Bizarro World Podcast,
with Nick and Gerardo
Sept. 12, 2022
Some viewers chimed in about the content in recent episodes, and we give them a shoutout. Why gold and select gold stocks are good buys right now. Lithium stocks continue to rip with many new mines needed and no replacement in sight. Was Trump running a criminal organization? A copper junior you should be watching now. Why it’s going to be a cold winter in Europe and the draconian measures governments there are taking. He Is In Me (H.I.I.M) — a new gosper rapper hit the scene. Plus: why uranium can prosper in spite of a broader bear market. It’s all in episode 185 of Bizarro World.
1:14 Viewer Comments & Shoutouts
5:30 Gold, Gold Stocks & Bond Yields
11:25 Lithium Stock Update
17:47 Trump’s Criminal Organization
20:39 A Junior Copper Stock to Watch
25:55 A Cold Winter in Europe
34:05 He Is in Me (H.I.I.M)
37:53 Uranium Bull in a Broader Bear
Gerardo Del Real: The dollar surge continues. Uranium is hot. Lithium is hot. Europe wants to lock you up for trying to stay cool and then try to lock you up for trying to stay warm. California's got rolling blackouts
Nick Hodge: And is hot.
Gerardo Del Real: And is hot. There's a lot of stuff to get into. We're going to get into Steve Bannon and Trump's criminal organization. I am Gerardo Del Real along with Mr. Nick Hodge. This is therapy session, otherwise known as Bizarro World Number 185. Mr. Hodge, how goes it? We've been doing 185 of these. You believe that.
Nick Hodge: That's crazy, right? I mean, you think about we do it once a week, we're going on the better part of four years or something like that, right? It's good. Like you say, it's good therapy. It's a good way to get our thoughts out there. A good way for subscribers to maybe get us to know us a bit, either existing ones or potential ones, which we obviously love. We get to share our thoughts and sentiments on the market and only be accountable to the people who comment, I guess.
Viewer Comments & Shoutouts
Gerardo Del Real: No, I love it. Look, and on that note, I think it's a couple of things. One, it's important to highlight the positive. Because we often get on here and we call it a therapy session, and it is, but it's easier sometimes to focus on some of the challenging situations going on around the world or some of the negative comments that sometimes get thrown everybody's way. There were two listeners that took the time to write in and so I just wanted to shout them out. Michelle wrote in and had a wonderful email. I'm going to actually read the whole thing because it was so useful. We talked about Monkeypox last week and we talked about children. We talked about how initially this was being kind of presented as mostly exclusive to the gay community. She wrote in, she was a first time listener and if you'll bear with me for a second folks, I'm going to read this here.
She says, "First time I listened to Bizarro today and I loved it. I appreciated the shout out to the first elected native Alaskan for winning the election." I won't read that part there. This is the part that was very informative. "Monkeypox is not a gay disease. It does require fairly close contact but not necessarily sexual. It's spread by contact with sores or any bodily fluids, kissing, possibly sneezing. Not known yet to be transferred via air. Children will get it without it being by sexual contact. Women will get it as well. Smallpox was the other disease that you were talking about. They stopped giving the smallpox vaccine in 1972. It's unknown how much protection the smallpox vaccine will offer. We don't have to worry about monkeypox as an epidemic yet, but I am still quite worried about other and possibly worsening COVID variants never leaving us alone or even an Ebola type pandemic coming in the future. I'm a nurse and I used to be on a committee that trained a large group of medical personnel for such disasters. We were called the BCU, Biocontainment Unit here in Galveston. I explain this because I'm sure that experience causes a subjectively skewed opinion about such matters, but this is my opinion. I doubt either of you are old enough..." This was funny. "To ever see that smallpox vaccine, so stay healthy and take care of yourselves. If you're ever offered a monkeypox vaccine, I would take it though. They have spread the supply of manufactured doses out by simply changing how it is injected. Monkeypox is a vaccine that you can even receive after exposure days four to 14 and it helps you get rid of it faster. If received before day four after known exposure, it can prevent the disease together. Everything you ever wanted to know about Monkeypox. Thanks for the enjoyable show and reading this critique and public service message."
I thought it was thoughtful. I appreciate the information. I thought, look, I know it's not widespread, but I thought the information was important to pass along. Anytime I get something that is as intelligent and well thought out as that, it deserves a shout out. Then the other person I want to shout out is Les, who commented on the YouTube channel. I thought it neat because often in our space women aren't your typical speculator or investor. We go to conferences, and let's be very blunt, 90% are white males and tend to be older white males. Anytime we get women that are speculating or investing or educating, it's important to highlight them, to shout them out. Shout out to Les. Shout out to Michelle. Thank you for your time and thank you for listening.
Nick Hodge: Well, women I think we know are oftentimes better investors than men, because they're more level headed. Studies at least have shown when investing in broad based equities that they don't make as many moves and so they don't try to time as much and oftentimes outperform. I obviously see the names that come through on the billing, and I was just actually at the post office sending out some books that we had sold over the past month and plenty of female names on there as well. More ladies getting into the investment space is great. More ladies managing their own and their household's money, which is great. Yeah, we welcome them all and it's good to know that we're not just speaking into the ether.
Gold, Gold Stocks & Bond Yields
Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Let's get right into it. Gold bounced right off that $1680 support that we said was so important for it to bounce off of and has rallied pretty well, in spite of a dollar index that's flirting with 110 again. I think for gold to be above $1700 and hold that $1680 support within that backdrop of 110 index, I find that to be extremely bullish. Any thoughts on that, Nick?
Nick Hodge: I think there's a lot of quality to be had in the gold space, including gold itself. You mentioned in the face of the dollar rising, it's also been in the face of rates continuing to rise, which is typically bad for gold. I'm sticking with my mantra that rates are zenithing. The 10 year at least just crested the 3% mark, but every time it gets there or just above it wants to shy away. I continue to say that this economic slowdown that we're going to face, and going to continue to face for a couple more quarters, is going to mean that bond yields aren't going to be able to go up as high as some people might think. I think gold sort of sniffs that out a little bit. It's one of the reasons gold has not gone down as much as other asset classes. I continue to think that gold is going to be a great investment over the next 12 months.
I can't tell you exactly when, I'm not sure anyone can, but the environment is right for it. When you look at the equities, including the big names, I mean there's a lot of value there. You've got the Newmonts and the Barricks of the world that have taken it on the chin and are yielding some pretty good dividends. Then there's some smaller names that have a lot to offer that are coming up on catalysts and that are starting to release news. We talked last week about how we were coming into September, and now we're officially into September, and already there's been a flurry of news releases. Some more will be coming in the form of economic studies and drill results. It's no secret that we've been pounding the table for a week or so on this gold event that we held.
The response has been great, so the investor appetite is there for gold stocks I think as well. Shameless plug of course, we'll put a link up to that and make sure you continue to see that, which is about a gold discovery, a gold deposit, a project that could grow into potentially one of the biggest in the US. It's already got several million ounces and upcoming results could show some more high grade there. That's a pretty long winded answer, but I think gold is a decent place to be as a hedge and as a long term place to put capital alongside the dollar and alongside rates as we get into a declining stock market. I mean, I'll get right into the broad market, I guess. The VIX is starting to elevate, once again, I think it's going to be a pretty choppy September. September's historically a bad month for the stock market, so a lot of headwinds for equities globally and gold is a pretty good hedge for that typically.
Gerardo Del Real: Know look, and I'll say this, shameless plug on America's Next Biggest Gold Mine. It has all of the boxes checked that I like to see. It's got a terrific management team. It's in a phenomenal jurisdiction. It's got topnotch infrastructure. I mean all of it, the power, the workforce, you name it, it has it. It's got a robust resource base already there. This isn't an exploration play. However, I spoke with the CEO of this company recently, and he sounded a little bit more confident than I typically hear him sound. I know that's not an indication of good news being on its way, but I know assays are pending and I got to believe they, at the very least, like what they're seeing coming out of the ground. I know that you were at this project recently. Without giving it away, I would encourage everybody to click on the link that we'll provide.
Look, the bottom line is if you don't make any money on this, we'll give you your money back. I mean, it doesn't get much better than that. Worst case scenarios, you might learn a thing or two. Best case scenario, you might make some money on us. I think that we're biased because we're supporters and shareholders of this company and have been from very early on, but I think it's as good a play in the gold space as any, for not just what's there but for the exploration upside that potentially could be unlocked here in the next couple of weeks. We'll see.
