his opinion is asked on matters of finance and precious metals. There are several reasons as to why his opinions are inquired about so often.

Rickards holds an M.A. in international economics, and an LL.M in taxation, among other degrees. With a clear passion for everything pertaining to the financial industry and the different asset classes, it was a matter of time until he started delving deeper into these particular markets.

James Rickards the Author

All of the knowledge gathered over the years has resulted in some intriguing personal developments for James Rickards. Back in 2009, he claimed that the US Dollar would face imminent hyperinflation. Moreover, the greenback was, in his opinion, vulnerable to attack by foreign governments as they continued to accumulate gold. While this doom scenario hasn’t come to pass just yet, the comments made 11 years ago still remain valid today. 

Two years later, Rickards published his first book. Titled “Currency Wars: The making of the Next Global Crisis“, it paints a very interesting, albeit potentially bleak outlook for the current monetary system. In the book, it is mentioned how the US continues to face threats to its national security, including clandestine gold purchases by China and Russia, as well as wealthy sovereign individuals with their own agenda. 

Rickards also believes that the Federal Reserve is playing the greatest gamble in the history of finance. Printing money to fuel economic growth is not a viable long-term approach that anyone can keep exploring. Even today, stimulus packages are introduced left, right, and center, seemingly without considering the long-term effects of this approach.

Over the years, Rickards authored another five books, all of which pertain to finance, gold, and wealth. Especially his “The New Case for Gold“, released in 2016, is a book that is of great importance. Based on these writings alone, it is seemingly a matter of time until the current monetary system collapses completely. 

James Rickards Quotes

Following a storied career – both in terms of being a lawyer and media person, as well as an author of numerous books – there have been a fair few quotes by James Rickards people may want to pay attention to.  

The first one that draws a lot of interest pertains to owning gold:

“When you own gold you’re fighting every central bank in the world. That’s because gold is a currency that competes with government currencies and has a powerful influence on interest rates and the price of government bonds. And that’s why central banks long have tried to suppress the price of gold. Gold is the ticket out of the central banking system, the escape from coercive central bank and government power.”

In those sentences is a lot of valuable information. Gold is a currency that is disliked by central banks, primarily because they struggle to control it in a conceivable manner. Moreover, it is an asset that doesn’t play by the traditional rules either. 

When discussing the topic of central banks further, Rickards stated:

“The problem right now is that central banks have not normalized their balance sheet since 2009. They’re trying, but it’s not even close. If we had another crisis tomorrow, and you had to do QE4 and QE5, how could you do that when you’re already at $4 trillion? They might have to turn to the IMF or SDR or to Gold. Then, if you go back to the gold standard, you have to get the price right. People say there’s not enough gold to support a gold standard. That’s nonsense. There’s always enough gold, it’s just a question of price.”

Especially with the coronavirus pandemic, it will be interesting to see how central banks handle the situation moving forward.  There are plenty of concerns, and very few viable solutions being offered.