Latest / Man in America Podcast / What Venezuela and $80 Silver Reveal About the End of the Old World Order w/Eric Yeung

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What Venezuela and $80 Silver Reveal About the End of the Old World Order w/Eric Yeung · Man in America Podcast

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Man in America, a voice of reason in a world gone mad. I'm your host, Seth Hullhouse. So as you can see or not see, today's interview will be an audio only discussion. My guest today is Eric Young coming out of Hong Kong. He's a very, very, important voice on what's happening with precious metals around the world.
• 0:38
  And for his own safety, he does not put his face on screen, which I don't blame him for that. I do. Maybe that will be my downfall, the fact everyone knows exactly who I am. But, you know, I that's just how I do the show. I it this is me.
• 0:52
  I'm real. So, anyway, it's gonna be an audio only discussion. But we're gonna be getting into the bigger picture of what's happening with silver and not really as an investment. We're looking at silver and analyzing it through the lens of geopolitics, and through the lens of the fracturing of the world, and the ending of the unipolar world with The United States as the dominant empire, and splitting into, really The US and the Western nations, on one side and the BRICS nations on the other side. And understanding what's happening with silver gives you a lot of insight into what is happening.
• 1:39
  And there's some big news we'll be talking about, a massive silver smelt smelting facility that the DOD, in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, is building in The United States. It's a $7,000,000,000, you know, facility. They're rebuilding. So we're talking about that. Talking about silver prices, are now as of recording at around $81 an ounce, which is crazy, but also explaining in detail the mechanisms that have been used to suppress the prices of silver and gold and how those mechanisms tie into the strength of the dollar, but also the dedollarization that is happening, and how those mechanisms collapsing highlights, the dollar's real place in the world, in addition to countries around the world dumping treasury, not buying US debt anymore.
• 2:31
  We're seeing a lot of writing on the wall, but also then getting into the AI, the race, the AI race, the AI arms race, might call it, and so much more. So I hope that you enjoy this, interview with Eric. He's a smart guy. Just a quick note. Sorry I've been a little quiet over the holidays.
• 2:51
  We've got a lot of really exciting things that we're working on, which we'll be rolling out, soon. But also, in the past couple of months, I lost my grandfather and my father, you know, a very short period of time heading into the holiday season. And I, to be honest, just felt like having a quiet holiday. And it was really nice to have a lot of quiet time with my family, to to pull back and work on some more creative projects for what we're doing, and just to have that silence that was really nice to reflect on this past year, reflect on the year coming up, the state of America, where the country is heading. And so, you'll see over the course of the next couple of weeks, there'll be a lot of updates coming out.
• 3:34
  The, ARC community is still being pushed forward. You know, again, events of the last quarter of last year kind of slowed things down, but, you know, this year we've got the book coming out, with the community rolling out, with some other big updates. So, I appreciate your patience, I appreciate you sticking with me, and we're gonna have an exciting year together, I can assure you of that. So, enjoy the show. Eric Young, it is great to have you back on the show.
• 4:02
  It's been quite some time. A lot has happened, but thank you for being here with us today.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Well, thanks, Steph. It has been a while. I think the last time I was on your show was around the February.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, almost almost a year ago. Right? We're we're approaching a year ago, and so much has happened. But before we jump into today's discussion, do you just wanna give a little bit of your background?
• 4:31
  And I'll tell you just quickly, I kinda perceive you. I know you're in Hong Kong. I know that you understand geopolitics, finance, especially precious metals extremely well. And I I've always appreciate you. I I follow you on, on Twitter.
• 4:46
  It's, you know, king kong nine eight eight eight. And you just you've always had a very, very, I think, just wise perspective on what's happening with precious metals. And I think you do a very good job of of bridging the dialogue of what's happening between the East and the West, which is, I think, very important in understanding what's happening right now. But, anyway, I'll let you just give a quick background to yourself.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: So, Seth, I've been in the manufacturing business for over two decades. And, you know, during during this time, I've been based in Hong Kong. I also had offices in Mainland China, primarily in Shenzhen, which is a coastal city of that is next to Hong Kong. Okay, essentially. And, you know, if the audience doesn't know contract manufacturing means that my multinational customers, let's say some of my customers are Fortune 500 companies in The US, They come to me, they have a specification for a product they manufacture.
• 5:55
  I take that, I go to China, I shop for the correct or the appropriate factories that can manufacture the product for them. I would oversee the entire process of manufacturing, and I would arrange the logistics to have that finished product be shipped out of China, cross Chinese customs, and imported into The US or elsewhere.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: And how did you end up focusing so much on precious metals?
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Well, I think the first time that I really loaded up on physical gold is right after the great financial crisis. So that really helped me. I think it shocked a lot of people, more so than even the dot com bubble. I mean, I was there. I was already working in the industry.
• 6:56
  And when that popped, you know, shocking, but you know, you saw that the system was intact. But with the great financial crisis, I saw that The US national, some of these what they call too big to fail banks were failing. So that's when I really started buying a lot of physical gold. And the time when I really added to that initial step was 2019 when Jerome Powell pivoted. You know, essentially from quantitative tightening to using, and that's when I knew it was the gold time, was rock and roll.