Nick Hodge: Well, the video goes sort of through that a little bit. About how we've been involved, financed it early, and how many gold projects don't work. It talks about how I've been intimately involved with it and what's the old saying? Gold mine's a hole in the ground with a liar standing on top. It's very blunt about the fact that most gold mines, most gold investments don't work out, especially early stage speculative ones. It takes you through the things, the boxes you're talking about that need to be checked to make a quality gold investment or speculation.
It's boots on the ground, it's footage of the tour. I guess speaking of footage, and you were saying you spoke to the CEO, the company's pretty active on social media and they were posting photos of some of the core that has now gone to the lab and which we'll likely see results for soon. The comments that accompanied that, and this isn't inside stuff, I mean they put this on their social media, so it's part of the public record, was some of the geologic terms that they look for. Then the comment was, "Exactly what we like to see." They know what they like to see because they've hit this high grade on the project before and so that bodes well as well.
Lithium Stock Update
Gerardo Del Real: Check, check, check, check. Let's talk Lithium. Still bullish?
Nick Hodge: Absolutely.
Gerardo Del Real: Goldman Sachs is still wrong?
Nick Hodge: Oh man.
Gerardo Del Real: Fucking idiots.
Nick Hodge: Some of these stocks are ripping. You obviously will talk about Patriot Battery Metals and maybe give us an update there, but there's other ones. Piedmont Lithium is now listed on the NASDAQ and is over like $60. Allkem might have hit a new 52 week high today before we recorded this and has reported results recently. The Chinese prices that we see are still up around $69,000 or $70,000per ton of lithium carbonate. Just an absolute dearth. I feel like a broken record, like we say the same thing every week. For a while I was talking about this IEA report that said we needed 50 new lithium mines, but Benchmark Mineral Research, the research company was out this week I think with a new report saying we need even more than that. They're the ones who've got their finger on the pulse of the giga factories and the inputs that are needed. It's not going away anytime soon, and it's across the board. It's the mining, it's the refining, the production, the processing. Turning it into the refined products that are needed to go on the batteries. I mean there's no place to get this other than China, which has a stranglehold on it. I think people are starting to realize that more and more, and especially when a lot of things aren't working in the market and you have something that is, it tends to attract more investment dollars. All that to say, I'm pretty bullish on lithium and I think it'll be in a bull market for some time to come.
Gerardo Del Real: I want to make sure I credit the right group. It's Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. Simon Moores over there does phenomenal research. Anybody that's looking for a nonbiased, educated and well researched take on the critical metal space would be well served subscribing to one of the many services that they provide. The information, the research is topnotch. Bottom line is, they've been right where a lot of people have been wrong and they've been right where a lot of people have been wrong for a very long time. Yeah, long winded way of saying go give those folks a look. They're worth the time. I love making money against Goldman Sachs anytime they put out a bullshit opinion like the one they did with their lithium report. I'll just keep that there. I know you mentioned Patriot. Go ahead.
Nick Hodge: I'll just read it real quick, because it just came out on September 6th. It says "More than 300 new mines could need to be built over the next decade to meet demand for electric vehicle and energy storage batteries, according to Benchmark. At least 348 new mines for graphite, lithium, nickel and cobalt are required to meet demand by 2035." That's, again broken record, but 2035 is not that long away. Getting that many new mines identified, de-risked, funded, permitted, constructed, it's just going to take longer than that. If you can't come up with that amount of mines, then the market does what the market does and creates a price environment that incents that stuff to come on faster. That's why I think we're so bullish.
Gerardo Del Real: No, look, and you mentioned Patriot Battery Metals (TSX-V: PMET)(OTC: PMETF), and so let's get right into it. I am no longer the only crazy one that thinks that this company will one day be worth four to five billion dollars. There was some research that was put out earlier this week. I had a conversation with a private equity investor off the record here recently, a gentlemen that's done billions and billions in transactions, and he said, "Look, this has got $30 to $50 written all over it within the next couple of years." What his patron decided to do, because they only had 50 kilometers of trend prospective for lithium bearing spodumene in pegmatites, they went and got another eight kilometers on the west end of the Corvette district. I mean, a lot of runway there.
I don't want to sound like a broken record and get into all the reasons why I think Patriot is going higher, but Patriot is going higher unless the world markets collapse. Again, as I said last week, if that's the case, we all have bigger problems than Patriot Battery Metals pulling back a little bit.
Nick Hodge: There's even some me too companies going on there in Quebec. I was reading companies are starting to come in and stake land around the property and they're making plays out of that. It's definitely attracting attention. One last thing that I've said multiple times and I continue to see all these advertisements and all this click bait about new types of batteries and new minerals that are magic materials.
Gerardo Del Real: The death of Elon.
Nick Hodge: Right. Yeah. Magic materials or whatever the advertising is that are going to replace this. It's just not, folks. Even this Benchmark thing that we were just talking about is taking into account the volume of recycled lithium. We're still going to need dozens and dozens and dozens of new mines in the next dozen years. It's lithium that they're talking about. They're not talking about whatever, pick your flavor, sodium batteries or whatever it is that people are writing about.
Gerardo Del Real: Sodium batteries.
Nick Hodge: The auto makers and the battery manufacturers have committed to the lithium ion battery. There might be tweaks to the cathodes and the anodes, and ways to reduce maybe the amount of cobalt or nickel by a little bit, but you are not replacing the fact that the entire world auto market, the manufacturers in Europe and North America and Asia have committed to the lithium ion battery. Which, as I said a couple of podcasts ago, and you credited me for being so astute, is lithium. It's right there. It's right there in the name.
Trump’s Criminal Organization
Gerardo Del Real: Mind blown. You know who is not very astute? Again, I mean, they do this to themselves every week it seems like, but we got to talk to the Trump criminal organization because it looks like Trump was the head of a mob family, man. Steve Bannon was just charged with money laundering and conspiracy for the build the wall scheme where he was taking donations and money from people using immigrants as the scapegoat and threatening Americans by scaring them saying that the immigrants were going to come and rape and pillage and take it all and the only way to stop that was to send him money so he can build a wall. Well, apparently he was doing, allegedly, more than just building a wall with those funds. Now he is under arrest and has been indicted on federal charges.
Nick Hodge: It was sealed. They must have unsealed it.
Gerardo Del Real: Yes. I stand corrected. He dodged the federal charges when President Trump pardoned him for those. Now he's being brought to state court in New York to face similar charges on a six count indictment that includes money laundering, conspiracy, and scheming to defraud for his alleged role in We Build the Wall, a group that raised at least $15 million to construct a barrier along the border with Mexico, but skimmed the donations. You can't make this up, folks. Yet look, there's still people that will go and literally beat other people up on behalf of the Steve Bannons of the world.
I mean, it's a crazy time we live in, Nick. It's so tribalistic, it's so fascinating to me just how brainwashed so many parts of our civilization are. It's insane on both sides. You talked last week about Nancy Pelosi's husband and the insider trading that goes on there. Look, there's people on the left that are willing to do different things also that just boggle my mind. The Trumpster and his merry crew of criminal conspirators continue to provide fodder on an almost weekly basis. Look, Mr. Trump is now promising to pardon the people that we're attacking the police and the people that we're rioting on January the 6th if he's elected again, if he decides to run. Just crazy times, folks. The volatility's not going to slow down any, is what I'm trying to tell you.
Nick Hodge: I have to look up when the filing deadline is. We need to know when he's going to run, or if he's going to run.
Gerardo Del Real: I'm sure we'll hear about it. I'm confident we'll hear about it. There's one thing the Trumpster's not shy on, it's making sure he draws attention to his next move.
Nick Hodge: Yeah, and the media will be there to cover it, we know.
A Junior Copper Stock to Watch
Gerardo Del Real: The media will be there to cover it. Let's talk markets again. We'd like to talk about where the puck is going. We talked about lithium as a battery metal, as the battery metal, but we have to talk copper if we're going to talk where the puck is going. I saw a research report that has copper trading around the $6 a pound level by 2025. 2025 is right around the corner. Those two years fly by quickly. What are you watching in the copper space that you really like, Nick? Values that maybe during this recent consolidation to kind of stand out to you? I know we don't want to give away the farm, but for those that listen that at least want to do some research on some quality copper companies, where would you point them to other than resourcestockdigest.com?
Nick Hodge: Oh yeah. Well, back up the train for a second. I had told you a couple of weeks ago that I sold Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO). Because honestly when you face a global economic slowdown like we're facing, commodities get soft. We've seen that in the copper price. I don't have it in front of me, but it's pulled back from certainly near $5 it was a couple of months ago, as lots of commodities have come down. Gas prices have been coming down, lumber's been softening. That's just natural for, frankly, the recession that we're in, and that's going to last for a couple of more quarters. You have demand disruption and people don't get bulled up on commodities. Even the entire CRB Commodity Index has pulled back. I would have to say that that was the right decision for the time. I think Rio Tinto was above $60 when we sold it, for a profit, by the way, and it's now down closer to $50.
