The Coming Era Of Rate Cuts: How Will They Affect Asset Prices? | Andy Schectman

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TO BUY GOLD & SILVER, contact Andy's firm at [email protected] Precious metals expert Andy Schectman returns to ...

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Okay, and we should be live here. Welcome to Thoughtful Money. I'm Thoughtful Money founder and your host, Adam Tagert, welcoming you back here for our monthly session with precious metals expert Andy Sheckchman, who joins me here. Andy, how are you? Good to see you, Adam. Thanks for having me. I'm great. All right, Andy, I got to say, I love that new studio. It every time I see it, it's it's so professional. Yeah, you know, it's a lot better than my office with the docking bar bark dog barking dogs and the FedEx man ringing the doorbell and uh it's it's it's nice. But thank you. You know, when we brought Michelle McCory on, we had to we had to level up a little bit to um to get to her her status. So, I appreciate it. It's nice. It's it's nice to have a place to come to. You know, as an aside, since 2020, I like everyone else, I was working out of my house for 5 years, and I forgot just how much I like actually putting on a a nice shirt and going somewhere, having a purpose. So, it's nice. I appreciate you saying that. All right. Well, that's good. Um, you know, fortunately, this program forces me to have to put the um the collared shirt and the uh the suit jacket on. Um, if not, because I have worked from home forever, um, you folks would would see a lot of I think people would like you just as much in a tie-dye. Uh, you're very kind. Um, well, look, you know, until recently being in Northern California, that probably would have been very appropriate. Um, well, look, we are going to talk today about um, uh, the fact that the market is now pricing in several rate cuts before the end of the or by the end of the year uh, and then additional rate cuts next year. And obviously the president is leaning as hard as he can on the Federal Reserve to have them cut. And um I think Jerome Pal uh well he's he's definitely seeing increasing dissent on the FOMC committee uh that not everybody agrees that the Fed should still be holding Pat. Um and so you know PAL A is feeling increased pressure and we're seeing increased signs that the economy is is continuing to slow and that gives the Fed additional air cover to say okay you know what you know we think maybe a cut uh is appropriate now. So a as of the as the odds go right now we are going to be entering a future of rate cuts uh starting likely as soon as next month. So um I guess first question for you is what impact is that expectation of rate cuts having on the precious metals on gold and silver uh so far if any as you can see? Well I mean if if the if the Fed were to cut rates um to help growth as you know we saw the the unemployment numbers the revision of the unemployment numbers were were horrendous. Um, and it's funny too because when the May and June numbers came out, like 250, 60, 70,000 jobs created each month. The gold went down, the stock market went up, and then quietly in August, they say, "No, not the 4 500,000 that we thought we created. It's actually only about 78,000." I mean, something like that. It was a massive reduction. So, you're beginning to see the economy really slow down and layoffs happen. So arguably this is what what they're going to want to do. Um but this adds more fuel to the inflation side especially with M2 already at you know at a record M2 is taking off. Um so when you have when you have this happen you know um more inflation without boosting productivity because I say that to you because uh we see the uh velocity of money at all-time lows. So they're trying it's like pushing on a string. They're trying to get all this money into the system but the economy is slowing. You can see it through the unemployment numbers. You can see it through the lack of velocity. There's a massive disconnection between the equity market and Main Street. Ultimately, this is all very positive for gold. Very, very positive for gold because, you know, you're talking about an environment where gold doesn't just go up because of of the currency debasement. It goes up because almost everything else looks worse. That's just the truth of it. Um and and and you add fuel to the fire when you say since June 1st, the institutionals, the insiders, right, the the traders, they've been selling between two and four billion a week in stocks. And you have uh all of the insiders that are selling at a 7 to one clip. And you have Jeff Bezos selling six billion in Amazon since June 1st. you have the three or four biggest um shareholders and board members of Nvidia doing the same thing and Buffett with 500 billion in cash. At the same time, you have the mainstream uh or you have the um the the public mainstream MPA all-time record in equities, all-time record in margin uh debt, all-time record in option uh exposure. You're talking all-time levered uh risky um allin in stocks greater than the great financial crisis, greater than the do bubble and the