Capital & Conflict – brought to you by Fortune & Freedom Following a sharp correction earlier this summer, bitcoin has since recovered and is pushing towards its previous highs. The crypto faithful are not merely relieved, but are again promoting…

If you believe the market’s prediction is wrong and you know better, well, you can make money on the difference. But only on the difference.

I hope this letter finds you in good health, and having a great Sunday. I don’t normally write to you on weekends, but felt I had to make an exception today. For today is a very special occasion – a 50-year anniversary, no less. And if you enjoy my scribblings to you at all, I reckon you won’t want to let it go unobserved.

PICCADILLY, MANCHESTER – Gold holds the crown as the metal which feeds on social unrest and distrust in authority. But I suspect it shall be its elder sister platinum which will soar if the chaos unfolding in South Africa persists…

THE GEORGE ORWELL, DUNDEE – In our first episode of Southbank Live, gold expert John Butler explained how the new banking rules known as Basel III could lead to deep structural changes in the gold market. You can watch it…

HOLBURN, ABERDEEN – Felix Rohatyn was quite a character. He possessed what he called a “refugee’s sense of value”, which he picked up while on the run from the Nazis. When France was invaded in 1940, his family fled from…

BROOMHILL, ABERDEEN – Back at the helm of Capital & Conflict once more – with something special to share as well. I hope you’ve been enjoying the market musings of Andrew Hutchings and Will Dahl in my absence – I’ve…

HEILIGENSTADT, VIENNA Boaz Shoshan kindly invited me to write for Capital & Conflict for the few days that he is away from his keyboard. Boaz sensibly chooses to work in places that are cultured, scenic and/or historic. I have one…

NEW TOWN, EDINBURGH – Following the completion of our 2021 Gold Summit, we recorded a few bonus episodes for our Gold Stock Fortunes subscribers featuring an additional roster of gold experts. Nickolai Hubble spoiled his Fortune & Freedom readers (click…

“Oil kindles extraordinary emotions and hopes, since oil is above all a great temptation. It is the temptation of ease, wealth, strength, fortune, power. It is a filthy, foul-smelling liquid that squirts obligingly up into the air and falls back…

BROUGHTON, EDINBURGH – I have some bad news, dear reader: the Aussies have us beat. I’m not talking about the cricket. I can accept the weaponised autism of Steve Smith being a challenge (especially when sandpaper is involved). But when…

NEW TOWN, EDINBURGH – What’s the best way of protecting yourself against inflation? Ask a group of investors, and you’ll get as many answers. Real estate, agriculture, woodland, gold, oil… many investors have a favourite “hard asset” up their sleeve…

What follows is the third instalment of Nickolai Hubble’s Inflatuation series. In case you missed them, click here to read part I and part II. The real inflation hasn’t even started By Nickolai Hubble for Fortune & Freedom Welcome to…

What follows is the second instalment of Nickolai Hubble’s Inflatuation series. To read part I, click here. How inflation gets out of control By Nickolai Hubble for Fortune & Freedom Friday’s examination of inflation explained how I saw inflation coming…

NEW TOWN, EDINBURGH – Friday at last. A bank holiday weekend beckons… In the next few instalments of Capital & Conflict, I’d like to share a trilogy of works by my good friend and colleague Nickolai Hubble. Long-time readers know…

NEW TOWN, EDINBURGH – “Is this a big problem for us?” asks a reader. They point to a topic discussed during our recent Gold Summit: In your [Gold] Summit discussion with Eoin [Treacy], you predicted a substantial fall in the…

THE HANGING BAT, EDINBURGH – At long last, I’m back in my favourite pub. Edinburgh is pleasingly lively – not so beaten down by the lockdowns as I’d feared. It’s been a couple years since I’ve been back here, and…

ECCLESHALL, STAFFORDSHIRE – In yesterday’s note, a reader made the case against gold. Or more specifically, against investing in gold miners over the long term. While it may feel like inflation is here to stay, they argued, it will not…

ECCLESHALL, STAFFORDSHIRE – “Boaz, I don’t believe you, you’re not that stupid, it’s bullsh*t.” Would you mind telling me how you really feel, please? I must say, I’ve had a great time reading the responses to Monday’s note (see: Have…

ECCLESHALL, STAFFORDSHIRE – Remember when I said earlier in the year that – contrary to popular belief – it was inflation that was the big risk to the bitcoin rally? (See: The big risk to ₿itcoin – 8 January) Well,…

ECCLESHALL, STAFFORDSHIRE – Back in Staffs – right on time for the pubs to start letting people inside again. I’ll see you at the pub later. In light of our 2021 Gold Summit, I think it’ll have to be a…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – How much inflation can you tolerate? What percentage of your savings are you willing to watch burn every year, “for the good of the economy?” 0%? 1%? 5%? Perhaps I shouldn’t be asking. After all, that…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – Think you’d ever spend some of these? They’re called “Goldbacks”. That’s 24 carat gold, rolled thin as paper, and then insulated with even thinner layers of plastic. That’s the highest denomination Goldback there is: the 50….