There's a lot of big names you can look at. I mean, that's a good long term place to be for copper, like the Rio Tintos and the Freeports of the world. I know you were asking me about smaller companies, and so I'll give you just one that is in the portfolio that I finance personally and you probably wrote a check for too, and that's Aguila Copper (TSX-V: AGL)(OTC: AGLAF).
Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely.
Nick Hodge: Which has got several projects and has identified this anomaly on one of them that's going to be drilled out either later this year or early next year. That the management team is highly confident that the anomaly is going to turn into a deposit. It's multiple shots on goal within safe jurisdictions, which is important for the reasons we just talked about — not having the stranglehold on supply in Asia. It's in the Western US. They have a project in Canada as well, and it's an incredibly cheap valuation that's thinly traded with a good share structure. Off the top of my head, I'd have to say it's probably a C$6 or C$7 million market cap company. It's extremely cheap for the projects that it has, especially because one of them has a resource on it, the Canadian project.
Gerardo Del Real: A robust one.
Nick Hodge: They don't need to raise money though. Of course, all juniors would at higher prices if they had the opportunity. They have a couple of million bucks to drill this anomaly I'm talking about, and for me that's a pretty high quality speculation, given the right timeframes, which you always mention. If it takes two years, you're talking about 2025. Then I'm fine with that. I'm not so sure it's going to go gangbusters in the next six months. As they execute and as they drill, and if copper gets to the $6 you're talking about, that that report mentioned, then I think it's a fantastic speculation.
Gerardo Del Real: I couldn't agree more. That's actually the project in Nevada is a project I may go visit next month. Another company that has a project, a lithium project, the Gemini project that I really like in Nevada, is Nevada Sunrise (TSX-V: NEV)(OTC: NVSGF). I may do a site visit with Nevada Sunrise, Aguila Copper, and possibly one other name that I really like, Almadex Minerals (TSX-V: DEX)(OTC: AXDDF), which is basically trading near cash and has a zinc silver project that has billions of dollars of metal in the ground. They have royalties on all sorts of great projects. By the way, they're also onto a discovery in Nevada, a gold discovery that they own 100% of. Looking to see if we can do a multi day, multi company, multi asset tour in the next couple of months. A large part of that would depend on whether or not we're able to find that elusive brine in Nevada with Nevada Sunrise. If that's the case, I mean, we started talking about Nevada Sunrise here when it was three cents about a year ago when we wrote to check at three cents, and then it went to C$0.10 cents and we said it could go to C$0.20. Then I think couple of weeks ago we said, "Look, it's pulled back to C$0.20, we think it can go to C$0.40 and C$0.50 in short order." Well here it is at C$0.34, C$0.35 cents and I think that-
Nick Hodge: It hit C$0.40 briefly.
Gerardo Del Real: It did. It's right at C$0.34, C$0.35 cents today. Would not surprise me if in the next week or two, as drilling commences, that stock surge is higher past the C$0.50 cent level. Excellent speculation on lithium, and by the way, they have some copper assets and a gold asset that I really like as well.
Nick Hodge: Three cents to C$0.40 cents is good work, if you can get it.
Gerardo Del Real: Better If you can get it with 5-cent, 10-cent, 16-cent warrants along the way up. Again, is it worth waiting a couple of years for a 3 cent play to go to 40 cents? I mean, everybody's different. I'll write that check every day of the week. What else you got in your mind, Nick?
Nick Hodge: Oh gosh, what do you want to talk about?
A Cold Winter in Europe
Gerardo Del Real: It's going to be a cold winter in Europe.
Nick Hodge: Yeah, I guess it was you who put it on the list, because it wasn't me. They're talking about price caps now, which is not a way to control a market. Natural price discovery is always best. I heard somebody say if they're going to limit the price of electricity in Europe and in Switzerland or England or elsewhere, then a lot of people are just going to set up bitcoin mining shops if the electricity's capped. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. You got to have free market solutions. I would point back to the discussion we've had previously about how self-inflicted this energy crisis is. That Europe shied away from the assets that could truly provide base load power that isn't dependent on a pipeline coming from an unfriendly country like Russia. Did I lose my train of thought there? What else was I going to say? Gosh, what was I going to say?
