ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
August 20, 2024 | Where You Store It: Don’t Trust, and Definitely Verify
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 […]
August 18, 2024 | Is Copper a Broken Story — Or Better Than Ever?
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 […]
August 13, 2024 | Where You Store It: Here’s a New Option
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 […]
August 11, 2024 | Weekend Short Takes: The Carry Trade, Mass Migration, Google Spying
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 […]
August 7, 2024 | Airbnb Houses Are About to Flood the Market
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 […]
August 2, 2024 | Japan Enters Its Death Spiral
Japan has been a big topic in this newsletter because it illustrates the no-win situation in which wildly overindebted countries eventually find themselves. Here are two articles that illustrate the point: How a Country Goes Bankrupt, In 10 Steps Japan Is In That Box Now For The Death Spiral Confronted with both a plunging […]
July 30, 2024 | Art of the Collapse, August 2024
The Paris Summer Olympics may have started a trend: Sodom And Gomorrah Set To Host 2028 Olympics (Babylon Bee) – In keeping with the Olympics’ commitment to sexual violence and Satan worship, the International Olympic Committee announced today that the 2028 games would be held in the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. “They’re a natural fit for […]
July 29, 2024 | De-Dollarization Update: October Surprise?
The next BRICS meeting is scheduled for October, in Russia. In the meantime, a lot is happening on the de-dollarization front. Some recent news: NATO just took Russian assets and gave them to Ukraine: Not surprisingly… Russia says it’s working with a group of countries to build a platform that doesn’t need the dollar (Business Insider) […]
July 28, 2024 | From the Archives: How to Short Stocks – Is it finally time??
First, the FAANG stocks (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) were going to rise forever. Then they morphed into the “Magnificent 7” which many believe will ride the AI boom to infinity and beyond. Either way, the result is a wildly unbalanced market (and economy) supported by a tiny group of multi-trillion-dollar companies. We’ve seen […]
July 27, 2024 | Recession Watch: The Un-Inverted Yield Curve and Plunging Copper
Headline economic stats like GDP continue to look pretty good. But the list of reliable indicators screaming “imminent recession” continues to expand. Some of the latest: Un-Inverted Yield Curve An inverted yield curve (where short-term interest rates are higher than long-term rates) is a well-known recession signal. But it really starts flashing when it un-inverts, i.e., when long-term […]
July 24, 2024 | Housing Is Seriously Rolling Over
Let’s start with the fact that the average American can’t afford the average house. Not even close: Houses have been unaffordable for a while, but for a while, “investors” — i.e., private equity companies with access to cheap credit — took up the slack, sometimes buying entire neighborhoods and converting the houses to rentals. Now […]
July 19, 2024 | Charles Hugh Smith: A Repeat of the 1970s Will Change a Lot of Things
Many people recognize the similarities between today’s world and that of the 1970s. But few understand the potential chaos that implies for a system this overleveraged. Charles Hugh Smith just posted an article that explains the impact on investors. Here’s an excerpt: Twisters on the Horizon: Is This Decade a Re-Make of ‘That 70s Show’? If […]
July 17, 2024 | Nomi Prins: Why Nuclear Power Is Back In Vogue
Best-selling financial writer and former investment banker Nomi Prins just posted a primer on nuclear power (and, by implication, the uranium mining stocks). Here’s an excerpt: The New Gold Rush: Unlock Uranium’s Soaring Demand Nuclear energy is the “Switzerland” of energy sources. It is increasingly popular with both sides of the political spectrum for several reasons. First, nuclear energy is […]
July 15, 2024 | How a Country Goes Bankrupt, In 10 Steps
Japan appears to have entered the inevitable fiat currency death spiral, where interest rates (and interest costs) rise while the currency falls. Fix one problem and the other gets worse, until the system breaks. Here, from March 2023, is a longer explanation: How a Country Goes Bankrupt, In 10 Steps The past few […]
July 14, 2024 | Two Takes on the Assassination Attempt
A friend just emailed about the Trump assassination attempt, predicting that it guarantees his election in November. I tentatively agreed, and responded with a story: You’re too young to remember Ronald Reagan. But back in the 1980s, his political honeymoon was fading and his approval ratings were dropping. Then someone shot him in the chest, […]
July 12, 2024 | “Fake Organic” Food and the Shrinking Trust Horizon
Once you understand the concept of the microbiome, it’s easy to see the problem with pesticide-laden food: Pesticides are poisons designed to kill small lifeforms, and ingesting such poisons risks wiping out or disrupting the good bacteria that keep us alive and functional. The obvious solution is to eat only organic produce and meat. But that’s […]
July 8, 2024 | Recession Watch: Jobs and Real Estate Head South
US financial headlines remain in Goldilocks territory (prompting all those “Why don’t Americans know how good they have it??” diatribes from the MSM). But under the surface, the drumbeat of negative data continues. Today, let’s consider jobs and real estate: Jobs Official reports of plentiful jobs and low unemployment are possible because the government is […]
July 4, 2024 | Where You Store It: Choosing a Country for Offshore Gold
Deciding to store gold and/or silver offshore is just the first step in a long process. Choosing a country and a storage service, then contracting to buy or ship the metal, are all make-or-break decisions. And very few newcomers to offshore storage understand everything. So here’s a just-released article from offshore specialist Nestmann Group that answers the […]
July 3, 2024 | From the Archives: Ancient Evil…
As this newsletter’s archives expand, it’s becoming clear that some posts didn’t age well at all. They should stay buried. But others were early and have actually become more relevant as things unfold. So once a week I’m going to republish one of the latter posts The following (from July 28, 2023) needs no explanation in light […]
July 2, 2024 | Art of the Collapse, July 2024
FBI Firearm Training Facility Replaces Paper Targets With Copies Of The Constitution Babylon Bee, Washington, D.C. — In a completely innocuous and in no way concerning recent update, the FBI Training Facility for Firearms and Small Weaponry has replaced all of its paper targets with copies of the Constitution of the United states. According to […]
June 29, 2024 | Health Prepping: Microbiome Maintenance is Key to…Everything
Among the keys to a long, healthy life are exercise, sunshine, and not smoking. But the most important of all might be maintaining a balanced microbiome. Here’s a quick primer: The term “microbiome” refers to the trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microscopic living things that exist mainly inside our intestines and on our […]
June 24, 2024 | Scary Stat Alert: The Government Liquidity Index
Not that we need any more scary statistics, but here’s one that might be worth watching. From the Brave browser’s AI summarizer: Government liquidity index The government liquidity index is a metric that measures the ease or difficulty of trading in government securities, such as U.S. Treasury bonds. It is a gauge of deviations in yields from a […]
June 23, 2024 | If Hackers Can Shut Down 15,000 Car Dealerships, Is Your Bank Safe?
On the list of things that might disrupt our increasingly fragile financial system, cyberattacks have always been up there with pandemics, real estate busts, war, and inflation. But those other things have, in one form or another, been happening while cyber disruptions have been limited to small-time extortion and the occasional data breach. That might […]
June 19, 2024 | Millions of Debt Slaves, Created Right Before Our Eyes
I just got this offer from a credit card: But it’s not just credit cards: Buy Now, Pay Later Craze Coming To Apple Pay (Zero Hedge) – iPhones and iPads will soon be integrated with Affirm’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) feature. This product will soon be available for Apple Pay users. “This will enable […]
June 15, 2024 | Carol Roth: The Death of Property Rights
We all sense that our basic rights are under attack, but the nature of the enemy and the weapons at their disposal aren’t always clear. Here’s a video that spells out the who, what, and how of the New World Order. A few bullet points: Property rights are the bedrock of a free society. Wealthy […]