Precious Metals Strategy: Guest strongly urges holding 20–30% in gold and silver (and some platinum) as a hedge against currency debasement and policy-driven inflation.
Macro Skepticism: Claims of 15% U.S. growth are dismissed as unrealistic, with concerns that official GDP and CPI understate real economic strain on households.
AI and Mega-Cap Tech: The AI-driven capex surge is viewed as unsustainable, and the guest advises against owning the Magnificent Seven and semiconductor stocks due to overvaluation.
Fed Policy Outlook: Despite talk of balance sheet reduction, the guest expects policy makers to prioritize asset support and revert to money printing over true tightening.
Market Leadership Shift: Notes that Europe and Emerging Markets outperformed the U.S. last year, with Brazil highlighted, indicating a possible rotation away from U.S. mega-cap dominance.
Consumer Stress: Rising credit card debt and high borrowing costs signal household weakness, amplifying recession risks if liquidity tightens.
Real vs Nominal: Expects U.S. equities to underperform gold, silver, and platinum in real terms, even if indexes rise nominally amid inflation.
Policy and Geopolitical Risks: Warns of interventionist policies, potential yield-curve control, and elevated geopolitical conflict risks that could reshape markets.
Transcript
But it's something I would strongly advise you to hold. I would not strongly advise you to hold the fun seven stocks in America, the magnificent seven and the semiconductors, but I would strongly urge you to hold some gold, silver, and platinum. >> President Trump just promised us 15% growth in the US under incoming Fed chair Kevin Worsh. What does that mean? Is he really g is he giving away free money? How is he going to achieve that? And of course, we'll talk gold, silver, what phase of the cycle are we in right now? I've invited a fantastic guest to combine all those topics for us. His name is Dr. Mark Faba. He's the author of the Gloom, Boom, and Doom Report, and I can't wait to catch up with him on those topics, of course. But before I switch over, hit that like and subscribe button. It helps us out tremendously. We really appreciate it. And one quick reminder, we heard your feedback. you want access to our interviews as quickly as possible, as soon as they're recorded, sign up for our channel membership and we'll grant you that wish. So much appreciate that. Now, Dr. Fab, it is great to welcome you back on the program. It's good to see you again. >> It's my pleasure. Thank you and good day to you viewers and listeners and of course to you. >> I appreciate it. No, really, really good to see you again. Always enjoy our conversations. We have lots to lots to discuss, of course. Last time we spoke in the summer um I think it was early August that we spoke Dr. Faba lots has changed we've seen some fed rate cuts uh which brings me also to the first topic really is the promise of crazy US growth meaning 15% is something President Trump said in an interview yesterday u that he expects to see or wants to see under incoming Fed chair Kevin Walsh the question though is Dr. Faba, how realistic is that? And if it were realistic, how are they going to achieve it? >> Uh, it's completely unrealistic and it proves that Mr. Trump is either a liar or mentally deranged. Uh, there's no way the US will grow at 15% peranom. Even coming out of a recession, they are unlikely to be able to grow at 15% and certainly not from the current level of asset prices and of economic activity. >> The the question though is like we're looking at 4% apparently right now. Howard Lutnik even talked about five to six% all based on AI boom and we're seeing massive numbers like hundreds of billions in in capex to be announced. I think it was 625 billion in capex that was announced. Is that the only growth sector? And how is that getting financed? How is that even possible? >> Well, uh the way it gets financed is essentially by issuing bonds and by printing money. uh the money supply is growing again and uh in my view the economy is not growing at 4% peranom. Uh there are some sectors that may grow at 10% peranom like the AI cap boom and so forth but uh it's unlikely to last. And secondly, I'd like to point out that uh gross figures are usually taken by measuring GDP, the size of the economy. And it depends very much how you adjust uh the nominal growth uh to real growth uh by deducting the impact of price increases. In other words, the consumer price index by how much do prices go up? uh if you measure how high prices go up maybe you get nominally 15% growth but if the price increases are say 20% then you have in real terms inflation adjusted terms a 5% contraction so I would be very skeptical about the figures that governments are publishing in terms of GDP P grows. I think more relevant would be to look at uh the well-being, the standard of living of the typical household. Is the typical household doing well or is the typical household struggling? And we know that in America close to 70% of families they live paycheck to paycheck. In other words, they need to get the salary by check in order to pay their bills. That in my view is not a sign of a very healthy economy. >> No, not at all. And it's that K-shaped economy that the the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Of course. Yes, this is the case. I mean, I think it's very important to distinguish between the economy of wealthy asset holders. They own stock portfolios, they own properties and so forth and uh they theirs is increasing and they have a high spending power. But the typical household is actually hurting because of increased food prices. Uh increase in insurance premiums uh for the homes and for the health and for the cars. I mean this is a big item and depending how the government weights certain items in the consumer price index basket you will get totally different results. I mean I have an economist John Williams of shadow stats according to him inflation is running up over 10% peranom and accelerating on the upside not diminishing and whether Mr. Walsh Walsh will cut rates and accommodate Mr. Trump or not is another question. That that is another question because the market was fairly surprised by the announcement I would say because the market expect more of a a dovish character meaning somebody who would actually lower interest rates more aggressively while Kevin War said well you know he's he's more of a hawk might maybe keep interest rates stable and then most importantly something we need to discuss Dr. Faba, he wants to shrink the Fed balance sheet. >> And the question is like what what does that mean and what is the impact of that? Um if he wants to shrink it cuz it's expanding again right now. He wants to shrink it. That means the Fed cannot step in. They can't do much. I'm curious what your take on that is and whether that even has a chance. >> Well, I mean, I listened to some speeches and some interviews with Mr. war and I have to say intellectually he is a very well uh educated person and I'm sure that he has good intentions for the Federal Reserve but at the same time he moves in a very affluent society including his wife's family uh lo there they they are asset holders, you understand? And I I don't think that he and his friends and so forth want necessarily to see the stock market down 50% or 40% or even 20%. So intellectually he may think that you would need to increase interest rates at the present time especially if by accident or unrealistically economic growth was 4% but it isn't. But in this position of being surrounded by asset holders, including the Trump family, it's unlikely that they will take measures to increase interest rates and lower asset prices and increase the affordability for ordinary people. In my view, he is more likely to support asset prices at the current artificially high price. The question is like will will he like participate in yield curve control and things like that, right? Uh it seems like the Fed and the bond the Fed needs to re sorry not the Fed the Treasury needs to refinance of course this year and bond yields are wonky to say the best to to say the least here. Um they're they're not they're fairly volatile right now and it seems like they're trending higher. So um the the Fed's stepping in potentially buying bonds and treasuries from the US Treasury. Um is that a high chance of likelihood? like what what do you make of that? >> Quite frankly, I don't know. And I think investors should get used to the fact that the more the government intervenes and Trump is an interventionist. Unfortunately, he's an ignorant interventionist. He he intervenes into everything because he's a typical sort of narcissistic personality that thinks that he is smarter than anybody else in the room and so forth. And uh with these characters then Bessant is also an interventionist with these characters you don't know exactly what will happen but I maintain the likelihood of the Fed and the Treasury tightening monetary conditions the likelihood is very More more likely is that as every government in history has done sooner or later to resolve not resolve postpone the problems is money printing that uh hurts the rich people the least at the beginning the elite they actually benefit from money printing and I'm not saying this out of any anger or so. I as a financial man I also benefit from money printing. The price of gold goes up, the price of silver goes up and so on. But I'm saying that money printing is very detrimental to the well-being of the typical household in in every the sort of average Tom, Dick, and Harry. Uh because their cost of living is going up more than the salaries. Plus the their taxes are going up. >> Yeah. Taxes are not being lowered. I can tell you that. I'm I'm seeing that across the globe. Um just looking at US credit card debt as well, it's at a record high, $1.23 trillion. It keeps going higher. Uh there there's no end in sight. Absolutely. So >> that that the credit card debt tells you that things are not particularly good because credit card credit is very expensive. you know, we're talking about something like 20% peranom or more. If >> if I may jump in there, sorry to interrupt you, Mark. Um, President Trump suggested or proposed 10% cap at least for a year on the credit card rates. I'm curious what your take on that is and what the effect might be. I don't know for sure what the effect will be but uh as I said he is a typical interventionist that intervenes into things without thinking it through. I would have to study the matter and what the consequences would be because at 10% the credit card companies will probably not issue any credit cards for so I can tell you >> they might do credit. >> I'm sure that this is a very wise measure. >> They might actually do credit checks so we'll see decreased liquidity and people will consume less. >> Yes, exactly. I mean I we're talking about the world needs especially with the government debt being at such a high level they need liquidity and if you withdraw that liquidity you have an economic crisis and whether the governments will accept especially Mr. Trump whether he wants an e economic crisis, I doubt. >> No, I I don't think he wants a crisis. Not not until November, >> right? Um maybe we need to frame it like that because after that, I actually don't know what he wants. Quite honestly, I always thought he wants a much lower dollar. Right now, he's happy with where we're at. >> He's happy to print more money. He's happy to give out more money to the constituents through tariff checks. So, I'm quite curious what I I actually don't know what he wants post midterm elections. Like, do you do you have an inkling? Do do you have an idea like maybe he'll completely turn around and do the opposite? Is that like a fair I would say a guesstimate, right? Is it's a guess on my part. In my view, what he wants is to be in the limelight >> and live in his world of illusion where he thinks he's the smartest man on in the world and the most powerful man in the world and he wants to increase his wealths. That is what I think he wants. Well, he's doing a pretty good job at at least the latter part, meaning creating wealth for himself. So, he's doing fairly well there. >> Um, >> lately, not not so much because he's heavily into cryptocurrencies and his collapsed. >> Yeah, there is a bit of shod in Florida in there. I