[The Viewpoint of Dongki Kim] Soaring Gold Prices and the Politics of the Gold Standard

The price of gold is rising rapidly, breaking all-time records and prompting curiosity about how much higher it could go. Compared to this time last year, it has increased by about 40 percent, leaving many people eager to understand the reasons behind this surge. Multiple factors are at play, including expectations of interest rate cuts, increased demand for safe-haven assets, and concerns about the declining value of fiat currencies. However, behind the soaring price of gold, there are also political and ideological dynamics at work.

American politicians such as Ron Paul have spent decades selling gold coins and publishing newsletters warning of imminent social and economic collapse, emphasizing the need to secure precious metals. They have argued that supporters of fiat currency issued by central banks fuel inflation, exploit ordinary savers, fund welfare recipients, and finance overseas wars.

Germany's far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), has criticized the Eurozone crisis (affecting 20 countries using the euro) and advocated a return to the gold standard. The party even operated an online gold shop to raise funds. Peter Boehringer of AfD launched a campaign to repatriate Germany's gold reserves held abroad, fostering distrust of the central bank and sparking public interest in gold. He warned that the fiat currency system is "kindling that will set the world on fire."

Advocates of the gold standard criticize fiat money for funding so-called "monetary socialism" policies such as welfare state programs, foreign aid, and wars, which they claim corrupt society and undermine morality. Boehringer has argued that "bad money creates bad people," asserting that fiat currency "destroys our society, politics, families, and values, and undermines the foundations of Western civilization." For him, the gold standard is a mechanism to prevent governments from causing monetary inflation, making it essential for limiting state power and protecting individual liberty and private property.

They argue that fiat money has enabled egalitarian policies and the welfare state, which they see as contrary to human nature and social order. In their view, social inequality is innate and natural, so any attempt to eliminate it is doomed to fail. The gold standard, they believe, would prevent governments from funding these unnatural social policies. Some proponents even claim that returning to a gold-based system would restore a system rooted in Christian values.

They contend that national sovereignty is truly protected not by the government's unrestricted authority to issue currency, but when it is constrained by "hard money" systems like the gold standard. "Hard money," they say, fosters "auripatriotism"-a sense of national identity not based on territory or ethnicity, but on a precious metals-based monetary system itself. This also serves as an investment strategy for those seeking safe assets to preserve value in uncertain times.

In summary, the gold standard represents more than just an economic policy. It embodies a radical political vision that criticizes excessive state intervention and redistribution, upholds free market principles and innate social inequality, and seeks to restore a particular form of patriotism and moral order. Proponents of the gold standard see it as a means to safeguard the moral, cultural, and even spiritual health of society, closely linked to a traditional and conservative worldview centered on Christian values. Thus, the concept of "hard money" embodied by the gold standard, along with "innate human nature" and "secure borders," forms a core part of far-right conservative ideology.

Kim Donggi, Author of "The Power of the Dollar" and Attorney

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.