Governments and central banks are throwing all the money they can into financial markets to support a flaying global economy rocked to its core from the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the world could see the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Axel Merk, chief investment officer and president of Merk Investments, warned investors: “there will be no free lunch.” Merk said that he like gold as a hedge against these unprecedented measures and the growing risk that the government could make a misstep in financial markets and do something “stupid.”