Kitco NEWS

Why Governments Will Never Let Physical Gold Be Money Again | Saifedean Ammous

Mar 27, 2026
Saifedean Ammous, Austrian economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard, The Fiat Standard, and The Golden Standard, offers macro perspectives on gold, bitcoin, and monetary policy. He explains why physical gold cannot return as money, how paper markets and stablecoins shape the dollar, and why Bitcoin and a hard-money framework change geopolitical and financial incentives.
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
INSIGHT

Democratic Politics Make Fiat Inflation Inevitable

  • Democratic politics make stable fiat inevitable because voters prefer policies that feel like free lunches, causing continual inflation.
  • Ammous says only pegging to gold or Bitcoin would truly restore monetary discipline, but politics prevents it.
INSIGHT

Gold Peg Would Force Massive Dollar Revaluation

  • A credible U.S. gold peg would require a large revaluation of the dollar or gold to back the existing money supply.
  • Ammous estimates backing current dollars with U.S. reserves would imply gold around at least $10,000/oz if reserves exist.
ANECDOTE

From Gold Bug To Bitcoin After The 2011 Crash

  • Ammous recounts his shift from a gold bug to Bitcoin after living through gold's 2011–2020 bear cycle and its long recovery.
  • That crash forced him to accept Bitcoin's halving and difficulty dynamics as superior monetary tech.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app