The past year was a difficult one overall for the metals, with the main standouts to the upside being a geopolitical risk-driven gain in gold, a China-driven rise in iron ore and a surge in uranium on broadening global support for nuclear power (Figure 1). A jump in global interest rates to near two-decade highs saw recession fears persist all year, and while one still did not actually eru...Read More

This year the post-global health crisis boom was brought to an end by a surge in inflation to forty-year highs, a major rise in global interest rates in an attempt to curb the rising prices and surging geopolitical risk after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While precious metals held up reasonably well as markets turned to them as a risk hedge, by Q2/22 the higher interest rates put an end t...Read More

Chile is the world leader in copper production, at 28.5% of the total in 2020, and this looks set to continue, with the country having the largest global reserves, at 23.0% of total. It is also the global leader for molybdenum, which is often found along with copper, and is a major lithium player, holding 51.1% of global reserves. Read More

Newfoundland has become a gold exploration hotspot over the past few years, with the sector seeing some of its strongest activity ever. While the province remains a small contributor to Canadian gold production, it has a substantial mineral industry well supported by the government, focused on iron ore, copper and nickel, and the surge in exploration suggests that gold output from the...Read More

Nevada is the core of the U.S. gold output, accounting for by far the majority, at 75.4% on average for the past year. The state looks set to remain a dominant player in U.S. gold, as it accounts for 49% of total U.S. reserves, with Alaska slightly ahead with 51% of reserves, but just 8.6% of current production. The U.S. accounts for 6.1% of global gold output, making Nevada one of the largest gol...Read More

The Golden Triangle in northwestern British Columbia has historically been a major site of Canadian gold production, beginning as early as the mid 1800s. There was a wave of production in the 1990s which cooled as the gold price declined, but larger scale production resumed in 2017, and the area has seen surging exploration interest over the past year, given that the region has some of the largest...Read More

In this report we outline the Quebec gold mining industry, including its major producers, and a survey of many of the junior miners focused on the province. Quebec accounts for 34% of Canadian gold production (second to Ontario, with 44%) and remains a major focus for both producers and junior miners.Read More

Red Lake has been one of the most prolific gold mining districts in Canada and the world, with exploration having started in the 1920s, and production, which began in the 1930s, continuing to the present day. The district is known for the high grade of its gold, its infrastructure, and strong institutional support, given the long history of mining in the area.Read More

When it comes to investing, I've been a wimp most of my life.I always had "the next crash" on my mind. Inevitably, there hasn't been a crash since 2008. (I don't count the Covidiocy Crash of 2020 because it lasted about five seconds.)That permabearish attitude, while seemingly safe, has come at a cost. I wasn't taking risks, but the opportunity costs are significant. How much wealth did I potentia...Read More

The United States savings rate runs to 3.20% down from 3.60% one month prior.As history has it, 8.47% is par.Meantime, 36% of Americans carry more credit card debt upon their shoulders than emergency savings in their pockets.Mainstream economists inform us it is not a symptom of economic distress. It is rather a symptom of economic vigor.For example, Ameriprise Financial's Russell Price:Consumer...Read More

Most economists don't believe we could have stagflation today. The prevailing view is that recessions are characterized by higher unemployment and reduced spending, and inflation is triggered by full employment and increased spending and therefore they cannot both happen at the same time.This prevailing view is wrong, as I explain today. Yet it's a powerful narrative that blinds most analysts to s...Read More

Consider the defining characteristics of a ghetto:1. The residents can’t afford to live elsewhere.2. Everything is a rip-off because options are limited and retailers/service providers know residents have no other choice or must go to extraordinary effort to get better quality or a lower price.3. Nothing works correctly or efficiently. Things break down and aren’t fixed properly. Maint...Read More

Two weeks ago, the Congress passed (and President Biden signed) four key pieces of legislation related to national security.Three of the bills provided assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. They received the most attention. The one that got the least attention was a mixed bag of provisions, such as a forced divestiture of TikTok.Included in that bill was something called the REPO Act that auth...Read More

A dicey April pullback has given way to a fresh rally as the market's former momentum leaders gain traction.The bears might have gotten a little too cocky during the April swoon, leaving the door open to an unexpected snapback as investors refuse to sell in May and go away...Facts are facts... and we can't deny what's happening in the markets right now. While we were all expecting a bigger correct...Read More

