Latest / SILVER / GOLD / $UFD Meme Coin Investing & Global Economics / ANDY SCHECTMAN: The FACTS are SHOCKING 🚨 (Silver & Gold)
Transcript
- 0:00Today we have 4 questions for Andy Schechtman.
- 0:04He's a leading figure in the gold and silver community and
- 0:08we're fortunate to have Andy with us today on the show.
- 0:12We're going to talk about silver shortage and a number of other
- 0:15pertinent pressing issues in the precious metals sector.
- 0:20Andy, welcome to Ron's Basement. Thanks for having me.
- 0:24You know you. Look, you look so sharp and here
- 0:26I am wearing a baseball hat. I figure I'd figure, you know,
- 0:30that's perfect for the basement. I feel underdressed, so excuse
- 0:33my informality, but it's good to be here, brother.
- 0:36Thanks for having me back. That's all right.
- 0:38We know there's a there's a sharp mind hidden underneath
- 0:41that hat right in. There somewhere.
- 0:43It's in there somewhere, right? Well, hey, first first question
- 0:47for you, Andy. And I think you are uniquely
- 0:49positioned to answer this question better than anybody
- 0:54because you've spent decades in the bullion dealer world.
- 0:59I have this theory, I call it the the silver 8X theory.
- 1:04And I want you to to tell me whether or not you agree with
- 1:06me. And and I also like would like
- 1:08to hear your thoughts on this. But when it comes to demand and
- 1:12I'll focus in on silver, if from a simplicity perspective, we say
- 1:17right now we have one in 100 people in the United States who
- 1:22are silver enthusiasts, people who are stacking silver.
- 1:26And if we have a situation come up like like we had less than a
- 1:30year ago with the banking crisis or what happened during C19 or
- 1:33during the Silver squeeze where there's a a rush of new people
- 1:37coming into silver, maybe that number goes from one in 100 to 4
- 1:42in 100 people that are buying silver.
- 1:45So we have four times, you know, in theory the demand for the
- 1:49ounces of silver that are available.
- 1:51But on top of that and again I want to hear your thoughts on
- 1:55this. Silver investors typically don't
- 2:00like to buy silver when it's cheap they and when the premiums
- 2:03are low, they like to buy more when the price shoots up.
- 2:07So that would lead me to believe that those four and 100 people
- 2:10would even maybe be buying twice as much silver that we could
- 2:14have like an 8 time demand spike.
- 2:17When you think about what happened a year ago, when I know
- 2:20there was an explosion in demand, does that does my, does
- 2:23my theory hold any water whatsoever?
- 2:27Yeah, I mean I I think so there are look when you take, when you
- 2:34take the amount of people, let me straighten this.
- 2:37When you talk about the the number of people investing in in
- 2:41gold and silver in this country. Ron, you know the the numbers
- 2:45that my buddy Rick rule talks about is 1/2 of 1%.
- 2:49That would be the entire allocation for from Joe and
- 2:51Jane. Six pack to the Harvard.
- 2:53Endowment fund and everything in between.
- 2:55The average mean or the mean of the past 40 years is 2 1/2%.
- 3:00And so using your numbers, you know where you know people end
- 3:05up increasing the number of people who are interested in and
- 3:09even increasing the amount of silver they buy when premiums
- 3:11are low. You know, I I I think you could
- 3:17say if all we ever do is just return to the mean or the
- 3:20average, you're looking at A5 fold increase.
- 3:22People are waking up, but I find us in the eye of the hurricane
- 3:25right now. And you know, the people who
- 3:28have been buying silver, a lot of them understand what's
- 3:31happening and some bought. It for the wrong reasons.
- 3:34And I I think we'll end up talking about that today because
- 3:36I think they bought it to get wealthy.
- 3:39Silver is wealth and it's been wealth through, you know, 5000
- 3:43years worth of history and and world wars and hyperinflation,
- 3:46Great Depression and everything the world's ever tossed at it.
- 3:50But yeah, I do envision a period of time where look.
- 3:55This whole school. Of investing this wave theory,
- 3:58if you will, human emotions. Elliott wave quadratic wave.
- 4:03I think you will see a period of time, whether it be another
- 4:06banking crisis or another silver squeeze or whatever it is that
- 4:10triggers an awakening. I think we'll see this number
- 4:14grow exponentially. I think we'll see the number of
- 4:16people who are interested in metals grow exponential because
- 4:21most of the asset classes that that that people find themselves
- 4:25in traditionally right now have been distorted through a decade
- 4:28plus of suppressed interest rate and easy money.
- 4:31And the only asset classes that have had the opposite effect
- 4:35have been precious metals. And that is, in my mind, a much
- 4:37deeper discussion, one that centers around gold and silver
- 4:41really, you know, being the, the antithesis of the system.
- 4:45It's the emperor doesn't wear, isn't wearing any clothing type
- 4:48of thing. It's peeking behind the curtain
- 4:50and seeing the Wizard of Oz is just a frail old man.
- 4:53So you. Have to hold.
- 4:54Down gold and silver. They're not commodities.
- 4:57What they? Are is, is.
- 4:58You know, the the opposite of this Fiat based system.
- 5:02So look, the bottom line is simply this is that people would
- 5:06buy twice as much because they don't like low premiums.
- 5:09Fine, I agree with that. Buy twice as much when the
- 5:13premiums start to rise. This is why people, so few
- 5:15people ever really succeed in investing too, Ron, because they
- 5:18follow the herd rather than being the ones who should be
- 5:21buying right now when it's cheap, just like the central
- 5:24banks are doing. You know, the central banks have
- 5:26bought more gold and silver than any time in history.
- 5:29And so when you talk about, when you talk about, you know this
- 5:33this small group of people expanding as the price goes
- 5:38higher instead of doing it right now when they should, I believe
- 5:41that will happen. That's usually how it does.
- 5:42We, we added 14,000 clients in 45 days during Silicon Valley
- 5:47Bank and Signature Bank in March and April, which is unheard of.
- 5:51And that that was because people woke up to a reality that
- 5:55they're not paying attention to. And the people who have been
- 5:58paying attention to it, Yeah, you know when the price goes
- 6:03down for a large portion of them, the counter intuitive
- 6:06nature, it is a lot, it's a lot for them to handle and and a lot
- 6:10of people are are hanging on by a thread, not quite
- 6:12capitulating. Some do, but I I think as the
- 6:16price goes higher, it reinforces the mentality and the decision
- 6:22making. People had to go there in the
- 6:231st place. So they're going to double down.
