Palisades Gold Radio

Stijn Schmitz welcomes Doug Casey to the show. Doug Casey is a Bestselling Author, Speculator, Founder of Casey Research, and Voluntarist Philosopher. The conversation opens with an analysis of the disconnect between geopolitical turmoil, specifically the disruption of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, and equity markets trading near all-time highs. Casey argues the recent de-escalation between the U.S. and Iran is likely temporary, as the core dispute between Israel and Iran remains unresolved. Despite this volatility, he remains bullish on oil, favoring oil and gas stocks due to their low representation in the market and high dividend yields, a sentiment he backs with his own investment strategy.

Casey introduces his thesis of a “Greater Depression,” a period of declining real standards of living masked by a debt-fueled financial economy. He contrasts the struggling real economy, burdened by consumer and government debt, with the booming stock market, suggesting the current stability is unsustainable. Looking at long-term trends, he posits that all commodities historically trend toward zero in real terms as technology advances. However, he notes that commodities are currently the cheapest asset class compared to grossly overvalued stocks, bonds, and real estate, making them especially attractive.

The discussion shifts to gold and silver, which Casey treats primarily as savings vehicles, noting the 55-year bull market is still intact. While he believes gold is no longer a great speculation at current prices, he finds mining stocks to be exceptionally undervalued, driven by industry-wide unpopularity and neglect from institutional investors. He extends this bullishness to agricultural commodities and fertilizers, deeming corn ultra-cheap and noting natural gas, a key input for urea, is also priced at a bargain in North America. For speculation, he expresses a strong preference for private placements and warrants in smaller, entrepreneur-led companies. The conversation concludes with a grim outlook for U.S. fiscal health, predicting rising interest rates driven by unsustainable deficits and a bond market that will eventually slip the Federal Reserve’s control.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:01:02 – Oil Market Geopolitics and Prices
00:06:57 – Oil Inventories and Demand Outlook
00:09:06 – Debt Economy and Greater Depression
00:11:03 – Electrification and Nuclear Future
00:14:27 – Long-term Commodity Price Trends
00:16:21 – Agricultural Commodities Discussion
00:21:34 – Fertilizers and Natural Gas
00:25:30 – Potash, Phosphate, & Sulphur
00:28:21 – Gold and Silver as Savings
00:33:20 – Mining Stocks and Value
00:40:00 – Mining Sector Companies
00:44:00 – Investment Strategies and Placements
00:47:26 – Other Commodities Opportunities
00:49:48 – Guest Projects and Resources

Guest Links:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEJR3OAeHBNz7aGtFRZXArQ

Doug Casey’s Take: https://internationalman.com

Amazon Novels: https://tinyurl.com/an3uxhc

Book ‘The Preparation’: https://tinyurl.com/theprepa

Best-selling author, world-renowned speculator, and libertarian philosopher Doug Casey has garnered a well-earned reputation for his erudite (and often controversial) insights into politics, economics, and investment markets. Doug is widely respected as one of the preeminent authorities on “rational speculation,” especially in the high-potential natural resource sector. Doug’s most recent book, “Assassin,” can be found on Amazon.

He has been a featured guest on hundreds of radio and TV shows, including David Letterman, Merv Griffin, Charlie Rose, Phil Donahue, Regis Philbin, Maury Povich, NBC News, and CNN; has been the topic of numerous features in periodicals such as Time, Forbes, People, and the Washington Post. Doug has lived in 10 countries and visited over 175. Today you’re most likely to find him at La Estancia de Cafayate (Casey’s Gulch), an oasis tucked away in the high red mountains outside Salta, Argentina.

Stijn Schmitz welcomes back John Feneck to the show. John Feneck is the CEO of Feneck Consulting Group. The discussion opens with the critical tungsten supply crunch, where China’s recent export restrictions, including cutting off Japan, highlight a severe imbalance. John notes that the U.S. has not produced tungsten since 2015, while 85% of global supply comes from China, Russia, and North Korea, posing risks for defense and technology. He sees potential in advanced North American projects, and mentions growing U.S. government interest in securing domestic production.

