Rare earth elements (REEs) have been the mystery metals of the mining world for years. Now, suddenly, everyone’s heard about them. Before we delve into the reasons behind all the publicity, here’s the basic skinny on REEs: One, they are rare, at least sort of. Two, they are indispensable to modern ...read more

If we’re right about where the price of gold is headed, the general public will someday clamor to buy all things gold. While gold stocks will be where the real leverage is, the rush will start with gold itself. As a gold editor, I have a very natural question: is ...read more

Looks like Boy Blunder Two is going to do it again, breaking campaign promises, endangering the economy by pandering to outraged union members, annoying the USA's biggest creditor, and imposing yet another enormous tax on the American people who drive cars. This time the Messiah proposes to increase the tariff ...read more

Inside sources have recently confirmed the Chinese government is actively promoting gold and silver investment to the masses. Some analysts now contend that China can no longer afford to let the gold or silver price slump. The rationale behind that contention is that with the Chinese government now telling the general ...read more

That’s a question that Westerners have been asking for, oh, several millennia now. Or at least since Marco Polo aimed his ponies down the old Silk Road in 1271. Now as then, China keeps its own counsel. We know what they want us to know, plus what we can surmise from ...read more

U.S. banks are going bad as quickly as a bunch of over-ripe peaches in the summer heat. On the heels of the Colonial Bank failure comes another sizable bank failure. Guaranty Bank in Texas became the 81st U.S. bank to fail this year. It was the 11th largest bank failure in ...read more

Always follow the oil market closely, because it will impact the fundamentals of many businesses -- including those we are selling short. Drivers in the U.S. no longer determine the global price of oil. So oil prices can remain high despite a weak labor market -- as we saw in the ...read more

I am very confident in the fall of the euro, despite the obvious and fatal problems with the dollar. Remember that currencies, because they are fiat by nature, are political things. While it is the fundamentals that drive them, one of the overarching problems in our market is the absence ...read more

Brazil is making a national commitment to develop energy resources located far offshore in the South Atlantic. Indeed, no nation has ever advanced such an ambitious plan for long-term comprehensive offshore development. And it's being bankrolled by China. Much of Brazil's South Atlantic development will require drilling wells in waters up ...read more

Recently, China announced that it favours the reinstallation of the Special Drawing Rights as conceived originally by the Bretton Woods System.  In its capacity as the present day largest holder of US bonds, it is in their interest to ensure the security of their investments. But on closer look, there ...read more