Latest / Man in America Podcast / Central Banks Admit the DAMNING Truth About Gold—It's Causing a System Collapse

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Central Banks Admit the DAMNING Truth About Gold—It's Causing a System Collapse · Man in America Podcast

• 0:13
  Seth Holehouse: Welcome to Man in America, a voice of reason in a world gone mad. I'm your host, Seth Wholehouse. So if you've watched this show for the past couple of years or maybe only the past couple of episodes, you might have noticed that one of the things that I'm very passionate about is the global financial markets. And why? It's like, okay.
• 0:33
  I'm some man in America talking about prepping and a little bit of politics and medical freedom. Why the interest in global finance? Well, because one thing that I've learned, especially through doing the show and learn all the people I've been able to talk to and interview is that what's happening with the global financial markets is underpinning almost everything. Right? You've probably heard the the saying or seen the documentary, all wars are bankers' wars.
• 0:57
  Almost everything that we see happening at the big level in our society, you know, around the world is driven by the bankers, by what's happening with the banking system. Now something insanely significant happened this week. The European Central Bank. Right? The the central bank of central banks in many ways.
• 1:16
  Like, the, you know, the European Central Bank, they penned an article that was written by, I think, by four or five of their own expert analysts, basically confirming what we have been talking about. They're confirming that there is a gold run going on right now, that they're concerned about a squeeze on physical gold. So if you haven't listened to the interview that I did with David Jensen, I'll put the link to that in the description because that interview will teach you an insane amount of very important information about the global markets for precious metals and how these markets have been manipulated primarily through the LBMA. And so what we're seeing though is that, basically, since the beginning of 2025, we've seen this huge spike in demand for physical delivery of silver and gold. Now gold more specifically, that's what we've been focusing on.
• 2:05
  And what what does that mean? Well, one of the ways that they have manipulated the silver and gold markets is through the introduction of paper gold and paper silver. Meaning that let's just say that I go to a bank and I say, hey, I wanna buy one bar of gold. I want one ounce of gold. It's okay.
• 2:22
  You can do that. But you can also buy how about you buy 10 ounces of paper gold? It's like, okay. What's this mean? Well, basically, to simplify it, it's like, we're gonna sell you a piece of paper saying that you own 10 ounces of gold.
• 2:33
  And you think, oh, okay. Great. I'll take this paper gold. I'll go put it in my my safe at home, and I own that gold, and you're gonna keep it safe for me. But the reality is is that just like our money we're putting into the bank, if you put a thousand dollars in your local bank, they don't keep your thousand dollars in a segment a segmented account.
• 2:50
  Right? There's reserve requirements that at one point were basically zero. So they might take that thousand dollars and keep $10 or a hundred bucks in your in in the bank. And the rest of that money, they're playing with playing stock market, you know, investing in things, bonds, who knows what. The same thing what's happening with the gold market is what they've done is they've created this paper market where everyone is they think they're buying gold, but actually that gold is being oversold.
• 3:15
  So say they have a one ounce bar of gold, and they sell you this piece of paper saying you own you own one ounce of gold. Well, they might sell that same ounce of gold to a hundred different people. So what happens if these hundred people all come in the same day and say, okay. I'm ready to take delivery of that one ounce of gold. The system breaks.
• 3:37
  The illusion breaks. Right? They've been able to keep the price of gold and silver down at, like, way below what it should be because they've created an artificial supply of gold and silver through paper. But going back to the European Central Bank, they penned an article, which we're gonna be going over in detail today, admitting that there is a gold squeeze happening and that the big banking institutions are having a hard time delivering the physical, you know, delivery of the gold that they people are requesting, and that they're seeing a gold squeeze unfold, and that the trillion dollar derivatives market. Right?
• 4:16
  So they're talking in Europe alone, there's about a trillion dollars trillion dollar derivatives market tied to gold, how that that market is gonna see potentially catastrophic losses. Because as more people demand physical delivery, the truth finally comes out that the whole thing has been some Ponzi scheme. And so this means a few things. One, as they admit in this article, this could cause widespread financial chaos in kind of my own words, but re you know, kind of reframe what they've said, is that this, the instability and the problems would extend well beyond the gold market. But the other thing is that what happens when you have a fake supply.
• 4:54
  Right? And you say, oh, there's unlimited supply because they keep making more paper. What happens when that paper market breaks and everyone realizes that it's an extremely finite supply? The price of gold and silver go through the roof because their way, their game of manipulating it no longer works. And so joining me today is my good friend Colin Plume, and we're gonna be diving deep into this overall concept, see what it means, what it means for you and I, what it means for the overall banking system, and a lot more.
• 5:23
  So please enjoy the interview with Colin Plume. Before we we jump in, just a quick note for you. As a reminder, every show that I do is done as a podcast as well as a video. So if you would rather listen instead of watch, go to your favorite podcast app. Search for Man in America, and you will find it on there.
• 5:39
  Alright, folks. Please enjoy the interview with Colin Bloom. Mister Colin Bloom, it's great to have you back on, man. Thank you so much for being here with us today.
• 5:48
  Colin Plume: Thanks, Seth. Good to be here. Exciting today. Lot lots lots happening, so we can dive right in.
• 5:54
  Seth Holehouse: Yeah. So one thing it's just kinda wild how, like, gold, precious metals, like, the news, the markets, it really comes it's like ebbs ebbs and flows. Like, you might have a whole month where there's very little movement. Gold goes up a hundred, down a hundred, up a hundred, down a hundred. And then some news comes out, and the whole thing just just gets turned upside down.
• 6:14
  And it seems like really since Trump won last year that it's just thrown everything into this this tailspin, and we're seeing just wild swings in what's happening with the markets. And we've got Basel III and everything. So, yeah, there's a there's a lot to dive into today. I'm looking forward to it.
