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Galileo must have already known what was going to happen when, on February 24, 1616, a panel of eleven ‘experts’ commissioned by the Catholic church delivered its final report.

The panel had been ordered to assess Galileo’s work– specifically his ‘controversial’ assertion that other planets revolved around the sun– and not around the earth, as the church had been preaching for centuries.

And as expected, the panel ruled that Galileo’s theory (as well as similar work by other scientists) was “foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical. . . and that in regard to theological truth it is at least erroneous in faith.”

The following day Galileo was condemned by the Inquisition and ordered to “abandon these opinions” and “abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it” under penalty of imprisonment.

The experts had unanimously ruled against him. Everyone agreed. The science was clear. They were right, and Galileo was wrong. And possibly a heretic.

Obviously, we know today that Galileo and other scientists like Copernicus who came before him were correct. But the Inquisition of Galileo wasn’t about science. It was about power and control.

Those in power often believe that they must be seen as the ultimate authority. They need have all the answers… to know everything and to be right about everything. So whenever someone comes along with a different conclusion, they view this as a threat to their authority… and they squash it.

Galileo’s Inquisition wasn’t the first instance of this suppression. And it certainly wasn’t the last.

We saw it all through the COVID pandemic, with that magical phrase repeated over and over again: “the science is clear”.

‘The science was clear’, for example, that putting masks on children as young as two years old was somehow going to save millions of lives. And anyone with a different conclusion on the matter was told to abandon their heresy under penalty of being canceled.

But apparently the science wasn’t so clear after all. This past Saturday, The BMJ– the medical journal of the British Medical Association– published a new meta-analysis of 22 studies which concluded:

“Real world effectiveness of child mask mandates against [COVID-19] has not been demonstrated with high-quality evidence. The current body of scientific data does not support masking children for protection against COVID-19.”

This conclusion would almost certainly have been suppressed three years ago, as it represents a direct challenge to what global and national health authorities were saying at the time.

They never expressed uncertainty, or that the science could change. Their view was absolute– and correct. And, like the Inquisition of Galileo, they had zero tolerance for dissent.

Climate science now follows this same Inquisition approach… and the tactics have been very much on display during the 28^th annual UN Climate Change Summit, known as COP28, which is currently taking place in the UAE.

Everything about this event is a complete joke; even on the COP28 website they have a fancy video filled with global celebrities whose theme is “No more waiting. It’s time to take action.”

Hang on a sec. What exactly was the purpose of the previous 27 annual climate summits if there hasn’t been any action yet? Apparently, COPs 1-27 were complete failures in which absolutely nothing has ever been accomplished. But now it’s up to COP28 to finally get something done?

This is hilarious given that most of the big shots who are attending COP28 are the same virtuous hypocrites who have flown in on their private jets year after year to all the previous summits. I guess they’re finally serious about doing something this time.

One widely publicized exchange over the weekend was the “She Changes” panel… because feminism and gender identity politics has soooo much to do with climate change. The science is clear.

So, this panel was basically the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, trying to demonstrate her virtue and genius by berating the CEO of Abu Dhabi’s national oil company.

But the CEO wasn’t having any of it, at one point saying, “Stop pointing fingers. Show me solutions. Show me what you can do. Show me your own contributions,” and blasted her for creating even more divisions in an already polarized world.

Then he committed the ultimate heresy and said that completely eliminating fossil fuels in the near future would “take the world back into caves” and that “no science out there . . . says that the phase-out of fossil fuel” will achieve the UN’s global temperature goals.

The reaction was almost pandemonium as virtuous hypocrites around the world immediately voiced their opposition to the CEO’s dangerous wrongthink.

“The science is clear,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who added that we must “stop burning fossil fuels– not reduce, not abate. Phase out.”

“The science is absolutely clear,” said Bill Hare, the chief executive of a government-funded climate non-profit. Completely eliminating fossil fuels “will enhance the lives of all humanity.”

“The science of climate change has been clear for decades”, said Professor Frederike Otto, listed as one of Time’s “100 most influential people in the world”.

There’s that magical phrase again: the science is clear.

Now, I’m not attacking climate science or those who dedicate their lives to it; there’s plenty of solid data out there. Plus, I love clean air and water as much as anyone, and I do my best to conserve resources and be greener. I’m also rational about it, which is why I’m so much in favor of nuclear power.

But there is a certain arrogance to saying “the science is clear” without acknowledging any uncertainty, or that many of their end of the world predictions haven’t come to pass.

There’s nothing wrong with being wrong.  Science is a process of continuous growth, examination, and discovery.

But to say “the science is clear” is to say that today’s conclusions are fully settled and will never change. If we’re intellectually honest, there are very few things we can say this about.

Yet these people insist that “the science is clear” about eliminating fossil fuels. We MUST keep global warming below 1.5C, and the ONLY way to do that is to completely eliminate, i.e. “phase out” oil.

No discussion about costs and benefits is allowed. Their view is the only view. The science is clear.

It doesn’t help that they make a joke of themselves by having their virtuous hypocrite climate bosses fly in on private jets. And they insist on mixing in gender identity politics. In fact, at COP28 this year, there’s an entire theme on the agenda for “Gender and Inclusion”. The science is clear.

But even if we accept the absolute certainty of their conclusions, there’s the matter of implementing their ideas.

They demand, for example, that all energy be green. That means (in their definition) solar panels and wind power.

Yet shifting to 100% green energy will require a number of critical resources (like copper and various other minerals) that the world simply cannot produce. And even if the production capacity existed, these same people insist on shutting down the world’s mines– because they’re bad for the environment.

They don’t think realistically about implementation, or costs versus benefits; they live in a theoretical dreamworld where TeraWatts of green power will simply fall from the sky.

It’s bizarre that such unrealistic fanatics have so much influence in dictating global policy. And this is one of the reasons I’m so vocal about investing in real assets, in part to benefit from their irrationality.

If the climate fanatics want to shut down mines, yet simultaneously create skyrocketing demand for copper from solar panel production, then it seems pretty likely that copper prices could soar.

If they want to completely phase out fossil fuel production, that probably means oil prices will rise.

If they want to require every business to become “net zero” and buy carbon credits, it probably means that the price of carbon credits will eventually be much higher.

And if reason ever prevails– which it eventually does– and nuclear power is finally recognized as a viable solution– which it is already starting to be– then demand for uranium will go through the roof.

But given uranium’s meager production and almost entirely drawn-down stockpiles, this also suggests that the price of uranium could one day go nuclear.

I won’t say the science is clear… because it seldom is. But in a world run by fanatics, these sorts of ideas certainly make sense to consider.

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In a world full of unimaginable absurdity, we spend a lot of time thinking about the future… and to where all of this insanity leads.

“Future Headline Friday” is our satirical take of where the world is going if it remains on its current path. While our satire may be humorous and exaggerated, rest assured that everything we write is based on actual events, news stories, personalities, and pending legislation.

December 1, 2028: COP33 Climate Conference Urges Americans to Stop Eating

As world leaders gather for the 33rd COP Climate Summit, the theme of this year’s event is “Just Stop Eating”.

The United Nations, which hosts the conference, said that with extremely high oil and coal prices significantly reducing demand for fossil fuels, it is time to turn the focus on reducing the climate change affects of agriculture.

“Farming, especially the production of meat animals, is contributing to the warming of the globe at an unprecedented rate,” said Secretary-General of the United Nations Justin Trudeau as he opened the conference.

“And to tackle the root cause, we have to tackle demand— that is, people eating food.”

He said that as the fattest nation, the United States is the main problem when it comes to agricultural emissions.

“For the United States, this is not just an issue of climate change,” Trudeau continued, “This is a matter of public health. And as we learned from successfully combating Covid-19 with lockdowns and other restrictions, public health issues need the heavy hand of government to be solved.”

Since the 2023 COP28 agreement, the US has annually sent hundreds of billions of dollars in reparations payments to developing nations, compensating for its industrialization-driven greenhouse gas emissions that have disproportionately impacted these countries with natural disasters.

But experts say this is not enough.

Therefore, much of the COP33 agenda this year is focused on how to make Americans stop eating.

Some critics have noted the odd use of language which consistently uses the phrase, “just stop eating,” as opposed to “reduce food intake.”

“Of course, we don’t mean Americans should starve to death,” Trudeau said, glancing suspiciously side to side. “But it’s pretty clear a little climate change diet wouldn’t hurt.”

One breakout session will “explore the use of public health mandates to force Americans to stop eating.”

“Anything based on science can be justified as a public health mandate,” Trudeau said. “The scientific health benefits of fasting and calorie restriction are clear. And therefore these could, and should, be mandated on the American public.”

But mandates are not the only avenue that will be discussed to drastically curb Americans’ calorie intake.

Another session is called, “Appealing to Catholics with Biblical justifications to stop eating meat.”

The discussion will surround how a coordinated media effort might revive the Catholic tradition of fasting from meat on Fridays and during lent.

“If Catholics are willing to walk the walk, they would extend those traditions year round.” Trudeau said. “I think the Pope agrees, and we are working closely with him to add this to the next Papal Bull.”

But just in case traditional religion isn’t enough, COP33 will host spiritual guru Charlotte Tan who promotes the practice of sun gazing to replace meals.

“When you commune with nature, you realize the abundance around you. Gazing at the setting or rising sun can provide enough nutrients to your body to replace about half of your calories.”

Tan says that her “Nature’s Bounty” walks have also been popular among spiritually in-touch Americans.

“What we do is take a quick walk around a yard or a city block and find all the unused food resources just there for the taking. By eating edible weeds like dandelion or chickweed, people can save money, which gives them more time for meditation and activism.”

“But we don’t stop there,” Charlotte Tan continued, “Crickets, grubs, maggots— these might seem disgusting at first glance. But enlightened people realize these are just parts of nature. They are wholesome, fulfilling, and rich in high calorie lean protein. And best of all, they don’t add to a human’s carbon footprint. In fact, by eating them, we reduce it.”

Tan said that scorpions were especially popular food last year at her tent at Burning Man.

While promoting the replacement of meat like beef and chicken with protein sourced from bugs is nothing new for COP, this does represent a more creative approach.

“In the past, we have focused on data and logic to try to convince people to eat bugs,” Secretary-General Trudeau said before the conference’s first night meal of filet mignon. “This approach tackles the emotional side. Tapping into the spiritual awakening happening around the world is a great way to advance our collective mission.”

“We’re in this together,” he added, chewing his steak.

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When the international news agency AFP announced last week that libertarian outsider Javier Milei had won Argentina’s presidential election, the headline was absolutely hilarious.

AFP claimed that the election of Milei– a self-described anarcho-capitalist, was “plunging the country into uncertainty in the midst of a crippling economic crisis.”

Uncertainty? We’re talking about a country that’s basically in hyperinflation and has been plundered by decades of cronyism, corruption, and criminality.

I suppose the foreign media would have been happier if Milei’s opponent, Economy Minister Sergio Massa, had won… never mind the fact that Massa was one of the key figures who has engineered Argentina’s near hyperinflation.

But that’s sort of the point; the media is one of the key pillars that holds up the establishment. They’re an integral part of it. And they’ll always support establishment candidates, no matter how incompetent or criminal they may be.

It wasn’t just AFP either. Time, for example, wrote, “Argentina Just Elected an Eccentric Populist Who Seeks Counsel From His Cloned Dogs,” running with Milei’s recurring campaign joke that his dogs are his advisers.

The joke is obviously not true, but they felt compelled to paint the guy as a lunatic… as opposed to the button-down establishment candidate who helped wreck the economy.

Politico declared: “Right-wing populist Milei set to take Argentina down uncharted path”. I’m not sure what their point is– would be better for Argentina to remain on the well-trodden path to hyperinflation?

The Financial Times ran a story entitled, “Radical libertarian Javier Milei seizes victory in Argentina”.

This one is absolutely absurd. If you don’t buy into establishment politics, you’re a “radical”. And apparently, it’s impossible for an anti-establishment candidate to, you know, win the election. So, he SEIZED victory.

Argentina shows that in a country dominated by incompetence for so long, people do eventually wake up and choose something entirely different.

Milei wants to take a chainsaw (a frequent campaign prop) to Argentina’s federal budget and eliminate entire departments of government– including the education and health departments, plus the central bank. He wants to dollarize the economy and shut down Argentina’s central bank.

He has his work cut out for him. But if he can accomplish even a small fraction of what he’d like to do, there’s a good chance he’ll arrest the decline and leave the country in a much better place.

I actually lived in Argentina for a brief period some years ago, and it has such extraordinary potential. Buenos Aires has a fantastic night life, lifestyle, and culture. It’s also amazingly inexpensive (when you exchange dollars at black market rates).

