Voting rights expansion dies in Connecticut statehouse

In the middle of the twentieth century, the American architect of the postwar order, Dean Acheson, famously observed that Great Britain had lost an empire but had not yet found a role. The United States is not facing a comparable eclipse. It remains the world’s dominant military power and the central node of global finance. Yet a quieter, more incremental shift is underway - one that reflects not a sudden collapse, but a strategic recalibration. Global investors are not abandoning the dollar en masse; they are hedging against a growing perception that American stewardship of the international system has become fundamentally less predictable.

That unease has surfaced most visibly in the gold market. In the opening weeks of 2026, the yellow metal has performed less like a commodity and more like a verdict, surging past $5,500 an ounce. This month, we reached a milestone that would have been unthinkable a decade ago: for the first time in thirty years, global central bank gold reserves have overtaken combined holdings of U.S. Treasuries. According to World Gold Council data, central banks now hold nearly $4 trillion in gold, nudging past their $3.9 trillion stake in American debt.