Posts by James G. Rickards

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…

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…

No one likes name-calling. It’s usually a sign of frustration or shows that the person calling others names is not that articulate. Still, there are times when it’s appropriate if the name is true, and there’s no better way to express yourself. My problem with government officials today is I don’t know whether to call…

Are there enough wars going on in the world right now? We have the two-year-old War in Ukraine in which Russia is trying to liberate Russian-speaking provinces from Ukrainian neo-Nazis. We have the War in Gaza, where Israel is trying to eliminate Hamas terrorists who carried out the largest one-day massacre of Jews since the…

It’s difficult to find a coherent discussion about the role of gold in the international monetary system. On the one hand, there is elite opinion represented by central bankers, finance ministers, mainstream economists and the financial media who consider gold to be a “barbarous relic” (a term attributed to John Maynard Keynes that he actually…

One of the simplest and best ways to think about the impact of interest rates is to use the Rule of 72. It’s a rule of thumb used to determine the number of years it will take to double your money at a given interest rate. You simply divide the number 72 by the interest…

While the kinetic war has been playing out, the U.S. is also conducting a financial war against Russia in the form of economic sanctions. This war is going even worse than the kinetic war, as reported by Reuters. The Russian economy is booming! Let’s look at the data. Russian bank profits for 2024 are projected…

So-called artificial intelligence (AI) is taking the world by storm. Meanwhile, gold has shot up like a rocket over the past couple of months. In mid-February, gold was trading at $1,990. Two months later, gold is trading above $2,400 — a $410 gain in just two months. So here’s a question: Is there a connection…

As you know by now, this weekend Iran attacked Israel with a combination of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. While we don’t have the exact number, reports indicate that the attack included about 300 drones and missiles in all. The attack was primarily focused on military and intelligence installations, not major population centers like…

Years ago, there used to be a slogan “If it ain’t Boeing, we’re not going.” The slogan was a nod of professional respect for the Seattle aircraft builder that brought America into the jet age with great dependable airliners like the Boeing 707, or the three-engine 727. Now the slogan could be, “If it’s Boeing,…