insiders are going the opposite way. Now to your original question. So that tells me the insiders are saying we're leaving the sinking ship right now. Something's coming and and the public is the opposite. All in. But on the metal side of things, the public doesn't have much exposure at all. But what we have been seeing month over month is extraordinary. Extraordinary in the amount of gold that's coming into this country. The people who are incredibly sophisticated know what's happening. And I want to draw an analogy to say these people typically know what's coming before the rest of us do. They they are able to get the playbook. And if you look at the fact that my whole career, which will be 36 years this uh February, less than 1% of COMX contracts ever stood for delivery. Now, all of the gold that's coming into ComX, what we know of over a 100red billion since the beginning of the year. And I would argue that a whole bunch more is coming in not through Comx. The biggest money in the world is importing gold in the United States at a level that no one has ever seen before, but more crazy than that. And I think this is a bigger indictment. And actually, you got to wonder where the hell is it going and who's doing it? Who's the big buyer? I think it's the Treasury, myself, or the Fed. But with all this gold coming in, less than 1% of contracts on COMX once they would post like, okay, there they expire August 1st, you can take cash, you can roll it forward, or you can stay for delivery. Less than 1% ever did. Just in the first three days of the August contract, we saw 2 million uh ounce over 2,160,000 ounces of gold stand for delivery, which represented 100% of the 2,160 contracts that stood for delivery that posted. 100% of them stood for delivery. And crazier than that, almost all of it is leaving COMX. About 90 plus% of it is actually being offloaded. In years past, when we would see deliveries, people would say, "Yeah, but it's not really leaving. It's staying in the eligible category. There's eligible, there's registered." Eligible would be bars in the system that are owned by people like my clients in our Brinks JFK vault. We have a Brinks, a set of Brinks facilities around North America. Just one of them is Comx. It's JFK. And the metal that the thousand ounce bars that my clients hold there, those are eligible. They could move to registered, which are the bars that back the contracts, but all forever the bar when stuff would come in and we would site deliveries, you'd see in the comments, "Yeah, but none of it's leaving. What does it mean?" Just goes back and forth. It's almost all leaving now. It's it's it's one thing to go into eligible and stay there, right? It's another thing to go to eligible and registered, which could then be delivered. It's a completely different thing to see it leave out the door. And I want to make one last question. I'm sorry to to go on but I want people to understand that whoever is doing this they're they're doing it for a far bigger reason than maybe we can even explain because in that ecosystem that I have nine Brinks facilities with one commex I had a client who made an incredibly large order and she the silver part of it was all um thousand ounce bars and the gold part of it was all kilo bars. Now, this is Comx compliant stuff. And my very dear friend is one of the primary Royal Canadian Mint distributors, and I was securing Royal Canadian Mint Gold and Silver bars that he stages for companies like mine. It brings JFK. He has some at the RCM in Canada and some at Brinks JFK. And I said to him, I said, "Rob, um, she wants to store this stuff at Salt Lake City brings." Um, he says, "No, she doesn't." I'm like, "What do you mean?" Yes, she does. He's like, "No, she doesn't." Because it will lose COMX eligibility and and would have to be reassaid to go back in. And if you have these thousand ounce bars and you get someone like, you know, Elon Musk says, "I'll pay a $50 premium above spot for anyone who wants to sell silver right now or whatever, she's out of luck." I'm like, "Well, let me get this straight. It's sitting in Brinks facility. It gets moved by Brinks truck to Brink Salt Lake City. And you're telling me that loses liquidity? I mean, it never left the ecosystem. It left the Comx ecosystem. And even though Brinks maintained custody of it the entire time to put it back into Comx, it would need to be reasseted. So, moral of the story is when this stuff leaves, it ain't coming back. And that's something people need to understand is that that the supplies are slowly being drained. And this is completely bucking the trend. And the people doing this at at the the first five days of the August contract between gold and silver almost $15 billion worth of stuff was delivered in 5 days. Now it's much more than that now. This was two weeks ago, but it almost all left. Where is it going? Who's buying it? Why do we not know about it? These to me that to me signals the people doing this are very wealthy, very sophisticated, know what the hell they're doing. And they wouldn't be doing this if they didn't see where we're going with our fiscal and monetary