When people talk about „the current situation“, at the beginning of 2026 it is less about individual price levels and more about the simultaneity of several stress factors: geopolitical tensions, high government debt, fragile supply chains and a monetary policy that has been balancing inflation risks, growth dips and financial stability since 2025. It is precisely in this environment that the question of gold arises anew - not as a fashionable topic, but as a test of how resilient portfolios and currency regimes really are in times of stress.

Gold is caught between two forces that became particularly visible in 2025 and 2026: On the one hand, the opportunity cost debate remains present because interest rates are once again playing a role. On the other hand, there is a growing need for assets without issuer risk and without dependence on political decisions. It is precisely this dual perspective that makes classification challenging - and explains why the discussion is increasingly moving away from the question of „will the price rise or fall?“ to „what function does gold fulfill in the system and in the portfolio?“.

Philipp Vorndran, capital market strategist and partner at Flossbach von Storch, stands for this classification. He comes from the institutional perspective of asset management and was previously global chief strategist at Credit Suisse Asset Management, among others. Vorndran typically argues about structures and risk drivers - i.e. the mechanics behind markets, not short-term forecasts.

The focus of his article „The current situation and gold“ is therefore not the next price movement, but the strategic role of gold in the context of current capital market conditions: Which risks dominate - real interest rates, currency risk, liquidity risk, systemic risk? How does the function of gold change if traditional diversifiers (such as government bonds) are less reliable in certain scenarios? And what does this mean in practice - for private investors as well as for professional portfolio construction?