- 6:25They're going to add more because yeah, I was right.
- 6:28It's getting worse. It's scary, but a whole another
- 6:30group of people will jump on board because they just are
- 6:33waking up to an alternative to a system that's in its dying
- 6:37breaths and they never even looked around to find that there
- 6:40were other places to put their money.
- 6:42So I don't know if that's exactly the answer you're
- 6:45looking for, but I do believe that as the price goes higher
- 6:48instead of lower when everyone should be buying, that's how
- 6:51successful investors do business like Stanley Druckenmiller who
- 6:54just went into to mining shares into physicals and sold AI.
- 6:59You know these people are are sitting on the sidelines or
- 7:02doing other things. And when it becomes obvious that
- 7:06prices and momentum are moving in the other direction, that's
- 7:08typically when you would expect to see much greater
- 7:12participation. And yeah, I think very quickly
- 7:15it will overwhelm the physical market.
- 7:17It won't take, but just returning to 2 1/2% allocation
- 7:21to people's portfolios, which really is that's half of what
- 7:24traditional financial advisor would say 5%, which I think is
- 7:27ridiculously low. But even a 2 1/2% allocation
- 7:31would be a 5 fold increase in demand in an industry that would
- 7:34not be able to handle that for more than a few days and
- 7:37everything would just be blown up.
- 7:39Yeah. And it seems like like you
- 7:40mentioned when the Silicon Valley Bank situation occurred,
- 7:43like like the, the, the retail physical silver and gold market
- 7:50can't handle, you know it doesn't, it's a fragile, it's a
- 7:53fragile market and that it doesn't take a lot of people
- 7:57coming in for it to get overwhelmed and for it to become
- 8:01difficult to find silver and gold.
- 8:03And you know, you mentioned Rick Rule, I've heard him use this
- 8:06example many times of, you know, your standard individual, if
- 8:11they go into the grocery store and they usually buy tuna fish
- 8:14and tuna fish is on, cans of tuna are on sale for half off,
- 8:18they'll probably buy a couple extra cans of tuna because it's
- 8:22a great sale. But silver investors are the
- 8:25exact opposite. And I think right now we're in a
- 8:27situation where by many metrics silver on a per oz basis is, is
- 8:34relatively cheap and the premiums are low, but people
- 8:37just don't don't want to buy if you're.
- 8:40Looking to buy gold, silver, or platinum?
- 8:43Do yourself a favor and check out PIM Bex, the online precious
- 8:47metals bullion dealer and sponsor of Ron's Basement.
- 8:51I was a happy customer before they offered to support the
- 8:54channel. You'll find they have the best
- 8:57prices, quality and service. I think Pembex is best and you
- 9:02will too. And be sure to tell him that
- 9:04you're from Ron's basement. It is true, and and I think that
- 9:09it's strange that way, but you know, silver to me exhibits
- 9:13asymmetrical risk reward right now, where it has the lowest
- 9:18downside I've ever seen in my career yet absolutely the best
- 9:22upside. And this is exactly the time to
- 9:24be buying it. And I don't think people quite
- 9:26understand that. And and yeah, you're right, you
- 9:28go into a grocery store and you don't say, damn it, you know,
- 9:30what I wanted to buy is on sale for half off.
- 9:33But you know, buying tuna fish isn't an emotional decision
- 9:37buying. Gold and silver.
- 9:38Are because it it for many people is is taking a step out
- 9:45of the mainstream into what is a lonely existence.
- 9:50You're taking accountability for yourself.
- 9:52The people who do this who own metals are are free thinkers.
- 9:55They're not being told by their advisors to do this.
- 9:58They're doing this, you know, on their own accord and and I think
- 10:01that's that's, you know, part of the interesting thing about it
- 10:04is, is that that's why so few people actually succeed in
- 10:08investing because they follow. The herd they don't buy.
- 10:11When it's cheap and they buy when it's expensive, you're
- 10:13supposed to buy when it's cheap. Understanding the fundamentals.
- 10:17And so, yeah, that's exactly what this is.
- 10:19But it becomes a whole lot easier for, you know, I think
- 10:22for when you talk about buying it at these levels.
- 10:26There are so many reasons why I think the smart people
- 10:31understand this. I mean, let's just simply say
- 10:34that in the last week we've seen five and a half million oz taken
- 10:37off of Comex and you know, 350 million ounces in the last 2 1/2
- 10:42years. That it, it's.
- 10:44It's a situation where the big money like India who's imported
- 10:47almost 400 million ounces in the last two years, they understand
- 10:50this and they buy when others aren't.
- 10:53They use misdirection of rhetoric and price and leverage
- 10:56futures prices to to reposition. That's how you succeed.
- 11:00You buy when it's cheap and and if you buy silver and gold less
- 11:05to get wealthy and more because it is wealth when you realize
- 11:08how sick the system truly is, then you're not as upset when
- 11:13you see these pull backs. You understand.
- 11:14Well hell, it's a subsidy. I might as well double up on my
- 11:17tuna fish. Same thing.
- 11:19But yeah I I think it it's the opposite of the way it should
- 11:22be. But you know what?
- 11:23The truth is Buying low is hard and selling high might even be
- 11:26higher. It it takes discipline and and
- 11:29and a path and a plan. Not something you can usually do
- 11:33just off the seat of your pants unless you have a plan because
- 11:36emotions come into play too much.
- 11:38Well and I think, you know I've, I've read a lot about successful
- 11:42investing and trading over the years.
- 11:45It's it's a situation where you have to do the opposite of what
- 11:49your emotions are telling you and that's very difficult for
- 11:53for anybody to do to to remove the emotion from the from the
- 11:57decision. You know, you talked about
- 11:59Silver as wealth and you know I have a one ounce silver around
- 12:05here and you know that is wealth, right?
- 12:08That that is a, you know, another YouTube friend of mine,
- 12:12bald guy, money, we were talking once and he came up with this
- 12:15concept like it's a battery that stores value.
- 12:18It is wealth this this one ounce of silver, whether I was holding
- 12:22it in my hand 500 years ago or likely 55 or even 500 years from
- 12:29now, will be wealth. I mean when I hold this in my
- 12:33hand, whether the price measured in dollars is is $20 per oz or
- 12:38$50 per oz it makes really makes no difference.
