Gold is the only monetary asset on Earth that can:

vanish into a vault no one is allowed to audit

reappear on a balance sheet because someone said so

double-count through rehypothecation

shape-shift into jewelry, bars, coins, or dust

get melted, recast, relabeled, reassigned

go missing and no one can prove it

magically “increase” in reported holdings with zero transparency

serve as collateral even when it may not exist

It’s Houdini money.

Imagine running a global economy on something that can literally disappear without evidence and then reappear through paperwork.

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That’s the whole gold market in one sentence —

a magic trick performed for 100 years by people who didn’t want the crowd to look too closely.

Never thought about the limitations of gold in this framing but I completely agree, it’s Houdini money & the limitations are a feature for those in power. In UK all gold transactions made by citizens are registered.