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Gold Matters: Real Solutions To Surreal Risks
Two highly respected global authorities in macro-economic risk and precious metal investing, Egon
von Greyerz and Matthew Piepenburg, have co-authored a much-needed examination of gold as an
essential wealth preservation asset in a modern setting of unprecedented financial risk. Never before
have financial systems been stretched this dangerously thin. Never before have investors faced a
future of such epic change demanding immediate solutions.
Von Greyerz and Piepenburg provide a clear, blunt yet fact-based case for significant and pending
wealth destruction arising form a global convergence of historically unprecedented debt, market,
currency and banking risk. Rather than sensationally assert such warnings, the authors of Gold
Matters carefully examine each of these financial fault-lines with simple and graph-supported facts
rather than dramatic declarations.
Von Greyerz and Piepenburg open with an objective, reader-friendly yet largely ignored history of
central bank and sovereign mismanagement of international monetary and fiscal policies,
characterized today by the reckless expansion of the broad money supply to address unsustainable
(as well as unprecedented) debt levels. Such distorted yet consistent policy errors (i.e., solving a
record-breaking debt crisis with more debt) have led to the largest risk asset bubbles (stocks, bonds,
property) ever recorded in the history of capital markets.
As history All bubbles pop, but the interim (and artificially stimulated) euphoria and extreme
inflation of risk asset pricing placed the majority of retail investors into a dangerous and false
complacency. Wall Street pundits, cornered policy makers and an increasingly discredited financial
media have deliberately ignored and/or downplayed the fatal patterns and consequences of such
desperate money creation to pay for equally desperate debt expansion, The inevitable
arrival of wealth destroying inflation, serial market implosions, social fracturing and the classic
debasement of the currencies by which uninformed investors otherwise measure their accumulated
wealth. In short, as currencies weaken, so does wealth.
Physical gold, often misunderstood as a “barbarous relic” of the past, is revealed in Gold Matters as
an essential real asset in this distorted modern backdrop. With the calm of two market veterans
sharing over 70 combined years of experience at the highest levels of enterprise management,
global banking, hedge fund, and wealth management circles, von Greyerz and Piepenburg bring
much-needed candor, expertise and perspective in identifying the obvious challenges investors face.
As importantly, they offer equally obvious solutions. As Zurich-based principals to the world’s largest
private wealth management enterprise for ultra-affluent gold investors outside of the commercial
banking system, their experienced critique of, and solutions to, this broken financial system are
based on objective facts rather than subjective theory or bias.
Their deep understanding of precious metal solutions, hitherto reserved for only the world’s most
affluent, are now shared openly for all investors seeking to be informed and prepared rather than
anxious and uncertain. With great crisis comes great opportunity, and despite the clear risks and
struggles ahead, Gold Matters offers a sane and clear path to wealth generation and preservation in
an otherwise volatile future setting marked by increasing wealth destruction and profound systemic
change.
von Greyerz and Matthew Piepenburg, have co-authored a much-needed examination of gold as an
essential wealth preservation asset in a modern setting of unprecedented financial risk. Never before
have financial systems been stretched this dangerously thin. Never before have investors faced a
future of such epic change demanding immediate solutions.
Von Greyerz and Piepenburg provide a clear, blunt yet fact-based case for significant and pending
wealth destruction arising form a global convergence of historically unprecedented debt, market,
currency and banking risk. Rather than sensationally assert such warnings, the authors of Gold
Matters carefully examine each of these financial fault-lines with simple and graph-supported facts
rather than dramatic declarations.
Von Greyerz and Piepenburg open with an objective, reader-friendly yet largely ignored history of
central bank and sovereign mismanagement of international monetary and fiscal policies,
characterized today by the reckless expansion of the broad money supply to address unsustainable
(as well as unprecedented) debt levels. Such distorted yet consistent policy errors (i.e., solving a
record-breaking debt crisis with more debt) have led to the largest risk asset bubbles (stocks, bonds,
property) ever recorded in the history of capital markets.
