The Flying Frisby - money, markets and more

The Do Very Little Portfolio

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comWhen it comes to investment returns, asset allocation, as I said ...

Introducing the Dolce Far Niente Portfolio

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comYou can find vehicles by which you can play this portfolio here.B...

Invest Like a Cockroach and Thrive in All Economic Climates

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A quick heads up before we come to today’s piece: I am taking my “lecture with funny bits” about gold to the West End for one night only. Octobe...

The Sorry State of Junior Mining

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comLots of exciting things coming up on this Substack in the next co...

Ten Reasons I’m Voting to Leave the EU

03 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I wrote this article for Moneyweek the day before the EU referendum, on June 22, 2016. I thought with everything that has happened since, as your Sund...

Landmark court ruling for bitcoin

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comNews broke late yesterday of what could prove a landmark court ru...

The Rise and Fall of Sound Money in Ancient Rome

27 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the last of these pieces about gold in ancient history. I’m back from the Edinburgh Fringe now, and more regular market commentary will resu...

The Richest Man In History

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I once presented a documentary for Italian TV which declared that Jakob Fugger - Fugger the Rich - was the richest man in history. He was a German who...

The Midas Touch and World Trade

12 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The story of Midas, and how everything he touched turned to gold, is perhaps the most famous golden myth of all. His touch led to one of the most succ...

Jason and the Golden Fleece: A Legendary Quest

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We continue with my series about gold in pre-history today with one of the earliest and most enduring of the golden myths: Jason and the Golden Fleece...

Sun, sand and success

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In my late teens and early 20s I was obsessed with beaches. I had always liked them, we all do, but I think it was a trip to Thailand in 1989 that tri...

Our Instinct for Gold Is Primal

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I’m doing a show about gold at the Edinburgh Fringe. If you are in Scotland between August 4th and August 20th, plesase come. It’s at Panmure Hous...

Gold: the closest you will ever come to touching eternity

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

NB My next Best In Class, in which I identify the go-to stocks in the natural resources sector, is out tomorrow. Keep an eye out for that. (Only for p...

The Rise and Fall of UK House Prices

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Despite being built of bricks, a house is, in many ways, a financial asset. This is because, for the most part, we use finance - debt - to buy real es...

How to Invest in Zinc

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Before we begin today’s piece, a quick reminder for those who might find themselves in the Scottish neck of the woods this August, I am doing a show...

British Pound to Crash in 2024?

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Before we begin today’s piece, a quick reminder for those who might find themselves in the Scottish neck of the woods this August, I am doing a show...

"The digital transformation of property"

25 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A must-watch/listen interview with Miami-based, Michael Saylor, Chairman and co-founder of Nasdaq-listed MicroStrategy Inc (NDX:MSTR).Michael is one o...

The Bug in our Thinking

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hugh is an author with experience in business, market research, psychotherapy, academia and performance. He has collaborated with Paul McKenna on man...

The Art of Timing: Famous Market Cycles and Their Implications

17 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Before we begin today’s piece, if you should happen to be in the Scottish neck of the woods this August, I am doing one of my lectures with funny bi...

Unveiling the Potential: A Special Situation in the Silver Mining Industry

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comPlease do not share, copy, reproduce or distribute any part of th...

The Power of Cider Vinegar

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A number of people I know have started using Ozempic. This is the drug, otherwise known as Wegovy, beloved by the likes of Elon Musk and Jeremy Clarks...

There Will Not Be A Revolution

20 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes I look at what is happening in the world around me, both at home and abroad, and I feel like I’m watching some kind of slow-motion car cra...

Celebrating the 40th birthday of the pound coin

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Haynes wrote an interesting piece in the Telegraph the other day to mark the 40th birthday of the pound coin. “The pound in your pocket is now ...

On career risk

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Following on from my piece last week Tyranny of the Midwits, I was having dinner the other day with a friend who is a big cheese behind the scenes in ...

Talking Markets with private investor Danny Solomon

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A one-hour interview with private investor Danny Solomon, discussing which markets we like and which we don’t … and a bit about Chelsea too. This ...

Collapse in slow motion

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2004 James Turk and John Rubino published The Coming Collapse Of The Dollar And How To Profit From It: Make A Fortune By Investing In Gold And Othe...

