An Exclusive Stansberry Research Showdown for the Ages

The great debate: Bitcoin vs. gold... Michael Saylor accepts Frank Giustra's challenge... An exclusive Stansberry Research showdown for the ages... The pregame show begins... What a deadly Tesla accident tells us...

The 'cyber hornets' have spoken...

Those are the words that one billionaire, MicroStrategy (MSTR) CEO and noted bitcoin bull Michael Saylor, used a couple of weeks ago to accept a challenge from another billionaire, famed gold bug Frank Giustra.

And along with his acceptance, Saylor suggested that our editor-at-large Daniela Cambone could pick the battleground. Here's a Twitter screenshot of the agreement...

Allow us to briefly translate what all of this means...

The "cyber hornets" are Saylor's Twitter followers – and more broadly, bitcoin believers.

They overwhelmingly voted in favor of the idea that Saylor – who is probably the biggest corporate bitcoin bull other than Tesla (TSLA) founder Elon Musk – accept Giustra's challenge to the great debate. So with that said, bitcoin versus gold... let's get it on.

It's a showdown for the ages...

And the debate will air exclusively on Stansberry Research's platforms.

To be clear, Saylor and Giustra will go head-to-head, with Daniela as their handpicked moderator, in an exclusive video event this Wednesday. We're pretty pumped to have this affair under our company's umbrella...

As we noted earlier, Saylor is one of the biggest faces of bitcoin... He has made headlines by saying he considers bitcoin to be his company's "primary treasury reserve asset." (He has bought more than $4 billion in bitcoin to put on MicroStrategy's balance sheet.)

Giustra – a Canadian mining financier and the founder of movie company Lionsgate Entertainment – is another successful businessman... But unlike Saylor, Giustra brings a wealth of knowledge about the gold world to the table.

Regular readers know both experts have conducted interviews with Daniela multiple times over on our YouTube page. We've shared them in the Digest throughout the past year.

And this one should be really fun...

First, the fact that we can have this debate at all shows you the appetite for "anti-central bank" trades – as we've described bitcoin before and consider gold the same.

Second, there is a lot of ground to cover. As Saylor shared on Twitter just yesterday...

I have been reviewing every book, paper, documentary, interview, and research report I can find on this subject.

And Daniela says she has spoken with both men daily since the showdown was announced a few weeks ago. Hyperbole aside, this is a really important discussion to have today...

We've hit the bitcoin-versus-gold story in bits and pieces in the Digest over the last year or so, including in August 2020, when we noted...

A lot of investors (including ones in our office) have been debating whether gold or bitcoin is a better "store of value."

By that, we mean which asset is better positioned to maintain (or grow) its purchasing power in the years ahead, as we see more and more inflationary policy from central banks around the world.

We wrote back then that many of our editors, like our founder Porter Stansberry and our colleague Dan Ferris, suggested owning at least some bitcoin in your portfolio – in addition to gold.

That same week, our Director of Research Austin Root weighed in, too, sharing with Stansberry Portfolio Solutions subscribers his case for owning at least some bitcoin. As Austin said...

It's true that bitcoin's price has been extremely volatile in the short term. And that restricts its use as a store of value for those funds you'd need to access sooner rather than later.

But time and again, it has proven itself as an excellent store of value over the longer run.

Then, throughout the second half of last year, bitcoin started to emerge more in the mainstream... And folks in investing circles started openly asking if the world's most popular cryptocurrency was taking a share of gold's market away from it.

Gold's price in U.S. dollars has dropped roughly 11% since the end of August 2020. Meanwhile, bitcoin's price has soared an incredible 380% over that same time frame.

We've certainly made our case for bitcoin here in the Digest, and readers who follow our colleague and Crypto Capital editor Eric Wade's newsletter know all of those details. But we know that not everyone is a bitcoin believer...

If bitcoin is "digital gold," they might say, why not just own the real thing? It's a fair question... And that's just one of the ideas that Saylor and Giustra plan to talk about.

Here's a sneak peek, via the 'pregame show'...

Another bitcoin bull – and admitted former massive gold bug – Max Keiser of the Keiser Report joined Daniela over the weekend to give his preview of Thursday's debate.

Keiser's analysis is worth the watch alone, as he gives insight on how he sees things playing out. In part, he says...

