Willem Middelkoop, founder of the Commodity Discovery Fund and author of The Big Reset, is a long-time monetary historian who predicted 2007’s credit crisis. He discusses the unfolding Big Reset, decline of U.S. hegemony and petrodollar, surging central bank gold buying, a looming financial crisis that could revalue gold, and the opportunity in commodity and mining discovery investing.
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Central Banks Buying Gold Relentlessly
Central banks are accumulating gold at an unprecedented pace, roughly ~1,000 tonnes per year for several years running.
Middelkoop highlights a London monetary think-tank and central bank discussions confirming renewed official physical gold demand.
insights INSIGHT
China Buys 60% Of Outside Mine Production
China alone is buying about 60% of annual global mine production outside its borders, massively tightening physical gold availability.
Middelkoop stresses official numbers understate hidden Chinese demand, amplifying scarcity.
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Buy Assets Governments Cannot Print
Allocate to assets governments can't print: physical gold, silver, real estate, Bitcoin, and high-quality listed equities.
Middelkoop describes his family office holdings as a practical template for crisis-proof positioning.
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Stijn Schmitz welcomes Willem Middelkoop to the show. Willem Middelkoop is Author and Founder of the Commodity Discovery Fund. Middelkoop asserts that the "big reset" of the global financial system, a thesis he developed over a decade ago, is now unfolding in real time. He points to the accelerating decline of U.S. hegemony, evidenced by the collapsing petrodollar system and waning international support, particularly in the Middle East. This shift from an era of cooperation to confrontation is driving a fundamental change in capital flows, with generalist investors beginning to move away from paper assets like U.S. Treasuries toward hard assets. He notes that foreign ownership of U.S. debt has fallen below thirty percent, a situation he describes as "Weimar Lite," where the Federal Reserve is increasingly forced to monetize government debt. This environment explains the strong performance of gold, which is being reintroduced into the monetary system without official decree, primarily through record central bank purchases. China alone is buying sixty percent of the world’s annual mine production outside its borders. While Middelkoop does not foresee a hyperinflationary collapse, as the U.S. retains powerful tools like revaluing its gold holdings, he believes a new financial crisis is likely in the coming years. In such a crisis, he expects central banks to play the "gold card," driving a significant revaluation. This outlook informs his investment strategy, which focuses on hard assets including real estate, physical gold and silver, Bitcoin, and high-quality equities. Shifting to the mining sector, Middelkoop highlights the exceptional opportunity in gold producers, which are generating record free cash flow yet trade at historically low valuations. His fund, however, specializes in discovery investing, concentrating on a select portfolio of world-class tier-one and tier-two discoveries. He emphasizes that the key to outsized returns is maintaining a long-term position in a major discovery, allowing value to compound over decades as the deposit is developed into a producing mine. This patient, concentrated approach involves taking significant stakes in companies after the initial discovery hype and supporting them through to production.
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