On precious metals, he views the recent sharp correction in silver and gold as a medium-term buying opportunity, with silver likely to hold around $50 after its parabolic rise, and gold’s long-term bullish case supported by large bank price targets despite near-term rate-hike uncertainties. He favors producers Silverco and Americas Gold and Silver for their strong plans and management conviction. Turning to copper, near all-time highs, John highlights the supply constraints from long permitting timelines and names Power Metallic, backed by 17 billionaires and exceptional drill results, and PTX Metals, which offers low-cost copper with a pending uranium spin-off. In critical minerals, he mentions Esport Critical for its rare earths, uranium, and copper assets, and First Tolerium for its innovative thermoelectric technology with potential defense and drone applications, showcased at the upcoming DARPA competition. John concludes by describing Feneck Consulting Group’s decade-long track record of providing actionable insights, real-time email updates, and investor conferences, emphasizing the value of independent, non-herd thinking in resource investing.

Timestamps:
00:00:00 – Introduction
00:00:42 – Tungsten Market Overview
00:02:47 – Global Supply Challenges
00:04:06 – North American Tungsten Projects
00:07:15 – Defense Applications Importance
00:11:55 – Precious Metals Transition
00:13:50 – Silver Price Analysis
00:16:40 – Gold Market Outlook
00:19:00 – Mining Stock Investments
00:22:30 – Copper Sector Opportunities
00:25:00 – Attractive Producers?
00:31:10 – Rare Earths and Emerging Tech
00:35:05 – Feneck Consulting Group

Guest Links:
X: https://x.com/feneckconsult
YouTube: https://youtube.com/feneckcommoditiesreport
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/feneckcommoditiesreport
E-Mail: mailto:john.feneck@yahoo.com
Website/Newsletter: https://www.feneckconsulting.com/

Ticker’s Discussed:
Gold: Triumph Gold (TSXV:TIG, OTCQB:TIGCF), Norsemont Mining (NOG, NRRSF). Silver: Silverco Mining (TSXV:SICO, OTCQB:SICOF), Americas Gold & Silver (USA, USAS). Tungsten: Guardian Metal Resources (NYSE:GMTL, OTCQB:GMTLF), Western Star Resources (CSE:WSR, OTCQB:WSRIF), Spartan Metals (W, SPRMF). Copper: Power Metallic (PNPN, PNPNF), PTX Metals (TSXV:PTX, OTCQB:PANXF). Special Situations: First Tellurium (FTEL, FSTTF), Eastport Critical (EVI, EVIIF).

John Feneck is CEO of Feneck Consulting Group. He began his career in 1992 as an equity analyst for Merrill Lynch’s global allocation fund. From 1993 to 2019 he held senior executive roles at Merrill Lynch Funds (now BlackRock) and J.P. Morgan Chase Funds, where he ranked #1 in gross and net sales once at Merrill Lynch and three times at J.P. Morgan (among 40 peers).

Since 2017 he has contributed articles to Kitco—becoming a regular contributor in 2021—and has appeared as a featured guest. He’s delivered over 250 client seminars and webinars, spoken at 12 global commodities events, and in 2017 joined Sprott’s precious metals portfolio-management team. There he developed a proprietary methodology combining technical analysis with direct insights from company management, advocating a “go anywhere” strategy and a diversified portfolio of 25–50 resource stocks to navigate the sector’s volatility.

In September 2019 he founded Feneck Consulting Group, helping small- and mid-cap metals and mining companies raise brand awareness and advising high-net-worth advisors on market opportunities and risks. He holds Series 7, Series 63, CMFC and CIMA Level 1 certifications (though he is not a licensed advisor) and focuses on consulting. Based in Scottsdale, AZ, he’s a single dad to an 11-year-old daughter and spends weekends as a professional musician, athlete and traveler.

Stijn Schmitz welcomes Trader Ferg to the show. Trader Ferg is a Full-time Trader and the Author of the Trader Ferg Substack. Trader Ferg shares his current market views, highlighting several contrarian opportunities built around long-term, underappreciated assets. He remains bullish on scarce resources like thermal coal, where tight supply and Asian demand support high-quality names, though pure-play options are limited.

In energy, he sees an asymmetric upside and prefers long-dated options on integrated trading houses like Shell, leveraging torque to Brent and LNG while benefiting from volatility through their opaque but highly profitable trading arms. He also points to offshore engineering and oil services as an underinvested niche with rock-bottom valuations, already showing outperformance and strong earnings visibility. A key theme is the shift toward resilient, capital-light business models.

Trader Ferg is particularly enthusiastic about emerging market exchange operators, which he views as inflation-protected, high-margin plays that have been out of favor due to a strong US dollar but are poised for a decade of growth as global capital flows rotate. In gold, he sees a structural bull market driven by de-dollarization and central bank buying, though near-term consolidation is likely after flushing out speculative tourists.