- 12:41This this is a is something that I can use at its core to harvest
- 12:47value from from something else in the future.
- 12:50Yeah, that's exactly it. And they're every single
- 12:52currency that's ever existed since the beginning of time has
- 12:56failed. They all returned to their
- 12:57intrinsic value of 0. And there are very few things
- 13:01that not only have lasted the test of time, but as is the case
- 13:05with silver, is an asset that is not simultaneously someone
- 13:08else's liability. It's in your hand right now, in
- 13:10your basement. It's yours have no counterparty
- 13:14risk in, in that. And when you talk about most
- 13:17assets and and most stores of value, they they have
- 13:20counterparty liability, counterparty risk.
- 13:23And in the environment we are heading into, I believe that
- 13:26will be a very dirty phrase, a dirty set of words is
- 13:29counterparty risk because that's you know that's how over
- 13:34leveraged and undercapitalized the system is.
- 13:36So getting away from that systemic risk of the banking
- 13:40sector of of the markets or the bond market or or even the US
- 13:44government and having something in your possession that that is
- 13:47has been agreed upon by all of human civilization since the
- 13:51dawn of time has been Well, well in this environment we're in.
- 13:55I'll. I'll bet on that then on the
- 13:58promises of. A of a deal A.
- 14:01Broken. And you know, literally a
- 14:05government that's on the verge of of default.
- 14:07So maybe not really default, but look.
- 14:10We're at almost 130% debt to GDP.
- 14:13There's never been a country that crossed that line.
- 14:16I wonder if maybe this sounds better.
- 14:17If you couldn't hear me real good, sorry about that.
- 14:19But there's never been a there's never been a country that has
- 14:22crossed that line that didn't outright either default or
- 14:25hyperinflate and one or the other.
- 14:27So, which is basically the same thing.
- 14:29So yeah, I I I think that there's a lot to be said and
- 14:32I've been on with the bald money guy before.
- 14:34He's a smart guy. It's true it it is wealth that
- 14:38has lasted the test of time and has been agreed upon as wealth.
- 14:42And it also happens to have a lot of utility in industrial
- 14:45applications and military applications.
- 14:47And so it's very unique in that it has duality in demand where
- 14:52it's not just a monetary asset, it has a lot of utility as well.
- 14:56It's a very, very important. Asset class and.
- 15:01You know, and to boot, you have no counterparty liability when
- 15:04it's in your own possession. Yeah.
- 15:07You know, when I when I think about the the Comex, you
- 15:10mentioned that the other day, I'm not a big, you know, reader
- 15:13of the Comex reports, but I dug in and found I think it was as
- 15:17of last Friday, they had 42,000,000 ounces in their
- 15:21registered category, which means 42,000,000 ounces to back up all
- 15:26the paper silver futures contracts that are being sold.
- 15:31That was less than a billion dollars worth of silver.
- 15:35And it just blew me away to think that the entire, you know,
- 15:41inventory that the Comex has could be bought for less than $1
- 15:45billion. When you look at and you
- 15:47mentioned this earlier in the conference, like just you know,
- 15:49the size of the S&P 500, the size of some of the wealth that
- 15:54individuals have. I mean Elon Musk could buy all
- 15:57the silver on the Comex. And you know when you talk about
- 16:01the price on the Comex, which whatever today, right now as
- 16:04we're recording this, it's probably 22502270 per oz.
- 16:10I just wonder, you know, if that price is really accurate, then
- 16:15why if we had a deficit for the last number of years, such a
- 16:19huge deficit according to the Silver Institute, like if the
- 16:22market were functioning properly, you would think that
- 16:26in a normal functioning market, if the price is correct that
- 16:30supply and demand would find an equilibrium.
- 16:33But instead we're in the situation where again as you
- 16:36mentioned earlier, I think over the last two or three years
- 16:39we've had 400 million oz drained from the COMEX and the LBMAI
- 16:44mean, do you think, do you think that we're we're, I mean that
- 16:47can only go on for so long, right?
- 16:49It almost feels like they've been kind of plugging the gap
- 16:53with allowing inventory to be taken off the Comex and the
- 16:56album. At some point that that comes to
- 16:59an end, I would think. First, Mining Gold is a
- 17:02development company advancing two of the largest gold projects
- 17:06in Canada, Spring Pole in Ontario and Duparque located in
- 17:11Quebec. Each already has 5 million
- 17:14ounces of gold reserves, but exploration initiatives are
- 17:18underway at both projects to find even more gold.
- 17:23First, mining is well financed, has zero debt and owns an
- 17:27interest in four additional Canadian Gold development
- 17:30projects. I mean, yeah, if if the market
- 17:33was function, if it was a free market, then there would be a
- 17:36supply demand balance price would be reflective of of that.
- 17:41But you have 1700 and almost 1800% rehypothecation in in the
- 17:47registered category, meaning that each contract is 5000
- 17:51ounces. In essence, 18 people hold the
- 17:53same contract and if everyone stood for delivery, 17 would get
- 17:57cash settled, the whole market would implode.
- 17:59And you know, so it's also a very skewed mining ratio.
- 18:04You know that the price is 90 to one, but it's coming out of the
- 18:06ground at 7:00 to 1:00. Why are they holding it down?
- 18:09And I think one of the elephants in the room that not enough
- 18:12people talk about, and I'll, I'll give the pickaxe credit,
- 18:16they they, they wrote a hell of a report.
- 18:18You know, I've been saying for years that that there's a lot of
- 18:21silver in in high tech weaponry. I I've been saying in many
- 18:25podcasts for years that there's 500 ounces of silver in the tip
- 18:28of a Tomahawk cruise missile. Well, you know, I was speaking
- 18:31in Vancouver just a few weeks ago when a man came up to me and
- 18:34he said, you know, I listened to your speech last year and I
- 18:37heard what you said. And I just want you to know I
- 18:39work for the Department of Defense and I'm a, I'm a
- 18:42contractor and what I'm telling you is declassified.
- 18:45But you know, I worked on the Patriot missile program and I
- 18:48wasn't sure when you said it last year, but you're right.
- 18:50There's between 14 and 15 kilograms of silver in the tip
- 18:54of a Patriot, a Tomahawk cruise missile rather.
- 18:57And and you know and and if you think about it, that's just one
- 19:01high tech weapon and you have aerospace, you got all sorts of
- 19:04different missiles and you got all sorts of things that need
- 19:08silver. And yet the Silver Institute as
- 19:10you mentioned doesn't even talk about military usage in their
- 19:14supply demand numbers. It's very interesting.
- 19:16And then you take a step back and you look at all the wars
- 19:19that were involved in and we're bombing two countries right now
- 19:22and we're involved in wars all around the world.
- 19:24And if we're not directly involved, it seems that the
- 19:26companies that may manufacture these weapons are are selling
- 19:29them around the globe and becoming very, very wealthy.
- 19:33But what is the one thing that you need absolutely to make high
- 19:37tech weaponry and and all of these very sophisticated
- 19:40munitions, you need silver. So you better keep it down.
- 19:43Well, how do you keep it down? You knock the price down.
- 19:45You make it counter intuitive. You have four or five commercial
- 19:48banks as stupid as a mud walls naked, shorting the price when
- 19:53everything in the world tells you that the price should be
- 19:55going higher. But what they didn't keep in
- 19:57mind, what they didn't, I think, factor in when they started
- 20:01doing this years ago was that countries would become wealthy
- 20:04and industrialized like China and India, and it'll stand for
- 20:07delivery. And that's what's happening.
- 20:09And that's why we're seeing, you know, guys like Bill Holter, you
- 20:13mentioned to me offline, who said that much silver has been
- 20:16drained from COMEX. It has.
- 20:18And three 350 million in the last two years been and India
- 20:21has imported 400 million and that we know of and China is
- 20:25massively accumulating it. So when you talk about the need
- 20:29for silver as not just an industrial metal in green and
- 20:31digital applications, not just a monetary metal that has been
- 20:35viewed as money for 5000 years, but as a strategic metal.
- 20:38Unfortunately in warfare there is a, there is AI guess you
- 20:45could say a smoking gun, no pun intended as to why these you
- 20:51know, even when in in the midst of you know several years of a
- 20:55structural deficit that the price is doing what it's doing.
- 20:58And I I think that that has a lot to do with it, this, this
- 21:02need for silver and high tech weaponry.
- 21:04Well, again, you know all manipulations have an end game
- 21:08built into them and you can only manipulate a market for an
- 21:12extended period of time by pushing into the direction that
- 21:14it is going. And when countries like China
- 21:16and India and and all of these these large institutions are
- 21:20accumulating silver, the ability to continue to suppress it
- 21:24through naked shorting will end very badly.
- 21:26And I think that will happen at some point and who knows how far
- 21:29away we are from it. But certainly when you realize,
- 21:33and I don't know how many people know this, maybe you do, Ron,
- 21:36but the Comac or the LBMA, which has seen massive amounts of
- 21:40metal bleed off, you know, we've been hearing rumblings lately.
- 21:43Well, they want a price, silver and gold contracts that are
- 21:47traded on Shanghai in London. While right now silver in in
- 21:52Shanghai is about two and a half $2.75 or more higher than in the
- 21:56West on the London Metals Exchange of the Comex.
- 21:59And gold's about 80 bucks higher.
- 22:01And we hear now we hear rumbling that China wants to warehouse
- 22:05metal held on the LBMA in China. Well, how could they do that?
- 22:09I'll tell you how they can do that.
- 22:10They own the LBMA. People don't really talk about
- 22:13that, but they bought the LBMA a few years ago.
- 22:16You see this progression? They do things slowly,
- 22:20methodically, don't cut off your nose to spite your face.
- 22:24Drain the coffers as methodically as you can and then
- 22:27bang set it free after the arbitrage Where 2 1/2 or $2.75
- 22:34premium to the western price is being offered to those
- 22:38sophisticated enough to be able to buy it in London and New York
- 22:41and and and deliver it in China. They ain't ever coming back.
- 22:46And so this is a methodical process, this little by little
- 22:49by little then all at once. I say it all the time,
- 22:52logarithmic decay. You can use it in so many, so
- 22:55many facets of the world we find ourselves in right now, and this
- 22:58is no different. So they're playing chess, we're
- 23:01playing checkers and we will wake up at a point in time and
- 23:05silver will will have moon shotted and no one will know
- 23:09what the hell happened. But guys like you and I who have
- 23:12been talking about this forever will have a very good idea what
- 23:15had happened and what it to me will ultimately transition is
- 23:18the Comex and the LBMA will will no longer be beholden to a
- 23:22western rehypothecated of almost 1800% system.
- 23:26It will transition to some place like Shanghai which is largely
- 23:31cash and carry a reflection of what the price should be in
- 23:34right now. They're telling you it should at
- 23:36least be almost $3 higher than the the make believe western
- 23:39price and we all know that's even way too cheap.
- 23:42If they were smart, they'd crank it up even higher.
- 23:44But is that smart that's cutting off your nose.
- 23:47Now everyone will grab and say well something's not right here
- 23:50and but if you do it just enough, just enough to
- 23:53incentivize these traders to arbitrage, it's it's really I
- 23:56think and you look at how much silver's coming off in gold and
- 23:59rare earths and base metals and all of this stuff coming off the
- 24:03exchanges. They'll continue to do this
- 24:05until no one is foolish enough to let it go at make believe
- 24:07prices. And then they switched the flip
- 24:10flip the switch rather. And now you see a new price
- 24:13setting mechanism for the rest of the world by a country and
- 24:18countries that have been the ones understanding it,
- 24:21accumulating it and producing it for for years.
- 24:24Yeah, Yeah. And and to and to exacerbate the
- 24:27situation even more, I think it's important to talk about
- 24:31also that because of this artificially low price I have
- 24:35the, you know, I'm fortunate to get to talk to a number of the
- 24:37CE OS in the silver mining industry, those that are still
- 24:41left, I mean, there's like no money in silver mining.
- 24:45You can't make any profit in silver mining and there's very
- 24:48few companies involved in exploring for silver and it
- 24:53seems like even fewer in developing silver mines.
- 24:56Like the pipeline for future silver supply is not robust,
- 25:01right. And it and it doesn't take talk
- 25:03about flipping switches. If you want to flip a switch to
- 25:07to start up a silver mine, it takes about 10 years to get that
- 25:10switch all the way up. I mean, we could potentially be
- 25:15in a situation a year 2 years from now whenever all this
- 25:19starts to play out, where there there really is a shortage of
- 25:22silver and it could be a prolonged period before these
- 25:26miners even have a chance of catching up.
