Jennifer Sor
5 min read
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Bad vibes in the economy are making gold a more attractive investment.
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Demand for physical gold jumped 13% in the first quarter, according to the World Gold Council.
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Gold dealers say clients are worried about the dollar's decline, a debt crisis, and other scenarios.
Marc Faber, a longtime investor who says his nickname is "Dr. Doom" (not to be confused with this Dr. Doom), has been buying gold for decades and telling other people to stock up for just as long.
The gold bug regularly appears on videos extolling the metal's virtues while sounding alarms about economic collapse. He's eyeing a litany of crises coming our way: a debt crisis, a plunge in asset prices, and soaring inflation round out his list of concerns.
"My sense is that a debt crisis is inevitable," he said, adding that he buys gold regularly, with the metal comprising 25% of his overall portfolio.
Faber's clients also hold a significant portion of their wealth in gold, but the scramble to own more of the metal that's helped drive prices higher this year is spreading to more everyday investors.
Blame the bad energy in the economy in 2025, with "soft data" like consumer sentiment and inflation expectations souring even as the economy continues to hold up.
Some of what these buyers are worried about—which, among Faber's clients range from hyperinflation to the start of World War III—are unlikely. But forecasters don't expect the heightened demand from nervous buyers to end anytime soon.
Gold bugs having been popping up in the US and abroad. Global demand for gold bars climbed to 257 metric tons in the first quarter of 2025, up 13% in a year, according to the World Gold Council.
Joe Cavatoni, a market strategist at the World Gold Council, said he believes concerns about the US dollar, economic weakness in the US, and the government's debt and deficit are several reasons gold demand is rising.
This year, Google search interest for "gold bars" has spiked on market-moving events, like the announcement of tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and Moody's downgrading the US debt.
Genesis Gold Group, a gold dealer that commonly works with clients it describes as "homesteaders" or "preppers," says it's seen intense interest in gold in the last few quarters. Demand for gold has been so hot, the company rolled out a prepper bar, a gold bar that can be broken off into pieces, making it easier to trade in the event of a crisis.
Jonathan Rose, the CEO of Genesis, says demand for prepper bars briefly surged after the presidential election and then jumped 20% in the first quarter of 2025, around the time President Donald Trump began to iron out his tariff policy.
