My opinion having read two of his books that nothing about these claims are surprising coming from him.  While I agree with multiple concepts he has presented over the years, I feel that any comment is nothing more than conjecture until that comment has empirical evidence to support it.  This in my opinion, based off the measurable objective fact that Rickards does not typically provide tangible documentation to support his claim(s), is that this is another one of his assessments that does not have measurable method to prove it as factual.

 I asked an associate who has worked in the investment market for decades, successfully, if they had a Rickards outcome model and he had 3.  If any human followed Rickard's direct financial advice/predictions as market loss mitigation they would have lost money in all 3 models.  Basically using simple math, one would have moved money into losing market locations over gains.  For instance in 2022 he predicted that U.S. sanctions on Russia would cause the collapse of the U.S. dollar.  The dollar index then soared to a 20 year high as global investors rapidly moved to U.S. assets.

 This is, in my opinion, is because Rickard capitalizes on the predictable reactionary market fear which is a constant, over cyclical market activity which is not consistent.  I absolutely expect him to provide insight into "secret" funds we can't possibly see for ourselves.

 Of course if we use Observed Reality, and choose to Observe the Government wastes/hides/corruptly/inefficiently uses money, then Rickard's assessment is proven by method of Observed Reality and not actual reality where he provides tangible measurable proof.
 
 This is my opinion.  This post is an opinion.