Strategic Intelligence is the flagship letter Jim Rickards edits at model Press, and it is the publication sitting behind the “$150 Trillion Birthright” presentation. If you have seen the pitch and are weighing whether the subscription is worth it, this is the honest review: who Rickards is, what the letter actually costs, what it promises, and where the fine print matters.
Rickards is a former general counsel at Long-Term Capital Management, the hedge fund that famously collapsed in 1998, and he has spent the years since building a career as a best-selling author on currency, geopolitics, and financial history. His books include treatments of currency wars and the death of money, and he is a serious, credentialed voice on macro risk. That background is real and worth taking seriously.
What the Letter Is
Strategic Intelligence is a macro and geopolitical investing letter. Rather than chasing a single sector, it frames investment ideas around big structural forces, monetary policy, geopolitical conflict, and the occasional resource theme. The Birthright presentation is one of those themes: an argument that federal land openings will fuel a mineral-discovery boom.
The pitch itself is a specific example of the letter’s style. It claims President Trump “opened 650 million acres of federal land containing an estimated $150 trillion in buried minerals” and that mining companies will be “legally required to find the exact location of these mineral deposits BEFORE they can dig a single hole.” It then names three “MDP” companies, mineral-discovery-technology plays, with four-digit gain targets attached.
The Price and the Guarantee
The offer is straightforward and worth reading carefully. The presentation promotes the Situation Report, a higher-priced Rickards service, at $1,995 per year, with no refunds. That is the single most important term in the fine print. Unlike newsletters that offer a trial period or a money-back guarantee, this one asks for a full commitment up front.
That does not make the letter good or bad on its own. It means the decision to subscribe is a full-price decision, and it should be made on the merits of the research rather than on a refund promise.
What the Track Record Shows
The Birthright pitch is itself a useful test of the letter’s forecasting. The presentation assigned aggressive targets, “4,800% gain potential” to “The Pioneer,” “1,520% gain potential” to “The Wildcat,” and “4,340% gain potential” to “The Innovator.” The three picks are Geospace Technologies, TGS ASA, and MIND Technology, all oil and gas seismic companies.
The June 24, 2025 catalyst tied to unlocking Phase II came and went with no surge. Since the tease, Geospace Technologies is down 73.8% and MIND Technology down 56.8%, while TGS ASA is up 8.9%. Against four-digit promises, that is one single-digit gain and two large losses. Our teardown of the presentation also found that a claim about Geospace Technologies having institutional ownership of “only 8%” does not hold up; the actual figure is near 67%.
We break down all three picks, the June 24 catalyst, and the $1,995 no-refund offer in our full $150 Trillion Birthright review.
The Honest Pros and Cons
On the plus side, Rickards is a legitimate, well-credentialed analyst, and his macro framework is thoughtful even when a specific pick does not work out. The pick-and-shovel logic behind the Birthright theme is sound: survey companies get paid on activity, not outcomes.
On the caution side, the presentation’s headline numbers have not matched reality, and the mining framing overstates how much of these companies’ revenue is tied to minerals. They are energy-services businesses first. For the broader critical minerals context, our critical minerals strategy explainer and our deep-sea mining explainer separate the real policy push from the promotional packaging.
The bottom line is that Strategic Intelligence offers a real macro perspective from a real analyst, but the Birthright pitch is a reminder to read every claim, and every price tag, before subscribing. At $1,995 per year with no refunds, the decision deserves that care.
What subscribers actually receive is a steady flow of macro commentary and a smaller number of specific trade ideas, delivered alongside Rickards’s analysis of monetary and geopolitical risk. That is the product, and it suits a particular kind of reader, one who wants a framework for thinking about currencies, inflation, and conflict rather than a stream of short-term stock picks. The Birthright presentation is a sales letter for that product, and it leans hard on a resource theme that the letter’s broader work treats as one idea among many. Whether that is worth $1,995 depends on whether the framework, not any single pick, is what you are buying.
Rickards’s broader body of work, his books on currency wars and financial crises, gives a sense of what the letter actually emphasizes. He is fundamentally a macro thinker who treats specific stock ideas as one expression of a larger view about money, debt, and geopolitics. Readers who agree with that worldview will get more from the subscription than readers who want a steady stream of actionable tickers.
Ready to see the research? Click here to view the American Birthright presentation.
NewsletterVetter is an independent publication. We receive compensation from some of the services we review through affiliate links. Nothing on this site is investment advice. Always do your own research.