Stijn Schmitz welcomes Willem Middelkoop to the show. Willem Middelkoop is an author and is the 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.

Timestamps:
00:00:00 – Introduction
00:01:00 – Financial Reset Discussion
00:04:00 – US Losing Superpower Status
00:09:08 – Central Bank Gold Purchases
00:13:00 – Empire Decline and Debt
00:18:45 – Weimar Lite Scenario
00:23:00 – Gold Revaluation Process
00:28:00 – Mining Sector Opportunities
00:35:00 – Discovery Investing Strategy
00:42:00 – Portfolio Construction Advice
00:47:22 – Concluding Thoughts

Guest Links:
Commodity Discover Fund: https://www.cdfund.com
X: https://x.com/@wmiddelkoop
Willem Middelkoop: https://substack.com/@wmiddelkoop
The Big Reset: https://www.cdfund.com/download-the-big-reset.html

Willem Middelkoop is the founder of the Commodity Discovery Fund and also an author. He became a well-known personality through his work as a stock market commentator for the Dutch business television channel RTLZ.

Middelkoop predicted the credit crisis’s onset in his book “Als de dollar valt” (If the dollar falls) in 2007. Subsequent publications were “De permanente oliecrisis” (The permanent oil crisis) – 2008, “Overleef de kredietcrisis” (Surviving the credit crisis) – 2009, “Goud en het geheim van geld” (Gold and the secret of money) – 2012, and The Big Reset – 2013. In total, he sold more than 100,000 copies of his books.

The Commodity Discovery Fund was established in the summer of 2008. It started with three million euros and 22 participants. By the end of 2023, it had grown to about 2,000 participants and €104 million in assets under management.