More States Want Precious Metals

This is the second time in days we have cited the Wall Street Journal. We won’t make a habit of it, although if the financial press really covered the news, we would stop writing. But, then, if the money were honest there would be no need for us at all. And if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

So here’s the recent headline (3/16/26):

We’re glad the national press has noticed the story.  We wrote about it at the first of the year, noting that a state law in Wyoming passed in 2025 required the state to purchase $10 million in gold to protect itself from ongoing US dollar devaluation:

So the state purchased 2,312 ounces of gold, at $4,337.60 per ounce in December.

In a world in which central banks are de-dollarizing with gold purchases measured in metric tons, Wyoming’s purchase is not a lot of gold, but as the punch line of countless jokes says, “It’s a start!”

The significance of the purchase is less about the size of Wyoming’s turn to gold and more that it represents a fundamental mistrust of what we call the Deep State Money Manipulators of Washington.  Cowboy State Daily, an independent Wyoming news site, reports that the bill’s sponsor is calling attention to how much gain the gold ownership has already brought the state.

That’s because the climbing gold price quickly added $400,000 to Wyoming’s wealth.  And it kept climbing, to more than $11,000,000.  In fact days ago the state’s hoard was valued at about $11,600,000.   

The WSJ account described the gold as “a hedge against economic turmoil.”  Specifically:

Among the worries are rising federal debt, inflation and a weak U.S. dollar—but also more extreme calamities, according to Bob Ide, a Republican state senator and lead sponsor of the “Wyoming Gold Act.” The state legislature passed the bill last year with widespread support.

“I can’t put a timeline on it, but there’s gonna be a sovereign-debt crisis,” Ide said. “There’s no will to rein in spending.”

A sovereign-debt crisis would mean the U.S. can’t pay its debts, or there is such widespread fear of default that interest rates soar and the economy nosedives.

More states want precious metals to guard against economic calamity, notes the Wall Street Journal.  That is true, but it is not just states.  It is the common wisdom of a growing number of individuals and foreign nations.

A couple of generations ago song and dance man Jimmy Durante used to say, “Everyone wants to get into the act.”  As well they should.  Washington just revised in half its report of U.S. economic annual growth rate in the last quarter of 2025, from 1.4 percent to only 0.7 percent.  And now, it is reported that February producer prices were up 0.7 percent month-over-month in February.  Annualized, that’s over 8 percent.

Meanwhile, the U.S. national debt just surpassed $39 trillion, up $2.8 trillion since Trump took office 14 months ago.

There are a lot of reasons for everyone to want to get into the act!

Want to learn more? Read our article about Wyoming’s gold purchase from January 2026 here: