“The current crisis is not yet over, and even when it is behind us,
there will be repercussions from it for years to come.”
— Jamie Dimon, CEO JPMorgan Chase
Contagion: The Dirty Secret
Behind the Banking Crisis of 2023
Discover the Hidden Truth that Can Help Protect Your Money
from the Fallout of America’s Banking Crisis
To download your free reports immediately, jump here. Or, read on for the story…
Imagine putting a part of every paycheck you’ve earned for decades into your savings in order to grow your retirement account like you’ve been told … all at the expense of your youth.
15% of every check … gone! All towards a promise that you may not ever even see … money that most Americans need now for rent … groceries … emergencies … and according to a report by the Federal Reserve 60% of Americans don’t even know if that’s enough (it’s usually not).
Imagine the years and years spent waking up early… dealing with traffic… slaving away at a computer from nine to five… just thinking about finally being done and taking your hard-earned, promised retirement. Years of having to report to people half your age and half as smart…
Imagine the planning that goes into those final years… mapping out your dream vacation…
dreaming about sipping cold drinks on a warm, sandy beach and listening to the waves crashing at your feet … your reward for decades of faithful service to a company.
Imagine finally getting to enjoy your dream home … No more traffic … no more company meetings or angry bosses … just you … your hobbies … and your sanctuary.
Imagine finally spending unlimited time with your grandchildren … no missed birthdays because of work trips … no exhaustion from working overtime at the office …
Imagine never having to beg, plead, or plan for ‘approved vacation days’ anymore, because life is one big vacation.
Imagine peace and quiet.
Now imagine all of that being stolen from you like it never existed – even though your savings are still sitting in your account right where you left them.
Imagine that as the value of yours – and everyone’s – savings evaporates the panic selling erupts in the stock market. Your investment portfolio and retirement accounts drop to heart-in-your-throat, panic-sweat-on-your forehead lows.
Imagine the government’s only response is to bail everyone out – the banks, the brokerages, small businesses and individuals like you – by printing more money.
Imagine the fallout of that action.
Imagine the outrage as people wake up and realize that it’s the middle class being wiped out … as society buckles under the weight of supporting the ultrawealthy (whose money will be perfectly safe)… the violence that would erupt as money becomes worth less and less and crime is all they have to turn to in order to provide for their families.
More gun violence … more inner city decay … more opioid abuse and hopelessness in the face of overwhelming financial stress.
Imagine the looting … the marches in the street … the protests … and the retaliations. I don’t need to tell you it’s happening already.
If the pandemic taught us anything, widespread systemic failure is not only possible, but for many – still a reality.
In the next few minutes I’ll explain the full extent
of the danger you and your money are in, including…
- How we got in this mess and why the system is so stacked against you
- The dirty secret behind this banking crisis …and why it’s only a symptom of a much broader crisis 36 years in the making
- Why societal breakdown is a necessary outcome of the crisis plus,
- A simple solution for getting you and your money out of harm’s way
- Trade recommendations you can implement in your own account and take advantage of today
- Your key to unlocking more than $1,300 in premium bonuses to help you keep your money and your family safe
But before we do, I want you to go back to the hypothetical scenario we imagined a moment ago.
I want you to understand that this isn’t some far off dystopian future, it’s now.
It’s Todays America
Anyone with an ounce of sense already knows there is something deeply wrong with American society and the US economy – but most of us
just can’t put our finger on it.
Millions are getting laid off.
Americans are paying ever higher rates on their mortgage, home equity loans, and credit cards… and that trend will continue to get worse as the country finds itself in more and more trouble.
And all the while, everyday necessities keep rising in price.
Not to mention “luxury goods” like cars, cable and streaming options, lawn services… I don’t have to tell you, the price for everything is going up.
Cities have been made unlivable by homelessness and lawlessness…
Debt — government, corporate, and consumer – has multiplied by more than 500% in the last two decades.
Why inflation reached the worst we’ve seen in over 40 years, rising at the
There is an ongoing pandemic in hopelessness, opioid and drug addiction among the nation’s poorest cities and towns…
The list goes on and on and on…
If you’ve ever thought “something’s just not quite right,” you’re not alone.
And I can help you understand why.
Who am I to forecast the crisis?
Or help you navigate what’s already begun?
My name is Addison Wiggin; I have a long history of identifying financial crises well in advance and helping my readers not only prepare for what happens, but profit from it.
In fact, I have one of the top financial podcasts in America – The Wiggin Sessions – to help listeners stay ahead of markets.
I’ve overseen the creation of numerous hit financial documentaries, including I.O.U.S.A., which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008.
And I’ve written numerous bestsellers on the topic, including a third edition of my #1 bestseller The Demise of the Dollar, just released in May 2023.
I correctly predicted the tech wreck of the early 2000s, the Great Financial Panic of 2008, when TIME Magazine called me a part of “The Armageddon Gang” for my warnings … and of course, the chaos of the pandemic.
Even though COVID came out of nowhere, we were able to take advantage of the market collapse that followed.
So did readers who followed my recommendations – they thrived during these economic downturns, with returns like:
We had similar success in the Panic of 2008:
We had success as far back as the Tech Wreck of 2001:
Keep in mind that while past performance is never a guarantee of future success, I like our chances. “Be fearful when others are greedy,” the great Warren Buffet famously said “and greedy when others are fearful.”
There are a lot of people fearful right now, and with good reason.
And our country has never seen a crisis on the scale we’re at the very beginning of today.
I’m going to show you why financial crises are happening with greater frequency… and why each new crisis is bigger than the last. Why this crisis is going to reach far beyond the banks and Wall Street into a general social breakdown.
“The current crisis is not yet over,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said “and even when it is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come.”
Of course, the crisis was not caused by you or by anything you did. And there’s likely no way to stop it. But there is something you can do to protect yourself and your money.
Let’s begin…
The Panic of 2023:
And What It Really Means
We begin with a simple fact:
the banks were already in trouble.
The official line is bad enough: US Banks ended 2022 with $620 in unrealized losses. Meaning, their assets have lost value, but they haven’t tried to sell those assets… yet.
If you want your savings back from the bank, and a bunch of other people want theirs back at the same time, the bank has to sell their assets and take the loss… just to give you back your own money.
In the 2008 crisis 440 banks went out of business that way. Investors in the banks were wiped out. In 2023, we’ve already had 3 of the largest bank busts in U.S. history.
Worse, the unofficial tally put unrealized losses as high as $1.7 trillion.
That’s not a problem — until it is.
Then it’s a big problem.
Let’s use the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) as an example. Two factors caused the bank to sell their assets at a loss.
- “Crypto Winter” a collapse of cryptos in 2022
- The Fed’s aggressive rates hikes to fight inflation
SVB was the premier financial institution for tech startups to use. They collected billions and billions of dollars in deposits from these companies.
And they locked that money up in US Treasuries rather than worry about lending it out. Because they were in Silicon Valley, money flowed in like water in the ocean.
Money flooded in, stayed in, and padded the asset sheet. Silicon Valley Bank grew faster than any other regional bank in the country.
Then… the Federal Reserve started raising rates more aggressively than anyone at the bank thought they would.
In fact, SVB had bet on the Fed not doing that.
With rising rates, treasuries became worth less.
Then… crypto collapsed. Tech start-ups began taking their money out of the bank. The crypto trading platform FTX went bankrupt and wiped out $8 billion in cryptocurrencies.
Tech entrepreneurs, many of whom were investing in crypto, began withdrawing their money from the bank to cover losses.
Thus began the great unraveling of Silicon Valley Bank.
In order to cover the demands for withdrawals, SVB had to sell their treasuries at a loss. They didn’t have enough money to cover deposits…
The bank collapsed in 48 hours.
Within weeks, we saw three of the four largest bank collapses in US history. Including the second largest ever, First Republic Bank.
Sadly, that’s not the bad news.
The real bad news is that the crisis is only just beginning.
Who’s Really In Danger Now?
Fun fact:
The FDIC has an official “problem bank” list which is published annually every December.
There are currently 39 banks on that list, which is all the information the public is given (and only a year after each report is published).
There’s also a report listing 186 banks with significant exposure and risks to depositors.
The Treasury Department also has a rating they call “the contagion index.”
The contagion index rates the size, “interconnectedness” and “complexity” of a given bank.
This is important because it determines whether a bank is “too big to fail” or not. And to what lengths the government will go to stop a systemic banking collapse like what happened in the 1930s during the Great Depression.
The more integrated your bank is into your life, with things like…
Mortgages …
Leases …
Bank loans…
Credit cards…
Health care insurance…
Student debt…
And even your checking and savings accounts …
The more protected they are by the Federal Government.
Take a look at the top 10 most exposed banks sorted by percentage of uninsured deposits.
JPMorgan Chase, who bought First Republic Bank in May 2023 after it was seized by the government, already had $1.6 trillion in uninsured deposits prior to taking on First Republic’s accounts, giving JPM almost $3.5 trillion in total assets.
This would make JPMorgan Chase the fifth largest country in the world by GDP. If it were a country… and not a private bank.
Only the USA, China, Japan, and Germany have larger GDPs than JPMorgan has assets.
If JPM failed, there would be chaos.
The stock market would be rocked.
The safety of US Treasuries would be called into question.
Mortgages would go haywire.
Entire car dealerships would have to shut down.
Student debt would be impossible.
We could go on…
And that’s why it will never happen.
That’s precisely why all the banks on the list above are “too big to fail.”
If any of them fail, the Fed and Treasury will swoop in and engineer the largest bailout in the history of mankind. Bigger than the bailouts in 2008.
This bailout would cost trillions.
Trillions the government does not have, mind you. Following the nearly $X trillion the government printed between 2020-2023. It’s already $31 trillion in the hole, as it is.
Again, important details, because a meltdown in regional banks is just one symptom of a much larger and broader reaching societal crisis.
A Crisis 36 Years In the Making
The hard truth for most Americans to accept is that today’s crisis did not “pop up from nowhere.” It has been brewing for decades, which means the solution will take even longer.
If there is even a solution without total collapse.
Going back to 1987, we can see the pattern.
After the Stock Market crash of 1987, then Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan dropped rates so firms could get free money and quickly paper over their losses.
The trick worked.
So… he did it again with the currency crisis kicked off by the Thai Bat in 1994, and again in 1998 during the Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) crisis that almost tanked financial markets.
The so-called “Greenspan Put” was the Fed’s solution during the Tech Bust of 2001 …And again in 2008. And yet again in 2020 following the pandemic.
This pandemic “put” pushed the money system over the edge and resulted in the fastest rising inflation our nation witnessed in more than 40 years!
I don’t need to tell you. Overnight, the price of everything shot up with frightening speed.
Food…
Gas …
Lumber …
Medicines …
Essential goods and services …
But the worst result is the onset of the Banking Crisis of 2023.
The Fed, Treasury, FDIC, Comptroller of the Currency… they “solve” each crisis with the same approach … drop interest rates and print money.
But this money isn’t backed by anything.
The dollar is a fiat currency, which literally means backed by nothing other than “the full faith and credit” of the US government.
The Federal Reserve was established in 1913 to protect the value of the dollar. Except they aren’t protecting it at all. They’re destroying it.
When you dump more money on the country during every crisis, not only do they “kick the can down the road”, but the dollar – your money – loses value.
You lose your ability to buy the things you need.
Why The Banking Crisis Matters
TO YOU
There’s a fascinating behavior people display when faced with unpleasant change. Psychologists call it “normalcy bias”. It means people have a tendency to believe things today will be as they were yesterday. It’s a safety mechanism humans use to protect themselves from what could be difficult in the future.
In other words, just because we can’t imagine something happening doesn’t mean that it can’t actually happen.
Exhibit A: COVID.
If the pandemic showed us anything, it’s that a crisis of epic proportions is not only possible, but it happens. And while many people may refuse to admit as much, it happens on a regular basis.
When people are scared, base human nature takes over.
Hopelessness … fear … aggression … whatever it takes to survive. We see the worst of humanity during these crises, whether on a small scale or large..
That’s why people looted stores and hoarded basic essentials like toilet paper and children’s tylenol.
You think “it can’t happen here…”
But it can.
COVID proved that.
Suicide rates jumped significantly during the pandemic.
You think “we’re safe here…”
But are we?
Homicide rates jumped up 30% during the pandemic.
The Pandemic was a “health crisis” yet it instantly stopped economies across the globe in their tracks.
Banks are far more integrated into our lives.
If the banking crisis morphs into a widespread panic on Wall Street, the magnitude wouldn’t just stop the world’s economies …
It would destroy them.
Which is why the government will always protect banks.
At any cost.
Even if it means sacrificing the US Dollar to do so.
And that’s the real secret behind the crisis.
It’s not just that the government let banks fail, it’s that the system is more important to them than what it’s actually protecting/
Your money.
Which means your money is in danger.
And when the money goes, society fractures.
Crime … corruption … fear … greed.
It all comes out when your money disappears.
Which is exactly what we’re seeing today …
The current banking crisis is just the latest chapter in a long pattern. As we’ve seen, it has happened over and over again since 1987. Each time, the big banks get bigger and the system becomes less sustainable.
As Robert Hockett, a Cornell Law professor wrote,
“It’s not the end of the March banking crisis, but rather a continuation of the beginning.”
Dr. Hockett pointed out that we have two choices: protect the banks by removing FDIC limits or let Wall Street take everything – an outcome that will ultimately necessitate nationalization of the whole sector.
Either way, it’s the everyman who is hung out to dry.
When we enter into a fiscal crisis, the only answer is to bail out the banks and print more money. The result of that is we lose value in the actual currency that we expect to earn our living, to pay for our houses, to invest in companies that you believe in.
Or … the worst-case scenario…
A complete systemic failure and takeover of the financial system by the government.
Like what happened in the 1930s.
The end of a free, capitalist America.
The stage is set. We’re already part-way there. The middle class was already a mess before the pandemic, before inflation. One more Black Swan could tip the scales …
We’re “the richest country in the world”. But that fortune is built on a mountain of debt.
Many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, even those who make “100k” salaries a year.
Fact is, $100,000 a year is a shadow of what it used to be…
It’s always been considered a milestone. And back in 1980, it was.
Back then, what you bought with $100,000 would cost $366,305 today – because of inflation alone.
Said another way,, your 1980s $100,000 would only buy $27,299 worth of stuff today.
That’s you losing ¾ of your money… without even doing anything.
At the current inflation rate of 6%, your $100,000 will be worth $50,000 in the next decade. And buy even less.
But that’s an optimistic outcome.
What I foresee is that things are about to get a whole lot worse.
If You’re In the Middle Class
You’re Already Getting Squeezed
We’re seeing the largest difference in history between consumer debt and consumer savings.
All while Americans are earning less. When we rack up this much personal debt, and interest rates rise, it means more money goes to service the debt.
Rising interest rates are a problem for everyone. As the demise of the dollar continues, with it goes your ability to spend, save, and live.
This much stress in the financial system and in our daily lives leads to some very bad and unintended consequences. “When the money goes bad,” says Bill Bonner, “the center can’t hold. Everyone moves to the extremes.”
What Went Wrong with America?
It wasn’t always this way.
The 21st century was supposed to be the most glorious time in human history. The internet brought all human knowledge to our fingertips.
Democracy, and carefully regulated capitalism, had brought unparalleled wealth that led to Wall Street and venture capital firms lining up to fund new ventures, new inventions, and new businesses.
A surge in globalism meant that we could harness the unique talents and resources of the entire planet. And new breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, blockchain technologies, electric vehicles, all promised to bring a quality of life that our grandparents could only have dreamed of.
Stocks went up year after year. The Cold War was won. There was a new Age of Information making everything and everybody so much smarter—and richer, too.
The world was a happy place and Americans were its happiest people. U.S. consumer capitalism was the envy of all mankind.
