Stuff That Interests Me

I've been viewing houses this past fortnight, so I thought I'd share my anecdotal 2p on the state of the London property market.I'm looking in Brockley, SE4, which, if you don't know it, used to be rough AF, but is now where all the cool kids are. The area has benefited from the various London rail line extensions – you can be in Shoreditch or Canary Wharf in 15 minutes; the Jubilee and Elizabeth lines are a similarly short step away – and that has attracted the slay crew to the area. The road links though are still horrendous though, made worse by 20mph speed limits and bus lane misallocation of essential road space. The drive to west London is interminable.Brockley has a good stock of beautiful detached, semi-detached and terraced Victorian houses. For example: With its proximity to Greenwich and the river docks, it was once a wealthy area, though, like most of south-east London, it got bombed to heck in the war.There are plenty of nice parks too. One of them, Hilly Fields, was modelled on Hampstead Heath, and there are many gorgeous houses in the roads running off it. Not quite Hampstead gorgeous, but getting there.Brockley also has the highest density of cemeteries in London, if you fancy dying any time soon, it's highly convenient. It is, I gather, London's most haunted area.It is only a bit stabby. Nothing like as bad as neighbouring Lewisham. (Maybe “only a bit stabby” will one day become part of estate agents' jargon, perhaps to replace “vibrant”. I can't believe how normalised stabbing now is that I'm talking like that.)The stabbiness is offset, however, by the plethora of nice restaurants, cafés, bars, craft ale breweries, the farmers' market, mini-festivals, pilates studios et al. I understand, in Browns, the area boasts London's best coffee and, in Babur, its best Indian restaurant. (Technically Babur is in Honor Oak, but, like England and many of its foreign sporting greats, we'll claim it as our own.)I shot this vid from the steps up to the station.Brockley feels younger and more up-and-coming than the once-cool areas to the west like Queen's Park, Kensal Rise, Clapham and so on, probably because of its easy access to east London. (A lot of people from Hackney move down here.)I moved here begrudgingly and skint in 2015 and have grown to really like it.But what about the housing market?I've known markets in which estate agents don't give you the time of day, there are so many prospective buyers, but – perhaps because they know I am an unencumbered buyer – the agents are maybe not quite all over me, but certainly on my case: lots of emails, phone calls and the rest of it. That indicates it's more of a buyers' market.But, while I would describe the housing market here as slow, it is not dead. Stuff has been going under offer in the two weeks I've been looking, though rarely at asking.With the costs of moving – Stamp Duty is 10% above £925k, and 12% above £1.5m, plus an extra 5% if you own another property – buyers have got to really want to buy.Sellers, meanwhile, have to really want to sell, which often entails reducing their asking prices. Stuff which is unrealistically priced is staying on the market a long time. Look at this one (actually up the road in Honor Oak):This is a 5,000-square-foot property, not so nice inside, but with access to a 2-acre private garden behind with its own tennis court – quite something in London. From £2.5 million to £1.75 million and they still can't shift it. (It needs a lot of money spending on it.)On the other hand, there don't seem to be many forced sellers – people who can't make their payments – and we won't get any house price crash, long-awaited or not, until that is a reality.I imagine Brockley, as a young, trendy area, is busier than other parts of town, but that is my overall feel: slow, but not dead.I've looked at a few family houses. I can't really comment on flats, but I gather there is an oversupply of 2-bed flats across London, and it is really hard to shift them. I'm not sure if this applies to Brockley or not.It doesn't feel as expensive as it did around 2019–2022 (realised sales prices are a fraction lower, but there is obviously currency debasement to consider too), but nor does it feel super cheap. We're a long way off where we were in, say, 2013, even though grander parts of London – Kensington and Chelsea, for example – are back at those 2013 levels.Where does the housing market go from here? It all depends on two things: interest rates and Stamp Duty.Britain's zombie housing market, brought to you by Stamp Duty.If rates go lower, the market will not collapse. There won't be the forced sellers. We'll continue as we are: stagnant. If rates go higher, the market is in trouble.But get rid of Stamp Duty, and you'd have a flurry of activity across the country tomorrow. People aren't moving because of the amount of dead money involved. Stamp Duty has immobilised the country.If you're buying a two-million-pound house, you will pay £153,750 in stamp duty. Cash. Money you've already paid tax on once. You can't borrow the money. You have to be extremely rich, or extremely desperate for a home, to be willing to pay a £150k one-off tax of this kind. Most would rather avoid paying it, so they don't move.You will pay more if you are not a UK resident.If you happen to own another property – which most people in that wealth bracket will, either their first flat they never sold, a property they inherited, or a home in the country – and the house you are buying is not your main residence, the tax rises to £253,750. A quarter of a million quid.That's why houses in Kensington and Chelsea no longer sell. EDIT: My mate, whose kids have now flown the nest, sent me this: "We live in a 4 floor house, 2 floors we don't use, I haven't been to the top floor for about 5 years (seriously). We would love to move and downsize but makes no sense as the costs of buying a new house would use up all the gain on downsizing . IE We just end up with a smaller house."This happens all the way down the scale. Kirstie Whatsit off the telly was tweeting about it the other day.My mother's friend, who is in her 70s, lives in a 2-bed flat two floors up in Wandsworth worth maybe £700,000. She is worried about climbing the stairs at her age, and wants to move to another 2-bed flat. She will pay £25,000 in Stamp Duty on top of all her other moving costs. She doesn't have 25 grand to throw away.The result is this nearly dead market. Britain's zombie housing market.Stamp Duties were one of the taxes the ignited the American Revolution. If only we had muskets today …The biggest villains in all this are former Chancellor Gordon Brown for first raising Stamp Duty on property transactions (before him it just one per cent on all properties over £60,000), and, worst of all, George Osborne for raising the rates to today's ludicrous levels. Rather than address the root causes of unaffordable housing – fiat money, artificially low interest rates, improper measures of inflation and dumb planning laws – he blamed the market, and attacked it with Stamp Duty. But all of Jeremy Hunt, Rishi Sunak, Sajid Javid, Philip Hammond and Alistair Darling must take their share of the blame for failing to do anything about it, when they had the chance. (We'll give Kwasi Kwarteng and Nadhim Zahawi a pass on the grounds they didn't have the gig for long enough).Osborne, Brown et al have given birth to the zombie situation we have now. They have immobilised the country in the process. Government. Yet again. 0 stars. Would not use again.It's enough to make you a libertarian. Until next time,DominicPS If you enjoyed today's article, please like, share and all that stuff. It really helps.PPS If you missed this week's market commentary, here it is:As always If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these times or relentless currency debasement, the bullion dealer I use and recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. Find out more here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comI've had a flood of new readers sign up to the Flying Frisby this week, I'm delighted to report, largely as a result of this article on bitcoin treasury companies and of this video on North Sea oil and the next Labour U-turn, which has been doing the rounds on the net.So welcome everyone. I hope you enjoy the ride.Today's piece is going to be a bit of a hotchpotch, as I gather my thoughts and tidy up a few loose ends.We'll start with the macro. Are we in a bull market? Are the animal spirits back in command? Or have we just gone through a bear market rally?It all depends on tariffs, I guess, and what is going on in the Great Orange Man's mind. What plans does he have? That I cannot answer, but I will say the S&P500 looks like it might have just put in a lower high.We want to be above that blue line.If he goes full tariff again, all bets - well most - are off.But thanks to the Great Orange Man's pronouncements on uranium, our speculation Lightbridge Fuels (NASDAQ:LTBR) is now enjoying another of its spikes. If he goes full tariff again, all bets - well most - are off.But thanks to the Great Orange Man's pronouncements on uranium, our speculation Lightbridge Fuels (NASDAQ:LTBR) is now enjoying another of its spikes.Sell the spikes, buy the dips has been the play here. We are on one such spike now, so if the recent pattern continues (it won't continue forever, nothing does, but it might for a bit) then lighten up between $15 and $20 and buy if it goes back to $9 is the trade.Sell the spikes, buy the dips has been the play here. We are on one such spike now, so if the recent pattern continues (it won't continue forever, nothing does, but it might for a bit) then lighten up between $15 and $20 and buy if it goes back to $9 is the trade.We have quite a well defined, trade-able range emerging here, as defined by the blue lines below.I don't see it going back to the $2.50-$3 area, where we were lucky enough to first stumble upon this stock, but $8.50-9 looks like the new floor. For now.Remember: this was an $800 stock once upon a time, so there is a lot of upside left. One should probably keep some money on the table, in case we don't get the dip.Tell your friends.The next Starmer U-turnTurning next to the issue of the re-opening of the North Sea. Since posting that video our Glorious Leader has tightened ties with the EU, and in particular relevance here, its net zero goals. The UK now commits to net zero obligations “at least as ambitious as the EU”. “Want to get out of net zero?,” says Lord Frost in the Telegraph, “Tough: you can't, unless the EU agrees”.That said I am sure Captain FlipFlop will find a way of flipflopping his way round any North Sea ties and then spinning it. There is a review this week. Surely even this government will realise importing Norwegian gas for (net) zero tax take, fewer jobs and a higher carbon footprint than producing our own makes (net) zero sense. More importantly it is gifting Reform. Maybe the needs of the Treasury mean Milibrain - Miliband gets overruled. We will know more as soon as today.Adding another bitcoin treasury company to my portfolioIn a moment, I am going to take a look at Comstock Lode (NYSE:LODE), further to its AGM this week. I know I keep talking about this company, but it might be the one we all retire on - hence my outsized attention.But first I also want to continue on the bitcoin treasury company story.(Despite the outperformance of the treasury companies of late, I still prefer bitcoin and think it should be a core holding. The treasury companies are rather more speculative. However, given the hassle involved, I understand why some in the UK prefer the treasury companies).How about this for nuts? The UK's Smarter Web Company (ISIN: GB00BPJHZ015) hit a market cap of £175 million yesterday. Its assets: it has about £5 million in bitcoin.The dude who founded it, Andrew Webley, was a month ago running a web design firm in Guildford with net assets of less than £50,000. In the company's Retail Investor IPO document, he committed to invest a minimum of £30,000...through his ISA”. (h/t Glen Goodman)This will not end well. And we have the FCA to thank. It has made it so difficult to buy bitcoin, investors are buying this company and others like it instead.If, like many readers, you are playing this one, make sure you get your original investment out, is my advice …Meanwhile, Metaplanet (3350:TYO) briefly lost a third of its value last week, falling below ¥800. Now it's above ¥1,200, at all-time highs, trading at 450% of the value of its bitcoin.It's a mania all right.I'm adding another position, in a stock which has some recent history of manias.What is it? Ah-ha …

Good Sunday morning to you,I am just on a train home from Glasgow, where I have been gigging these past two nights. I've had a great time, as I always seem to do when I go north of the wall.But Glasgow on a Saturday night is something else. My hotel was right next to the station and so I was right in the thick of it. If I ever get to make a cacatopian, end-of-days, post-apocalyptic thriller, I'll just stroll through Glasgow city centre on a Friday or Saturday night with a camera to get all the B roll. It was like walking through a Hieronymus Bosch painting only with a Scottish accent. Little seems to have changed since I wrote that infamous chapter about Glasgow in Life After the State all those years ago. The only difference is that now it's more multi-ethnic. So many people are so off their heads. I lost count of the number of randoms wandering about just howling at the stars. The long days - it was still light at 10 o'clock - make the insanity all the more visible. Part of me finds it funny, but another part of me finds it so very sad that so many people let themselves get into this condition. It prompted me to revisit said chapter, and I offer it today as your Sunday thought piece.Just a couple of little notes, before we begin. This caught my eye on Friday. Our favourite uranium tech company, Lightbridge Fuels (NASDAQ:LTBR), has taken off again with Donald Trump's statement that he is going to quadruple US nuclear capacity. The stock was up 45% in a day. We first looked at it in October at $3. It hit $15 on Friday. It's one to sell on the spikes and buy on the dips, as this incredible chart shows.(In other news I have now listened twice to the Comstock Lode AGM, and I'll report back on that shortly too). ICYMI here is my mid-week commentary, which attracted a lot of attentionRight - Glasgow.(NB I haven't included references here. Needless to say, they are all there in the book. And sorry I don't have access to the audio of me reading this from my laptop, but, if you like, you can get the audiobook at Audible, Apple Books and all good audiobookshops. The book itself available at Amazon, Apple Books et al).How the Most Entrepreneurial City in Europe Became Its SickestThe cause of waves of unemployment is not capitalism, but governments …Friedrich Hayek, economist and philosopherIn the 18th and 19th centuries, the city of Glasgow in Scotland became enormously, stupendously rich. It happened quite organically, without planning. An entrepreneurial people reacted to their circumstances and, over time, turned Glasgow into an industrial and economic centre of such might that, by the turn of the 20th century, Glasgow was producing half the tonnage of Britain's ships and a quarter of all locomotives in the world. (Not unlike China's industrial dominance today). It was regarded as the best-governed city in Europe and popular histories compared it to the great imperial cities of Venice and Rome. It became known as the ‘Second City of the British Empire'.Barely 100 years later, it is the heroin capital of the UK, the murder capital of the UK and its East End, once home to Europe's largest steelworks, has been dubbed ‘the benefits capital of the UK'. Glasgow is Britain's fattest city: its men have Britain's lowest life expectancy – on a par with Palestine and Albania – and its unemployment rate is 50% higher than the rest of the UK.How did Glasgow manage all that?The growth in Glasgow's economic fortunes began in the latter part of the 17th century and the early 18th century. First, the city's location in the west of Scotland at the mouth of the river Clyde meant that it lay in the path of the trade winds and at least 100 nautical miles closer to America's east coast than other British ports – 200 miles closer than London. In the days before fossil fuels (which only found widespread use in shipping in the second half of the 19th century) the journey to Virginia was some two weeks shorter than the same journey from London or many of the other ports in Britain and Europe. Even modern sailors describe how easy the port of Glasgow is to navigate. Second, when England was at war with France – as it was repeatedly between 1688 and 1815 – ships travelling to Glasgow were less vulnerable than those travelling to ports further south. Glasgow's merchants took advantage and, by the early 18th century, the city had begun to assert itself as a trading hub. Manufactured goods were carried from Britain and Europe to North America and the Caribbean, where they were traded for increasingly popular commodities such as tobacco, cotton and sugar.Through the 18th century, the Glasgow merchants' business networks spread, and they took steps to further accelerate trade. New ships were introduced, bigger than those of rival ports, with fore and aft sails that enabled them to sail closer to the wind and reduce journey times. Trading posts were built to ensure that cargo was gathered and stored for collection, so that ships wouldn't swing idly at anchor. By the 1760s Glasgow had a 50% share of the tobacco trade – as much as the rest of Britain's ports combined. While the English merchants simply sold American tobacco in Europe at a profit, the Glaswegians actually extended credit to American farmers against future production (a bit like a crop future today, where a crop to be grown at a later date is sold now). The Virginia farmers could then use this credit to buy European goods, which the Glaswegians were only too happy to supply. This brought about the rise of financial institutions such as the Glasgow Ship Bank and the Glasgow Thistle Bank, which would later become part of the now-bailed-out, taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).Their practices paid rewards. Glasgow's merchants earned a great deal of money. They built glamorous homes and large churches and, it seems, took on aristocratic airs – hence they became known as the ‘Tobacco Lords'. Numbering among them were Buchanan, Dunlop, Ingram, Wilson, Oswald, Cochrane and Glassford, all of whom had streets in the Merchant City district of Glasgow named after them (other streets, such as Virginia Street and Jamaica Street, refer to their trade destinations). In 1771, over 47 million pounds of tobacco were imported.However, the credit the Glaswegians extended to American tobacco farmers would backfire. The debts incurred by the tobacco farmers – which included future presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson (who almost lost his farm as a result) – grew, and were among the grievances when the American War of Independence came in 1775. That war destroyed the tobacco trade for the Glaswegians. Much of the money that was owed to them was never repaid. Many of their plantations were lost. But the Glaswegians were entrepreneurial and they adapted. They moved on to other businesses, particularly cotton.By the 19th century, all sorts of local industry had emerged around the goods traded in the city. It was producing and exporting textiles, chemicals, engineered goods and steel. River engineering projects to dredge and deepen the Clyde (with a view to forming a deep- water port) had begun in 1768 and they would enable shipbuilding to become a major industry on the upper reaches of the river, pioneered by industrialists such as Robert Napier and John Elder. The final stretch of the Monkland Canal, linking the Forth and Clyde Canal at Port Dundas, was opened in 1795, facilitating access to the iron-ore and coal mines of Lanarkshire.The move to fossil-fuelled shipping in the latter 19th century destroyed the advantages that the trade winds had given Glasgow. But it didn't matter. Again, the people adapted. By the turn of the 20th century the Second City of the British Empire had become a world centre of industry and heavy engineering. It has been estimated that, between 1870 and 1914, it produced as much as one-fifth of the world's ships, and half of Britain's tonnage. Among the 25,000 ships it produced were some of the greatest ever built: the Cutty Sark, the Queen Mary, HMS Hood, the Lusitania, the Glenlee tall ship and even the iconic Mississippi paddle steamer, the Delta Queen. It had also become a centre for locomotive manufacture and, shortly after the turn of the 20th century, could boast the largest concentration of locomotive building works in Europe.It was not just Glasgow's industry and wealth that was so gargantuan. The city's contribution to mankind – made possible by the innovation and progress that comes with booming economies – would also have an international impact. Many great inventors either hailed from Glasgow or moved there to study or work. There's James Watt, for example, whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the Industrial Revolution. One of Watt's employees, William Murdoch, has been dubbed ‘the Scot who lit the world' – he invented gas lighting, a new kind of steam cannon and waterproof paint. Charles MacIntosh gave us the raincoat. James Young, the chemist dubbed as ‘the father of the oil industry', gave us paraffin. William Thomson, known as Lord Kelvin, developed the science of thermodynamics, formulating the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature; he also managed the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable.The turning point in the economic fortunes of Glasgow – indeed, of industrial Britain – was WWI. Both have been in decline ever since. By the end of the war, the British were drained, both emotionally and in terms of capital and manpower; the workers, the entrepreneurs, the ideas men, too many of them were dead or incapacitated. There was insufficient money and no appetite to invest. The post-war recession, and later the Great Depression, did little to help. The trend of the city was now one of inexorable economic decline.If Glasgow was the home of shipping and industry in 19th-century Britain, it became the home of socialism in the 20th century. Known by some as the ‘Red Clydeside' movement, the socialist tide in Scotland actually pre-dated the First World War. In 1906 came the city's first Labour Member of Parliament (MP), George Barnes – prior to that its seven MPs were all Conservatives or Liberal Unionists. In the spring of 1911, 11,000 workers at the Singer sewing-machine factory (run by an American corporation in Clydebank) went on strike to support 12 women who were protesting about new work practices. Singer sacked 400 workers, but the movement was growing – as was labour unrest. In the four years between 1910 and 1914 Clydebank workers spent four times as many days on strike than in the whole of the previous decade. The Scottish Trades Union Congress and its affiliations saw membership rise from 129,000 in 1909 to 230,000 in 1914.20The rise in discontent had much to do with Glasgow's housing. Conditions were bad, there was overcrowding, bad sanitation, housing was close to dirty, noxious and deafening industry. Unions grew quite organically to protect the interests of their members.Then came WWI, and inflation, as Britain all but abandoned gold. In 1915 many landlords responded by attempting to increase rent, but with their young men on the Western front, those left behind didn't have the means to pay these higher costs. If they couldn't, eviction soon followed. In Govan, an area of Glasgow where shipbuilding was the main occupation, women – now in the majority with so many men gone – organized opposition to the rent increases. There are photographs showing women blocking the entrance to tenements; officers who did get inside to evict tenants are said to have had their trousers pulled down.The landlords were attacked for being unpatriotic. Placards read: ‘While our men are fighting on the front line,the landlord is attacking us at home.' The strikes spread to other cities throughout the UK, and on 27 November 1915 the government introduced legislation to restrict rents to the pre-war level. The strikers were placated. They had won. The government was happy; it had dealt with the problem. The landlords lost out.In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917, more frequent strikes crippled the city. In 1919 the ‘Bloody Friday' uprising prompted the prime minister, David Lloyd George, to deploy 10,000 troops and tanks onto the city's streets. By the 1930s Glasgow had become the main base of the Independent Labour Party, so when Labour finally came to power alone after WWII, its influence was strong. Glasgow has always remained a socialist stronghold. Labour dominates the city council, and the city has not had a Conservative MP for 30 years.By the late 1950s, Glasgow was losing out to the more competitive industries of Japan, Germany and elsewhere. There was a lack of investment. Union demands for workers, enforced by government legislation, made costs uneconomic and entrepreneurial activity arduous. With lack of investment came lack of innovation.Rapid de-industrialization followed, and by the 1960s and 70s most employment lay not in manufacturing, but in the service industries.Which brings us to today. On the plus side, Glasgow is still ranked as one of Europe's top 20 financial centres and is home to some leading Scottish businesses. But there is considerable downside.Recent studies have suggested that nearly 30% of Glasgow's working age population is unemployed. That's 50% higher than that of the rest of Scotland or the UK. Eighteen per cent of 16- to 19-year-olds are neither in school nor employed. More than one in five working-age Glaswegians have no sort of education that might qualify them for a job.In the city centre, the Merchant City, 50% of children are growing up in homes where nobody works. In the poorer neighbourhoods, such as Ruchill, Possilpark, or Dalmarnock, about 65% of children live in homes where nobody works – more than three times the national average. Figures from the Department of Work and Pensions show that 85% of working age adults from the district of Bridgeton claim some kind of welfare payment.Across the city, almost a third of the population regularly receives sickness or incapacity benefit, the highest rate of all UK cities. A 2008 World Health Organization report noted that in Glasgow's Calton, Bridgeton and Queenslie neighbourhoods, the average life expectancy for males is only 54. In contrast, residents of Glasgow's more affluent West End live to be 80 and virtually none of them are on the dole.Glasgow has the highest crime rate in Scotland. A recent report by the Centre for Social Justice noted that there are 170 teenage gangs in Glasgow. That's the same number as in London, which has over six times the population of Glasgow.It also has the dubious record of being Britain's murder capital. In fact, Glasgow had the highest homicide rate in Western Europe until it was overtaken in 2012 by Amsterdam, with more violent crime per head of population than even New York. What's more, its suicide rate is the highest in the UK.Then there are the drug and alcohol problems. The residents of the poorer neighbourhoods are an astounding six times more likely to die of a drugs overdose than the national average. Drug-related mortality has increased by 95% since 1997. There are 20,000 registered drug users – that's just registered – and the situation is not going to get any better: children who grow up in households where family members use drugs are seven times more likely to end up using drugs themselves than children who live in drug-free families.Glasgow has the highest incidence of liver diseases from alcohol abuse in all of Scotland. In the East End district of Dennistoun, these illnesses kill more people than heart attacks and lung cancer combined. Men and women are more likely to die of alcohol-related deaths in Glasgow than anywhere else in the UK. Time and time again Glasgow is proud winner of the title ‘Fattest City in Britain'. Around 40% of the population are obese – 5% morbidly so – and it also boasts the most smokers per capita.I have taken these statistics from an array of different sources. It might be in some cases that they're overstated. I know that I've accentuated both the 18th- and 19th-century positives, as well as the 20th- and 21st-century negatives to make my point. Of course, there are lots of healthy, happy people in Glasgow – I've done many gigs there and I loved it. Despite the stories you hear about intimidating Glasgow audiences, the ones I encountered were as good as any I've ever performed in front of. But none of this changes the broad-brush strokes: Glasgow was a once mighty city that now has grave social problems. It is a city that is not fulfilling its potential in the way that it once did. All in all, it's quite a transformation. How has it happened?Every few years a report comes out that highlights Glasgow's various problems. Comments are then sought from across the political spectrum. Usually, those asked to comment agree that the city has grave, ‘long-standing and deep-rooted social problems' (the words of Stephen Purcell, former leader of Glasgow City Council); they agree that something needs to be done, though they don't always agree on what that something is.There's the view from the right: Bill Aitken of the Scottish Conservatives, quoted in The Sunday Times in 2008, said, ‘We simply don't have the jobs for people who are not academically inclined. Another factor is that some people are simply disinclined to work. We have got to find something for these people to do, to give them a reason to get up in the morning and give them some self-respect.' There's the supposedly apolitical view of anti-poverty groups: Peter Kelly, director of the Glasgow-based Poverty Alliance, responded, ‘We need real, intensive support for people if we are going to tackle poverty. It's not about a lack of aspiration, often people who are unemployed or on low incomes are stymied by a lack of money and support from local and central government.' And there's the view from the left. In the same article, Patricia Ferguson, the Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Maryhill, also declared a belief in government regeneration of the area. ‘It's about better housing, more jobs, better education and these things take years to make an impact. I believe that the huge regeneration in the area is fostering a lot more community involvement and cohesion. My real hope is that these figures will take a knock in the next five or ten years.' At the time of writing in 2013, five years later, the figures have worsened.All three points of view agree on one thing: the government must do something.In 2008 the £435 million Fairer Scotland Fund – established to tackle poverty – was unveiled, aiming to allocate cash to the country's most deprived communities. Its targets included increasing average income among lower wage-earners and narrowing the poverty gap between Scotland's best- and worst-performing regions by 2017. So far, it hasn't met those targets.In 2008 a report entitled ‘Power for The Public' examined the provision of health, education and justice in Scotland. It said the budgets for these three areas had grown by 55%, 87% and 44% respectively over the last decade, but added that this had produced ‘mixed results'. ‘Mixed results' means it didn't work. More money was spent and the figures got worse.After the Centre for Social Justice report on Glasgow in 2008, Iain Duncan Smith (who set up this think tank, and is now the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) said, ‘Policy must deal with the pathways to breakdown – high levels of family breakdown, high levels of failed education, debt and unemployment.'So what are ‘pathways to breakdown'? If you were to look at a chart of Glasgow's prosperity relative to the rest of the world, its peak would have come somewhere around 1910. With the onset of WWI in 1914 its decline accelerated, and since then the falls have been relentless and inexorable. It's not just Glasgow that would have this chart pattern, but the whole of industrial Britain. What changed the trend? Yes, empires rise and fall, but was British decline all a consequence of WWI? Or was there something else?A seismic shift came with that war – a change which is very rarely spoken or written about. Actually, the change was gradual and it pre-dated 1914. It was a change that was sweeping through the West: that of government or state involvement in our lives. In the UK it began with the reforms of the Liberal government of 1906–14, championed by David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, known as the ‘terrible twins' by contemporaries. The Pensions Act of 1908, the People's Budget of 1909–10 (to ‘wage implacable warfare against poverty', declared Lloyd George) and the National Insurance Act of 1911 saw the Liberal government moving away from its tradition of laissez-faire systems – from classical liberalism and Gladstonian principles of self-help and self-reliance – towards larger, more active government by which taxes were collected from the wealthy and the proceeds redistributed. Afraid of losing votes to the emerging Labour party and the increasingly popular ideology of socialism, modern liberals betrayed their classical principles. In his War Memoirs, Lloyd George said ‘the partisan warfare that raged around these topics was so fierce that by 1913, this country was brought to the verge of civil war'. But these were small steps. The Pensions Act, for example, meant that men aged 70 and above could claim between two and five shillings per week from the government. But average male life- expectancy then was 47. Today it's 77. Using the same ratio, and, yes, I'm manipulating statistics here, that's akin to only awarding pensions to people above the age 117 today. Back then it was workable.To go back to my analogy of the prologue, this period was when the ‘train' was set in motion across the West. In 1914 it went up a gear. Here are the opening paragraphs of historian A. J. P. Taylor's most celebrated book, English History 1914–1945, published in 1965.I quote this long passage in full, because it is so telling.Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he liked. He had no official number or identity card. He could travel abroad or leave his country forever without a passport or any sort of official permission. He could exchange his money for any other currency without restriction or limit. He could buy goods from any country in the world on the same terms as he bought goods at home. For that matter, a foreigner could spend his life in this country without permit and without informing the police. Unlike the countries of the European continent, the state did not require its citizens to perform military service. An Englishman could enlist, if he chose, in the regular army, the navy, or the territorials. He could also ignore, if he chose, the demands of national defence. Substantial householders were occasionally called on for jury service. Otherwise, only those helped the state, who wished to do so. The Englishman paid taxes on a modest scale: nearly £200 million in 1913–14, or rather less than 8% of the national income.The state intervened to prevent the citizen from eating adulterated food or contracting certain infectious diseases. It imposed safety rules in factories, and prevented women, and adult males in some industries,from working excessive hours.The state saw to it that children received education up to the age of 13. Since 1 January 1909, it provided a meagre pension for the needy over the age of 70. Since 1911, it helped to insure certain classes of workers against sickness and unemployment. This tendency towards more state action was increasing. Expenditure on the social services had roughly doubled since the Liberals took office in 1905. Still, broadly speaking, the state acted only to help those who could not help themselves. It left the adult citizen alone.All this was changed by the impact of the Great War. The mass of the people became, for the first time, active citizens. Their lives were shaped by orders from above; they were required to serve the state instead of pursuing exclusively their own affairs. Five million men entered the armed forces, many of them (though a minority) under compulsion. The Englishman's food was limited, and its quality changed, by government order. His freedom of movement was restricted; his conditions of work prescribed. Some industries were reduced or closed, others artificially fostered. The publication of news was fettered. Street lights were dimmed. The sacred freedom of drinking was tampered with: licensed hours were cut down, and the beer watered by order. The very time on the clocks was changed. From 1916 onwards, every Englishman got up an hour earlier in summer than he would otherwise have done, thanks to an act of parliament. The state established a hold over its citizens which, though relaxed in peacetime, was never to be removed and which the Second World war was again to increase. The history of the English state and of the English people merged for the first time.Since the beginning of WWI , the role that the state has played in our lives has not stopped growing. This has been especially so in the case of Glasgow. The state has spent more and more, provided more and more services, more subsidy, more education, more health care, more infrastructure, more accommodation, more benefits, more regulations, more laws, more protection. The more it has provided, the worse Glasgow has fared. Is this correlation a coincidence? I don't think so.The story of the rise and fall of Glasgow is a distilled version of the story of the rise and fall of industrial Britain – indeed the entire industrial West. In the next chapter I'm going to show you a simple mistake that goes on being made; a dynamic by which the state, whose very aim was to help Glasgow, has actually been its ‘pathway to breakdown' . . .Life After the State is available at Amazon, Apple Books and all good bookshops, with the audiobook at Audible, Apple Books and all good audiobookshops. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comPlease do not share, copy, reproduce or distribute any part of this report without my express permission. Thank you.Many thanks to all the new subscribers who have joined this week, both paid and unpaid. I put this video of my recent North Sea Oil piece up on YouTube, X et al and it generated something of a flurry.So welcome. I hope you both enjoy and benefit from The Flying Frisby.Before we get started I just wanted to note that Comstock Lode seems to be catching a nice tail wind, which is good. Enjoy the ride. The AGM is later today for the keener of you out there.But we are looking at bitcoin today, and exploring an alternative way to invest in it.I'm going through one of those phases where I feel like I don't own enough bitcoin.So I've bought more.And I've bought it in my SIPP - UK-speak for my retirement account.I'll explain how in a second.Let's just have a quick look at the bitcoin price, and note that we are once again breaking out to new highs.I know it feels like you are late to the bitcoin story, and yes we all wish we bought it at $10, when we first heard about it. But we didn't. We are where we are, and this story is a long way from being over.The next chapter in the odyssey is corporate adoption, and that story is just getting started.I explained the bitcoin corporate treasury model a fortnight ago here, and I've made the article freely available to all, so please take a look, but the TLDR is this.Following a template set by billionaire genius Michael Saylor, more and more companies are converting their treasuries to bitcoin as a means to store value and escape currency debasement. Not only that, they are issuing paper—stock, debt, convertible notes—and using the capital raised to buy more bitcoin. In effect, they are creating fiat money from nothing—it is a debt-based system, after all—and using it to buy a finite digital resource (one that, of course, cannot be created through debt).Many are scratching their heads and saying, “How can this be? It's not possible! It's a bubble.”What Saylor is actually doing, among other things, is exposing the flaws of debt-based fiat currency. There are now some 70 companies employing this strategy. This will eventually be a stampede, which I urge you to front-run. Corporations have much deeper pockets than private investors, meaning this latest cycle in bitcoin's mass adoption could become a mega mania.Shareholders welcome dilution if it means more bitcoin. The problem of corporate dilution has been flipped on its head. Once, if a company issued 20% more stock, you would expect the stock to fall by a concomitant amount to reflect the dilution. But if you're using paper to buy bitcoin, the reverse applies. You can't dilute enough. The purpose of a bitcoin treasury company is to acquire as much bitcoin as possible on behalf of all shareholders, by whatever means.Here is a case in point.Japanese hotel company Metaplanet (3350:TYO) had a small chain of low-budget hotels across Southeast Asia. Covid decimated the business, and it never fully recovered.A year ago, seeking a new direction, CEO Simon Gerovich began copying the Saylor model and started using his cash flow to buy bitcoin, then he began issuing debt. Since spring 2024, when the company began its strategy, the stock has risen thousands of percent from below ¥20 to north of ¥1,000. Last year, it was one of the best-performing companies in the world, if not the best. How about this for a chart?In the time that bitcoin has risen 60%, Metaplanet has risen more than 7,000%. (Saylor's Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) has also outperformed bitcoin. Bitcoin treasury companies give you gearing).With its crap currency and suppressed bond yields, bitcoin is an obvious place for Japanese investors to put their capital, except the government has got in the way.As with the UK, dumb regulations make it very hard for Japanese investors to buy bitcoin directly. (This came as a result of Mt. Gox, the first bitcoin exchange, which went bust after being hacked in 2013-14). To give you an idea how ponderous things are, to register with a bitcoin exchange in Japan , regulators demand you get a letter by snail mail to verify your address. Nuts.What's more, when the Japanese sell, they must pay capital gains tax at 55%.But Metaplanet is a Tokyo-listed company, so investors are buying that instead in their retirement accounts and via their brokers. Far less hassle. Just as, back in 2023, I urged UK readers to buy Strategy as a way to play bitcoin (we are up around 1,000%), Metaplanet has become Japan's bitcoin vehicle—indeed, much of Asia's.For several days in a row, the company has gone limit-up, and trading has been halted. The mother of all short squeezes seems to be taking place. It's the most shorted stock in all of Japan - and the short sellers are struggling to cover.This bubble has, quite literally, been caused by state regulation. We wouldn't be in this situation if it was easy to buy bitcoin. It's enough to make you a libertarian. It's amazing that both Japan and the UK were at the vanguard in bitcoin's early days. Satoshi Nakamoto had a Japanese name and used British English. Now we are both retarded (in both the old sense of the word and the new).How to profit from the maniaIn the UK, Avis-listed The Smarter Web Company (ISIN: GB00BPJHZ015) is now following suit, as several readers have pointed out to me (thank you). It's gone from 5p to 45p in a month. Currently, The Smarter Web Company has a market cap of £72 million, while it holds only £3 million in bitcoin (rounded numbers). Insane, you might think. Probably.Bitcoin Treasury Companies are outperforming bitcoin. They are the new sh*tcoins. So which bitcoin treasury company have I gone for?Here is how I am playing all this.