do have to admit, um, when it comes to that part. But um Mark, look looking at the equity markets again. I'm looking at the S&P 500 and we're seem seemingly oscillating at at at the highs here and the market doesn't really reflect reality like it's closer to a breakout than uh it's close to 7,000 points in the S&P 500 which is a very high level. So the market seems to be oblivious to uh maybe the reality and I'm curious like Dr. Fab what is priced in in this market right now? Is it just a a measure of liquidity that we're seeing or is there actually some realism to the current pricing? >> In my view, uh the market consists of a small number of stocks that are highly priced in my view grossly overpriced. These are the MAC 7 stocks and the semiconductor sensors. And then you have a wide range of stocks say in the SNP 480 stocks. They haven't moved much in the last few years. And the S SNP was driven by these 20 or so stocks that I just explained. And the question is now last year for the first time in say around 15 years since 2010 Europe and emerging economies grossly outperformed the US grossly with a few exceptions say Indonesia and Thailand they didn't move up but other like Brazil uh the stock market gain and the currency gain added to almost 50%. So this is a big change that other markets and other assets are performing better than the US market and the big change was also the outperformance of gold, silver and platinum v say the SNP and the Dow Jones and so was and I think that uh they can print money. Yes. And in nominal terms, the Dow and the S&P may go up somewhat, but inflation adjusted and especially adjusted against the gold price. I think these financial assets will continue to go down will continue to go down against gold, silver, platinum. >> No, that's when reality kicks in. The question though is when when is that is do you expect a certain trigger? When when does that when do we reach that tipping point when uh pricing actually works again like the market actually produces a proper price? When does that happen again? >> Well, I think the market produces a proper price and that's the price of gold. Now, some people will say gold is in a bubble. Yes, it's gone up a lot, but I can turn around and say no, gold and silver and platinum uh their prices are steady. What has however happened is that the purchasing power of paper monies around the world, I mean not just the US but also in Europe and in Japan that these purchasing powers of paper monies have collapsed. In other words, whereas when you were young, you could buy for $10 this basket of good, now for $10 you buy just this basket of goods. In other words, prices have gone up a lot or the value of money has gone down a lot. And I I think if we look at gold, we we may argue yes, overbought, >> but then I look at the purchasing power of money and it's gone down a lot. >> I mean, if someone tells me the inflation rate is 2%. Is a complete joke. Go once to the doctor, go into restaurant, go and pay your insurance premiums and the electricity for your house and so forth is up much more than 2%. In Switzerland, they claim they have no inflation. And in every survey about the the price level of cities in the world, the Swiss among are among the top 10 cities worldwide always. Uh how come that are the most expensive cities in the world if there is no inflation? >> Just greed that they just raised prices. It has nothing to do with inflation. Nothing. No. Um, but Dr. Fab, just just to stay on that topic, so gold has maybe just revalued to where it should be based on what you just said based on the devaluation of currency of fiat. And that's $5,000 or $4,500, wherever you want to draw the line, is the new normal. And that's where it should be. This is a very difficult question in life where prices should be because in a free market they fluctuate and in a planning economy under the communist system or socialist system you have price fixing. That's what Trump wants to do with the interest rates on the credit cards. You understand? I would have voted for Mr. Trump because I think the alternatives would be even worse. But it is not clear to me that he's a capitalist. In many ways, he is a central planner. Now, is he a fascist or a socialist? That I don't know. But he's an interventionist. And in a perfect world, he would rule America and the whole world like a king or an emperor. That is his dream. The fellow although I would have voted for him, is mentally deranged. Well, from looking at at it from a mining perspective, that's where we come from. wants to offer a price floor for critical minerals and uh for for silver to a degree as well, although it hasn't been mentioned explicitly. So, I'm curious if there will be a price floor for silver as well. Do you think that's a good idea? Especially for silver critical minerals, I get but but silver, what would that do to the market? In my opinion, prices should fluctuate freely without the government intervening into the price. And the prices should decline when there is over supply and they should go up when there the markets are under supplied, when there are shortages. And as prices go up, new mines are opened up and so forth. And as prices go down, minds are closed and that is a free market. And okay, other people have different views, but in my view, free markets are very important and they are the basis of our capitalistic system and they're the basis of the incredible growth the world has experienced. since the essentially adoption of the capitalistic system say around 1800. Okay. Before that there was in the world very little growth economic growth and the world's population in 1800 was not significant. It had gone up from the times of Jesus Christ but not dramatically. But then between 1800 and today it's gone up eight more than eight times. >> Yeah, that that is quite significant actually. The question is no will it go higher, right? I mean, I look, I'm an elderly man and I went to the socialist communist countries in Eastern Europe, in Russia and China early on and I saw the economic disaster socialism and communism produces and the unhappiness among the general population because they're forced to do things and are not