“The risk of a doomsday event is rising.” – The Lonely Realist In January, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the second hand on The Doomsday Clock forward from 1 minute and 30 seconds before midnight to 1 minute and 29 seconds before midnight. Can there...
“China’s advantages in the production and refinement of rare earth elements are significant.” – The Lonely Realist TLR this week received a number of emails disagreeing with TLR's assertion in last week's commentary that China’s virtual monopoly over rare earth elements – that is, its 70% share...
“ETFs and rare earths (and even soyabeans) are economic weapons.” – The Lonely Realist An ETF is a public investment fund that trades on stock exchanges in the same way as a single stock (and with more liquidity than a mutual fund). An exchange traded fund...
“We are witnessing de-dollarization. Are we nearing a finale?” – The Lonely Realist A Dollar is “fiat currency,” a piece of paper. It has no intrinsic value. People believe in it because they have faith in America's economic and foreign policies, its judicial system, its Constitution,...
[TLR IS TRAVELING AND APOLOGIZES FOR ANY REPETITIONS IN THE FOLLOWING:] “‘Due Process’ has made America great. More engineers (and fewer lawyers) could make it even greater.” – The Lonely Realist America’s government is run by lawyers…, at least it seems that way. America’s founding fathers were...
“Russia is winning the Ukraine War. What will Russia’s victory mean?” – The Lonely Realist Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated his intention to achieve total victory over Ukraine. He will not discuss a ceasefire (yet alone a peace treaty) without first receiving international acknowledgement of Russia’s...