“Gold is making waves in the markets, and on Friday it hit a two-week high, advancing in the $1,500 channel in a further build-up as expectations of an impending Fed rate cut on Wednesday gain momentum.”

These words, written as the year turned, could easily be set aside and offset with a macro button in any newsgathering’s MS-Word infrastructure.

Every so often, the US Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee members meet to set their new interest rates, publish their forward guidance and prod gold up or down.

Their influence on Dollar-based currency pairs is lesser thanks to the monetary policies of competing governments, but gold – traditionally priced in US Dollars and evaluated in reverse relation to the dollar – remains at the mercy of the FED and its countermanding Commander in Chief. 

If only there were some world currency that was impervious to world events and announcements, just waiting for its opportunity to step in the moment the antics of the others become insupportable. 

Oh, wait.

When Facebook offered to the world its new cryptocurrency – Libra, central bankers and leaders alike stood up on their back legs and yelped with fury.

The reason? a 2.5-billion e-resident virtual nation had just announced its aim to install an independent currency.

The next stage to actual statehood is usually adopting a flag, applying to the UN for membership and fashioning foreign and defence policies. 

And this state would be all-encompassing, boundary-less, represented by millions the  world over – an easy vanquisher of the Greenback. Transparent, credit bashing and easily trackable. 

Everything the gold-hoarders fear.