allowed to develop their own initiative. And once they gave up these communist regimes or the communist political philosophy, all these countries exploded on the upside, including China and India more recently and Russia and Eastern Europe and Poland and I mean you it's hard for young people to believe that that these countries were impoverished beyond belief. Uh when I went there first in the 1960s and 50s, a lot lot has changed, but we're still wanting the same like we still want to come back to communism. If I see some of that uh being, you know, propagated out on the doorsteps of uh some of the, you know, countries governments here as well. So >> yeah, but I agree. Yes, this is something that as a say someone who studied history and someone who is a social observer like I am. I'm not saying that I'm a scholar and an academic voice although I studied economics but this is something that has surprised me that in western societies where the whole system is based on a relatively free market and free economics that you continuously get these socialists to have so much power and let's say in Switzerland we have cities that are run by the socialist and green communists >> but I can see one thing you understand a government official he is paid a salary he's not very much but some countries they pay them well in order to avoid corruption say Singapore pays government officials and ministers as well, but they're not allowed to be corrupt. Now, in other countries, this changes and the one way to extract money from the taxpayers for their own pockets is to have a big government. You understand? An honest government. They steal say 5 10% a very dishonest government like you find in Africa, they steal and uh through corruption maybe 80% flows into the pockets of government officials and and but nowadays in America if you have a budget of $8 trillion and you steal 10% is a lot of money >> that is that is a lot billion dollars. >> Absolutely. Um Dr. Faba, I have two last questions for you. One is maybe probably deserves a longer answer and we could probably spend 30 minutes alone on that question is but does President Trump in the US in general have a chance to escape that death spiral? Meaning we're looking at exploding debt that it looks like we're we're steering towards financial and monetary reset here. Um but the the policies that are being introduced, do you see any chance of escaping that death spiral? >> Well, I tell you already in the early 80s uh Maril Lynch had three strategies. Charlie Mter and uh uh his name was Aaron Stein, but I forgot his first name. and Stan Salvixson and they predicted sort of a debt collapse by the end of the 1980s. And here we are still and still printing money and the system still works somewhere somehow. And I think uh Trump and his lackers at the Fed and at the Treasury and in government, they can postpone the crisis. Can they postpone it forever? No. Eventually the policies will lead to such an impoverishment of the population that they will rebel that they'll there'll be social struggle and maybe a civil war. So that is something I would consider. Number two, geopolitically the conditions today for war are better than at any time following World War II. I think it's not uh necessary to have World War II, but the likelihood that we will have World War II has increased. And we have the way we economist we have business cycle series the contraatf the kitchen the jugler the knates and so forth and the historians they have war cycle series and the conditions for war are now very favorable very favorable doesn't mean that war will break out but is a possibility >> yeah that's something that'll reset everything pretty much war will just re redefine the economy economic baseline in general because we'll just have wartime spending like you would not believe. So >> yes, >> absolutely. Um Dr. Faba, very last question because I know my audience wants you to answer that question is just where are we headed in gold and silver? What what is your expert opinion? I'm not asking for a price target or anything but uh ju just a bit of direction. What should we be expecting here in the in the near term? My view and answer would be you may like gold and silver or you may not like it. But in my opinion, you will be grateful at some point in your life to have had say 20 30% or more in gold and silver because paper monies will go down in value. And if the past 5,000 years is a guide, governments will before they fall, before they implode and collapse and everything goes sour, before that happens, they'll print money. >> I think we're very close to some gold and silver. Now depending uh you know some people hold more and some people less but it's something I would strongly advise you to hold. I would not strongly advise you to hold the fun seven stocks in America the magnificent seven and the semiconductors but I would strongly urge you to hold some gold silver and platinum. >> Absolutely. No really appreciate that Dr. Faba, much appreciate you coming on. Typical question at the end if our audience doesn't know where to find more of your work and uh they should by now but uh ju just in case where where can we send them? >> I have a website gloomboomdoom.com all in one word gloomboomdoom.com. >> Fantastic Dr. Faba as always much appreciate the conversation. Thanks so much for joining us. Always good to see you. Can't wait to do this do this again here soon. And in the meantime, stay safe out there. Have have a good time. And everybody else, thank you so much for tuning in to this conversation with Dr. Mark Faba. I tremendously appreciate his time. Uh always fun to chat with him. Uh if you enjoyed this conversation, hit that like and subscribe button. Let us know in the comments down below how you see things unfold. Does the US have a chance to escape the death spiral? Really curious what your thoughts are on that topic as well. And as I mentioned earlier, we have introduced channel memberships for you that want early access to all our interviews that we're doing. We'll upload them as soon as they're edited and right before we publish them. So, really appreciate you watching. Thanks so much for tuning in. Take care out there.
