In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan welcomes Craig Tindale to the show. Craig is a private investor with a keen perspective on economic and geopolitical analysis. He has more than 5,000 subscribers on Substack.

Craig kicks things off by discussing "hard bifurcation," a term he uses to refer to the U.S. importing its products instead of manufacturing them, creating dependencies on other countries. For instance, China has control over the precious metals the U.S. needs for defense. Craig looks at history to show why nations didn't trade crucial resources with rival nations... and how nations that did faced shortages during war. And he addresses how China could restrict our access to rare earth metals to slow down U.S. AI chip development. (0:00)

Next, Craig notes several gases the U.S. produces that serve as counters to China's choke points. The only thing that could impact them would be a breakdown in the supply chain. Craig says that the U.S. would need at least five years to build the overall industrial factories and infrastructure needed to match what China has. And while not economically viable, if a rare earth shortage did hit the U.S., we could recycle e-waste to produce the materials we need. Craig discusses the byproducts that come from mining production and how they impact other industries. (19:14)

Finally, Craig expresses his frustration at how policy and regulation have created more risk factors for shortages. He says that companies move their efforts to other countries where such restrictions are looser or nonexistent. And while most folks won't notice those changes, they'd feel the knock-on effects if anything were to impact operations wherever that manufacturing was happening. And Craig warns folks to become more resilient and self-sufficient to protect themselves against uncertainty. (35:49)