The keynote speaker, Aleister McLeod, discussed geopolitics and the importance of savings in Asian economies versus Western economies. He highlighted the risks of being overly dependent on Western financial systems, and mentioned how Vladimir Putin warned the world about this last year. McLeod emphasized the legal definition of money as being gold and silver, with everything else being credit, and clarified the difference between depositum and mutual deposits in the history of banking. Finally, he stressed the importance of understanding credit in a time of escalating risks.
The law, which has Roman origins, applied to Greek populations, and was eventually consolidated into the Basilica under Basil the First. This law was spread throughout the world when Europeans colonized other regions. Money is entirely credit-based and quantifies wealth, which comes in three forms: corporeal, measurable, and incorporeal wealth. The modern monetary system is purely credit-based, and credit needs an anchor to remain stable. Since the bank system has become highly leveraged, with a ratio of balance sheet assets to tier one capital, the risk to stockholders in banks has increased. As a result, there is a cycle of bank credit that drives the Austrian business cycle. In Asia, currencies tend to be backed by real commodities, and are more stable. With the accelerating collapse of the Western system, the gold backing of currencies in Asia is likely to increase. This will be good for gold and silver, and for extractive industries in general.