He advocates a patient, long-horizon approach, cautioning against short-term futures and binary geopolitical bets, which have historically been unprofitable for him. Instead, he emphasizes buying cheap, hated assets with robust free cash flow and letting time and volatility work in his favor. Throughout the discussion, he stresses the importance of stress-testing assumptions, learning from mistakes, and focusing on durable trends rather than short-term noise, insights he regularly shares through his Substack.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:00:52 – Current Market Opportunities

00:02:44 – Exchange Operators Theme

00:04:27 – Oil Services and Offshore

00:08:24 – Oil Market Supply Dynamics

00:17:19 – China Flexibility in Energy

00:25:45 – Hormuz & Concerning Timlines

00:27:07 – Fertilizers Agriculture and Sulfur

00:29:08 – Sulphur Supply Thoughts

00:32:37 – Thermal Coal Supply Demand

00:44:00 – Gold Market and Producers

00:45:55 – Long Term Inflation Strategies

00:50:33 – Exchange Operations

00:52:50 – Concluding Thoughts

Guest Links:

Substack: https://traderferg.substack.com/

X: https://x.com/trader_ferg

Trader Ferg is a Full-time trader for going on 8+ years now. He has a habit of hanging out in hated corners of the market that are considered uninvestable. He enjoys sharing his research and thoughts about possible trades and markets.

Stijn Schmitz welcomes back Colonel Douglas Macgregor to the show. Douglas is a Retired U.S. Army Colonel and a Decorated Combat Veteran. In their discussion, Macgregor assesses the leaked 14-point MOU between Iran and the United States as an admission of strategic defeat, signaling that Iran has emerged victorious from the conflict. He emphasizes that the war is not over, predicting Israel will soon resume its offensive, prompting an Iranian counterattack and forcing President Trump to reengage militarily, albeit briefly, before ultimately disengaging. Macgregor argues that the United States was doomed to lose due to Iran’s mastery of integrated surveillance and strike capabilities, which render traditional naval and air superiority ineffective without robust ground forces, a capability he claims the U.S. currently lacks.

Shifting to economic implications, Macgregor advises a focus on energy, metals, minerals, fertilizer, and food as the only secure investments in the current climate, dismissing AI and SpaceX as speculative bubbles. He warns that the Strait of Hormuz remains at risk, ensuring oil prices will surge again as global demand outpaces supply, with countries racing to build strategic reserves. The depletion of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the potential for further conflict will drive inflation and economic instability, likening the coming effects to a tsunami. He foresees a structural reset where American military hegemony retreats, leading to the collapse of artificial state boundaries in the Middle East and the rise of Iran and Turkey as dominant regional powers, which will reshape alliances and likely end Israel’s long-term viability.

Macgregor also discusses the financial front, projecting that gold will reemerge as the ultimate reserve currency, with prices potentially reaching $10,000, while Bitcoin may serve as a transactional alternative to the dollar. He underscores that the geopolitical shifts will redirect American focus inward, forcing a painful but necessary reorientation toward domestic prosperity and core industries. Overall, his analysis presents a bleak near-term outlook marked by military defeat, economic disruption, and profound global realignment.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:00:45 – Iran US MOU Assessment

00:06:00 – Energy Metals Commodity Focus

00:08:50 – Oil Prices and Reserves

00:11:50 – Rise of Iran & Turkey

00:20:14 – Trump Pressures & MOU

00:23:30 – Gold and Bitcoin Outlook

00:27:56 – U.S. Strategic Petro Reserve

00:31:38 – Sulphuric Acid, Urea, & Ag.

00:34:47 – Use of Ground Forces?

00:37:08 – Gold In A Tsunami

00:38:50 – Purchasing Power Gold & BTC

00:40:01 – Substack and Final Remarks

00:42:11 – Concluding Thoughts

Guest Links:

Website: https://douglasmacgregor.com

X: https://x.com/DougAMacgregor

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@douglasmacgregorTV

Articles: https://breakingdefense.com/author/doug-macgregor/

Substack: https://substack.com/@coloneldoug

Douglas Macgregor is a decorated combat veteran, an author of five books, a PhD, and a defense and foreign policy consultant.

