The $150 Trillion Oversight: Jim Rickards Says America’s Most Valuable Resource Has Been Ignored for Generations

Former CIA Advisor Calls for National Rethink on Mineral Wealth Held Beneath Federal Lands

/EIN News/ -- WASHINGTON, April 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- While lawmakers debate deficits and foreign threats, former CIA advisor Jim Rickards says a far more powerful opportunity lies in what’s been overlooked—not abroad, but under American soil.

“There’s an entire category of national wealth that we’ve never seriously accounted for,” Rickards says. “It’s not hypothetical. It’s measurable. And by some estimates, it’s worth over $150 trillion.”

That wealth, Rickards says, is embedded in vast federally managed lands that hold a concentrated supply of high-value materials—copper, lithium, silver, and rare earths—critical to modern technology, energy, and defense.

THE VALUE BENEATH OUR FEET

While these lands have long been under federal control, Rickards believes the American public has never fully grasped what lies beneath them—or how much leverage it could offer in a changing world.

“We’ve mapped the resources. We’ve studied the terrain,” he says. “But we’ve never prioritized it. It’s been treated like background noise in the national conversation.”

With global supply chains growing more unstable and geopolitical tensions rising, Rickards says it’s time to bring that conversation forward.

SHIFTING LEGAL CONDITIONS, SHIFTING POSSIBILITIES

The 2024 Supreme Court decision to overturn the Chevron Doctrine—limiting the regulatory reach of federal agencies—has added a new layer of momentum to the discussion.

“It’s not that the laws changed overnight,” Rickards says. “It’s that the power to interpret those laws is being redistributed—and that opens the door to reconsider how we manage what’s ours.”

THE CASE FOR A NATIONAL REEVALUATION

Rickards is not advocating for reckless extraction or privatization. Instead, he urges a broader, more strategic view of what this reserve could represent for the country’s long-term resilience.

“This is about recalibrating priorities,” he says. “It’s about asking why a $150 trillion asset has been left out of every major economic debate we’ve had for the last 50 years.”

About Jim Rickards

Jim Rickards is a lawyer, economist, and former advisor to the CIA, Pentagon, and U.S. Treasury. With decades of experience in financial intelligence and crisis strategy, Rickards has been a key voice in interpreting the hidden dimensions of American economic power. He is the author of six bestselling books, including Currency Wars, The Death of Money, and The Road to Ruin.

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