Posts by James G. Rickards

What are the benefits of a cheap currency relative to the currencies of major trading partners? The answer depends on whether you are considering political benefits or economic benefits. The political benefits are obvious and explain why currency wars (the act of cheapening your currency) have broken out periodically over the past 100 years. A…

The S&P is closing in on bear market territory, which is defined as a decline of 20% or more from recent highs. And it may fall even further. Since World War II, there have been 14 bear markets. The median loss during these bear markets has been 30%, and they lasted about a year (hat…

It’s hard to open a website or scan the headlines without hearing about a new round of sanctions aimed at Russia by the U.S., UK, EU, or others trying to punish Russia for the War in Ukraine. These sanctions have primarily arisen in three sectors: financial account freezes, export/import bans, and the end of U.S.…

Most investors can’t imagine that the U.S. would ever default on its debt. U.S. Treasury securities are regarded as the safest and most liquid securities in the world. The U.S. has enormous resources and huge tax revenues it can use to pay its debt at maturity. In a worst case, major banks (which are heavily…

The art and science of nuclear warfighting was a topic I studied in the late 1960s and early 1970s based on a lot of scholarly work that had been written in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The leading scholars were Herman Kahn, Henry Kissinger, Albert Wohlstetter and Paul Nitze. They took different approaches to…

When you bring up the topic of the Federal Reserve going broke, most individuals react by saying, “That’s impossible! The Fed can’t go broke. They can just print more money.” That’s a typical reaction, but it displays a misunderstanding of what money is and how the Fed actually works. Yes, the Fed can print all…

Fortunately, the pandemic is mostly over. Mask mandates are gone (except for toddlers in New York City who have no political voice). Vax mandates are mostly gone (except for Federal workers who have no choice). Travel and tourism are opening up. Businessmen and women are getting back on the road. Is it all good now?…

The world has changed radically in recent years. We’ve had the worst pandemic since 1918, and the third worst in world history. We’ve had a global supply chain breakdown. Inflation is the worst since the early 1980s. Europe is experiencing its worst war since the end of World War II. That kinetic war in Ukraine…

In this video, Jim Rickards unpacks what it means for investors if central banks are trading insolvent. Jim argues while it is certainly a possibility, it ultimately won’t have much of an effect due to the Fed’s hidden asset, the gold certificate. – Source, Fat Tail Investment Research

In this interview, Jim Rickards is asked whether an energy investment opportunity is on the horizon as a result of the onshore sanctions imposed on Russia. Rickards explains while that is a logical prediction, it is somewhat clouded by the green push to renewable energy sources.   – Source, Fat Tail Investment Research