- 25:29Yeah. And that's exactly right.
- 25:31I mean the, the exploratory silver mining has been left for
- 25:34dead and even the the majors have been hit very hard lately.
- 25:38So yeah, the the mining, the mining and maybe This is why
- 25:41Stanley Druckenmiller buy low, sell high is selling tech and
- 25:45buying mining shares. Oh wow, that's revolutionary.
- 25:49What you just explained is asymmetrical risk reward is what
- 25:52can I invest in that has the lowest downside and the best
- 25:55upside. I mean I don't know if I've ever
- 25:56seen an asset quite like silver which is decreasing in supply
- 26:01globally in terms of mining supply.
- 26:04What's in the ground that the gold, silver ratio, mining ratio
- 26:08and as an acceleration in in demand both militarily and and
- 26:14industrially, green and digital and and monetarily.
- 26:17And this, this duality and demand.
- 26:21It's not just one demand source for a commodity, it's several.
- 26:24Coupled with its diminishing supply and it's suppression
- 26:28where you know several years of structural supply deficit issues
- 26:34in silver and at the same time you have a lot of the
- 26:36speculators in this market who are getting frustrated and
- 26:39capitulating. Some are.
- 26:41And so this big, big rise that everyone expected that attracted
- 26:45in the 1st place, if you believe in contrarian indicators, it's
- 26:48got to be getting imminently closer.
- 26:50And then you see all of the stuff draining off of COMEX and
- 26:53the LBMA and and the Shanghai Gold Exchange.
- 26:56And yeah, I mean, to me it it's it's something people should
- 27:00stop worrying about in terms of today and tomorrow and just
- 27:03realize logically, mathematically, it's pretty damn
- 27:07sure, I'm pretty damn sure that we will wake up one day and see
- 27:10prices higher than people can really even imagine.
- 27:13It takes patience and a lot of people don't have patience.
- 27:16But if the underlying thesis which you so brilliantly just
- 27:21provided for us, if you still believe in that thesis, right,
- 27:25rising demand, decreasing supply, if the story is still
- 27:30there, then you wait and then maybe if you're really smart
- 27:33you, you know you, you get yourself some more, some more
- 27:37Silver, what about, I'm going to ask you to shift gears a little
- 27:41bit to gold. Obviously we've had this massive
- 27:44amount of buying by central banks around the world and I was
- 27:49had a chat with Andrew McGuire a couple weeks ago and he brought
- 27:52up he brought up this prospect of a you know we we heard all
- 27:57this noise about a bricks gold backed currency last summer
- 28:01which didn't come to fruition, still could come to fruition but
- 28:05do we really need that I mean could the could the Chinese and
- 28:09the Russians actually and and the rest of the bricks and I can
- 28:13name all ten of them if you'd like me to the plus the 30 that
- 28:16are thinking of joining could they could they decide at some
- 28:20point to to flip a switch I mean and it I think could be a fairly
- 28:24easy switch for them to flip and have gold revalued and we know
- 28:29what that would obviously do for silver as well.
- 28:32Fortuna Silver Mines is a global intermediate gold and silver
- 28:36producer. Since 2005, Fortuna's best in
- 28:39class management has delivered impressive growth and profits.
- 28:44Fortuna's solid financial position and operational
- 28:47expertise allows for performance in any precious metals price
- 28:52cycle and provides a foundation from which to harvest great
- 28:56profits in more favorable metals markets.
- 28:59Investing in Fortuna is an investment in quality, long
- 29:03term, sustainable production of in demand precious and base
- 29:08metals. It's not.
- 29:09So far fetched. That's what he did.
- 29:11You know that's what Roosevelt did in 33 reliquified the
- 29:15system. And if it's interesting if you
- 29:17look at every central bank balance sheet, the, the account
- 29:21on which they gold, gold is called the gold revaluation
- 29:23account. You can't make it up.
- 29:24That's what it's held in on their balance sheets.
- 29:27And so, yes, in, in and and they're the ones, you know,
- 29:31Andrew. Will tell you that.
- 29:33There are a lot of people who will say they have between 30
- 29:35and 40,000 metric tons and and Alistair McLeod will tell you
- 29:3940,000 where you know 20,000 plus by the state and 18 to
- 29:4319,000 by the people. And they're encouraging their
- 29:46people and have for years to accumulate it.
- 29:48And so yes, if they could very quickly revalue it to a much
- 29:53higher level get their balance sheet in order reliquify their
- 29:56country which is experiencing problems as as everyone knows.
- 30:00But because they own so much in the way of of the metal and and
- 30:04and commodities and have relationships across the globe
- 30:06for future production and whatnot.
- 30:09Yeah, I think that's that's very, very, very likely actually
- 30:13what will happen. I I think indeed and look you
- 30:16know and I think that what James Rickards, his mistake was saying
- 30:21that it was going to happen in August at the meeting that being
- 30:23the common settlement currency backed by gold.
- 30:26A lot of people believe that it will still happen.
- 30:29I do in some form. You know the finance minister
- 30:32from Russia has told us that this was going to happen
- 30:34forever. Gold is a Tier 1 reserve asset.
- 30:36But even if they don't, right, what we've been seeing is
- 30:40settlement in all of these local currencies trading outside the
- 30:44dollar where 20% of oil sales this year, last year we're we're
- 30:48not in the dollar. That's that's not something
- 30:50we're used to seeing. And so when you talk about
- 30:53settlement in all, all throughout you know Russia and
- 30:57and Iran are not taking dollars anymore.
- 30:59United Bear Emirates said they're not going to take
- 31:01dollars anymore. All of these countries are
- 31:03trading with one another. India and Saudi Arabia and
- 31:06Russia and China, they're all in Iran, they're all trading in
- 31:09local currencies. And what the Petro dollar is, is
- 31:12not just being valued in dollars.
- 31:15That's, that's part of it. The other part is taking the
- 31:18proceeds, the the reserves, the excess and investing it in U.S.
- 31:21Treasuries. Well, the treasury market,
- 31:23that's not what they're doing. They're selling treasuries.
