Joe Wallace

And then, you know, I think it's important to note that a lot has changed since the biggest oil shock of all, which was in 1973 when Gulf producers placed an embargo on oil.

Engines became much, much more efficient.

The world uses more natural gas these days.

Renewables are a growing share of energy.

Exactly, which insulates the US.

Although that's all to say that this is really a historic shock to oil supply.

It would need to go on for some time for the kinds of price rises that we saw in the early 70s and even the late 70s.

We're less than a month into 2026 and gold prices have risen 17% so far this year.

That's nothing, though, compared to the silver market, which is up 8% this morning.

and 55% for the year so far.

So this is a really historic rally in both precious metals.

There's also some concern among investors about the independence of the Federal Reserve after the DOJ investigation into Chair Jerome Powell became public earlier this year.

There are a couple more things going on.

The Fed has been lowering rates and gold prices typically do well when rates are lower.

That's because gold doesn't pay any dividends or contributions.

coupons.

So the opportunity cost of holding what essentially is a shiny piece of metal falls when interest rates are themselves lower.

And then central banks around the world just keep on buying gold in their droves.

This had been going on for years, but it really picked up speed after 2022 when the West put sanctions on the Russian central bank reserves and

Central banks and other countries that aren't aligned with the West started thinking, hang on, do I really want to hold quite so many dollars?