Trapped – Gold Is Telling the Truth | Marc Faber
Summary
Transcript
But it's something I would strongly advise you to hold. I would not strongly advise you to hold the fun seven stocks in America, the magnificent seven and the semiconductors, but I would strongly urge you to hold some gold, silver, and platinum. >> President Trump just promised us 15% growth in the US under incoming Fed chair Kevin Worsh. What does that mean? Is he really g is he giving away free money? How is he going to achieve that? And of course, we'll talk gold, silver, what phase of the cycle are we in right now? I've invited a fantastic guest to combine all those topics for us. His name is Dr. Mark Faba. He's the author of the Gloom, Boom, and Doom Report, and I can't wait to catch up with him on those topics, of course. But before I switch over, hit that like and subscribe button. It helps us out tremendously. We really appreciate it. And one quick reminder, we heard your feedback. you want access to our interviews as quickly as possible, as soon as they're recorded, sign up for our channel membership and we'll grant you that wish. So much appreciate that. Now, Dr. Fab, it is great to welcome you back on the program. It's good to see you again. >> It's my pleasure. Thank you and good day to you viewers and listeners and of course to you. >> I appreciate it. No, really, really good to see you again. Always enjoy our conversations. We have lots to lots to discuss, of course. Last time we spoke in the summer um I think it was early August that we spoke Dr. Faba lots has changed we've seen some fed rate cuts uh which brings me also to the first topic really is the promise of crazy US growth meaning 15% is something President Trump said in an interview yesterday u that he expects to see or wants to see under incoming Fed chair Kevin Walsh the question though is Dr. Faba, how realistic is that? And if it were realistic, how are they going to achieve it? >> Uh, it's completely unrealistic and it proves that Mr. Trump is either a liar or mentally deranged. Uh, there's no way the US will grow at 15% peranom. Even coming out of a recession, they are unlikely to be able to grow at 15% and certainly not from the current level of asset prices and of economic activity. >> The the question though is like we're looking at 4% apparently right now. Howard Lutnik even talked about five to six% all based on AI boom and we're seeing massive numbers like hundreds of billions in in capex to be announced. I think it was 625 billion in capex that was announced. Is that the only growth sector? And how is that getting financed? How is that even possible? >> Well, uh the way it gets financed is essentially by issuing bonds and by printing money. uh the money supply is growing again and uh in my view the economy is not growing at 4% peranom. Uh there are some sectors that may grow at 10% peranom like the AI cap boom and so forth but uh it's unlikely to last. And secondly, I'd like to point out that uh gross figures are usually taken by measuring GDP, the size of the economy. And it depends very much how you adjust uh the nominal growth uh to real growth uh by deducting the impact of price increases. In other words, the consumer price index by how much do prices go up? uh if you measure how high prices go up maybe you get nominally 15% growth but if the price increases are say 20% then you have in real terms inflation adjusted terms a 5% contraction so I would be very skeptical about the figures that governments are publishing in terms of GDP P grows. I think more relevant would be to look at uh the well-being, the standard of living of the typical household. Is the typical household doing well or is the typical household struggling? And we know that in America close to 70% of families they live paycheck to paycheck. In other words, they need to get the salary by check in order to pay their bills. That in my view is not a sign of a very healthy economy. >> No, not at all. And it's that K-shaped economy that the the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Of course. Yes, this is the case. I mean, I think it's very important to distinguish between the economy of wealthy asset holders. They own stock portfolios, they own properties and so forth and uh they theirs is increasing and they have a high spending power. But the typical household is actually hurting because of increased food prices. Uh increase in insurance premiums uh for the homes and for the health and for the cars. I mean this is a big item and depending how the government weights certain items in the consumer price index basket you will get totally different results. I mean I have an economist John Williams of shadow stats according to him inflation is running up over 10% peranom and accelerating on the upside not diminishing and whether Mr. Walsh Walsh will cut rates and accommodate Mr. Trump or not is another question. That that is another question because the market was fairly surprised by the announcement I would say because the market expect more of a a dovish character meaning somebody who would actually lower interest rates more aggressively while Kevin War said well you know he's he's more of a hawk might maybe keep interest rates stable and then most importantly something we need to discuss Dr. Faba, he wants to shrink the Fed balance sheet. >> And the question is like what what does that mean and what is the impact of that? Um if he wants to shrink it cuz it's expanding again right now. He wants to shrink it. That means the Fed cannot step in. They can't do much. I'm curious what your take on that is and whether that even has a chance. >> Well, I mean, I listened to some speeches and some interviews with Mr. war and I have to say intellectually he is a very well uh educated person and I'm sure that he has good intentions for the Federal Reserve but at the same time he moves in a very affluent