- 31:26And if you look at what gold has done since 2000, it's
- 31:29appreciated by 7.8% per year. That's more than the 7%
- 31:34appreciation per year on the S&P and has destroyed the bond
- 31:38market And and gold, as we were saying with your silver has no
- 31:41counterparty risk. So these countries who have been
- 31:44accumulating all the gold, the central banks buying more than
- 31:47ever at the same time they're shedding Treasuries, China's
- 31:49down to like their lowest level in 1718 years, as are most of
- 31:53the BRICS countries, as are a lot of the central banks around
- 31:56the world. They're shedding treasuries and
- 31:58buying gold, which has much less risk in terms of, you know,
- 32:02interest rate risk and inflation risk and default risk.
- 32:06It has no counterparty liability and it's way outperformed the
- 32:09bond market. So when you talk about all this
- 32:11settlement not being done in dollars and and much less demand
- 32:15for U.S. Treasuries at a period of time
- 32:18where we have we have a government addicted to spending,
- 32:21where's it all going to come from?
- 32:23How about the $8 trillion just in two year treasuries that are
- 32:26rolling over this year that need to be paid for.
- 32:28How about the almost 10 trillion in debt we have to issue this
- 32:31year just to pay for what we've already promised on top of the
- 32:35$1.7 trillion deficit on top of government says they're going to
- 32:39lower rates. No, no, no, no, they're not.
- 32:41Because who's going to buy those bonds?
- 32:42It makes it that much less attractive.
- 32:44You have to borrow more just to pay for what you already
- 32:47borrowed. It is a very, very, very bad
- 32:49situation. So the bond market which is
- 32:52cratering, you could argue the worst performance in, I don't
- 32:55know, 40-5 years where the 10 year treasury had greater
- 32:59volatility than the gold market. For the first time in 45 years
- 33:03you have the central banks trading with other currencies,
- 33:07not the dollar for energy or for whatever it may be and then
- 33:11taking the reserves that they have and buying gold with it.
- 33:15Just like on the Shanghai gold exchange, you can trade with
- 33:17China. If you're Iran, sell your oil to
- 33:20China for the yuan and which is immediately convertible into
- 33:24gold on the Shanghai Gold exchange and they are using gold
- 33:27in my opinion as their reserve. So all of the settlement not
- 33:31done in dollars chips away at the reserve status of the
- 33:34dollar. And now you see less interest in
- 33:36the US Treasury market which you know Ron think about it in a
- 33:39historical perspective of government's debt has a very
- 33:42small footprint in terms of historical significance of being
- 33:45an asset. Well for a long time now the
- 33:48last 50 years of U.S. Treasury has been the most
- 33:51liquid sought after asset. But those things, things are
- 33:54changing. And now these governments are, I
- 33:56think, finding the performance and the safety and the lack of
- 34:00counterparty liability more preferential than holding U.S.
- 34:03Treasuries. So so do you see a situation
- 34:07where gold is rising in importance in the BRICS
- 34:11countries in terms of not necessarily officially or
- 34:17directly backing their currencies but in terms of their
- 34:22trust amongst one another that that it it.
- 34:26What I sense is that it feels like gold is rising in terms of
- 34:30its level of importance. And my question for you then
- 34:33would be this, do you do you envision a day like, like they
- 34:36want gold, they don't want U.S. Treasuries.
- 34:39Do you? Could you see a day where we
- 34:41have the BRICS countries, all ten of them now, maybe 20 at
- 34:45some point in the future with a with a, you know, a a majority
- 34:49of the world's economy under their belts and, you know, huge
- 34:53military power. And in the United States, let's
- 34:56say 7 years from now, you know, saying to China, hey, we want to
- 35:00buy some, we need some toaster ovens that we can sell at our
- 35:03Walmarts. And we we need to buy, we want
- 35:05to trade with you and them saying well that's great, but
- 35:09kind of similar to what the United States did in World War
- 35:122. But now the the shoes on the
- 35:14other foot. The country says the United
- 35:16States, We really don't want your dollars, We want gold.
- 35:22Yeah, I mean, I think that's exactly it.
- 35:23I mean, look, there's no question that the US dollar
- 35:27still maintain supremacy, but I believe it's lost.
- 35:30It's a Gemini and and just I think what you will see is death
- 35:35by 1000 cuts. It won't happen overnight, but
- 35:37there will come a point where at some point they just say, yeah,
- 35:40no thanks, we don't want dollars anymore, but we're happy to take
- 35:43gold if you'd like or we're happy to take this particular
- 35:46currency. But yeah, I mean that that's
- 35:48just it. I think that.
- 35:51I mean, aren't aren't they doing that now Because if they're, if
- 35:54they're net sellers of treasuries to a certain degree,
- 35:57isn't that essentially them saying, well, we don't really
- 36:00want to be in dollars, right. I mean, well, if you.
- 36:04Have as money as the Chinese do, you know, call it 3 trillion in
- 36:07dollars in Treasuries. You can't dump it here.
- 36:09Again, they're methodical and plotted.
- 36:11They think they're doing things to not cut off their nose to
- 36:15spite their face. But you know, the bottom line is
- 36:19gold price in U.S. dollars will continue to rise for the simple
- 36:22reason that, you know, the US will continue to to base its
- 36:26currency in real terms. They'll continue to print.
- 36:28And if no one is buying our treasuries, then you have no
- 36:33choice but to find the buyer of last resort.
- 36:36And they want us to believe that's the Cayman Islands right
- 36:38now. But you know, it's probably the
- 36:40Federal Reserve acting as a shell company in the Cayman
- 36:43Islands. It's it's it's monetization of
- 36:45the debt, it's the road that leads to hyperinflation.
- 36:47And that's really what I think a lot of these countries realize
- 36:51is that where we are, we we there's really we can't raise
- 36:54rates much above 5% or we blow up the system.
- 36:58If we choose the latter and we inflate, well ultimately it will
- 37:02lead to much higher interest rates.
- 37:03Both roads lead to the same place.
- 37:06And This is why I've talked a lot about you know how we've
- 37:08incentivized a lot of this, this destruction around the world
- 37:12through weaponizing the dollar and signing executive order to
- 37:14go green, incentivizing these BRICS countries to find
- 37:17alternatives. And if indeed you do get not
- 37:20just UAE and Russia and Iran to say we're not taking dollars
- 37:23anymore, but all of OPEC and and and and say hey, you know you
- 37:27guys are going green, we appreciate it.