Comedian Simon Evans: PG Wodehouse and the Slippery Slope

30 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Comedian Simon Evans joins me for a video interview in which we discuss the re-writing of Wodehouse and the nature of slippery slopes.If you prefer th...

Tyranny of the Midwits

23 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The other night I did that thing on Substack: you follow one writer you like’s recommendations onto another’s and onto another’s and, before you...

The most important price in the world - what happens next?

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Before getting started today, I just wanted to flag that Kisses on a Postcard won silver at the New York Festivals Radio Awards for best serialised po...

Gold keeps on going up

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The gold price printed its highest ever weekly close on Friday. What do new highs usually lead to? Yup. More new highs. Is it too late to buy gold? ...

When the government stole 11 days

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today is April 6, the beginning of the new tax year In the UK. Odd that the UK tax year should begin on such an apparently random date as April 6, but...

The conflation of everything and the decline of intelligent conversation

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I didn’t get involved in the Lineker wars, mainly because I had other stuff on, but the affair triggered a little moment of realisation in me. That ...

Radical localisation and the perfect society

01 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s my pleasure this week to once again interview Paul Kingsnorth, author of many books and the excellent Substack, the Abbey of Misrule.This is th...

This contrarian indicator suggests we’re at the bottom of the mining cycle

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I went to a mining conference on Monday - the Mining Journal Select London. As well as being on a panel, I wanted to catch up with the management of ...

Why Gold and Bitcoin Are Gaining Popularity as Bearer Assets Outside the Financial System

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In your time bestriding the narrow world like a Colossus, you might have heard the term, “bearer asset” or “bearer instrument”.That would be a...

More on ChatGPT, the Future of AI and what it means for you

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With the latest developments in AI, ChatGPT, Midjourney et al, we are experiencing something that, in terms of impact, will prove as big as the intern...

The Business of War

12 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Once upon a time, the business model of war was straightforward. You attacked some neighbouring realm, overpowered it, then plundered and taxed the co...

Life skills you learn from stand-up comedy

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Johnson, from recruitment company, Auxato, got in touch and asked me to write a piece for him, explaining how it is I got from being stand-up...

AI and the Future

05 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A 90 minute interview about AI, the latest developments and the implications for our future with Andy. Andy is an experienced technical architect and ...

The lithium bull market is over. Here's why.

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I’ve seen it happen with so many niche commodities - potash, graphite, antimony, rare earth metals, cobalt, vanadium - and I am pretty sure it is ha...

Why Net Zero will fail

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today I wanted to expand on a theme I have been writing about for a while: that the green energy revolution is anything but green. In fact, the amoun...

How to buy bitcoin in the UK (and elsewhere)

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The bitcoin price has been quietly moving up and, almost inevitably, I am getting messages from people asking how to buy it.Bitcoin should make up a c...

Revolut - how safe is your money?

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A few weeks ago, an Irish friend of mine was contacted by the Irish Postal service. A package had arrived for her from abroad, but there were a couple...

The Great Decline: Where Is This All Going?

05 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Something is very wrong with my country. Something big and something bad. We can all feel it, though we might not agree on what is actually wrong. T...

Never mind the vaccines - what about the vaccine stocks?

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There has been a discernible change in the narrative over the past few weeks regarding Covid-19 vaccines. From the Andrew Bridgen affair and question...

The terrifying statistic about UK resource security that should put the wind up every strategist

29 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are just three ways, I once heard someone say, to create real wealth:* You make stuff* You mine stuff* You grow stuffEverything else is just red...

Gold to $5,000? I like the sound of that!

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gold had an epic bull market in the noughties - I still remember the key numbers like it was yesterday.There was the low in 1999 at $250/oz, marked fo...

It's New Year Predictions Time

13 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s that time of year once again when I get out my crystal ball and tell you exactly what is going to happen in this the Year of our Lord 2023 (her...

Revisiting my 2022 predictions

08 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Later this week I’ll be posting my predictions for 2023, but first we revisit my predictions for 2022 to see how I got on.This is more an exercise i...

The South Africanisation of Everything

30 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This is a podcast recorded with director Alex McCarron, following a comment he made to me in the pub the other day, when I asked “Where is this all ...

ChatGPT: the “scary good” tech that is changing the world

27 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I’ve been playing with a new technology this week, which, I think, is as potentially transformative as Google’s search engine, Facebook’s networ...

