September 03, 2026
Here’s what was covered in episode 379:
Macro Musings — Gold’s big, beautiful bounce put the debasement trade back on center stage.
Gold briefly broke below $4,400 this week, touching approximately $4,370 before immediately reversing and climbing back toward $4,480. Silver followed the same pattern, slipping below Gerardo’s $66 support level before recovering toward $68.
Gerardo had warned Junior Resource Speculator subscribers that the breakdown was likely noise — and that gold could quickly recover toward $4,400 or $4,500. The speed of the rebound reinforced his view that the metals are putting in higher lows on their way to new highs.
Nick traced the renewed strength back to the dollar. Gold endured a boring and occasionally painful consolidation through June and July as the dollar and interest rates strengthened. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s interventions in Japanese currency markets and U.S. bonds helped break that pattern. The Dollar Index has since fallen below 99, even as the 10-year Treasury yield remains stubbornly high near 4.77%.
That divergence has returned the “debasement trade” to the headlines. Investors now understand that both the Federal Reserve and Treasury are willing to intervene when financial conditions become too restrictive. Any dovish — or merely non-hawkish — message from the Fed should remain supportive of precious metals.
Gold’s volatility has increased considerably, and Nick expects that to continue as markets react to individual employment, inflation, monetary-policy and war headlines. Inflation has moderated into the 3.3%–3.5% range, oil has stabilized and the Iran conflict appears to be winding down. That could allow the Fed to hold rates steady through the midterm elections while the weakening dollar supports gold.
Gerardo believes $4,400 can become gold’s new support level. If it holds, he expects gold to finish 2026 with a “five handle” — above $5,000 per ounce. He also believes silver can make a rapid run toward $80 over the next several months.
Higher metals prices should increasingly flow through to miners, developers and explorers. Conference season begins shortly with the Denver Gold Forum and Beaver Creek, bringing another round of meetings, financings, transactions and corporate announcements. Companies that continued drilling and adding value during the quiet summer months are now positioned to be rewarded.
Market Takes — Uranium is finally dancing, and the majors are paying juniors to find their next generation of supply.
Uranium’s spot price has quietly climbed out of the $80s and is now hovering near $90 per pound. More importantly, the long-term contracting price is approaching $100.
Utilities have delayed returning to the contracting market by stretching existing agreements and modifying contracts already on their books. Those options are running out. Nick is now hearing growing indications — from producers, near-term producers and executives directly involved in U.S. policy discussions — that utilities are preparing to contract again.
The fundamental arithmetic remains compelling. The United States consumes approximately 50 million pounds of uranium annually while producing less than one million pounds domestically. Existing producers cannot close that gap alone. The next generation of American deposits will need to come from today’s developers and high-quality explorers.
The nuclear renaissance and AI data-center buildout add further pressure. Nuclear remains one of the few scalable sources of clean, reliable power capable of serving enormous round-the-clock electricity loads. Uranium is entering a seasonally strong period with spot and contract prices rising, utility demand returning and domestic projects receiving faster permitting and stronger political support.
Nick also discussed his recent conversation with Rick Rule about prospect generators. Major miners have spent years extending existing mines while failing to replace the reserves they continually deplete. Companies such as Newmont and AngloGold are increasingly deploying exploration capital through juniors — taking strategic equity positions, partnering at the project level and funding prospect generators with multiple opportunities for discovery.
That model gives investors exposure to several exploration programs without forcing the junior to fund every drill campaign itself. It also reflects a broader shift toward larger strategic investments and, eventually, more meaningful merger-and-acquisition activity as the majors confront their reserve-replacement problem.
Gerardo teased two upcoming opportunities for Private Placement Intel subscribers. The deals are expected to provide exposure to gold, antimony, copper and silver through district-scale projects in stable jurisdictions. Both companies currently have market capitalizations near C$20–C$25 million.
He emphasized that Digest Publishing remained quiet on new placements rather than lowering its standards simply to generate more deals. The average open Private Placement Intel position is currently up approximately 300%, and Gerardo expects the two upcoming financings to continue that record.
