Nomi Prins — The 126-Year Case for Gold: And Why This Rally's Not Done Yet
From the 1900 Gold Standard Act to $5,000+ — a century of monetary decisions, every one of which gold rallied on.
One-line take: a historical case for gold — 126 years to the day after the 1900 Gold Standard Act fixed the dollar at $20.67/oz, gold trades >$5,000. Prins walks the monetary milestones (1933 confiscation at $20.67, 1934 repricing to $35, Nixon's 1971 window close, post-2008 and COVID QE) and notes gold rallied on every one. Since 2008, every Fed balance-sheet expansion has driven a sustained gold rally; the current run (early-2025 ~$2,625 → all-time $5,589 on Jan 28, 2026 → ~$5,100) happened during quantitative tightening, on falling foreign Treasury demand (~40%→~30%), a $2T-larger CBO deficit outlook, and Bessent's collapsed tariff-revenue plan. Gold trades as a diversification asset against U.S. fiscal credibility — and "is only moving up." Note: her specific gold vehicle (Feb Founders+ issue; ~10x over a cycle, currently below her entry target) is paywalled, so no single buy recommendation is captured here.
1. Stocks & names mentioned
A historical/macro gold piece — the only investable name is gold itself (her specific vehicle is paywalled). The "At" link opens the article.
| Ticker | Name | Research | View | What she said | At |
|---|
| Gold | Gold (commodity) | — | Positive | Trading as a diversification asset against U.S. fiscal policy, debt and the long-term credibility of the dollar — structural forces (conflict, deficits, de-dollarization, central-bank accumulation, weaker Treasury demand) "are not abating," so gold "is only moving up." Her specific gold vehicle (~10x over a cycle) is paywalled and currently below her entry target. | read |
Built from the article's free/public portion; Prins's specific gold recommendation is reserved for Founders+ subscribers. "View" reflects how gold was framed in this article, not a price rating.
2. Key points
126 years to the day
- On this day in 1900, President McKinley signed the Gold Standard Act — fixing the dollar at 25.8 grains of gold ($20.67/oz) and requiring the Treasury to redeem paper in gold on demand. Gold trades >$5,000 today, a century of policy decisions later.
"Commodity Wars" context
- Prins is researching her forthcoming book, Commodity Wars, tracing how commodities have underpinned global power from the mid-1800s to today — and the 1900 Act is one of its pivotal cornerstones.
The politics behind the Act
- William Jennings Bryan's 1896 "Cross of Gold" campaign for free silver (which would have expanded money supply and eased farmers' debts) lost to McKinley; the Act fixed gold as the sole basis for the dollar, a constraint that held 33 years.
Every monetary milestone, gold rallied
- 1933 FDR confiscation at $20.67; 1934 repricing to $35 (a 40% overnight dollar devaluation); Nixon's 1971 close of the gold window; post-2008 and COVID QE. Gold rallied on every one.
$20.67 to $5,000+
- QE1 (late 2008): gold $730→$1,900 by 2011. COVID: balance sheet >$8.9T, gold >$2,000. The current run (early-2025 ~$2,625 → all-time $5,589 Jan 28, 2026 → ~$5,100) happened while the Fed was shrinking its balance sheet.
Why gold kept rallying through QT
- Foreign holders cut their share of US debt from ~40% to just above 30% (more since the war); the CBO added $2T to the decade deficit outlook; Bessent's tariff-revenue paydown plan ran into a Supreme Court ruling, a $175B refund order, and a 24-state lawsuit. Gold trades as a diversification asset against all of it.
What gold is telling investors now
- The structural forces (conflict-driven uncertainty, fiscal deficits, geopolitical realignment, central-bank accumulation, weaker Treasury demand) are not abating — so gold has reached current levels and is only moving up.
3. In plain English
A jargon-free summary of the gold thesis. (Plain-language companion to the table above; renders on the commodity's consolidated page.)
Gold — Gold (commodity) Positive
Prins uses history to make her point: for 126 years, every time the U.S. government changed the rules of money — devaluing the dollar, ending the gold-backing, or printing money after a crisis — gold went up. She argues the same forces are stacked up today: huge government deficits, fewer foreign buyers of U.S. debt, a war, and a tariff-revenue plan that just collapsed in court. People buy gold to diversify away from a dollar whose long-term credibility is slipping, and she sees that demand pushing gold higher still.
Note: she has a specific gold vehicle she thinks could return roughly 10x over a full cycle and that's currently trading below her entry target — but that pick is locked behind her paid Founders+ tier, so it isn't captured here.
Summary derived from the public (free) portion of the Prinsights Substack article for personal study. Not investment advice; the author's specific recommendation is paywalled. © Nomi Prins / Prinsights for source material.