The Great Taking

Addison Wiggin / May 15, 2025

A $36 trillion dollar bombshell has just been dropped. You need to prepare now to protect your wealth and save your future.

The Great Taking
A $26 trillion bombshell has just dropped...
In 2008, the market selloff was driven by a collapsing housing market and an insolvent banking system. In 2025? Who knows, perhaps a revolt against high debt, pushing interest rates higher at a time when they should be moving lower.

The latest sound bites on repeat from the mainstream media surrounding the melee in the desert? President Trump telling the Iranians they have “two weeks” to get back to the bargaining table or Trump will make a decision for them.  Unless you plan on trading the event – or loading up on defense stocks – it’s probably not wise to let your long-term investing decisions be dictated by the same algorithm that powers Truth Social.

The most likely resolution? Faced with souring loans, banks will tighten their (already tight) lending standards. Borrowers stuck with unmanageable debts won’t be able to refinance and will have no choice but to default. Equities, wildly overvalued and over-owned, will do what they usually do in that situation: plunge by 40%.

BREAKING NEWS

The Silver Bull Is Finally Here
The Silver Bull Is Finally Here

Addison Wiggin / June 16, 2025

The silver breakout we’re seeing now was telegraphed months ago. Technical traders could have anticipated patterns signaling a major move, and the fundamentals back it up. Add in the geopolitical chaos—trade wars, sanctions, and debt crises—and it’s no surprise that safe-haven demand for precious metals is spiking. Silver’s volatility makes it a wild ride, but that’s exactly why the upside is so explosive.

The U.S. economy is a house of cards built on debt and delusion. The national debt is now $36 trillion, with interest payments alone eating up $1 trillion annually. The Fed can’t raise rates without crashing the system, and they can’t cut rates without igniting more inflation. It’s a trap, and silver is the escape hatch. Gold is an enduring store of value, but silver’s industrial demand gives it an extra kicker. As green energy and tech sectors grow, silver’s necessity only increases.

A One In Three Chance of Triple-Digit Oil
A One In Three Chance of Triple-Digit Oil

Addison Wiggin / June 16, 2025

Over the past few years, oil prices have spiked on every geopolitical tiff between Israel and Iran.

When the two countries lobbed missiles at each other in early 2024, oil prices spiked, and markets dropped.

But in all of those cases, tensions cooled, and oil prices came back down and markets kept on truckin’.

Euphoria on the Edge
Euphoria on the Edge

Addison Wiggin / June 16, 2025

The Fed meets this week. Powell will speak on Wednesday. We anticipate he’ll hold rates as they are, and Trump will once again mock him on Truth Social. The insinuation that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent should replace Powell… or at least succeed him early next year… will get bandied about on X.

Four Oligopoly Opportunities from America’s Cheap, Unloved Energy Source

Andrew Packer / June 13, 2025

Colorado has pumped oil out of the ground since 1901. And it’s the fifth-largest state in terms of oil production. This long period of production means that the area has been thoroughly surveyed, and that resources are well known.

Politically, however, the state of Colorado is run out of Denver and Boulder. The left-leaning political orientation of those cities tip the state governance towards environmentally sensitive rules and regulations for mining and drilling natural resources.

For instance, what happens if you hit a natural gas pocket as you’re drilling? Don’t think about burning it off – a process known as flaring. While flaring may light up the night sky in otherwise desolate parts of West Texas, there are only a few limited times flaring is allowed in Colorado.

That may sound like a good reason to invest your money in a good, old-fashioned Texas company instead.

Yet that’s one reason why the energy companies that operate out of the DJ Basin are bullish. These regulations create some of the cleanest fossil fuels you’ll find today. But the higher regulations, and uncertainty of future regulations, keep competitors out.

In fact, that leaves the DJ basin with four companies operating today.


Where Markets Go From Here After Israel Strikes Iran

Addison Wiggin / June 13, 2025

As the saying goes: “history doesn’t repeat itself – but it does rhyme.”

While the situation in the Middle East is fresh in the news, investors are feeling a dose of deja vu fear following Israel’s strike on Iran last night.

The U.S. officially stepped aside. And markets haven’t reacted too strongly. But it’s worth asking the question. What can we expect going forward? Prior similar events provide a clue.


🎭 The Costume Ball Rally

Addison Wiggin / June 13, 2025

The S&P 500 is up more than 20% from its post-Liberation Day lows in April. Oracle delivered a blowout quarter thanks to a feeding frenzy for its AI cloud services, helping investors push the S&P higher yesterday. 

Still something’s not right…

There is, of course, the LA riots, now spreading over 1,000 communities nationwide. And after the market close, Israel’s surprise attack of missiles and drones at nuclear facilities, top political leaders and scientists in Iran.

But that’s not it.

Institutional investors were already making for the exits, quietly. The pros sold $4.2 billion of stock into the rally just last week. The retail crowd, eyes wide and arms full of index funds, continues buying at a record pace.

Inching Towards a Zero-Day War
Inching Towards a Zero-Day War

John Robb / June 12, 2025

The disruption generated by Zero-day wars isn’t sufficient in and of itself to achieve a complete victory over an adversary. They are used to:

Incapacitate an enemy to make it vulnerable to a conventional invasion that will achieve a complete victory.

Decisively delay an enemy’s ability to mobilize in response to maneuvers, actions, or invasions taken against other foes (by the time they do, it’s over).

Force an enemy to overreact (see last month’s report: The Tactics of Mistake) in ways that will critically damage them.

Another Sign the ’70s Are Back
Another Sign the ’70s Are Back

Addison Wiggin / June 12, 2025

Notably, central bank gold holdings didn’t bottom around the year 2000 when gold prices did – they bottomed right around that pesky Great Financial Crisis.

And since then, central bankers have been taking the same steady buying approach to gold that retail investors take with their 401(k)s and steadily buying more.

Calm on the Surface, “Panic” in the Depths
Calm on the Surface, “Panic” in the Depths

Addison Wiggin / June 12, 2025

Global market valuations sit above 117% of GDP. Higher than 2000. Higher than 2007. Higher than any sane person should feel comfortable with.

Historically, market dislocations don’t resolve in tidy boxes. They end with sudden repricing — quietly at first, then all at once.

AI Media
AI Media

John Robb / June 11, 2025

 Packetized media, the dynamic, granular media we consume and interact with on social networks, is transforming how we think and, by extension, how we organize society. As unsettling as this transformation has been so far, it’s far from over now that AI is being used to generate media packets. To understand what will happen, let’s break it down and put all of that AI innovation (LLMs to generative images, voices, and video) we’re seeing into context.

From the creators of The Daily Reckoning, I.O.U.S.A, Empire of Debt and The Daily Missive

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