Gold has had a brutal week. The metal that spent all of 2025 rewriting record books just posted its worst seven-day performance in more than four decades. It shed 11% to close at $4,497 an ounce on March 20. That is a drop of more than $500 from where it started the week and a loss of over 14% since the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran began in late February. The last time gold fell this sharply in a single week was 1983. Back then, Middle Eastern oil producers dumped their gold reserves after oil revenues collapsed. The parallel to today is uncomfortable. Once again, a Middle East crisis is driving the sell-off. But this ... (full story)