Christopher Lowe

Last year was a huge year for risk assets.

People made a lot of money.

People cashed out a lot of that money, and now they owe taxes.

It's the first quarter.

So I think what you're seeing is tax harvesting was the initial cause of the sell-off.

And then once it began, leverage is what made it so violent.

Good morning, Sabri.

debt?

It is.

And it traces back to the beginning of last year is when this trend really began.

It reflects government policy.

There's been a shift at central banks, particularly emerging markets, central banks, buying literally tens of metric tons of gold every month.

But because that puts upward pressure on gold prices, private investors have also shifted to buying a lot of gold.

And that trend is even stronger overseas than it is here in the U.S., which is one of the reasons that gold exports from the U.S.

were one of the bigger contributors to a shrinking trade deficit.

Yeah, well, savings was relatively elevated a year ago.

And that's because we had...

really strong stimulus coming from Congress, starting with pandemic relief and then the green energy bill and all that stuff.

But that flow of cash has dried up.

And at the same time, while we have strong economic growth, we just