policy and ultimately where gold and silver are going. So yes, I'm sorry to have belleaguered the the question which could have been answered much more easily, but yes, this will be very bullish for gold. Very very bullish as is the underlying fundamentals right now. Okay. I I also do want to talk about whatever thoughts you might have about rate cuts on other assets, stocks, bonds, etc. And we'll hopefully get to that in a bit. But a bunch of things to connect based on what you just said there. Um, I also should should I'm remiss I didn't mention this right at the beginning. Um, I very much appreciate you coming on today and talking to us. Uh, because I I understand that this recording stands between you and the start of your celebrations for your 55th birthday. So, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. It's okay. Thank you very much. It's a birthday weekend for me. It starts. Well, it is tomorrow, but it's going to start when I leave the office today. And uh yeah, it's it's crazy, man. Life's like a roll of toilet paper. You don't notice it spinning when you're young. And then all of a sudden, I'm 55 and I can actually see the cardboard and it starts to start spinning a little faster. I'm not I'm I'm not saying I'm getting really really old. I'm just saying it's crazy how fast it starts to spin when you get older. Well, viewers know I'm a huge fan of analogies, and that's a great one I hadn't heard before. Um well folks look um please give all your birthday good wishes to uh to Andy there whether you're in the live chat right now or you're or in the comments if you're watching on the replay. All right so Andy so you basically said look um we are seeing a lot of kind of endstage bull market rally signs right we're seeing the insiders essentially get out by selling 7 to1 ratio or so as you said to the retail who is buying handover fist so this is sort of the classic scenario of If you don't know who the psy is at the poker table, it's likely you. Um the real the retail investor tends to kind of join the party at the wrong time, right? Right before the cops are about to show up. So they're in there buying handover fist as you said, you know, record equity exposure, kind of record levels of speculation if you measure that by buying options and all, you know, all sorts of things like that. We're seeing the risk on assets, the uh meme stocks, the random cryptos, you know, on fire right now, which again is another great late stage indicator. So, okay. And you're saying, "All right." And then the opposite with gold completely. Exactly. If we watch what those people in the no are doing, not only are they getting out of stocks, right, by selling them to the retail, they are getting into hard assets like the precious metals. And not just getting in like I'm getting some exposure in my portfolio to them. I'm actually getting these assets into my own personal control. They're they're taking them out of comics at removing counterparty risk. But and look, I mean, you said we only have the first couple days of of data for August with delivery. I can't imagine we're going to be at 100% for the whole month because just even for the first couple days, that's kind of mind-blowing. But is it safe to say that that 100% even for the first three days is something you've never seen before in your career? Yeah, never seen before. And here are the numbers for silver for the first 5 days as well. So this would have been August 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th. So they received into ComX 1,721,192.54 ounces that was delivered into Comx, right? 1.721192. You know how much was withdrawn left the exchange? 1,890,316 ounces. More left than was received. And so that's one thing, but the the the one to one ratio you're talking about of not rolling when they post standing for delivery. No, there's no way it'll be 100 because it's typically 1% or you know in that vicinity. To see it at 100% is it's 4 feet of snow in in Death Valley in July. This is very unusual stuff. But even if it's four to 5% for the month, I imagine that is still very uh you know uh diverged from what we normally see. Correct. Yeah. I mean, the moral of the story is not only are we seeing, you know, players keep a lot of metal there because lots of deliveries are coming in and the and the numbers are going up, but they're withdrawing a massive amount of metals out of the vaults. And that in and of itself is, I think, really incred I mean, that that's whipped cream on top of an unusual Sunday because it's like it it's these things just have never happened before and now they are. So, what does it mean? And who's doing it? was behind it. Okay. Um, yeah, it's not necessarily snow and in and um uh Death Valley in the summer. It's like raining cats and dogs and boiling frogs. It's just stuff we just don't really see. Okay. So, folks, I do have a few more questions here for Andy that I'm going to go walk through, but then we are going to open it up to live Q&A. So, just know keep keep your questions. No time constraint. Uh, well, you're a good man. I I'll still try to keep it within the hour if we can. Um, but