As history All bubbles pop, but the interim (and artificially stimulated) euphoria and extreme
inflation of risk asset pricing placed the majority of retail investors into a dangerous and false
complacency. Wall Street pundits, cornered policy makers and an increasingly discredited financial
media have deliberately ignored and/or downplayed the fatal patterns and consequences of such
desperate money creation to pay for equally desperate debt expansion, The inevitable
arrival of wealth destroying inflation, serial market implosions, social fracturing and the classic
debasement of the currencies by which uninformed investors otherwise measure their accumulated
wealth. In short, as currencies weaken, so does wealth.
Physical gold, often misunderstood as a “barbarous relic” of the past, is revealed in Gold Matters as
an essential real asset in this distorted modern backdrop. With the calm of two market veterans
sharing over 70 combined years of experience at the highest levels of enterprise management,
global banking, hedge fund, and wealth management circles, von Greyerz and Piepenburg bring
much-needed candor, expertise and perspective in identifying the obvious challenges investors face.
As importantly, they offer equally obvious solutions. As Zurich-based principals to the world’s largest
private wealth management enterprise for ultra-affluent gold investors outside of the commercial
banking system, their experienced critique of, and solutions to, this broken financial system are
based on objective facts rather than subjective theory or bias.
Their deep understanding of precious metal solutions, hitherto reserved for only the world’s most
affluent, are now shared openly for all investors seeking to be informed and prepared rather than
anxious and uncertain. With great crisis comes great opportunity, and despite the clear risks and
struggles ahead, Gold Matters offers a sane and clear path to wealth generation and preservation in
an otherwise volatile future setting marked by increasing wealth destruction and profound systemic
change.
394 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 2, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 26, 2022
Facts matter
This is a contrarian appraisal that many will not heed. Their commission compensated broker and \or bank advisor will not tell them. This book will and the few that act upon it will survive, if not thrive the coming financial storm be it inflation or deflation or both.
This is a contrarian appraisal that many will not heed. Their commission compensated broker and \or bank advisor will not tell them. This book will and the few that act upon it will survive, if not thrive the coming financial storm be it inflation or deflation or both.
July 15, 2022
Great book!
The author depicts excellent deep knowledges about gold and monetary system. Reasonable price of this book is too good to be true.
The author depicts excellent deep knowledges about gold and monetary system. Reasonable price of this book is too good to be true.
March 29, 2026
The book often annoyed me with its tremendous repetitiveness and abundance of "cute", but often illogical terms and comparisons.
I was also disappointed by the lack of elaboration of gold's history and dynamics, instead the book was very focused on the current risks for which gold should be used to insure against.
Furthermore, it had a forced safe "centrist" or mainstream libertarian outlook that prevented it from admitting the terminality of the West's current crisis, as well as its conspiratorial origins of which inflation is merely a part, albeit big. Although recognizing a great deal of coordinated deception and intent even in the controversial and bigger topic of Covid measures, the authors failed to recognize the nature of especially post-WW2 power structures and inflation as a tool to fund the globalist/IC/foreign policy-blob while enriching its members, making the new wealthy and powerful class complicit and dependent on its success and disempowering the middle class. As part of this blindness to the overarching issue, the authors also failed to recognize the astroturfed and provoked nature of left-wing unrest, as well as the right's motivations for protest, such as individual freedoms, sovereignty, preservation of culture and dignity, as well as demographic survival, most arguably at least equally as important as the economic factors themselves.
This is not to take away from the immense importance of economic wellbeing and the role of its lack when it comes to general unrest. But the extreme simplicity and naivete regarding the topic was very frustrating and led the authors to think of the crisis as purely economic and, thus, like all other crises before, temporary, as per their often touted historical "pattern recognition" (this should involve spotting similarities as well as differences).