- 37:29We're going a different direction and when that the
- 37:32event happens where the world dumps dollars which would create
- 37:36an inflationary event to say the least here as everyone dumps
- 37:38dollars hitting our shores. Yeah.
- 37:42Those that interest rate spike, which is done by the market and
- 37:45not by the the Fed chair, enables us to find a villain and
- 37:49to point to the, you know, they did this to us and and then we
- 37:52go down the road of, well, what do the banks look like?
- 37:55Yeah, rates go up. They're all dead.
- 37:57OK, well, how about stocks, bonds and real estate?
- 37:59Well, if rates go way up, yeah, they're all dead.
- 38:01How about the dollar? Well, it's being globally
- 38:02dumped. There's your Klaus Schwab
- 38:04moment. Everything is is in essence,
- 38:08inversely correlated to that moment.
- 38:10And the benefit to the US would be if you realize you're so far
- 38:13down the rabbit hole there's no way out other than the default
- 38:17or inflate. As Richard Russell always said
- 38:1915 years ago he said that was their only way out.
- 38:22And then yeah, you have a villain now to point to, to
- 38:24usher in a new system. But anyway you look at it when
- 38:27you see the most knowledgeable investors on the planet, forget
- 38:30about how well funded they are. The central banks know the
- 38:33playbook and the fact that they're buying the amount that
- 38:35they are to me is is concerning. It should be to everyone out
- 38:39there. The only problem is that you
- 38:41know media doesn't tell us what's really happening.
- 38:43You got to listen to people like you and I.
- 38:45And and our reach only goes so far that we we've added last
- 38:52week I was doing some math and we added 47 billion in debt one
- 38:57day alone last week. The debt is up $3 trillion since
- 39:02the debt crisis ceiling and and we've added about 10 billion a
- 39:05day per day since October 1st and and for the next year plus
- 39:10the debt ceiling is uncapped. And so when you talk about, you
- 39:14know, a, a situation where from in one year, from from 2023 to
- 39:202024, January to January, we added $2.4 trillion, it took 230
- 39:25years to do that. The first time we're paying a
- 39:27trillion dollars in interest payments a trillion seconds ago
- 39:30was 31,688 years ago. And for people to think that
- 39:34this won't have consequences at some point and a lot of the
- 39:38world sees it already and is taking the active steps to do
- 39:41something about it slowly and methodically.
- 39:43Everyone here expects things to happen so fast that if it
- 39:46doesn't happen that's a nothing burger and they just keep on
- 39:48walking Well they're the ones that will be run over by it when
- 39:51it does happen on a Monday morning and I don't know how it
- 39:54looks and I you know I'm sure the US will will be will put up
- 39:58quite a fight but then you look at what's happening here at home
- 40:02and see the all of the lack of unity and.
- 40:05And all of the craziness and the lawlessness and the problems
- 40:08with, you know, the election and the border and all of are we
- 40:11really in a position to stand up and push back?
- 40:13I don't know. I hope we are.
- 40:14But we're record indebted have the lowest level of savings ever
- 40:18and we're we've lost a lot of the good graces of the world who
- 40:22looked at this as a as a beacon of justice which you know our
- 40:26two tier justice system I think has people questioning that and
- 40:29and as a place to aspire to be. And you look at our inner cities
- 40:32and how woke everything has become.
- 40:34And the lack of respect for the nuclear family and for for
- 40:37police or principle or for any type of authority.
- 40:41That I'm not talking to the authority that is here to to
- 40:45hold you down but the authority that we all respected as young
- 40:49kids when you and I grow up grew up.
- 40:51Yes Sir. Yes ma'am.
- 40:52Whatever that stuff's gone. And when you beat up a police
- 40:54officer in broad daylight in Manhattan and get away.
- 40:57I mean the whole thing is just upside down.
- 41:00So are we in a position to push back?
- 41:02I don't know. I hope we are.
- 41:04But these are the reasons why you own gold and silver.
- 41:06It is not to get wealthy it is wealth.
- 41:08And look at the biggest money in the world.
- 41:10They see something's coming and if whether or not you want to
- 41:13believe it by the by the counter intuitive price action, just
- 41:16look at the actions that they are doing that speak much louder
- 41:19than the words and the and the the, you know, the the rhetoric
- 41:24that's leading people off the trail.
- 41:27Thank you, Andy. It's always enlightening.
- 41:31And I learn every time I talk to you.
- 41:35One of the things you brought up earlier that I'd never thought
- 41:39of when it comes to revaluing gold was that that ex president
- 41:43of ours, Roosevelt, I think he's above your right shoulder.
- 41:47That's essentially what he did, right?
- 41:49I mean he he he was, he was he was constrained by the price of
- 41:54gold because the dollar was backed by gold.
- 41:57So he got all the gold and then revalued.
- 42:00Essentially allowed him to to in in in the in his form in that
- 42:04time print some extra money so. He paid everyone $20 and 63, or
- 42:10something like 2056 or 2067, and then revalued gold to $35.00 an
- 42:15ounce. In other words, devalued the
- 42:17dollar by 40%. And so anyone who had held gold
- 42:20immediately made 40%. That's exactly what he did.
- 42:23And and when you realize that every central bank on the planet
- 42:27holds gold in what is called the gold revaluation account on
- 42:30their balance sheet, you got to wonder, yeah, the head of the
- 42:32Dutch National Bank say the exact same thing.
- 42:34Let's do this. Let's revalue gold so that all
- 42:37of our debt becomes on, you know, equal with our assets, and
- 42:41we'll reliquify the system. And believe me, they see it and
- 42:45maybe that's why they're all buying it.
- 42:46Who knows? But all I can tell you is that
- 42:49this is one of those times, Ron, where if you're not a
- 42:51contrarian, you're doomed to be a victim in my opinion.
- 42:54And if you hold all your money and dollars, you're destined to
- 42:56go broke. And you can see the biggest
- 42:58money in the world is doing exactly the opposite of just
- 43:01that. Yeah, it's heartening for me to
- 43:06to to realize that like you said the silver that I own the in in
- 43:11for me some precious metal mining stocks like they are real
- 43:15assets. And when I think you know it, it
- 43:19and you mentioned this earlier about why people buy silver.
- 43:22I tell people that when I buy silver I I buy silver with money
- 43:27that I I think I'll never need that.
- 43:30It's a generational type investment when I think I really
- 43:33do, I mean and that just feels like you know I have twin 11
- 43:36year old daughters and and whatever precious metals I I may
- 43:40have, I think about it in terms of them and in terms of
- 43:44grandchildren and and and if I think of if I think if I if I
- 43:48contrast that with money in the bank, there's no comparison, you
- 43:53know. Yeah, well, and and that's,
- 43:55that's the way to look at it. Money that you hope you never
- 43:57need to use. And it's not just for an
- 44:00emergency like most people think.
- 44:01Well, right. But it could be a hell of an
- 44:03opportunity when the dust settles.
- 44:05And if not, that's right, you leave a legacy that long after
- 44:09you know these are hanging from A-frame and a Smithsonian as an
- 44:14example of what was it will still be considered wealth the
- 44:17way it was 5000 years ago. You leave a legacy where you can
- 44:20rest assured that you know at least it will be worth
- 44:23something. And I think that is the right
- 44:25way to look at your your metals holdings and if you don't buy it
- 44:28to get wealthy realizing it is wealth that will help you leave
- 44:31a legacy that will prepare you for what's coming, that will
- 44:34help you take advantage of distortions or opportunities or
- 44:38or problems. That's the way to look at it.
- 44:41And then when it does go on sale you know you're you're much
- 44:46happier to to go buy that even double up on that tuna fish
- 44:49because it did go on sale and it's not crap.
- 44:52I now I you know the money that I thought I was going to buy my
- 44:55new Lambo with, well, it just crashed.
- 44:57So in other words, the point of it is is look at it in the
- 45:00proper context like that and it takes on a whole new
- 45:02significance of importance and easy.
- 45:05Err To deal with the counter intuitive price action and and
- 45:08all of the ups and downs. But rest assured that will end
- 45:12too and you can only manipulate for an extended period of time
- 45:16by push it in the direction it's going in the world's buying it.
- 45:19This is a fool's game. It's as dumb as a mud wall to be
- 45:22naked short in this market as we continue down this path.
- 45:26So I think you'll see the big money the commercial banks
- 45:28they'll at some point like right now.
- 45:31I mean maybe this is who knows right now the the managed money
- 45:34is short right And the commercial banks aren't well
- 45:37when the switch gets flipped I guarantee you it'll be the
- 45:41managed money who left are left holding the bag and it'll put
- 45:43them out of business. These hedge funds who go short
- 45:46naked short. Good luck trying to find silver
- 45:48when the price starts to go moon shot and and you can't find it
- 45:52and and then you can lose everything and and that's the
- 45:55the nature of being make it short the the losses are
- 45:57unlimited and I think that's when it will happen when the
- 46:01commercial banks are on the other side as they are right
- 46:03now. Now this has happened many times
- 46:05before and but maybe one of these days they just let it run
- 46:10instead of shorting a rising market like they normally do.
- 46:13And they will catch a lot of these managed money traders in a
- 46:17very bad place. And that's when you know things
- 46:19have have changed, maybe for for good, at least for the period of
- 46:22time. But I appreciate coming here,
- 46:25Ron. I always enjoy coming to the
- 46:27basement and you can invite me anytime and I only wish I could
- 46:30be sitting next to you with a beer and and continue the
- 46:33conversation. But maybe some other meantime.
- 46:36I'll look forward to picking up where we left off not too far
- 46:40down the road. Yeah.
- 46:41Yeah well you're you're you're the CEO of Miles Franklin our
- 46:45mutual friend Jake from Jake's custom parts refers to you as as
- 46:49the time traveler. Yeah we love Jake's a good a
- 46:52good man I think. I think I'm going to refer to
- 46:55you today at least as the almost like the Michael Jordan of the
- 46:59precious metals sector. But if people, if people you're
- 47:02you are you are a leading figure in this factor and and and in
- 47:06providing education and you do it in a way that I really
- 47:11respect and that is that you you you kind of share your opinion
- 47:15with people and I've heard you say this you encourage people
- 47:18listen to other people come up with your own opinion but you
- 47:21speak from your heart and you speak your truth and you know I
- 47:26think I can say that I I do the same thing.
- 47:28So I have the utmost of respect for you.
- 47:32If people want to learn more about your company, do you want
- 47:35to give Miles Franklin Go to our.
- 47:37Website ofcoursemilesfranklin.com They
- 47:39can send us an e-mail at info@milesfranklin.com.
- 47:42I request a price sheet that will be much more competitive
- 47:45than what we have on our website or anything that we've talked
- 47:47about here. Ask questions precious metals
- 47:50Iras or any of the topics that we discussed.
- 47:52There's no obligation info@milesfranklin.com or a
- 47:55question for me and we will reply with a price sheet or
- 47:59answer your questions or I'll personally type out a response.
- 48:02But the info milesfranklin.com and like I said Ron I love
- 48:06coming coming by and I watch your stuff as well and and I and
- 48:10I admire the way that you do it too.
- 48:12You know I'm not the smartest guy in the room but I I do speak
- 48:16from the heart and I I my perspective is from 34 years of
- 48:19doing this. So, you know, I think, I think
- 48:23that if if if you listen to all sorts of people, like you said,
- 48:27not just myself, but lots of people, and then, you know, use
- 48:31your own mind and come to a conclusion, taking
- 48:33accountability is better than relying upon someone else to
- 48:36manage your money. When you've worked your whole
- 48:38life to to accumulate it, why, why not put a little bit of
- 48:43effort into keeping it? And there's that old saying,
- 48:45it's easier to make money than to keep it.
- 48:47It's because we don't put the same effort into keeping it as
- 48:49we do to making it. That's exactly why.
- 48:51Yeah. Yeah, well Andy, I live in a
- 48:54city that is definitely a premier vacation destination, So
- 48:59when you come through town, make sure you stop by and we'll have
- 49:02you in person here in the basement, OK?
- 49:05I would love that. The same goes for you down in
- 49:07southern Florida. Come on by, we'll play golf,
- 49:10we'll go fishing, we'll have a beer, whatever.
- 49:13They don't have basements here, so I can't bring you to the
- 49:16basement, but I'll show you a good time nonetheless.
- 49:19And Ron, I do appreciate it very much and I hope you and everyone
- 49:22else out there has a great rest of your day and a great weekend.
- 49:25Looking forward to it myself. Thanks, Andy.
- 49:28See you, brother.