A concerted attack on the western financial system would likely include attempts at disabling various exchanges including stock markets and foreign exchange markets. Banks could be attacked in such a way that ATMs and wire transfers are disabled and bank balances, which are merely digital figures, could be erased.

In such an environment, our modern world, which is so dependent on technology and the monetary system, would be economically paralysed. The primary wealth would longer be primarily digital – cash, stocks and bonds – and tangible wealth would become more important.

Tangible assets include gold and silver bullion, agricultural land, water and property. We are not predicting such an outcome. We are simply looking at the facts as they are, in the context of intense geopolitical tensions, and surmising that it would be prudent to take necessary precautions and diversify into physical gold.