society including his wife's family uh lo there they they are asset holders, you understand? And I I don't think that he and his friends and so forth want necessarily to see the stock market down 50% or 40% or even 20%. So intellectually he may think that you would need to increase interest rates at the present time especially if by accident or unrealistically economic growth was 4% but it isn't. But in this position of being surrounded by asset holders, including the Trump family, it's unlikely that they will take measures to increase interest rates and lower asset prices and increase the affordability for ordinary people. In my view, he is more likely to support asset prices at the current artificially high price. The question is like will will he like participate in yield curve control and things like that, right? Uh it seems like the Fed and the bond the Fed needs to re sorry not the Fed the Treasury needs to refinance of course this year and bond yields are wonky to say the best to to say the least here. Um they're they're not they're fairly volatile right now and it seems like they're trending higher. So um the the Fed's stepping in potentially buying bonds and treasuries from the US Treasury. Um is that a high chance of likelihood? like what what do you make of that? >> Quite frankly, I don't know. And I think investors should get used to the fact that the more the government intervenes and Trump is an interventionist. Unfortunately, he's an ignorant interventionist. He he intervenes into everything because he's a typical sort of narcissistic personality that thinks that he is smarter than anybody else in the room and so forth. And uh with these characters then Bessant is also an interventionist with these characters you don't know exactly what will happen but I maintain the likelihood of the Fed and the Treasury tightening monetary conditions the likelihood is very More more likely is that as every government in history has done sooner or later to resolve not resolve postpone the problems is money printing that uh hurts the rich people the least at the beginning the elite they actually benefit from money printing and I'm not saying this out of any anger or so. I as a financial man I also benefit from money printing. The price of gold goes up, the price of silver goes up and so on. But I'm saying that money printing is very detrimental to the well-being of the typical household in in every the sort of average Tom, Dick, and Harry. Uh because their cost of living is going up more than the salaries. Plus the their taxes are going up. >> Yeah. Taxes are not being lowered. I can tell you that. I'm I'm seeing that across the globe. Um just looking at US credit card debt as well, it's at a record high, $1.23 trillion. It keeps going higher. Uh there there's no end in sight. Absolutely. So >> that that the credit card debt tells you that things are not particularly good because credit card credit is very expensive. you know, we're talking about something like 20% peranom or more. If >> if I may jump in there, sorry to interrupt you, Mark. Um, President Trump suggested or proposed 10% cap at least for a year on the credit card rates. I'm curious what your take on that is and what the effect might be. I don't know for sure what the effect will be but uh as I said he is a typical interventionist that intervenes into things without thinking it through. I would have to study the matter and what the consequences would be because at 10% the credit card companies will probably not issue any credit cards for so I can tell you >> they might do credit. >> I'm sure that this is a very wise measure. >> They might actually do credit checks so we'll see decreased liquidity and people will consume less. >> Yes, exactly. I mean I we're talking about the world needs especially with the government debt being at such a high level they need liquidity and if you withdraw that liquidity you have an economic crisis and whether the governments will accept especially Mr. Trump whether he wants an e economic crisis, I doubt. >> No, I I don't think he wants a crisis. Not not until November, >> right? Um maybe we need to frame it like that because after that, I actually don't know what he wants. Quite honestly, I always thought he wants a much lower dollar. Right now, he's happy with where we're at. >> He's happy to print more money. He's happy to give out more money to the constituents through tariff checks. So, I'm quite curious what I I actually don't know what he wants post midterm elections. Like, do you do you have an inkling? Do do you have an idea like maybe he'll completely turn around and do the opposite? Is that like a fair I would say a guesstimate, right? Is it's a guess on my part. In my view, what he wants is to be in the limelight >> and live in his world of illusion where he thinks he's the smartest man on in the world and the most powerful man in the world and he wants to increase his wealths. That is what I think he wants. Well, he's doing a pretty good job at at least the latter part, meaning creating wealth for himself. So, he's doing fairly well there. >> Um, >> lately, not not so much because he's heavily into cryptocurrencies and his collapsed. >> Yeah, there is a bit of shod in Florida in there. I do have to admit, um, when it comes to that part. But um Mark, look looking at the equity markets again. I'm looking at the S&P 500 and we're seem seemingly oscillating at at at the highs here and the market doesn't really reflect reality like it's closer to a breakout than uh it's close to 7,000 points in the S&P 500 which is a very high level. So the market seems to be oblivious to uh maybe the reality and I'm curious like Dr. Fab what is priced in in this market right now? Is it just a a measure of liquidity that we're seeing or is there actually some realism to the current pricing? >> In my view, uh the market consists of