Revolutionary Change = Revolutionary Mess & Rising Gold

By Matthew Piepenburg

Partner

June 19, 2025

Matthew Piepenburg, partner at VON GREYERZ, joins Thoughtful Money’s Adam Taggart to underscore, in no uncertain terms, that every headline thread—from markets, inflation/deflation and credit risk to social unrest, geopolitical war drums and failed tariff policies-is tied directly to multi-trillion dollar global debt levels. In short, TRILLIONS matter, and both Taggart and Piepenburg try to make sense of what are otherwise historically senseless figures.

Having taken debt levels beyond the pale of sustainability while simultaneously weaponizing the world reserve currency, the USA is openly losing its financial and geopolitical influence while other failed coalition governments in Europe and elsewhere are seeing a clear, lleft-to-right swing from globalism to mercantilism/protectionism. The failing leadership of the past is resisting the emerging (and difficult) direction of the future. This is, in short, a moment of revolutionary change, and all “revolutions” are messy. As desperate parties cling to power via increasingly failed and desperate measures, the setting gets more volatile and dangerous. Alas, as debt keeps rising, bombs keep falling, and this is no coincidence, it’s history rhyming.

Of course gold, which has seen over 75 all-time-highs this year, is also making headlines for a reason, namely the open breakdown of the USD and increasing distrust of the weaponized UST as gold emerges not only as a climbing asset or “hedge,” but as a centrally rising tier-one global strategic reserve asset. The world simply trusts this “pet rock” far more than increasingly debased paper currencies as a global store of value.

Piepenburg is equally blunt about the intentional misrepresentation and misunderstanding of gold by the entrenched banking elite and so-called “experts” in the consensus-driven wealth-advisory industry. For decades, financial advisors have blindly clung to the meme that “gold is too volatile,” despite the hard fact that it has outperformed the S&P (total return!) for the last 20 years and is the best performing asset of 2025.

How is this “too volatile”? Far more importantly, gold is openly evolving as the favored asset of commercial and central banks, the BIS and even the IMF. In other words, gold is quietly being stacked by the very parties who have been manipulating its truths for years.

No surprise at all…