Gerardo Del Real: Well here, I'll step in while that comes back to you. In the famous words of Rahm Emanuel, long time Bill Clinton advisor, "Never let a good natural disaster go to waste." Here we are, Europe's in the midst of, one, it's hot, and then two, it's going to be very cold here soon. Here's what Switzerland's trying to do. This, in case you think that it's just the US government that's corrupt and uses every opportunity to try to gain more control. Switzerland wants to put people in jail if they raise their gas heating system past 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Up to three years in jail and a $30 daily rate as a fine, is what they're looking to impose possibly. Utility companies may also be penalized if they deliberately exceed their gas quotas. I mean, this is absolute madness.
Nick Hodge: This is the country that allows international criminal rings to hide money and have bank accounts in it. They're going to put you in jail for your thermostat.
Gerardo Del Real: For having it above 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit. They say that water can only be heated up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit or you can go to jail for up to three years. As if it wasn't insulting enough to the people, to the citizenry the fact that they're exposed and vulnerable to this catastrophe because of the stupidity of government and the inaction and the policies that they undertook. Now that it's hitting the fan, you want to lock up the same people that don't want to freeze. It's just lunacy to me what's going on around the world as it relates to the major institutions and governments all around the world. It's just nuts to me, Nick.
Nick Hodge: It is crazy. I guess a couple of things. Let me say first what I lost my train of thought on before. It's interesting to see how the climate doesn't matter when you get in a pinch. Germany is content just to burn coal and increasing amounts of it to keep the lights on. It's amazing how the climate goes away. Nobody's talking about carbon credits. Nobody's talking about climate goals when they're so desperate to keep the lights on. Then the other thing I'd say is that it's madness and it's lunacy, but there's certain groups who will take this all the way to the extreme and call it a conspiracy. This is how they're going to control you, et cetera. I'm not necessarily sure that's the case. I think it's more ineptitude.
I don't think it was planned out to have electricity shortages to come in and monitor what your thermostat is set at. Then you'd have to have your thermostat linked up to the grid for them to be able to figure out. You'd have to have a smart thermostat and your hot water heater would have to be monitored. I'm not exactly sure how they would pull that off. There's people that will be saying this is New World Order stuff, global government stuff, that it was planned, sort of like they did with the coronavirus. I'm not necessarily sure that's the case.
I wrote my monthly issue this week and I was writing a lot about that because, sorry to jump around topics, but we were talking about The Silver Symposium last week and the sort of crowd that was there. I did a YouTube video while I was there that has since come out. We can post a link to that. I was reading the comments and it's all about, "Wake up! More people need to wake up, more people need to stack physical only. Stocks aren't where it's at."
For me, I feel like I'm pretty awake. I get up before dawn every day and I've been through the whole Jekyll Island creation of the Fed. I know about all that. I know about the de-linking of the currency from gold that Nixon did. I know about The Great Reset. I'm not blind to this stuff. At the same time, if this was some massive planned thing of global elites, you think they'd have a website about it that's like greatreset.com. Do you think they would allow you to post these videos on YouTube that were calling out their plan if it's that organized? They're coming to microchip you and strip you of all your freedoms and privacy and things like that.
Gerardo Del Real: Nick, they're not going to invite you to the orgy if you keep talking like this.
Nick Hodge: Anyway, all that to say that we'll see if anybody gets locked up in Switzerland. Think about it more as the ineptitude of government and how you can potentially profit from it, as opposed to why it's a conspiracy or anything like that. Sorry, I'm going to jump topics one more time, because you see they're holding people in jail and Alabama is Alabama, I think it is, women, pregnant women, to protect their fetuses. Have you seen that story?
Gerardo Del Real: I've seen a lot of stories the past several weeks in Texas, in Oklahoma, of exactly what I thought would happen with the overturning of Roe versus Wade and states adopting a zero tolerance policy as it relates to women's reproductive health options. It's been disturbing. Yeah, don't get me going on that rant again.
Nick Hodge: It's crazy. They're not charging them with crimes. They haven't been convicted. They're saying that these women are on drugs and so they're holding them in prison to protect the fetuses. I mean it's absolutely insane. Anyway.