Tell your friends about this vid.You'll find the full list of North Sea Oil Cos here, in the second half of the article:Subscribe to this wonderful publication.If you are thinking of buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, the bullion dealer I use and recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. Find out more here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

At the Battle of Ideas last October I went head to head with comedians Simon Evans, Nick Dixon, Paul Cox, Cressida Wetton and Ethan Green to debate who is the greatest. I made the argument that it was John Cleese. My initial pitch has just been released, so here, for your Sunday morning consideration, it is. I ended up winning the debate, but it was a close shave.Who, in your view, is the greatest? And why? Please let me know in the comments.If you enjoyed this video, please give it a like, share it somewhere, all that stuff. Thank you!And please subscribe to this excellent Substack, if you haven't already.Speaking of comedy, there are still a handful of tickets left for my show on Tuesday, if you happen to fancy some subversive musical satire. That's the Mid-Year Review on Tuesday, May 20 in London in sunny East London. I am just going through the set list - it is going to be an epic night. In other news, for long-suffering shareholders in STLLR Gold, the company just announced its latest PEA and MRE. We have been waiting a long time, and the market did not like it one bit. While the resource, 11 million ounces, is huge, the CAPEX to build this mine, $1.87 billion, is even huger. At $3/oz in the ground, it's hard to think of a mining company that's as cheap. But those ounces are cheap for a reason. Here, in case you missed it, is my write up from yesterday.Until next timeDominicIf you are thinking of buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, the bullion dealer I use and recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. Find out more here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

Today, using the political compass as our mapping tool, we explore diversity of opinion in BBC Radio comedy.If you enjoyed this video, please give it a like, share it somewhere, all that stuff. Thank you!And please subscribe to this excellent Substack, if you haven't already.In case you missed them, here are my pieces from earlier in the week.Gigs Coming UpHere is a list of shows I have coming up, in case of interest.The big one is The Mid-Year Review Wearing on next Tuesday, May 20 in London. Otherwise it's:* London, Crazy Coqs, May 14. SOLD OUT. (Waiting list only)* London, Backyard, May 20. The Mid Year Review Tickets here* Sevenoaks, Out of Bounds Comedy Club, July 11. Tickets here.* Bedford, Quarry Theatre, July 27. Tickets here.* London, Crazy Coqs, Sept 24. Tickets here.* London, Crazy Coqs, Nov 5. Tickets here.* London, Crazy Coqs, Dec 3. Tickets here.Happy Sunday! Until next time,DominicIf you are thinking of buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, the bullion dealer I use and recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. Find out more here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

Fun fact: the only countries that own more bitcoin than the UK are the US (which own 207,000) and China (194,000). The UK has 61,000 bitcoin - worth almost $6 billion.They are mostly seized bitcoin, a lucky legacy from the early days when the UK was at the heart of bitcoin's evolution. (Remember Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in British English, the Times was referenced in the Genesis block, and many of the early conferences and meet-ups happened here). The FCA, in its wisdom, put a stop to all that, and so we fell behind.The stupidest thing our Chancellor can do, even with the parlous state of the national finances, is to sell those bitcoin. History would look back on her as an even greater fool than Gordon Brown for selling the national gold.This legacy has given the UK an extraordinary advantage in the global arms race that is bitcoin adoption. We would be mad to spurn it.Meanwhile, something extraordinary is taking place in the corporate world of bitcoin adoption, and I think it is going to accelerate rapidly very soon.It is being spearheaded by Michael Saylor, Chairman and Founder of Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR).I recommended MicroStrategy, as it used to be called, to readers back in August 2023, largely because it was a means to get bitcoin exposure via your broker. You wouldn't have to jump through all the hoops of buying bitcoin through exchanges, which the FCA has made so difficult.It has been a big win for readers, having more than 12x'd since we tipped it, outperforming bitcoin by a considerable margin. (Bear in mind it has undergone a 10-for-1 stock split since that article.)You really should upgrade your subscription :)Strategy now has some 555,450 bitcoin, meaning it has more bitcoin than any other publicly traded company in the world (excluding the ETFs, which now hold 1.35 million). Note again: there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins - rather less if you discount the 2.5 million that have likely been lost, and the 1.3 million that Satoshi never touched and probably never will).Saylor is also the world's most articulate and charismatic proponent of bitcoin. The man is a genius, and I do not use that word lightly. He has turned Strategy from a quiet, business intelligence software firm, which traded sideways for 20 years with a market cap less than $2 billion, into one of the most talked-about and traded stocks in North America with a market cap north of $100 billion. Options traders love it.His method for doing so - extraordinarily bold at the time, though now it looks easy - was brilliantly simple. He bought bitcoin. He was worried about the erosion of the value of the corporate treasury due to inflation and currency debasement. he started slowly. Then, in buying bitcoin and using it, as tends to happen, he caught the bitcoin bug. He started issuing paper - stock, debt, convertible notes - and bought more bitcoin. Just last week he bought another 1,895 bitcoin, funding the purchase with sales of common and preferred stock.In effect, he is creating money out of (almost) nothing and using it to buy the hardest money in the history of mankind. (Sorry, goldbugs - and you know I'm on your team - but bitcoin is harder money, because the supply is more finite).In doing so, he has enabled many of his investors to retire early.But he has also set in motion something quite extraordinary.Other companies are starting to follow his model. I'm surprised more haven't, but it takes extraordinary courage and vision to do what he did, as demonstrated by the fact that more companies haven't copied him. They're too cautious. Even with him having blazed the trail and shown the way.I think there's a very good chance Strategy becomes a trillion dollar company, while Michael Saylor becomes the world's richest man.To call the pre-bitcoin Strategy a zombie company is harsh, but it was not really going anywhere. Interestingly, it is zombie or near-zombie companies with large treasuries that are most likely to follow the Saylor model. Their need for a new direction is greater.Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) recently gave Saylor 5 minutes - 5 minutes! - to pitch his model to them, and duly ignored it. It is their loss. But Microsoft is Microsoft. At the moment, it doesn't need bitcoin, and it doesn't need to take the risk.GameStop (NYSE: GME), on the other hand, is a different matter. Remember GameStop from 2021 and all those memes during lockdown? The video game retailer had more than 3,000 outlets, and its business model was considered defunct. People buy games online now. But some private investors noted that the short position exceeded 100% of the issued shares of the company, and started buying. The ensuing short squeeze sent the stock from $17 to north of $500, and, it is said, almost broke Wall Street. (Not quite, but you get the point).The problem is GameStop's business model is somewhat defunct. This year, it closed over 400 stores. This week, it sold its Canadian outlets.But the company has about $4.7 billion in cash, low debt, and just raised another $1.5 billion, it announced.What does it do now?Bitcoin is the answer.We don't yet know how much it has bought, but its earnings call is on June 6, so perhaps we can expect an announcement then.The Japanese company Metaplanet (3350:TYO) is doing something similar. Formerly a zombie hotel company, now known as the “Asian MicroStrategy,” it has bought some 5,555 bitcoin. It bought another 555 this week after it issued its 13th set of bonds. The stock rose 40% on the news. Since spring 2024, when the company began its strategy, the stock has gone from below ¥20 to north of ¥600.The same thing is happening as happened to Saylor. Initially, the company bought it as a hedge against currency debasement. It discovered it was onto something. Now it is doing all it can to issue paper - bonds, warrants, stock, you name it - and use the proceeds to buy bitcoin.Perhaps GameStop will make a similar discovery.A year ago, Semler Scientific (NYSE: SMLR), which provides technology products and services for healthcare providers, made its first purchase of bitcoin: 581. It couldn't stop accumulating. Now it has 3,467 bitcoin.Sol Strategies (CA:HODL), my old company, is doing something similar for Solana, having just announced a $500 million convertible note. This company had a market cap of barely C$20 million a few months ago.What started as a trickle is starting to flow. The more companies that do this, the bigger the rush is going to get. Corporations are changing they way they store capital. They are changing the capital they store.The implications for how corporates hold their treasuries are one thing. The implications for fiat money are extraordinary. Issue debt - ie create money - and buy hard digital assets with it. This is going to be a big, big theme in the next few years.If you enjoyed this article, please like it, share it, all that stuff :) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

I thought I might share a few random bits and bobs from my little life for you to ponder today, starting with various interviews.Here I am on the mighty James Delingpole's podcast, talking about most subjects, though squabbling about conspiracy theories.Then there is this interview with Jasmine Birtles for the Money Magpie podcast, talking mostly about gold and property. (Audio on Spotify; video on YouTube). Also this radio interview with ABC Australia, I was quite pleased with. Here it is.And, if bitcoin is your thing, here I am on the Discovering Bitcoin podcast.Right. That's all the interviews done.A Thief in our MidstTurning to matters closer to home, there is a beautiful cat, pictured below, which belongs to a Chinese lady, who lives three doors up. She visits my garden every morning (the cat not the Chinese lady) as I am getting my 15 minutes of sun, purrs seductively, gets stroked, and then wanders off on its day to do who knows what. If I leave the back door open, she will come into my house and visit me at my desk, stretch out luxuriantly and, if I pick her up, start padding my chest pleasantly. I thought we had become friends.Well, you can't trust anyone.I now discover this feline fiend has been sneaking into my son's room to steal his socks, which it then brings back to its owner three doors up. Here it is. Caught red handed.A Rare Trip to the TheatreOn Wednesday I went to see The Comedy About Spies in the West End. It's not something I would have normally gone to watch, but my friend Tom Woods had some tickets he couldn't use and so off I went with my next door neighbour. I thought it was terrific. Thank you Tom!I'm obsessed with farce. Always have been since I first watched Fawlty Towers as a little boy. (I actually did my university thesis on Fawlty Towers). It's my favourite form of theatre by a country mile. I love the precision of it, along with the heightened emotion and panic. Done well there is no better narrative form, in my opinion. Films like Midnight Run and TV series like Curb Your Enthusiasm, in my view, embrace farcical plot schemes. But if you want a farce in its purest form on film, watch What's Up Doc. Just the best.The premise of The Comedy About Spies is a little bit forced, but the jokes are fab, there are hundreds of them, one after the other, they are brilliantly executed and with incredible precision - it's wonderful to see a show this tight. By the end I even found myself moved by the characters. I LOLed many times. What can I say? It's really good. What's your favourite farce? Let me know in the comments.The South Africanisation of EverythingIn other, less positive news, on Tuesday evening I found myself walking down the Kilburn High Road for the first time in about 25 years. It was always a bit rough around the edges - up there with Elephant & Castle and Streatham High Road as one of London's most worst thoroughfares - but my God it was eye-opening as to where the UK is going / has gone.Litter everywhere, people off their faces, drugs being dealt openly on the street, beggars, a woman knocked over by a bloke cycling a Lime bike on the pavement, the bloke unapologetic, little trust between visible between people in this multi-cultural mayhem. Talk about lack of cohesion. (I drove through Harlesden the other night and that was bad too).It confirmed my theory of the South Africanisation of everything. (Actually it's my friend Alex's theory, but I have purloined it). It prompted me to dig up this piece from a couple of years back, which at one point was the most read piece on this ‘ere Substack. On re-reading it now, I'm rather proud of it. Recommended.The Secret History of GoldIn personal news, I am glad/relieved to say I submitted the final proofs for my new book on gold which comes out in August - the Secret History of Gold (I haven't actually announced it yet, which I will in due course). Writing a book is an enormous undertaking. Publicising it is an even greater one. I'm glad stage one is complete.How about this for a fact?In 1930 the price of gold was £4.25 per ounce, as it was in 1716 when Isaac Newton set the price over 200 years earlier. FOUR POUNDS 25p. Today it's £2,475 per ounce. From £4.25 to £2,475. That's how much we've been robbed by currency depreciation.How have they (successive governments) been able to get away with this?Because representative democracy does not work is why.Thank goodness for gold. Thank goodness for bitcoin. Speaking of which:As always, if you are looking to buy gold, the bullion dealer I use and recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. Find out more here.The Mid-Year ReviewWearing my satirical comedy hat, I have a big gig coming up on May 20 in East London. These nights are usually pretty memorable - and for the right reasons.If you are free, come along. You can get tickets here. It would be great to see you.Finally, in case you missed this week's commentary, here it is:Have a lovely bank holiday weekend.Fun fact: Mayday - not as in the bank holiday, but as in the distress call for a ship or a plane is actually from the French, “M'aidez” - help me. May Day is an ancient festival to celebrate the beginning of summer (or as is the case in the UK this year, the end of summer), though socialists hijacked it with International Workers' Day. So now we are all crying “M'aidez” on May Day.Tell your friends about this entertaining catch up. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comI spoke about gold this week to ABC Australia. This little interview may be of some interest. Here it is. Meanwhile …It's as though the whole tariff thing never happened, the way stock markets are rallying. I think it's seven green days in a row now.Everybody is getting very excited about a rare technical signal we got last Thursday - - there have only been 16 of them since the S&P500 was created in 1957, including the latest on April 24, 2025. But this signal has a 100% reliability record, and has been followed by average 6-month returns of 15% and a 12-month returns of 23%. That's a pretty stellar record. So I just wanted to offer my 2p.The indicator - the Zweig Breadth Thrust Indicator (ZBT) - was first observed in the 1986 Martin Zweig book, Winning on Wall Street (which I confess to not having read). It occurs when a market swings from an oversold to an overbought reading within 10 trading days.Eight of them have occurred since the book was published: in 2004, in 2009 (shortly after the March lows at 666), in 2011 after the taper tantrum, in 2013, 2015, 2018 and in 2023 twice. Now we have one coming off the “tariff tantrum”, as I've just dubbed it.However, before you go out and gamble your entire life savings, note that back in 2015 technical analyst Tom McClellan published a detailed study of ZBT signals, which went back much further than the 1957 formation of the S&P500 - all the way to 1928.During the bear market of the 1930s Great Depression, there were multiple occurrences of the signal - 14 of them - and it was horribly unreliable: 10 led to losses or negligible gains, 2 preceded strong rallies, and 2 were flat. It was useless, in other words.So, in short, it's been good since 1957, but was rubbish before. A bit like stereos.There are plenty of reasons to remain cautious. The high levels of volatility we are witnessing are consistent with a bear market not a bull market. There are also high levels of uncertainty: what is actually going to happen with tariffs? Nobody quite knows. I'm not sure even the President. Plus we are going into May, usually a weak time of year for the stock market. And it may be that the consequences of Trump's tariff talk have not yet been felt in the US on the ground. One argument is that there has been a huge drop off in container ships leaving China. A container would typically take 30 days to reach LA, and another 10-20 days to get to the major cities - Houston, Chicago, New York et al. So the drop-off in container ships leaving China after Liberation Day won't be felt until mid-May. If there is a pick up in shipments, that wouldn't be felt till another month after that. Some are saying supply shortages are coming to the US. Have a read of this and see what you think. Markets usually price this kind of stuff in, but you never know. Cui bono?Among the sectors that should benefit from Trump's America first policies are US domestic mining and manufacturing. Here the regulatory environment is changing fast. Trump signed an executive order on March 20 with the aim of accelerating production of critical minerals. Federal agencies have actually been mandated to look to the US for priority metals - copper, gold, nickel, uranium and so - when they previously looked abroad. We are already seeing faster permitting. I hear that formerly dormant projects are seeing activity for the first time in years. Emails are being answered promptly, applications are being processed, even in states like California. This new environment is positive for oil and gas producers, miners, explorers and developers in the US. The problem is that commodity prices have dropped off a cliff. There's always a catch.Even so, one company that should benefit from this new macro environment is this potential multi-bagger.On which, note I wanted to give you a related heads up.

We have a video for your Sunday thought piece today, in which I walk round my local supermarket and identify all the foods which have seed oils (spoiler - almost all of them).Ever wondered which foods in your supermarket are packed with seed oils? Join me on a clandestine mission around my local shop to unveil some hard truths about pizzas, hummus, sausage rolls, and even granola. Seed oils infiltrate nearly every packaged item—and you should care. By the way, my original piece on seed oils is one of the most read articles on this substack, interestingly enough. Here is is, if you haven't already read it:I hope you find it useful and/or entertaining.Have a lovely Sunday.DominicPS ICYMI, here's my midweek commentary:As always, if you are looking to buy gold, the bullion dealer I use and recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. Find out more here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comGold again today. I just can't stop writing about it.Another day. Another new high. We touched $3,500 in the early hours of yesterday morning.That's 27 new highs in the gold price so far this year.Yet there is still something about this bull market that doesn't feel right or complete: it's not confirmed by silver, which should be trading north of $50. Instead it's mired around $32. Nor is this bull market confirmed by the miners, which, in most cases, are nowhere near all-time highs.Nevertheless, on the basis of gold's price relative to equities, commodities and houses, as outlined last week, gold is starting to look expensive. Is it time to have an eye on the exit?In the short term, maybe. It's overbought. We are going into a weak time of year for gold (May to August). But that's why I like physical. It stops you trading!How about this for a chart?It now takes more work than at any time in the last 100 years to buy an ounce of gold.This is as much a function of declining wages in real terms, and the erosion in value of fiat, as it is the price of gold, but all the same it's pretty incredible: how we've all been lied to!There are, though, many signs that gold is now fully valued.But these are not normal times.And a “proper” bull market will see blow-off tops in silver and the miners. We don't have that yet.Let me give you six more reasons (ie largely previously unmentioned reasons) not to be selling your gold.1. You live in the UK.(This is one I have mentioned before). Do not be fooled by the fact that the pound has been performing relatively well in the foreign exchange markets this year. It has lost 37% of its purchasing power since 2020 and has repeatedly proven to be a rotten store of value.The interest on UK gilts is rising, meaning it is getting increasingly expensive for the government to pay for its own debt. We're above Liz Truss levels and the trend is rising.We've got high energy costs too.What this government is actually doing to rein in its spending is one thing. What needs to be done is something else. There is no Elon Musk taking the guillotine to it all. The scale of our government inefficiency, waste, corruption, misallocation of capital is both larger, relative to GDP, and more entrenched than in the US. At the level of government we are not even having a conversation about what needs to be done, let alone actually doing anything.Nor is there any likelihood of this country re-industriali sing. We'll just have to hope people buy our services, what few we offer. In the meantime we'll keep borrowing to pay for stuff.The only way is currency debasement. There has never been a Labour government that did not devalue sterling. Think this one will be any different? Do not store your wealth in sterling. They take enough from you in taxes as it is. Don't let them take any more.As always, if you are looking to buy gold, the bullion dealer I use and recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. Find out more here.2. Chinese retailI'm endlessly wittering on about China's central bank buying gold, but one thing I confess I've overlooked is Chinese retail buying. Its real estate and stock markets have both been rubbish, the former especially, so they are buying gold instead. Then think about the sheer size of China's retail market: over a billion potential buyers. Never mind central bank buying, the potential scale of this thing is enormous. What if they al buy an ounce each?When do they stop buying and start selling? When their real estate and stock markets pick up … Meanwhile, China's central bank, the PBOC, which says it bought 5 tonnes last month, actually bought ten times that. (De-dollarisation, which is perhaps the biggest factor of the lot, except re-monetisation, does not even make it onto this list as I‘ve covered it so many times before).3. What about Western retail? What about Western institutions? Western retail and institutional investors have been slow to this bull market and are under-allocated. As my buddy Ross Norman says, “this gold rally has not, to date, been driven by retail investors buying coins and bars, high net clients clamouring for physical, nor institutions buying the gold ETF, not even speculative flows to any great extent. This has been an incredibly low participation rally. A stealth run even”. Portfolios are roughly 2% allocated to gold at present. They were four times that at the peak of the last bull market in 2011. That means a lot of room for more Western buying.Since the confiscation of Russian assets, central banks have bought every pullback to the 50-day moving average. But it's not just central banks now, retail and institutional investors the world over are coming to the party. And if you think they're underweight gold, wait until you see how underweight they are gold miners. (Even these are slowly starting to move - MTL anyone :)?)4. Gold vs the Nasdaq - OMGTrends in this ratio tend to go on for a long time, like ten years or more.How about this for a chart?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comCongratulations to all who bought. Gold is now trading above $3,300. Goldman Sachs has raised its target to $4,000/oz. It's all going swimmingly. But nothing lasts forever.(Actually gold does, but you know what I mean).So, today, I want to ask: when do we sell our gold?To answer that question, I am going to look at some long-term ratios.How is gold looking relative to stocks, to other commodities and against house prices? (We'll look at gold versus house prices in the US, the UK and Australia).There is a strong argument, by the way, for never selling your gold, especially if you're in a country such as the UK with an unreliable national currency. If you don't need the money, keep the gold and pass it on to your heirs - and tell them to do the same. But macro conditions are not always as gold-friendly as they are now. See the 1980s and 90s for more details.What's more, given how these trade wars are unfolding, with unpayable levels of debt across the western world and China's extraordinary accumulation of gold, there is a significant chance - say, 25% - that gold ends up being remonetized somehow.(If China wants global reserve status for its yuan, it'll almost certainly have to make it exchangeable for gold - meaning higher gold prices. But even if not, all China has to do is declare it's real gold holdings, and the price will rocket).In the event of remonetisation, which also means some kind of crisis, gold prices will be dramatically higher. However, it's also likely that your gold would either be confiscated or heavily taxed, so that the gains from the revaluation (aka fiat devaluation) pass to the state rather than the citizen, as happened in the US under Roosevelt in 1933.But let us leave such speculation for another day.As always, if you are looking to buy gold, the bullion dealer I use and recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. Find out more here.Gold vs StocksI want to start with the Dow-to-Gold ratio: how many ounces of gold does it take to buy the Dow?There is much history in this chart. It's quite something.You can see how, most of the time, the ratio stays within that green band. It is only at points of maximum extremity that it goes beyond, such as:* The peak of the stock market in 1929* The Great Depression in 1932* The suppression of gold in the 1960s, ending with the collapse of the gold standard in 1971* The peak of 1970s gold mania, inflation, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan* The end of the gold bear market in 2000 and the peak of DotcomToday, with gold at $3,300 and the Dow at 40,000, it takes 12 ounces of gold to buy the Dow - and we are in the low- to mid-range of that green prediction band.At the peak of the last gold bull market in September 2011, the ratio reached 5.7.To reach such a level again, either the gold price would have to double (possible) or the Dow would have to halve (unlikely, I would have thought). Most probable is something along the lines of the Dow falling 25% and gold rising another 50%.Would this ratio ever go to 1:1, as it did in 1980? If so, we would be looking at a gold price in the tens of thousands.It's possible, I suppose.I think a ratio of 5-8 is a reasonable possible target. Here's a similar history of gold against the S&P 500:Today, we are at 1.7. It takes 1.7 oz to buy the S&P.The ratio reached 0.2 in the 1930s and 1940s. It went to 0.13 in 1980.I doubt we'll see that again.But that 2011 level of 0.6, or perhaps even a little below if things get really spicy, is not an unreasonable target, I suppose. That could mean the S&P500 at 4,200 and gold at $7,000/oz. Something like that.So that's some bull food for you.In the interests of balance, let's now put some bearish fodder on the menu.We'll start with gold versus oil - and the bad news. Then we'll look at gold and house prices.

