Richard Mills's Contributions

Lately there’s been a lot of talk regarding currency wars. Let’s take a look at why competitive currency devaluations – currency wars – won’t accomplish what’s intended and why we’re going to have to see increasing U.S. protectionism (subsidies, tariffs etc.) regarding global trade.

All through human evolution we have been harnessing increasingly effective forms of energy. From human power to horse power, to wood, coal, natural gas and uranium we’ve been working our way up the energy efficiency ladder. In reality what we’ve been doing is searching for the highest energy density to make energy production more efficient.

Should we leave the creation of new money in the hands of bankers or place its creation solely with our government?

The number of people living in areas affected by severe water stress is expected to increase to almost four billion people...

Copper is critical for China and the country has imported unbelievable tonnages over the years, but according to the copper bears the story could be coming to an end.

Overheated US housing prices started dropping in 2006. Homeowners were going underwater (they owed more than the house was worth) and many had questionable credit – “fog the mirror loans” were common, if you breathed you got a loan.

The GDP is considered the nation's report card because it provides the broadest measure of economic activity. What does the US’s latest report on the state of the economy, the US’s GDP report card, say in regards to further monetary easing, yes or no? Let’s break it down into a pro/con list, the pro’s are actually negative stats but are positive for more quantitative easing (QE).

There is an undeniable, an unarguable connection between the quality of a countries economic competitiveness and its infrastructure. Yet study after study shows the global economy running an infrastructure deficit of anywhere from US$ 40 trillion to $70 trillion.

Electricity enables our modern life style - the degree of dependency we have built into our lives in regards to “power on demand” has raised expectations that plentiful electricity will be available to us 24/7.

Our groundwater is being used up at record rates and claims to ownership are becoming increasingly contentious. It won't be long before the first water war begins.

Because of the worst drought since 1988 the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared a federal disaster area in almost one-third of all the counties in the United States - more than 1,300 counties covering 29 states, the largest disaster declaration ever made by the USDA.

At the start of golden ages golden stories should be told. Following many years of net annual sales in the 400 to 500 tonne range, central banks, underweighted in gold and overweight in dollars and euro’s, became net buyers of gold in 2009 - in 2002 central banks sold 545 tonnes of gold, in 2011 they bought 440 tonnes.

The Greeks would not accept the electrum coins in trade so the coins were outlawed by King Croesus (560-546 B.C.) and gold or silver coins were issued. When the Lydians were captured by the Persians in 546 B.C., the use of gold coins began to spread.

In the early 1970s a nationwide electronic funds transfer system was envisioned. The system would use individualized electronic identification cards and digitized bank accounts with merchants connected to them by telecommunication links.

Once in a long while we as investors are given a glimpse, a window into the future. How can there be any doubt that access to clean fresh water for drinking, sanitation and crop irrigation is going to become the one overriding concern for billions of people?

Institutional investors tend to prefer investments that are thought to contain the potential for growth, growth = sprouts. An investment has to produce a growing revenue stream - if it doesn’t grow it doesn’t compound. Gold is rejected as an investment because it doesn’t produce sprouts, meaning the steady income and systematic growth so sought after by institutional investors just isn’t there.

United States Mint Authorized Purchasers (AP’s) ordered 3,197,000 Bullion American Silver Eagle Coins on January 3rd, the first day they went on sale. That opening day total catapulted January Bullion Eagle sales higher than half of the monthly totals in 2011.

Consumer confidence spiked last December. Gas prices were lower for the third straight month, a mild winter has meant that many consumers paid less to heat their houses, the auto sector posted another strong month, consumers spent more on recreation and demand for student loans increased.

Our agriculture system is concentrated on producing a very few staple crops - there is a very serious lack of crop diversity. Corn, wheat, rice and soy are the main staples and production is oftentimes half a world away from where the majority of the crop would be consumed. The world’s extreme poor exist almost exclusively on what is a ‘buy today, eat today’ plant based diet - wheat, corn, soy or rice provide the bulk of their calories.

Population growth and increasing demand for food supplies go hand in hand. Unfortunately yield increases have generally leveled off and supply is barely keeping up with demand. The fact is, that today, we’re one poor harvest, one Black Swan event away from a food supply catastrophe and a repeat of the food shortages that caused the Arab Spring.