Yet the inflation, crime, corruption, and bureaucracy make life quite difficult.

Hopefully Milei can put the country on a different path, and Argentina will be in a totally different position in several years.

In the meantime, anybody who’s ever wondered what it’s like to live in a country run by an anarcho-capitalist, well, now you have the opportunity.

Argentina is actually a fairly straightforward place to obtain residency and citizenship. And given Milei’s libertarian street cred, he may very well make it even easier. I wouldn’t be surprised if he rolled out an economic citizenship program to bring in much-needed revenue (and foreign currency) into the country.

You’ll probably recall that economic citizenship programs (often referred to as Citizenship by Investment Programs, or CIP) have become quite popular in small countries– especially Caribbean islands that depend on tourism.

These are completely legal programs whereby a foreign applicant can make an investment in the country (often overpriced real estate) or a government donation, in exchange for citizenship.

Over time, as more and more countries rolled out their own economic citizenship legislation, competition among various CIPs became fierce… which has driven the price down to as low as $100,000.

The programs are often controversial in their home countries as well; on a small Caribbean island with a population less than 200,000 (and where less than 100,000 vote in local elections), the idea of bringing on, say, 10,000 new “economic” citizens is often met with anger and anxiety.

But Argentina doesn’t have this problem. It’s an enormous country with almost 50 million people… meaning Milei could bring in 500,000 economic citizenship applicants and it would be a drop in the bucket in terms of population.

Yet the revenue from those CIP applicants would amount to $50+ billion, which would be incredibly meaningful to the economy.

For now, Argentina offers temporary residency to anyone who can prove they have about $2,000 per month in retirement or passive income. That means Social Security, pensions, annuities, rental income, dividend income, interest payments, etc.

Unfortunately, employment income does not qualify.

But there is an alternative. You could qualify for temporary residency by depositing about $24,000 into an Argentinian bank.

You must renew annually by once again proving you qualify financially. Plus, you must spend six months of each year in Argentina in order to qualify for renewal.

That means Argentina likely won’t work for a “back-up” residency, where you don’t want to spend significant time in the country.

But naturalization is where Argentina shines.

After holding temporary residency for just two years, you can apply to naturalize as an Argentine citizen, with a solid B+ rated passport.

This is one of the fastest naturalization time-lines in the world. And even though in reality you can expect to wait another two years after applying for the bureaucracy to approve you, this is still a quick naturalization timeline compared to most other countries.

But you could cut this time down even shorter if you give birth to a baby in Argentina.

Due to the legal concept of jus soli, right of soil, the baby immediately becomes an Argentine citizen, and as the parents, you are immediately eligible for permanent residency.

A few months later, right after acquiring permanent residency, you can apply for naturalization.

Passports can be compared to real estate investments in that their value fluctuates over time, typically changing gradually but sometimes shifting abruptly.

In the late 90s, Argentina was on the US waiver program, which meant Argentine citizens did not need a visa to enter the US. That made the passport quite valuable.

But by 2002 in the midst of a financial crisis, Argentina was removed from the US visa waiver program.

This is common for countries with poor economies— their passports’ value as a travel document tends to decrease. Just look at Venezuela as a good example, as more and more countries close their borders and require visas with onerous application procedures to stop mass migration.

Conversely, passports from countries that have rising economic prospects generally become more valuable.

Chile is an example of this, which currently has a great passport that does allow visa-free access to the United States.

Taking a long-term view, an Argentine passport might once again become much more valuable.

And given that it’s one of the most straightforward to obtain, that investment of time and energy may be well worth it.

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On March 20, 1602, after a few years of painstaking negotiations, a deal was struck amid the cobblestone streets and legendary waterways of Amsterdam that changed the world of finance forever.

The Dutch Republic (as it was known back then) was already a major economic power in the early 1600s; Dutch merchants boasted an enormous fleets of thousands of ships and lucrative trading posts around the world. Money was pouring in to the economy.

But at the same time, competition was fierce. England, Spain, Portugal, etc. all wanted in on the vast wealth that Dutch merchants were minting from the spice trade.

So in an effort to fend off international competition, Dutch traders unified their operations; merchants in Amsterdam merged in 1601. And, the following March, the remainder of the country’s prominent merchants joined.

They called their new venture the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC); it is known to history as the Dutch East India Company.

What made VOC so innovative is that investors could buy shares in the company, and hence enjoy a piece of the profits proportionate to the number of shares they owned.

But on top of that, they also launched a stock exchange… creating a secondary market where investors could buy or sell shares of VOC.

This was game changing.

These innovations by themselves were not new; other ‘joint-stock’ companies had been formed in the past. And other rudimentary financial exchanges had already been in existence.

But the Dutch put the two together, combining a major business enterprise with a formalized stock exchange. It had never been done before… and the idea marked the beginning of the country’s economic dominance, known as the Dutch Golden Age.

Naturally, as the Dutch Republic became Europe’s most powerful economy, its currency– a gold coin known as the guilder– became the unofficial reserve currency around the world.

From Eastern Europe to Japan, Indonesia, and parts of India, traders often exchanged goods and services for Dutch guilders because they had confidence that the coins would be universally accepted.

And the guilder’s status as a de facto reserve currency lasted for centuries.

But history is very clear that no empire, and no reserve currency, lasts forever.

Eventually the dominance of the Dutch republic was displaced by the British Empire, and the guilder by the British pound. Britain, in turn, was eventually displaced by the United States and the US dollar.

But only someone willfully ignorant of history would believe that America’s and the dollar’s dominance will last forever.

And this should hardly be a controversial assertion anymore.

Politicians within US government have routinely demonstrated an outrageous level of pettiness, incompetence, and the inability to solve even the most basic problems.

They have absolutely no control over abhorrent deficit spending. They go into debt to pay people to NOT work. They ignore downgrades of their sovereign credit rating. And they actually cheer themselves when the deficit is “only” $2 trillion.

America’s central bankers, meanwhile, conjured trillions of dollars out of thin air without any clue of the repercussions. They failed to predict inflation. They failed to diagnose it. They failed to do anything about it.

And when they finally did take action, they failed to anticipate any negative consequences of raising interest rates so quickly.

Literally two days before Silicon Valley Bank went bust earlier this year, the Chairman of the Fed told Congress that “nothing about the data suggests we’ve tightened [raised interest rates] too much.”

These people are clueless. And everyone has noticed.