okay. So, big question, Andy. We're seeing record outflows of physical bullion from the ComX. Where's it going? Is this going into Brinks vaults? Is it going into people's personal safes? Is it going into their island bunkers of the rich and famous? Like, where do you think this is going? I I actually I guess maybe do you think it's going into the Fort Knox of the world if you think it's a sovereign buyer that's behind a lot of this? If if if I you know I have a thesis I I believe if I had to guess if I had one guess um I would guess it's secretary basent under the opice of the um exchange stabilization fund where because it would be used for um American security he would not even have to run it by congress or at least in a very disclosed way because I don't know I Guess who else could it be? Buffett, Bezos, you know, I mean, a huge hedge fund. You're talking a h 100red plus billion dollars. Where is it going? And if you think about it, for those of you that own a mint box of silver, 42 pounds, 18 19,000 bucks worth of silver, well, what are you doing with 7 billion worth of silver? I say this is this is a lot of of of mass semi-trailers full of it. Yeah. Yeah. So, I don't know where it's going. It's going to some people that are incredibly influential. And that in and of itself is is also interesting in that how do you keep this quiet? Quiet to the point that that none of the mainstream media even mentions the fact that you're seeing record inflows more so than in any time since the Brettton Woods agreement where everyone sent us their gold record. This should be talked about. It's not. And the fact that it's not. And even I spend 3 to four hours a day, every day, seven days a week, reading everything I can find across the globe. And no one has a clue who's taken possession of this. This is at a high level. Yeah. All right. Well, actually, Andy, breaking news here. Um, I do know where it's going. Um, Scott Cooper says it's going into his safe. So, anyways, folks, it looks like uh that that's that's behind all this, right? What's your address, Scott? Yeah, exactly, Scott. Um, all right. So, let me ask you this. So we've heard over the years by you know various different people in the precious metal space who forecasting out about the world waking up to the you know endgame for fiat currency and there's going to be a run on precious metals and you you talk you hear this talk about okay well then someday they're going to break the comx right they're going to they're going to take so much out of the comx that there's just not going to be enough there there and you know some people have said oh a lot of that might be rehypothecated we're not going to find out until there's enough demand. And I know the comics right now, at least early this year, I'm guessing this is still going on because of this record demand, they're reaching into the LBMA and they're pulling those ounces into the comics which are now getting pulled out of the comics. So what is the risk here, if any, of a breaking of the ComX or a breaking of the LBMA under this demand? I think the risk of breaking of the LBMA is far greater than breaking of the ComX because all of this gold is now coming into the United States, it seems. And I really do believe that I really honest to God believe with the passage of the Genius Act, we have entered a new monetary system and gold will be the the anchor to it. And it's not going to leave the United States. It's going to we're going to vacuum over as much as we can. It's not about tariffs and it's not about uh uh arbitrage like a lot of the talking heads have said all along. And I said, "No, it is not. This is far more significant." So I you know, the LBMA is already showing signs of breaking. you have that the guy um I could scour through 50 pages of notes on here and find his actual name. I'll see if I can do it as I'm talking about it, but he uh used to run ICBC bank uh in China. He's Japanese. He's a head of the the head of the Japanese uh commodity exchange and he just came out and said that um the LBMA he said loco meaning location London and Zurich have no platinum, zero, virtually nothing. get there trading 3 million ounces a day of spot contracts that are that could be delivered. We've talked about silver. Silver has 100 the LBMA has 155 million ounces of silver there. Uh it's the lowest float that they've ever had ever in the history of the LBMA. Now a float means the amount of silver backing the contracts. to have somewhere just shy of 750 800 million ounces altogether of which SLV owns 80% of it. So I mean there's that's it's owned by the ETFs supposedly. Uh that 155 million ounces. David Jensen is a man who has a Substack. I would have him on your show. I want to get him on mine. He's awesome. And he talks about the LBMA numbers. He says they trade about 190 million ounces a day off of 155 million ounce float. Well, what could possibly go wrong? Well, it gets even worse than that. He says that they took a they did a survey the LBMA and the member bullion banks did a survey a few years ago where they said, "Yeah, those numbers are massively understated by as much as 10 times because