As [Frank] says, "I'm willing to switch camps. I'm willing to go long bitcoin. Convince me." He's waving the red flag to the ultimate bitcoin bull, Michael Saylor.

Keiser says he expects to see an "on-air conversion," with Giustra becoming a "bitcoiner" as opposed to a "no coiner."

Max also gives his thoughts on the benefits of cryptos, how auto magnate Henry Ford talked about "electricity as money" about 100 years ago, and the one thing about gold that is better than bitcoin.

Daniela gave her unique insight on what to expect with this week's debate, too...

I know both gentlemen have been doing intense research. They are taking this really seriously. They just want to have a civil discussion. They don't want people talking over each other. They want to educate the audience.

We can't imagine a better way to get into both sides of the argument...

In short, we love a good debate...

Not too often anymore does an authentic, organic, respectful, and entertaining debate on any topic get wide enough promotion in the mainstream media.

Thankfully, we're not that... And thanks to Daniela, we've been able to arrange this fully voluntary debate that we believe you'll find is perfect for today's times.

Bitcoin versus gold... one billionaire against another.

You'll be able to watch it on our YouTube page for free. Be sure to subscribe to that page if you don't already. And to make sure you don't miss a single thing, you can also sign up for free alerts about the event – and other special content from Daniela – on her website.

Switching gears, did you hear about the Tesla crash in Texas over the weekend?

We don't normally like to end on sad news here, but we can't really find anywhere else to fit this item in today. And we want to talk about it for a few reasons...

Two men were killed Saturday night in a Houston, Texas suburb when a 2019 Tesla Model S electric vehicle ("EV") they were riding in crashed into a tree and caught fire. And here's the thing...

No one was driving.

We say the two men were "riding in" the car because there was a person in the passenger seat and another in the back of the car at the time of the accident, according to police.

Why?

Well, the accident is still under investigation. But the initial signs point to this being another Tesla accident in which people were riding with the "Autopilot" setting on in the car... incorrectly thinking that this designation means that the car will drive itself.

As technology news website The Verge reported yesterday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA") has investigated at least 23 Autopilot related crashes. This latest one appears to be the first fatal crash in which no one was sitting in the driver's seat.

And as reports from a local Houston TV station and police indicate, this accident appears to be a case of confusion or user experimentation gone horribly wrong...

Harris County Constable Precinct 4 deputies said the vehicle was traveling at a high speed when it failed to negotiate a cul-de-sac turn, ran off the road and hit the tree.

KPRC 2 reporter Deven Clarke spoke to one man's brother-in-law who said he was taking the car out for a spin with his best friend, so there were just two in the vehicle.

The owner, he said, backed out of the driveway, and then may have hopped in the back seat only to crash a few hundred yards down the road.

The story is tragic.

It may sound obvious to many people, but Teslas – or any other vehicles for sale on the market today, for that matter – will NOT drive themselves, according to the NHTSA.

"Autopilot" does not mean "autonomous vehicle." Don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise.

Secondly, about the fire itself...

The fire that happened as a result of this Tesla crash burned for four hours.

Firefighters used 32,000 gallons of water to extinguish the flames. And in the end, it seems that the fire simply burned out on its own.

Apparently, the vehicle's batteries kept reigniting – a practical problem for the lithium-ion EV batteries involved in Tesla accidents. More from The Verge (with some good links included)...

Tesla has previously provided guidance for first responders who encounter fires involving its EV batteries. Reignition of the battery can be a problem, because unlike gas-powered vehicles, even if the fire is extinguished, an EV battery still has stored energy. Tesla's guidance suggests it's better to let the fire burn out than continuing to try to put it out.

I (Corey McLaughlin) don't know about you – and I am certainly not an engineer or expert on Tesla's cars – but this high-profile accident raises several legitimate questions about where the EV industry is today...

Mainly, we can't have cars burning for up to four hours on the side of the road every time an accident occurs...

Think about it...

If all the gas-powered cars in the U.S. were to become EVs tomorrow, and the number of daily car accidents were to remain the same (about 16,000 in the U.S. alone), think of the possible negative consequences if electric-car batteries keep reigniting in just a fraction of those accidents.

We're talking about a massive amount of fire... potential deaths... traffic... productivity disruption... and even the toxic fluoride gas from the burning lithium going into the atmosphere.