Confidence in the dollar is waning, and foreigners are starting to diversify to other assets. Data from the IMF showed that the US dollar’s share of foreign exchange reserves had fallen to a multi-decade low.

Similarly, foreigners’ appetite to own US government bonds is dropping rapidly. A decade ago, foreigners happily owned 43% of all US government bonds. Today foreigners’ share is 30%, and falling.

These trends show very clearly that the dollar is simply not as dominant as it used to be.

In a recent interview, Aerdt Houben, a senior official at the Dutch central bank, said the quiet part out loud, and explained that the Netherlands was already preparing for a world in which gold (and NOT the US dollar) is the primary global reserve currency.

“The beauty of gold is that it’s stable in value, it retains its value. That’s one of the reasons why central banks hold gold… Gold is like solidified confidence for the central bank… If we ever unexpectedly have to create a new currency or a systemic risk arises, the public can have confidence in [the Dutch central bank] because whatever money we issue, we can back it with the same value in gold.”

The Dutch understand this concept very well; after all, they once held the world’s #1 reserve currency position… and then lost it. So they know the same thing will happen to the dollar. It’s inevitable.

I agree entirely with this view and have written about it extensively: I believe there is a very high likelihood that the dollar loses its reserve dominance within the next 10-years, and probably sooner.

The Congressional Budget Office has already forecast (rather optimistically) that interest on the debt, plus mandatory entitlements like Social Security, will consume 100% of US federal tax revenue by 2031.

This means that everything else, including the military, will have to be financed by debt.

Two years later in 2033, Social Security’s primary trust fund will run out of money, according to the program’s annual trustee report.

These are not conspiracy theories; rather, these are the government’s own forecasts. And I believe that either event could trigger a reset of the global financial system in which the US loses its dominance over the rest of the world.

Personally I don’t think that anyone trusts China enough to anoint its yuan as the new global reserve currency.

But gold is an asset that has a 5,000+ year history of trust and confidence.

And if gold does become the global reserve once again, you can likely bet that gold prices will go to the moon.

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On Sunday March 10, 1793, in the village of Pin-en-Mauges in western France, a prominent local textile vendor named Jacques Cathelineau was peacefully enjoying his Sunday afternoon, when five men suddenly appeared to deliver urgent news.

Cathelineau could probably read their faces and knew what happened before anyone said a word.

By the spring of 1793, the French Revolution had been in full swing for nearly four years, and the entire nation was in chaos.

King Louis XVI and his family were executed two months prior, and the country was now being run by a faction of left-wing radicals under Maximilien Robespierre.

Robespierre spent money like a drunken sailor, and his extreme spending binge resulted in massive government budget deficits. So, he and his allies concocted an absurd paper money scheme… which predictably resulted in skyrocketing prices. Full-blown hyperinflation would strangle France soon after.

Robespierre’s pitiful leadership also managed to spark a war against Prussia, Britain, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire.

And with so much pressure from rising prices, war, and political instability, the French economy crashed.  Industrial and agricultural output plummeted. And there were shortages of key resources, including food.

In short, France was a complete disaster.

Yet despite such horrendous conditions, there was an even worse problem lurking: French society was deeply divided– between those who ardently supported the revolution, and others those supported the church and return to monarchy.

This ideological polarization was so extreme that violence became a foregone conclusion.

And that’s what the men had come to tell Jacques Cathelineau on March 10, 1793: the social uprising had begun.

Hours before, violence had broken out between revolutionary forces and a local group of royalist teenagers… and it was time for people to pick sides once and for all.

Jacques Cathelineau knew exactly where he stood: he was loyal to Church and King, just like most people in the region. So, he comforted his terrified wife, promised that God would protect them, and departed to assemble the villagers.

Cathelineau started with just 26 men from his tiny hamlet. But by the time he reached Jallais Castle some 7 kilometers away, his ranks had swollen to over 3,000.

This event marked the start of what’s known as the Vendée War– a civil war within the French Revolution. It was an ideological conflict pitting pro-monarchy, pro-Catholic peasants against the forces of Robespierre… as well as against ordinary French citizens who supported the revolution.

The violence was brutal. The following day, for example, on March 11^th, 1793, hundreds of pro-revolution Frenchmen were massacred in the town of Machecoul. And the pro-revolution faction carried out its share of massacres as well.

It was French-on-French violence, and no one was spared. Men, women, and children participated in the killings, and they were victims as well.

This is an obviously extreme, nightmare scenario. But it’s a cautionary tale worth examining given the number of warning signs we can see in our own time.

France in the 1790s was a major superpower in decline. In fact, it had fallen so much from its peak that it was hardly recognizable.

The people in charge were incompetent fanatics who believed that they (and they alone) were enlightened enough and had the properly aligned moral compass to tell everyone else how to live their lives.

In fairness, some of their ideas were good. Others were highly destructive.

But the Vendée War did not arise because of policy ideas. People erupted because they were tired of an all-knowing group of elitists force-feeding their belief system onto everyone else.

Those same leaders in government fanned the flames of societal polarization. They persecuted their political opponents. They censored ideological and intellectual dissent. And they claimed that any opposition to their ideas constituted a threat to the Republic.

These conditions are similar to our own time. Fanatical elitists lead a major superpower, and the West in general. Both are in decline. They attack ideological dissent and insist that democracy is under attack. Opponents are labeled “Right Wing Extremists”.

The polarization is so strong that publications from the New York Times to Politico seem to think that a “New Civil War” is already upon us.

Now, ‘war’ is a very strong word… typically used by people who have never experienced it in person. Twitter feuds do not constitute war. Even violent protests do not constitute war.

But it’s clear there is an extreme divide upon Western Civilization that may very well be the greatest threat that we face.

External war, whether against China, Russia, Iran, or all three, would be horrendous. But winnable. And at the moment, despite all the woke histrionics from the US Defense Department, there is not a nation in the world that wants to test the resolve of the United States Marine Corps.

Deeply rooted internal conflicts, on the other hand, are hardly ever winnable.

At the moment it’s too dramatic to suggest that there’s a New Civil War upon us, or even coming. But we are already at the point of “Civil Divide”, capital C capital D.

And we can see it all over the West, from all sides of the political spectrum, in all shapes and sizes. The BLM Summer of Love in 2020. January 6. The absurd “Queers for Palestine” marches.

Then there’s Ireland… which on Friday was shocked by the brutal stabbing of several children.