You may have heard of the "Overton window."The concept of the Overton window caught on in professional culture, particularly those seeking to nudge public opinion, because it taps into a certain sense that we all know is there.There are things you can say and things you cannot say, not because there are speech controls (though there are) but because holding certain views makes you anathema and dis...Read More

My goodness, I didn't think I could hate the present administration more than I already do. It's a fountain of idiotic ideas, starting with shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline to just sending $61 billion to Ukraine.You may as well just set the money on fire.Everything Boneheaded Biden has done has made things more expensive. And don't give me, "Well, inflation has come down!"If a product costs...Read More

"Why are we gambling with America's future?"This is the question of New York Times columnist David Brooks. More from whom:America is expected to spend $870 billion, or 3.1 percent of gross domestic product, this year on interest payments on the federal debt. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the government will spend more on interest payments than on the entire defense b...Read More

The silver spot price is above $26 per ounce today. It peaked above $28 on April 19, so it's pulled back a bit. But that's no big deal.Like the rising gold price, which is over $2,300 per ounce, it looks like there's more yet to come. In other words, precious metals are rapidly repricing.Right away, this tells me that Wall Street and the City of London have lost control over the price for gold and...Read More

We're smack in the middle of another exciting earnings season.It's once again that magical time of the quarter when investors become confused, angry (or both!) when stocks don't react as they expect after filing their quarterly updates.Why are earnings so tough on armchair investors?It might have something to do with all the confusing numbers and analyst estimates floating around. Or maybe it's be...Read More

They're wearing us down with shocking headlines and opinions. They come daily these days, with increasingly implausible claims that leave your jaw on the floor.The rest of the text is perfunctory. The headline is the takeaway.A few weeks ago, The New York Times told us that "As It Turns out, the Deep State Is Pretty Awesome."These are the same people who claim that Trump is trying to get rid of de...Read More

Did it warm your heart to see all those blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags waved by our elected officials in Congress Saturday night with the passage of the $60-plus-billion aid bill to the Palookaville of Europe?You realize, don't you, that the tiny fraction of that hypothetical "money" from our country's empty treasury that ever reaches Ukraine will rebound on the instant into Mr. Zelenskyy's C...Read More

We have asked the question before. Today we ask it again: What if socialism "worked"? What if communism worked?That is, what if collectivist economics outdid and outperformed free market capitalism... and Marx triumphed over Smith?Should the United States take collectivism aboard on pragmatic grounds of efficiency? Or should it beg off on abstract grounds of principle?The United States erected its...Read More

“He’d Give You The Shirt Off His Back.”To me, the above quote describes a nice, poor person.There's nothing wrong with that, but I never understood why that compliment was the highest you could give a man.It’s almost like saying, “He’s a great guy, but he can’t organize his financial affairs.”Folks, there’s a reason stewardesses tell you to put...Read More

"Something will have to give."So the International Monetary Fund warns us.Yet what must give? And why must it give?These are the questions that seize our attention today. Reports Bloomberg:The International Monetary Fund leveled an unusually direct criticism at U.S. policymakers Tuesday, saying the country's recent standout performance among advanced economies was in part driven by an unsustainabl...Read More

Does the Fed even matter that much to the real economy and investor portfolios?That's an important question that doesn’t get nearly enough scrutiny. It's possible that neither the Fed nor the reporters who cover the Fed want to ask hard questions about what the Fed really does.Could it be the case that the emperor has no clothes?Financial journalists often refer to a Goldilocks economy ("not...Read More

The big news this weekend is that the House passed a long-anticipated $95 billion foreign aid package.About $61 billion will go to assist Ukraine in its war with Russia. About $26 billion will go to Israel (with some humanitarian aid for Gaza) and around $8 billion will go to supporting allies in the Indo-Pacific region, most notably Taiwan.The package will go to the Senate this week, possibly as...Read More

The New York Stock Exchange is considering moving to 24/7 trading, the Financial Times reports.At the risk of sounding like an old crank, I must admit that I absolutely hate this idea.Sure, the younger generation might love to trade meme stocks and manage their crypto holdings at 3 A.M. But I need what precious sleep I can get. The last thing I want is my brokerage account pinging me with price al...Read More

Those who involved themselves in Bitcoin markets after 2017 encountered a different operation and ideal than those who came before.Today, no one much cares about what came before, speaking of 2010-2016. They are only watching the upward price momentum and are thrilled for the increase in the asset valuation of their portfolio.Gone is the talk of separating money and state, of a market-based means...Read More