Michael Hudson and Kathleen Tyson examine gold’s return to the centre of the international monetary system. They discuss the decline of US Treasury debt as a reserve asset, China’s growing gold strategy, Hong Kong’s new physical settlement market and the opaque paper-gold system centred on London and New York.

Their disagreement is revealing. Hudson sees gold as a potential constraint on US military deficits, while Tyson warns that concentrated gold reserves can also become targets for coups, sanctions and war. Both agree that the dollar-centred order is weakening and that the global majority is building alternatives based on gold, local-currency trade and renminbi finance.