All it took to send people into an absolute frenzy was the rumor that the attacker was a Muslim foreigner, and rioters took to the streets.

The fires, the looting, etc. were clearly stupid. And illegal. But that doesn’t invalidate the anger that people feel, even if their reaction was immoral and based on unsubstantiated rumor.

Migration in Europe is an obvious crisis, and people are justifiably angry.

Europe’s delusional elitist leaders threw open the doors, allowed people in by the shipload, showered them with outrageous taxpayer-funded benefits, then force-fed “multi-culturalism” down everyone’s throat whether they wanted it or not.

Two decades of this ridiculous policy has resulted in marches of tens of thousands of Muslims in the streets shrieking “Allahu Akhbar” and “White Trash” while they waive Hamas, Taliban, and al-Qaida flags.

People are fed up with it. They’re fed up with rising crime, violence, and rape. They’re fed up with being told to respect others’ culture while no one respects them or their own culture.

Arson and looting are obviously wrong on so many levels, and the rioters in Dublin should be prosecuted just like any other criminal.

But the government response has been very telling.

Rather than talk about the underlying problems in their society, the Irish parliament has immediately taken action to update hate crime and hate speech legislation; Senator Pauline O’Reilly said today that if Irish people’s anger over migration policy causes foreigners “such discomfort that they cannot live in peace,” then it is “our job, as legislators, to restrict freedom for the common good.”

No one seems to care about the discomfort of Irish people fed up with the government’s multiculturalism fantasy.

The Irish rioters’ looting, violence, and arson was totally wrong on so many levels. But the anger over failed policy and bad ideas is understandable: multiculturalism has been a disaster. In fact, nearly everything these delusional elitists have come up with has been a disaster.

It’s not just in Europe, either. Lockdowns, mask mandates, decriminalized shoplifting, cashless bail, non-prosecution of crime, the southern border crisis, etc. came from the same types of delusional elitists in the US.

New York City probably embodies this delusional elitism the best. It’s a ‘sanctuary city’ which ignores federal immigration law. And soon-to-be Mayor Eric Adams said proudly (on June 3, 2021) that “people from every nation seek refuge” in New York.

The city practically rolled out the red carpet for illegal migrants… and now it’s a full-blown crisis. Mayor Adams now whines to the federal government to bail out his poor judgment and has asked New Yorkers to open their homes to migrants.

Naturally, there are very few people who do so. It’s easy to support a policy idea when you don’t have to bear the cost.

(When I was in New York City two months ago, city officials had just evicted a 95-year-old Korean War veteran from public housing… to make room for migrants.)

Naturally, immigration only scratches the surface of the tip of the iceberg. Cities across the country are seeing the destructive results of their idiotic policies about homelessness, business regulation, woke prosecution, etc.

Yet despite the mountain of evidence that their ideas don’t work, the delusional elitists still want to plow ahead with their ideas… and label the opposition as right-wing extremism.

Even more astonishing is the millions of passionate ignoramuses who believe them… who still buy into this progressive nonsense.

But Friday’s violence in Ireland is another clear example that there are plenty of people who have had enough.

The Civil Divide is very real. And the temperature is rising.

This is not a problem that can be easily solved, if at all. And without a solution, it will be virtually impossible to fix all the other problems– economic, geopolitical, etc.

It took France nearly three decades to finally settle down, during which period they went through the Reign of Terror, Napoleon’s dictatorship, and more.

One can hope that cooler heads will prevail. But in the meantime, it makes sense for rational heads to strongly consider a Plan B.

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In a world full of unimaginable absurdity, we spend a lot of time thinking about the future… and to where all of this insanity leads.

“Future Headline Friday” is our satirical take of where the world is going if it remains on its current path. While our satire may be humorous and exaggerated, rest assured that everything we write is based on actual events, news stories, personalities, and pending legislation.

November 24, 2027: “Media Literacy” Classes for school-Kids a Huge Success

It’s been four years since California and New York mandated “Media Literacy” classes to tach public schoolchildren how to recognize online misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.

And according to public education officials, the classes have been a resounding success.

They point to recent testing which shows students being able to accurately identify 95% of digital misinformation.

For example, students correctly understood that online content showing American or Israeli flags almost always contains misinformation and disinformation intended to advance violence and oppression.

Meanwhile, news websites which sympathetically display Palestinian flags are trustworthy sources whose claims can be completely believed without question.

Students have also learned to judge the veracity of online content by analyzing the intersectionality of its author.

The more victim groups an author belongs to, the higher the chances of the article being true. And students have learned to conduct extensive research on the matter.

Authors who list their pronouns on their social media profiles are almost always to be believed, especially when those pronouns differ from the author’s biological sex.

But students have also been trained on the nuances of intersectionality analysis.

Jews, for example, do not count as a victim group. In fact students learned that Jewish authors are far more likely to produce mis- and dis-information than atheists.

Furthermore, in accordance with the principles of #BelieveAllWomen, news articles written by persons identifying as female are far more likely to be true than other articles written by cis-males.

Yet students also learned that this principle should not be applied when the news in question pertains to sexual assault allegations against President Biden.

Students also learned to completely discard content from conservative news sources, and they were also trained on the most efficient ways to quickly report those posts to the proper authorities.

As part of their graduation requirements, students are also required to complete a capstone project to demonstrate their ability to apply media literacy skills in the real world.

For example, the graduation capstone exercise for students at Justice High School in New York City was to find a scholarly article from the past that used to be considered ‘science’, but is now obvious misinformation.

Students unearthed an old Scientific American article from 2007 which discussed how paleontologists identify the gender of various human skeletons.

The article contains a number of offensive statements, such as “Living animals have primary sexual characteristics, such as genitalia, that differ between males and females.”

Students instantly recognized that acknowledging any biological difference between males and females is extremely oppressive, and hence blatant misinformation.

Grief counselors were immediately brought in to provide emotional and mental health support to students who were exposed to the article’s offensive statements.

But the students were eventually able to continue the project. And they soon found that the article’s lead author was a white cismale. This was the final evidence required to make a ruling: misinformation, disinformation, AND malinformation.

The school’s head of Media Literacy, Miss Leed, explained, “The students were shocked that such dangerous content could have been out there for so long, especially from a purportedly ‘scientific’ publication. But we raised the issue to the editors— by posting their home addresses during a rant on TikTok— and they agreed to revise editions of the magazine going back decades. This is a huge win for our students.”

But she said students were confused about why the people responsible for spreading such misinformation hadn’t been arrested and prosecuted.

