Frank Holmes's Blog

The gloomy clouds of last year seem to be dissipating, as significant and positive trends in global resources and economic data take hold.

After investing in the mining industry for decades, we’ve taken note of several facts about gold that continue to surprise our investors. Here are four of the latest.

In the media’s duty to report risks facing the average investor, some reporters seemed to have overlooked what I believe to be the greatest threat. As Bloomberg only recently quantified, “Americans have missed out on almost $200 billion of stock gains as they drained money from the market in the past four years.”

Historically investors have received a 2-to-1 leverage by owning gold equities instead of the commodity. In today's fairytale of cash costs along with an overabundance of production projects in the pipeline, focus on the gold miners that can successfully manage these challenges.

After decades of importing oil, the U.S. seems only a few years away from reversing the flow. Will century-old legislation be the biggest roadblock from exporting excess oil?

In emerging markets, supportive government policies, rising wealth and access to innovative technology may be an influential source for future Black Friday purchases in the U.S.

China celebrated another achievement last week, as Mo Yan became the first Chinese citizen to win a Nobel Prize for literature. The selection of Mo was praised by a Chinese nationalist tabloid as a sign that mainstream China could “no longer be refused by the West for long.”

Proponents say a transaction tax would discourage short-term trading, with little effect on long-term investors. Opposition says the extra cost would undermine liquidity, adversely affect market quality and distort the value of a security.

After Mario Draghi announced the European Central Bank’s new bond buying program, I was the first guest on CNBC Asia’s Squawk Box to weigh in on this decision.

This week, gold bugs were rewarded with the long-awaited positive momentum in the yellow metal, and on Friday, bullion rose to about $1,670. After falling below the 200-day moving average, gold had been stuck in quicksand for several months. With the jumps in the price this week, bullion swiftly rose above this critically important long-term moving average.