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – Right on cue as our 2021 Gold Summit heats up (don’t miss today’s Keynote Address), Charlie Morris over at The Fleet Street Letter Wealth Builder has recently turned even more bullish on the metal. He already…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – The Statue of Liberty was arriving in New York Harbor… Mark Twain was publishing Adventures of Huckleberry Finn… Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado was having its opening premiere at the Savoy in London… The first official…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – How much gold is too much? This is probably the wrong question to be asking in the current climate. If anything, your average investor should be asking themselves, how much gold is too little? I don’t…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – “Get gold,” urged Spanish King Ferdinand II of his ambitious explorers in 1511, “humanely if possible, but at all hazards – get gold.” They took the “getting gold” bit to heart. As for “humanely”, well… that…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – Can you guess what asset I’ve charted here? I’ll give you a clue – it’s a commodity. A hard, shiny one. It’s not gold, which we’ll come to in a minute. It’s one of gold’s siblings….

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – Two years ago, we took a step into the unknown as a business with the launch of our 2019 Gold Summit. We hadn’t tried the format before, and we were unsure if it would be to…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – If you own gold, it’s quite likely that you expect the banknotes in your wallet or purse to lose their value in the years to come. That’s certainly one of the reasons I own it –…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – A dear reader writes in to complain… we’re stuck in a rut he says, and we need out: All of you at Southbank are going on & on about just one thing … Bitcoin, yet not…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – “Perhaps gold is cheap, just as it was in 1970 and 2000. I believe that this is the case.” … and so do I. That was Charlie Morris there in a recent update of The Fleet…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – “We haven’t seen anything like this in the last five to ten years,” an American bullion dealer tells me over the phone. “But we’re still not seeing anywhere near the level of interest there was in…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – In yesterday’s note we took a look at how the hoards of gold held by ETFs (exchange-traded funds) have been steadily draining for the past several months. This is – intriguingly – in stark contrast to…

WINDERMERE, LAKE DISTRICT – You exit your tent on the sound of war trumpets. The encampment is awash with panic. The enemy have been spotted advancing over the horizon – and they’re swarming towards your position. As commander of the…

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – Happy St Patrick’s day! While I’d love to join you with a Guinness (Lord knows I’ve drank enough of them in recent days), I’m afraid I’ll be staying dry tonight. My beer fast for Lent has finally…

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – As the week draws to a close, I thought we should finish it off with a chart. And not just any old chart either – this has recently become my favourite chart of the gold price. I…

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – I feel like I’ve opened a Pandora’s box. When I asked the readership for a suitable collective noun for gold sovereigns, I didn’t expect such a sustained response. Even after Tuesday’s note where I settled on “splendour”,…

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – So what is the collective noun for gold sovereigns? What word should we use to describe a collection of Britain’s benchmark gold coin? I wondered this aloud in Friday’s note where we took a look at the…

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – It’s coming up to a year now since the WuFlu “metal famine”, when it became nearly impossible to obtain gold or silver from bullion dealers. Remarkably, the situation today feels very similar… Last March, the supply chain…

Your regular editor Boaz Shoshan is otherwise incapacitated today. So it falls to your former editor Nickolai Hubble to offer up some words about our favourite subject, cryptocurrencies gold. The gold price is posed to surge in coming years as…

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – The year was 1862. Lewis Carroll was writing Alice in Wonderland in Oxford… America was alight, burning with a Civil War… … and the French were getting close to pasteurising milk. The Oil Age was in its…

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – Ever since last March, I’ve grown increasingly bullish on a certain investment. Now to be clear, I have adored this asset for a long time – you might call me something of a collector. But I believe…

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – Is our interest in shiny bits of metal and magical internet money leaving our flank open to a major currency move? This reader thinks we might be blindsided: … everyone is predicting the Fed to carry on…

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – One of my personal contrarian indicators has begun to flash a warning… but can it be trusted? If you’ve been reading my scribblings for a while, you may well know the story about an old schoolfriend of…