This second edition of Gold Wars: The Battle for the Global Economy features new chapters on China's gold, cryptocurrencies, and a new foreword. It addresses out of control imbalances in the financial system. As gold is the barometer of systemic ills, a war on gold--to hold down its price--is taking place to hide the negative impacts of fiat currency, shadow banking and central banking on the global financial system. Starting with a critical discussion on the nature of money and the bizarre fractional reserve structure currently in place, Mitchell moves on to address the massive, but little-known systemic pivot point: the Petrodollar standard, a standard which appears to be failing. Next, Mitchell addresses the twins of shadow and central banking. Then, with the stage set and the distortions, corruptions and levers of power in better view, he examines a few historical precedents and likely outcomes through deflationary/inflationary effects and their combinations. A detailed breakdown of long-running manipulations in the gold market follows--from nonexistent paper gold, smackdowns, high-frequency trading, and ETF's to CentralBank games like swapping/leasing, shell accounting, midnight raids, clandestine gold movements and regulatory attacks on investors. Mitchell offers a prediction of the results for the gold market: when the manipulation fails, paper and physical prices will separate, with the physical selling for multiples of paper. Western banks, lacking the gold to cover their obligations, are increasingly trying to financialize the problem. They've largely succeeded in preventing a major gold or silver-based implosion, but the threat still looms in the background. Power is flowing East as China and Russia have drawn in massive amounts of gold while dumping Treasuries. The BRICS will unveil a gold backed e-CNY to compete with the dollar. Simultaneously, they are forcing the US debt back home in exchange for real assets, choking the Fed/Treasury on the mountain of paper, and grabbing the financial power. This momentous shift is already underway. A Chinese edition of the original edition of Gold Wars was published by the prestigious Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press in 2015.