Gerardo Del Real: It is absolutely insane. That line, by the way, about you not being invited to the orgy, comes from Thor. I took my three boys and my wife and I. We went to see Thor, and I'm thinking it's Marvel Comic and great movies. I love the Marvel brand. They do a phenomenal job. We're watching the movie and there's this scene with Russell Crowe, who plays Zeus in the movie, and Thor is petitioning for Zeus to intervene because all these gods are being killed. Russell Crowe gets up and he says, "Don't interrupt me or you're not going to get invited to the orgy." I think next week when we're at the Beaver Creek Precious Metal Summit we're doing all our live video interviews, that's going to be my tagline. It's like, would you like to be invited to the orgy?
Nick Hodge: Only if it's an orgy of profit.
Gerardo Del Real: An orgy of profit. If that's not the name of this episode this week, I'm going to be upset at somebody. I'm making an executive decision, whoever names these things. I think it's you, Nick. It's got to be an orgy of profits. It's got to be that. I almost died. I thought it was an absolutely hilarious line. Anyhow, that's my childish sense of humor kicking in.
Nick Hodge: We'll see what the search optimization people have to say about that.
He Is in Me (H.I.I.M)
Gerardo Del Real: Yeah, I'll ask the team, we'll see what they say. You put something. Folks, just for anybody that thinks we sit here and we think all week about what we're going to talk about, we literally put something on a list like 10 minutes beforehand, if that, and just get to talking about things. You put on the list this week, "He is in me rapper. Rapper as in P, not rapper as in-
Nick Hodge: A candy wrapper.
Gerardo Del Real: Yeah, R-A-P-P-E-R. Who is in you, Nick?
Nick Hodge: Well, in this case would be the Lord. He may not necessarily be in me, but this is a rapper and the rapper's name is He is in Me, or at least that's his stage name. I got to give a shout out because I know this gentleman and he's just recorded some of his first tracks there on Spotify. I'll have to share some of them with you. He's a high school friend of mine and he was actually a really close friend of mine and he spent a lot of time in prison post high school. I went off to college, did my thing. He went to prison, did a couple of stints there, got caught up in some things. Honestly, he's a black gentleman. I had done some of the same things that he had done in high school, to be sure, and had a different path just because of my place in life, who my parents were, the opportunities I had, et cetera.
Anyway, he's always stayed in touch. He wrote me from prison, I wrote him while he was in prison. I got a call from him the other day and he was out, had been out for a little bit and he just sounded completely different. He told me that in the past year he had written 700 songs. He was talking about finding the Lord and how he's had this awakening, and how he's done trying to put evil in the world and only wants to put good in the world. He sounded really sincere and it was actually a bit of Fourth Turning stuff he was talking about. He didn't call out the Fourth Turning, he didn't necessarily know what that was. He was talking about how the people that we went to high school with are basically coming of age and facing things that you face when you come of age. Having to deal with responsibilities, a changing world, et cetera.
He shared a couple of the songs with me and it's sort of like gospel rap-ish, and they're actually quite catchy. Last week he was down in Tennessee, he went to a recording studio in Nashville.
Gerardo Del Real: Nice.
Nick Hodge: He put some of these tracks down and he's got them on Spotify and I believe on YouTube. He asked me if I wanted to be his promoter and I said, "Well man, I got a lot going on but I'll give you a shout out of the podcast at least and try to get you some listens on your track." We'll have to do that and put a link up. His stage name is H-I-I-M, He is in Me. I don't know any of the names of the songs off the top of my head, but we'll put a link up.
Gerardo Del Real: All right. Well, I always say, we often talk about the hypocrisy of religion, but when religion is used for good, and maybe it's not even necessarily religion, just him just coming to a place where he's just being more positive. Anything that you can use to better yourself coming out of a tough situation is applauded and encouraged. Absolutely let's put a link up. You know among other things, I'm a hip hop kid, so I love my hip hop. I would love to check out some of the tracks and give it a spin.
Nick Hodge: It's pretty good. Yeah, he knows my sort of nonbeliever status and it's exactly like that. It's more spiritual than religious, I would say. If the Lord is what you find and that's where you get your spiritualism from, if that's a word, then all the more to you. Other people will talk about finding a purpose, whether that's meaning in your life, or raising a family, or your career, or even looking to nature, whatever that is fine by me if it's helping you out. He understood that. Yeah, just check it out. It's pretty good.