they only post the final settlement numbers, not not so not all the trades throughout the day. So they're doing 10 times as many trades as just the final settlement numbers. So what he says is they're trading 1.9 billion with a B ounces of silver per day every day off of 155 million ounce float. Now if we take a step back and it's very similar with platinum and very similar with gold. Not as bad with gold, maybe worse with platinum. And when you look at um uh what the Bank of England said earlier this year, you know, yeah, we're we're a T+1 exchange, LBMA, T is trade day Monday, plus one Tuesday, Wednesday. Those bars need to be moving to you. So, you know, Adam Tagert owns a multinational jewelry fabricating company and you have you have contracts at the LBMA so you can make your gold and silver jewelry and okay, we need to make stuff this month. So, you trade in your contract. They say, "Adam, sorry, brother. I know it's you're expecting those bars moving to you in three days, but we here at the Bank of England have a shortage of manpower in trucks. It's 8week delay." Really, that's what you get that's what you call getting caught with your pants down. Now, there are people like Tom Luango, and I believe he's probably on to something that Trump is trying to stick it to the Bank of England and to to the crown, and a lot of it has to do with exposing this and exposing their banks, who if you listen to Tom's arguments, they're convincing. Bottom line is is that forever through what's called exchange for physical, it was a two-way street. Metal would go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. question is if it's leaving Comx ain't going fourth right it came back ain't going fourth so if that really is the equation if that really is the deal then what does T plus 8 weeks mean does it mean we got to try in 8 weeks to get silver so we don't default or is it really that much demand where they don't have the ability to move your bars in a in a rapid fashion that's just nonsense to me so I don't know I would think if I had to guess that you could see and and by the way I'd like to say one other thing and that is when the BRICS grain exchange was developed a year or two ago the guy that's running it said you know we produce more wheat and consume more than they do in the west but we can't control price that's controlled on comix but with the development of this new exchange that's going to change they're also building the bricks precious metals exchange and exchanges are popping up all around Singapore St. Petersburg, Moscow, uh, Dubai, you're going to see price setting, I think, move to the east. Um, I think the LBMA, if I had to guess, of the three, the like the Shanghai and the East Comx, the LBMA, to me, the one that's in the biggest amount of trouble and could really actually find themselves up a up a river with no paddle would be the LBMA, far more so than the ComX. Okay. That would send reverberation through the whole system, the whole western system. Do do you feel as someone who you know watches this industry closely, do you feel like you have a good gauge of their, you know, fuel tank for for supply? Well, they post numbers. You could you could pull it up right now. Just you could say graph of LBMA silver chart. You'll see it's fallen at a 45 degree angle. Their gold isn't as bad. But you have to ask yourself, you know, are these numbers really even accurate? Are they being honest about it? I don't know. Right. But if you take it at face value, their platinum and their silver are in big trouble. Their gold isn't quite as bad. But um it's interesting too if you look at the shorting on Comx um there, what's his name? Um uh Nick Leairard. Nick Leairard does a wonderful site uh um does charting and um he shows a chart of all of the commodities and the short positions on ComX. the largest short position by far by eight Western banks in any commodity ever traded in the history of the ComX is in silver. Number two is platinum. Number three is gold. So platinum and silver are literally being drained out of those exchanges and they have a fraction of the amount of underlying metal as the amount of spot deliverable contracts that are being traded. I have been arguing since 2020 that these countries in the global south have for the last several years were sophisticated, coordinated, motivated and wealthy and were using the suppression of the western paper market. In fact, adding, aiding, and abetting its suppression so they could go all around the world and pick the pockets, right? Little by little from all of the exchanges and venues like the miners directly that that doesn't affect the price. Well, you're getting to that point where there's not really a whole lot left in in London to pick. And you got the head of the the Tokyo Metals Exchange saying there's nothing in in London and in um Zurich in the in regards to platinum, but they're trading 3 million ounces a day in deliverable contracts. What could possibly go wrong? And I think you may see that. So, let me just make sure I heard you correctly. Did you say that silver is the most shorted? Yes. Okay. Has the largest