Silver at $100. Gold at $5,000. And the mining stocks are still asleep.
We hit one of those “you’ll remember where you were” moments: silver ripping through $100 and gold knocking on $5,000. Doug’s reaction was basically: pleasantly surprised… and not selling.
That’s the first point worth sitting with.
When gold and silver move this fast, everyone’s brain short-circuits into “take profits” mode. Doug’s view is that the move is big… but the underlying disease (currency rot + credit-market weirdness) is bigger. In his words, the key comparison isn’t houses or cars—it’s the credit markets, because gold and silver are trading as monetary instruments.
The miners: the leverage nobody owns (and that’s the whole point)
Here’s where it gets interesting: Doug says the real “laggards” are the mining stocks—unbelievably lagging—while the public and institutions remain basically uninvolved.
He even mentions a late-stage producer/developer idea (from a broker who lives in the weeds) trading around 4x free cash flow, and points out what that implies if the cash starts piling up: dividends, buybacks, and public attention that eventually can’t ignore the numbers.
And then Doug drops the kind of line that makes experienced resource investors nod and everyone else roll their eyes:
In past cycles, the “crappy little stocks” went 10-to-1 as a group… and some went 50-to-1 or 100-to-1.
Is that guaranteed? No. Is it the kind of asymmetry you only see in hated, neglected sectors? Yes.
The best part of Experts Roundtable (and why you should actually watch to the end)
Quick plug, because it’s true: the best part of Experts Roundtable is after the company is done presenting—when the experts talk it through and argue it out.
Doug calls out a recent microcap case that’s either a fraud or a “long-ball home run” staring everyone in the face (his framing, not mine).
That’s the point of the format: it’s not a cheerleading session—it’s an x-ray.
WEF, power, and the “we ain’t members” reminder
Then we pivot into politics—because you can’t separate markets from power when the state is the main actor.
Doug’s read on the standing ovation Trump got at WEF is blunt: these people will flatter whoever looks like the uptrend, because they’re part of the same money-and-power ecosystem.
That rolls straight into the “Board of Peace” idea, with Doug calling the UN a corrupt social club and framing Trump as someone who wants to be “emperor”—and who can’t resist the temptation to build alternate power centers with his name on them.
Whether you agree or not, the meta-point matters: institutions are weak, personalities are strong, and the map is being redrawn in real time.
The cartel extraditions and the “second prohibition” argument
We also hit the extradition story—37 cartel members—where Doug uses it as a doorway into his bigger thesis: you don’t “win” a drug war; you create a black market. He calls it a second prohibition and argues the cartels disappear when the profit disappears.
You can agree or disagree, but the framing is the same one we’ve been hammering for years:
political solutions that ignore incentives tend to manufacture the thing they claim to fight.
Greenland, Panama, Alberta: when borders start feeling negotiable again
We went on a quick world tour.
Greenland: Doug’s view is there’s little “value” other than minerals, and that it’s the kind of territory empires get tempted to swallow—especially when people are few and distant.
Panama Canal: Doug says the odds of the US retaking the canal zone are “about a hundred percent.”
Alberta: Doug hopes Alberta pushes toward independence and sees Canada as an artificial construct that could break up.
Again: not “predictions” to bet your life on—just a snapshot of the current imperial mood.
Listener Q&A highlights
A few that stood out:
David Rogers Webb / “The Great Taking” / staying in Sweden
We talked about why someone would stay in Europe despite the risks—and the key line was essentially: at some point you pick the place you’re willing to die, build your base, and stop running.
Monero
Doug tells a painful “one that got away” story—being asked years ago to fund a Monero buy around a dime.
Alternative hard assets (farmland, royalties, etc.)
I mentioned my involvement with Royalty Exchange and why royalties can be a surprisingly durable “real asset” class.
Doug then basically admits he’s a terrible farmer because he doesn’t pay attention—but notes grains are cheap (near cost of production) and cattle are profitable, with herds at multi-decade lows.
Mar-a-Lago Accord / dollar devaluation / QE
We closed on the idea that QE and dollar-weakening dynamics are not random—they’re ingredients, and “almost all governments are bankrupt,” meaning they finance through printing.
If you want the actionable takeaway from this episode, it’s this:
Metals are moving like money again.
The miners are still under-owned. Upgrade to a Paid subscription to learn how we’re investing.
Politics is not a sideshow—it’s the main plot.
And yeah—Doug’s going to hit the pool on the farm in Uruguay, because that’s what sane people do after describing the world as “the most dangerous” period in living memory.