• 6:31
  Colin Plume: Yeah. I mean, it's been a bit of volatile year if you look at the stock market and investments in general because you've had days where the Dow's down 2,000 points. We've had gold up a hundred. And I think it's even with a little bit of a sell off, some profit taking in gold, I think you haven't seen the kind of drop in other assets that you typically see. A massive run up, a lot of times you would see unbelievable profit taking and just people moving away from an asset.
• 7:08
  But if you look at the numbers, gold's still up about 14% this year, which I think anybody would say is pretty good. Obviously, go back eighteen months, you're at above 40%. Five years, it's up 86%, I think it is. Yeah, 5%. And I was thinking a lot about what happened in 2001 to 2011, which was the last really bull run-in metals, and it lasted ten years.
• 7:40
  I think you could argue that this bull run really started in mid-twenty twenty, so we're about four or five years into this bull run. I think a lot of people ask, How far into this are we? What's happening? And I think we're still relatively early with the news and what people are saying and the confidence in gold. The consumer confidence in gold is that A report just came out last week that it's at about 25% of Americans feel confident about gold.
• 8:12
  It's the highest it's ever been. You know, less than 8% of Americans own physical gold, but the confidence has been been high. So that's I think that's also pretty telling that people feel more comfortable with the asset.
• 8:26
  Seth Holehouse: It is. And I think what's also kind of strange is that if you look at obviously, a lot of these the global markets, in my opinion, are are very rigged. Like, the stock market is is controlled by a small group of shadowy figures in a room. Like, I think it's it's something that we can't even comprehend the level of control that some of these these banking families have over the markets. But if you look at gold and you look at what happened after, you know, '71 when Nixon pulled the dollar off the gold standard, And what's happened since then with the the paper market, and I've covered this extensively in some earlier interviews, and, you know, I've talked about it a lot as well, how gold and silver are not ordinary assets that they have been extremely manipulated.
• 9:15
  And that manipulation has been in one direction, is to keep the prices down, to allow the central banks to buy, to also to not show the true inflation. Right? And that was one thing that, you know, getting back into the interview I did with David Jensen earlier this year talking about how when they brought out the l of the LBMA, I think it was in, like, '86 or something or somewhere in mid eighties, how one of the main reasons that they they created the LBMA and handed the control over to the Bank of England is so that they could use the LBMA to introduce all this paper gold to keep the prices of silver and gold down because the silver and gold were a immediate reflection of inflation, which is why, like, you know, from the seventies into the eighties, we we saw huge, huge increases in gold and silver prices because
• 10:04
  Colin Plume: Right.
• 10:05
  Seth Holehouse: It's like, why is it because they went up that much, or is it because they were printing so much money after they pulled the the dollar of gold standard that, you know, as David Jensen said, it was the canary in the coal mines. They had to create this mechanism to suppress these prices. Whereas what it seems like right now and we'll get into this into the into today's show, that they're finally admitting even the European Central Bank came out and admitted, which we'll get into this in the second half of the show, that their mechanisms for controlling these prices are breaking, and that they're were they're warning of a gold squeeze, which it's like we have normal market, you know, kind of fluctuations. But if if the if the gold paper market breaks, you know, it's like, how high could it go? It's not even your normal kind of bull run of gold.
• 10:46
  I mean, you know, there's some experts saying that gold could be $10.20, $30,000 an ounce. Some also experts even like Ray Dalio talking about it and saying maybe silver is gonna be up to $500 an ounce. I mean, so what we're seeing is something really unprecedented, especially in the in this modern central bank controlled financial system.
• 11:06
  Colin Plume: Yeah. I always think of the quote that Alan Greenspan would say about gold that he could tell how he was doing in his job based on the gold price. So if the gold price was going up dramatically, he would say he's doing a bad job. If it's not going up, if it's going up a normal pace, then he's doing pretty well. It aligns with your interview with David Jensen and the idea that if the gold price is going up significantly, it means they've created too much debt.
• 11:36
  They've created a market where there's too much money out there and they've screwed up where interest rates should be, and they've done a lot. We've obviously seen that again since COVID. It happened. It's funny he says that because it happened during his reign in early two thousand and two. That's when gold started to move again.
• 11:59
  I remember him saying about real estate, I don't know if the famous quote, he's like, What bubble? And it's very telling that he looked at gold price as an indicator of how was doing his job. Yeah, so we're seeing that. I think everything's coming out now. And maybe this is an effect, a little bit of Trump and Doge and transparency.
• 12:26
  Lot of this is happening where people aren't just accepting these institutions. I mean, that's why I think that people started to pull their gold from LBMA. They wanted it home here in The US or wherever they were because they just said, You know what? Let me just see what I have. I want to take delivery of this contract.
• 12:44
  It's because they just didn't trust it. So I think there's a level of distrust happening where people want to see what they have and banking regulations are changing. A lot of things are changing. So I think I think that's gonna make for an interesting, you know, next few years in in the precious metals market.
• 13:04
  Seth Holehouse: Oh, certainly. Well, so I wanna hone in on on this this one particular article. And this is back in 02/2023. But it's talking about how The US proposes final Basel rules transition period to start in July 2025. So can you walk us through a little bit, explain, like, basically, what what they refer to as the the Basel III reforms?
• 13:26
  Because I know that they announced it, you know, well before, you know, obviously, today. But basically, if I'm correct, one of the the significant aspects of the the Basel III was how gold was now being treated as a tier one asset. So can you walk us through that a little bit? Because think that helps us to understand where things are at right now.
• 13:46
  Colin Plume: Yeah. I mean, I think in simple terms, it's the biggest reclassification of gold in our modern history. I think that if we had done the Fort Knox audit, maybe that would have been similar, but I don't know what's going to happen with that. But I think moving gold from tier three to tier one basically is telling the banks that they can't look at gold as this other They actually have to buy the physical gold, right? If they want it on their books, they have to have assets on their books to protect themselves to continue to lend and allow people to borrow money because we know that it's obviously they keep a fraction of your cash in the bank, so they need to have some stability assets.
