Posts by James G. Rickards

One of the persistent problems in intelligence analysis is what experts call “mirror imaging.” This is jargon for an analytic flaw in which the analyst assumes that his beliefs and preferences are shared by an adversary. Instead of looking at the adversary as he actually is, the analyst is looking in a mirror while assuming…

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.…

When we look around at places like New Zealand and Scotland, there seems to be a bizarre competition to see which country can pass the most fascist laws and imitate George Orwell’s dystopia in Nineteen Eighty-Four in the least amount of time. Scotland has imposed so-called hate crime laws that subject you to imprisonment for exercising free…

There seems to be no limit on the lengths to which progressives, radicals and their lawfare enablers will go to destroy their political opponents. Trump is the most obvious example of this. The first two years of his administration were hobbled by the fake Russian collusion hoax and the numerous investigations that resulted. Those investigations…

According to the Washington Post and other publications, the currency wars are back! In truth, the currency wars that started in 2010 never went away. Currency wars have more active and less active phases. There’s no doubt that we’re in an active phase right now, with the U.S. dollar hitting interim highs and currencies like the euro…

Few countries are as obsessed with the climate cult and the Green New Scam as Germany. It’s not clear why. The propaganda about “climate change” and the “burning planet” is the same all over the world, so it’s not obvious why Germans should fall for this garbage more than other countries. But they do. It…

If you’ve watched films including James Bond or have been inspired by John Le Carré novels, then you’re familiar with scenes of spies breaking into safes or briefcases to steal sensitive documents or photograph them with Minox cameras before putting them back moments before the antagonists walk into the room. That’s a throwback to the…

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…