Dear Reader,
Happy Friday.
Today is Friday, January 2nd, and this is actually the last video I'm going to record for a little while because I won't be here next week.
I'll be away at a business conference, an important one, and then I'll be back with you.
Before I step away for that break, I want to talk about one thing a lot of people have been asking me lately:
"What do you think will happen in 2026? What kind of year do you think it's going to be?"
I was reading something recently on TheStreet where a longtime fund manager gave his outlook, and he summed up 2026 in two words:
"Economic Nirvana."
Now, I could never be that optimistic about anything.
That's just not me. I'm naturally more cautious.
"Economic nirvana" is probably the most ridiculous phrase I've heard in a while. But at the same time, there are things that do make me cautiously optimistic.
For example, copper just hit new highs. It's up around 45% for 2025 so far. Copper is one of the most important indicators of economic growth. You don't get economic expansion without copper, because copper speaks to building, infrastructure, and energy.
Right now, we're building data centers, factories, robotics infrastructure — and all of that requires power, which means copper.
We actually talked about this months ago in a special copper report. Hardly anybody cared because it didn't sound sexy. But the company we highlighted there — the one using a fracking-style approach to unlock new copper — has been up 35% since July and looks positioned to go much higher. Sometimes the "boring" stuff is where the real money is made.
And just like when we called the copper rally, we've been pounding the table on another major rally poised to happen this year.
President Trump's America First agenda isn't just another campaign slogan.
It's an actionable plan to bring critical mineral refining and manufacturing back to the United States.
And we've identified a handful of companies we believe will benefit from this new initiative.
We're about to release ANOTHER pick on Tuesday, so make sure you join the list now if you haven't already.
So yes — I am cautiously optimistic for 2026. That is about as excited as I ever get.
I am not "economic nirvana" optimistic. I think this really depends on whether you're playing chess or playing checkers.
If you're playing checkers, everything looks great in the short term. But if you're playing chess, you ask yourself: Are we juicing the present at the expense of the future?
The persistent rally in gold and the push away from the U.S. dollar concern me deeply. I cannot think of anything worse for this country than losing our reserve currency status. That would fundamentally change America.
We've also talked for years about split-screen scenarios. In 2024, with the uncertainty around the election and policy direction, risk levels went way up. Afterward, some of that eased, but now those risks are creeping back in again. Not at panic levels, but enough to pay attention.
On top of that, we are moving into what I believe is the next "Cambrian Explosion" of AI — except this time it's not just software. It's going to be physical. It's robots. It's autonomy. It's embodied intelligence.
The world is going to look very different. Think "Total Recall," not 1995.
If you don't believe it, look at China's robots playing soccer. They look goofy now, but give it five years...
Look at Tesla and Waymo driving themselves around... That's here. That's real.
And while that's exciting, it also carries huge consequences.
Millions of people drive for a living. That industry is going away. Not overnight — but it's going. White-collar work isn't safe either. AI is already diagnosing things better than doctors in some cases. Doctors won't disappear, but many fewer will be needed. Think of bookstores after Amazon. They didn't all disappear — but most of them did.
We already know what happens when blue-collar workers get angry. We've seen populism before. Now imagine when white-collar workers get hit. That's Populism 2.0. And historically, that can lead to very dark political movements.
So yes, 2026 looks cautiously positive. But beyond that, the challenges get serious. The government is going to have to solve redistribution and job displacement, or the market will solve it in a far messier way.
There's going to be opportunity. There's going to be innovation. But there will also be turbulence.
So that's my outlook:
Cautiously optimistic for 2026. Deeply concerned for the longer arc.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I'll see you when I get back from the conference.
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