But something went very wrong.
Cities made unlivable by homelessness and lawlessness… The biggest drop in family wealth in years … the biggest fall in productivity in years…
We’re more connected than ever, yet more isolated as well.
Instead of establishing the utopian society so many had hoped for, America ignited a ticking time bomb that is about to explode and smother American citizens and investors under the fallout.
We can see the signs wherever we look. It costs a hundred dollars to fill up a tank of gas. The price of everything has soared: food, lumber, medicine, and that’s if you can find these things in stock.
We’ve seen a constant shortage of goods and supplies in recent years. Companies have slowed down their hiring, leaving unemployment on the rise.
Americans are feeling the pressure everywhere in every aspect of our lives, but this is all just the tip of the iceberg.
The Banking Crisis of 2023 is a financial tipping point. We’ll soon be divided into the haves and the have nots, and there’s only one solution to make sure you’re on the winning side: Build true wealth.
Here’s how in three steps…
STEP 1:
Take Control of Your Own Money
It’s always a good idea to keep some of your money in cash in case of emergencies.
For example, if you put your money in a money market fund paying +4% and the S&P 500 drops just 5% – that’s a 9% positive swing in your favor.
It’s also vital that you understand how to invest.
Not just the strategies and tactics that go into identifying winning trades, but the underlying tenets that define a successful investor. These principles are the foundation on which my own successful investing career was founded. And I still preach them to this day. So much so that we took those ideas and compiled them into reports for our readers.
Once you understand these vital concepts, you can start to thrive in any environment by focusing on the right vehicles.
STEP 2:
Put Your Money in Safer, Alternative Investments
If finding profitable short and long term investments with limited risk was easy, everyone would be a winner.
There’s a science to identifying winning trades. It’s one that my team and I have executed to the highest level over the last three decades. We’ve done so thanks to a proprietary strategy that combines fundamental and technical analysis through a macro lens to identify clear opportunities.
Here are a few of the biggest opportunities our team has identified moving forward, with a full report on each that you can get access to.
1 The Midas Touch: Turn Your Investments to Gold
Gold has long been regarded as a safe haven for investors in times of economic trouble. But that doesn’t mean it’s as simple as “go buy gold.” This report makes it easy for investors to maximize their returns in precious metals. After reading this report, you’ll be able to:
- Find the best deals
- Identify “fools gold opportunities” that are too good to be true
- Discover how to buy gold the right way
- Take advantage of real gold bullion (and get tips on hiding it in safe, secret places like under the desert in the Mojave).
These high level investment strategies come right from the head of a Swiss private investment firm, the inventor of a white-labeled international trading platform of gold bullion, and a world renowned commodities speculator. And they can instantly help you cash in on the coming gold boom.
2 “Long Oil”: Bill Bonner’s Big Bet On Dirty Energy
This is about more than “oil.” This report is a must have for investors looking for long term investments with maximum profit potential. This guide gives readers access to actionable insights directly from a former BP geologist, Bill Bonner’s own family capital management partner, and a world-renowned expert in global supply chain analysis.
- Uncover the unconventional wisdom behind playing crude oil
- Find out which companies are in position for the highest returns and how to play each one
- Avoid the mistakes investors make when investing in the oil sector
3 Hot Topic Investments: Profiting from the Crypto Winter
After the collapse of cryptocurrency exchanges, many regular investors were uncertain about which cryptocurrencies and companies are a smart (or even safe) bet. But crypto’s legendary profits are there and waiting, if you know where to look. This guide tells you:
- Exactly where to put your money during the “Crypto Winter”
- Red flags to avoid in digital investing
- Plus, you’ll find out how to properly understand how crypto is changing the monetary environment
4 Dr. Prins’ Infrastructure Play of the Decade
Discover how to invest in President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. Over $1.2 trillion dollars were pledged to rebuild “America’s roads, bridges and rails, access to clean drinking water, high-speed internet, and the advancement of environmental justice.” Billionaires the world-over too have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars a year dedicated to Biden’s “infrastructure decade.” This guide will: This guide will:
- Give you the details on how to claim your share of the American infrastructure play
- Show you the companies leading the charge in this tsunami of investment
- Give you an idea of where not to invest your funds
These reports give you insights into four distinct investment opportunities that stand to pay off big in both the short and long term.