“We try to explain to the students that the First Amendment was specifically designed to help protect misinformation. But it’s up to sheroes like us to take justice into our own hands.”

Education experts say that this new media literacy skill more than compensates for the students’ steep decline in reading and mathematics proficiency.

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When journalist Don Hoefler first coined the term “Silicon Valley” in the early 1970s, the San Francisco Bay and Santa Clara valley region had already been home to thriving tech companies for decades.

Then future titans like Apple and Adobe joined the scene, and the region really started to take off.

Today, Silicon Valley is responsible for about 3% of US GDP. Given that its geographical size is just 0.1% of the country’s land mass, that’s a pretty good use of resources.

Now imagine you are the leader of a country… and that you have the power to snap your finger and do the same thing— boost economic output by 3% by giving up just 0.1% of your land mass.

That’s a pretty good tradeoff. And it seems like it would at least be worth considering the costs and benefits of such a deal.

That’s exactly the opportunity that the Republic of Panama has in front of it.

Most people might be surprised to learn that Panama has vast mineral deposits— especially copper. And there has been some limited mining operations in the past.

One site in particular, known as Cobre Panama, is a major copper mine that has been producing commercially for the past few years. The mine’s operator is a Canadian company named First Quantum Minerals, and just last quarter they produced 112,734 metric tons at the site.

That’s quite a lot for a copper mine. Production is so strong, in fact, that Cobre Panama is estimated to be worth roughly 3% of the entire national economy.

And at approximately 30,000 acres, the project is approximately 0.1% of Panama’s land mass.

Those are basically Silicon Valley proportions: a 3% boost to GDP on just 0.1% of the country’s land.

Now, even though the mine has been operating commercially for a few years, the government just recently awarded the mining concession to First Quantum; and the contract was formally signed into law by the Panamanian government last month.

But people were furious, and protests started almost immediately.

Panama is undoubtedly a country where political corruption runs deep, and there have been issues with graft and bribery in the past, including with other large-scale mining projects.

So it’s understandable that Panamanians are skeptical of their government.

There are also a number of Panamanians who are against the mining contract for environmental reasons.

But the protests have essentially brought the country to a near standstill for most of the past month.

Protestors have borrowed a favored tactic of European climate protestors, i.e. they have blocked roads, intersections, bridges, and even the country’s main Pan-American highway.

(European climate protestors have even super-glued themselves to the pavement; fortunately Panamanians haven’t done that yet.)

The net result for Panama is that the economy has practically ground to a halt. It’s almost as bad as the COVID lockdowns.

People can’t get to work. Schools have been closed. And since transportation is virtually impossible, even basic goods like gasoline have started running low.

It’s become so ridiculous that some regions of the country have had to truck in critical supplies from Costa Rica.

Most people in the country are firmly against the closure of their economy. But, as with most cases, it only takes a few passionate ignoramuses to create a big problem.

Many of the protesters are young… and incredibly ardent in their support for the environment; and I try not to judge people for their views, even if I disagree.

But I have a difficult time respecting ignorance, and hypocrisy.

Very few protestors have bothered reading the contract— including key protest leaders (suggesting to me that the protest leaders are in this for status, power, and money, and don’t really care about the environment.)

They have never studied copper mining or bothered to read the environmental impact studies. They just have a knee-jerk reaction to be opposed to something, based on almost zero understanding of the issue.

These same protestors are all about green energy, like wind and solar.

But what does every wind turbine and solar panel require? COPPER!!

So they are simultaneously in favor of green energy, yet militantly opposed to mining one of the most essential elements to produce green energy.

They also fail to realize that the copper is going to be mined anyhow. If not in Panama, then somewhere else in the world.

So you’d think that someone who is truly opposed to copper production would strip themselves of every bit of copper demand from their own lives. That means no electricity, no mobile phone, no Internet, no automobiles.

Without copper, you’d essentially have to go back to living in caves.

But the protestors aren’t willing to do that. They’re far too ignorant of what they’re protesting about. They’re even ignorant of their own hypocrisy.

Yet they’re far too passionate to even realize that they’re completely ignorant.

This is what passes for ‘activism’ today. And it’s all over the world.

Two years ago, after the democratically-elected state government of Georgia passed a new voting law, a number of very prominent institutions and individuals jumped all over it.

Joe Biden called Georgia’s new voting law “Jim Crow 2.0”. The CEOs of major corporations including Delta Airlines, Coca Cola, and Major League Baseball all insisted that having to present an ID to vote was racist.

(Nevermind that you need to present an ID to pick up tickets for a baseball game or fly on Delta Airlines.)

These were all very prominent people who were totally ignorant, yet wildly passionate.

We saw the same thing during COVID times, during the BLM “summer of love” in 2021. And we’re seeing it again today—

Much of the developed world has been taken over by passionate ignoramuses shouting “ALLAHU AKHBAR” in the streets who are too impassioned to think straight about the issue.

I mean, the fact that a group called “Queers for Palestine” even exists sort of sums up the concept of Passionate Ignorance.

Passionate ignoramuses don’t want to engage in rational discussion. They don’t want to be presented with ideas or thinkers that might challenge their ideological echo chamber. They don’t even want to read.

They do, however, want to scream and shout and virtue signal on social media, without ever once questioning their intellectual premises or actions.

They’re also cheered on by brainless media and celebrities, who themselves are passionately ignorant.

The actor Leonardo DiCaprio posted an Instagram message of support to the protestors in Panama earlier this week and encouraged them to keep fighting for the environment.

I wonder if Leo has ever been to Panama or a copper mine. Or whether he realizes that this single mine produces 3% of GDP. Or that the contract is worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year to Panama (big money for a small country).

I wonder if Leo realizes that without copper mines, there would be no more movies, no more Instagram, no more private jet.

I wonder if he ever thought about encouraging them to read the contract, or to educate themselves, or to act rationally.

Apparently not. Leo thinks raging for the environment is a good idea. So the passionate ignorance continues.

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In a world full of unimaginable absurdity, we spend a lot of time thinking about the future… and to where all of this insanity leads.

“Future Headline Friday” is our satirical take of where the world is going if it remains on its current path. While our satire may be humorous and exaggerated, rest assured that everything we write is based on actual events, news stories, personalities, and pending legislation.

November 17, 2024: Harvard launches “Jihad Immersion” study abroad program

Harvard University, long known for its progressive academic offerings, has stirred controversy with its latest array of courses. In response to growing student interest in Palestinian causes, the university has introduced a series of provocative new classes.

One of the most contentious courses, “Intro to Explosive Expression: Bomb Making 101,” purports to explore the “art and science” behind explosive devices, framed as a study in “political and revolutionary engineering.”

Critics have lambasted the course as being in poor taste and potentially dangerous, while supporters argue it provides critical insight into the struggles faced by oppressed groups.

In a similar vein, a course titled “Decapitation as Discourse,” examines the history and technique of beheading as a form of political statement.

Special guest lecturer Mohammed Deif, the Supreme Military Commander of Hamas, will guide students through the study and practice of the most effective means of separating a head from a body— using cadavers, of course.

Students in this course will also learn how to use proper lighting and filming techniques to livestream a beheading on YouTube. However Harvard administrators were quick to point out that they do not condone violence, and the course is merely about political and emotional expression.

There’s also a new course entitled “A Survey of Jewish Anatomy”, which resurrects the old pseudo-science of phrenology. Students will study updated methods of taking cranial measurements to determine skull size, forehead slope, and distance between eye sockets, so that they can correctly determine whether they are in the presence of Jews.

A number of Palestine-focused study abroad programs have also been added, including the “Jihad Immersion” option; according to university officials, this program was so popular with Harvard students that it filled up within 3 minutes of being released.

Intifada Immersion also satisfy’s multiple physical education credits, as students will spend a semester at a Hamas training camp. According to the program’s brochure, they will learn vital skills, such as how to swing across monkey bars wearing a balaclava with an AK-47 slung across their backs.

University officials state the purpose of the program is to encourage physical activity while enhancing empathy and understanding of guerrilla movements.

In addition, Harvard will also fund the “Pride March in Gaza” field trip for the Queers for Palestine student organization. The group aims to highlight the intersectionality of LGBTQ+ rights and the Palestinian cause.

All trip participants, however, are required to sign a waiver that holds the university harmless in the event of a brutal lynching.

Another controversial addition is Harvard Law School’s new concentration on Sharia Law. This course includes a unique project where students compete to shout down visiting conservative legal scholars by screaming “Allahu Akbar” the loudest and most times in a row.

Harvard also hired a new professor, former Rep. Rashida Tlaib, to teach a capstone course entitled “Women’s Rights in Palestine.”

Palestine currently requires women to seek court approved permission from a husband or other male head of household in order to go about in public without a male chaperone.

The course— which will now be a graduation requirement for all students— seeks to frame what may appear to be oppression of women as a liberating force which actually promotes feminist power.

For example, the course asserts that full body and face coverings in the Islamic world actually help free women from toxic masculinity and patriarchal standards of beauty.

Despite the backlash, Harvard maintains that these courses are meant to push the boundaries of traditional academia and encourage critical thinking on complex global issues.

Harvard officials have also stated that these offerings reflect the university’s commitment to academic freedom and the exploration of diverse perspectives.

That said, Pro-Israel students who protested the new courses have been expelled.

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We’re going to talk about strip clubs and binge drinking today. Yet surprisingly this article is not about Hunter Biden.

I’m actually talking about the FDIC… as in the organization that’s supposed to insure customer deposits in the US banking system.

The FDIC isn’t typically an institution that’s associated with sex, drugs, and booze; in fact an agency that sends people from bank to bank across the country to comb through financial records and look for infractions of obscure regulations… should qualify as THE most boring in the world.

But the reality is the complete opposite.

According to a bombshell report published earlier this week by the Wall Street Journal, the FDIC has a hard-partying, sexed-up Caligula boozer dick pic culture that’s a cross between National Lampoon’s Animal House and the TV show Mad Men.

According to the Journal’s report, some FDIC meetings would take place at strip clubs. Senior bank examiners routinely sent around dick pics to the women on their teams. Auditors were encouraged and pressured to drink whiskey shots during work hours while in the field.

Female employees were openly rated on their looks and expected to have sex with their male supervisors in exchange for promotions and higher ratings.

And vomiting off the roof of the FDIC’s Washington DC area hotel was so common it became a rite of passage. (I was as surprised as anyone to learn that the FDIC owns and operates its own hotel…)

Taxpayers rightly have a certain expectation of their public officials– especially when said public officials have the solemn charge of ensuring the safety of the banking system.

And I think it’s safe to say that a hypersex boozer dick-pic culture at the FDIC falls far, far short of that expectation.

Now, as ridiculous as the FDIC’s party culture may be, it’s made even worse by the fact that the organization has repeatedly failed at its core mission.

Earlier this year, several large banks in the United States (led by Silicon Valley Bank) went bust; these were all banks that were regulated and supervised by the FDIC.

FDIC examiners had conducted multiple audits and examinations of Silicon Valley Bank… yet they never sounded the alarm or raised a red flag.

Perhaps that’s because senior management was too busy f*cking the analysts and getting hammered on the job.

It reminds me of the revelation about the SEC back in 2010.

The SEC is the government agency that regulates financial markets; yet they totally missed the warning signs of the Global Financial Crisis, as well as the Bernie Madoff fraud.

Well according to an internal investigation by the SEC’s Inspector General, it turns out that many of the agency’s senior employees were too busy looking at porn to do their jobs.

According to that Inspector General report, one senior SEC regulator accessed porn sites 1800 times during a two-week period from her government laptop. Another top attorney at the SEC spent up to EIGHT hours per day watching porn at work.

Yet even the SEC’s brazen debauchery has now been surpassed by the clowns at the FDIC. And the problem clearly starts at the top.

The FDIC’s chairman was hauled in front of Congress earlier this week where he faced questions about his agency’s extreme misconduct, as well as his own.

The chairman blatantly lied while under oath to the Senate panel by claiming that he had personally never been investigated for misconduct.

Yet upon later realizing that he would be caught in his lie, the FDIC Chairman then reversed his testimony and admitted that, yes, he had in fact been investigated for personal misconduct.

It’s all so utterly pathetic. And yet, this is the organization that’s expected to maintain a sound banking system in the US… which is a pretty big challenge right now. Here’s why:

1) Banks already have accumulated $650 billion of losses

Commercial banks across the United States bought trillions of dollars worth of bonds with their customers’ money over the past few years, back when interest rates were at record lows.

But now that interest rates have risen from nearly 0% to 5%, those same bonds (that that the banks acquired with YOUR money) have lost a ton of value.

In total, banks in the US have racked up a whopping $650 billion of unrealized bond losses; this is an enormous figure, and it poses a major threat to several institutions which may already be insolvent.

2) More losses are coming from commercial real estate

Commercial real estate is suffering– especially office properties.

We can all see it: companies are cutting costs and reducing their real estate footprints, with a number of businesses permanently embracing remote work.

Demand for office properties has softened considerably. Prices are dropping. Defaults are rising. And many banks will end up taking significant losses from their roughly $1 trillion in exposure to US office real estate.

This problem is just starting to unfold, so there’s a lot more coming in the future.

3) The $221 TRILLION risk from derivatives is very difficult to calculate

Back in the 2008 financial crisis, one of the major problems that almost brought down the entire system was major derivatives losses. And ever since then, the term ‘derivatives’ has been a bit of a dirty word.

Derivatives are not necessarily bad; essentially they’re like insurance policies to protect investors against sudden and major price swings, sort of like how options can mitigate losses in the stock market.

The lurking problem with derivatives is that it’s easy for some institutions to take on WAY too much risk. And if a single Black Swan event arises, it only takes a handful of irresponsible boneheads to wreck havoc in the financial system.

The Treasury Department’s most recent report states that there’s $221 trillion in total derivatives contracts in the US financial system. This is obviously a lot of money… though in fairness it was twice that amount in 2008.

The real issue is that it’s extremely difficult to assess the real risk, or to stress test scenarios in which a Black Swan event may trigger another derivatives chain reaction meltdown of the financial system.

In theory the FDIC should be looking at all of these risks. They should be looking at derivatives. They should be looking at commercial real estate defaults. They should be looking at banks’ massive bond losses.

Yet at the moment they’re apparently too busy sending dick pics and getting so boozed up that they literally puke off the roof of their own hotel.

The good news for the US banking system is that there’s still a fair amount of equity– totaling just over $2 trillion.

But that’s across the entire banking system. Many individual banks– including a few large ones– have taken on way too much risk and have suffered far too many losses.

So I wouldn’t be surprised to see more bank failures down the road, especially if interest rates remain high and the economy contracts. And once again the FDIC will be caught with its pants down… apparently in more ways than one.

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On a routine day in the winter of 1993, workers at the Chehrabad salt mine in the Zanjan Province of Iran discovered a remarkably preserved corpse dating back to 300 AD.

He apparently died in a salt mining accident in the early 300s. But the salt had apparently kept the man’s body largely intact. Even his leather boots were still in great condition.

Perhaps most interesting was that the man was wearing a golden earring, and he had a number of silver coins in his pockets… suggesting that he may have been the mine’s paymaster, or perhaps even its owner.

Salt mining was an incredibly lucrative business back in the ancient world, and the owner would have probably been making a small fortune.

That’s no longer the case today, of course; salt is a cheap commodity that has little value in our modern society. But, intriguingly, the gold and silver found on the ancient man’s body are still worth as much today— if not more— than they were back in the 300s.

Lately I’ve been writing about very rational (and likely) scenarios where the price of gold and silver could skyrocket over the coming years.

I don’t say this because I’m a “gold bug”. I’m not fanatical about a chunk of metal. I’m not fanatical about anything except for my children; my conclusions about gold and silver have been objectively reached after careful research.

And I also acknowledge that I don’t have a crystal ball. In fact I am the first to admit that there is still a very narrow path for the United States, and the West in general, to escape from the financial black holes that they have created.

I’m not being sensational, either. The Congressional Budget Office itself projects that interest expense on the national debt, plus mandatory entitlement spending (like Social Security) will exceed all federal tax revenue by 2031.

Then, two years later, Social Security’s primary trust fund will run out of money in 2033… resulting in major cuts to monthly benefits.

The Federal Reserve will be left with very few options.

Either (1), they allow the government to fail. They allow Social Security to fail. They allow confidence in America to collapse. And they lose complete and total control of the market.

Or (2) they step in— most likely well before 2031— and bail out the federal government.

This means slashing interest rates back to record lows (or possibly even negative levels), and printing money as if their lives depend on it. In other words, they’ll resort to the same playbook that they used in 2009, and in 2020.

I’m betting on #2. Few bureaucrats have the stones to stand idly by while the federal government fails.

But the consequences of #2, i.e. low rates and more money printing— will predictably be more inflation… And most likely a formal, international rejection of the US dollar as the world’s dominant reserve currency.

The last point is critical to understand… because it’s very likely that a new global financial system would involve GOLD as the dominant reserve asset.

And that trend alone could send gold prices soaring more than 5x, to $10,000 or more. (And silver prices would likely rise as well.)

But I wanted to point out today that, should this likely scenario arise, the value of certain gold and silver companies would skyrocket far beyond 5x.

An international gold standard would mean that gold miners would become some of the most important companies in the world… and many large institutions would be rushing to invest in them, pushing their share prices higher.

A sudden surge in gold prices would also mean that mining company profits would go through the roof.

This combination could mean that share prices of gold mining companies rise at an even higher rate than gold itself.

Obviously there is greater risk to owning shares of a mining company, versus owning physical gold or silver.

Mining is a complicated business that often involves environmental protests, worker strikes, and serious operational challenges. Owning physical gold doesn’t carry any of those risks. So there definitely is a risk versus reward calculation to think about.

But one way to protect yourself against the downside is ensure you buy shares of mining companies at an excellent entry point.

Right now there are several large mining companies that are trading for incredibly lofty and unattractive valuations. One of the biggest gold miners, for example, is currently selling for over 400x earnings, and 40x Free Cash Flow. No thanks.

But if you look at smaller and medium sized miners, there is still a lot of value in the market .

For example, one company we wrote about for our premium investment research service The 4th Pillar, is a low cost, top quality producer with highly profitable operations. Yet it’s currently trading at less than TWO times operating cash flow.

(Two times cash flow means that the business is essentially making me a 50% operating yield, which is super attractive.)

A low entry price like this is critical; if gold miners do end up becoming critical (and popular) businesses to own in a few years’ time, then the company could see its share price increase by 10x or more.

But even if I’m wrong, I still own shares of a profitable business at an operating cash flow yield of 50%. That’s not such a bad scenario.

Remember, ANY investment is risky— and mining company carry unique risks. (This is also a reason to also consider mining royalty businesses, but we’ll save that for another time.)

But given that shares of many high quality mining businesses are deeply undervalued at the moment, it’s an idea worth considering.

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