What does the next decade have in store?

21 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I stumbled across a Gavekal Research Daily Comment over the weekend with a really interesting table that I thought we could discuss today.Gavekal Rese...

10 outrageous predictions for 2023

18 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Before we get started today, I just wanted to flag two articles from last week. First, my special report on helium. And, second, Dr John’s latest on...

The solution to all your Christmas present problems

12 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What are you getting people for Christmas this year?I have the solution.Forgive me for going full salesman, but read on and you’ll see why I do that...

Developments in the murky world of geo-politics

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Some interesting developments in the murky world of geopolitics to report on this week, as the currency wars heat up.WWIII has already started. So say...

Helium can only go higher

01 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we consider the coldest substance on earth.Which is?I knew you knew. Liquid helium. I have been covering helium for several years now, and it’...

17 Ways Bitcoin Makes the World Better

27 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This was supposed to go out to one and all last week, but for some reason it didn’t. So today we try again - and the article can also be the Sunday ...

How to lose weight

20 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

You can read an update to this article here.Over the last year, I’ve lost over 2 stone - 14kg or 30lb, to be precise. I say over the last year, trut...

Polyamorous geeks, psychopaths and perhaps the greatest fraud in history

16 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I’m delighted to report that The Flying Frisby is now a Substack Bestseller. Thank you to everyone who supports this bestselling publication!By popu...

Hold on to your oil, gas and coal stocks

13 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A number of people have asked me to cover bitcoin after this week’s insanity - and I will very soon, I promise, but today we consider fossil fuels o...

What happened there could soon happen here

04 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s missive comes to you from the Galapagos Islands out in the eastern Pacific, where two stories of noble energy initiatives reflect the broade...

The Way We Help People Does Not Help People

30 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The highest form of charity, argued the 12th-century Jewish philosopher Maimonides, is when the help given enables the receiver to become self- suffic...

How the nature of money has changed - and what it means for you

27 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Money evolves constantly. Every day there is some tiny new fintech development, but it’s only when you take a step back and look at the ten-, twent...

Talking mining with Brent Cook and Kai Hoffman

22 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Here at the New Orleans Investment Conference, I met up with veteran geologist and mining newsletter writer Brent Cook of Exploration Insights togethe...

Notes from New Orleans

22 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Back in the 90s, when we were in our 20s, all my university buddies and I wanted to do was travel. We wanted to go everywhere and see the world. The ...

On raising money and distorted incentives

16 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I was listening to an interview the other day with entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan, in which he argued that there are two ways by which you can raise c...

Gold: the disconnect between the price and what is happening in the physical markets

13 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we turn our attention to the physical gold markets.There is, as veteran dealer Ross Norman of Metals Daily puts it, a “disconnect between the ...

Mind The Gap

09 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I stumbled across this 2013 blog earlier today. I’m posting it because I thought you might enjoy it, and partly because it’s relevant to a thought...

Is that it, then? Is the bear market over?

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve seen incredible rallies across the board this week.After a worrying sell-off late in the day and into the close on Friday, the Dow and S&P500 ...

The end of cheap money: is this finally it for UK house prices?

29 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Back in 2007 comedian Susan Murray phoned me up with a question.She was just arranging a new mortgage and she wanted to know where I thought interest ...

On PayPal, Toby Young, Bitcoin, Culture Wars and the Separation of Money and State

23 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bitcoin was built in reaction to all the money printing that went on in the wake of the financial crisis. The Times’ headline “Chancellor on Brin...

The Look

18 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

About 25 years ago, I was giving a speech at my father’s 65th birthday party. There were seventy or eighty people at the dinner and, as Dad was a p...

Silver the cheap precious metal that could be set for a multi-week rally

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

US inflation numbers came in on Tuesday at 8.3%. The markets were expecting something lower – after all, the oil price had fallen back, not to ment...

How to be happy

11 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I’m as guilty of this as anyone, but many of us make life more difficult than it needs to be. Achieving basic happiness, or at least avoiding what d...

Will Liz Truss as PM mark a turning point for the pound?

09 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“Pound crashes to weakest level since 1985 in blow to Truss” ran the headline on the Telegraph website yesterday.“The Bank of England had one jo...