Macgregor was commissioned in the Regular Army in 1976 after 1 year at VMI and 4 years at West Point. In 2004, Macgregor retired with the rank of Colonel. In 2020, the President appointed Macgregor to serve as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, a post he held until President Trump left office. He holds an MA in comparative politics and a PhD in international relations from the University of Virginia.

Macgregor is widely known inside the U.S., Europe, Israel, Russia, China and Korea for both his leadership in the Battle of 73 Easting, the U.S. Army’s largest tank battle since World War II, and for his ground breaking books on military transformation: Breaking the Phalanx (Praeger, 1997) and Transformation under Fire (Praeger, 2003). Macgregor’s recommendations for change in Force Design and “integrated all arms-all effects” operations have profoundly influenced force development in Israel, Russia and China. In 2010, Macgregor traveled to Seoul, Korea to advise the ROK Ministry of Defense on force design. In 2019, Transformation under Fire was selected by Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, Chief of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), as the intellectual basis for IDF transformation. His fifth book, Margin of Victory: Five Battles that Changed the Face of Modern War from Naval Institute Press is available in Chinese, as well as, English and will soon appear in Hebrew.

In 28 years of service Macgregor taught in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, commanded the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, and served as the Director of the Joint Operations Center at SHAPE during the 1999 Kosovo Air Campaign for which he was awarded the Defense Superior Service medal. In January 2002, at Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s insistence the USCENTCOM Commander listened to Colonel Macgregor’s concept for the offensive to seize Baghdad. The plan was largely adopted, but assumed no occupation of Iraq by U.S. Forces.

Macgregor has also testified as an expert witness before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and appeared as a defense analyst on Fox News, CNN, BBC, Sky News and public radio. He is fluent in German.

Stijn Schmitz welcomes back Bill Holter to the show. Bill is a Precious Metals Expert and a metals Broker. Holter warns that the global economy faces a unique and dangerous combination of hyperinflation and deflation occurring simultaneously, a scenario where the cost of living rises rapidly while asset prices fall. He attributes this to the world’s unprecedented debt levels and rising interest rates, which reduce borrowing capacity and crush asset values. Central banks, he argues, cannot allow deflation given the massive debt overhang and will eventually devalue fiat currencies, much like the U.S. did in the 1930s. This environment makes gold uniquely valuable, as it preserves purchasing power during both inflation and deflation.

Holter sees recent weakness in gold as partly driven by its use as a funding source for major IPOs, including SpaceX, and by emerging market economies selling gold for liquidity. Despite the pullback, he views current prices as an attractive entry point, particularly for silver, which he believes is heavily manipulated through paper contracts and naked shorts. He expects a failure to deliver in silver, citing a six-year structural deficit and soaring demand, which would then shatter trust in gold futures and the entire derivatives complex.

On portfolio strategy, Holter advises a heavier allocation to silver due to the elevated gold-to-silver ratio, suggesting it will outperform on a percentage basis. His core recommendation is to hold whatever amount one cannot afford to lose in physical gold and silver, emphasizing their lack of counterparty risk. He also advocates owning mining stocks for leverage, noting they are now more profitable than ever as gold prices rise faster than input costs. However, he cautions investors to take physical possession of share certificates to avoid broker insolvency risk and to diversify geographically across majors, intermediates, and juniors. Holter dismisses platinum group metals as too industrial and not monetary, urging a focus solely on gold and silver for the turbulent times ahead.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:00:56 – Monitoring interest rates

00:01:34 – IPOs draining gold liquidity

00:03:04 – Higher rates causing deflation

00:05:17 – Debt service crisis emerging

00:09:08 – Melt-up scenario discussion

00:11:01 – Gold correction and entry

00:13:44 – Strait of Hormuz disruption

00:15:00 – Food supply and price risks

00:15:50 – Equity market overvaluation

00:20:45 – Silver failure to deliver risk

00:23:30 – Portfolio allocation advice

00:26:25 – Gold, Miners, and Leverage

00:28:14 – Platinum Metals & Rhodium

Guest Links:

Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/jsmineset/

Website: https://billholter.com

E-Mail: mailto:bholter@proton.me

Bill was a stockbroker for 23 years and a branch manager for 12. He retired and moved his family out of the U.S. to Costa Rica in late 2006. He returned to Texas in 2011. He was a contributor to GATA since 2007 and began writing for Miles Franklin from 2012 to 2015. He then joined with Jim Sinclair and the Holter/Sinclair collaboration from 2015-2022.

Bill is a precious metals expert and broker, he clears through Miles Franklin.