I'm excited to share a brand-new video diving into one of the most gripping questions in finance and geopolitics: How much gold does America actually have? You may have read my piece on this from a few weeks back. Here it is in video form: a deep dive into the rumours, history, and high stakes surrounding US gold reserves—and what the upcoming audit might reveal. My thanks go to Will Freeman for all his hard work crafting this. Whether you're revisiting the mystery or uncovering it for the first time, this is a story that matters in today's world. Please let me know what you think in the comments.Given everything that is going on in the world, we recommend people to own some gold in the portfolio. Our recommended bullion dealer I recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.And if you missed yesterday's piece - also on gold - here it is. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

Gold broke out to new highs on Friday: $3,237/oz. It is proving one of the prime beneficiaries of all the market mayhem, and no surprise. Gold is your hedge against government, and this is all a creation of government.Where to park capital? Equities are all over the place and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. With US authorities transparent about wanting it lower, the US dollar is not the safe haven it's been since 2007 in market sell-offs. As for treasuries, they've become a weapon in the trade wars.Inert gold, on the other hand, is neutral. It doesn't care which side of the trade wars, the culture wars, or any other wars you're on, and at the moment, it seems everyone wants a piece.China, we learn thanks to the sleuthing of analyst Jan Nieuwenhuijs, bought another 570 tonnes in 2024. Who knows how much more it has bought in 2025? To put that 570-tonne number in perspective, the UK's total holdings are 310 tonnes.Tell your friends.What's driving it all?This move in gold started shortly after the US confiscated $300 billion in Russian state holdings after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It hasn't been driven by retail. Central bank buying has pushed up the price.If you're not on Team US or Team G7, why own assets they can confiscate, like dollars or treasuries?Own gold instead. The US would have to invade you to take your gold—or send in Kelly's Heroes.In 1950, gold made up 70% of international reserves. In the noughties, it was just 10%. The dollar, meanwhile, reached 60%, with the euro at another 20%.Now gold is at 20%, the dollar at 45%, and the euro at 15%. The trend is clear, as this cool little video from Nieuwenhuijs and Money Metals shows:In my opinion, we'll be at 40% five years from now.Here's gold since late 2022. Every pullback has been bought. It's as though someone with deep pockets is saying, “Buy the pullback every time it hits the 50-day moving average (red line).”The UK seems to have been forgotten in this global rout, but I have little doubt the chickens of our shocking national finances and woeful productivity will soon come home to roost in the form of a sterling crisis. That's when we overlooked Britishers will be mighty glad we have our gold.Gold is now £2,475/oz. Another year of this, and we'll be north of £3,000.Summer is approaching, and May to August is typically when gold is weakest. Take advantage of pullbacks, is my advice. Do what the Chinese are doing. They're smarter than we are (when it comes to gold, at least).With oil having cratered, we should finally see gold miners fetch a proper bid. (They are already moving a little). Energy can represent 15% to 40% of mining costs. Lower costs and a higher price for the final product should mean they make more money, and thus higher share prices. (I'll cover miners again soon, I promise, though I am worried I'll jinx it)Here's something Charlie Morris observed—and you really should subscribe to his gold newsletter, Atlas Pulse; it's top dog in a crowded field - it's free. GDX is the largest gold mining ETF by far. Despite higher gold prices, it's seen outflows of 25% over the past year. When inflows start, these things will rocket. The sector is tiny relative to the capital out there.Here's three years of Brent, FYI. It's almost the reverse of gold. Good for mining.If you're interested in buying gold, by the way - and you should own some, if you don't already, given everything that is going on - the bullion dealer I recommend is the Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.A 2-minute video for your Sunday entertainmentI've got lots of content coming up over the next fortnight. I've just returned from two days of bitcoin conferences, so I'm fired up about that. I've got that gold mining piece to write. I have a lot more to say about gold. I have a fab video to share with you which I will send out tomorrow. And I want to explore where we should deploy capital in all this market mayhem: which sectors will do well in tariff wars, and which won't. So, plenty to come.You ought to subscribe.In the meantime, as it's the weekend, enjoy this silly little 3-minute vid I put together for my comedy Substack - not to be taken seriously - about alien invaders on planet Earth stealing our gold at the dawn of civilization. (Click the image below)Finally, if you're interested in gold and haven't already seen it, here's my guide to investing int he shiny stuff. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comI don't normally put out market commentary on a Sunday, especially on a Sunday evening, but the events of last week were so extraordinary I feel I have to.We are in full-on crash mode, it seems. The price action reminds me of the Covid panic or even 2008. It almost doesn't matter what you own. Portfolios around the world have been battered.The declines in the final two days of last week, since so-called “Liberation Day”, when President Trump announced his tariffs, are roughly as follows:* Bitcoin: -1%* Gold: -3%* S&P 500: -9%* Nasdaq: -10%* Brent Crude: -12.5%* Copper: -13% (phew!)Magnificent Seven:* MSFT: -6%* GOOGL: -7%* AMZN: -13%* META: -14%* NVDA: -15%* TSLA: -15%* AAPL: -17%We are, of course, very long gold and bitcoin here at The Flying Frisby, so I guess we've come out of this comparatively unscathed. What's more, we have a good allocation to wealth preservation in the Dolce Far Niente portfolio. But our speculative positions, like everyone's, have been hit, and I'm angry with myself for not getting more defensive sooner. I've been saying for some time I don't like the price action one bit- eg here and here - and the words of that freaky preacher keep ringing in my ears.In any case, there's no point beating myself up. Life is easy in hindsight. Investing is even easier.I spent considerable time on Friday and Saturday reading and watching interviews, trying to understand exactly what these tariffs are about and what the implications are, and I think I have come up with something of a roadmap.We'll start by explaining the plan. Then we'll look at what comes next. And, finally, we'll look at what to do with some of our recent speculations.Why our opinion is irrelevantI'm a free-trade guy, or at least I was. I'm not quite sure what I am any more. But I'm not going to waste my time - or yours - here with arguments about whether tariffs are a good thing or not. There's no point. My time - and yours - would be as well spent howling at the moon. As far as I know, Donald Trump isn't a reader of The Flying Frisby. He knows his own mind and he's not going to turn to this Substack, or any of our social media feeds, for policy advice.Don't be like DT. Subscribe to the Flying Frisby.Tariffs are here, and they're here to stay. Trump is attempting a major economic redesign - the kind of reset that those who rail against economic injustice have been calling for for years. Now it's here, and as we look at our portfolios, many of us aren't so sure we want it.What I want to understand, first, is the logic behind the tariffs, then their implications, so we can best navigate them.The first thing to note I've already said: Trump isn't going to backtrack. As I watched tumbling share prices on Friday, I thought to myself—he's going to backtrack. He has to. But Trump isn't the Conservative Party, or indeed the Labour Party, changing tack at the slightest sign of discontent. Critics say he'll cave if stocks keep tanking, I'm not so sure. His track record suggests otherwise, and he's put a loyal and strong team together to back him up and implement his plan.He's going to give his tariffs longer than a couple of days to have an impact.Many say Trump hasn't properly thought this through. Of course, he has. He's been thinking about it night and day for years. He'll have been thinking about little else as he wrestles with the problem of how to reinvigorate industrial America. That doesn't mean his plan will work, but the idea he hasn't thought about it is just a facile invention of Trump perma-critics to use against him.Trump may be a bit of a clown - he has a comedic instinct and can't resist a gag - but he's not stupid. Clowns rarely are.Why Trump's doing what he's doingTrump intensely dislikes the decimation of industrial America, which began in the 1980s and still continues, with the outsourcing of manufacturing to Asia and elsewhere. Even 40 years ago , he was giving interviews about this (hence why I say he has thought it through) and he wants to restore it. That's part of what he means when he says, “Make America great again.”He can see that while the American coasts may have thrived, thanks largely to finance and tech, much of what is in between has not. This is the America he wants to make great again.There are two reasons he wants to revive American industry. First, is that he believes the model by which America takes on debt to buy cheap stuff from China is unsustainable and has to stop - and the sooner the better. So it's for the good of the American economy. Second, is for reasons of security. While China and the US may be trading partners now, they are also rivals, and if your rival is making your essential military and strategic equipment and components, whether it's semi-conductors, industrial and consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals or battery and energy storage systems, you have a big problem on your hands. Covid exposed just how fragile supply chains are, and Trump has taken it as an early warning sign.Something very similar, as readers of Daylight Robbery will know, happened in the US after its War of 1812 with the British, a war that lasted three years. The war badly exposed US over-reliance on British industrial goods, so the US introduced tariffs in 1816 to try and nurture and grow its own industry. Those tariffs ended up having grave long-term consequences (they were a major factor in the lead up to the civil war - but that was 45 years later). In the short term, they worked. (More on this here).Coming to America“Come and build your factories in the US,” Trump is saying. “Then you won't pay tariffs. Relocate from China, Mexico, Vietnam.”Here's a case in point. Jaguar Land Rover has already announced it's halting shipments to the US for one month. Now, this company's management - remember its recent rebrand? (see below) - is on the opposing side of the culture war to Donald Trump and MAGA, so that is one factor at play. But when I wrote my piece about how good self-driving Teslas are, a lot of people commented that the Jags are better. I don't know—I haven't been in one. But for sure, Jaguar Land Rover won't want to lose momentum or network effect in this all important arms race, particularly while Tesla is struggling: 45% off its recent highs, victim to nationwide vandalism and Elon Musk no longer the darling but the villain of the eco-warrior left. So what does Jaguar do now? Not sell into the all-important US markets? Pay 25% tariffs? Or build a factory stateside? I think the answer is fairly obvious.Whatever it chooses to do, it's going to take longer than a couple of days.With DOGE and the shrinking of the US state, meanwhile, there'll be plenty of workers to fill those new positions. As the US state shrinks, its private sector grows. That's the idea, anyway.His tariffs may lead to higher prices for American consumers, as many have pointed out, but not as high as widely thought, argues Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in this recent interview with Tucker Carlson (a recommended watch, by the way). Bessent's calculations are that tariffs won't gouge consumers as much as feared. What's more, the revenue from tariffs could eventually enable lower levels of taxation back home, which will further ease pressure on US citizens, those who work at least.What about the upheaval Trump tariffs cause to the rest of the world? Not his problem. America first.Yet he's creating enormous uncertainty, and markets are tanking. On Friday, markets were in full panic mode, and the baby was being thrown out with the bathwater. What about that?The amazing stat which shows why Trump won't give two hoots about the stock market - for nowAt this point, I want to press upon you one of the most telling statistics I've seen for some time:* The richest 1% of Americans own 50% of US stocks, worth $23 trillion.* The bottom 50% of U.S. adults hold only 1% of stocks, worth $480 billion.If you expand to the top 10%, that group holds 87% of stocks, valued at $36 trillion. If I'm correctly inferring Bessent's comments, at this current point, Trump doesn't care about Wall Street, or Silicon Valley, or the parts of the US economy that have become so rich over the past 40 years. It's the bottom 50 - or even 80% - that Trump is concerned with. They hardly own any stocks, so the market mayhem won't matter so much to them. Wall Street has made good for decades. It can suffer a bit of pain while Main Street gets rebuilt.It's worth noting, by the way, that US equities were enormously overvalued when Trump took office, so some kind of correction had to happen anyway. The Shiller price-to-earnings ratio was at its third highest level in history (the only times it was higher was 2000 and 2007, and we all know what happened next). That's why Warren Buffett built up his enormous cash position two months ago ($330 billion). Buffett, by the way, really is a genius.Best to get the inevitable correction out of the way early in the Presidency. What's more, as Bessent points out, these market declines began several weeks ago with China's AI announcement of DeepSeek, the app that can do everything ChatGPT and Grok can do with much lower power use. Prior to that, the Magnificent Seven had driven the extraordinary gains seen in the S&P 500 over the previous 18 months. Strip them out, and the picture was much less rosy. (Now the Mag7're down 30-45%).Trump's announcement may have pricked the bubble, but a bubble is still a bubble and if one thing doesn't burst it, something else will.Trump's plan, meanwhile, (and I'm not saying it'll work, everyone will have their opinion) is not to boost the stock market. It is to reset the economy. The economy and the stock market are not the same thing.Some numbersThe US is trapped in a vicious debt spiral.$36 trillion is the current US National Debt. The US will spend $6 trillion this year, while only collecting $4 trillion in tax revenue. So there is a $2 trillion deficit. It will borrow the difference, and the debt will grow to $38 trillion. The DOGE plan is reduce the deficit by 1 trillion by getting rid of waste, corruption and more. The tariff plan is to raise another half trillion in revenue. Plus, as a result of tariffs, more business relocates to the US, which also increases revenue. Mass deregulation will also make doing business easier and further add to both economic growth and tax revenue. Then there is Trump citizenship plan. According to Grok, 1 million people worldwide could realistically afford to buy a US residency for $5 million. Let's say 10% of them did that. That's another $500 billion and the $2 trillion deficit is eradicated. Suddenly the US is running a surplus.This all means the US gets in a better position to lower taxes, which will further increase revenue (the golden rule of Daylight Robbery), because trade will increase as a result. Trump could lower corporation taxes to 15% which would be a lot more attractive than the rates of 20-30% paid in Europe. So business relocates to the US. He could lower income taxes, especially for high earners, thereby attracting higher earners to the US. Meanwhile, the cost of all that debt starts to come down, thereby freeing up even more capital.And, suddenly, you are in a virtuous cycle.These numbers make it look easy. But to get there takes an enormous fight - standing up to vested interests, taking on a cultural establishment that detests you, the media, the woke, Trump Derangement Syndrome and so on. It's not easy, and it requires a lot of backbone. The three essential keys to the Trump resetSo what fundamentals does this economic reset need, and how does the US get there?First, it needs cheap energy. Cheap energy is fundamental to economic growth: economies need energy. That's happening. Crude has fallen more than 10% since “Liberation Day”. Falls were turbocharged when, on Thursday, 8 OPEC nations made the surprise announcement that they were ending output cuts and increasing supply. Plus we have the domestic policy of drill baby drill. What with the plethora of natural gas and other shale energy co-products, we're going to see a lot of cheap energy. (Which is going to make our own Ed Miliband's high-energy-cost policies look even more deranged.)Second, it needs a cheaper dollar. A weaker dollar will encourage investment and relocation from overseas (it makes the US cheaper). That's happening too. Indeed, what was so unique about this week's panic is that the dollar—usually the first port of call in a financial storm—didn't rise (at least not at first). Here is the US dollar index. It's coming down. It's already down almost 10% from its highs. That means America just got 10% cheaper to invest in. A move back to the low 90s, or even below, would be ideal.What is the third component?And what next for markets?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comWe have more stock tips for you today with multibag potential.But first, let's get political.Remember how the Conservative Party from David Cameron onwards effectively abandoned the right and became social democrats?Increased state spending everywhere, so that instead of shrinking the state they grew it, more taxes, higher taxes, more planning and regulation, more quangos and experts, ‘owning' the NHS, green subsidies, Net Zero, social liberalism, MPs who didn't represent the views of the membership, increased immigration, weaker policing, increased crime - and so on. Those were the days, eh?The Tories were so bereft of first principle, and so terrified of the left, particularly the left-wing media, that they pandered to it and eventually became it.I remember going on podcasts 18 months ago making the argument that Labour would do the same thing and lurch right. After an insert-disparaging-adjective-here first six months, which saw Prime Minister Keir Starmer's approval ratings drop below even those of Rishi Sunak, we are starting to see that happen.With the books not balancing, suddenly spending is being cut. Not by a lot, but it's happening. Starmer has axed NHS England, something the Tories would never have dared do, criticising “two layers of bureaucracy”. We have what the Independent calls “Austerity 2.0” with cuts to disability benefits and welfare spending. The foreign aid budget has been cut to spend more on defence. All of a sudden he is as champion of small businesses. Heck, he's even fixing the potholes. Meanwhile, he is boasting on X about “securing our borders” and “removing illegal immigrants at the highest rate in 8 years”.“If you don't have the right to be in this country, then you shouldn't be here. It's that simple,” he said yesterday. Does that sound like a Labour leader or Nigel Farage?When fantasy meets realityThe next right-wing shoe to drop is fossil fuels.Ed Miliband's fantasies of climate justice and clean energy are slowly being exposed. His green delusion is going to be abandoned. If an economy is to grow, then it must consume more energy, not less. Wind and solar power are too expensive and too unreliable, never mind the damage they do to the environment and the carbon footprint they leave. They are already pledging to paint offshore wind farms black because of all the birds they are killing. Finally, an admission of the wildlife these things destroy.Offshore wind is not going to replace oil and gas. Fossil fuels remain a better, cheaper, cleaner and more reliable source of energy. For an already heavily taxed country that is living well beyond its means, where growth is the only thing that can save it, with the added pressure of Trump tariffs soon coming, needlessly expensive energy is not possible.The Reform party is making the cost of Net Zero one of its main lines of attack. All Labour has to do is further abandon the left of its party, a process which is already half complete, just as the Tories abandoned the right, and let Miliband go, which is inevitable anyway, and the Reform weapon is blunted.All the above is preamble to my main argument today. North Sea oil and gas is going to stage a comeback. This is going to happen, as sure as eggs are eggs. Political and economic reality mean it is inevitable. Otherwise, the national finances, and with them the Labour Government, evaporate. Power is more important to politicians than adhering to any zealotry, green or otherwise.The ban on new North Sea oil and gas licenses will be lifted. The taxes on North Sea oil companies will be lowered to incentivise activity (it's effectively 78% at present. Are legislators demented?). And all those companies that saw their businesses and market caps decimated by this deluded religion are going to make a comeback. Some will multiply many times over. That's what I think is going to happen, anyway. This also means, for we observers on the foothills of inconsequence, the time is nigh to buy North Sea oil and gas companies. So what are these companies and how do we invest?

If you enjoyed this video, please share it.A rant for you this Sunday morning. Enjoy!If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times - and you should if you do not already own some - as always I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.By the way, in case of interest, I have the following comedy shows coming up int he next fortnight.* Bath, April 3. Tickets here. SOLD OUT (Waiting list only)* Hampshire, Bordon. April 12. Tickets here.* London, Crazy Coqs, May 14. SOLD OUT. (Waiting list only)* London, Backyard, May 20. The Mid Year Review Tickets here* London, Crazy Coqs, Sept 24. Tickets here.* London, Crazy Coqs, Nov 5. Tickets here.* London, Crazy Coqs, Dec 3. Tickets here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

How I boosted my testosterone with no TRT—exercise, sleep, fasting and diet.Based on this article: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

From this week's Moneyweek Magazine …Two rumours have been swirling around the gold markets for many years. Some have called them conspiracy theories. Others note that conspiracy theories often prove true. What's the difference between conspiracy and truth? About 30 years.The first is that China has far more gold than it says it does. We actually now know this to be true. The other is that America has far less than the 8,133 tonnes of gold it says it possesses.This rumour has been doing the rounds since 1971, when Peter Beter, a lawyer and financial adviser to former president John F. Kennedy, said he had been informed that gold in Fort Knox had been removed. He went on to write a best-selling book about it: The Conspiracy Against the Dollar.The problem is a total lack of transparency on the part of the US authorities, something that according to current US president Donald Trump, and the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, will not be the case for much longer.Roosevelt triggers a boomBut to understand this situation we need to go back in time, all the way to 1933, when US president Franklin D. Roosevelt famously devalued the US dollar and revalued gold upwards by 70%, from $20 an ounce (oz) to $35/oz, in order to bolster growth. US gold reserves would increase to unprecedented levels in the next 15 years.Some of the gold came from US citizens. It was now illegal for them to own gold and they had to hand any they owned over to the authorities. Some came from the fact that the government then bought all US mined supply (the upwards revaluation of gold triggered a mining boom) and any gold imported to the US assay office. The US even began buying gold on foreign markets to protect the new higher price.Thus US official holdings in 1939 on the eve of World War II totalled 15,679 tonnes. They would only increase. With Nazi invasions, European nations sent all the gold they could across the Atlantic, either for safekeeping or to buy essential supplies; 1949 saw the high watermark of US gold holdings – 22,000 tonnes, as much as half of all the gold ever mined.In July 1944, with it clear that the Allies were going to win the war, representatives from the 44 Allied nations met at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference to design a new system of money for the new world order.International accounts would be settled in dollars, and those dollars were convertible to gold at $35/oz. Countries had to maintain exchange rates within 1% of the US dollar. In effect, the US was on a gold standard, and the rest of the world was on a dollar standard.The system relied on the integrity of the US dollar to work, and that integrity was in question, even before the end of the war. The June 1945 Federal Reserve Act reduced required gold reserves for notes outstanding from 40% to 25%, and against deposits from 35% to 25%. Between 1944 and 1954, because of increased supply, the dollar lost a third of its purchasing power, though the $35 Bretton Woods price remained.“Six major European countries,along with the UK, co-ordinated sales to suppress the gold price”US government spending was soaring, and it began running balance of payments deficits – made worse by the costs of foreign aid, America's new welfare systems and maintaining a military presence in Europe and Asia. Gold began leaving the US. By 1965 reserves had fallen by 9,500 tonnes, down 40% from the 1949 peak.Successive US administrations tried to stop the outflow, without success. Dwight D. Eisenhower banned Americans from buying gold overseas, Kennedy imposed the “equalisation tax” on foreign investments, and Lyndon B. Johnson discouraged Americans from travelling altogether. “We may need to forgo the pleasures of Europe for a while,” he said.Fears that the dollar would devalue following the election (won by Kennedy) sent the gold price in London to $40/oz. The Bank of England, in collusion with the Federal Reserve, began increasing gold sales to keep the price down.Thus did the London gold pool begin, with the addition of six major European nations the following year (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, West Germany, Italy and Switzerland), which co-ordinated sales to suppress, or “stabilise”, to use their word, the gold price and defuse unwanted, upward market pressure.But the pool struggled against growing demand. In 1965, an ounce of gold was still $35, but the purchasing power of the dollar had decreased by 57% from 1945, while gold reserves had also fallen sharply. The culprit was the costs of the US government, in particular the Vietnam War and president Johnson's enormous welfare spending.If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times - and you should if you do not already own some - as always I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.Bretton Woods under pressureWith inflation rising at home and international confidence in the dollar waning, these programmes were not just costly – they undermined Bretton Woods. Non-American nations felt aggrieved that they had to produce $100 worth of goods and services to get a $100 bill, when the US could just print one. French finance minister Valéry Giscard d'Estaing called it “America's exorbitant privilege”.President de Gaulle, meanwhile, had had enough. He ignored the pool to turn all French dollars and sterling balances into gold. The French even sent battleships to New York to collect their gold. De Gaulle became the target of several assassination attempts – coincidence, I'm sure. There were rather more US dollars in the world than there was gold to back them, he felt, and he was right.By 1967, US foreign liabilities were $36bn, but it only had $12bn in gold reserves – a third of what was needed to back the dollar. West Germany, Spain and Switzerland began demanding gold for their dollars. Even the British, with sterling going through one of its quadrennial collapses, asked the Americans to prepare $3bn worth of Fort Knox gold for withdrawal. Private gold demand was overwhelming.“The floor of the Bank of England's weighing room collapsed under the weight of all the bullion”In November 1967, the British government devalued the pound by 14%, from $2.80 to $2.40, in order to “achieve a substantial surplus on the balance of payments consistent with economic growth and full employment”.In that month, the London market saw greater bullion demand than it would typically see in nine: as much as 100 tonnes per day. To stem demand they banned forward buying, leverage and the purchase of gold with credit. The pool still lost 1,400 tonnes that year, more than a whole year's mined supply.Selling pressure on the US dollar only increased when the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam launched the first of a series of surprise attacks on US armed forces in South Vietnam in January 1968.Desperate to prop up the system, US military aircraft flew tonne after tonne of gold to RAF Lakenheath from where it was trucked in military convoys to the back entrance of the Bank of England: at one point the floor of the Bank of England's weighing room collapsed under the weight of all the gold.You really should subscribe to this amazing publication.Shoring up the systemIn the four days between 11 March and 14 March 1968, some 780 tonnes were sold to market. The effort to protect the price was deemed hopeless. On 15 March, UK chancellor Roy Jenkins declared a bank holiday, and the gold market was closed for a fortnight, “at the request of the United States”.Zurich also closed. Paris stayed open with gold trading at a 25% premium. All in all, the final 15 months saw over 3,000 tonnes sold to market to protect that $35 price. The pool had lost more than an eighth of its reserves.Two days later, in the rushed-through Washington Agreement, governors of the central banks in the gold pool declared there would be one fixed gold marketfor official government transactions at $35/oz and another, free-market, price for private transactions. Not for the last time, central bankers were living in a world of their own.Gold is one thing. Gold standards are another. They tend not to last, particularly bogus ones such as this one, under which citizens themselves did not handle gold. Keynes called them barbarous – ironic, perhaps, given that he was one of the architects of this one.In August 1971, president Nixon took the US off the gold standard, a “temporary” measure that remains more than 50 years later. For the first time in history, gold – Switzerland aside – played no part in the global monetary system.Of course it was the fault of the speculators. It always is. “I have directed the secretary of the Treasury to take the action necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators,” Nixon said, deflecting responsibility, and “to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold”.High time for a US gold auditThe US keeps its gold in four places: at Fort Knox, Kentucky (roughly 56% of its 8,133 tonnes); at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (8%); and the remaining 36% at the mints in Denver and West Point. There has not been a proper public audit of this gold since 1953. There have been internal audits, especially between 1974 and 1986, but these were not transparent.There are many people, among them gold experts, who do not believe the gold is there. The US spent it trying to suppress the gold price in the 1960s, theysay. But in this new age of American transparency, both Trump and Musk have repeatedly pledged that this gold will be audited.There is talk of it being done on a livestream. Trump has even suggested the gold has been stolen. “We're actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there,” he said, “because maybe somebody stole the gold. Tonnes of gold.”They've been making such light of it, one has to assume they know the gold is there. Musk was laughing about the conspiracies on podcasts, and he even posted a picture of a Fort Knox starter kit: a brick and some gold spray. I can't see how they would be joking if there were any serious doubts.Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, has said quite categorically that the gold is there. The last audit was in September 2024, he said in a recent Bloomberg interview, before looking down the camera and assuring the US people that “all the gold is present and accounted for”. But this would only have been an internal audit, and it would not have been a full audit.According to the US Mint, “the only gold removed has been very small quantities used to test the purity of gold during regularly scheduled audits”. No other gold has been transferred to or from the depository “for many years”. How long is many years, though? As far back as the 1960s?It's quite astonishing just how secretive the whole thing is. They opened the vaults for a congressional delegation and certain members of the press to view the gold in 1974. There were rumours swirling about then too. “We've never done this before and we'll probably never do it again,” said the then director of the US Mint Mary Brooks.“The gold commonly confiscated under Roosevelt contained some copper, and is not pure enough for sale”Then in 2017, during Trump's first administration, Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell were invited to view the gold. “The gold was there,” Mnuchin said. He is “sure” nobody's moved it. There are “serious security protocols in place”. But there are more than 4,000 tonnes in Fort Knox. A tonne would be about the size of a medium to large suitcase. Did he see all 4,000 of them?The other big issue is the purity of the gold. What is there might not all be of good delivery quality, meaning it would not be readily accepted in international bullion markets. If much of the gold is the bullion Roosevelt confiscated in the 1930s, it will be in the form of “coinmelt”: melted down coins.The commonly confiscated coins, such as the $20 double eagle, were only 90% pure and mixed with copper to make them harder. When melted down, they were not always properly refined to modern standards, while the bars they were melted into weighed 320-330 ounces, not the 400 oz bars of good delivery standard today. In practice, this means Fort Knox gold would not be accepted without additional processing.But, until a proper audit takes place, this is all speculation, albeit reasoned speculation. We don't know the full facts. The reasons given for not conducting a full audit are flimsy: we don't need to, it would be too much of an undertaking. Please!If the US gold turns out not to be there, then the gold price goes up – potentially a lot. If it is there, it's business as usual.For now, I'd say the markets are behaving as though it is business as usual. They are climbing, and every dip is being bought, largely, it seems, by central banks (especially in Asia), who are diversifying their holdings and de-dollarising. But this audit cannot come quickly enough.Large volumes of physical gold - over 1,000 tonnes by some counts - have recently been transferred from London to New York. One theory is that was the gold was transferred in anticipation of tariffs. Another is that it was the US buying ahead of its audit. We will soon find out.Finally, I would just like to debunk one theory doing the rounds. US gold is currently marked to market at $42/oz. After the audit, those 8,133 tonnes – assuming they are there and of good delivery quality – could be marked to market at current prices, meaning a significant uplift in the value of holdings.The theory doing the rounds is that Treasury ecretary Bessent will use some of the upwards revaluation to monetise the balance sheet – not unlike how Roosevelt did in 1933 – to create funds for, among other things, the strategic bitcoin reserve. But Bessent has quite clearly stated that is not his intention.This article first appeared in Moneyweek Magazine. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comEverything looks decidedly shaky all of a sudden. Trump is swinging the wrecking ball. Markets are tanking. What to do?A bear market was long overdue, but now that we are teetering on the edge of one, it doesn't feel very nice.Markets don't like uncertainty, and there is a lot of it about at the moment. President Trump likes to create it. It's one of his negotiating tactics. And he is creating one heck of a lot of it.Unlike his previous presidency, when he made a lot of noise but wasn't able to get much actually done, this time around he seems to be shaking up a world order that has been in place for decades, both internationally and at home.Is he serious about America no longer being the world's policeman? It seems he is. It began with a global freeze on most U.S. foreign aid as part of his “America First” policy, and USAID's closure is reverberating internationally. Many have lost their jobs; some 10000 grants and contracts have been canceled, disrupting global aid programmes and more. So much of it was illegitimate, bent, or wasteful. Elon Musk called it “beyond repair” and an “evil criminal organization,” boasting of feeding it “into the wood chipper.” Maybe so. Doesn't mean ending it will be easy. Anything but.There have been cuts to the federal workforce; numerous bodies, such as the Social Security Administration and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have been targeted.But at present, the administration is moving quickly and breaking things. Many support what is happening. Many don't. Nobody knows quite how far this will go, but it seems a lot further than anyone anticipated.Europe is going to have to pay its way, and he really means it. What are the implications of that?What is going to happen between Russia and Ukraine? What deal does he have in mind? Will Presidents Putin and Zelensky go along with it?What's going on with tariffs? Are they really about the revenue (I don't think so) or about something else? What are the implications there?What is the reaction from Trump's political opponents going to be? They've started attacking Tesla factories. They hate him so much they could not even bring themselves to applaud when a terminally ill child with brain cancer was given an honorary Secret Service award. Whether it's in the courts or on the streets, they will oppose everything he does. They would rather have corruption, waste, and no transparency than have Donald Trump.The amounts that have been saved so far are disputed. DOGE claimed $55 billion in the first month. Others have it closer to $15 billion. Either is peanuts in the context of the $2 trillion figure Elon Musk touted during the campaign and reiterated post-inauguration. This would represent roughly 30% of the federal budget ($6.75 trillion 2024). We are a long way from that. There are a thousand billions in a trillion.Musk is aiming for $1 trillion to be cut from the U.S. deficit in the first year. We are a long way from that too. Even with all the cuts, one Reuters analysis shows that spending has actually increased under Trump, largely due to the increase in interest payments on that extraordinary $36 trillion U.S. national debt. President Joe Biden increased that debt by $8 trillion—31%. Though, to be fair to him, Trump increased it by almost $8 trillion (40%) in his first term.I remember when it was below $10 trillion, and that seemed like a lot.If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times - and you should if you do not already own some - as always I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.Was he right?Remember this freaky interview I posted back in October?The preacher man who described Trump's assassination with uncanny accuracy, then talked about a mighty crash. People are always predicting crashes and getting it wrong, but this guy was amazing.Aaaaagh. Scary!As I say, if there is one thing markets don't like, it is uncertainty. And we have that in abundance. Nobody quite knows how this is going to pan out. I, for one, am incredibly optimistic. The sooner the system is drained of corruption, waste, rent-seeking, non-productive endeavour, crony capitalism, non-accountability, and all the rest of it, the better, in my view.But I recognise there is a mountain, and more, of upheaval to get through first.Thank goodness we have such a large allocation to gold. It is behaving like a trooper. Who knows? A mining boom might even come out of this.But the stock market does not like it one bit.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comBeware: imposters! Anyone appearing to be me, but soliciting you to chat on Telegram or WhatsApp or anywhere is NOT ME. It is someone trying to scam you out of your money.Some subscribers have reported difficulties upgrading their subscription to Lifetime. If so, please message me on Substack or reply to this email and I will put it right. Because of this I am extending the offer for a couple more days.We are talking testosterone today.I posted this video on YouTube the other day of me breaking the Lewisham dead hang record. Dead hangs are not the greatest spectator sport, so it might be one to watch sped up. In any case, somebody in the comments asked if I had been taking some kind of testosterone supplement. The answer is, “sort of.”Testosterone is something I have been meaning to write about for a while, and it is something I have been experimenting with, so here goes.I haven't had TRT - testosterone replacement therapy - or anything like that, but I have been looking to improve my testosterone levels, and I think I have had some success.Getting your levels up, whether man or woman, will make you feel A LOT better.Physically, higher testosterone levels mean more energy, more muscle, more fat burn, better sleep, better cardiovascular health and blood flow, better bone density and less inflammation. These are all super important once you pass 50.You're stronger, basically.Mentally, with more testosterone, your concentration improves, you become more targeted - that's another way of saying your focus improves (I don't like the word focus) - your spirits are higher, your confidence improves, you get bolder, more assertive and more driven. I have noticed improvements to all of the above.One thing, in particular, I have also noticed is a lower tolerance of fools, a higher appetite for risk and much more of a DNGAF attitude, which is something I've always wished I had more of. I had a blood test in September 2023 and it showed my testosterone level as 577 ng/dL. The normal range is 200-750ng/dL. An athlete in his early 20s might have levels above that. So my levels were above average - upper-middle - without being amazing. Testosterone peaks at 18 (probably why young men get into such trouble), then declines ever after. After 30 it declines at 1% per annum. But once you pass 45 - take note - there is an acceleration in decline. That is what we need to address.I haven't done another test, but I know my levels have improved. I can feel it. And I think I am well above 600ng/dL.Here is how to improve your testosterone1. ExerciseLift weightsRegular strength training boosts testosterone production, especially in the short term. Resistance training stimulates muscle growth, which signals the body to release more testosterone. Intensity matters - heavier weights with lower reps has a bigger impact. Compound movements such as squats, press-ups, bench presses and deadlifts are particularly effective.SprintSprints are more effective than light jogging. In fact, any kind of HIIT is good. I usually jog for 2 or 3 miles then do 4 30-second sprints up a hill at the end. It takes me about half an hour in total. Short, maximum-effort sprints (even just 6-10 seconds at 90-100% effort) with full recovery periods (1-2 minutes) work best. Play some competitive sportAny kind of competitive sport is good. Tennis, table tennis even. I still play footy - 6-a-side. I've found in the last year I am going in for challenges that I would not have attempted ten years ago.But, of the above three, resistance training is the most important.2. Other habitsSleepGood sleep is as important as exercise, perhaps even more so. The majority of your testosterone is produced when you are asleep. 7-9 hours is optimal. 5-6 hours and your levels drop by 10-15% in just a few days. One 2011 study found young men restricted to 5 hours of sleep had testosterone levels closer to someone 10-15 years older.My guide to sleeping better is here, but … go to bed an hour earlier.Use mouthtape when you sleep - breathing through your nose is better for testosterone. Lord knows why but that's what the bros say.What next?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comAt the moment it is relentless. I suppose I should take it as a compliment, but every day, sometimes several times per day some new account masquerading as me pops up. I block, report and delete as soon as I get wind of it, but I can't be in front of my computer 24/7. Please be aware: I don't use Telegram. I never invite people to chat on WhatsApp. So if somebody who appears to be me solicits you to join them on Telegram, WhatsApp or anywhere else, it is not me. It is someone who is trying to scam you.Let me start today's note with a very warm welcome to the many new readers who have signed up the Flying Frisby. Many have signed up because of the recent promotion for Lifetime Membership. That ends today, so if it's caught your eye, time is running out. For a one-off payment of just £450/$570 you will get full access to the Flying Frisby for life.Click the button below and you will see the option - I stress this is a one-off paymentToday, with stock markets looking very wobbly indeed, I thought it would be a good time to check in on the Dolce Far Niente portfolio.Dolce Far Niente, as I'm sure you know, means “the sweetness of doing nothing”, and the idea was to create a strong, long-term portfolio * which will grow and thrive* with which you will not have to constantly tinker* about which you will not to have to constantly worry. You can just leave it alone and let it be.It emphasises strategic asset allocation - being in the right market - above individual stock picking.So, with so many new readers, and with it being six months since we last looked, let's check in on it today.1 Gold (15% allocation)Gold is the ultimate Dolce Far Niente asset. It does nothing but sit there and look sweet. The shine may be coming off everything else, but it will never come off gold. It's up 55% since inception in October 2023 and going strong.My firm belief is that everyone should own some gold. Especially now.My guide to investing in gold is here. If you are looking to buy gold, try the Pure Gold Company.2. Bitcoin (5% allocation)HODL is another way of saying Dolce Far Niente, and, even with the current shake out, bitcoin has been another winner. It has more than tripled since inception (a 233% gain).Some will argue bitcoin has no place in a “low risk” portfolio such as this. I'd argue that the greater risk is not owning bitcoin.For those in the UK who can't buy it directly or buy the ETFs, our vehicle to play bitcoin via a UK-broker, and circumvent/satisfy ill-conceived-FCA regulation, was to own Nasdaq-listed Strategy Inc (Nasdaq:MSTR).This is one volatile stock, and the chart now looks nasty, but its President Michael Saylor is a genius. He embraces volatility, seeing it as a feature not a flaw. And the company has been another winner, up 9x since the inception of the portfolio, even after the recent correction.By the way, Strategy is proving a leading indicator for bitcoin - it was already falling when bitcoin was re-testing its old high. That makes it a super-useful forecaster. Take note.3. Special Situations (10%)This is the fun/painful part of the portfolio. Lightbridge (NASDAQ:LTBR) was a big winner here, as was and the tax-loss trade (time to exit this one if you haven't already). Junior miners, Condor and tax-loss trade aside, continue to suck.By the way, check out this nuts Lightbridge chart. The bots must have got hold of it. Surely one be one to buy on the dips and exit on the spikes.4. Uranium (5% allocation, reduced to 2.5%)I reduced the uranium allocation to 2.5% in February 2024, because it all felt too frothy. That has proved a good decision, as the price has since come down. We are in proper bear market now.I don't like uranium miners. Most of them will not see any production for years, decades even and are, therefore, drains on capital. We own the metal itself.

Another video for this Sunday morning, based on the very popular New Year's How To Win piece. I hope you draw some inspiration from it. (I meant to put it out in Jan, but didn't).Please like, watch, share and all those other things.All the bestDominicPS Could I draw your attention to a couple of things…Lifetime Membership Many people do not know about this, so, for one week only, I am running promotion. For a one-off payment of just £450/$570 you will get full access to the Flying Frisby for life. Click the button below and you will see the option - I stress this is a one-off paymentPlease consider upgrading your subscription - and if one of last year's flyers - Lightbridge, Novavax or Microstrategy worked for you, then consider this a way of saying thank you!PPS As always, if buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company with whom I have an affiliation deal. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.PPPS This week's commentary about my recent experiences in the US and, in particular, Tesla, went down a storm. ICYMI here it is: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

If you missed last week's special report, I urge you to take a look. Some of these are already starting to move, and fast .And so to today's piece. Tesla .I am just back from a two-week trip to the States, and what a time I had.I felt so privileged to be there at what feels like the dawn of a new golden age for this most amazing of countries.The first week I spent in Palm Springs, California, visiting my mum, and the second in Naples, Florida. Quite the contrast. One was Meltdown Central, the other was in a state of jubilation. Everyone everywhere was talking about the USAID revelations.I did not know Naples. What a stunning place. Hot, sunny, green, humid, beautiful (the architecture is lovely, even the newbuilds—that's traditional measures for you), polite, safe, cultured, healthy, delicious food. Life seems to slow down as soon you arrive. What's happening elsewhere no longer seems to matter. Were I to go there and settle, I think I would lose all ambition.The problem with settling there, though, is price. It has the most expensive real estate in the US. One house was for sale for $295 million. Even Satoshi Nakamoto would wince at paying that.“I told my kids, when they were growing up,” said Mike, who I was having dinner with, “this is not the real world. Naples is not reality. It's something else. They needed to know that.”I turned to his son—Matty Ice—the man who had brought me to Naples to talk tax, bitcoin, and other such things on the Runway Pod, an entrepreneur and family man in his early 30s. “Well, I'm not leaving. Why would I?”It turns out lots of people come to Naples on a temporary basis, then decide to stay.It's not just Naples real estate that is expensive, by the way. The whole of the US has got super dear. I paid $18 for a pint of beer in Miami airport. I had dinner at a friend's—he paid $60 for three steaks for the barbeque. I thought steak was cheap in the US. In a Palm Springs supermarket, I paid $4.99 for three organic onions. They saw me coming.In general, I would say food is twice the price it is here in the UK. And that's with a strong dollar. The country has got very expensive. Inflation is a big, big issue.My eldest son works in recruitment—in the chemicals industry—and most of the time he is recruiting in the US. He says US workers get paid three times the money for doing the same job as a UK worker - in that industry at least,But, whether it's Naples, neighbouring Fort Myers, or Miami, Florida; or Los Angeles or Palm Springs, California, there is also a lot of money in America. You can see it everywhere. It is several standard deviations of wealth up from the UK. The wealth is visible in the houses—even the middle-class houses—in the cars, in the clothes, in the prices. We in the UK have been left behind. It was not always like this.That wealth gap is only going to get bigger, as the UK continues to pursue high taxes, big regulation, mass migration, and zero growth, while the US goes in the other direction. The place is full of opportunity.Go to the US. Move there if you can, especially if you are young. The US was already something special, but something really special is happening there: the Washington purges are cleaning the place up. You've read the news, you've been on X, you've seen what's going on. You really don't need me to tell you.But watch what you eat. I put on 5 pounds (2 kilos) in just two weeks. Mind you, I couldn't stop eating. The food is yum. (People in the gym kept asking me how I got to be so lean - “by not living in America, and not eating American food” I explained).I don't believe this level of political reform would have happened to anything like the same extent without the involvement of Elon Musk. He really is doing God's work rooting out all that corruption. What emerges will be so much cleaner, more efficient, more honest, and more united.But of all the things I actually witnessed in person, do you know what most blew my mind?I did not expect this.It wasn't $295 million dollar houses. It wasn't all the private aircraft in Naples airport next to where we were recording.It was driving in a Tesla on autopilot. I'd never done it before. I know I am late to this, but OMG.Matty typed our destination into his computer, put the car into self-driving mode. Off it went.The Tesla was a noticeably better driver than I am. It positioned itself on the road well, staying in the middle of the lane at all times. It cornered beautifully. It maintained the exact right distance to the car ahead. It knew the speed limits of all the roads we drove on. It knew when the lights were changing and set off straight away. It has a 360-degree awareness—a human can only look in one direction—and knew exactly what other cars nearby were doing. It didn't get impatient and start doing silly things like jumping lights.With machine learning, each Tesla is feeding info back to HQ, so that every car is learning from the others' experiences. Teslas know the roads - every inch of them - better than you, even the local roads. They are learning how to deal with every conceivable traffic incident. This data-driven driving constantly updates.I am a backseat driver. I often push my foot down on the imaginary brake. As I was getting over my control issues, I did this at a red light in the distance. Turns out it was miles away. The Tesla braked at exactly the right time.It got us to our destination and then reversed and parked with precision into a tight spot. I'm a good parker. The Tesla was better. Of course it was. It has 360-degree vision, and my neck is getting stiff.The driving conditions were good. But how much better would it be in rain, fog or ice, I wondered.Tesla, Matty pointed out, is as much a software company—a platform like Airbnb, Facebook or TripAdvisor—as it is a car company.The next day, I had an Uber drive me from Naples to Miami airport.The Uber driver was good, but sometimes he was doing things on his phone—changing the podcast he was listening to, updating the map. “Look at the road,” I found myself thinking. Sometimes overt the 2-hour journey he strayed from the centre of the lane. One time he braked sharply. No such imperfection in the Tesla.Transport as we know it is about to changeThe main barriers to Tesla's self-driving progress are regulatory, but a certain Elon Musk is now in a position of influence. One of the reasons he is doing what he is doing is to clear out the regulators and bureaucrats who were so biased against him and blocked his progress—whom he came to despise.I think the regulatory barriers to self-driving vehicles start to come down quickly. Self-driving vehicles will soon be a feature on US roads. Then what happens?“I will have my car drop me at the office,” said Matty, “instruct it to pick me up at five, and then in the meantime I'll put it to work”. In other words, his car will not be idly parked all day. It will spend the day ferrying other people about. It will earn him money.Other Tesla owners will do the same. Suddenly owning a Tesla will become potentially profitable. A car will not be quite such a depreciating asset. No doubt some will buy fleets of them. Like any platform, Tesla itself is going to take a cut of the profit.Just to get the self-driving capability added to the software of the vehicle, you must pay another ten grand. Then comes the rent.Leaving your car parked 95% of the time, as most of us do—my car in London can stay parked for weeks at a time—is so inefficient. Not for much longer. At least, in the US. It'll be years before we allow it here in the UK or Europe. Of course, it will.What happens to American roads in the meantime? Fewer people are going to own cars, especially in cities. They won't need to. They can just call a Tesla. What happens to the rest of the auto industry? Fewer car sales. The cost of taxis though comes down. Drivers lose their jobs to robots. I guess something similar happens to the trucking industry too.The roads themselves are used more efficiently, as robots drive demonstrably better, leading to better traffic flow and less congestion.Public transport will see fewer users. Why use such a smelly system when you can travel privately in a Tesla? Self-driving cars were a pipe dream. That is about to change. American roads are about to change.There are other self-driving operators - Waymo, Cruise, or Mobileye - which are already fully operational in limited areas (ie driverless). They have partnered with the likes of Jaguar, Mercedes, Volvo and Hyundai, but they do not have Tesla's end-to-end autonomy. Nor do they have Tesla's immense network effect.The network effect is an incredibly powerful force in the evolution of a business. It's often more important that the tech itself (why, for example, VHS beat Betamax or CDs obliterated minidisk). It's why I advocate bitcoin ahead of other sh*tcoins. Tesla's dominance of roads could be on a par with Apple's dominance of the smartphone market. It is ahead of the pack.So should we all be buying stock in Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)?Let's take a financial overview.Phew! It's an expensive company. A lot of what I've already described must already be priced in.With a market cap now over $1 trillion, it is among the world's most valuable companies.Annual revenue in 2024 was $98 billion, with minimal growth on the previous year. The pro-electric narrative of a few years ago has dissipated over the last couple of years.EBITDA for the twelve months ending in December 2024 was $15 billion. The EV-to-EBITDA, which compares the company's enterprise value to its EBITDA, stands at around 72, indicating a “premium valuation” relative to its operational earnings.Its trailing P/E ratio is high, high, high at 177, as is its forward P/E of 124. A lot of earnings growth is expected. This could reflect anticipation of Tesla's expansion into new markets, battery technology, and/or the self-driving revolution I have described, but it also points to a richly priced stock, for which investors are paying a substantial premium. The Price/Earnings to Growth (PEG) ratio, at 8.5, also implies Tesla is overvalued.Any setback—some kind of bad accident, a large insurance claim, a rival technology becoming suddenly competitive—and this stock can take a big hit.Turning to the company's financial health and profitability, Tesla's Return on Equity (ROE) is 10.4%—I've seen worse—and its Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) is 6%, which denotes an efficient use of capital, something Musk is known for.Tesla maintains a relatively low Debt/Equity ratio of 0.18, suggesting a conservative approach to leverage, which should reduce volatility. The current ratio of 2.02 indicates good short-term liquidity, allowing Tesla to meet its short-term liabilities comfortably.But it is a volatile stock—so perhaps one to buy on weakness. The 52-week high is $488, the low $139. You can more than double your money if you buy this well. Currently at $350 we are in the middle of the range—well up from the lows, but also well off the highs—and in a downtrend.Analysts, meanwhile, are divided. Predictions range from $115.00 to $550.00. reflecting a wide range of expectations.Tesla is unique. It has the potential to transform transport as we currently know it. It could have enormous first-mover advantage and a near monopoly on roads, as more and more people “put their car to work,” and what is currently an expense becomes a secondary source of income. It is the market leader, it is the technological leader, it could enjoy something of a monopoly on roads as it drives ahead of its competitors.To maintain and grow this valuation, it needs to stay ahead of rivals, it needs to overcome the regulatory barriers it faces, and it needs to manage the many inherent risks of the automotive and tech industries.But one thing Elon Musk has is vision. He will have seen all of this and be working towards it.I can quite easily envisage a scenario where Tesla's dominance of roads is near monopolistic—like Apple's dominance of phones or something.In such a scenario, its valuation will be a lot higher.It'll make money on the car, on the software, then on the rental.It will also be the most common car on the roads. Transport is about to change.Disclaimer:I am not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or any other regulatory body as a financial advisor. Therefore, any information provided in this newsletter does not constitute regulated financial advice. It is solely an expression of opinion. Stocks are inherently risky. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult with a financial advisor if you have any doubts. Remember, markets can both rise and fall. I am not aware of your individual financial circumstances, so only invest money that you can afford to lose. This is a public episode. 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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comHundreds of tonnes of gold - so much so that there is now something of a shortage in London - have made their way across the Atlantic to the US to get ahead of Trump tariffs. Something like 400 tonnes have gone to the Comex alone, never mind what's gone to the private vaults of HSBC, JP Morgan et al.With a shortage of physical gold for delivery in London, waiting times now as long as eight weeks, and the Bank of England refusing to comment, there are all sorts of rumours flying about. It's not a great situation for London, which is normally the epicentre of the physical gold markets.I don't think we're going to get a proper run on gold, but it's possible nonetheless, and if we do, talk about unintended consequences...A bit of zip in the normally quite sleepy physical markets.Today, however, I wanted to give my outlook on gold for 2025. Before I do this, I have two things to plug:One is my mate Charlie Morris' newsletter, Atlas Pulse. This monthly gold report is, in my view, the best out there bar none, and it's free. More here.And, two, if you are thinking of buying gold - and I think everyone should own some - my preferred bullion dealer is the Pure Gold Company. You should get your gold or silver from them.Gold's Silent SurgeThe gold price has been rising relentlessly since November 2022.Here we are in early 2025, within a few dollars of all-time highs at $2,800.Gold is at or close to all-time highs against the Japanese yen, the euro, the Swiss franc, the Great British peso, the Aussie and Canadian dollars, and pretty much any other fiat currency you care to mention.And yet I don't recall seeing much mention of this anywhere. This is very much a stealth bull market, the best kind of bull market. It means there is plenty more hype left in the can.Private investors are almost completely ignoring gold. In Germany, normally one of the biggest buyers of physical, I gather we are seeing net selling in the retail markets. One reason is there's profit to be had, especially for those who bought during Covid - of which there are many . Two, because the economy is in the toilet and people need the money. Higher rates in recent years have dampened both investment and speculative demand for gold.A lot of the money that fuels the junior end of the mining markets also comes from retail buying, and if they're not buying bullion, they are certainly not buying miners: hence the atrophy there.So who is buying then, if the price keeps on going up? The answer, as regular readers of the Flying Frisby will be able to tell you straight away, is central banks, especially in Asia. This trend accelerating after the US began freezing Russian assets following its invasion of Ukraine.China imported 124 tonnes just in November, writes Jan Nieuwenhuijs of the Gold Observer. It has bought 1,050 tonnes since the Russian Freeze, and it is buying 400 oz bars from London, which are almost certainly making their way to the People's Bank of China - 400 oz bars do not trade on the Shanghai Gold Exchange. It is also buying roughly three times as much as it declares.The explanation is obvious. Central banks need reserve assets which other governments can't freeze, so-called bearer assets. Gold, which is value in and of itself, is the answer. There is no equal.Here we see gold as a percentage of central bank reserves is now at 20%.I doubt we go back to the heady pre-WWII days when gold made up 80-90% of reserves - money was not fiat then - but you can see the trend is very much up. It has been for 10 years now. The percentage has doubled in that time. I see no reason why it can't double again in the next ten years. 40 % of reserves held in gold seems like a reasonable number, a conservative number.Nations are, says Nieuwenhuijs, "obviously preparing for a multipolar world in which the dollar's role as a reserve asset will be gently reduced."You can look at all this and describe the process as natural and sensible asset allocation: diversification away from other government currencies, especially the US dollar. Or you can proclaim that other nations are preparing to abandon the dollar and for a new gold standard. It's probably about 80% former and 20% latter. That may well change - but we are not there yet.While nations might not be so much abandoning the dollar as they are simply increasing their gold holdings, they, are, however, reducing their holdings of US Treasuries. De-dollarisation and diversification.At the moment, the whole process is covert and benign, but it may become a lot more significant a few years from now.I urge you too to be diversified and own plenty of gold. It may well be that you are going to need it, and you're better off booking your seat on the lifeboat now while they are still available. This is especially the case if you are in the UK: there has never been a Labour government that didn't devalue, and this particular lot are flip-flopping and clueless. My guide to buying gold is here, in case of use:I don't see any reason for this central bank buying to abate, by the way. My prognosis is that it continues.What about the new President?I want to, briefly, consider gold and President Donald Trump.Here is what gold did last time he was in power.

Here's one for you.Thousands of years ago aliens landed on earth. They came in great space ships, which the ancients took to be chariots of the gods, and they came for gold. They were the Anunnaki from the planet Nibiru, according to ancient astronaut theory, which derives from author Zecharia Sitchin's interpretations of Sumerian texts. Tall and imposing, with features both human and otherworldly, they were seen as deities. They needed gold dust to suspend in their planet's atmosphere to protect it from the solar radiation that was slowly destroying it.But the primitive hominids they found here, such as homo erectus, were useless, so they combined their alien DNA with them to create a worker race capable of mining the gold they had come for: Homo sapiens. They established mining colonies in Africa and in the Fertile Crescent, which became the cradle of civilisation. The Anunnaki taught humans many things – agriculture, astronomy, mathematics, writing and record keeping - to ensure their mining operations ran smoothly. Eventually, they departed, taking vast quantities of gold with them, but they left behind some of what they had created. Evidence of their existence can be found in myths, ancient mines, ancient texts and, of course, in the Megalithic structures they created such as the Pyramids and Stonehenge.There is actually some evidence that the capstones on top of the pyramids – the pyramidia – were gilded with a layer of gold or electrum (gold-silver alloy), which, of course, would add to the many celestial and religious connotations of these structures. It's also thought we could not build them today.This is one of the reasons we associate gold with the gods.That's my story and I'm sticking to it.Tell your friends about this ancient alien race.If you haven't already, take a look at my buddy Charlie Morris's monthly gold report, Atlas Pulse. It is, in my view, the best gold newsletter out there, and, best of all, it's free. Sign up here.And, of course, if you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, as always I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.You really should subscribe.I mucked up the title of my mid-week piece, so in case you missed it here it is: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

I regard the crimes committed by the Pakistani Rape Gangs as some of the most barbaric, if not the most barbaric, given the scale of them, ever to have been perpetrated on British soil.Yet, while I knew they were bad, I don't think I realized quite how bad they are.I've just finished playing a judge - Judge Peter Rook - in a new "verbatim film," which recreates the sentencing word for word of one of the most notorious grooming cases in Oxford. What went on is horrifying.It's called "The Grooming Gangs Cover-Up." It is produced by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, founders of the Unreported Story Society, which specializes in verbatim dramas, plays, and podcasts, and it comes out this Tuesday, January 21. Here's the trailer:At times, I could not believe the words that were coming out of my mouth.I remember telling my elder son and daughter about these rape gangs back in the mid-2010s. Neither believed such a thing was possible. My son started googling. Even on the internet, there was little evidence of what was going on. Rapists are predominantly white, he concluded, and that was that in their minds.The internet had smothered the story.In 2020, when everybody was squabbling over Brexit, there was this campaign to get the Remainer anthem - Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" conducted by André Rieu - to the top of the charts in time for the day we left. Fighting a rearguard action, Leavers then tried to get my song about Brexit, "17 Million F*ck Offs," to Number One. The result is that quite a few singles got sold. The media loved the story, and it was all over the papers. But there is one thing they left out: that I donated the proceeds to the Maggie Oliver Foundation, a charity set up to help the victims of rape gangs. Even that got covered up. (I don't know what Rieu did with his royalties).Midjourney, an AI art app which I use to illustrate these articles, refuses to design me a picture to illustrate the title of today's piece. Cover up, like the crimes themselves, is still happening.A couple of years ago, my daughter-in-law was drugged by a Pakistani Bolt driver who had offered her a drink of water. This was in London - not Rotherham or Telford. Fortunately, the drug only kicked in after she had arrived at her destination and her friends looked after her. But what would have happened if that man had "helped out" by offering to take her home? How many other young girls have not been so lucky?I put a picture of the guy online along with a warning. There were a lot of comments underneath. Many of them were deemed racist. Such is the extent of the brainwashing in the name of multiculturalism, a comment is now deemed of greater concern than actual deeds. What is racism, anyway?I define it as the wilful persecution of someone on the grounds of their race. These white girls were the victims of racism. And sexism. And paedophilia. And rape. And GBH. And, in some cases, murder.They were targeted because of their race. They were called "white w****s," "white c*nts," and "white slags," and no amount of contempt was enough for them. Yet, of course, they were white, and apparently, whites cannot be the victims of racism. Whites are privileged, you know that.When is this two-tiered insanity going to stop? Is it not clear how much damage these false, progressive narratives, which we have let thrive, are doing?We need a clear discussion followed by a definition - not the definition of a race grifter - of what racism is. And the rules need to be the same for everyone. No more multi-tiered nonsense.These were racist crimes. And they went on for so long because those who should have put a stop to them were scared of being labelled racist. Rather than risk that slur, they threw children under the bus. Woke is, truly, cancerous. If you live in a remote rural village, and somebody of unusual appearance comes along, and you stare at them, that does not make you racist. Staring at what is unusual to you is normal. If you use a word that is now considered out-of-date, perhaps as a result of not mixing in sophisticated urban circles, with zero harmful intent that does not make you racist. However, if you target a little girl because she is white, then groom her, inject her with drugs, rape her, and then sell her body to people you know so they can rape her - well, that is racist. And a whole lot more besides.Let the truth be toldAt lunch the other day, I started to read out to my family some of the judge's sentencing remarks, which detail what happened. We got about two sentences in before it all got to be too much, and they didn't want to hear it. No surprise. What happened is beyond awful.Read the below if you can stomach it.How can one human being do something like this to another?The beauty of these verbatim dramas is that the creators cannot be accused of sensationalism or exaggeration. It is the truth. That is what needs to come out. We have to learn about what has happened if only to motivate ourselves and our leaders into doing something about this.It has been going on since the 1990s. It is still going on today. No more brushing it under the carpet in the name of multi-culturalism.The Jay Report claims that 1,400 children (that's just the under-age ones) were sexually exploited in Rotherham over 16 years. If you extrapolate that number over 50 other towns and cities, you arrive at roughly 70,000 victims. That is a conservative estimate. You can do similar extrapolations and come to a figure of a million. The likelihood is 250,000-500,000, given that we are talking about a period longer than 16 years and it has been happening in more than 50 locations. Kids!For sure, the cover-ups - the unwillingness to police, prosecute, publicize, or punish - meant the rape gangs went much further than they otherwise would. They thought they could get away with it.We need truth, even if it is unpalatable, if we are to stop things like this ever happening again.Most of these girls have never had anything like justice. How is a few years in prison anything like justice anyway?If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here. The system does not work - smash itPrison is no longer sufficient punishment. It does not work as a deterrent. With almost 20% of inmates now Muslim and, according to a solicitor friend, with prisons now largely controlled on the inside by Muslim gangs, prison has become a place of indoctrination, radicalization, and Islamism. Thus, not only does imprisonment not work, it is actually counter-productive: it is creating offenders. Who'd've thought something run by government doesn't work as intended? Then prisoners get let out too early, especially to make room for people uttering wrong think on social media.Prison is also expensive - annual imprisonment now costs more than £50,000-100,000 per year per inmate, plus the costs of processing it all (police, courts, legal aid, etc) also amount to more than £50,000. As if what the rapist has done is not already bad enough, now we have to pay for him too. The courts are overwhelmed. The justice system is exploited. We need something different and better. It's long overdue. Horror stories like this one can at least motivate the required reform.There are other factors motivating the cover-up in my view. Policing your own community, where everybody knows who's who, everybody speaks the same language, and comes from the same culture is one thing. But policing another culture, where the language is different, the values are different - even the names are difficult - is much harder.It gets even harder when the majority of that culture feel a greater loyalty to their own people and culture than they do to what is right in the eyes of the host culture, or indeed the people of the host culture. If the alien culture does not integrate, it gets even harder. It was probably easier for the police to let stuff go, and focus on other things.Put your email in the box below and get my free guide to investing in gold.Here's a thoughtIn the largely secular UK, where the state now takes on responsibilities which were once borne by the church - education, care and so on - the state has also replaced religion. From Nigel Lawson to Polly Toynbee, it is now recognized that the NHS has become a religion.But the Pakistani communities that have taken over so many towns in the north and elsewhere do not feel the same sense of loyalty, protection, or worship to Britain's welfare state. It is something to take from rather than contribute to. They worship the Prophet Mohammed, not the NHS. I will wager a large bet that - especially in these communities where cash plays such a big role - they are paying much lower levels of tax than their earnings dictate. They will pay their Zakat long before they pay their VAT, Income or other taxes. Is HMRC policing these economies to the same extent? You know it isn't.Will a thorough investigation be commissioned? Of course it won't. That would be racist.More tiers, more iniquity, more injustice.But that's is another story, and it'll be years before that one comes out. Please tell your friends about this article.Follow the release of the film here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comHeads up: there is now a video version of last week's predictions piece, if you fancy:Onwards …I am bullish on America.For all its failings, I think it's still, as comedian Lewis Schaffer is forever telling me, “the greatest country in the world.”The new administration has huge hurdles ahead of it - not least sorting out the excess spending on its military-industrial complex and atrocious healthcare system, though perhaps "system" is not the word I should be using. The administration also faces considerable resistance from its ideological opponents who prevail in the deep state.But if Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, RFK, et al. get just a third of the stuff they have planned over the line, then the economy is going to boom like hell. There is a lot of money in that country, a lot of entrepreneurial spirit, and a lot of opportunity. Just the size of the US alone means it is, in itself, an enormous market.However, while the economy and the stock market are bedfellows, they do not always march forward hand in hand. How often this century have we seen stock markets boom while life for the ordinary working person becomes ever harder? Inflation, for example, eats away at his effective earnings, and he struggles to keep up, while the same inflationary dynamic actually pushes up stock markets.The reverse can also apply. There might be an economic boom "on the street," but stock markets, on the other hand, might be flat. Perhaps they already advanced a year ahead of the boom in anticipation. Perhaps life made better for the American worker by, say, tariffs does not suit global companies like Apple, and so stock prices retreat.So, while I am bullish on America, am I bullish on US stocks?I must confess to being rather more ambivalent, as there are a number of headwinds and warning signs.Let's look at some of them.First, there is the small (by that I mean large) matter of the US dollar.

Enjoy!Why not subscribe to this fantastic substack?Here's the original article if you prefer to read or listen” If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.And If you haven't already, take a look at my buddy Charlie Morris's monthly gold report, Atlas Pulse. It is, in my view, the best gold newsletter out there, and, best of all, it's free. Sign up here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

ICYMI (there were problems with the site mid-week), check out my forecasts for 2025, always one of my more popular pieces of the year.He has invented an entirely new digital system of money with the potential to change the world as we know it. He has watched it grow to a market cap of over two trillion dollars, with as many as 100 million users worldwide, including actual nations, and the US President promising a strategic bitcoin reserve in his 2024 election campaign. He has half the internet nosing about and trying to figure out who he is. His own coins are worth about $100 billion, making him one of the richest people on earth.Yet he has managed to stay completely unknown and anonymous. It is almost unbelievable.Never mind Big Foot, the Mary Rose or the Loch Ness Monster, the mystery of ‘Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?' is perhaps the greatest mystery the world has ever known - or not known.There have been thousands of investigative attempts, articles, blog posts and discussion groups involving probably millions of man hours dedicated to pinning down this man, with names bandied about from Elon Musk to little known computer scientists. They have all failed. Satoshi's identity is as bulletproof as his code.For my 2014 book, Bitcoin: the Future of Money?, from which today's piece is taken, I ventured on the same doomed journey. I spent many months poring over the 80,000 words Satoshi wrote in the three years he was active online, looking for clues. What unusual words did he use? Does he make any spelling mistakes? Does he have any quirky grammatical habits? I analysed it in such detail I can tell you where he places brackets, how he uses hyphens, even how many spaces he uses after a full stop and how that changed – all in the hope of finding idiosyncrasies that appear in the writing of other Cypherpunks - clues which might lead me to him.Profiling a genius – some broad brushstrokes‘I've had the good fortune to know many brilliant people over the course of my life, so I recognize the signs.' Hal FinneySatoshi reached such high levels of expertise in so many different fields that many believe he can't possibly be one person. He is a polymath. It is not just the breadth and depth of his knowledge, but, more importantly, its specificity that makes him unique.In order to first conceive a new system of electronic cash, one would have to have thought extensively about the nature of money and its history. Money is a subject that has found more interest in the last few years with the emergence of bitcoin, the 2000s bull market in gold, the financial crisis and the growth of libertarianism, but, in 2007–8, when bitcoin was conceived and first introduced, books and academic papers on the subject were few and far between. The subject did not have broad appeal.How many of those who cared actually had the ability to design a system like this? It is one thing declaring what needs to be done; it is another putting it into practice.Satoshi must have had expertise in computer coding, mathematics, databases, accounting, peer-to-peer systems, digital ownership, law, smart contracts, cryptography and monetary history.He had to have had experience in academia. The act of submitting a white paper, its presentation, the impeccable referencing – it all denotes academia, even government.It's also easy to infer from the way bitcoin was launched that Satoshi had experience in open-source tech start-ups.The resilience of the code suggests he had computer hacking experience. Moreover, his ability to keep his identity hidden, despite the fact that half the internet is trying to figure out who he is, suggests significant practical experience in staying anonymous. It also means he has the trust of those who know him, if anyone did, to keep his secret.Then there's the matter of his prose. It is consistent and of such a high standard it seems he must have had experience as a writer – perhaps he was a blogger, an academic or an author. He was also quite humble and dismissive of his ability in this regard. ‘I'm better with code than with words', he said.It's clear from his posts that he had the awareness to see shortcomings in his system, and the patience not to try to do too much too quickly. He had the foresight to perceive problems before they arose and the meticulousness to prepare for them. He appears to have remained calm and measured in the face of difficulty, but also of his own success. He treated those two imposters just the same. Signs of arrogance are hard to find.Then there's the way that bitcoin was introduced to the world. PR, like economics, is not an exact science. Sometimes something gains traction, sometimes it doesn't – and there's no explaining why. Bitcoin has been a PR masterstroke. The coverage it has received has been enormous. It gets more publicity than gold, which is the oldest form of money there is. Satoshi cannot take all of the credit for this, but he has to take some of it. He understood when to make his ideas known, at what point to release his creation into the open-source world and he had the self-efacement to let go of it for others to develop. He promoted his idea with huge under-statement – but the scheduled creation of bitcoins meant there would be no shortage of bitcoin-holders to do the promoting for him.So we can add an understanding of both PR and psychology to his list of qualities. His knowledge of how people on the internet, in the open source world and in large institutions work, allowed him to progress his creation.Finally, he has a certain honesty. Despite Bitcoin's similarities to a pyramid or Ponzi scheme, he never pumped-and- dumped his creation. Tempting though it must have been, he never sold the bitcoins he mined. That also suggests he already had money.There are not many people like this.From mathematics to computer programming to economics and monetary history to politics to PR and psychology to cryptography to business acumen and vision to plain old written English – in all of these fields he excelled. To cap it all, he's probably good-looking too.It's early in history to be drawing this sort of comparison, I know, but there are many parallels between Satoshi and Isaac Newton. Newton was a brilliant scientist and mathematician, of course, and an alchemist. But he was also Master of the Royal Mint. He redesigned England's monetary system, putting us onto the gold standard on which Britain's colossal progress during the next 200 years was built.If you haven't already, take a look at my buddy Charlie Morris's monthly gold report, Atlas Pulse. It is, in my view, the best gold newsletter out there, and, best of all, it's free. Sign up here.First instinctMany believe that Satoshi was Hal Finney, the veteran programmer, who invented reusable proof of works, one of the models on which bitcoin was based. This was my first instinct. Often such “first instincts”, for reasons I cannot begin to explain, prove correct. When Satoshi first announced bitcoin on the cryptography mailing list, nobody replied. The message was ignored for two days. In the short-attention-span land of the web, two days is a long time to wait for some feedback on something you've spent 18 months working on. Two days is a long time to wait when you might have nailed something Cypherpunks had been dreaming about for 20 years.The first reply came from Finney. Was he replying to himself in order to generate some interest and discussion – to bump his thread? Replying to your own posts, known as ‘sock-puppeting', is not uncommon. Let us pursue this line of thinking a little further.Finney was born in 1956 – in that same two-year golden window as so many computer-scientist geniuses that would change the world (from Bill Gates to Tim Berners-Lee to Steve Jobs) were born – and spent his life working on cryptographic systems. He was number two to Phil Zimmerman, the pioneer in the field, for many years at the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) Corporation, where they developed the most widely used email encryption software in the world.Such were his beliefs in privacy, freedom, and Cypherpunk, Finney was known to spend many nights writing and developing code for free, just because he believed in the work.In 1993, he published the paper, ‘Detecting Double-Spending'. Solving the double-spending problem (ensuring the same money cannot be used twice) was, of course, the key problem with digital cash. It was what Satoshi was so excited about when he proposed Bitcoin. In 2004, Finney developed the ‘reusable proof-of-work' (RPOW) system, which coders regarded as a brilliant step forward – but his system never saw any economic use until b itcoin.Finney is one of the few people to have the background and expertise to have developed bitcoin – but he is also an obvious person to take an immediate interest.In his very first reply to Satoshi's announcement, he wrote:“As an amusing thought experiment, imagine that Bitcoin is successful and becomes the dominant payment system in use throughout the world. Then the total value of the currency should be equal to the total value of all the wealth in the world. Current estimates of total worldwide household wealth that I have found range from $100 trillion to $300 trillion. With 20 million coins, that gives each coin a value of about $10 million.”The comment shows extraordinary insight. Many now see this “amusing thought experiment” as inevitable. But could it also be somebody trying to get others excited? Very possibly.(By the way, ‘thought experiment' is an expression Satoshi himself uses – though it is not uncommon in coding circles).Of the many names touted as Satoshi, Finney's writing style is one of the few that match. The major difference is Satoshi used British spelling and Finney does not. There is a similar calm, understated tone, similar use of language, similar punctuation habits: two spaces after a full stop. In stylometrics tests carried out by John Noecker Jr., chief scientific officer at text analysis experts Juola & Associates, Finney consistently scored high. (However, veteran cypherpunk blogger, Nick Szabo, scored higher). Then I noticed both Finney and Satoshi had ‘@gmx.com' email addresses. (GMX is a free email provider based in Germany. Many Germans use GMX, while Americans and British tend to gravitate towards Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo. Today they would probably gravitate towards P rotonmail). Was this just coincidence – or was it a clue?Why did Satoshi disappear?In December 2010, Satoshi made his final post and then disappeared from the internet.Why?Perhaps to protect his anonymity in the face of rising interest from the media and, more significantly, the authorities: to protect his own safety as the WikiLeaks panic began to erupt. (After Wikileaks was shut out of the financial system, many began sending it bitcoin. The effect, ironically, was thus to make it an extraordinarily wealthy organisation).But there is also the possibility that he disappeared because he was ill.In 2009, Finney was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease – amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – the same disease from which Stephen Hawking suffered. It is, for the most part, fatal and claims its victims within two to five years. ‘My symptoms were mild at first,' he says, ‘and I continued to work, but fatigue and voice problems forced me to retire in early 2011. Since then the disease has continued its inexorable progression.' Finney, eventually died in August 2014.In March 2013 he said, ‘Today, I am essentially paralyzed. I am fed through a tube, and my breathing is assisted through another tube. I operate the computer using a commercial eye-tracker system. It also has a speech synthesizer, so this is my voice now. I spend all day in my power wheelchair. I worked up an interface using an Arduino so that I can adjust my wheelchair's position using my eyes. It has been an adjustment, but my life is not too bad. I can still read, listen to music, and watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write code. It's very slow, probably 50 times slower than I was before. But I still love programming and it gives me goals.'Could a terrible illness be the reason Satoshi withdrew?Finney was one of the first to mine bitcoins. What did he do with them?I mined several blocks over the next days. But I turned it off because it made my computer run hot, and the fan noise bothered me. In retrospect, I wish I had kept it up longer, but on the other hand, I was extraordinarily lucky to be there at the beginning. It's one of those glass half full, half empty things.The next I heard of Bitcoin was late 2010, when I was surprised to find that it was not only still going, bitcoins actually had monetary value. I dusted off my old wallet, and was relieved to discover that my bitcoins were still there. As the price climbed up to real money, I transferred the coins into an offline wallet, where hopefully they'll be worth something to my heirs. Those discussions about inheriting your bitcoins are of more than academic interest. My bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech-savvy. I think they're safe enough. I'm comfortable with my legacy.Finney sold many of his bitcoins in order to pay for medical care, many at around $100. Satoshi never moved his.If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.We are all SatoshiFinney was a key player in the development of Bitcoin, no doubt. He was one of the first to ask real questions. He managed to understand from the start the inner workings of the Bitcoin protocol and its potential. He explored the weaknesses in the Bitcoin code – one of them is even named 'the Finney Attack'. He had many exchanges with Satoshi on the Bitcoin forums as they progressed the code and developed new versions. He asked question after question. But these very exchanges show there were two people talking. On January 10th, 2009, for example, Finney publicly complained to Satoshi that Bitcoin had crashed when he tried to receive a transaction. If it was his own code, and he was transacting with himself, he would surely have quietly fixed it himself.Moreover, coders all agree that Finney's coding style – and the style of the comments written in the code – is different from Satoshi's. Also, Finney preferred to code in the language C, whereas Bitcoin is coded in C++. This is something Finney himself confirms: 'I've done some changes to the Bitcoin code, and my style is completely different from Satoshi's. I program in C, which is compatible with C++, but I don't understand the tricks that Satoshi used.'Shortly before the publication of this book, the Forbes journalist Andy Greenberg published an interview with Hal Finney. Finney was now too ill to even speak – he could only raise his eyebrows to say yes. His son showed Greenberg fifteen email exchanges between Satoshi and Finney from January 2009. They mainly focused on bugs Finney had found in the code, to which Satoshi replied with fixes - and notes of thanks. Greenberg was also shown Finney's bitcoin wallet – with the transfers between Satoshi and Finney made back in 2009. As Greenberg notes, the wallet evidence and the Gmail timestamps in the emails would have been hard to forge. To cap it all, there is the fact that in 2009, at precisely the same moment Satoshi sent time-stamped e-mails, Finney, a keen runner, was photographed in the middle of a ten-mile race. Nobody, not even Satoshi Nakamoto, can be in two places at once.Bitcoin could not have happened without the work of Finney.If Satoshi Nakamoto was several people, Finney might have been one of them. But if Satoshi is an individual, Hal Finney was not him. This is an extract from my 2014 book, Bitcoin: the Future of Money? I hear the audiobook's excellent. ;)If you missed them (there were problems with the site midweek), check out my forecasts for 2025. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comBitcoin to $200,000k anyone? Sterling to crash? The US dollar to 20 year highs? As for silver …OK, folks. It's predictions time.As ever, the eternal conflict applies: the more outlandish the prediction, the more entertaining it is to read about - but the less likely it is to actually happen.On these pages, we attempt to strike a balance.Here are 15 things to look out for in 2025.1. The long overdue correction in the UK housing market finally begins.“Record Boxing Day bounce,” says Rightmove. Read beyond the headline and you get this: “Our data shows a 26% increase in the number of new properties listed for sale compared to Boxing Day 2023, which previously held the record.” They're trying to spin more sellers.More sellers means more supply.Meanwhile… houses are overpriced. The economy is not booming, so people have less money. Labour's higher taxes also mean buyers have less capital to spend. Higher mortgage rates mean there is less money to borrow, and, thus, less newly created money to come into the market and prop up prices. The rich are not coming to Britain - they are leaving, if they haven't already left.More supply of houses, but less money to buy them with.Meanwhile, stamp duty is a massive deterrent to buyers. Never mind people choosing not to move because of it, anyone buying a second or third home - they're as good as gone: who is going to pay 5% stamp duty for a second or third home? Not many people, I wouldn't have thought. More supply, less money, fewer buyers.Then there is the general perception of the economy. Psychologically, people are not feeling rich, nor are they bullish about the economy, meaning fewer people will take the plunge.What about investment from overseas?See my earlier comment about stamp duty. The cost of buying drives away investment.Moreover, the UK is not currently well looked upon. Rich Americans, for example (normally a good source of buyers), are not going to pile in given, one, the costs of buying and, two, how the UK is currently perceived over there.Then Labour are going to loosen planning laws and build a whole load more houses - well, they say they are - meaning even more supply.As if that wasn't enough, 2026 is the year the 18-year-cycle in property turns down. If houses don't turn down this year, I'll declare this market permanently immune.2. Keir Starmer survivesHis premiership is already looking dicey. It's one crisis after another, and it's difficult to see how he survives, especially with all the rape gang stuff.However, I think short-term PMs became a bit normalised in the Cameron-May-Johnson-Truss-Sunak era. Cameron went because of Brexit. May went for the same reason. Johnson got his landslide, handed to him by Farage, but then Covid came along, and Johnson, under a lot of pressure from the Left, got the shove from Tory MPs with whom he was never particularly popular anyway, worried about their seats. Not having been elected, Truss and Sunak were toast before they even started.None of that applies to Starmer. I admit he is looking shaky, particularly under this extraordinary pressure from Elon Musk. But I still think it's too early for Labour MPs, worrying about their seats, to give him the shove, and it's normal for a PM to last the full term - what happened under the Idiots Tories was not normal - so somehow Starmer survives the year.3. Gold hits $3,000.I'm not wildly bullish about gold at the moment, at least in US dollar terms, though I still think it is absolutely essential you own some. One, because at some point the China gold story is going to hit the mainstream, and suddenly there will be a scramble for gold. It probably won't be this year, but you never know, and gold is one particular lifeboat you want to have ready in advance. Second, if you are in the UK, I think sterling has problems - more on this in a moment - and your wealth is much better stored in shiny yellow metal than it is in British government digital stuff. (You would normally say British government paper, but it isn't paper anymore).On which note, if you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.And If you haven't already, take a look at my buddy Charlie Morris's monthly gold report, Atlas Pulse. It is, in my view, the best gold newsletter out there, and, best of all, it's free. Sign up here.$3,000 - landmark number though it is - is only 12.5% higher than where we are. We could easily see that by June.4. Microstrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) becomes a top 100 company by market cap. Currently, Deutsche Telecom (market cap US$145 bn) is 100th. Microstrategy is $85 billion at time of writing. It joins the elite. What a pick this has been for readers.5. Bitcoin … I was in Miami on New Year's Eve at Michael Saylor's - strictly on reconnaissance, of course - and one thing I learned there was that roughly half of corporate donations during the 2024 Presidential Election - $245m according to the Federal Election Commission - came from the crypto industry. Coinbase alone contributed $75 million. I'm a beneficiary, so I'm not complaining, but, really, you have to say, buying such favour is more than a little dodgy, even if that is how the world works and has almost always worked.But it means the likelihood of the Republicans delivering on their pledge for a strategic bitcoin reserve is likely. The US isn't going to buy a million coins straight away, but it may well buy 3-400,000 in year one. That sends bitcoin a lot higher.The prediction?

Last year I did one of those Landmark Forum personal development courses, which, by the way, I recommend.One of the takeaways was that one should publicly declare one's goals and aspirations. In doing so, several things happen.You make yourself more accountable. Knowing that others now know your goals pushes you to take stronger action to achieve them. You thus become more committed to them. The act of public statement also solidifies goals both in your mind and in the public perception, thereby moving them beyond an abstract idea to something more concrete. The act of articulating goals also clarifies what it is you are actually looking for and may even give you new insights.Support networks can also emerge: friends, family, peers, contacts are more likely to help in some way, if they know what you are trying to achieve. They might introduce you to helpful people. Those who have been down similar paths might be able to offer advice, assistance or collaboration.You will have something to keep referring back to, better enabling you to track progress, which will further reinforce the whole thing.Finally, making such a declaration makes you vulnerable, but that is actually empowering and liberating. It reduces internal conflict; while others might empathise and want to help you for your honesty.With all this in mind, I thought I would share my New Year resolutions with you. I hope you find some interest, amusement or even motivation in them.Some are quite personal, but for reasons stated above, I've decided to post them anyway. I hope it is not TMI.I always tend to overdo it with my resolutions - reach for the sky and then, even if you fall short, you still end up pretty high.So here they are:Health, Body & Mind* Stay fit and strong. Weights two or three times a week. Something aerobic two or three times a week. Plenty of stretching. Daily deadhangs, pelvic floors, breathing and neck exercises.* Keep drinking less.* Fast once a week.* Eat more protein.* Get good at lucid dreaming. (Lucid dreams are when you are aware you are in a dream, while you dream - dreaming is something I have got very interested in of late).* Read at least 15 books. I read a fair bit, but most of it is online. I hardly seem to read actual books any more - my phone always takes priority. Put this right.* Try and do some mindfulness meditation stuff once per week.Money* Invest well and grow my net worth - and the net worth of Flying Frisby readers - by at least 20%. On which note, if you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.Work & Career - Laughter, Acclaim, Opportunity* Continue producing consistent, interesting content for this Substack and grow it - both subscribers and revenue - by 25%.Apropos of which, why not subscribe?* Get better at PR and marketing, significantly grow my online presence - both as comic and commentator - and build a bigger following. ( I have a plan here).* Finish my musical about the Peasants' Revolt.* Write my Gilbert and Sullivan musical.* Write stage and screen adaptations of Kisses on a Postcard.* Make something significant happen with Kisses on a Postcard. I've put that in bold because it is perhaps the most important of all to me. We are talking about something that could be as big as Oliver! or The Sound of Music, if there are any producers reading this.* Try and get some comedy gigs in the US and grow a presence there* Get more gigs and better gigs in the UK, working towards a full-scale tour.* Keep writing the songs, making people laugh and produce another album by year end (I try and produce one a year).* Get my new book, The Secret History of Gold, as good as possible; and market it as well as possible, especially in China and the US. (It's due out in August).* Practice my uke and singing most days and get better at both.A lot of asks: I think I might be going against everything I said here on Wednesday.Enjoying this article? Then why not subscribe …Love and Family* Be the best father I can be to Samuel, Eliza, Lola and Ferdie. Set a good example. Love them unreservedly. Help them fulfil their potential. Spend more time doing memorable things with all of them, but especially Eliza and Ferdie, as they lost out a bit this year.* Find a nice place to live and settle down happily with Miss Downing in a lasting, fulfilling relationship.* Be a good son to my mother, and justify the unreserved love she has shown in me.Not a lot then.I realise I am asking a lot of both myself and the universe, but the whole point of these resolutions is to be bold. I'm not going to say I won't achieve all these goals, as that defeats the purpose (I never manage all of them but I'M NOT GOING TO SAY THAT). If nothing else, at least I'll have something interesting to write about this time next year.This isn't all about me. What about you? What are your goals? What are they? Let's discuss them in the comments.I wish you a 2025 packed with happiness, growth, fulfilment, success and—fingers crossed—lucid dreams.DominicTell someone about these resolutions.PS A few final bits and pieces:* If you haven't already, take a look at my buddy Charlie Morris's monthly gold report, Atlas Pulse. It is, in my view, the best gold newsletter out there, and, best of all, it's free. Sign up here.* If you missed my New Year piece, it's a good one. Here it is:* I recorded this interview with Rob Moore the other day, which you might enjoy: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

I was at a big family function on Christmas Eve, where I ran into my brother-in-law, who used to be a world champion boxer.David Haye is his name. Way back when, his sister and I were married, and he is uncle to my two oldest children. I don't know if that makes him former brother-in-law. Whatever.I still maintain that the world doesn't quite know what an exceptional boxer David was. His speed and power were second to none. The wins in France against Jean-Marc Mormeck to win the cruiserweight World Title, after being knocked down in the fifth, and then in Germany against the unbeaten Russian Nikolai Valuev, who at 23.4 stone and 7 feet, was the largest heavyweight in history, were two of the greatest British overseas wins ever.In winning both cruiserweight and heavyweight world titles, he achieved something only two other boxers, Evander Holyfield before him and Oleksandr Usyk after, have managed. That tells you how good he was. Yet, he is not quite seen in the same light as those other two, largely because of injuries and losses later in his career.I've known David since he was 16, and he was going to be the heavyweight champion even then. It was almost all anyone in the family talked about.What I always most admired about him is his singularity and clarity of purpose; that and his breathtaking, fearless honesty. He hides nothing. He tells it like he sees it and then lives with the consequences. Jordan Peterson would be proud.It's that singularity of purpose - that winning mentality - I want to talk about today.As a youngster, David used to spar with a fighter who was naturally more gifted but never made it through the amateur ranks. “He would rather be the guy who could have made it,” David used to say. “The guy sat in the pub 10 years from now telling everyone he could have made it. He would rather be that than take the necessary risks and make the necessary sacrifices to actually make it.”I was always incredibly struck by that attitude.Burn the ships: have no plan BWe all met up at David's mum and dad's, my old in-laws, on Christmas Eve. All our kids were there, and it was a lovely family do. David's son, Cassius, who is 16, is turning out to be quite the tennis player. I reminded them of a story from when Cassius was seven or eight.We were having lunch, and I said that tennis was a great sport to get good at because, unlike, say, football, if it doesn't work out, you can always get a job as a tennis coach. You can go anywhere in the world and have a pretty nice life.I looked to my right and saw David fuming, “What are you telling him that sh*t for? Why are you putting those kinds of doubts in his head?”I was thinking like a risk-manager, I guess. The sports stars of old always used to get a trade first. Not so David.His mentality reminded me of a story about Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, which I tell in my new book on gold to be published later this year. Cortés landed in Mexico in 1519. His purpose was to find gold and to conquer. He had 508 soldiers and 11 ships. On landing, he scuttled 10 of them. It meant there was no escape. His men now had to win - or die.Speaking of gold, have you signed up for Charlie Morris's monthly gold report, Atlas Pulse? It is, in my view, the best gold newsletter out there, and, best of all, it's free. More here.Later that night, David and I back-and-forthed on texts a bit, and I told him the Cortés story. And so we come to the point of today's missive - and it's an appropriate one, given we are in the season of New Year's resolutions.David sent this message back in reply, which I think is one of the most brilliant texts - about winning, clarity, singularity of purpose - I have ever received. So I publish it in full here:Yes, I've heard the same story, and it's a lesson that resonates deeply with me—not just in the abstract, but in how I've lived my life and shaped the mindset of my children. When Cortés sank his ships, he left his men with no option but to succeed. That's not just a story of conquest; it's a metaphor for the winning mindset. When there's no retreat, no Plan B, the path becomes clear. The mind and body focus completely on achieving the one goal that matters. That same principle was drilled into me from an early age. My dad told me I could box aged 10, but only if I was the best. There was no room for half-hearted effort or second thoughts. From the moment I said I wanted to be the heavyweight champion of the world—the pinnacle of the sport—every decision I made aligned with that goal. There was no ambiguity, no backdoor exit. Winning wasn't just a possibility; it was the only outcome.That's the mindset I've passed on to Cassius and Kingston. He wants to be the best tennis player in the world, and he knows what that means: living full-time in Spain, training in the blazing heat on clay courts, and pushing his body and mind to the limit every single day. He understands, like I did, that greatness demands clarity and sacrifice. It's about burning the ships—eliminating all distractions and doubts—so there's only one way forward.Winning isn't an accident or a stroke of luck. It's the result of relentless dedication and a mindset hardwired from the very start. It's about creating an environment where success is the only option, so the journey becomes as clear as the destination. That's how champions are made—whether in the ring, on the court, or in life.Share this message with a friend.We don't all want to be number one. Many of us are content with what we have. But if you are serious about becoming top dog, then that text message - from someone who has been there and done it - should be put to memory.I look at my own life, and I'm the very opposite: jack of all trades, master of none. Comedian and financial blogger. What - how does that work? I've also been: prolific voiceover artist, podcast host, TV presenter, actor, author of three books, boxing ring announcer (for Hayemaker Boxing - who says nepotism doesn't exist?), and a million other things I can't remember. Even within comedy, my career is disparate: comic songs, stand-up, MC, witty raconteur, lectures with funny bits. Gold or bitcoin - which is it? Why not both...I'm occasionally asked why I am not more well known than I am. There's your answer. I do too many things quite well instead of excelling at one.I think it's partly because I get interested in stuff. But it's also a defensive thing, I'm sure. If one doesn't work out, I've always got the other to fall back on.Here is one of my resolutions for 2025: do fewer things better.What do you think? Please post your thoughts in the comments below.Happy new year, everyone. Let's hope it's a belter.Buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times? I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

Interview recorded at Labit 2024 in Buenos Aires with Matyas Kuchar, who organises Bitcoin Prague, Europe's biggest bitcoin conference.A pleasant chat about the state of bitcoin, and, in particular, how far advanced bitcoin adoption is in the Czech Republic. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

Every January, I like to make some predictions about the year ahead. Then, in my final post of the year, which this will probably be, I go back and review them. That's what we are doing today.Before I begin, just a couple of things:* In case you missed it, check out Friday's piece on North American tax loss selling. It has 9 ideas for short-term trades, which could come good by February.* And there is now a video version of "The Chainsaw and the Swamp: A Tale of Two Economies" for your Sunday morning viewing pleasure.Right. Here we go …Predictions are funny things. The more outlandish the prediction, the more entertaining the copy, but the less likely it is to actually happen. What is more important: getting lots of eyeballs or being right?I like this exercise because it demonstrates just how much perspective can change over time. While we can change strategy as events develop, what I wrote a year ago does not, so when you look back at stuff you got wrong, you can look foolish, even if you changed tack in real time. On the other hand, if you got stuff right, people go - well that was obvious.So the rules of my little game are this: I score two points for a direct hit, one for a good call, zero for a miss, and minus one for a "David Lammy on Mastermind" fail.I made 15 predictions. Here they are:1. The Great Decline goes on.I was pleased with this one, even if it was rather negative.“Everywhere the state's tentacles reach remains a drain on productivity. Our once-great institutions continue to fall apart, like zombie meth addicts, stumbling towards dysfunction... The ordinary worker desperately trying to improve his lot is bled dry by taxes, inflation, housing costs, and the voracious state monster. Fiat loses yet more of its purchasing power. The South Africanisation of everything continues.”Gosh, it's depressing and negative. Things may be changing on the other side of the pond, but they are not in Europe. Two points.2. Gold breaks out to new highs and goes to $2,400. And some. $2,790 was the high. We're now at $2,620. Two points.3. Bitcoin goes to new highs as well.Yup. We are at $98,000 as I write. $108,000 was the high. Two points.4. For reasons I don't understand, ethereum outperforms bitcoin.Ethereum always seems to move later in the cycle and by more, hence the prediction. But in 2024 bitcoin outperformed. Zero points.5. The US dollar trends sideways.It didn't. The US Dollar Index began the year at 100 and ended about 8% higher around 108. Another big fat zero.6. Sterling has problems.Cable began the year at around $1.27 and it's now at $1.25, having been as high as $1.34. So it's down a bit. But the eight-year cycle low that I am looking for has not materialized. I'm sure it's coming, but zero points.7. The Tories are eviscerated.Pleased with this one.They had their chance and they blew it. Come the General Election this year, the voters are unforgiving. … The SNP is similarly annihilated. The shortcomings of our political system are there for all to see. But nothing that needs to change does. Roughly 80% of the country did not vote Labour, yet they got 63% of the seats. Incredible. And they call it democracy. Two points.8. Uranium to hit $125/lb.Nope. The highest it got was $105/lb, and that was in January. It spent the rest of the year declining; it's now at $73. Minus one. Totally wrong.9. Fast and processed food companies have problems.I think I am early to this. Let's see what RFK does. But, by way of proxy, McDonald's is flat on the year; Burger King (Restaurant Brands International) is down 14%; KFC is off about 10%.Good call. Two points.Seed oils are losing.10. Good year for the Japanese yen. It has to go up sometime right? It's so cheap.Nope. It went down. Minus one.11. The S&P500 has a good year.I'll say. It's up 25%. Way above expectation. Two points.12. Small caps outperform.Apart from a brief spell in summer, they didn't. It feels like they are starting to, but nope. Zero points.13. UK house prices. Atrophy and stagnation, but no meltdownThat feels about right. About 50% of stuff on the market isn't selling, apparently. I'm not surprised; the cost of moving is so high. Two points.14. Silver. Can it stage a meaningful rally above $30?Nope, I said. It went to $34 in October. Now it's $29. Was that rally meaningful? Well, it did better than I thought it would. Zero points.15. Liverpool win the league; Sheffield United, Burnley, and Luton are relegated.Got the losers right but not the winners. 1 point.All in all, not a great showing. 13 points.Oddly enough, whenever I score low on the predictions, I have a much better year in the portfolio. That was the case this year, where we have had some real winners in the Flying Frisby: bitcoin and MicroStrategy, obviously, but also Lightbridge and Novavax too. Meanwhile, the low-risk Dolce Far Niente portfolio is rocking it.Happy Christmas everyone. Thank you for being a subscriber.And why not gift someone a subscription this Christmas?I'll have some predictions for 2025 early in the new year.Until next time.DominicPS Don't forget:* In case you missed it, Friday's piece on North American tax loss selling has 9 ideas for short-term trades, which could come good by February.* Plus the video version of "The Chainsaw and the Swamp: A Tale of Two Economies" for your Sunday morning viewing pleasure.Become enlightened. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us …Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859Here is the world I think we are heading into over the next couple of years.On one side of the Atlantic, we have Argentina and its new president, Javier Milei, taking a chainsaw to the state in every conceivable way. I was there last month and I fell head over heels in love with the place. Every day it seems another state body is having its budget cut.It's like everything I argued for all those years ago in Life After the State - Why We Don't Need Government is suddenly happening in the real world, and it is wonderful.The result of all this is an economic boom that is starting to take everyone's breath away – even free market acolytes are surprised.You must invest in Argentina. You must have a position. What is happening there is equivalent to Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism, China at the turn of the 21st century, or the UK and US at the beginning of the Reagan-Thatcher era.With libertarianism being the dominant belief system of the Internet, and Milei, the poster boy for anarcho-capitalism, an internet sensation, you can rest assured that Argentina's success story is not going to be kept a secret. The Internet is going to let everyone know about it.Then to the north, we have the USA. Who was the first foreign leader to be invited to meet President-elect Donald Trump? You betcha. It was Javier Milei. That tells us where things are going.We have passionate libertarians Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy taking the knife to government and the deep state – I cannot emphasise enough how gripping a belief system libertarianism is once it takes hold - look what it's done to me - and it has clearly taken hold of these two.We also have a Trump administration that is much more organised and wiser than the previous incarnation, as well as more state shrinking. It knows who its enemies are and it seems ready for them.The US may be “minarchist-light” compared to Argentina, but even so, an economic boom is coming to this most entrepreneurial of countries. A lot of people are going make a lot of money.So you must also have a position in the US. It is already the world's biggest economy. How much is it going to grow with so many bureaucratic barriers of state removed?The Stagnant Side of the StreetThen we turn to the other side of the Atlantic. “The stagnant side of the street” to misquote the song.Here in the UK, we have gone the other way. We are increasing taxes. We are increasing state spending. We are growing government, and, in doing so, creating more barriers to innovation, invention, and entrepreneurship. Most of Western Europe is the same. These are countries run by blobs, by regulators and planners for regulators and planners, by technocrats who know better than you.Here's an example of the government helping. On 6 October 2020, when the FCA announced it was clamping down, bitcoin was $10,000. Today it's $97,500. I make that $87,500 per coin of gain that the UK citizen has been protected from. Great job guys. The UK was once at the vanguard of this breakthrough technology. Satoshi used English spelling, he quoted the Times. He may well have been British. Now we are bringing up the rear.It is just so much harder and more expensive to do anything entrepreneurial in the UK, whether it's setting up a business in the first place, hiring, the taxes you have to pay, the cost of regulation and compliance, or the exorbitant cost of housing and property, which drains capital that could be better invested elsewhere.Buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times? I urge you to. My recommended bullion dealer is The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.Prime Minister Keir Starmer is currently in the Gulf trying, as he says, to secure investment for the UK. “This government will build on partnerships that drive our mission to kickstart economic growth and put money back in working people's pockets,” he said yesterday. It's obvious that he thinks economic growth comes from government rather than the private sector. He actually thinks government spending is going to help. He does not realize because spending inevitably leads to higher taxes, and taxes stifle growth.I bet if you listed ten businesses and said which of these are wealth-creating and which are just wealth-extracting, he would not know the difference: it is not a thought process his mind would ever entertain. Yet the difference between the two is everything. Subsidised green energy is wealth extracting, compliance is wealth extracting, manufacturing (as long as it's not wind farms) and tech are mostly wealth creating. One builds wealth that did not previously exist - everybody wins - making stuff, growing stuff - the other is zero sum: it extracts wealth that already exists and sends it somewhere else - only the extractor and the recipient win. The guy who built the wealth in the first place loses. The most basic rule of taxation – you really should read Daylight Robbery – is that higher taxes and higher tax rates do not lead to greater government revenue. This administration does not get that most basic concept, which has existed for as long as there have been taxes (ie all of civilization). How can they be so stupid I've no idea, but they lead us.To invest in the UK is to invest in stagnation and regulation. That is not proper investment or wealth creation.The rest of Western Europe is no better.In addition, we are experiencing colossal levels of discontent, unprecedented migration, two-tiered justice, two-tiered welfare, rising crime, the disappearance of previously high-trust societies, and rising social tension.But thanks to the Internet, the stupidities of UK and European policies will continue to be laid bare to all. No amount of censorship is going to hide it. In any case, X has already killed censorship. Other platforms must now stop censoring, if they want to stay relevant. On the Internet people gravitate where speech is free-est.Meanwhile, such is the nature of memes, people are going to relentlessly take the piss, especially from the other side of the pond. Comedy is a powerful tool. Day after day, the meme-makers, led by Elon Musk himself, are going to expose Keir Starmer and his deluded team, never mind the EU and other technocrats, for the fools they are. The exposure the Internet brings will cause this technocratic left to backpedal a little – Starmer, as we saw from his 19th relaunch speech last week, has already started – though it will not be anywhere near enough. We need our own Javier Milei. But it is all is only going to exacerbate the current trend: long America, short the UK and Europe.So What To Do Now?I ran into one of the UK's most successful investors at a party last week. He told me he has moved everything he can out of sterling and out of the UK.

If you are looking for some entertaining Christmas presents, we have some celebratory “One of the 17 Million” Brexit mugs, my new album and other goodies for sale in the Dominic Frisby Shop. Take a look. Something positive for you this Sunday morning - and why we should be grateful for government incompetenceThe idea of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), money that governments and their planners will be able to programme, rightly fills many of us with an Orwellian sense of dread.“Did you not have the vaccine? Oh, well then you don't qualify for the next payment.”“Have you been saying wrong things on social media? Then you don't get the good loan rates.”“We suspect that you might not have paid the right rate of tax, therefore we are deducting what we think you owe and it's up to you to prove otherwise. You want the money back? Please hold …. Your call is important to us.”CBDCs allow for almost unimaginable interference in our lives, intrusions on our privacy and liberty, never mind meddling in the economy. Chinese social credit scores would be just the start of it.When you combine the instincts of, say, the current Labour administration to intervene, together with its incompetence, the ramifications are truly horrifying.Some say CBDCs are inevitable. Technology is destiny and all that. I'm a bit more optimistic. Hete's why.CBDCs have been piloted in numerous countries and fully implemented in:* The Bahamas - the "Sand Dollar"* Nigeria - the "eNaira"* Jamaica - "JAM-DEX"* The Eastern Caribbean Currency UnionNowhere has got them to work. The Bahamas is generally touted as the CBDC success story. My buddy, Dave Skarica, who lives there says, “LOL. I have never seen one person use it.”Why have they failed? People don't use them. When they do use them, they don't work. People prefer the legacy systems they know.CBDCs are yet another government IT project that is doomed to fail.If you are thinking of buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.You might say the internet was a government IT project. It was . The U.S. government - via ARPA and later DARPA - provided crucial funding that led to the development of key protocols like TCP/IP. But the Internet succeeded because of the immense infrastructure that millions of people, mostly working in their own self-interest, since built over many decades on top of it.Our modern system of debt-based fiat money should long since have imploded under the weight of all the abuse and debasement successive governments have heaped upon it. But it has survived, indeed thrived as a medium of exchange, albeit a terrible store of wealth, because of the incredible fintech architecture that has been built on top of it, again by millions of people over many decades mostly acting in their own self-interest. That architecture is probably what has saved the system. Fiat money is just promissory - worse than that it is a promise of something that isn't even there - but the incredible advances in communication technology that we have seen in the last 150 years - telecommunications, digital technology and all the rest of it - have all enabled the sending and recording of those promises. The fortunes that have been invested have all helped the system evolve and indeed preserved it.Fiat money worked as countries gradually abandoned gold standards over the course of the 20th century because they were the only currencies citizens knew. The payment and saving infrastructure was already built and normalised. The coins and notes and cheques and bank accounts all functioned perfectly well, and there were no alternatives. The removal of the gold backing did not really impact the overall architecture.Government currencies worked in the first place because they were based on gold and silver, which everybody already used and instinctively knew had value. When they weren't debasing their money, rulers, or those working for them, often actually improved the system: coinage, for example, certified the amount of precious metal in a coin and the ruler's stamp legitimised it. Money was based on something people already knew and used and understood. Not so CBDCs. They have no existing infrastructure around them, nor is their use normal. Governments will not be able to design anything decent. They will need the private sector to do that, and this will take many years, perhaps decades before it gets as good as the infrastructure around existing payment systems. It would also take many years and lots of nudges for people to change habitsThe private sector is not going to invest the required amount of money in payment systems if people are not going to use it, so you will end up with a situation, a bit like green energy, where governments will have to spend billions subsidising it in order to make it work, but the actual energy you get is not as good as that provided by fossil fuels: unreliable, more expensive and more damaging to the environment. There will not be the same green arguments - 10 years to save the planet and all that - to justify the spending. The scope for corruption and crony capitalism will be enormous. Again.You really should subscribe.None of this will stop governments trying it, of course. Citizens might slowly start to use the system, particularly if they get free handouts, but it will be a long time before CBDCs reach a level where they compete with existing payment systems. At this point fiat money as we now know it probably won't exist anyway. We tend to forget, but most nations as we currently know them are only about 200 years old. Many won't exist in 50 or 100 years time. They'll go bankrupt and break apart. What will happen to their money?There is the possibility of demanding that taxes are paid in CBDCs, I suppose, but again this opens up so much scope for outcry, waste and inefficiency, I just can't see it working.People within the blob look at bitcoin and admire it and think they can copy it, but even bitcoin is what it is, not so much because of Satoshi Nakamoto's genius invention, but because of the way hundreds of thousands of people in the free market embraced it and built on top of it. The reason they did was, again, self-interest: the value of bitcoin kept going up. Every bit of bitcoin fintech, every podcast, every tweet - every transaction. They all help the bitcoin price. It's a colossal open-source contribution and movement. There is not the same incentive with CBDCs. Their value is never going to go up. Quite the opposite. Their value will fall as governments issue more and more of them. There is not the same incentive.To have any chance of working, CBDCs will require billions and billions of subsidy. Most governments do not have the resources. They are already bankrupt. They will struggle to justify the expense. Health or welfare or pensions or something will be deemed more important. Plus they will meet with huge resistance from the freedom-fighters and possibly even the media .None of this will stop them trying of course. But on this issue at least you can sleep soundly. CBDCs are one Orwellian nightmare that is not going to work. They will end up yet another failed government IT project.All ye from the future look back on this ‘ere prescient article and marvel at my foresight.If you are interested in this subject, take a look at my song, Programmable Money.Tell your friends about this amazing article.A reminder about those mugs, my album and other fun Christmas presents - all for sale in the Dominic Frisby Shop. Take a look. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

“If once you have paid him the Dane-geld, You never get rid of the Dane.”Rudyard KiplingThe winter of 406-407 was bitterly cold across Europe. The Rhine froze over, enabling hordes of Vandals, Alans - I love the fact that there was a tribe of Alans - and Suebi to make their way across the river, and into the Roman empire. They were violent with hunger, from the cold and greedy for what they had admired for so long on the other side.The response from Rome was slow, weak and inadequate.In Britain, Rome had already lost the north and west to warlords. The Roman armies in Britain, who, at best, had been paid with debased money, feared these Germanic tribes would cross into Britain next, so, led by Constantine III, who declared himself “Western Roman Emperor”, they made their way across the Channel and into Gaul, leaving ‘Britannia' to fend for itself. We do not really know if it was Rome that gave up Britain, or Britain that gave up Rome, but, either way, the Dark Ages had well and truly begun.Gold , silver and bronze coins had been widespread under the Romans. They were used to pay taxes, and often re-minted to pay the army and the civil service. But after Constantine III's departure, few coins were either minted or imported. Judging by the numerous hoards found from the period, many people buried their money - presumably to keep it safe in this unruly new environment of no military protection and merciless invasion from Angles, Saxons and other tribes from the continent. With the lack of new supply, existing coins were re-used. Clipping - cutting off the edges to steal metal - became widespread. The previously vigorous late Roman monetary system crumbled. It was not for another 200 years that minting properly started up again.The Anglo-Saxon invaders initially used gold more for adornment rather than as currency. Though there are examples of earlier Anglo-Saxon coins, King Eadbald of Kent was the first Anglo-Saxon whose name we actually know to mint coins. This was around 625AD - small, gold coins called scillingas (shillings), modelled on coins from France. Numismatists now call them thrymsas.As the century progressed, these coins grew increasingly pale, until there was very little gold in them at all. From about 675, small, thick, silver coins known as sceattas came into use in all the countries around the North Sea, and the gold shilling was superseded by the silver penning, or penny. As money, gold fell out of use almost altogether, though silver had something of a boom.It is thought the word ‘penny', like the German ‘pfennig' derives from the pans into which the molten metal for making them was poured. ‘Pfanne' is the German for ‘pan'. Another theory is that it derives somehow from the denarius, as the symbol for the penny used to be the d. Likely a bit of both.The Mercian King Offa, he of dyke fame, who reigned for almost 40 years from 757 to 796, must be one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon kings, certainly the greatest of the 8th century. As well as his dyke, which protected his kingdom from Welsh invaders, and provided a barrier by which he could collect duties, he is credited for the widespread adoption of the silver penny and pound as a unit of account (though the pound was in use before his reign, he still gets the credit). His coins, with portraits and intricate designs, were as accomplished as anywhere in Europe at the time. His system, though probably imported from Charlemagne and the Franks, for reasons which will become clear, almost certainly dates back to the Romans. 12 silver pence equalled a scilling. 20 scillingas, or 240 pennies (12 x 20), equalled a pound weight of silver. Thus did the pound we still use today get its name - it was, simply, a pound weight of sterling silver.The Latin word for a "pound" is libra and the pound sign, £, is a stylized writing of the letter L. The d meanwhile used for pence comes from the Latin denarius. The roots of the British system of money are Roman.Offa's system remained standard until at least the 16th century and, in many ways, until decimalization in 1971. You had to add up each unit of currency separately in this format: £3.9.4, which would be spoken "three pounds, nine shillings and four pence," or "three-pounds, nine and four." To add, you would calculate each unit separately, then convert pence to shillings, leaving leftover pence in the right column. Then convert the shillings to pounds (with leftover shillings in the middle column). And then add up the total pounds. It sounds complicated when you explain it, especially to those oriented in metric, but, like all traditional measures, it is quite intuitive in practice.On this note, have you seen my lecture about weights and measures? It's superb! Offa's systems were gradually consolidated over the subsequent centuries, especially as the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Britain began to merge. In the 860s, for example, the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex formed an alliance by which coinage of a common design could circulate through both of their lands.The Viking invaders found coinage systems far more sophisticated than their own, and the Danegeld, the protection money with which they were bought off, was paid in silver pennies. I had always thought the “geld” in Danegeld meant “gold” but in fact it means yield, and the Viking invaders demanded this tribute wherever in Europe they ravaged.Buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times? I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.The Danegeld system was quite efficient - on both sides. For the invaders, they were often paid more than they could raise by looting, without having to fight. For the locals, the ravaging was avoided, although, as Rudyard Kipling noted in his poem on the subject, “if once you have paid him the Dane-geld, You never get rid of the Dane.”The Danegeld probably also motivated improvements to Anglo-Saxon coinage. To pay his own soldiers, to build forts and ships, and to pay Danegeld, Alfred the Great increased the number of mints in his realm to at least 8. His successor Athelstan had 30 and, to keep order, passed a law in 928 stating that England should have just one currency. Ever since, there has been just one. This was many centuries before standardisation in France, Germany, or Italy.When William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England in 1066, he succeeded where his Viking ancestors had failed for over 270 years, in that he managed to conquer all of England. It meant he took control of English coinage, which was far superior to that of his homeland. William's coins, struck back in Normandy, are remarkable for how poor they are, compared to their English counterparts.He had at least seven types of English pennies struck with his name on, enabling him to achieve the rebrand that was so important to him. No longer was he William the B*****d, as he was then known. Now he was William the Conqueror. He let the world know through his coins. It worked: that is how we still know him today.It is a little ironic that the pound should be so named for its silver. Because, from the time of Isaac Newton and the founding of the Bank of England, silver had very little to do with the pound. Only gold.That story is told here: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comIt's difficult to look beyond bitcoin and MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) at the moment, the later in particular. Nobody expected this, not even Chairman Michael Saylor. The returns have been astonishing. A couple of readers have reported to me that the gains have been life-changing. Wow! What an email to receive. It's easy to get hubristic when you have a big win. Instead, let us express gratitude for the good fortune that has smiled upon us. But look beyond we must, and so today I want to look at what I can only describe as a stealth bull market - natural gas. The price is creeping up, and few are talking about it.Natural gas is a bit like silver: if it can disappoint, it will. So we begin this piece with that reminder. Natural gas has broken the soul of many a wiser man than me.On the other hand, the next five years look pretty positive.It's obvious that the world is going to go nuclear now, and that Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are going to provide the power AI so badly needs. However, it will be a good five years before they on stream, so what is going to provide the power in the interim?The answer is natural gas.There is a problem, however: Supply.America's Gas Wells Are Drying UpThe North American Shale Gas Revolution dramatically changed the outlook for fossil fuels. Peak Oil was a huge theme leading up to the Global Financial Crisis, and then it disappeared, almost overnight.Between 2005 and 2020, US natural gas production grew by 90%, with shale accounting for the bulk of it. In 2005, shale gas made up about 5% of US natural gas production; by 2020, it was over 75%. By 2017, the US had become a net exporter, especially of more transportable liquefied natural gas (LNG).The price, meanwhile, plummeted. Good for consumers!Here's the long-term chart so you can see those price declines since 2005. From almost $16 to $3.50 today (as low as $1.50 earlier this year, where it has formed an attractive double bottom - you know how I like those).Obviously, we in the UK and Europe pay way more for our natural gas than they do in North America. It's so dumb; we have enough to supply ourselves in the UK. But we don't because fracking is deemed environmentally damaging. So we import gas from abroad, which is produced by, you guessed it, fracking. I guess if it is fracked somewhere else, it's less harmful. Not Then there are the transport costs and the environmental costs that come with that.Anyway …Spanning Ohio, New York, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, Marcellus is the largest natural gas-producing field in the United States, contributing over 25% of production. In 2010, output was 2 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d). By 2023, it exceeded 35 bcf/d, but production has been falling for almost a year now. We are currently at 26.7 bcf/dThe next largest is Haynesville, in Louisiana, Texas, and parts of Arkansas. Extraction costs here are higher, and production stands at 16 bcf/d, but it is slowing here too, according to analysts Goehring & Rozencwajg.One of the few areas of growth is the Permian Basin, in Texas and New Mexico, currently around 23 bcf/d, but even there, growth is modest.Now, it might be that the reason for stagnating growth is low prices - they often are - and higher prices will result in increased production. They usually do. That is the way with commodities.But natural gas prices have already doubled this year, and they keep on creeping up.The other interpretation is that the North American Shale Gas Revolution has passed its peak.With America's new president, you can expect plenty more investment in production than under the Democrats, and that should bring the price down, but the gas price has actually risen - from $2.70 to $3.50 - since the election.It might also be that Russian gas taps come back online to the EU sometime next year, which means America will lose its new market.But all of this conjecture is factored into the price. And that is rising.How to invest all this

Let's start with some headline stats which emerged this week.* The number of migrants to Britain has doubled since Covid.* 747,000 “permanent-type” migrants moved to the UK last year, the OECD said, up from 488,400 in 2022.* This marks a 53% year-on-year rise.* The four countries seeing the biggest surge in migration are the UK, South Korea, Australia, and the United States.* Note: Three of those four countries are English-speaking. This is something I have long argued: the UK will inevitably see higher than average migration levels because people prefer to go where they can speak the language, and more people have some English than other languages.Meanwhile, our birth rate has dropped to 1.4 children per woman, the lowest on record. The net result is that the demographics of this country are changing dramatically and rapidly. Different people means a different culture.The demographics of primary schoolsMigration measures, particularly illegal migration, are not entirely accurate. If someone has entered the country covertly, for example, there's often no record. Nor are censuses entirely accurate. Some don't fill the census in, many don't fill it in accurately, especially if here illegally, if they don't understand what it is, or if someone is claiming the single person council tax discount. There is a lot of scope for double counting for people with multiple addresses - students and so on.However, pretty much everyone who has kids sends them to school. There is no hiding, no double counting and so on, so the numbers you get from the schools' census are pretty accurate.White British now make up 61% of UK primary school kids. 37% are of minority ethnic background. The remaining 2% are unclassified. (In secondary schools, minority ethnic accounts for 36.6%).Minority ethnic includes Asian (13.4% of primary school kids), White non-British (8%), Black (6.5%), and Mixed (7.8%).Bear in mind that these figures are for the whole UK. This includes primary school kids in remote rural areas, where British ethnicity will likely comprise over 90%.White British was at 64.9% in 2020-21 and minority ethnic at 33.7%. The numbers are changing fast. From 65 to 61% in three years. Ten years ago it was 70%.This 61/37 ratio compares with 85/15 in 2002. Previously, I extrapolated that White British would be a minority in primary schools by 2035. But with the current trends, especially considering that migrants tend to have larger families than locals, white British could become a minority in primary schools as soon as 2030, or just after. The demography of primary schools will, within a generation, reflect the demography of the country.I doubt this is what the majority of British people want.But it's not a topic that's being discussed, let alone addressed, in the echelons of power. Instead, it's being brushed under the carpet.Well, it will soon be too late. This is an urgent and pressing issue. Without wishing to sensationalise, the future of the British people and their homeland really is at stake. Demography is destiny after all.You really should subscribe to the Flying Frisby.If you are thinking of buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.More on this: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comToday, we are going to look at gold, bitcoin, and our way of playing it, MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), which has now 10xd (!) since we first covered it last year. Amazing.Finally, there'll be a short update on gold miners. Remember them?Let's start with gold.Gold - and most other metals - has been hit since the U.S. election last week. It's down $200, or about 7%, with U.S. dollar strength being a big factor (the dollar has been storming higher since October).While I think this bull market might be punctured, as I put it last week, and that gold probably has a bit further to fall, I am not unduly worried. 2024 has hitherto been a great year for gold, and it remains an essential long-term core holding.It is an even more essential holding for UK investors. I think sterling has big problems ahead of it, and gold serves as your hedge against crap governments.If you are thinking of buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.Labour or Tory - I'm no fan of either. They're both as bad as each other, in my view. The less government there is, the better things run. But that's irrelevant idealism. Of greater concern here is reality: there has never been a Labour Government that did not devalue sterling.* Blair and Brown crashed sterling in 2007-8 (though until then their record was okay);* Under Wilson, Callaghan, and Healey, we ended up going to the IMF in 1976. Callaghan and Wilson also devalued in 1967.* Cripps and Attlee devalued in 1949.* Ramsay MacDonald's National Government, which followed Labour from 1929-31, took us off the gold standard in 1931.Why should this Labour Government be any different? If anything, it is even less competent. Sterling devaluation is coming. How exactly might not yet be clear. I rather suspect it'll be an attempt to make us competitive against an ultra-streamlined US, but that's just a guess. You must own some gold (and some bitcoin) in such an environment: non-government money.Gold under Trump - What Gives? What's coming?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comI'm sending out today's missive a day later than usual because I wanted to see the market reaction to the US election results and leave a little time to digest it all.Broadly speaking, I am happy with the result, and I believe the world will be a better place for it than the alternative. We'll see less technocracy, less deep state , and less overseas intervention; more pro-energy, pro-Bitcoin, and pro-business policy; and a stance that's anti-seed oil (go RFK!), anti-subsidised, environmentally harmful green quackery, and anti two-tiered, inequitable woke ideology.Any administration that puts perhaps the most competent person alive, Elon Musk, in a prominent role, has got to be net positive.But be careful what you wish for and of that. Donald Trump is not, as his most ardent supporters seem to think, going to save the world, nor any such. You need to fix money and tax to do that, and while he might tweak the latter, there will not be wholesale reform. And he is going to print lots of the former. Trump will run deficits, US debt will grow as a result and the nefarious consequences of fiat will take other forms.If there are financial problems looming for the US, I suspect their roots lie in the bond markets, where yields are rising.In short, the better alternative won. There will be more opportunity in the US than there otherwise might have been, but Trump is no Javier Milei. America isn't yet ready for that.The initial market reaction give us some insight into where things are headed in the next few months.If you are thinking of buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.How did markets react?First up, and something I'm particularly pleased about: bitcoin has broken to new highs, hitting $75,000 yesterday. I'm particularly pleased because new highs in bitcoin usually bring a lot of noise. This time, the noise got drowned in the election frenzy, which means there's plenty more hype in the tank.Our chosen vehicle for bitcoin exposure, MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), is now north of $250. This has been an incredible win for readers, as we first covered it last year at an adjusted $35. It's risen 8x, compared to bitcoin's 150%—that's some outperformance.I wrote back in September that Q4 is usually bitcoin's best season, and that is bearing out.Stock markets also rose, as you would expect with someone as pro-business as Trump. The Dow rose 3.5%, the S&P 500 climbed 2.5%, and the Nasdaq about 2.6%.During Trump's last presidency, stock markets more than doubled, though with two major wobbles along the way, one due to Covid. Something similar this time around is not an unreasonable expectation—unless you subscribe to this view. If so, that would take the S&P 500 to around 12,000. Quite the number.What I found especially encouraging was the outperformance of small caps. The Russell 2000 was up 6%. Small caps have underperformed for years and are due for a run. Trumponomics clearly suits them.An interesting tidbit: Trilogy Metals (TSX: TMQ), a mining company I follow with two promising copper assets in Alaska, the development of which were blocked by the Biden administration on environmental grounds, saw its price rise 108% yesterday . Investors seem confident it will now get the green light.I expect similar stories across the mining, oil, and gas sectors. This is a time to be investing in the USA.On the other hand, commodities, especially metals, sold off. Copper fell 3%, with zinc and iron ore dropping by similar amounts. Crude couldn't make up its mind: it came down a bit, then rallied, then ended the day flat. Natural gas was similarly indecisiveGold, silver and platinum all sold off, as the US dollar itself rallied quite sharply, rising 1%. Gold was off almost 3%, silver by almost 5%. Not good, though mostly a reaction to the dollar. Looks like those particular bull markets are, for the time being, punctured. That's not me telling you to sell your gold by the way. Don't. You are going to need it. Particularly if you are British.Which brings me to the UK and last week's budget. I promised you my thoughts on it.

I am travelling this weekend so today's thought piece is a conversation, which Mining Network recorded last week week between veteran gold guru, Alasdair Macleod, and myself. It's heavyweight goldbug stuff. I hope you enjoy it.You can watch it below, but I have also ripped the audio so you have the option to listen to that if you prefer to escape the clutch of your screens. If you are thinking of buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.I'll be MCing this year's Moneyweek Summit this coming Friday November 8th. Readers of the Flying Frisby can get a 20% discount by entering the code FRISBY20And if you are interested in hearing more from Alasdair, he has a Substack too. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

I'm in Buenos Aires this week, so I might be a little slow reporting on today's budget, but I'll come to it, don't you worry.Shortly before Covid hit, I became CEO of a Canadian company by the name of Cypherpunk Holdings (HODL.CN). I was very pleased with that ticker symbol—HODL. My idea. But I did not have a clue what would happen as a result …I'm writing about the company today because, even though I stood down four years ago, I know a number of readers bought shares because I was the CEO. It's quite a story.Mining entrepreneur Marc Henderson controlled a shell company that had just received a large payout from the Mongolian government for some uranium assets it had seized illegally, as you do, and he wanted to use the opportunity to start a crypto business. We knew each other from way back, and he approached me because of my book.He also brought in Canadian bitcoin entrepreneur Moe Adham, and Moe and I put together a proposal to become a privacy tech investment company.We were both quite ideological about it. We had grave concerns about the increasing imposition on our privacy from both Big Brother and Big Tech. We felt it was only going to increase, and that therefore there would a need for privacy tech—anything from VPNs to private messaging apps such as Signal, to bitcoin and privacy coins. How right we were. Look at some of the stuff that went on during Covid.Perhaps where we misjudged was that we thought there would be a large appetite for privacy tech amongst the general public as a result. It turns out most of the general public care more about convenience than they do about their privacy, at least online. In many cases, they don't even realise what they are sacrificing.Buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times? I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.Once we were up and running—and, believe me, there was a lot of compliance—I brought in my mate, bitcoin OG Jon Matonis, and we began the process of acquiring bitcoin. We would hold large amounts of bitcoin. (This was before Michael Saylor's Microstrategy, which has been a big winner for the portfolio since we tipped it last summer it around $30 - now $220 - especially as bitcoin closes in on all-time highs). Upgrade your subscription.One of our key investors was poker champion Tony Guoga, who bought an enormous stake in the company and eventually joined the board to become Chairman.I stood down shortly after my dad died in April 2020. (From a financial point of view, that was a mistake, as I would have several million options now with the stock itrading at two bucks).But, despite the good work that the company was doing on the ground, the great investments it was making, and the phenomenal board, it just kept trundling along sideways, largely ignored by the investment community and trading at around half its NAV. Like a champ, Tony Guoga kept on buying stock, especially on dips, building up an enormous position. He owns about 35% of the company. Talk about management being aligned with the interests of the shareholders.Recently, however, the company had a rebrand. With all the bitcoin ETFs, it was pointless holding bitcoin, they thought, and the company decided to focus instead on SOL, which lacks a mainstream investment vehicle. Sol Strategies Ltd became the new name, and, a few months earlier, they brought in a new CEO, Leah Wald, as well.In the last fortnight, the shares have gone absolutely nuts—going from around twelve cents to above C$2. There have been several catalysts. First, Leah has made a number of well-received appearances in the media that have generated some interest in the stock. Second, it has become the easiest way to get exposure to SOL. Third, "HODL" is also the US ticker symbol for one of the bitcoin ETFs, and many Canadians, typing in HODL, accidentally bought this company instead. LOL.Veteran traders will know the chart pattern the stock has played out. I believe it's known as the hockey stick.Just incredible. And look at the volumes that have come in. The market cap of the company went from about C$17m to C$335 at the top of the market yesterday. Guoga's stake alone went from about C$6m to north of C$115m.For years, the company was trading at half its NAV of C$30. Suddenly it's trading at ten times.From a technical point of view, it shows just what can happen to a company after it builds all that cause trading sideways for many years. When it spikes, it can really spike.I gather that it's become something of a meme stock, so who knows when this will end? The algorithms have taken charge, especially on the US OTC markets where it also has a listing (CYFRF) and it is having daily swings of something like 30%.It even makes Lightbridge (LTBR) look calm. Have you seen that, by the way? $14 yesterday. It was $3 a fortnight ago, when I wrote it up.Another hockey stick:My broker commented that it's good to see some animal spirit has returned to the markets.I'm just amazed at what algos can do to small-cap North American stocks. Talk about speculation.Casino!Let's hope one day they discover AIM.I don't know if this kind of speculation signals a top. It's pretty obvious to me Trump is going to win next week, so maybe that's all priced in and markets pull back after the election.On which note, I leave you with this crazy interview. It was recorded in March of this year, several months before the Trump assassination attempt in July, and yet predicts it with incredibly accuracy. He also predicts the weird weather, a Trump win, followed by a 1929 stock market crash. Watch a minute or two from around the 11-minute mark (it should start there). Nuts.I bet there are a gazillion things he's predicted which haven't happened. But I still thought it was pretty amazing.I probably shouldn't even be sharing this stuff, but I remembered it last night it from a few months back and, with the election coming next week, I went back and re-watched it.What do you make of it?Let me know in the comments. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com(NB: At the end of this piece there is a short note on Lightbridge Corp (NASDAQ:LTBR), which has tripled since I covered it a fortnight ago).I have suffered from asthma for as long as I can remember.Others have it worse than me. I had always been able to manage it with drugs – salbutamol mostly – but, all the same, there was always that lurking thought that if I forget my inhaler and have an attack, I could be in trouble.Then, suddenly, in my early 50s, it disappeared.It is not uncommon to grow out of your asthma. It happens to a lot of people. But my asthma was not getting better; it was getting worse as I grew older. I can't prove it, but I think I got rid of it. Here is what I did.How Bad Was My Asthma?As is quite common for people my age, I was not breastfed as a baby – science thought it knew better than Mother Nature – and the allergies I suffer from – the main ones being to animal hair and pollen, which result in hay fever and asthma – are a result of that, I'm sure. It's part genetic too: my dad had asthma but grew out of it in his adolescence. None of my four kids, who I'm delighted to say were all breastfed, have it.There were two main triggers: animal hair, cats especially, and exercise. Sometimes going from warm to cold (e.g., going outside in winter) would bring it on, and it was worse during the hay fever season.As a child, we had cats – Persian ones too – and we didn't get rid of them until I was nine. I can't believe it took that long to figure out I was allergic to them; whenever I left the house, my asthma noticeably improved. But I took drug after drug every day, morning, noon, and night – Intal and Ventolin. We moved and got rid of the cats, fortunately. As a teenager, I got quite strong and fit: I played a lot of rugby and football. I found I could get through matches without needing the inhaler at all. But cats would always destroy me. Within ten minutes of being in a house with cats, I would be wheezing. I was just so sensitive to them. Prolonged exposure would take a day or two to recover from.It was so frustrating going to people's houses and having to leave because of my asthma, or having to sit there and wheeze, while the owners scrabbled about putting the cat outside or hoovering. Made no difference. Every year on Christmas Eve, I would have the annual asthma attack when visiting my uncle and aunt.As I got into my late 20s and 30s and the fitness of my youth waned – not helped by smoking too much weed at university – I found myself needing my blue inhaler (salbutamol) more frequently again to play sport.By the time I got to my 40s, I often found myself getting wheezy for no apparent reason, and I was using the blue inhaler almost every day.Doctors advised me to use the brown inhaler – QVAR (beclomethasone) – every day, rather than salbutamol, and the brown did indeed clear it up so that I didn't have to use the blue. But I don't like taking drugs every day, and every time I tried to wean myself off the brown, I found my asthma had got even worse. I was too dependent.By my late 40s, I was quite overweight, and even though I did a lot of aerobic sport – running and football – I was heavily dependent on puffers.We had a dog too, and even though it was a hypoallergenic poodle, I was still sensitive to its hair.Alcohol made my asthma worse, especially red wine. Also, if I drank, there was always the risk I would then smoke, which of course made it bad the next day.Here I am today, and I have not used a puffer in maybe two years. I play football most weeks, tennis sometimes, I run, and do sprint training and cycling, including hill training.But this week came the acid test. I went for a drink at a some friends house, and they have a cat. I spent a very long evening there and did not leave until 3 AM. No puffer required. I went back the following day and spent several hours there. No puffer. Then again two days later (I really like these friends!). Still no puffer. My nose didn't even run.I could still feel the allergy. But I was not remotely wheezy.For me, this is quite extraordinary. Fifty years of asthma have gone.How Did I Do It? (Plus a Note on Lightbridge)I'm going to spell out all the things I did. It might be that it was a combination of all of them.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comNB If you missed Sunday's piece about what next to do with Lightbridge after its incredible rally - 3x in a week - it is here. This week has the potential to be one of the most significant weeks in the history of money.36 world leaders, including China's Xi Jinping, India's Narendra Modi, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres, are meeting in Kazan, Russia for the BRICS summit. The main agenda of the summit is de-dollarization. Even The Guardian has noticed. “One of the main aims of the summit,” it says, “will be to speed up ways to reduce the number of dollar transactions, and so mitigate the US ability to use the threat of sanctions to seek to impose its political will.”I'm not convinced the 36 nations in attendance are quite ready to abandon the dollar, or even make overt declarations of war against it, but for sure we will gain insights as to where we are in the grand scheme of this inevitable move away. We will learn where we are with the alternative payment systems being developed, be it BRICS Pay or mBridge.The most powerful weapon these nations have against the dollar is gold—far stronger than China's yuan, or Russia's rouble, or any other currency basket or crypto amalgam they come up with. Gold is universal money, and its value is understood by all. There has never been a global reserve currency that did not start out backed by gold. How ready these nations are to re-adopt it, we shall soon discover.In any case, gold has been rallying relentlessly into the de-dollarisation story. We are at $2,740/oz now. Amazing. Perhaps this is a case of ‘buy the rumour, sell the news.' Whatever. Could be in the short or even medium term. But that's not the attitude. Owning physical gold is an urgent necessity at the moment. Things are just too precarious. You don't want to be letting go of long-term core holdings on the basis of potential short-term movements.I am watching developments closely.If you are buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times, I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.The Silver Surge: Is $50 the Next Stop?In the meantime, ever unreliable silver has been playing catch-up. It's gone through all that resistance around $30-33 and has, having done a near-perfect inverted head and shoulders, now broken up to $35. I think it's going back to $50.There is some resistance at $35, $37.50, and $44.You know my views on silver. It's the metal with the most potential yet, if it can find a way, it will always let you down.Its natural price is 1/15th of the gold price, because there is only 15 times as much silver in the earth's crust as there is gold. With gold at $2,700, silver “should” therefore be $180.In fact, there is a case for silver to be higher than that because, while all the gold that has ever been mined remains, the silver does not—it has been consumed. So above-ground silver stocks do not reflect gold stocks.The problem is that silver has long since been demonetised. It lost its monetary status when the world adopted gold standards after the various gold rushes in the second half of the 19th century. Without this official backing, silver is only going to be an industrial metal, albeit a precious one. Gold may no longer be an official medium of exchange, but central banks still buy and hoard it, as do corporations and private investors. The Bank of International Settlements recognises it as a Tier 1 Capital Asset. The same does not apply to silver.Silver, as we know, also has a multitude of industrial uses, which are only going to increase as the world gets more computerised and electric. There is also some evidence of silver shortages—over 200 million ounces this year, a similar amount to annual jewellery demand. Total annual silver demand is around 1.2 billion ounces—the second highest on record. 836 million ounces of that come from new mine supply, 180 million ounces from recycling, and the rest from sales of existing supply.Demand looks something like this:* 61% industrial (electrical, electronics, photovoltaics, photography & other) * 17% Jewellery * 5% Silverware * 17% Investment When silver moves, it moves fast, and it can turn on a sixpence, so it's important not to get wedded to the silver story. The thing to remember about silver is, like errant girlfriends with personality disorders, if it can let you down, it will. The lovemaking will be unforgettable, you will have the time of your life, but, as sure as eggs are eggs, it will break your heart. Manage your risk.As I say, there is not a lot standing in the way of silver and $50. In that scenario, the miners will go to the moon.If it goes to $50, that will only be the third time in silver's history it made it here—1980 and 2011 being the other two occasions. Third time lucky and all that. If it breaks above $50, there is nothing but blue sky above. Maybe it'll go to $100 or even $180. It's a maniacal metal.Here's that amazing long-term chart.How am I playing it?I may be cynical, but I also think you should always have a position in silver. Its potential is too huge.I own a silver miner that is just coming into commercial production and therefore due a re-rating. It will make a fortune at $50 silver, but it doesn't need $50 silver to work.That company is …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comHere's something a little different as your Sunday thought piece today - my Edinburgh “lecture with funny bits”. I hope you enjoy it. It lasts 50 minutes, so next time you fancy a bit of “edutainment” give it watch.The first part is available to all, and you can unlock the full experience by becoming a paid subscriber. I was super-pleased with this one, as I think I might have mentioned ;)Meanwhile, I wanted to share my thoughts about the amazing share price action we have seen in Lightbridge Corp (NASDAQ:LTBR). The stock really has exploded, more than doubling since I wrote about it last week. What was a $3 stock is now trading at $7.Here's the original piece, in case of interest - I covered it in in last Sunday's thought piece on SMRs too.The volumes are insane. What to make of it all? And what to do next?