• 7:50
  Like, I got to really accelerate my physical gold and silver. And I started, by the way, I started buying silver at that point. So gold started masterfully buying after the GFC two thousand and eight. I really, really added in 2019 to my gold position, physical gold. But for physical silver, I started stacking around 2019 when Powell prohibited.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Okay. And so, let me I'll just I'll quickly bring up the charts. Yeah. So, right now, we're at, you know, almost $81. So a a year ago, our last interview, silver was, you know, right around $32, which is I mean, this is insane.
• 8:46
  If you look at you know, we're up a 163 percent, up $50 in the past year. So, this is wild. And so, you're saying that okay, looking at let's just look at Max. So, you're saying that a lot of that you were buying a lot, you know, at 2019, you started silver, which was right at, you know, $15 an ounce, which seems wild, to think of it that low. But a lot of what I wanna really pick your brain on is really look looking at, like, this, say, past six months to a year of what's happening.
• 9:21
  You know, where we've gone just in six months, silver's up a 120% nearly. Right? From high thirties to, again, over over $80 an ounce. And there's a lot to dig into with this, because I look at precious metals as, you know, gold and silver, not just I I don't look at them as, like, the way I'd look at a stock and say, oh, wow. Apple stock is up like this.
• 9:46
  I look at silver and gold as almost being these well, as David Jensen has referred to, the the the canary in the coal mine. Right? They're indicators of much more significant things that are happening. And so, I guess, you know, in kinda diving into this, silver is at 8 you know, almost $81. What does that tell you about what's happening geopolitically right now in the world?
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, basically, Seth, I think what's happening is that, as we have talked about this off camera, has been for a while now, but the global sub countries have been for a while not adding substantially to their US Treasury bond bills and notes purchases. So what is the US Treasury bonds, bond bill or note? It's simply US debt. So what we're seeing here is that, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine after The US and Western allies, the EU, froze Russian assets, the BRICS countries and the Global South countries have really stepped on the gas to not net buy or add to these US Treasuries, if possible.
• 11:16
  So I think it reached kind of like a breaking point at this point. And everything that we've seen in the last twelve months are simply a symptom of that. Like the first time also in the show, when we saw massive outflows of physical gold from the LBMA to The US and elsewhere, and also massive outflows of physical silver from the LBMA to The US and elsewhere. These are all symptoms of deglobalization of the rest of the world, primarily the BRICS countries and their allies, no longer willing to finance the US government.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: So, basically, to to summarize it in a way that my kind of simple mind understands it is that post World War two, The United States became the the the really, the not just the global police, but also, the global superpower. Right? And you kinda lead up into Bretton Woods, you know, getting into the establishment of the US dollar as the global reserve currency. And so you had nations around the world that were buying US treasury bonds, you know, basically buying up US debt to as a, to kind of backstop their own currencies, right, as as a as a reserve asset. Also, because so much trade was being done in the US dollar.
• 12:55
  And that worked for a long time, and in exchange for these countries holding US debt, they had protection, you know, from The United States. We had safe waterways for trade, etcetera, all the things that emerged, really post World War two. But as it's almost as if it's like if you give a teenager a credit card and say they're responsible for the first six months and it's going pretty well, but then a year later, you realize that they've maxed it out. They're buying stupid stuff. They're spending it on, you know, video games and everything nonstop.
• 13:27
  It's almost as if The US did the same thing. As the world saw that we were completely abusing the power of this US dollar to fund these endless wars, keep money printing nonstop. But then, as you mentioned, the tipping point was when Russia invaded Ukraine. And as a response to that, we then used this global monetary system that was built off the back of the US dollar as a weapon to punish Russia, right, by kicking them out of the the SWIFT system, and a handful of other things that happened at that time. And so that was the breaking point where the you know, a good chunk of the world that wasn't directly being controlled or, you know, allied to The United States, basically, as I understand, said, wow, okay, we're kinda done playing this game now.
• 14:17
  So we're not gonna we're gonna start selling your treasury bonds. We're not buying more. And you have simultaneously the strengthening and the growth of the BRICS nations, really spearheaded, you know, by China. Right? Obviously, you know, China, you know, Russia, you know, lot of the other, you know, handful of BRICS nations.
• 14:34
  Now a lot of the Middle East Middle Eastern countries are showing strong allegiances to to the BRICS nations. And you so, basically, we're looking at the fracturing of going from a unipolar world with The US at the center to a multipolar world where The US is now just a competing empire against this growing, Eastern empire, which really extends beyond just the East, know, South American countries, a lot of Africa, etcetera. So is that a is that an accurate assessment of what's happening?
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. I think you nailed it, Seth. I think that's exactly what's happening. That's why you see, you know, what we see here, which is The US competing, like you said, with the rest of the world, especially the Eastern countries, the global South countries, the BRICS countries, whatever you call them, for stuff that they cannot print. Okay?
• 15:35
  Like, I'm talking about gold, physical gold, physical silver. Soon, it's going to be copper, uranium, platinum, anything that they cannot print. Okay, that they have to actually have physical mines and physical smelters to produce, they're gonna fight for from this point on.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: So is this also what you'd refer to as a a capital rotation? Because I know that there's a few people I've I've been following that have discussed that, right, where in a capital rotation event that the capital is rotating between, in essence, kind of paper and digital assets to physical assets. And when the markets are strong, the banking industry is sound, you have a lot more people that are putting their assets into the paper, the digital, the markets, etcetera. But then when confidence has left those particular areas, that you have people, in essence, rushing into what they can feel and hold and what they know is real. So is that how you would also describe this?
• 16:44
  As more of a capital rotation, like a global capital rotation event?
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. You know, this is happening before our eyes, Seth. I mean, like you said, look at the price of silver. First time I was on your show was in the mid thirties, maybe, you know, 34, 35, etcetera. Now, today, silver is at $80, above $80 at the LBMA and the COMEX, And it's actually almost at $90 US dollars equivalent in China.
• 17:23
  So we are seeing what you just talked about right before our eyes in real time.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: And so what is so this is I'm glad you mentioned the difference difference in prices between the COMEX, LBMA, and the Shanghai Exchange, right? Shanghai Gold Exchange, SGE, right? And so, can you explain that to us? Because that's something that I did a show on this, I think it was last week, and kind of dug into it a little bit, but it's not an easy thing to to understand, but it's, I'm sure you you can simplify it in a way that it is. But what does that mean when you have a global a commodity that has global value.
• 18:11
  Right? You can sell silver in in I'd imagine most countries where you can find a place to sell silver. It's not like it's, you know, like you're selling, you know, rare US signed baseballs. Right? That would only be have a certain market around the world that would be interested in those things.
• 18:29
  I mean, silver is, you know, similar to oil. Right? It's a global commodity. So what does it mean when you have a, you know, roughly a $10 difference between two different markets? Because I I would think that arbitrage traders, people that are looking for areas where they can buy in region a and sell to region b because there's a price difference, I'd imagine that they'd looking at this saying, gosh, I can make a ton of money if I can buy in The US and sell it for $10 more an ounce in in Asia.
• 19:01
  And I think that mentality oftentimes keeps that gap very low historically. Right? So can you explain to us what it means that there's this price difference between these markets?
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: So first of all, China is a manufacturing powerhouse of the entire world. And to be that manufacturing powerhouse for the last two decades plus, what does it need? Commodities like copper, iron, zinc, silver. Silver is a critical component for manufacturing, especially now that we are getting into Web three point zero or the AI age, okay, with, you know, stuff like solar power, electric vehicles and, you know, high power integrated circuits that would run AI. So back to what I just said, China being a manufacturing power.
• 20:08
  Naturally, China is a net importer of silver. And so is India, by the way. India because like traditionally Indians value physical silver as a store of value. Okay? It's something somewhat of an inflation hedge.
• 20:28
  And also, Indians have a culture of wearing silver jewelry. So India is also a big silver importer. Now, Seth, let me ask you a question. If you're importer of a critical critical commodity such as silver or precious metals such as silver, what have you got to do so that the silver would flow to your direction? I mean, I have a chart, if if we remember.
• 21:00
  I showed this chart to your audience the first time I was on the show, and now I added the China and India bubble in the chart. Yes. There you are. So in order for China and India to attract physical silver into their jurisdiction, they have to offer a higher price. Isn't that normal?
• 21:32
  If China and India have a lower silver price than the West, then who the heck is gonna sell silver to China and India and lose money? Think about that. Does that answer a part of your question right there regarding the arbitrage?
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, basically, if you're seeing, if you're seeing this this price increase, say, in China, I'm guessing what it means is just that their their need to import it is greater than the other region. Right? They're going to pay they're paying more of premium to bring it in.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Because they are the manufacturers. They have an inelastic demand of physical silver because of their manufacturing, as I just mentioned. Okay? That makes sense? The only difference, I think, between now and before is that before you might have a $2.03 dollars like around a 5% higher price of silver in China.
• 22:31
  Now it's like 10 percent higher, as you pointed out. So that's the difference. Like, the arbitrage is getting bigger than before.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Okay. So Yeah. While I have this chart up, can you explain this? Because I I'm I I've I know this stuff relatively well. I'm I'm even looking at this and going a little bit cross eyed.
• 22:55
  So I I know that what you're showing here is very, very important because and may maybe we can have a little bit of a, you know, kind of silver and gold manipulation one zero one, right, in looking at what is the COMEX, what is the LBMA, what is an ETF, and what is this interaction in these numbers that we're seeing here? What is this mechanism that you have I'm put together
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: just gonna say it in a very layman layman sort of way so the audience understands. Okay? This is, like you said, this is a sort of a complex system that they got going on here. But basically what it says is the Western gold and silver price suppression machine consists of the LBMA, the COMEX and the ETF. The LBMA is in London.
• 23:48
  It's simply an OTC market, over the counter, right, that consists
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: of