• 14:42
  So they're moving gold from a tier three to a tier one, which means they're going to have to own the physical gold starting in July. That's going to bring a whole new flood of buyers, new buyers, banks, the big guys, Bank of America and Chase and all these guys, Wells Fargo, they're going to have to do that. I think this law that they're put into place is actually very timely. Mean, you saw a few banks last year go out of business because they misread the market and they had too much in bonds.
• 15:21
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• 15:52
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• 16:25
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• 16:36
  Colin Plume: And and so they they were leveraged in a bad way. I think it's pretty interesting that they set this law a few years in advance, and now it's coming. July is right around the corner, so now they're going to start. So we have a whole new buyer pool of banks that are going to acquire gold. And so we'll, as a big wholesaler, a big company that sells a lot of gold, we'll be competing with these guys on buying because they're going to buy, like us, we buy a lot of bars and things for our clients, We'll be competing as a whole new sector of people that we'll be competing against in the markets.
• 17:14
  And when you have a squeeze and now you have these new buyers, it adds a whole new element. It reminds me a lot, I think I've told you this, that during COVID, I was competing against Comex for silver bars. And so I think that's to add this new element, this new buyer. Now we have central banks that have bought a thousand tons of gold for three years in a row. Now you're going to have actual banks, real banks, Chase and these guys coming in.
• 17:40
  It's a whole new group of buyers that are going to buy and hold. They're going to buy and hold. They're going to be net buyers of gold, not net sellers, because they'll be able to keep it on their balance sheet and and show it on their balance sheet as an asset. And so I think it's a pretty interesting development, and it adds a whole new twist to, to the gold market.
• 18:02
  Seth Holehouse: And and so when you say that during, the beginning of COVID, which I remember those times, I remember silver was one of the things that it was hard to get a hold of, and the premiums were outrageous. I remember at one point Outrageous. Like, you know, eagles were $20 over spot. I mean, it was really difficult to to get get silver. Like, even, you know, like like a 10 ounce bar of silver, just like pure bullion, poor bullion, like, premiums were were kinda crazy.
• 18:30
  But explain a little bit, like, when what does that mean when you say that? When you say that you were competing with COMEX for delivery of silver, give us a little more insight into that.
• 18:39
  Colin Plume: Yeah. So I would say, March or February, nobody had silver. A lot of the silver that we get in The US comes from Mexico and the silver mines were shut down. So they weren't mining, they weren't delivering. I basically decided I have to buy every silver bar available in the country.
• 19:07
  So I called every place that I could and basically bought every bar. Actually 10 ounce silver bars were impossible to get. That's when we started buying a lot of kilo bars because they had kilos. So we bought kilos and then thousand ounce bars, and then some hundred ounce bars. We bought everything.
• 19:27
  We literally bought everything. Went and I leveraged, which I don't recommend anybody, but I leveraged everything that I had and bought everything. And we bought so much that there was a good three to four months that almost any company in the industry, you'd go to their website and they'd have no inventory, none, none, none. But if you called us, we never stopped taking orders for months. Were able to take orders.
• 19:53
  As we were taking orders, the price kept going up and up and up and up. We had clients that bought silver from us at $14 15 dollars And by the time it all shook out after six months, that price had gone to $28 They had doubled in six months in the real metal, not a leverage thing. I took the leverage to get the inventory in off my assets basically, and then took delivery and then sent it to clients, which is a whole other mess. But I know that COMEX was not getting as much silver as there were contracts that were being sold, because the people that I was talking to were saying that to me, that they were trying to buy everything, but they couldn't get enough. They were absolutely selling contracts that, that they didn't have physical delivery yet.
• 20:42
  Seth Holehouse: Which really kinda I I think that brings us into this recent article that came out, and I'll pull it up because to me, this is actually, wait. Here's the article right here. Pull up. This, in my opinion, is one of the most significant articles I've ever read about the price of gold and and the role of gold. So I'll spend a little time reading through a little bit of this article.
• 21:07
  So keep in mind okay. What do we see at the top of here? We see European Central Bank. This is on literally this is ECB.Europa.eu. So this is an article that was just published from the European Central Bank.
• 21:22
  Right? The ECB being, like, in many ways, kind of like now obviously, right, getting into the BIS, and there's other other, you know, kind of bigger entities, but the ECB is a significant banking system. Right? Most people would agree with that. Right?
• 21:35
  The European Central Bank. So I'm gonna read through a little bit of this because this is really, really telling. So what it says, it says, what does the record price of gold tell us about risk perceptions in financial markets? So I'll read a little bit. It says gold prices have seen an unprecedented surge since 2023 reaching a series of all time highs.
• 21:57
  Gold has a long history of as a store of value. Given its its limited industrial use, demand for gold comes traditionally from retail customers, like for jewelry. Although, it is also employed as an investment asset and used by central banks as a reserve asset, which is that's what we're talking about. Right? And, you know, how Basel III, it's a tier one asset, that now they're now and and we've seen that the euro the central banks have been buying gold like a like a teenager with a black Amex.
• 22:22
  Right? Just, like, going around just buying as much as they possibly can. Right? Absolutely. Maybe they're buying gold like Colin Plume was buying silver during the beginning of COVID.
• 22:32
  So it says though, from an investment perspective, gold differs from other asset classes. Unlike most bought, bonds and equities, it does not provide cash flow. Instead, its appeal reflects two unique features, particularly in times of high uncertainty. First, it is not a liability of any counterparty and thus carries no default risk. And that's key actually.
• 22:51
  And, Colin, can you explain, to to the listeners, what does that mean that it doesn't have a liability of counterparty and thus carries no default risk?
• 23:00
  Colin Plume: That is one of the things that I always talk about with gold, and precious metals in general is that, you know, you own the asset. The way we do it at Noble Gold is that you own the asset by yourself. So I don't have a claim to your gold. And there's so few assets that you own that have that. I mean, everybody knows Enron and all these stocks that people felt really good about.
