It’s been a while since I’ve talked about “the big picture.” But lately, a great many things have taken on the unmistakable scent of a storm about to break — so let me just speak freely, stream-of-consciousness style.
1 — The real force driving gold’s wild surge is this: the world’s chaos risk is growing at an explosive rate. Whenever gold experiences a short-term spike, it’s essentially because the world’s most powerful shadow capital is demanding extreme security. In their eyes, at this particular moment, no other asset class is as stable and reassuring as gold — this ancient, traditional precious metal.
2 — Gold’s surge has coincided, on a densely overlapping timeline, with the violent conflicts across Eastern Europe since New Year’s, the erupting tensions in the Middle East, and a cascade of other uncertain events. And here’s another critical detail: just as gold was preparing to pull back, a statement from Japan suddenly reignited the whole powder keg.
3 — Will we smell gunpowder smoke soon? I don’t think it’ll come that quickly.
But based on feedback from countless people who’ve lived through war firsthand: in turbulent times, the real hard currency is not a piece of paper with numbers printed on it. It’s gold, tobacco, alcohol, ammunition, medical alcohol, and lighters.
4 — The grand trend behind all these major events points to a global Great Depression currently underway — and this round of world-scale depression is accompanied by world-scale, extreme inflation.
On one hand, people everywhere are trying to save money, while those with somewhat more wealth will, within their means, choose to hold a portion of gold as a base position.
On the other hand, here’s a piece of common knowledge worth internalizing: in principle, no country in the world truly supports ordinary people continuously saving without spending.
The more palatable approach is to dilute the purchasing power of cash through wave after wave of inflation. (Read that last sentence a few more times.)
5 — Yes, you read that correctly. This is how it works everywhere in the world.
6 — Let me make it concrete: in your estimation, what is 10,000 yuan’s purchasing power today equivalent to in 2019 yuan?
Sit with that calculation for a moment. You’ll likely catch your breath.
7 — The world’s economy always follows cycles. After depression comes prosperity, just as daylight always follows the night — it’s only a matter of how long the interval is.
I’m not encouraging anyone to invest, nor to take on debt. That has absolutely nothing to do with me.
But I care about my brothers and sisters — so my personal view is: toward the end of this year, it may be worth considering upgrading to a home in a better city. You might also set aside a tiny sum you genuinely don’t care about — a number you wouldn’t miss if it vanished — and use it to experience the rise and fall of a legitimate market.
I don’t expect you to profit. My only hope is that you begin slowly acclimating to the overall trend — so that when the real hurricane arrives, you won’t be left without even the most basic concepts and awareness.
8 — The herd never develops independent, calm thinking. It follows the crowd always — whatever others say becomes truth.
And within the herd, pessimistic, defeatist, evasive, and dismissive views spread quickly and reach consensus easily.
The herd will always be herbivores. But certain beasts eat only meat.
9 — My personal view is that the coming decade is not well-suited for the development of weak, small-time white-collar workers.
Note carefully: I’m using “development,” not “getting by.”
“Getting by” means having a casual meal, living without ambition or drive, and simply accepting that you’re destined to be a mediocre nobody — so that barely past thirty, you’ve already given up entirely.
If getting by is all you want, the coming era will be quite comfortable. No problem whatsoever.
But if you want to genuinely develop yourself, then what lies ahead is an era that will test you comprehensively on three fronts: Virtue (De), Intellect (Zhi), and Physical Strength (Ti).
Virtue (De) — not merely moral character, but whether you can grit your teeth and push yourself to go deeper and sharper in everything you do, turning that discipline into a cultivated habit.
Intellect (Zhi) — stop following the herd. Start thinking for yourself: Is this era truly devoid of opportunity? Why do some people always manage to break through? What do the current grand currents actually represent? What small, practical changes can I make to slowly become better and better?
Physical Strength (Ti) — bluntly put: a healthy body and a strong physique will be your most important asset. A body that collapses from even moderate effort, with no vitality or presence to speak of, will drag you down without end.
10 — Don’t think today’s nine points are separate from one another. They are, in fact, deeply interconnected. The question is whether you can trace the logic running through all of them.
I, Master Chi, have never been fond of making grand predictions about world affairs. Rather than sitting on a street corner like an old man gesturing at geopolitics, I’d rather make real adjustments and responses grounded in actual circumstances.
The reality is this: the louder someone talks, the lower their actual standing tends to be. The more carefully someone thinks and responds, the higher their caliber.
The former has next to nothing — might as well be penniless. The latter has genuine, solid weight worth protecting.
Many topics can only be touched on lightly in a place like this. Because the truly sincere words — the ones that really count — can only be said behind closed doors, only among one’s own people.