Regardless, the book was very successful in outlining the immense past, current and continuing debasement of fiat currencies, as well as the grotesquely inflated and increasingly risky bubbles in global markets. It also did a good job of highlighting risks within banking and indirect gold "ownership". Maybe it could have done a better job at arguing against Bitcoin as a gold alternative.
Overall, very informative and valuable to anyone interested in gold and the current state of global finance, but annoyingly repetitive and, at times, naive and astigmatic.
7/10
I was also disappointed by the lack of elaboration of gold's history and dynamics, instead the book was very focused on the current risks for which gold should be used to insure against.
Furthermore, it had a forced safe "centrist" or mainstream libertarian outlook that prevented it from admitting the terminality of the West's current crisis, as well as its conspiratorial origins of which inflation is merely a part, albeit big. Although recognizing a great deal of coordinated deception and intent even in the controversial and bigger topic of Covid measures, the authors failed to recognize the nature of especially post-WW2 power structures and inflation as a tool to fund the globalist/IC/foreign policy-blob while enriching its members, making the new wealthy and powerful class complicit and dependent on its success and disempowering the middle class. As part of this blindness to the overarching issue, the authors also failed to recognize the astroturfed and provoked nature of left-wing unrest, as well as the right's motivations for protest, such as individual freedoms, sovereignty, preservation of culture and dignity, as well as demographic survival, most arguably at least equally as important as the economic factors themselves.
This is not to take away from the immense importance of economic wellbeing and the role of its lack when it comes to general unrest. But the extreme simplicity and naivete regarding the topic was very frustrating and led the authors to think of the crisis as purely economic and, thus, like all other crises before, temporary, as per their often touted historical "pattern recognition" (this should involve spotting similarities as well as differences).
Regardless, the book was very successful in outlining the immense past, current and continuing debasement of fiat currencies, as well as the grotesquely inflated and increasingly risky bubbles in global markets. It also did a good job of highlighting risks within banking and indirect gold "ownership". Maybe it could have done a better job at arguing against Bitcoin as a gold alternative.
Overall, very informative and valuable to anyone interested in gold and the current state of global finance, but annoyingly repetitive and, at times, naive and astigmatic.
7/10
May 21, 2025
Well, the authors are themselves in the gold supply business, but nevertheless, the case for wealth preservation is a forceful one, and most of the driving forces behind the staggering loss of purchasing power of fiat money are discussed in an easy to understand manner; the manuscript could have benefitted from some expert editing and the figures should be made uniform and smoothed out; on precious metals be sure to check out the case for silver: The Great Silver Bull: Crush Inflation and Profit as the Dollar Dies and as a primer: Precious Metals Investing For Dummies®.
December 6, 2024
My journey reading books on that barborous relic continues unabated! For what it is, this is an excellent read on the investment elements of Gold. I am referring in particular to its properties as a premier wealth preservation asset and as a hedge against a world gone mad in unsustainable financial hocus-pocus.
That said, if Von Greyerz and Piepenburg had hired a proper editor - I think it would have read a lot better. There were places where it could have been summarized and where it sounded more like a script rather than a book. However, there are some serious pieces of golden nuggets traversed throughout. If they had only worked with a professional historian or a journalist with a gift for the written word - it would have resulted in a much tighter and more interesting book.
That said, if Von Greyerz and Piepenburg had hired a proper editor - I think it would have read a lot better. There were places where it could have been summarized and where it sounded more like a script rather than a book. However, there are some serious pieces of golden nuggets traversed throughout. If they had only worked with a professional historian or a journalist with a gift for the written word - it would have resulted in a much tighter and more interesting book.
December 22, 2025
Matthew Piepenburg is probably the smartest most eloquent financial speaker I've ever encountered. And Egon is exceptionally trustworthy and truthful. Together they've written one of the best books available explaining money and what governments (The Fed & bankers) have done to money and our currency. This is a Must Read. If you want to survive with any savings of value through the current devaluation of our currency, read this book, listen to them, and get gold & silver!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews