Six consecutive deficits. 762 million ounces drained from above-ground stocks. A liquidity squeeze that briefly sent London lease rates to 200%. The silver market’s structural crisis is no longer a warning. It is the baseline. Something has been building in the silver market since 2021 that mainstream financial commentary has consistently underpriced. On April 15, [...]

A conflict in the Persian Gulf doesn’t just spike gasoline prices. It quietly inflates the cost of everything from surgical tubing to cereal boxes — and most consumers never see it coming. When Iran and Israel exchanged missile strikes in April 2024, financial markets responded with what had become a familiar reflex: crude oil surged [...]

War in the Middle East is disrupting global oil supplies and sending energy prices soaring. Yet gold, the asset investors traditionally flee to during times of crisis, is experiencing its worst week since the early 1980s. Gold prices plunged 11% this week, marking the steepest weekly decline since March 1983. The precious metal has now [...]

Finland’s 2017–19 basic income experiment found no significant employment decline but a 4.7-point improvement in wellbeing scores and measurable reductions in mental health service usage among 2,000 participants. Stockton, California’s SEED programme (2019–21) produced a 12-percentage-point increase in full-time employment among recipients versus the control group. The Alaska Permanent Fund has distributed unconditional annual dividends [...]

When Brent crude rises $10 per barrel — as it has done multiple times since the current Iran conflict escalated — the IMF estimates global GDP contracts by 0.4% and consumer price inflation rises by 0.5 percentage points within two quarters. At the current $130+ per barrel, the arithmetic is direct: U.S. gasoline averages $4.80–5.20 [...]

The Strait of Hormuz — 34 kilometres wide at its narrowest point — carries 20.5 million barrels of oil per day, accounting for 21% of global oil consumption and 27% of all seaborne crude trade. The IEA has classified the current Iran conflict as the largest oil supply disruption in modern history: an estimated 8 [...]