How heavy? and other matters

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Morning All,A slightly admin-y email today.First up: How Heavy? - the surprisingly popular "lecture with funny bits" I did at the Edinburgh Fringe thi...

A new global reserve currency in the making - and the west is asleep at the wheel.

02 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

My apologies if you have received this twice. Cock up at HQ.Over a Zoom call earlier in the week,  I heard some people discussing the “Russian Davo...

An eternal lesson for investors from a ill-fated silver mine

31 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While on holiday in Sark this week, I stumbled across a book in the local post office: “Silver Mining On Sark” by David Synnott, which describes a...

Talking free cities with Peter Young

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A interview in today’s programme with a highly eloquent young man, Peter Young, of the Free Cities Foundation. Peter discusses China (he lived there...

A New Addition to The Flying Frisby

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There have been some developments behind the scenes at The Flying Frisby, which are going to add considerable value. In addition to my own contributio...

The US dollar is rising to dangerous levels

24 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After a month or so of welcome respite, the dreaded US dollar has got stronger again. It really is the scourge of everything.Stockmarkets have been w...

Gold, the sun and the gods

21 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How did gold come into existence? No one really knows.Its origins are thought to lie in supernovae and the collision of neutron stars. It was present ...

How to protect your wealth as inflation hits new record highs

18 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Inflation in the UK has just hit 10.1%, says the Office for National Statistics. That is five times the Bank of England’s stated target of 2%. FIV...

A fond farewell to a MoneyWeek legend

07 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

John Stepek is leaving MoneyWeek. I’ve known for a while, but as his final day was yesterday and we have just had his leaving drinks, so the implic...

Why do we use the weights and measures we do?

05 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival starts this week. It’s the world’s biggest arts festival, an event that sells more tickets than any other event in t...

Who’s buying gold right now and why?

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Are the people at the top – the directors – buying or selling shares in their own company?If they are buying, that’s usually a good sign. But if...

How high are rates going to go?

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I was at a dinner the other night with a buddy who is a much cleverer investor than I am. The conversation went something like this.Clever Mate: “In...

These two precious metals will be screaming buys when the dollar turns

14 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Metals are not going to stop crashing until the US dollar turns.I’ve been banging on about that for some time. I don’t know when that will be. Nor...

What will stop the dollar’s devastating bull run?

08 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We suggested a couple of weeks back that oil might due a hit as seemed the only sector that hadn’t been walloped and so it has turned out. Both Bre...

Crash dead ahead - or have we hit rock bottom already?

03 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A week or so ago, the selling action in the stock market had grown so bad that a number of folks thought a crash was back on the cards. It started to...

One day, Rodney, gold will shine

30 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I haven’t covered the perennial disappointment that is gold for a while, and I felt the metal is overdue some attention, so that will be the subject...

Size does matter

26 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I keep thinking about that interview with Stanley Druckenmiller.Druckenmiller, a legend in US investing, worked with George Soros for many years, 12 o...

The impossible situation in which energy and metals producers find themselves

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I wanted to discuss the natural resources industry today – energy and mining – because I see an industry caught between a rock and a hard place. ...

A great interview with Stanley Druckenmiller

19 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I don’t listen to as many interviews and podcasts as I used to, or indeed as I should (more fool me), but this interview this week with legendary in...

How much further will bitcoin fall?

16 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Like Brexit, Trump, what a woman is, the BBC or vaccines, bitcoin has proved itself one of the battlegrounds in the ongoing culture war. Some people ...

Copper faces "an impossibly tight future"

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Further to last week’s piece on, “acquiring the right investment psychology” (if you missed it here is the link) I enjoyed listening to Bloomber...

Tax Water Not Work

12 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As regular readers of my stuff will know, I’m of the view that a society should be designed around direct democracy and very low levels of land valu...

Sometimes you gotta have faith

09 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I remember having lunch once upon a time with a fun manager of the old-school, refined Englishman variety. He rather took me aback towards the end o...

My mission to revive my father’s long-lost WW2 musical masterpiece

05 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I have an odd professional life.  I double as a financial writer and a comedian. It seems to work. I specialise in unacceptable songs. You’re bound...

Think the oil price is high now?

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Back in 2016 we learnt a new word. “Lustrum”. It means a five-year period. Given how long decades are, I can’t believe it doesn’t find more u...