• 23:25
  Then once they were exposed, you saw that massive risk. There's no counterparty risk with gold because you own it in entirety. You're not leveraged, which is the reason that I don't do any leasing of gold. Actually, I had someone recently ask me, Do we lease gold? We do all that?
• 23:43
  Because there's companies that say that we do that. And listen, it's all great until it's not in those situations. So I've seen companies that have done that, that have leveraged for clients. It seems like a good idea because you could spend $1,000 to buy $2,000 in gold, hypothetically. But if gold drops and you need money and you're not as liquid as you think you are, you could lose much more than the 1,000 you originally invested.
• 24:10
  That's what people don't realize, is that these leveraged ideas are good there's a pullback and you need cash. So you don't have to worry about whether we store it in the depository, it's segregated storage, you own it. We're just helping you get it there and it's insured by Lloyd's of London, it's protected, but everything that you buy from us has no counterparty risk. There is so few assets that people own today that carry that, that are also so liquid. I think that's the other thing too, is no counterparty risk and the liquidity I think are extremely important for people that are looking to take some money to fix the roof or maybe start a business or whatever they're going to need, you never have to worry about that.
• 24:59
  I think that in this most recent bull run that we've started in 2020, people have realized having this asset that if they need it, they can liquidate it and use it to buy things that they need is is extremely important. And it's and it's liquid anywhere, you know, obviously, in the world.
• 25:17
  Seth Holehouse: Also, you know, looking at counterparty risk, you know, one I kinda I because I'm not a financial guy. Right? I I I love this stuff, and I follow it, but, you know, I don't have some Wharton degree in in in global finance or whatever. Right? But one one kind of simplified way I look at it is, like, what's counterparty risk?
• 25:32
  It's like, okay. Well, say I've got a car, and I I lend it to my neighbor, it's in his garage. Well, now there's a counterparty risk. Even if I own that car, if his house burns down, I lose my car. Right?
• 25:43
  It's kind of the same thing. It's like, you know, there's counterparty risk in my bank account. Right? So say I use Chase Bank, and say I've got $10,000 in a bank account that I think is mine. Well, counterparty risk, and actually, we even notice even more so after David Webb kinda put out the great taking, that there's insane counterparty risk, meaning that if there's an economic, you know, kinda catastrophe or whatever, even our stocks and bonds, these banks, like, they those assets are theirs.
• 26:09
  They're not ours. So so that that's the counterparty risk. But the reality is is this chunk of silver right here, it doesn't matter if tomorrow an asteroid hits. Right? As long as I'm still living and I can I can hold on to this, there's no counterparty risk?
• 26:22
  Colin Plume: Yeah. That's a great point. Yeah. Seth, it's all those are all great points. Yeah.
• 26:26
  Sometimes I forget about those things too. And and I think everybody does to some extent because we've had a malaise of where we feel comfortable that, you know, the banks tell us everything's fine. But then you see these things where these banks go under and people are running the banks to get their money and they can't get it. And I think that in the bond market, we've had some volatility there too. I think everything seems safe with other people's control until something really bad happens.
• 26:53
  So it seems like Basel and the ECB are sort of alluding, and you'll talk about it more, that you got to be prepared for that eventual situation. The banks are saying, No longer can you just have it on loan. You actually have to have the real thing. You have to have the actual asset for it to be an asset. So it's I think this, like, idea that it's it's okay to have other people hold your stuff or, you know, this, like, borrowing idea, I think it's it's going away.
• 27:29
  Seth Holehouse: It is. And so I'll jump back into the article because it explains this in even more detail. So, again, so it says first, and here we are in this paragraph, people are following along, not a liability to counterparty risk. No, you know, default risk. Second, given its limited and relatively inelastic supply, it retains its intrinsic value and cannot be debased.
• 27:49
  Accordingly, gold is often seen as a portfolio diversifier, a hedge against inflation and US dollar depreciation, and a safe haven in times of severe financial market or geopolitical stress. Against this backdrop, this box analyzes gold's performance during episodes of stress as well as developments in gold derivative markets. So I wanna come back It's
• 28:10
  Colin Plume: funny what you just said because I always think about, like, when we write, ads for Noble Gold, we'll say things like this, and they'll you know, sometimes like the networks or some places Google will say, You don't have proof of this. And yet now, in the sixteen years I've been doing this, I would submit an ad copy to a network for an ad and they'd be like, Well, you can't say that it's a safe haven. Can't say that it's a diversifier. You can't say it's a hedge. You can't say it.
• 28:44
  But now they're saying it. Now the ECB is saying it with their analysts. You know, there's five analysts on this document. Right? And so the proof is there.
• 28:54
  So now maybe they'll let me say it in an ad, but probably not.
• 28:59
  Seth Holehouse: Well, all I have do is say, according to the European Central Bank, gold offers a safe haven in times of stress, particularly during episodes of high geopolitical risk or policy uncertainty uncertainty. Right. There you go. But kind of scrolling down a little bit, let's see. There's a few things here.
• 29:17
  I wanna get to to the well, so here's one thing for instance. This right here shows this is the gold price and purchases by central banks and other institutions. So showing that you can see, like, if if you hone in right around after 2022, huge, huge spike in these central banks purchasing gold, right, as the gold prices continue to go up. Now what's interesting is that if you look at this one line that's kind of right after 2022, there's that dip. And all the central banks could they bought, you know, what, almost 3,000 tons.
• 29:59
  Is that the the metric? I think that they're oh, no. Sorry. That's the dollar price. They had a huge buy right there.
• 30:05
  Shortly after that, the price almost doubled. Right? You can see that the gold price from from that big spike there almost doubled. But what they also show continuing in this is, coming down to this other chart here. This is really important.