a small number of stocks that are highly priced in my view grossly overpriced. These are the MAC 7 stocks and the semiconductor sensors. And then you have a wide range of stocks say in the SNP 480 stocks. They haven't moved much in the last few years. And the S SNP was driven by these 20 or so stocks that I just explained. And the question is now last year for the first time in say around 15 years since 2010 Europe and emerging economies grossly outperformed the US grossly with a few exceptions say Indonesia and Thailand they didn't move up but other like Brazil uh the stock market gain and the currency gain added to almost 50%. So this is a big change that other markets and other assets are performing better than the US market and the big change was also the outperformance of gold, silver and platinum v say the SNP and the Dow Jones and so was and I think that uh they can print money. Yes. And in nominal terms, the Dow and the S&P may go up somewhat, but inflation adjusted and especially adjusted against the gold price. I think these financial assets will continue to go down will continue to go down against gold, silver, platinum. >> No, that's when reality kicks in. The question though is when when is that is do you expect a certain trigger? When when does that when do we reach that tipping point when uh pricing actually works again like the market actually produces a proper price? When does that happen again? >> Well, I think the market produces a proper price and that's the price of gold. Now, some people will say gold is in a bubble. Yes, it's gone up a lot, but I can turn around and say no, gold and silver and platinum uh their prices are steady. What has however happened is that the purchasing power of paper monies around the world, I mean not just the US but also in Europe and in Japan that these purchasing powers of paper monies have collapsed. In other words, whereas when you were young, you could buy for $10 this basket of good, now for $10 you buy just this basket of goods. In other words, prices have gone up a lot or the value of money has gone down a lot. And I I think if we look at gold, we we may argue yes, overbought, >> but then I look at the purchasing power of money and it's gone down a lot. >> I mean, if someone tells me the inflation rate is 2%. Is a complete joke. Go once to the doctor, go into restaurant, go and pay your insurance premiums and the electricity for your house and so forth is up much more than 2%. In Switzerland, they claim they have no inflation. And in every survey about the the price level of cities in the world, the Swiss among are among the top 10 cities worldwide always. Uh how come that are the most expensive cities in the world if there is no inflation? >> Just greed that they just raised prices. It has nothing to do with inflation. Nothing. No. Um, but Dr. Fab, just just to stay on that topic, so gold has maybe just revalued to where it should be based on what you just said based on the devaluation of currency of fiat. And that's $5,000 or $4,500, wherever you want to draw the line, is the new normal. And that's where it should be. This is a very difficult question in life where prices should be because in a free market they fluctuate and in a planning economy under the communist system or socialist system you have price fixing. That's what Trump wants to do with the interest rates on the credit cards. You understand? I would have voted for Mr. Trump because I think the alternatives would be even worse. But it is not clear to me that he's a capitalist. In many ways, he is a central planner. Now, is he a fascist or a socialist? That I don't know. But he's an interventionist. And in a perfect world, he would rule America and the whole world like a king or an emperor. That is his dream. The fellow although I would have voted for him, is mentally deranged. Well, from looking at at it from a mining perspective, that's where we come from. wants to offer a price floor for critical minerals and uh for for silver to a degree as well, although it hasn't been mentioned explicitly. So, I'm curious if there will be a price floor for silver as well. Do you think that's a good idea? Especially for silver critical minerals, I get but but silver, what would that do to the market? In my opinion, prices should fluctuate freely without the government intervening into the price. And the prices should decline when there is over supply and they should go up when there the markets are under supplied, when there are shortages. And as prices go up, new mines are opened up and so forth. And as prices go down, minds are closed and that is a free market. And okay, other people have different views, but in my view, free markets are very important and they are the basis of our capitalistic system and they're the basis of the incredible growth the world has experienced. since the essentially adoption of the capitalistic system say around 1800. Okay. Before that there was in the world very little growth economic growth and the world's population in 1800 was not significant. It had gone up from the times of Jesus Christ but not dramatically. But then between 1800 and today it's gone up eight more than eight times. >> Yeah, that that is quite significant actually. The question is no will it go higher, right? I mean, I look, I'm an elderly man and I went to the socialist communist countries in Eastern Europe, in Russia and China early on and I saw the economic disaster socialism and communism produces and the unhappiness among the general population because they're forced to do things and are not allowed to develop their own initiative. And once they gave up these communist regimes or the communist political philosophy, all these countries exploded on the upside, including China and India more recently and Russia and Eastern Europe and Poland and I mean you it's hard for young people to believe that that