It's been a wild ride over the past few trading days...On Friday, President Trump started a mini-crash by threatening China with new 100% tariffs.Stocks slid, crypto crashed, and miners dipped.But yesterday, President Trump strapped on his Superman cape and saved the day. He struck a more conciliatory tone after China replied to his tariff threat with a hard-nosed retort.As a result, markets opene...Read More
For around 3,000 years, China maintained an airtight monopoly on silk.China's silk empire began in approximately 2400 BC, and the entire process was a state secret. From raising and processing silkworms, to weaving and dying threads.Imperial workshops were vertically integrated and tightly controlled.The punishment for revealing any silk secrets was death. Export of silkworm eggs and mulberry seed...Read More
Legend has it that in November 2004 Taylor Swift was "discovered" in Nashville. A youngster at the time, merely 14 years old, she was playing guitar and singing at the Bluebird Caf? when a music promoter heard her, took a look, and decided that this gal was going places. And as you surely know, today she's a huge mega-star.Taylor Swift in Nashville, but no I didn't see her. Courtesy billboard.com....Read More
There are 'policies' that seem to work…and some that don't seem to work.But the policy that always works best is no policy at all. That is, left alone, people do the best they can with what they have. Only they know what they want and what they have to work with. The feds, who have aims of their own, can make us do things differently; they can't make us do things better.Doing 'better' is dri...Read More
During the dotcom boom, fiber optic cabling was a scorching-hot sector.This is the wiring the internet runs on. The arteries and veins of the data world.Corning (NYSE: GLW) was the darling of fiber optics in the 1990s and into 2000. This classic American company had been a leader in specialized glass and ceramic materials for more than a century.Starting in the 1960s, they invested heavily in the...Read More
I opened my portfolio this morning already wincing, knowing an ugly number would materialize.Oof. It's a red day for those of us with beefy allocations to gold and silver miners. Game of Thrones style.Precious metal miners are correcting sharply. The SILJ junior silver miner ETF is down about 8.5% as of 12:40 PM. The GDX gold miner ETF is down about 7.8%. These are my preferred benchmarks for the...Read More
I remember getting my offer letter from Lehman Brothers in early 1997, a full 11 years before they went bankrupt, I hasten to add. For a whopping $34,000, I was theirs, green as a Granny Smith apple. My job was in a division called Global Corporate Equity Derivatives, and I was going to help the traders keep their trading books reconciled with the general ledger. It was my first, and last, account...Read More
During a conference call with investors last week, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon made a memorable response to a question from Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo about the collapse of a subprime auto lender called Tricolor that cost the bank $170 million. Tricolor went bankrupt due to allegations of fraud, including double-pledging of collateral, which led lenders to halt financing."Mike, you should assume t...Read More
Metallic Minerals Corp. (MMG:TSX.V; MMNGF:OTCQB) is collaborating with VRIFY Technology Inc. to implement advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies across its promising precious metals and critical minerals projects in Canada and the United States. Read what research analysts rate the stock. Metallic Minerals Corp. (MMG:TSX.V; MMNGF:OTCQB) announced a strategic colla...Read More
Vanguard Mining Corp. (UUU:CSE; UUFF:OTC; SL51:FWB) is stepping up exploration at its Brussels Creek Project near Kamloops after drilling returned gold grades up to 11.52 g/t. The company's proximity to New Gold's producing New Afton Mine adds weight to its growing presence in British Columbia's mining corridor. Vanguard Mining Corp. (UUU:CSE; UUFF:OTC; SL51:FWB) has announced updates to its 2025...Read More
West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd.'s (WRLG:TSX.V; WRLGF:OTCQB; FRA:UJO) latest results from the Austin zone bode well for expanding resource ounces for the current ramp-up to commercial production at Madsen, noted a Cantor Fitzgerald report. West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd.'s (WRLG:TSX.V; WRLGF:OTCQB; FRA:UJO) newly reported underground drill results from the lower Main Austin zone at Madsen confirmed th...Read More
John Newell of John Newell & Associates reviewsthe LinkedIn Producer Model Portfolio, launched on January 2, 2019, and shows what the next year may look like. Gold is breaking out, but the most valuable signal for equity investors is not the headline price. It is how leadership changes after a long base.In both prior up-legs in gold, the heavy lifting in equities came from mid-cap producers and...Read More
GoGold Resources Inc. (GGD:TSX) delivered a standout year in 2025, increasing annual silver equivalent output by 45% at its Parral project in Mexico. With strong cash flow and a US$141 million balance, the company strengthened its position as one of the region's most efficient gold and silver producers. GoGold Resources Inc. (GGD:TSX; GLGDF:OTCQX) reported a 45% increase in silver equivalent prod...Read More
Global Analyst Adrian Day looks at the sharp decline in the stock prices of Business Development Companies, as well developments at his companies, including preliminary 3Q results from many gold companies. Ares Capital Corp. (ARCC:NASDAQ) and Gladstone Investment Corp. (GAIN: NASDAQ) have both fallen sharply in the last six weeks, along with the entire BDC sector.The Vaneck ETF is down 16%, to a...Read More
A fascinating experiment is taking place.A startup named Nof1 gave 6 top AI models $10,000 each.They gave models access to a crypto exchange, a data feed, and let each model build its own trading and risk management strategy. The "Alpha Arena" competition started Oct 17th and the first "season" will conclude Nov 3rd.The AIs can use up to 40x leverage. With that much juice, a 2.5% move in the wrong...Read More
I was in Minnesota last week, in the storied "Iron Range" north of Duluth. In fact, I was out in the field on Friday, looking at Precambrian rocks, and missed the white-knuckle excitement of the market selloff for gold, silver, other metals, miners and more. It's amazing what happens when I leave town, eh?Good morning from northern Minnesota. BWK photo.I spent all day Saturday traveling home and m...Read More
Greetings from beautiful downtown Nashville! It's my first time here, and I already love it.Music City is well named. Everywhere you go, talented musicians abound.I'm down here for the Paradigm Shift Summit, our company's big investment conference.More than 700 subscribers made the trip, and I've already met a bunch of them.A fine group of people. And happy, too.The timing for this meeting couldn'...Read More
The dramatic rise in gold and silver is finally starting to attract attention from the general public.Last September, we were shocked to learn that in 2023, 71% of financial advisors had 0-1% exposure to gold.That 2023 data came from Bank of America's fund manager survey. And in the most updated version of that survey, we're starting to see a pickup in gold ownership among professional investors....Read More
Emerita Resources Corp. (EMO:TSX.V; EMOTF:OTCQB; LLJA:FSE) extended a key Spanish deposit by 90 meters after uncovering high-grade copper and gold zones. The discovery strengthens the company's position in the Iberian Belt West project. Emerita Resources Corp. (EMO:TSX.V; EMOTF:OTCQB; LLJA:FSE) reported continued success from its ongoing diamond drilling program at the El Cura deposit, part of it...Read More
Michael Ballanger of GGM Advisory Inc. takes a look at the silver market and shares his thoughts. He also discusses U.S. debt. Let me tell you a story. I entered the training program with a large, reputable and very "blue-blood" Canadian investment firm in 1977 and spent the better part of one full year moving through the various departments for stays that varied between 30 and 90 days. Aside fro...Read More