Together, they can help you:
- Take control of your own wealth and safeguard your money from bank failures
- Build a truly diversified portfolio that provides value in both the long and short term
- Enjoy safety in uncertain times, even as others panic when things fall apart
- And so much more …
But the time to take action is now.
STEP 3:
Ongoing Analysis & Support
You’ve just discovered some very important but very difficult truths.
This information is the kind of data my team and I have researched and collected for decades.
And we’ve been sharing that information in a private investor group called The Essential Investor.
Today, I’d like to invite you to become an Essential Investor, and claim more than $1,300 in free bonuses when you join.
In our private member forum, we provide:
- Weekly trade alerts explaining what to buy, when to buy it, and exactly why we’re buying, so that our members can learn while they earn
- The Model Portfolio featuring 20 additional trade ideas every mont (15 long and short term positions with extremely defined and limited risk exposure and 5 highly researched speculative opportunities with substantial upside) for members who want to be more active in their investment approach
- The Essential Investor Members Only Forum where you can connect with other members, find new investment opportunities and ideas, and get answers to your biggest questions and overcome your investing obstacles
You’ve just seen a sample of the type of value we provide through our research.
We look beyond just what’s on the surface to identify the real story, revealing threats and opportunities that go beyond what’s at eye level.
Here are just a few examples within the Essential Investor Model Portfolio:
1 Charles Schwab (SCHW)
Wait … a BANK as the first example of a stock worth buying in the middle of a report on a banking crisis?!
Well, as I said – we go far beyond the surface to identify opportunities, and Charles Schwab is indeed a great opportunity. The only one within the banking sector in my opinion.
SCHW is an oversold stock, and we’re buying at up to $58 share price.
Our team would consider them pretty close to a blue chip bank. Dare we say a flight to safety.
They don’t make outrageous claims. And they don’t do a lot about outrageous investing. They are just getting punished by the media and the market acting out of fear.
The Schwab stock price fell off a cliff. But nothing had changed at the bank. Nothing had changed with the trading platform.
What did change—and has been changing—was the Fed’s dramatic effort to fight inflation by raising interest rates at an historic pace. This increased the attractive returns “money markets” will pay.
Individual investors who’d been trading on the Schwab platform… and those who’d given Schwab their money to be managed in one of the Schwab funds… started pulling their money out, seeking higher returns in money market accounts.
Big institutional bankers took notice. They started dumping Schwab stock. The stock dropped nearly 40% in a matter of days.
But that’s what makes this case “curious.”
Schwab has a $90 billion market cap. But it was—is—being treated like a regional bank, subject to volatile rates, and investors chasing higher returns elsewhere.
Schwab is a victim of the digital era of crowds. And when that happens, stocks can drop very quickly because, again, people are hitting the sell at any price button and a stock will drop to a place that’s just unreasonable compared to the overall value of this company.
It happens fairly quickly.
And the pullback has opened up a new avenue for Schwab in the next three to six months.
Now, you have to be careful in situations like this because the other side of an oversold stock is sometimes called a “falling knife”.
As always, you never want “to catch a falling knife” because you can cut your hand. It’s better to wait for a stock that’s oversold to kind of show some level of strength or at least some level of stability before stepping in and buying it.
Do your due diligence. Look carefully at the fundamentals of the company. Ask, “how much should this company actually be worth?” And then once the situation stabilizes, that’s typically when it’s a much better time to step in and start to buy.
2 SPDR Gold Trust (GLD)
Overall, now is an excellent time to buy and hold physical gold. But there’s also the Spider Gold Trust, which has been a positive position for us, and could see a significant return moving forward.
Right now, gold is trending higher. We’ve seen gold actually cross above the $2,000 per ounce mark and could see $3,000 by the end of the year.
