Washington, D.C., June 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Most people never see it when they check their retirement balance, but former government advisor Jim Rickards says a dependency sits quietly beneath many ordinary portfolios: the degree to which the companies inside them rely on critical minerals controlled by a single country. A new free presentation examines that exposure.
The Exposure
China accounts for roughly 91% of global rare-earth separation and refining, and is the leading supplier of materials used across defense, EVs, electronics, and renewable energy. Those industries make up a meaningful share of the broad-market funds many retirement accounts hold.
When China restricted seven rare earth elements in April 2025, some automakers in the U.S. and Europe struggled to obtain permanent magnets, and a few cut output or temporarily idled factories. The presentation uses episodes like that to show how a distant supply decision can reach a domestic balance sheet.
And the exposure has a date attached to it. China suspended a broader set of October 2025 export controls only until November 10, 2026, after which all twelve controlled rare earth elements and their compounds are set to come back under restriction. Rickards points to that timeline as a reason the question is worth understanding now rather than later.
What Early Investors Have Seen When Washington Moves
Rickards does not frame this purely as a risk story. He frames it as a pattern, one where the investors who understood the setup before it became obvious captured the bulk of the gains.
He points to three deals the government has already made. When Washington restructured a $2.26 billion loan with Lithium Americas and took a 5% equity stake, shares skyrocketed 227% in three weeks. When it took a 10% stake in Trilogy Metals for $35.6 million, shares shot up 407% in one week. When it announced a deal with USA Rare Earth, shares skyrocketed the following day. In each case, Rickards says the move was visible to anyone tracking the policy signals beforehand. His argument is that the next deal in that sequence involves a deposit that dwarfs all three combined, a site holding an estimated $2.7 trillion in gold, silver, copper, rhenium, and molybdenum.
A small company holds the full rights to it and trades for under $2 per share. The same regulatory restrictions that have kept it frozen for decades are, in his read, now being systematically dismantled. For a retirement saver looking at China exposure on one side of the ledger, Rickards believes this is what the other side looks like.
Why It Matters to You
If a single supplier can disrupt the companies a portfolio depends on, that is a risk worth understanding rather than ignoring. Most people never chose that exposure deliberately, it comes bundled inside the broad-market index funds that anchor millions of retirement accounts, where technology, automotive, and defense names carry it quietly on the saver's behalf.
The briefing raises the natural question: how concentrated is that dependence, and what would it take for the U.S. to reduce it?
About the Presentation
Rickards walks through the China exposure sitting inside ordinary portfolios, the November deadline, and the American deposit he believes sits on the other side of that risk in a free presentation now available online. Click here to watch.
About Jim Rickards and Paradigm Press
Jim Rickards spent decades advising the U.S. government on financial threats and national security, including direct work with the CIA, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Treasury. He has testified before Congress on financial risk and advised presidential transition teams across multiple administrations.
Paradigm Press is one of the most widely read independent financial research publishers in the United States, rated 4.8 stars on Google across more than 1,900 reviews. Free from advertiser influence, Paradigm Press is committed to helping everyday Americans understand the forces shaping their wealth.
Derek Warren Public Relations Manager Paradigm Press Group Email: dwarren@paradigmpressgroup.com
