Andy Schectman of Miles Franklin argues that the world is undergoing “detreasurization” rather than simple de-dollarization — for the first time in over a hundred years foreign investors are buying more US securities than Treasuries — and that this divestment is what is driving gold higher at the highest institutional level, even though retail premiums have not yet followed. He says the destruction of the Saudi east-west pipeline, which moved roughly 5 million barrels a day, arrives with a three-to-six-month lag into an oil market with strategic reserves at 40-to-50-year lows and no buffers left, and dismisses the idea that a 50 basis point rate hike could pull capital away from gold, saying rates would have to go exponentially higher. On BRICS he says the members were overt that they do not want a common currency — they want rails: BRICS Pay, CIPS, mBridge, the Hong Kong vault settling same-day in yuan, and Belt and Road interoperability.
Top 5 Key Topics
Detreasurization and failed suppression: Schectman says the dollar still provides the rails for global trade but reserve mentality has shifted, with Benelux countries and Cayman Islands leveraged hedge funds holding more Treasuries than their own GDP as “all the other rats have fled the ship.” He points to the 10-year hitting 5.03-5.04% and being smashed down only to shoot right back up, and to the yen intervention already giving back most of its gain, as proof that “what once worked is now working far less.”
Oil supply shock with no buffer: Cheap drones knocked out the Saudi east-west pipeline carrying around 5 million barrels a day, which many analysts credit for keeping oil prices from spiking further. Global strategic reserves are at their lowest in 40 to 50 years, and the typical three-to-six-month lag means that inflation impulse is only now about to hit the Fed’s December deliberations.
BRICS building parallel rails, not a rival currency: He says no BRICS nation wants reserve currency status because of Triffin’s dilemma — China does not want its manufacturing base hollowed out — and cites the Kazakhstan-China QR payment system as the model BRICS Pay sits on top of. Institutions the West has shunned, including the WHO and UN, were at the table, and he calls dismissing this infrastructure “a big deal” and a mistake.
Ranking the ways to hold metal: Physical in hand carries only theft and disaster risk and is “not simultaneously anyone else’s liability”; segregated third-party vaulting at Brinks is his preference over owner-operated facilities; GLD and SLV mean paying 50 to 60 basis points to BlackRock and JP Morgan, the latter fined $920 million for metals manipulation, with no possession and the same 28% collectible tax rate. He prefers Sprott’s PSLV and PHYS as closed-end funds that at least deliver long-term capital gains treatment, while noting their 400-ounce minimum redemption is “eating an elephant sandwich when you want to snack.”
Tokenized gold and state constitutional-money laws: The World Gold Council’s white paper aims to build “plumbing” making different gold tokens interoperable — a Visa gift card instead of restaurant-specific ones — enabling collateralized loans and owning kilo bars in Salt Lake City while standing for delivery in Dubai, though counterparty risk never disappears. In parallel, Utah, Florida and Texas are building state depository programs with spendable cards free from state sales tax, with rumored progress in Washington on removing federal capital gains on transactional metal.