Uranium Bull in a Broader Bear
Gerardo Del Real: Love it. What are you watching in the markets this weekend? Before we go, I want to say, Nick and I will both be at the Beaver Creek Precious Metal Summit. I joked about being invited to the orgy. I was kidding, everybody. We will be there next week and it'll be two days of back to back meetings and interviews. If any of you happen to be out there, please reach out and say hello. I know that particular conference tends to be more invite-only type.
I would encourage anybody that's speculating in the space, especially if you're new to the space, to consider going to the New Orleans Investment Conference, where Nick and I will be presenting and actually doing this very podcast, this therapy session, live in New Orleans in October. The New Orleans Investment Conference put on by Brien Lundin and his excellent team, is my favorite conference of the year. It's a great opportunity to network. The keynotes are always fantastic. The lineup is always great.
If anyone hasn't been and is curious, reach out, send an email, post the comment up, we'll see about trying to get you a discounted price. I encourage everybody to get out there. It was the very first exposure I had to meeting and networking with people in the resource space way back in 2007 or 2008. Everything just kind of took off for me from there. It clicked for me and it's something that I took well to. Long winded way of saying, if you can't go to Beaver Creek next week, see us New Orleans, come out and say hello, we'd love to meet some of you.
Nick Hodge: I have to start making some dinner reservations, because that's the other perk of getting to go to New Orleans for a couple of days is hitting the town and getting some of that good gulf food and seafood and all that good stuff. What am I watching in the markets? We didn't talk much about uranium, so let me throw that out there real quick. I saw Joe Weisenthal is a podcaster at Bloomberg and Tweeter in chief over there. He gets a lot of flack for all sorts of stuff he tweets about, monetary policy and just I guess towing the line of the establishment.
One of the first things I saw this morning was him tweeting about uranium and a Bank of America report that came out that said, "This isn't the flash in the pan. This is sort of a new paradigm." He was hashtagging the uranium ETF for example. The uranium trade is percolating through the masses and I shouldn't say catch fire here soon, but it is.
Gerardo Del Real: No, don't catch fire soon. Do the opposite of catching fire.
Nick Hodge: I think the price discovery for uranium is coming, given all the conditions that are going on in the world. Like lithium, it's one of those bright spots in a dull market. Then continue to be extremely cautious. I mentioned an elevated VIX that seems to be putting in a new level higher than it was while we had this June rally, this bear market rally.
Talk about GDP for a second. If you look at the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow, they had, and I mentioned this in weeks prior, they had it up around 2.5%, and the estimate that came out on September 7th was back down closer to 1%. I Continue to say that GDP will come in closer to zero or 1% than 2% or 3% for the quarter that we're in. Just continue, I think to hold cash on the safe, the broad market side. I mean, there's not a lot to like out there. I mean, literally the Bed Bath and Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) CFO committed suicide last week. I mean, he jumped out a window facing pump and dump charges.
This meme stock mania I think is coming to an end. I don't think earnings are going to be good in the quarter we're in and I just think that we're in a bear market. Sorry to be so pessimistic, but that's how I'm seeing things at least on the broader market. I'd be watching the VIX. I'd be watching that 10-year and I'd be watching sort of GDP estimates.
Gerardo Del Real: Buy Patriot Battery Metals everybody. No. That's all I got for this week, Nick. I will be watching the lithium space. I just wrote the monthly letter here this past week and said as much to subscribers. Lithium and uranium is where the bulk of my portfolio is allocated right now in dollar terms and in terms of as far as shares go. I have some gold positions that I keep on for the mid to long term and some copper positions, because midterm, I also really like copper.
I think if we're talking the next quarter, the next three months, major indices likely are headed down lower and lithium and uranium are likely going to catch fire some more, in the words of Mr. Nick Hodge here. Yeah, keep an eye on those two sectors. Lots of money to be made still. I think the recent consolidation of the uranium names has been a healthy one and I think the entry points at these levels are excellent if you have at least a year to be able to hold these plays and let it catch.
Nick Hodge: Well said, sir.
Gerardo Del Real: That's all I got this week everybody. We will see you all next week. Have a great week. I am Gerardo Del Real along with Mr. Nick Hodge. This was Therapy Session Number 185, otherwise known as Bizarro World. Say something nice to the people, Nick.
Nick Hodge: See you, folks.