Decentralised assets - gold, silver, Bitcoin: has their time come?

The concerns over inflation and thus the need to raise interest rates has to some extent abated, whereby leading to stock markets rallying as well as cryptocurrencies - the S&P 500 is up by 6% since 1^st Jan 2023 and Bitcoin is rallying by 39%. However, Morgan Stanley believes that there are three factors that could cause inflation to persist in 2023:

·      the cost of energy - oil to rise from $80 to $1027 by Q3 2023.

·      a weakening US$ - the short term prospects of the Fed not raising interest rates could lead to the $ weaking and so the price of imports rising in the US.

·      Inflation in the services sector could persist - “While airline costs fell in the latest CPI report, other factors could slow recent progress in curbing price pressures. These include structural labor shortages, strong owner-occupied housing and rent inflation, and resurgent medical services costs.”

A major concern has to be the sheer volume of debt that governments have, and continue to create. In the US, t…