The Costco Gold Indicator
Just think about this for a moment: people are buying gold from Costco. This tells us that the average American has grown so weary of our government's reckless spending and the Fed's irresponsible monetary policy that they literally want to fill their shopping cart — online or in person — with something they know is real money. From People:
The retail giant has recently been selling 1 oz. bars of authentic 24-karat gold from South African mining company Rand Refinery and Swiss precious metal supplier PAMP Suisse on their website for $1,949.99 and $1,979.99, respectively, according to Insider.
According to the product details on Costco’s page, Rand Refinery’s gold bars are individually stamped with a unique serial number and arrive in a sealed black assay card, while PAMP Suisse’s gold bars are individually “controlled, registered, and secured” within CertiPAMP™ packaging with an official Assay Certificate and a digital certificate accessed with a QR Code.
Both items are non-refundable, provide air shipping via UPS and currently have a 4.9 out of 5 average rating on the company’s website, with one member writing on Rand Refinery’s gold bar customer rating that it was a “beautiful piece of gold” and “brand new.”
It's an incredible commentary on the average American citizen. Americans are literally choosing to transact U.S. dollars for gold.
Just because it's happening on a website that says "Costco" and the transaction is being consummated by housewives named Florence doesn't change the fact that enough people thought converting U.S. dollars into hard assets was a high enough priority that these bars sold out at Costco. These aren’t shoppers heading over to Kitco — these are people casually picking up some gold when they buy dog food and toilet paper.
And if you think that's crazy now, wait until we hit a period of volatility. So far, markets have been pretty orderly, but it's a mathematical certainty that this won't continue to be the case. These gold bar purchases will look like when I was early on Covid and buying face masks at stores like Sherwin-Williams and hand sanitizer at my local Aldi. Just weeks later, people were beating each other up in grocery store aisles for toilet paper.
If you think the same "oh sh*t" moment can't happen with gold and other types of real money, you're sorely mistaken. '
To gauge the average American citizen's trust in our fiscal and monetary policy, look no further than what's going on at Costco.