Something a little different for you today.I am speaking at the Battle of Ideas this weekend on three rather different matters:* Immigration and Demographics* Who Is the World's Greatest Comic?* Why Cash Keeps Us FreeDo come. You can get tickets here. With this years Battle in mind, the Academy of Ideas asked me to write one of its Letters on Liberty. Here it is for your reading or listening pleasure. (There is a PDF version here).It begins with this note from the Academy.What are Letters on Liberty?It's not always easy to defend freedom. Public life may have been locked down recently, but it has been in bad health for some time.Open debate has been suffocated by today's censorious climate and there is little cultural support for freedom as a foundational value. What we need is rowdy, good-natured disagreement and people prepared to experiment with what freedom might mean today.We stand on the shoulders of giants, but we shouldn't be complacent. We can't simply rely on the thinkers of the past to work out what liberty means today, and how to argue for it.Drawing on the tradition of radical pamphlets from the seventeenth century onwards - designed to be argued over in the pub as much as parliament - Letters on Liberty promises to make you think twice. Each letter stakes a claim for how to forge a freer society in the here and now.We hope that, armed with these Letters, you take on the challenge of fighting for liberty. Academy of Ideas teamWhy Cash Keeps Us Free by Dominic FrisbyGive most people the choice of living and working anywhere in the world, I bet the large majority would choose the US. For all its many shortcomings, it's still the land of opportunity. It's exciting, it's dynamic. Wonderful things can happen there. In terms of tech, with Silicon Valley and all the ensuing social media and ecommerce, it is very much the world leader. And yet, Americans still use cheques.When was the last time you used a cheque in Europe? Donkey's years ago. As much as 5 per cent of all financial transactions in the US last year were by cheque. For all its modernity, the US is - in terms of fintech - a good 10 years behind Europe or Australia. Not only do they use cheques, but people in the US still go out with cash in their pockets. Bunch of luddites.However, things are slowly changing, and the US is following the rest of the developed word to cashlessness. It is inevitable, I'm afraid. Technology is destiny.It's also a great shame. Cash empowers its usersWhen I pay you in cash, nobody else gets in on the transaction - it's a direct transfer from me to you. No grubby middlemen can cream off their percentage. No prying eyes of the state can monitor what we do. Big Tech can't glean information from the exchange, to be used at some later stage to sell you stuff or, worse, report back to Big Brother, Big Insurance or whichever Big wants in on your data. Nobody can stop you making the transaction. With cash, you can buy and sell and store your wealth outside of the financial system, if you so choose. There are plenty of reasons, both practical and moral, to do this.Cash means control. Just take the recent de-banking scandals from Canada to the UK, where truckers had their fundraised money withheld because of their views on lockdown, and a UK politician was kicked out of Coutts for holding the wrong opinions. Both the Canadian truckers and their families, and Nigel Farage, had one thing in common – they held views outside of the liberal mainstream. And because their money wasn't under their mattresses but in banks and websites, they lost control of their own cash.Indeed, instability is nothing new. We are repeatedly told how, in 2008, we were ‘on the brink', how close the system was to imploding. Surely, then, it makes practical sense to keep money outside of the system? When Cyprus' banks teetered on the cliff of financial disaster in 2011, there were bail-ins. Ordinary people's money, sitting in deposit accounts, was sequestered to save the system. If your life savings were threatened with confiscation to bail out an organisation you considered profligate, I imagine you too would want little part of it.What you do with your money says more about you than what you say  - no wonder so many want access to this information.Indeed, the former governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has admitted that banking is not fixed - and we will see financial panic again. It makes sense to hoard some cash, if only as emergency money.In 2016, the Japanese central bank imposed negative rates to try to goad people into spending rather than saving, as the ageing Japanese are prone to do. The spectre of being charged a fee to keep your money in the bank loomed, and so much cash was then withdrawn that the country sold out of safes. Who can blame the Japanese? In Germany, Denmark and Switzerland, some high-net-worth individuals with more than 100,000 euros were charged for being wealthy. There was plenty of talk of confiscation and bail-ins during the financial panic that came with Covid, though fortunately it proved to only be talk. Nevertheless, when in the bank, your money can become a tool of government. How often do you support what your government is doing? Not that often, I imagine. People don't seem to realise this, but when you deposit money in the bank, you are actually lending it to the bank. The bank, under government orders, can then decide who you can and can't send money to (anyone tried sending money from a UK bank to a bitcoin exchange recently? Most banks won't allow you to). The bank can certainly monitor and then disclose what you do with your money. In times of financial panic, it is within the bank's power to confiscate money, again, on government orders. Cash protects you against all of this. It enables you not to play the game - if you don't want to.What you do with your money says so much about you - no wonder so many want access to this information. From the apparently benign (we can see what books you have bought, and so can suggest other books you might like) to the sinister (we can see what books you have bought, and therefore now have you marked down as a problem). When I was at university, a rumour circulated that various organisations monitored who took which books out of the library. Anyone who borrowed Mein Kampf went on a list as potential spy material - I'm not sure on who's side.These are all, in my view, quite legitimate reasons to want to keep money outside of the system. I'm not saying we should take all of our money out of the bank, but that we should all have the option to do so. It's our money, not the banks'. We need cash because it is private.Privacy - and why it matters‘Who are you? Why do you hide in the darkness and listen to my private thoughts?' - William ShakespeareIt's so obvious why we all need some privacy in the real world that it almost doesn't need explaining. Yet, in the digital world, so many of us don't realise just how much of our privacy we are giving away. On a daily basis, we sacrifice privacy for convenience. Different people know different things about you. You might supply your doctor with information you wouldn't give your taxi driver, but your taxi driver knows where you are going - and your doctor might not. You might supply your lover with information you wouldn't give your lawyer. Then again, you might tell your lawyer something you wouldn't tell your lover. The difference is, information you supply online - what you say, read, watch, share, buy or sell - can be used for purposes beyond those for which it was supplied.Information is taken, without you realising that you are granting permission, and is used to shape your behaviour.How often has this happened to you? I was talking to my daughter on the landing outside my bedroom about a trip I was planning. I said, ‘should I bring my Timberlands or my hiking boots?' She said ‘your Timberlands'. I said that they were a bit old. I got into bed, looked at my phone, and Amazon was flogging me Timberlands. Your phone is listening - accumulating information with which you did not deliberately supply it.It's not all bad - often that information might be used advantageously. I'm a huge Game of Thrones fan but I only discovered the books all those years ago because Amazon recommended them. YouTube frequently suggests videos to me that I'm interested in, which I might not otherwise have found. Nevertheless, information is taken, without you realising that you are granting permission, and is used to shape your behaviour and influence the decisions you make. The same data mining is taking place every time you use your credit card, or Apple Pay. It is used to determine the content you receive, to sell things to you, to make decisions about you - the loan, insurance, job or the opportunities you are offered. It is used to influence the political decisions you make. And all this information could be stolen. In the wrong hands, it could be used against you in some way. It can and is being used to spy on you.With financial transactions in the online world, you have little idea what information about you is being used, how it is being used or by whom. You have little say in its use - no ability to object nor power to amend that information. You have no control. There are no such concerns when using cash.You have nothing to hide‘If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to hide' is the common argument against worrying about privacy. But if you are exploring new ideas - dangerous ideas, ideas that go against the orthodoxy, perhaps investigating the concept that the world might not be flat and is in fact round - do you really want some hidden power knowing what you are up to? The effect of this threat of intrusion is to censor free thought - to censor your inquisitiveness.One solution is to become a drone, to not do anything experimental or anything wrong. Perhaps that's what they - whoever they are - want. Gmail reads the emails you draft but decide not to send. Effectively it knows what you thought, but decided not to say. How dark is that?A better solution is to protect privacy - to limit the scope that others have to use our information beyond the purpose for which it was supplied. It allows us to have greater control over our online reputation and enables us to grow and mature without being shackled by foolish things we might have said or done in the past. It enables us to explore new ideas outside the mainstream, without fear of being watched. Those that know about us have power over us. Protecting privacy limits that power. Cash is key to this.But, of course, protecting privacy costs money. The internet is, mostly, free. Protecting your privacy takes effort. If you protect your privacy, you lose all the benefits that your phone and computer knowing a bit about you brings, from saved passwords to helpful book recommendations.This is the dilemma we all face, and most choose convenience without even realising it. This, above all, is why the world is going cashless. It's more convenient to pay with your phone, or with a card, than it is to carry cash. In the marketplace, convenience always wins.Mobile phones and the naysayersHere's a little story for you. By 2023, some 85 per cent of the global population - 6.8 billion people - had a smart phone. That's more people than have a toilet. Yet, at its peak in 2008, there were 1.3 billion landlines for a global population near 7 billion. Why did the mobile, and then the smartphone, succeed where the landline failed?Yes, superior wireless technology made widespread coverage more possible. But there is another, simpler reason: to get a landline, you need a bank account. When more than half of the world's population is ‘unbanked', as it was in 2008, without access to basic financial services, telecoms companies saw no potential custom. Those companies would have built lines in the Arctic circle if there was profit to be made by it, but there wasn't. Too many people were financially excluded. The infrastructure was never built, and people were left with fewer possibilities to communicate. A mobile, on the other hand, you can buy with cash. You don't need to be banked. The financial system was a barrier to progress for the world's poor. Cash is a facilitator for them - it means total financial inclusion, a luxury the better off take for granted. Without financial inclusion - and there will always be some that, for whatever reason, often some bureaucratic quirk, won't have it - you are trapped in poverty. Beware the war on cash.The irony is that the smartphone now facilitates financial inclusion, whether via traditional finance (banking etc) or modern alternatives - the likes of the African mPesa (a widely used currency based on airtime) or bitcoin and other crypto currencies.Handy cashCash still has its uses for small transactions - a chocolate bar, a newspaper or a pint of milk. It will always be the fastest form of payment there is - think of the change you might put in a busker's hat or the bucket of someone collecting money for charity. It is also the most direct payment there is.For many people not at the top end of the economic scale, cash is still king. For example, I like to tip waiters in cash, knowing they will receive that money without it being syphoned off by some unscrupulous employer. I like to shop in markets, where new businesses often start out. Cash is widespread - it's fast, it's cheap. I can buy directly from the producer knowing they will receive all the money, without middlemen shaving off their percentages. Goodness knows it's hard enough for new, small businesses as it is.A quick look at a recent British Retail Consortium report shows that, surprisingly, cash remains the least costly payment method to process. I want to maximise new businesses profits where I can. Many new businesses starting out need the cash economy. Small businesses need it. The financially excluded need the cash economy. The war on cash is a war on them. Cash also has its uses for private transactions, for which there are many - and by no means are all of them illegal. But if you listen to the scaremongering, you'd start to think that all cash users are either criminals, tax-evaders or terrorists. Sure, some use cash to evade tax, but it's paltry compared to the tax avoidance schemes multi-national corporations employ. Starbucks doesn't use cash to avoid tax, it's all done via legislative means.I have a confession to make - even I, with my highfalutin principles, no longer carry cash, guilty though it may make me feel.A quick poll of my Twitter followers showed that 36 per cent no longer carry any cash when they go out. This is also a generational thing. The number of no-cash-users is much higher among the under-30s. I have four kids between the ages of 18 and 23, none of them carry cash. Nor do their friends. It's the older (wiser?) generation who still carry cash, even if only as emergency money. The problem is, cash is like playing records, when the rest of the world is on Spotify.Use of cash fell quite dramatically with Covid, but it still accounts for 14% of all retail payments in the UK, according to a 2023 House of Commons paper. Projections are that, by 2031, this number will fall to 6%. (Obviously, if you include other payments the proportion is much lower.)In mainland Europe, the use of cash is higher at around 20% of all retail transactions. Germany, Italy and Spain are still at 35-50% cash, while the Nordic countries are below 10 per cent. In the US, the number is in the 20-25% region. But the trend is very much down. But here I have a confession to make - even I, with my highfalutin principles, no longer carry cash, guilty though it may make me feel. The truth is, cash is dying. The convenience of fintech is killing it. Money is now almost entirely digital.Bitcoin and digital cashTech might have doomed cash, but it is also coming to the rescue in the form of bitcoin and other crypto currencies. Bitcoin itself was invented to be a digital replication of the cash process. A can send money directly to B without there having to be any middleman to process the transaction. Bitcoin is cash for the internet.Among the many breakthroughs which got people so excited about this new technology was that Satoshi Nakamoto's blockchain solved the problem of ‘double spending' - making sure you can't spend the same money twice - without having to use third parties such as banks to process the transaction. There is now a plethora of copycat currencies, with many of them focused on privacy in order to make their usage anonymous.At the other end of the scale, we have central bank digital currencies - CBDCs. These have been piloted in various countries around the world and, fortunately, nowhere has really got them to work. They have been met with neither trust nor understanding, and in many cases the tech has fallen short. In Nigeria and the Eastern Caribbean, they went beyond the pilot phase and have been out and out failures. Even in the Bahamas, the one place where a CBDC is said to have worked, adoption has been much lower than hoped. I asked my friend who lives there how successful it had been. He gave me this reply: ‘LOL. I have never seen one person use it.'Fortunately, government incompetence is on our side.Money has always been a bottom-up technology. Users prefer what is convenient. The fiat currency we use in the West today has evolved over many hundreds of years, especially as communication technology has developed. All you are doing when you make a payment is, effectively, sending a promise - the money itself does not exist. There is no gold or anything tangible backing it.Cash is slightly different, because you are handing over something physical. But read what's on that piece of paper - it's just another promise. Once upon a time, you might have been able to swap a 10-pound note for 10 pounds of sterling silver (not quite true as silver was abandoned before paper money became widespread) or 10 gold sovereigns (true). But today, all it says is ‘I promise to pay the bearer the sum of 10 pounds' - it is a promise of nothing. How the whole house of cards doesn't come tumbling down is beyond me, but there you go.Many central banks want to make the transition to CBDCs, despite zero democratic mandate. The planners want it because it then allows for money to become even more of a tool of government policy: whether it be monetary policy, taxation, welfare, surveillance or control. Fortunately, government incompetence is on our side. The history of government IT is so bad, it's unlikely any will succeed, thank goodness, especially not in countries with large populations. Heck, they can't even fix the potholes! But that's not to say they won't try. Always end on a song That's an old show-business maxim. Why don't we do just that?‘Programmable Money', a song I wrote last year about CBDCs, summarises everything there is to be worried about. Enjoy!If you liked this song, you should sign up for my comedy newsletter.Lyrics C - B - D - C. C - B - D - CProgrammable money. Programmable money.We'll monitor every purchase you make,Every transaction or decision you take.If you're not doing wrong, what is there to hide?How you spend money is for us to decide.Your social-credit rating, how do you score?If you're compliant you will get your reward.You may only own what we deem you can own.If you don't register, we'll block your phone.Wait! You'll be late for the expiry date.The state has mandated your money terminatesSo spend, speculate before it's confiscatedThis is what we're going to orchestrateNo more savingProgrammable money. Programmable money.C - B - D - CC - B - D - CYour money's now a tool of policy.You will be living in a smart city.You may only travel in a limited range.Energy and meat rations cos, climate change.We'll take your dough if we think it's owed.No matter if you do not think it's so.Taxes and fines, fares, fees of all kinds.All embedded in the lines of code.Hail Big BrotherProgrammable money. Programmable money.C - B - D - CC - B - D - CTears of the sun, fallen from heaven.Empires fall. Radiant droplets everlasting.We will implant you with a microchip,AI and other forms of censorship.We will decide what is good for you.Total control there's nothing you can do.Bitcoin fixes this!From here.Here's a PDF of today's piece.Finally, here are some videos I made of recent articles, for your viewing pleasure. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

Quick heads up. I have made some video versions of recent articles. Here they are, in case you are a watcher rather than a reader:I don't know about you, but I use artificial intelligence (AI) all the time. ChatGPT has become my right-hand man. It gives me advice (really – and good advice too), it helps me make decisions, it gives me exercise workouts, recipes, it proofreads what I write, it helps me write titles, it even helps me write song lyrics. Midjourney does all the imaging for this newsletter. Even a simple Google search now involves lots of AI.I know I'm not alone. Almost everyone is using AI, consciously or not.Guess what? AI requires bucket loads of power. That's why Microsoft recently agreed to pay Constellation Energy, the new owner of America's infamous nuclear power station, Three Mile Island, a sizeable premium for its energy. There is cheaper wind and solar power to be had in Pennsylvania, but it isn't as reliable as nuclear, 24 hours a day.It's not just AI. The widespread political desire to rid ourselves of fossil fuels means the world needs electricity, and fast.Nuclear is the solution, of course. But nuclear takes a lot of time, even with AI now “re-routing” the anti-nuclear narrative. It takes especially long in the UK where any kind of infrastructure project requires billions to be spent on planners, lawyers and consultants before a brick is even lifted.It's so stupid of course. Nuclear power stations have been operating commercially for 70 years, providing reliable, affordable, and almost infinitely renewable “clean” electricity. Nuclear has the best safety record of any energy technology. Almost all environmental concerns, such as waste disposal, have been solved. But if you want to know the name of the point at which stupidity, hypocrisy, waste and weakness meet, it's called British Energy Policy.Layer upon layer of safety is demanded in nuclear plant design. The regulatory process is slow, cumbersome, and complex. There is a long lead time between planning, building, and operation, which adds to expense. Political uncertainty meant many proposals for nuclear power stations in the UK were shelved. It all drives away investment.But governments around the world are waking up to the fact that the silver bullet is nuclear-powered. Thus, the narrative is changing. The dawn of the new age of nuclear power is upon us, and it can't come quickly enough.That's why the focus has shifted to small modular reactors (SMRs). These have been operational for almost 70 years now in submarines, aircraft carriers, and ice-breakers, but in the last few years, land-based SMRs have been developed to generate electricity.They use simple, proven technology, and are safer than current nuclear power stations. They can be manufactured in factories and then rapidly erected on-site. Modular refers to the design principle of breaking down a system into small, independent, and interchangeable components, or “modules”, that can easily be combined, modified, or replaced without affecting the rest of the system. This flexibility means they are scalable. It aids manufacture, transportation, and installation while reducing construction time and costs.SMRs don't occupy much land, so they have little impact on the landscape. Some can even be constructed underground – surely preferable to wind turbines and solar farms. In the UK, they could be erected on the redundant sites of closed nuclear and coal-fired power stations, where grid connections are readily available. A 440 megawatt (MW) SMR would produce about 3.5 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year, enough for 1.2 million homes – or to provide power to Wales, the Northeast of England, or two Devons. It would require about 25 acres of land. A solar farm would need 13,000 acres for the same output; a wind farm, 32,000 acres. Three 440MW SMRs would be enough for London, which has around 3.6 million homes.What's more, their output is not dependent on the weather. Reliability is why Microsoft paid a premium of more than 85% for Three Mile Island's power. SMRs produce electricity that can easily be adjusted to meet the constant, everyday needs of the grid (baseload), and they can also ramp up or down to follow changes in demand throughout the day. They spin in sync with the grid, so they help keep everything stable. When they're running, they act like a steady hand, providing momentum that makes it easier to manage sudden changes in electricity supply or demand.Why not subscribe to this amazing publication?How To InvestThere are all sorts of ways to invest in nuclear power. The simplest and least risky is to buy the metal itself. Current demand for uranium stands at around 200 million pounds per year, while mining output totals only 140 million pounds. Another 25 million pounds comes from secondary sources, such as scrap and recycling. So there is a uranium supply deficit. I'm surprised the price isn't higher. London-listed Yellowcake (LSE:YCA) has been set up with this purpose in mind. It is, essentially, a uranium holding company. You buy the shares, and thus own a share of the uranium it holds. It makes up part of the Dolce Far Niente portfolio.You could also buy uranium miners, though I have to say I do not like the miners at all. There are the large producers, such as Cameco (Toronto: CCO) and Paladin Energy (Sydney: PDN). You can also gain exposure via large caps, such as Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO), but they are not pure plays. There are mine developers too, such as NexGen Energy (Toronto: NXE), whose Rook 1 project should be producing a whopping 30 million pounds a year by 2030, almost enough to solve the uranium supply deficit single-handedly.If you don't fancy your stock-picking skills, go for a fund instead. The London-listed Sprott Uranium Miners ETF (LSE: URNP) is an exchange-traded fund that gives you exposure to a basket of mining companies, as does closed-end fund Geiger Counter (LSE: GCL). Another popular ETF is the Global X Uranium UCITS ETF (LSE: URNU).Why don't I like uranium miners? About 90% of those listed in the funds do not have any production coming in the near future and are, therefore, huge vortexes into which capital will disappear. At present, they are fully valued. That's not saying they won't go up. But when the time comes for them to fall, they will bomb.When I last looked at SMRs in 2021, the companies I tipped were Rolls-Royce (LSE: RR) and Fluor Corp (NYSE: FLR). Both have been real winners. Rolls-Royce has built seven generations of SMRs for use in nuclear submarines and, with its modern designs for SMRs, has been winning contracts all over. Rolls-Royce is not a pure SMR play. But it has put its SMR business into a separate entity (Rolls-Royce SMR) and I presume this will be spun out and listed at some later stage.The stock has been going great guns under its new CEO, Tufan Erginbilgiç. I tipped it around the 100p mark and it's now at 530p and there's no stopping it. It was 1,350p in 2013, so there's plenty of upside left, and that was before there was any urgency about SMRs. I've taken my original stake off the table, and the rest I'm holding.I also mentioned NuScale, a US outfit, which in 2021 was unfortunately still private. There was a way to get exposure to NuScale, however: via majority shareholder and engineering company Fluor Corp. It has been a real winner too. We tipped it at $18. It's now $50. The stock remains a hold, although it is not a pure play. Worth $8.6bn, Fluor has $200m of free cash flow and trades at 42 times earnings.But the company we were looking at, NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE: SMR), has now listed – good ticker – and you can buy the stock at not far off the flotation price. Be warned, however: this is a volatile company. Since its initial public offering (IPO) at $10, the stock has been as high as $15 and as low as $2. It is now at $13.NuScale designs, develops, and commercialises SMR reactors for nuclear-power generation, aiming to provide a “safe, flexible, and scalable nuclear-energy solution”. Its flagship product is the NuScale Power Module, a self-contained pressurised water reactor (PWR) that is far smaller than traditional nuclear reactors. Each module has an electric capacity of about 60 megawatts, but they can combine to scale up.NuScale has partnered with various organisations, including the US Department of Energy (DOE) and global energy firms, but it does not yet have a solid sales pipeline, so it is hard to value. Instead, it's a bit of a meme stock that rises and falls when it gets tipped. NuScale has a market capitalisation of $1.2bn and revenues of $23m; it lost $273m last year. It now has $180m in negative free cash flow, $130m in cash and a burn rate of about $35m per quarter. (So it's got enough money for another year.) Caveat emptor.Another option is BWX Technologies (NYSE: BWXT), but again it's not a pure SMR play, more of a picks-and-shovels play. The company manufactures nuclear-reactor components, systems fuel, and other critical parts for the nuclear-power industry. It really is wide-ranging (think anything from naval nuclear propulsion to nuclear defence) and its history goes all the way back to the Manhattan Project.SMR developers will often rely on BWX's expertise and manufacturing capabilities to ensure the safety and functionality of their designs. As demand for SMRs grows, so will the appetite for BWX's products and services. BWX has a market value of $10bn and $1.2bn in debt. Earnings per share are just shy of $3, and the price/earnings (p/e) ratio is close to 40. But it is profitable and pays a yield just below 1%.If you want to go really small and speculative, there is always the mining exploration option (not recommended), or uranium enrichment firms. If this technology of enriching uranium to make it more powerful comes good, then the efficiencies of the industry will improve even further, and the problem of uranium supply deficits will quickly vanish, along with the high prices of many uranium miners. Silex Systems (Sydney: SLX) – market cap A$1.1bn (£565m), 50% owned by Cameco – is the market leader here, although Centrus Energy (NYSE: LEU), worth $1bn, is not far behind.We are still some years from successful enrichment, but it is coming. I doubt we will see it before the uranium price itself breaks to new highs above $140/lb, which it hit in 2006, and probably not until $200 uranium. High prices have a habit of accelerating everything. Uranium is now at $70/lb.That's when tiny-cap nuclear-fuel tech firms such as Lightbridge (Nasdaq: LTBR), worth $46m, could rocket. Lightbridge, looking to improve the safety, economics, and proliferation resistance of nuclear power, is developing a fuel that operates about 1,000 degrees cooler than standard fuel. It's got $27m in the bank, is losing $10m a year and, like NuScale, seems to rely on memes and tipsters. The stock costs $3 so there is plenty of upside. But be warned: this is an illiquid Nasdaq stock. Don't chase it.Amazing chart. From $4,000 - to $2. Talk about wealth destruction. It's like an NHS IT project. Looks like it might, finally, have bottomed though. This article first appeared in Moneyweek Magazine.I'll be MCing this year's Moneyweek Summit on Friday November 8th. Readers of the Flying Frisby can get a 20% discount by entering the code FRISBY20If you're interested in nuclear, Wednesday's piece might be of interest: I had an email from Nick Lawson, CEO of investment house, Ocean Finance, which has put together some research on Lightbridge. I share it here, in case of interest. And here once again are those vids: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe