This article was written by Richard Horswill. All views and opinions expressed are strictly his own. Back in January of 2023 I highlighted how the Reddit retail investment community targeted silver as they had done in the case of Game Stop, a video game retail outlet that a hedge fund had shorted. The upshot was the bankruptcy of the hedge fund Melvin Capital. The small investors had taken on the big guns and won! Could silver really have been the next retail target? The real

After Tom Stoppard’s recent death at 88, the former BBC investigative journalist, John Sweeney, quoted the playwright on the subject of journalism:-   “People do terrible things to each other, but it's worse in the places where everybody is kept in the dark.” (Night and Day)   Neither Stoppard nor Sweeney were referring to the world of commodities but it applies as much here as anywhere else.   Zambia is, alas, a resource country in which darkness rules. A country under-repor

Alice walked moodily down the road. She kicked a pebble out of her path; it bounced off into the overgrown grass of the muddy verge. Normally, she loved Christmas, but this year so many things seemed to be going wrong in Wonderland, and she couldn’t see how they would ever get put right. She’s an optimistic little girl, as a rule, and well able to float happily above the vicissitudes and idiocies of the politicians. But what was nagging her now was how stupid they were being,

This article was written by Aaron Jerome. All views and opinions expressed are strictly his own. My postgrad was in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where for unknown reasons I chose to focus my research on the Rare Earth industry. Back then – which wasn’t that long ago - it was a niche issue… My advisor actually asked me if I was sure my topic was political! It would be fair to say that from the day the U.S. President mentioned the two words ‘Rare Earths’

This article was written by Richard Horswill. All views and opinions expressed are strictly his own. Recently, a well known banking CEO made a comment regarding a sizeable bankruptcy in the US. Tricolor Holdings, a sub-prime car/auto lender went bust leading to the commentary “you find one cockroach, and you’ll probably find more” to paraphrase. Almost simultaneously, First Brands Group, an auto parts manufacturer followed them into bankruptcy. Both companies were financed ou

May 1745: the battle of Fontenoy - the War of the Austrian Succession. The Pragmatic Army (British, Hanoverian, Dutch and Austrian,...

It may come as a surprise to some readers of this column, but I have a strange affection for reggae music, and there is a lyric by a man...

It’s mid-summer, holiday time, so why should we be too serious? I thought a few examples of how seemingly logical thought can lead us in...

Some Lord Copper readers will have read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book ‘Love in the time of Cholera’. A story of undying unrequited love...

There is, it seems to me, a fine line in perception between being optimistic and positive, and being utterly delusional. For example, on...

This article was written by Anthony Lipmann. All views and opinions expressed are strictly his own. I slipped gently into a different...

Sad news this week with the announcement of the death of Frederick Forsyth. I can remember when The Day of the Jackal  was published in...

This article was written by Anthony Lipmann. All views and opinions expressed are strictly his own. A Review of 38 Londres Street By...

The latest round in the ongoing saga of the complete failure to understand the concept of a national energy security policy is being...

This article was written by Richard Horswill. All views and opinions expressed are strictly his own. Tariffs, and with them potential...

Years ago, when I was a child, I was seduced by the concept of superheroes and superpowers; and it continued through the generations - my...

It seems to me that the LME have dodged the bullet - or at least got away with no more than a minor scratch. The Financial Conduct...

This article was written by Lilia Shepel. All views and opinions expressed are strictly her own.   I left my home of thirty-seven years...

A long time ago, think late 1960s, when I was but a schoolboy, my parents decided that instead of the more regular summer in France to...

This article was written by Martin Hayes. All views and opinions expressed are strictly his own. The London Metal Exchange (LME) earlier...