On a smaller scale, if you've ever experienced the heat from a laptop computer or phone warming your body, it's the same general principle... And when you hear about lithium-ion-powered products catching fire on planes, same story.

That has happened a handful of times this year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA") – and more than 300 times since 2006. Here's one recent FAA report on a DHL cargo flight in January...

A package containing a laptop computer began to smolder when the battery overheated in a thermal runaway event. The package was intercepted and placed in a metal recovery drum.

My point is, life is more complicated for Tesla than many fans of its products probably are willing to admit.

Driving its cars might be more dangerous than the price tag is worth... and the transition from gas-powered cars to EVs could be further away than many optimistic predictions.

If the EV industry is really going to take off... battery design, manufacturing, and safety need to mature.

So in our opinion, anyone or any company that can make or help make a great, safer electric-car battery is worth taking a long look at today...

Our friend and Empire Financial Research founder Whitney Tilson has been all over this part of the story for a while...

Whitney is very bullish on the future of EVs... He believes they could account for half of the North American and European car markets in as a little as five years.

For that to happen, the lithium-battery part of the market will take off and mature significantly in the years ahead. This is the preferred commodity for EV power today... and there will be plenty of more work done in this space.

Last year, Whitney recommended a pair of great EV-battery plays in his monthly Empire Stock Investor newsletter.

One of these recommendations is a "one click" way to get exposure to companies involved in lithium mining and refining, as well as lithium-battery production. This recommendation has already doubled in 10 months... but it's still a buy today, according to Whitney.

He also said to buy shares of a company with a foot in both the lithium-mining world and the "green energy" retrofitting of the current gas-powered vehicle infrastructure that dominates the world today.

That means no matter how fast or slow the transition to the widespread use of EVs happens in the years ahead, this company will benefit. That's not only a smart business approach, as we see it, but it's also a great opportunity for those who buy shares today.

Learn how you can gain instant access to these tickers – and all of Whitney's latest research on EVs – right here. It's a powerful trend worth staying ahead of.

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In today's mailbag, feedback on Dan Ferris' Friday Digest on the death of Bernie Madoff... and a late-arriving note on Dan's essay from the previous week on the intersection of religion and investing. Do you have a comment or question? As always, e-mail us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com.

"Dan, thank you again for another great essay. Can't get enough of them, I think we are kindred spirits.

"What Madoff did to his investors is incomparable to what the man did to his family. He should have suffered a more severe penalty for that. As you stated, the investors, like sheep, followed his hype and poured in money into his funds with no reasonable regard as to how his returns were possible. They were irresponsible, but the lawyers recovered a good part of their stupid investments anyway. Glad they did in this case, lawyers are very good at suing to recover stupidity on their client's part. I guess that is another story.

"As for the regulators, they are just like the IRS I deal with all the time as a CPA. They put in their 40-hour weeks for generous salaries and every employee benefit known to mankind, and we pay for it. They make more than I do after I pay $1,000 a month for ACA healthcare, my own retirement contributions and Health Savings Account contributions. And I work 70 hours a week plus!

"So the regulators are sheep. The investors are sheep. Thinking I am a sheep myself. Maybe I should have defected to the IRS years ago. I could have made them billions! And collected my sheep pay all along." – Paid-up subscriber Tim L.

"'... all of the nation's financial regulators – The Federal Reserve Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision – are at best incompetent and at worst captive to the companies they are supposed to regulate.'

"Well done, Sir... IMHO the entities you mentioned, as incompetent as they may be, are delegated by the U.S. government and thereby engaged in the furtherance of the biggest Ponzi scheme of them all; New World order be damned, there will be 300 million victims when the house of cards comes down, and like death, it may be sooner than we think." – Paid-up subscriber M.L.

"The article 'God Can't Protect You From a Leveraged Disaster' reminded me of many years ago when I owned an insurance agency which included a hail insurance line. I asked a young farmer who attended the same church if he needed hail insurance. He responded that he had made this deal with God where he gave what would be his normal hail insurance premium to the church and he had never 'hailed out.'

"Later that same summer he hailed out totally and lost his entire crop on multiple fields. He had to refinance with the bank and lost a large portion of his land. I remembered what my Dad, an ordained minister, had told me many years earlier, 'We don't get to make deals with God.'" – Paid-up subscriber Phil R.

All the best,

Corey McLaughlin
Baltimore, Maryland
April 19, 2021