Why does gold always crash in a crisis?

Thursday 19 March 2026

Gold is printing an ominous double top and sitting on some meaty supports. This raises the question, why doesn’t the gold safe haven hold up-during crises?

The answer is that a safe haven such as gold is generally held as a hedge against debasement of forex.

When a crisis hits, liquidity dries up and DXY rallies with VIX.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.