John Rubino Substack - This first thing isn’t supposed to happen: When the Federal Reserve cuts short-term interest rates, long-term rates generally fall in tandem. But since the Fed’s “shock and awe” 50-basis point cut in September, bond yields have spiked: Bond traders appear to doubt the Fed’s ability to lower rates and hold inflation in check. That’s bad in the […]

John Rubino Substack - The standard silver pitch is that when gold goes up, stackers note the immense number of silver coins they can get for the price of a single gold Krugerand or Maple Leaf. Then they proceed to pile into the cheaper metal, sending its price up by multiples of gold’s subsequent percentage gains. But this time […]

John Rubino Substack - Obviously, one of the best ways to prepare for hard times is to avoid unnecessary spending in good times. So being able to do that across an entire lifestyle might be considered a core prepping skill. Charles Hugh Smith just posted an essay on this concept. Here’s an excerpt: A Core Skill Going Forward: Frugality I ended […]

John Rubino Substack - Obviously, one of the best ways to prepare for hard times is to avoid unnecessary spending in good times. So being able to do that across an entire lifestyle might be considered a core prepping skill. Charles Hugh Smith just posted an essay on this concept. Here’s an excerpt: A Core Skill Going Forward: Frugality I ended […]

John Rubino Substack - A rising gold price boosted second-quarter (June-August) earnings for the best-run gold miners. See: Q2 Gold Miner Earnings Might Liven Up the Summer Doldrums Portfolio Update — Q2 Earnings Edition And earnings for Q3 — which ended on September 30 and will be reported shortly — should be even better, thanks to continued gains for […]

Thoughts from the Front Line - “Freedom of speech” is a beautiful phrase, strong, optimistic. It has a ring to it. But it’s being replaced in the discourse by “disinformation” and “misinformation,” words that aren’t beautiful but full of the small, pettifogging, bureaucratic anxiety of a familiar American villain: the busybody, the prohibitionist, the Nosey Parker, the snoop. “…The end game […]

John Rubino Substack - So they send the Tennessee National Guard to the Middle East and FEMA (it is widely claimed) spends its rainy day fund on illegal immigrants. And then, because that’s how the universe works, a massive hurricane hits the South and FEMA runs out of money: Now the victims seem to be on their own — further eroding trust in the […]

John Rubino Substack - Law professor Jonathan Turley just posted an article that contains a fascinating stat: “From 2010 to 2021, [university] enrollments fell from roughly 18.1 million students to about 15.4 million.” The decline is apparently continuing, and Turley blames diminishing trust in the quality of the education now offered by American schools. Here’s an excerpt from Turley’s post: What Happens […]

John Rubino Substack - Daniel Lacalle, economics professor, Mises Institute analyst, and publisher of the QTR’s Fringe Finance Substack, just posted a chilling summary of where we’re headed. Here’s an excerpt: An Unprecedented Monetary Destruction Is Coming “There is no escape from debt.” Global money supply has soared by $20.6 trillion since 2019, according to Bloomberg. Additionally, global debt surged by over $15 […]

John Rubino Substack - Most asset classes have their own unique, repeating cycles. For housing, it usually looks like this: Demand for homes rises faster than sales, causing prices to increase. Seeing this, would-be sellers hold off to see how much more they can get a year or two hence. Would-be buyers note the rising prices and shrinking supply […]

John Rubino Substack - This series is monthly, which means the next one was scheduled to drop on October 1. But the first 19 days of September have produced so much absurdity that we have to go a little early this time around to avoid being swamped. Let’s start with a tip o’ the hat to those alarmists who […]

John Rubino Substack - Not so long ago, the coming financial crisis looked more or less manageable. Currencies would plunge, inflation would spike, the monetary system would be reset, and something resembling normal life would return (though of course with gold bugs as the new financial elites). Then the past few years happened, and now what’s coming looks a […]

John Rubino Substack - Normally, when gold and silver are rising, it’s a good idea to buy the related mining stocks on the assumption that they’ll go up even more than the metals. That’s why mining stocks are frequently referred to as “leveraged plays on the price of the underlying commodity.” But for most of the current gold bull […]

John Rubino Substack - Matt Taibbi, superstar reporter who recently turned on his MSM former bosses, just published a cogent explanation for why it’s now trendy to favor the arrest of free-speech social media execs like Elon Musk and Telegram’s Pavel Durov. If you’d prefer to listen rather than read, scroll down to the audio version. Liberalism Removes its Mask Upper-class America […]

John Rubino Substack - Originally published on August 9, 2023, this post featured some extreme predictions from forecaster Martin Armstrong — many of which seem to be coming true. So, as we blunder into WW III while running one of the most bizarre and least trustworthy elections in American history, revisiting some of Armstrong’s thoughts seems appropriate. People We […]

John Rubino Substack - Winter is coming, which means many things depending on where you are and whether or not you like to ski. But one certainty is that millions of people in northern latitudes will get way less sunshine for five or so months. And that’s apparently bad for everything from aging to eyesight to arthritis. One solution […]

John Rubino Substack - Happy Labor Day!

John Rubino Substack - Let’s start with the concept of “big toys.” These are things like boats, jet skis, and RVs that people (okay, guys) tend to buy after they’ve had a few good years and conclude that job security and rising pay are now guaranteed for life. Because this hubris peaks near the end of expansions, spiking demand […]

John Rubino Substack - I have a dog who wakes up with the sun and immediately wants a nice long hike. Over the years, he’s trained me to accept his schedule, so at the crack of dawn we drive to one of a dozen or so nearby trails that he counts as his territory. One of our regular hikes […]

John Rubino Substack - Pretend, for a moment, that it’s 1971 and you’re President Richard Nixon (admittedly disturbing fantasies, but bear with me). You face the perennial government income/outflow dilemmas, and other countries, noting your struggle, are trying to cash their dollars in for your limited pile of gold bars. But this time around you don’t cave and “close […]

John Rubino Substack - When negotiating with the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan’s oft-repeated slogan was “Trust, but verify.” Something similar applies to the world of precious metals, especially remote storage firms. But let’s go even further to: Don’t trust, and always verify. Here’s an example of why: A San Diego couple thought they’d invested in gold. Instead, they and hundreds of others […]

John Rubino Substack - After a nice run in the first half of this year, copper suffered a serious correction, leading some to wonder if this story is broken: A recent post by commodities analyst Rick Mills answers that question. Here’s an excerpt from the (much longer) article: Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) forecasts global copper consumption to grow 3.5% to 28 million […]

John Rubino Substack - The choices for remote gold/silver bullion storage are multiplying. Here’s a new one that seems worthy of consideration. From the press release: Money Metals Opens Idaho-Based Gold Depository Larger Than Fort Knox Eagle, Idaho (August 12, 2024) – The Western United States now has its very own Fort Knox, only substantially larger. After three years of […]

John Rubino Substack - There are more interesting ideas than time in which to consider them. So here’s a new series that bundles bite-sized explanations and suggestions into a quick weekend read. The Yen Carry Trade The “carry trade” is making headlines without, in many cases, being adequately explained. Last week The Kobeissi Letter fixed that with a concise (if […]

John Rubino Substack - New players will make this housing bust one for the record books. The current housing bubble features three new players, all of whom are about to switch from “buy/hold” to “panic sell.” They are: Boomers forced by declining health and/or shrinking stock portfolios to sell their McMansions. Wall Street private equity “landlords” who gorged on […]