It’s nice to see in the Times the piece by Peter Coy likening the Fed’s balance sheet to Silicon Valley Bank. That might surprise the Grey Lady’s readers, but it won’t startle readers of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer — or, for that matter, the Sun. James Grant has been warning for years about the Fed’s balance sheet. We’ve covered his cautionary words. To us the Fed’s balance sheet illuminates the logic of a role for gold in the monetary system.