Lithium is also approaching its seasonally stronger period. A recent production closure in China could further tighten the market, while uranium, gold, silver and copper are already beginning to reflect renewed investor interest.
Bizarro Banter — Trillion-dollar budgets, missing leadership, tribal politics and a healthcare system that fails where it matters.
Gerardo opened the broader discussion with the condition of the U.S. military. Despite trillion-dollar defense budgets, the country has reportedly depleted large portions of its munitions inventory, left sailors deployed for extraordinary stretches and struggled to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
At the same time, the secretary of the Army reportedly resigned amid tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, while the Army remains without a permanent chief of staff following General Randy George’s dismissal.
Nick described this as another example of institutional hollowing-out. Enormous budgets and decades of bureaucratic momentum can keep an institution operating while leadership, accountability and capability deteriorate underneath it. Presidents from both parties have also accumulated greater freedom to conduct wars and military operations without meaningful congressional approval.
That same lack of accountability carried into the renewed fight over the Epstein files. Gerardo discussed Thomas Massie’s effort to force additional disclosures, Leon Black’s attempt to fight congressional subpoenas and Congress’s apparent eagerness to leave Washington rather than confront the issue before the midterm elections.
Nick broadened the discussion to the small and overlapping networks connecting political power, Wall Street, media and artificial intelligence. The same names and institutions repeatedly appear, while ordinary citizens receive little transparency into how influence is exercised.
Both parties appear more interested in accumulating votes than applying consistent principles. Nick described watching Democratic and Republican senators defend candidates they had barely vetted because those candidates would support the correct party. The incentives favor tribal loyalty, and social-media algorithms reinforce that behavior by feeding users content designed to anger them and force them onto one side.
They also discussed the Lindsay Clancy case and the uncomfortable intersection between personal accountability and a dysfunctional mental-health system. The killing of three children demands accountability, but the case also raises serious questions about healthcare providers who reportedly received repeated warnings that she was unstable and thinking about harming her children.
Nick’s family recently experienced a much less severe — but still maddening — version of that fragmentation while trying to arrange treatment for kidney stones. Delayed appointments, conflicting instructions, incorrect tests and disconnected scheduling turned a straightforward medical problem into a month-long ordeal. The gaps become even more dangerous when the patient is experiencing a complex psychiatric crisis.
The mystery of people disappearing into New York City sewers also received an answer. They appear to be migrants wearing protective gear and searching the sewer system for valuables. It was one of the week’s few bizarre stories with a relatively innocent explanation.
Premium Portfolio Picks — 49.2 meters of 4.7% copper equivalent, uranium in every hole and a Swedish gold discovery the market sold anyway.
Gerardo began with Vizsla Copper Corp. (TSX-V: VCU)(OTCQB: VCUFF).
Digest Publishing participated in a May 2025 financing at C$0.50 per unit with full warrants exercisable at C$0.90 through the spring of 2027. With the shares trading near C$1.60, the position is up approximately 218%, and the warrants are well into the money.
Vizsla’s latest drilling at the Palmer Project in Southeast Alaska returned 49.2 meters grading 4.7% copper equivalent. That followed another strong set of results released approximately a week earlier and confirms that the company continues adding meaningful value with the drill bit.
Gerardo’s second selection was North Shore Uranium Ltd. (TSX-V: NSU)(OTCQB: NSURF).
North Shore intersected significant uranium mineralization in all 13 holes from the first phase of drilling at its Rio Puerco Project in New Mexico. Many of the holes twinned historical drilling and successfully confirmed mineralization within the three sandstone units that contain more than 95% of Rio Puerco’s historical resource.
The project contains a historical estimate of approximately 11 million pounds of uranium. All of the reported uranium intercepts occurred below the water table, an encouraging early indication for potential in-situ recovery. North Shore must still demonstrate that the mineralization is technically amenable to ISR, but the first program accomplished what it needed to accomplish.
Nick highlighted an important detail buried near the bottom of the release. North Shore encountered additional uranium mineralization in the shallower Jackpile Sandstone but did not include those results in the primary table. That horizon represents a separate exploration target and historically hosted the nearby Jackpile Mine, which produced approximately 80 million pounds of uranium between 1952 and 1982.
Digest Publishing initially financed North Shore at C$0.05 with C$0.10 warrants and later participated at C$0.25 with C$0.40 warrants. At approximately C$0.18, the first share position is up roughly 260%, the C$0.10 warrants are in the money and the company’s market capitalization remains near just C$16 million.
Gerardo considers North Shore an absolute bargain at current levels. Confirmation and expansion of the historical resource, evidence of ISR amenability and additional mineralization in the Jackpile horizon could create substantial value from such a small base.
His third selection was Hannan Metals Ltd. (TSXV: HAN)(OTCQB: HANNF).
Hannan’s maiden drilling at the Stavaträsk Project in Sweden returned gold in all seven holes across approximately 650 meters of strike. Hole ST2606 intersected a broad 59.6 meters grading 1.1 grams per tonne gold, including 4.6 meters grading 7.2 grams per tonne gold. The mineralization is shallow and contains both broad lower-grade envelopes and high-grade internal structures.
Gerardo spoke with Hannan’s exploration team and came away believing that the company may not have reached the best portion of the system. An induced-polarization survey is underway to map the structures and refine targets for another approximately 1,000 meters of drilling expected to begin in late September or early October.
The market sold Hannan following the results, but Gerardo views the weakness as an opportunity. He believes Stavaträsk has the potential to develop into a shallow, high-grade, multimillion-ounce gold system. Hannan also controls two additional Swedish gold projects that remain largely untouched, while permitting continues to advance at the enormous Previsto Central gold-copper project in Peru.
With a market capitalization near C$100 million, Gerardo believes Hannan could eventually justify its current valuation from the Swedish portfolio alone. He continues to hold a substantial personal position.
Finally, Nick revisited his bullish call on the healthcare sector. Over the past month, healthcare has become the best-performing sector in the S&P 500. Financials have also improved, suggesting the broader bull market is rotating away from its previous technology-heavy leadership.
The most striking healthcare development came from Moderna and Merck. Their experimental personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine, used in combination with Keytruda, succeeded in a late-stage study aimed at preventing cancer from returning or spreading in high-risk patients. Moderna shares more than doubled following the announcement.
The treatment remains experimental, but the results validate years of research into personalized mRNA cancer therapies and could eventually lead to applications across additional cancers. For once, a market-moving development also delivered genuinely encouraging news for humanity.
September 03, 2026
Here’s what was covered in episode 379:
Macro Musings — Gold’s big, beautiful bounce put the debasement trade back on center stage.
Gold briefly broke below $4,400 this week, touching approximately $4,370 before immediately reversing and climbing back toward $4,480. Silver followed the same pattern, slipping below Gerardo’s $66 support level before recovering toward $68.
Gerardo had warned Junior Resource Speculator subscribers that the breakdown was likely noise — and that gold could quickly recover toward $4,400 or $4,500. The speed of the rebound reinforced his view that the metals are putting in higher lows on their way to new highs.
Nick traced the renewed strength back to the dollar. Gold endured a boring and occasionally painful consolidation through June and July as the dollar and interest rates strengthened. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s interventions in Japanese currency markets and U.S. bonds helped break that pattern. The Dollar Index has since fallen below 99, even as the 10-year Treasury yield remains stubbornly high near 4.77%.
That divergence has returned the “debasement trade” to the headlines. Investors now understand that both the Federal Reserve and Treasury are willing to intervene when financial conditions become too restrictive. Any dovish — or merely non-hawkish — message from the Fed should remain supportive of precious metals.
Gold’s volatility has increased considerably, and Nick expects that to continue as markets react to individual employment, inflation, monetary-policy and war headlines. Inflation has moderated into the 3.3%–3.5% range, oil has stabilized and the Iran conflict appears to be winding down. That could allow the Fed to hold rates steady through the midterm elections while the weakening dollar supports gold.
Gerardo believes $4,400 can become gold’s new support level. If it holds, he expects gold to finish 2026 with a “five handle” — above $5,000 per ounce. He also believes silver can make a rapid run toward $80 over the next several months.
Higher metals prices should increasingly flow through to miners, developers and explorers. Conference season begins shortly with the Denver Gold Forum and Beaver Creek, bringing another round of meetings, financings, transactions and corporate announcements. Companies that continued drilling and adding value during the quiet summer months are now positioned to be rewarded.
Market Takes — Uranium is finally dancing, and the majors are paying juniors to find their next generation of supply.
Uranium’s spot price has quietly climbed out of the $80s and is now hovering near $90 per pound. More importantly, the long-term contracting price is approaching $100.
Utilities have delayed returning to the contracting market by stretching existing agreements and modifying contracts already on their books. Those options are running out. Nick is now hearing growing indications — from producers, near-term producers and executives directly involved in U.S. policy discussions — that utilities are preparing to contract again.
The fundamental arithmetic remains compelling. The United States consumes approximately 50 million pounds of uranium annually while producing less than one million pounds domestically. Existing producers cannot close that gap alone. The next generation of American deposits will need to come from today’s developers and high-quality explorers.
The nuclear renaissance and AI data-center buildout add further pressure. Nuclear remains one of the few scalable sources of clean, reliable power capable of serving enormous round-the-clock electricity loads. Uranium is entering a seasonally strong period with spot and contract prices rising, utility demand returning and domestic projects receiving faster permitting and stronger political support.
Nick also discussed his recent conversation with Rick Rule about prospect generators. Major miners have spent years extending existing mines while failing to replace the reserves they continually deplete. Companies such as Newmont and AngloGold are increasingly deploying exploration capital through juniors — taking strategic equity positions, partnering at the project level and funding prospect generators with multiple opportunities for discovery.
That model gives investors exposure to several exploration programs without forcing the junior to fund every drill campaign itself. It also reflects a broader shift toward larger strategic investments and, eventually, more meaningful merger-and-acquisition activity as the majors confront their reserve-replacement problem.
Gerardo teased two upcoming opportunities for Private Placement Intel subscribers. The deals are expected to provide exposure to gold, antimony, copper and silver through district-scale projects in stable jurisdictions. Both companies currently have market capitalizations near C$20–C$25 million.
He emphasized that Digest Publishing remained quiet on new placements rather than lowering its standards simply to generate more deals. The average open Private Placement Intel position is currently up approximately 300%, and Gerardo expects the two upcoming financings to continue that record.
Lithium is also approaching its seasonally stronger period. A recent production closure in China could further tighten the market, while uranium, gold, silver and copper are already beginning to reflect renewed investor interest.
Bizarro Banter — Trillion-dollar budgets, missing leadership, tribal politics and a healthcare system that fails where it matters.
Gerardo opened the broader discussion with the condition of the U.S. military. Despite trillion-dollar defense budgets, the country has reportedly depleted large portions of its munitions inventory, left sailors deployed for extraordinary stretches and struggled to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
At the same time, the secretary of the Army reportedly resigned amid tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, while the Army remains without a permanent chief of staff following General Randy George’s dismissal.
Nick described this as another example of institutional hollowing-out. Enormous budgets and decades of bureaucratic momentum can keep an institution operating while leadership, accountability and capability deteriorate underneath it. Presidents from both parties have also accumulated greater freedom to conduct wars and military operations without meaningful congressional approval.
That same lack of accountability carried into the renewed fight over the Epstein files. Gerardo discussed Thomas Massie’s effort to force additional disclosures, Leon Black’s attempt to fight congressional subpoenas and Congress’s apparent eagerness to leave Washington rather than confront the issue before the midterm elections.
Nick broadened the discussion to the small and overlapping networks connecting political power, Wall Street, media and artificial intelligence. The same names and institutions repeatedly appear, while ordinary citizens receive little transparency into how influence is exercised.
Both parties appear more interested in accumulating votes than applying consistent principles. Nick described watching Democratic and Republican senators defend candidates they had barely vetted because those candidates would support the correct party. The incentives favor tribal loyalty, and social-media algorithms reinforce that behavior by feeding users content designed to anger them and force them onto one side.
They also discussed the Lindsay Clancy case and the uncomfortable intersection between personal accountability and a dysfunctional mental-health system. The killing of three children demands accountability, but the case also raises serious questions about healthcare providers who reportedly received repeated warnings that she was unstable and thinking about harming her children.
Nick’s family recently experienced a much less severe — but still maddening — version of that fragmentation while trying to arrange treatment for kidney stones. Delayed appointments, conflicting instructions, incorrect tests and disconnected scheduling turned a straightforward medical problem into a month-long ordeal. The gaps become even more dangerous when the patient is experiencing a complex psychiatric crisis.
The mystery of people disappearing into New York City sewers also received an answer. They appear to be migrants wearing protective gear and searching the sewer system for valuables. It was one of the week’s few bizarre stories with a relatively innocent explanation.
Premium Portfolio Picks — 49.2 meters of 4.7% copper equivalent, uranium in every hole and a Swedish gold discovery the market sold anyway.
Gerardo began with Vizsla Copper Corp. (TSX-V: VCU)(OTCQB: VCUFF).
Digest Publishing participated in a May 2025 financing at C$0.50 per unit with full warrants exercisable at C$0.90 through the spring of 2027. With the shares trading near C$1.60, the position is up approximately 218%, and the warrants are well into the money.
Vizsla’s latest drilling at the Palmer Project in Southeast Alaska returned 49.2 meters grading 4.7% copper equivalent. That followed another strong set of results released approximately a week earlier and confirms that the company continues adding meaningful value with the drill bit.
Gerardo’s second selection was North Shore Uranium Ltd. (TSX-V: NSU)(OTCQB: NSURF).
North Shore intersected significant uranium mineralization in all 13 holes from the first phase of drilling at its Rio Puerco Project in New Mexico. Many of the holes twinned historical drilling and successfully confirmed mineralization within the three sandstone units that contain more than 95% of Rio Puerco’s historical resource.
The project contains a historical estimate of approximately 11 million pounds of uranium. All of the reported uranium intercepts occurred below the water table, an encouraging early indication for potential in-situ recovery. North Shore must still demonstrate that the mineralization is technically amenable to ISR, but the first program accomplished what it needed to accomplish.
Nick highlighted an important detail buried near the bottom of the release. North Shore encountered additional uranium mineralization in the shallower Jackpile Sandstone but did not include those results in the primary table. That horizon represents a separate exploration target and historically hosted the nearby Jackpile Mine, which produced approximately 80 million pounds of uranium between 1952 and 1982.
Digest Publishing initially financed North Shore at C$0.05 with C$0.10 warrants and later participated at C$0.25 with C$0.40 warrants. At approximately C$0.18, the first share position is up roughly 260%, the C$0.10 warrants are in the money and the company’s market capitalization remains near just C$16 million.
Gerardo considers North Shore an absolute bargain at current levels. Confirmation and expansion of the historical resource, evidence of ISR amenability and additional mineralization in the Jackpile horizon could create substantial value from such a small base.
His third selection was Hannan Metals Ltd. (TSXV: HAN)(OTCQB: HANNF).
Hannan’s maiden drilling at the Stavaträsk Project in Sweden returned gold in all seven holes across approximately 650 meters of strike. Hole ST2606 intersected a broad 59.6 meters grading 1.1 grams per tonne gold, including 4.6 meters grading 7.2 grams per tonne gold. The mineralization is shallow and contains both broad lower-grade envelopes and high-grade internal structures.
Gerardo spoke with Hannan’s exploration team and came away believing that the company may not have reached the best portion of the system. An induced-polarization survey is underway to map the structures and refine targets for another approximately 1,000 meters of drilling expected to begin in late September or early October.
The market sold Hannan following the results, but Gerardo views the weakness as an opportunity. He believes Stavaträsk has the potential to develop into a shallow, high-grade, multimillion-ounce gold system. Hannan also controls two additional Swedish gold projects that remain largely untouched, while permitting continues to advance at the enormous Previsto Central gold-copper project in Peru.
With a market capitalization near C$100 million, Gerardo believes Hannan could eventually justify its current valuation from the Swedish portfolio alone. He continues to hold a substantial personal position.
Finally, Nick revisited his bullish call on the healthcare sector. Over the past month, healthcare has become the best-performing sector in the S&P 500. Financials have also improved, suggesting the broader bull market is rotating away from its previous technology-heavy leadership.
The most striking healthcare development came from Moderna and Merck. Their experimental personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine, used in combination with Keytruda, succeeded in a late-stage study aimed at preventing cancer from returning or spreading in high-risk patients. Moderna shares more than doubled following the announcement.
The treatment remains experimental, but the results validate years of research into personalized mRNA cancer therapies and could eventually lead to applications across additional cancers. For once, a market-moving development also delivered genuinely encouraging news for humanity.
September 03, 2026
Here’s what was covered in episode 379:
Macro Musings — Gold’s big, beautiful bounce put the debasement trade back on center stage.
Gold briefly broke below $4,400 this week, touching approximately $4,370 before immediately reversing and climbing back toward $4,480. Silver followed the same pattern, slipping below Gerardo’s $66 support level before recovering toward $68.
Gerardo had warned Junior Resource Speculator subscribers that the breakdown was likely noise — and that gold could quickly recover toward $4,400 or $4,500. The speed of the rebound reinforced his view that the metals are putting in higher lows on their way to new highs.
Nick traced the renewed strength back to the dollar. Gold endured a boring and occasionally painful consolidation through June and July as the dollar and interest rates strengthened. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s interventions in Japanese currency markets and U.S. bonds helped break that pattern. The Dollar Index has since fallen below 99, even as the 10-year Treasury yield remains stubbornly high near 4.77%.
That divergence has returned the “debasement trade” to the headlines. Investors now understand that both the Federal Reserve and Treasury are willing to intervene when financial conditions become too restrictive. Any dovish — or merely non-hawkish — message from the Fed should remain supportive of precious metals.
Gold’s volatility has increased considerably, and Nick expects that to continue as markets react to individual employment, inflation, monetary-policy and war headlines. Inflation has moderated into the 3.3%–3.5% range, oil has stabilized and the Iran conflict appears to be winding down. That could allow the Fed to hold rates steady through the midterm elections while the weakening dollar supports gold.
Gerardo believes $4,400 can become gold’s new support level. If it holds, he expects gold to finish 2026 with a “five handle” — above $5,000 per ounce. He also believes silver can make a rapid run toward $80 over the next several months.
Higher metals prices should increasingly flow through to miners, developers and explorers. Conference season begins shortly with the Denver Gold Forum and Beaver Creek, bringing another round of meetings, financings, transactions and corporate announcements. Companies that continued drilling and adding value during the quiet summer months are now positioned to be rewarded.
Market Takes — Uranium is finally dancing, and the majors are paying juniors to find their next generation of supply.
Uranium’s spot price has quietly climbed out of the $80s and is now hovering near $90 per pound. More importantly, the long-term contracting price is approaching $100.
Utilities have delayed returning to the contracting market by stretching existing agreements and modifying contracts already on their books. Those options are running out. Nick is now hearing growing indications — from producers, near-term producers and executives directly involved in U.S. policy discussions — that utilities are preparing to contract again.
The fundamental arithmetic remains compelling. The United States consumes approximately 50 million pounds of uranium annually while producing less than one million pounds domestically. Existing producers cannot close that gap alone. The next generation of American deposits will need to come from today’s developers and high-quality explorers.
The nuclear renaissance and AI data-center buildout add further pressure. Nuclear remains one of the few scalable sources of clean, reliable power capable of serving enormous round-the-clock electricity loads. Uranium is entering a seasonally strong period with spot and contract prices rising, utility demand returning and domestic projects receiving faster permitting and stronger political support.
Nick also discussed his recent conversation with Rick Rule about prospect generators. Major miners have spent years extending existing mines while failing to replace the reserves they continually deplete. Companies such as Newmont and AngloGold are increasingly deploying exploration capital through juniors — taking strategic equity positions, partnering at the project level and funding prospect generators with multiple opportunities for discovery.
That model gives investors exposure to several exploration programs without forcing the junior to fund every drill campaign itself. It also reflects a broader shift toward larger strategic investments and, eventually, more meaningful merger-and-acquisition activity as the majors confront their reserve-replacement problem.
Gerardo teased two upcoming opportunities for Private Placement Intel subscribers. The deals are expected to provide exposure to gold, antimony, copper and silver through district-scale projects in stable jurisdictions. Both companies currently have market capitalizations near C$20–C$25 million.
He emphasized that Digest Publishing remained quiet on new placements rather than lowering its standards simply to generate more deals. The average open Private Placement Intel position is currently up approximately 300%, and Gerardo expects the two upcoming financings to continue that record.
Lithium is also approaching its seasonally stronger period. A recent production closure in China could further tighten the market, while uranium, gold, silver and copper are already beginning to reflect renewed investor interest.
Bizarro Banter — Trillion-dollar budgets, missing leadership, tribal politics and a healthcare system that fails where it matters.
Gerardo opened the broader discussion with the condition of the U.S. military. Despite trillion-dollar defense budgets, the country has reportedly depleted large portions of its munitions inventory, left sailors deployed for extraordinary stretches and struggled to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
At the same time, the secretary of the Army reportedly resigned amid tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, while the Army remains without a permanent chief of staff following General Randy George’s dismissal.
Nick described this as another example of institutional hollowing-out. Enormous budgets and decades of bureaucratic momentum can keep an institution operating while leadership, accountability and capability deteriorate underneath it. Presidents from both parties have also accumulated greater freedom to conduct wars and military operations without meaningful congressional approval.
That same lack of accountability carried into the renewed fight over the Epstein files. Gerardo discussed Thomas Massie’s effort to force additional disclosures, Leon Black’s attempt to fight congressional subpoenas and Congress’s apparent eagerness to leave Washington rather than confront the issue before the midterm elections.
Nick broadened the discussion to the small and overlapping networks connecting political power, Wall Street, media and artificial intelligence. The same names and institutions repeatedly appear, while ordinary citizens receive little transparency into how influence is exercised.
Both parties appear more interested in accumulating votes than applying consistent principles. Nick described watching Democratic and Republican senators defend candidates they had barely vetted because those candidates would support the correct party. The incentives favor tribal loyalty, and social-media algorithms reinforce that behavior by feeding users content designed to anger them and force them onto one side.
They also discussed the Lindsay Clancy case and the uncomfortable intersection between personal accountability and a dysfunctional mental-health system. The killing of three children demands accountability, but the case also raises serious questions about healthcare providers who reportedly received repeated warnings that she was unstable and thinking about harming her children.
Nick’s family recently experienced a much less severe — but still maddening — version of that fragmentation while trying to arrange treatment for kidney stones. Delayed appointments, conflicting instructions, incorrect tests and disconnected scheduling turned a straightforward medical problem into a month-long ordeal. The gaps become even more dangerous when the patient is experiencing a complex psychiatric crisis.
The mystery of people disappearing into New York City sewers also received an answer. They appear to be migrants wearing protective gear and searching the sewer system for valuables. It was one of the week’s few bizarre stories with a relatively innocent explanation.
Premium Portfolio Picks — 49.2 meters of 4.7% copper equivalent, uranium in every hole and a Swedish gold discovery the market sold anyway.
Gerardo began with Vizsla Copper Corp. (TSX-V: VCU)(OTCQB: VCUFF).
Digest Publishing participated in a May 2025 financing at C$0.50 per unit with full warrants exercisable at C$0.90 through the spring of 2027. With the shares trading near C$1.60, the position is up approximately 218%, and the warrants are well into the money.
Vizsla’s latest drilling at the Palmer Project in Southeast Alaska returned 49.2 meters grading 4.7% copper equivalent. That followed another strong set of results released approximately a week earlier and confirms that the company continues adding meaningful value with the drill bit.
Gerardo’s second selection was North Shore Uranium Ltd. (TSX-V: NSU)(OTCQB: NSURF).
North Shore intersected significant uranium mineralization in all 13 holes from the first phase of drilling at its Rio Puerco Project in New Mexico. Many of the holes twinned historical drilling and successfully confirmed mineralization within the three sandstone units that contain more than 95% of Rio Puerco’s historical resource.
The project contains a historical estimate of approximately 11 million pounds of uranium. All of the reported uranium intercepts occurred below the water table, an encouraging early indication for potential in-situ recovery. North Shore must still demonstrate that the mineralization is technically amenable to ISR, but the first program accomplished what it needed to accomplish.
Nick highlighted an important detail buried near the bottom of the release. North Shore encountered additional uranium mineralization in the shallower Jackpile Sandstone but did not include those results in the primary table. That horizon represents a separate exploration target and historically hosted the nearby Jackpile Mine, which produced approximately 80 million pounds of uranium between 1952 and 1982.
Digest Publishing initially financed North Shore at C$0.05 with C$0.10 warrants and later participated at C$0.25 with C$0.40 warrants. At approximately C$0.18, the first share position is up roughly 260%, the C$0.10 warrants are in the money and the company’s market capitalization remains near just C$16 million.
Gerardo considers North Shore an absolute bargain at current levels. Confirmation and expansion of the historical resource, evidence of ISR amenability and additional mineralization in the Jackpile horizon could create substantial value from such a small base.
His third selection was Hannan Metals Ltd. (TSXV: HAN)(OTCQB: HANNF).
Hannan’s maiden drilling at the Stavaträsk Project in Sweden returned gold in all seven holes across approximately 650 meters of strike. Hole ST2606 intersected a broad 59.6 meters grading 1.1 grams per tonne gold, including 4.6 meters grading 7.2 grams per tonne gold. The mineralization is shallow and contains both broad lower-grade envelopes and high-grade internal structures.
Gerardo spoke with Hannan’s exploration team and came away believing that the company may not have reached the best portion of the system. An induced-polarization survey is underway to map the structures and refine targets for another approximately 1,000 meters of drilling expected to begin in late September or early October.
The market sold Hannan following the results, but Gerardo views the weakness as an opportunity. He believes Stavaträsk has the potential to develop into a shallow, high-grade, multimillion-ounce gold system. Hannan also controls two additional Swedish gold projects that remain largely untouched, while permitting continues to advance at the enormous Previsto Central gold-copper project in Peru.
With a market capitalization near C$100 million, Gerardo believes Hannan could eventually justify its current valuation from the Swedish portfolio alone. He continues to hold a substantial personal position.
Finally, Nick revisited his bullish call on the healthcare sector. Over the past month, healthcare has become the best-performing sector in the S&P 500. Financials have also improved, suggesting the broader bull market is rotating away from its previous technology-heavy leadership.
The most striking healthcare development came from Moderna and Merck. Their experimental personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine, used in combination with Keytruda, succeeded in a late-stage study aimed at preventing cancer from returning or spreading in high-risk patients. Moderna shares more than doubled following the announcement.
The treatment remains experimental, but the results validate years of research into personalized mRNA cancer therapies and could eventually lead to applications across additional cancers. For once, a market-moving development also delivered genuinely encouraging news for humanity.