States Stockpile Gold Bars To Hedge Against Inflation

Several states are loading up on gold bars as concerns about rising prices and massive federal government spending persist.

States such as Texas, Florida, Utah and Wyoming have passed laws seeking to stockpile gold as a hedge against inflation and profligate federal government spending, while also seeking to boost access to gold for lower-income residents and to increase state savings plans, Stateline reported. The moves come as Americans have suffered under a persistent wave of inflation that began during former President Joe Biden’s sole term and has yet to abate under President Donald Trump, with the national debt expected to top $40 trillion by November.

States, especially those with mining histories, have been building their gold reserves to bolster state savings, while also looking to pass transactional gold laws — like those enacted in Florida and Texas — that would allow consumers to spend and save gold in their own accounts, according to Stateline.

Supporters of the state-level gold stockpiling contend that this will make gold more affordable for consumers who can’t usually afford the high cost of purchasing gold and provide them with a defense against inflation — noting that gold is known to hold or increase its value over time. However, critics counter that the bills are unnecessary and could potentially provide tax havens for the wealthy, according to Stateline. The price of gold was over $4,726 per ounce Thursday.

Supporters are pushing for tax exemptions for gold and silver, saying that gold should be treated like other earnings such as those in savings accounts and stocks given gold’s history of being a legal currency, Stateline reported.

Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox opposed his state’s push to stockpile gold, but eventually let a gold measure become law without his signature after previously vetoing a similar measure.

“Many are concerned that this will result in unwelcome government involvement in the gold market,” Cox wrote in a March statement.

Utah passed a law in 2024 that permitted the state’s treasurer to invest up to 10% of the state’s reserve funds into gold, according to Stateline, with the state currently holding about $178 million worth of gold in a privately operated vault.

Proponents of state-level legislation such as Republican Georgia state Sen. Marty Harbin emphasize the need for states and residents to hedge against inflation.

“Inflation is the carbon monoxide that you can’t see, taste or smell,” Harbin said, according to Stateline.

Harbin was a sponsor of the Georgia bill that would have established gold and silver as legal tender and birthed the creation of an electronic payment system, per the outlet. However, the bill failed in the Georgia state Senate, but Harbin said he planned to reintroduce the measure in the next session.

Oklahoma state legislators were deliberating over a similar proposal to create an electronic payment system backed by gold, with lawmakers also considering the measure in Arizona, Iowa and Mississippi, Stateline reported.

Texas created the nation’s first state-administered precious metals depository in 2015, with states such as Wyoming following by storing state-owned gold in a building previously owned by a newspaper, according to the outlet.

Prices skyrocketed under Biden’s administration, when inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 following the passage of massive spending bills on COVID and the climate.

Inflation spiked again in March under Trump, buoyed by supply chain disruptions caused by the war in Iran. The consumer price index increased 0.9% in March, pushing the annual inflation rate to 3.3%, largely due to a 10.9% spike in energy costs resulting from the war in Iran.

The annual rate reading was the largest recorded since April 2024 and increased from 2.4% in February, CNBC reported. Gasoline prices increased 21.2% in March as the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for shipping oil, remained largely closed due to U.S. and Iran blockades, accounting for three-quarters of the inflation increase.

As the rising national debt approaches $40 trillion, unfunded liabilities including Social Security and Medicare will increase as baby boomers continue to retire, further straining the federal budget. These mandatory spending programs account for approximately 60% of federal spending.

A decline in the U.S. Labor force participation rate is expected to further strain the already bloated federal budget, with the rate dropping to its lowest level since 1977, The Wall Street Journal reported.

This profligate government spending prompted former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to warn on April 16 that the federal government needed to craft an emergency plan to address a potential crisis in the market for U.S. Treasurys, the bonds investors buy that are used to fund the government’s spending deluge.

Paulson warned that as the federal government continues to rack up more debt, investors will demand to be paid more in the form of higher interest rate yields to compensate them for taking on the risk of purchasing Treasury notes as the likelihood that the government can make all its payments on time declines. This in turn would cause the interest the federal government pays to finance its debt to rise, thus making insolvency more likely, a term economists have termed a “doom loop.”

“We need an emergency break-the-glass plan which is targeted and short term on the shelf, so it’s ready to go when we hit the wall,” Paulson told Bloomberg during its Wall Street Week event. “When you hit the wall and you’re trying to issue Treasurys, and the Fed is the only buyer and the prices of the Treasurys are down and interest rates are up, that’s a dangerous thing.”