There’s a lot of firepower and a lot of tailwinds behind gold right now. Part of the reason people are enjoying investing in gold and why this is so attractive right now is because of inflation, which is poised to continue rising hire as the banking crisis adds fuel to the inflationary fires.
Gold tends to hold its value over a long period of time despite the fact that the value of the dollar is declining. So if the value of the dollar is declining, it means it takes more of these weak dollars to buy an ounce of gold. And we have seen the dollar pull back both in absolute terms and also compared to other currencies. The more you print, the more debt the US goes into, the more potential there is for the dollar to be devalued. So gold is a good hedge against that.
3 Vaneck Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ)
GDXJ is another fund that invests in gold mining companies. So this is a play that follows the same theme, but is much more aggressive.
The same move in gold price can lead to significantly more profit in GDXJ because it’s made up of a variety of junior miners. And part of the reason that GDXJ has done so well is because junior miners (small mines that are beginning the process of developing and actually starting to pull gold out of the ground) often run at a loss in the early stages of their businesses because there’s just so much input that has to go into creating a mine:
- Getting all the environmental permits
- Labor is high
- Fuel costs are high
- Equipment costs are high
But as gold starts to move higher, these junior miners can go from actually losing money to making a profit just because gold went from $1,900 announced to $2,100 announced. And we know as investors, there’s a huge difference between owning a company that actually generates a profit versus owning a company that makes a small loss. And so as these small gold miners turn that corner and become more profitable, the stocks that are included in GDXJ have the potential to shoot significantly higher.
4 Intuitive Surgical (ISRG)
Intuitive Surgical is one of my favorite picks right now in the medical device area.
Medical devices are doing well right now because so many people stayed away from hospitals during COVID that really needed either an implant done or some kind of elective surgery, but an important elective surgery. And now that COVID is less of a risk, people are going back in and getting these procedures done.
Intuitive Surgical has a very unique platform where they do robotic surgeries and install a base of very expensive robot system, and that costs a lot of money, and the company makes a ton of profit from that system going in.
But the really exciting thing is that once that system is in and they’re putting them in hundreds of hospitals throughout the country, then there are consumables that are used every time that system does a surgery.
Intuitive Surgical then provides all of those consumable products that are used with that robotic surgery. So they have an installed base that continues to generate revenue week after week and month after month. Now that China is opening up following their archaic lockdowns, we’re actually seeing Intuitive Surgical business pick up in China as well.
We foresee this trend continuing, making ISRG a very attractive buy.
4 Valero (VLO)
Valero is an energy refiner, turning oil into gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and so forth.
The bet we’re making on VLO is a play on the spread between what it costs Valero to buy oil and what Valero is being paid to sell refined products. This is what’s known as “a crack spread,” essentially the difference in price between what you can sell the jet fuel, gasoline, diesel, at, and what you have to pay for the actual crude oil that you buy.
We look at it as built in arbitrage.
Spread between those two is the profit that you can make for every single barrel of oil. Those crack spreads have been very wide recently just because we’re seeing very high demand for diesel and jet fuel, and there have been low inventories, which makes people worried about shortages.
This naturally drives prices higher. Meanwhile, oil has been low. We’ve recently seen a little bit of a rebound in oil, a trend which may continue, but oil prices or the input prices for Valero have been relatively low, whereas their profit from selling refined products has been higher.
In addition to just having a very profitable business, Valero actually pays a great dividend because of this reliable practice. That dividend helps the company to hold value or the stock to hold value in good times and bad, because investors know that they will get paid from this company’s profit spreads.
Three decades of success have proven us right, and will continue to prove us right now.
With the banking crisis upon us, it’s time for investors to take action or face the consequences.
Go back to imagining your retirement.
Imagining the panic that spills into every facet of our lives as banks cause systemic havoc throughout the financial system.
Now imagine you took action today to join The Essential Investor …
Imagine being able to take that dream vacation, and bring the whole family with you.
Imagine being able to live in that dream house …
To spend unlimited time with the family…
And to make sure they’re all taken care of and leave behind a legacy of support.
Now imagine looking back and being able to say it was because of The Essential Investor.
That’s our goal for you.