• 30:18
  Okay? Because now we're getting into this idea of the gold run. Right? And this is and I'll I'll finish this the next paragraph, which really helps kinda paint this picture. So, basically, what a lot of this article is talking about is how amidst this uncertainty, there has been this mass explosion in people demanding deliveries, which is okay.
• 30:42
  What's that mean? So but, actually, I'll I'll let you explain. What does that mean? So when you say when you look at paper gold versus deliveries, what what why are they highlighting deliveries?
• 30:49
  Colin Plume: Yeah. And if you I like this chart too because it goes really, like and this is, like, 02/2020. So this is probably the most recent bull run at the beginning. You can see early in 2020 that there was a spike in deliveries. You see that one blue pretty high.
• 31:06
  Then there was just less deliveries happening. Obviously, we know the buying from 2022 to today, the central banks were buying a thousand tons a year. But you see the retail market get comfortable again, Oh, we don't need delivery. We're going to be okay. Things are going be fine in 2023, but now the gold price has taken off 2024.
• 31:29
  Then there's whispers at the LBMA, Hey, they might not have enough gold. Things are happening. And as soon as that starts to release, then you see that one blue line in 2025. I mean, it really just spikes. And I can hear it from just our clients, a lot of clients with us that over the last year or two, if they're retired and they're taking their distributions in their IRA, they've taken in the gold.
• 32:01
  They want the gold. So our clients are doing it. Then obviously you see the big institutions that are just saying, We want the gold. There was concern about if there would be tariffs on the gold. I think that is a small reason, but I think more than anything, people wanted to just get their gold as close as they can to their hands.
• 32:26
  And so that's why you saw that massive, blue line, in 02/2025.
• 32:32
  Seth Holehouse: It's also pointing out, worth pointing out the red line. So that red line says EPU. So under here, it explains what that is. It says EPU stands for economic policy uncertainty index. And so that's what's also interesting is that if there's one thing in here that's skyrocketing, it's going vertical, it's that.
• 32:51
  That the, really since the the second half of twenty twenty four heading into 2025, we're seeing even, like, way higher than what we saw during COVID. We're seeing a very, very high rate of the economic policy uncertainty. So which is really people in general just not trusting what's happening with the financial markets, and you see how that goes hand in hand with people wanting physical delivery, which shows me that it's like what you've been saying as well. Like, people don't trust these institutions anymore, and they want to they want to hold their physical deliveries in hand or in some sort of very trusted segregated storage somewhere.
• 33:32
  Colin Plume: And, also, I think it's pretty telling too because I think when you look at a price of an asset that has gone up, let's say 50% in the last two and a half years, a lot of people would just assume there'd be selling, like profit taking. But actually what we're seeing, which is it shows because the price hasn't dropped that much, They're not taking profit, they're just taking delivery, which I think is also really telling is that they just want it. They're not selling it. They believe it's going to continue to go up. That's the conversation a lot of our clients are having, that they have to do required mandatory distributions because they're of age, above 59.5.
• 34:09
  So they have to take a little bit out because the government wants their tax money. But a lot of times what would happen years ago is that they would just sell the gold and pay the tax and take the cash. But now what people are doing is saying, No, I'll just pay the tax with my money. Send me two ounces of gold or a few hundred ounces or whatever they have, send it to me, I'll deal with the government independently, and then I'm going to hold that asset to later because I think it's going to And the only reason you do that is you think it's going to continue to go up, right? I mean, that's what makes the most sense.
• 34:44
  And the other thing that I've always loved about the IRA that I always thought was so unique with gold is that it's the only asset you really could take possession of in your IRA besides cash. It does give you flexibility. And for people that don't need the cash, gives them a nice thing. They're going to get that 10 ounce silver bar that you have. They're going to have that in their hands.
• 35:06
  They pay the tax and now it's theirs. Own it. If it's a Roth IRA, there's no tax. They just get the silver and gold shipped to them. So I think it's nice having that flexibility in this kind of environment.
• 35:19
  Obviously, if they get delivery of it, they want to ship it back to us and we'll buy it at any time. But a lot of our clients that are are doing this with us are saying that they'd rather have the metal, you know, in the IRA as their distribution as opposed to to cash.
• 35:34
  Seth Holehouse: And, you know, you you make an interesting point in reflecting on that. Because I I used to I've had a lot of different kind of business lives. Right? And I know you also too. You're you're in real estate, a handful of different things.
• 35:45
  And, I used to be in in the the jewelry and precious metals and and kind of luxury watch industry at an auction house, and I had a small small little business where I was buying. And I found what's interesting is that when gold prices went up, the people that were wealthier and more comfortable, when the prices went up, they held even stronger. But, also, I always saw huge spikes in people wanting to sell, but it was people that were dealing with inflation. Right? So say gold was at, you know, say $2,000 an ounce.
• 36:15
  Right? You know, actually, was $1,800 an ounce last time I was buying gold from public. And so when it hit, like, 2,000, that was a big milestone. And I saw a lot of people coming in to sell, but these are people that had to sell their gold necklace. They had to sell their their their you know, like a like a wedding band from a previous marriage, or they had to sell some things they had set aside or some bullying they had set aside, but it was really because they had to sell because they needed to pay their bills.
• 36:40
  And it wasn't necessarily that they were just selling to kind of free up cash, the people that had the liquidity. They were, you know, they they were keeping their money in the gold, in in the precious metals. It was the people, though, that needed you know, they they had this gold chain that they knew was, you know, half an ounce of gold, and they're thinking, gosh. This is a thousand dollars worth of gold. Like, I need to pay these bills.
• 37:00
  I need to fix my AC, etcetera. So just interesting how different ends the market play.
• 37:05
  Colin Plume: Yeah. Well and thank god they have that, gold there to do that. Right? I mean, it's like it's part of the reasons that people own gold is to help themselves through inflationary times. So it's just another thing.
