First They Came for Rare Earths—Will Gold and Silver Be Next in the Crosshairs?

When I was a young man, working the docks in Baltimore, I watched ships loaded with American goods sail out and cheaper, lower-quality imports sail in. Back then, we told ourselves it was all progress. But decades later, we’re learning the hard way that outsourcing our industrial backbone to foreign powers—especially adversaries like China—comes with a price tag we can’t afford. That price just showed up in the form of the Pentagon dropping $400 million to become the biggest shareholder in MP Materials, America’s main rare earth miner. This isn’t just some tidy little investment. The Department of Defense is locking in a ten-year deal to buy every magnet MP makes, guaranteeing prices and even roping in Wall Street with…