these countries were impoverished beyond belief. Uh when I went there first in the 1960s and 50s, a lot lot has changed, but we're still wanting the same like we still want to come back to communism. If I see some of that uh being, you know, propagated out on the doorsteps of uh some of the, you know, countries governments here as well. So >> yeah, but I agree. Yes, this is something that as a say someone who studied history and someone who is a social observer like I am. I'm not saying that I'm a scholar and an academic voice although I studied economics but this is something that has surprised me that in western societies where the whole system is based on a relatively free market and free economics that you continuously get these socialists to have so much power and let's say in Switzerland we have cities that are run by the socialist and green communists >> but I can see one thing you understand a government official he is paid a salary he's not very much but some countries they pay them well in order to avoid corruption say Singapore pays government officials and ministers as well, but they're not allowed to be corrupt. Now, in other countries, this changes and the one way to extract money from the taxpayers for their own pockets is to have a big government. You understand? An honest government. They steal say 5 10% a very dishonest government like you find in Africa, they steal and uh through corruption maybe 80% flows into the pockets of government officials and and but nowadays in America if you have a budget of $8 trillion and you steal 10% is a lot of money >> that is that is a lot billion dollars. >> Absolutely. Um Dr. Faba, I have two last questions for you. One is maybe probably deserves a longer answer and we could probably spend 30 minutes alone on that question is but does President Trump in the US in general have a chance to escape that death spiral? Meaning we're looking at exploding debt that it looks like we're we're steering towards financial and monetary reset here. Um but the the policies that are being introduced, do you see any chance of escaping that death spiral? >> Well, I tell you already in the early 80s uh Maril Lynch had three strategies. Charlie Mter and uh uh his name was Aaron Stein, but I forgot his first name. and Stan Salvixson and they predicted sort of a debt collapse by the end of the 1980s. And here we are still and still printing money and the system still works somewhere somehow. And I think uh Trump and his lackers at the Fed and at the Treasury and in government, they can postpone the crisis. Can they postpone it forever? No. Eventually the policies will lead to such an impoverishment of the population that they will rebel that they'll there'll be social struggle and maybe a civil war. So that is something I would consider. Number two, geopolitically the conditions today for war are better than at any time following World War II. I think it's not uh necessary to have World War II, but the likelihood that we will have World War II has increased. And we have the way we economist we have business cycle series the contraatf the kitchen the jugler the knates and so forth and the historians they have war cycle series and the conditions for war are now very favorable very favorable doesn't mean that war will break out but is a possibility >> yeah that's something that'll reset everything pretty much war will just re redefine the economy economic baseline in general because we'll just have wartime spending like you would not believe. So >> yes, >> absolutely. Um Dr. Faba, very last question because I know my audience wants you to answer that question is just where are we headed in gold and silver? What what is your expert opinion? I'm not asking for a price target or anything but uh ju just a bit of direction. What should we be expecting here in the in the near term? My view and answer would be you may like gold and silver or you may not like it. But in my opinion, you will be grateful at some point in your life to have had say 20 30% or more in gold and silver because paper monies will go down in value. And if the past 5,000 years is a guide, governments will before they fall, before they implode and collapse and everything goes sour, before that happens, they'll print money. >> I think we're very close to some gold and silver. Now depending uh you know some people hold more and some people less but it's something I would strongly advise you to hold. I would not strongly advise you to hold the fun seven stocks in America the magnificent seven and the semiconductors but I would strongly urge you to hold some gold silver and platinum. >> Absolutely. No really appreciate that Dr. Faba, much appreciate you coming on. Typical question at the end if our audience doesn't know where to find more of your work and uh they should by now but uh ju just in case where where can we send them? >> I have a website gloomboomdoom.com all in one word gloomboomdoom.com. >> Fantastic Dr. Faba as always much appreciate the conversation. Thanks so much for joining us. Always good to see you. Can't wait to do this do this again here soon. And in the meantime, stay safe out there. Have have a good time. And everybody else, thank you so much for tuning in to this conversation with Dr. Mark Faba. I tremendously appreciate his time. Uh always fun to chat with him. Uh if you enjoyed this conversation, hit that like and subscribe button. Let us know in the comments down below how you see things unfold. Does the US have a chance to escape the death spiral? Really curious what your thoughts are on that topic as well. And as I mentioned earlier, we have introduced channel memberships for you that want early access to all our interviews that we're doing. We'll upload them as soon as they're edited and right before we publish them. So, really appreciate you watching. Thanks so much for tuning in. Take care out there.