I got this yesterday from reader “Charlie”:
You seem very upfront when I read your blog. I appreciate that. I do not
know much about you or your work but somehow came across your blog a
year or so ago.I started following people like Casey Research,
Sprott, Jeff Berwick etc those like minded people. Philosophically
speaking I think they have sound ideas. I think Doug is extremely
intelligent as well as Rick Rule. I know you rip Louis James, and
recently Jeff’s Galt Gulch.I agree I lost a ton of money on
Rubicon because of Louis calling a double if you buy by a certain date. I
am furious over it. Also, people who invested in Galts Gulch clearly
got hammered.I guess my question is as people do you think Doug,
Rick, Eric, Jeff, Daniel, Louis are good? And you do you consider their
mining recommendations to be solid?
Charlie, do you really care what I think? I don’t even understand the reason why you sent me this because the mere fact you use the word ‘philosophically’ in a paragraph that mentions Jeff Berwick is more than enough to mark our cards. But I will separate Rick Rule from the others, because he’s not a snake oil salesmen. When you sit on the buyside like Rule does your motives and priorities are different and even though I’m not an adherent of his so-called anarcho-capitalism and I wouldn’t trust him in a deal until he’s signed at the bottom of a piece of paper, he’s the only one of them who has a clear and respectable position: He just wants to make a profit. With him it’s nothing personal, it’s just capitalism.
The other people you mentioned are different, they’re just bullshit merchants. Some more successful than others and in the example of Doug Casey, his wealth stems from the insight of working out a couple of decades ago than there are a whole bunch of naive and financially inept people in the Libertarian (for want of another pigeonhole) movement that will give him money if he offers them the right message (gold/guns/freedom/Rand/etc). I’ll give him credit for nailing a way to become rich but that’s the limit of his intelligence, though. It’s also a method that involves zero wealth creation, he hasn’t added a thing to society, all he does is transfer wealth from one pocket (yours) to another (his). Ayn Rand would laugh at him in his face. He’s also studied his PT Barnum because he knows the results of his predictions don’t need to be right and they can be forgotten along the way, as long as the message about the future remains on-topic and intact. Tell stupid people what they want to hear and stupid people will give you money, it’s the American Way and Doug Casey has been harvesting the fruits of the financially inept ever since he hit on the formula. As for their mining picks, you have first-hand experience of the fake geologist Louis Lobito Little Wolf James so I need tell you no more, but to give you an idea of how stupid Jeff Berwick is on mining try Googling his name and the word Batero.
Anyway, that’s a paragraph you didn’t want to read and ultimately I’m not trying to convince you, because if you think people who’ve consistently called the market wrong are smart about money you’re already a lost cause. I decided to answer your mail on the public blog because it might just save some other sap from falling into the Multi-Level-Marketing hellhole they’ve created to trap greenhorns and fools. Thus ends another IKN rant.