In the plot to the 1964 James Bond classic, international gold smuggler Auric Goldfinger hatches a dastardly plan to enrich himself and his outsized gold holdings by setting off a Chinese-made atomic bomb at Fort Knox, the home of the US gold reserve.
Goldfinger’s rationale is that the nuclear fallout will render the US bullion unusable for many decades, impeding its mobility through the international financial system, and in so doing lift the value of his own unaffected supplies, thus making him the richest man in the world.
It’s a crazy plan by anyone’s standards. And yet, the bifurcation at its heart may have more relevance to 2021 than many appreciate.