• 37:19
  There's so few things that you can own that actually appreciate. We were talking earlier about cars. Some cars appreciate, but the majority of them just drop like a rock. Mean, they're not going to go up in value, but gold is something that you can have enjoyment and wear as a chain or ring and use it for many years. Then if you need it to pay for something, you have that flexibility there to do that.
• 37:49
  I was talking to somebody, I don't know if you know about the Pope, I was talking to somebody about the Pope and the story about how after the pope dies, the ring that the pope has, they destroy it, and then the new pope gets another ring. But it's interesting, in that ring, it looks like there's a lot of gold, but there's actually only 2,000 or $3,000 in gold in that ring that the pope has, but they were saying it's worth $500,000 Obviously, I think that ring's worth There's no price to the ring of the pope, right? But it's ceremonial that the new pope gets a new ring and there's this legacy of gold being passed even in the Catholic church that every new pope gets a ring and it's stamped for them, right? They can use it in different ways. There's all these things.
• 38:43
  It always just reminds me of how long gold's been around or how important it is to culture. And a lot of our clients will buy gold for their grandkids, or it's part of them like a legacy that they're leaving for the next generation. In that ECB article, I know we're going go back to it, the ending part Yeah, so I mean, this chart is just unbelievable. The inventory is there in yellow. I think it's interesting to show that the inventories are below what the deliveries are.
• 39:18
  Then the EPU, that's really the concern, right? The EPU is really the concern in the market. What are people saying? They're concerned about what's happening. Can they get delivery and all these things?
• 39:29
  I think a lot of people have had that concern in the physical gold market. I think that's why the banks changed the rules, right? They're concerned about derivatives of gold. They don't want to end us We don't want to be in a 02/2008, '2 thousand and '9 situation like we were with loans, right? And that derivative market really blew up our economy for many years.
• 39:55
  Yeah. So there was another part of this article.
• 39:57
  Seth Holehouse: Oh, yeah. So continuing. Because actually, the the real juicy stuff we haven't touched upon yet. So okay. Let's see.
• 40:05
  Continuing here. This is I think it's his last paragraph. Okay. There's a few things I wanna read out of this. It Says, gold markets appear to partly reflect elevated geopolitical risk and substantial economic policy uncertainty, which is that red line, with tail scenarios potentially having adverse effects on financial stability.
• 40:23
  What's interesting how they they're saying potentially this, potentially they're being so careful with their language, but they're still saying it. Right? They're still admitting that this could have massive effects on the overall financial market. So, continuing here, it says, while prices are driven by many factors, investors showed high demand for gold as a safe haven asset. At the beginning of twenty twenty five, notable preference for gold futures contracts to be settled physically.
• 40:51
  So that what that is, what they're saying is that that is the paper market breaking. A preference for the gold futures contracts to be settled physically. So instead of saying, I have a piece of paper that says, like, you know, like, this piece of paper right here says that I own a thousand ounces of gold. Well, this is a futures contract. Right?
• 41:12
  That I'll I'll have it in the future, but I'll queue. What it's now saying is that, no. No. No. I want it right now.
• 41:18
  Like, hey, bank. Right. Give me my gold. Here's my paper. Right?
• 41:21
  So continuing though, because the and this is this is again, it's so significant that the ECB has put this information out. It says, these dynamics hint at investors' expectations that geopolitical risks and policy uncertainty could remain elevated or even intensify in the foreseeable future. Should extreme events materialize, there could be adverse effects on financial stability arising from the gold market. So here, as I what I understand what they're saying is that this will this will go beyond just the gold markets. That they're they're talking about the overall financial markets being affected by what's happening with the gold.
• 41:57
  It says this could occur even though the aggregate exposure of the Euro Area financial sector appears limited compared to other asset classes, given the the commodity markets exhibit a number of vulnerabilities. So I wanna continue actually, so what real quick, they mentioned the derivatives market. So I wanna highlight really quickly up here. It says that in the Euro Area, gross notional exposures to gold derivatives amounted to 1,000,000,000,000 in March 2025, an increase of 58% since November 2024. So this is really important because this is showing how much the paper market has because if if am I correct in understanding that when you talk about gold derivative market, like, contracts are a big part of that derivative it's value derived from the physical origin.
• 42:45
  Is that correct?
• 42:46
  Colin Plume: Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly what you said.
• 42:49
  Then later, as you were reading, it says the big risk is that a lot of the derivative market is in with a few companies. There's not a lot. There's just a few companies. If you go down to the next paragraph there, it says that. And I think that's the big fear.
• 43:07
  Such vulnerabilities have arisen because commodities tend to be concentrated among a few large firms. So that's the scary part of this, right? You have this massive increase in paper gold contracts held by not many firms. So you have high leverage held with a few firms, then the idea that people want to take possession. Obviously, the derivative market, you sell those contracts in the idea that no one's going to take possession or you hope that they never want to take possession.
• 43:42
  But now people do wanna take possession of their of their contracts as we saw. You know, people wanna take delivery, and so they think this could really unwind this market and and and create a supply shock.
• 43:57
  Seth Holehouse: Exactly. So I'll I'll read just this last section here, and this really closes it out. And they really say the quiet part out loud. So as as you're referring to, it says such vulnerabilities have arisen because commodity markets tend to be concentrated among a few large firms, I e, the Bank of England, right, often involve leverage and have a high degree of opacity deriving from the use of OTC derivatives. Margin call this is critical.
• 44:21
  Margin calls and the unwinding of leveraged positions could lead to liquidity stress among market participants potentially propagating the shock through the wider financial system. Additionally, disruptions in the physical gold market could increase the risk of a squeeze. The fact that they mention a risk of a gold squeeze is so significant. Because it says, in this case, market participants could be subject to significant margin calls and or have trouble sourcing and transporting appropriate physical gold for delivery and derivative contracts, leaving themselves exposed to potentially large losses. So I wanna get your thoughts.
• 45:03
  I'm gonna just highlight this one more time, saying that the market participants, the Bank of England, could be subject to significant margin calls. Right? What is what is that? This right here, that blue line, that represents significant margin calls. People saying, I want demand of this.
• 45:22
  I want this now. And so continuing, just to highlight that, so in this case, market participants could be subject to significant margin calls and or have trouble sourcing and transporting appropriate physical gold for delivery and derivative contracts. So that what they're they're really they're saying out loud that there is a gold squeeze happening, and the big banks that were most of these commodities are sitting will not be able to to meet the demand for physical delivery, hence leading to a gold squeeze. I mean, I I feel like what they're doing here is that they're just saying they're acknowledging the writing on the wall that this entire paper market is breaking, and that the way that they've used this, like like, this paper SIOP to convince people to that investing in paper is equivalent to investing in the real thing as a way of flooding the market and keeping the keeping supply really high through paper, even though it's a very limited supply, that that whole thing's breaking. And and I I feel like that it's like if there's a gold squeeze, I mean, it's like, what how much could gold go for?
• 46:31
  I mean, go I mean,
• 46:33
  Colin Plume: it could be I mean, and the timing of this is so interesting too. I mean, when you look at I mean, we've we've talked about it a bunch, but the fact that they still haven't done the audit of Fort Knox, and you have, in essence, this article saying we have a trillion dollars in derivatives out there. They're basically saying if people continue to take possession, there's going to be losses. Now the question is, who's going to absorb those losses? And I think that that's always been the thing that I've always said with these big institutions is I think as a small investor, a regular investor, a retail investor, I think you're going to get pushed aside.
• 47:09
  JP Morgan's got a big contract or I have a big contract, who are they going to fulfill? They're going to fulfill JP Morgan before they're going to fulfill mine. And that's why in today's world, this article, the ECB is alluding that people want possession, they don't feel comfortable with derivatives. Derivative market has skyrocketed and you should make sure that you have the gold, right? You should own it.
• 47:36
  You should have the physical gold. It's the only way you protect yourself from that supply shock. There's no other way to do it. And it's becoming so apparent that even institutions don't have that level of trust, right? That they're even saying, And now we're telling the banks, the big banks, to buy gold, right?
• 47:57
  So you have this real move to the physical, which it's always been interesting for me being in this business because it seems like owning the physical thing, if you can do it, makes the most sense in anything, right? Always to own the But yet they've always told us in the equity markets and all these markets, just borrow or just own a piece or do But why? Why? And now I think the why is coming out because if everybody really wants to take possession, they don't have enough. They really don't have enough.
• 48:27
  That's in essence what they're saying. If everybody takes possession on this continued path, they'll run out of gold.
• 48:36
  Seth Holehouse: Exactly. And that's that's huge because as they're also admitting in here is that they're saying that this this event, this squeeze would extend beyond the gold market, that this is gonna affect the overall financial markets. Because the more you understand about the role of gold, especially as now a tier one asset, it's not like it's not like gold is the equivalent to, let's just say, some kind of let's just say, like, a like a Bitcoin or a cryptocurrency, right, where it it is something that exists, and obviously, the the financial markets are plugged into it, and it has a certain weight in that. But it's like, this is something like gold is is it's almost like it's at the foundation of the entire banking system. It's not like, you know, real estate or something.
• 49:27
  I think those are important, but there's a reason why these central banks and these sovereign banks and now we're gonna see even, you know, the nonregional or non sovereign, non central banks also buying out gold. That it's it's it's a very, very significant part. It's almost like it it represents the foundation of the entire financial market as much as they try to get us away from it because that's where they can trap us. If if they can trap us in paper, they can trap us in digital currency, that's where they can enslave us. But the reality is is that the foundation of this market is still this physical substance.
• 50:02
  Colin Plume: Yeah. And and what they're really saying is that we're going back to sort of a gold standard. Right? They're saying that if you really want to be protected and you want to avoid the supply shock, you should own the real thing. They're basically saying that if everybody owns a real thing, then this derivative market's not around and we're in a different world that we're in.
• 50:23
  But we've trusted the paper bull, we've trusted derivatives for so long, now the truth's coming out and they're basically saying that you should trust. You should not trust the derivative market. You should not trust the paper market that you should get possession of the physical metal. It's fascinating, me being in this for sixteen years and just seeing how the verbiage and what's coming out has really changed significantly. I think we just hit that tipping point in our economy where the BS of the story that the government's been telling us and the economy and all this stuff that they've been telling us out there, it's coming to fruition that central banks are coming out with reports saying that there's going be a supply shock.
• 51:10
  I mean, that's pretty telling. I mean, if anyone would not want this article to come out, it would be them. They want you to be in the Euro. They want you to be in their assets. They want you to be in their equity markets.
• 51:21
  That's the thing that helps them the most, but they're literally coming out with an article that you found hiding on their website, alluding to the fact that there's a derivative problem, that there's a trillion dollars in derivatives, and that if people keep taking possession the way that they are and they continue to, we could have a supply shock. Think it's a pretty shocking article and something that probably a lot a lot of people don't want you to see, and and I think it's great that we, you know, talked about it and exposed it today.
• 51:50
  Seth Holehouse: Well, it also reminds me of, like, the kinda do as I say, not as I do. And if you if you follow, again, the the kind of mainstream Jim Kramer, it's never go buy physical gold and just hold it, go bury it somewhere, go put, you know, put it behind your drywall somewhere. It's always, oh, this is a good stock in tech stocks and Nvidia and, in the bond market is that they they want us to have our assets in things that can be taken away from us. You know, things that they can collapse, and then they can then go in and scoop everything up. Like, 02/2008, you know, the housing market collapse, they go and they buy the houses for pennies on the dollar.
• 52:27
  So they want to do this to keep kinda stealing our wealth. They don't want us to to know this information, but the fact they're coming out now and saying it is is significant. Because to me, what it shows is that if because this is now so public, if they don't say something about it, it almost proves their complicity in it. If they don't come out and admit
• 52:49
  Colin Plume: their stuff. Ahead of it, basically. They're getting ahead of the problem. Yeah. It's like today, I was listening.
• 52:53
  I was watching, the news, the stock the stock news they were talking about. There's a stock that's up 40% today. Came out with some drone technology and they were like, Yeah, that's great. This is now up 40%. And then one of the commentators, we just want to let you guys know this company is highly unprofitable.
• 53:11
  And it was so interesting. It's up 40%, pretty significant. Was like a 17 stock. I mean, huge coming out today, but this company is so far away from profitability. And it's like, that's the thing, it's just based on emotion or it's not based on the fundamentals.
• 53:29
  The fundamental, that company is still not profitable, yet it had a significant surge today because it released the product. Think we need to focus on the fundamentals. Really think this article is telling people that in a way, the two articles are aligning that we're going back to the fundamentals, and that's what they're alluding that if you don't own the real thing, you don't own it, you're in a potentially bad situation. They're also saying some of the key indicators of why you should own physical gold, the counterparty risk, there's limited supply. There's all these reasons to be protected in gold, and these are all the things that have made it just an unbelievable asset for people.
• 54:15
  So it's an exciting time. And obviously, if anybody wants to learn about what we do on the physical gold side of Noble Gold, happy to talk to you. We can book appointments for you if you want to learn and talk to our experts, and they can talk about IRAs or home delivery and everything's private, but we take time with people. I think that's the reason that we partner, Seth, as you know, we build relationships. So if you're looking to talk to somebody and get some information, I think it's a great time.
• 54:46
  And just call us so you can learn about some of these assets that you can actually own on on your own and and help avoid the supply shock and help avoid the derivative market, and, you know, this can help really protect you, for your future.
• 55:00
  Seth Holehouse: Oh, absolutely. And I'll say, look. Here here's we have a website set at goldwithseth.com. And, you know, full transparency, you know, you're one of my the key sponsors of my show that you've allowed me to be independent. I'm not, I just discovered an article information the other day about how even Soros is coming in and buying up podcasters because they wanna control the messaging.
• 55:20
  And so, the thing is is I I'm I'm truly independent. I can say what I wanna say.
• 55:26
  Colin Plume: And That's right.
• 55:27
  Seth Holehouse: You know, you've been very supportive of that. And and, really, it's the audience. So for people that are watching and listening, if they're weighing out different options, a, I trust you, like, immensely. I know how you price everything. I came from the industry, so no one can pull any wool over my eyes.
• 55:40
  I know exactly how the industry works. I trust you guys. Actually, I remember when I first started working with you, before I even worked with you, I called you as a customer just to see how you handled it and see how you price things. I was like, oh, okay. Actually, this is exactly how it should be done.
• 55:55
  So but when people work with you, it's a way of helping to keep my show on air and help me stay independent. We have a, a web page set, goldwithseth.com. We have the phone number is (626) 654-1906. You've got an incredible team. You can walk them through again, like you mentioned, if someone wants to take physical delivery, if you want a shipment of these to show up at your front door fully insured, you sign off on it, great.
• 56:20
  Boom. Done. If you wanna get creative with their IRAs and and ways of moving their assets over into precious metals without all these huge taxes and fees, You guys are the masters at that. So I I highly recommend people if they're on the fence. My approach, honestly, is that every month, I buy a little bit of gold and silver.
• 56:39
  Right? It's like I I don't take, like, this huge amount and just kinda dump it all in there. It's like, no. I look at it as this is how I'm saving. Maybe I'll buy $2,000 worth of silver this month, and I just set it aside.
• 56:48
  Like, to me, like, that's how I say I don't I don't save my money in the way the traditional way. Like, what I do is I move my assets into a safe haven asset like gold or silver, and just don't touch it. And that's that's and and ideally, you know, people are in this situation, and not everyone is, but that's my way of trying to build generational wealth so that my little girls who are, you know, one years old and four years old now that, you know, look. I'd love to you know, as, like, when they get married off when they're in their twenties, I can say, hey. Here.
• 57:17
  You know, here's, you know, 30 ounces of gold and and, you know, 2,000 ounces of silver. You you keep this and pass on to your kids. Like, to me, this is Right. This is the foundation of generational wealth.
• 57:27
  Colin Plume: Yeah. One of the ads we ran is I have a kilo bar. Was talking about how it could cover a college. And when I did it, I think I mentioned it maybe could cover a college for one year. And then as the ad is, it was a few years ago now, now that one kilo bar could probably cover two years of college.
• 57:45
  These things have really gone up with inflation, even though the cost of college has gone up dramatically too. But yeah, these assets that you pass on could help somebody buy their first home or help them start a business. These are going to help people in legacy, creating legacy for themselves. So yeah, as always, great show, Seth. I think lot of good information for people and we're happy to spend And we will spend a lot of time with people, so don't feel like when you call us, you're going be rushed into making a decision.
• 58:16
  Don't work that way. We want to build a relationship with everybody and make sure it's right for them. So you'll call us and use the gold with Seth or just use the phone number and call us and we'll spend time with you and give you good information and emails and PDFs and we have silver guides and all this good stuff. I have my book. So we'll give you a lot of good information, and then, you know, ultimately, you can decide if this is something for you.
• 58:39
  Seth Holehouse: Exactly. So I'll make sure that the phone number and the the website information is in the show description just so it's easy for people. And, Colin, you know, thanks again for for giving us your time today, and what good timing to have this show right at this ECB article comes out because, in my opinion, this is so significant. It's very significant.
• 58:58
  Colin Plume: Yeah. Very telling. Yeah. Thanks, Seth. Looking forward to the next one.
• 59:01
  Appreciate it.
• 59:01
  Seth Holehouse: Of course. Thanks, Colin.