concentrated short position. Okay. Massively concentrated. So if the supply is draining, then it just seems like mathematically if if the momentum continues, there's a date with Destiny where there could be a massive short squeeze. Meaning the price of silver could go just bonkers at some point in time. All it takes is one of the banks All it takes is one of the banks to break ranks. Like I'm not doing this anymore. This is insane. And start to cover. And then it's a it's like the London gold pool that fell apart, you know, and all it takes is one. And I think it is an existential threat to these banks. And maybe that is part of the reason we're seeing these insane deliveries into ComX because who was short on COMX? Oh yeah, it was the Western banks, right? They're the ones that were short. So who's going to be holding the bag on the other side is a question. Will it be hedge funds? Will it be the European banks like guys like Tom Lango would probably argue? Um maybe. The point of it is is we don't know who's bringing all this gold and silver in. But if you saw this stuff coming and you were worried about tariffs and you were worried worried, you'd bring the metal back. So I think it's deeper than that. But I think if if you're going to do a new system in the West that is tied to gold as an anchor, you can't have your big banks massively short or the whole system blows up before it even gets started. So maybe that's part of it. They're bringing it back uh to reshort it to cover their shorts and it ain't never leaving again. It's never going to go back to London. I think if President Trump has anything to say with it would be my guess. Now I really do believe this. I really do believe that someone got in his ear and said we must do this because the rest of the world is draining what is available. When you have China, the largest producer of gold in the world and the second largest producer of silver in the world, flying all around Latin America, buying silver before it's even called silver out of the ground from Mexico and Peru. And the same thing with gold and then sending it back to China to refine it. Well, why would the largest producer and the second largest producer of silver in the world need to do this? And it just goes to show that they see things at a they're becoming scarce. Yeah. Okay. So couple of things here, but first let me just make sure. So as you have your view of the precious metals, I know there's lots of reasons why you're you're bullish on their future price performance, but with silver it in particular, it sounds like one of the things that you think is is a material upside potential upside factor is this, I'll call it the optionality of there being a massive short squeeze at some point. 100%. Yeah, and I think the commercial banks will be on the right side of it. I think most likely position right now, but who else? European banks, whoever. They're they're going to be the the pathies who took over those shorts and get crushed. Um, but but for the average investor, this is something that you have the potential to play, right? So, silver is still attractively priced, I'm guessing, in your eyes. Yeah, the term is asymmetrical. It has the lowest downside and the highest upside of any asset I've ever seen before. And yes, it's certainly not too late with silver. Okay. So, to something you were saying, um, so we've seen, uh, over recent years the West wake up to, you know what, we've been too dependent upon the East for a number of of critical commodities, critical supplies that we're going to have to start reshoring, right? So, we're going to have to start caring about rare earths and how to refine them. We're going to have to take over production of pharmaceuticals. um you know, chips, you know, all that type of stuff. This is not news to anybody. This has all been in the in the media. Um I'm going to pull up a a cartoon here that sadly I think was created 12 years ago, but it's still just as as relevant today. Um this is from uh I think Axel MK initially commissioned this but basically this this represents the transfer of physical bullion from west to east where uh we have been happy to accept fiat currency in exchange for hard bullion and as you said earlier you know China has been just you know very happy to make that trade right who's really winning this war if if all the bullion is piling up over here on the Chinese side right So my question is is will we potentially see do you expect to see just like we've done with rare earths and pharmaceuticals and chips the west to finally get religion and say you know what we're going to we're going to stop this flow of physical bullion from west to east. You would hope so. They're still doing it though. You can see it by the arbitrage numbers. The price of gold and silver in Shanghai is 10% or so higher than it is at least silver is. I haven't looked at cold the last few days, but it's much higher. Yes, in general it should. And the commercial bank shouldn't send it over there anymore. And maybe it's not all coming from the west. Maybe it's coming some from London and and and Switzerland, not just come from the United States. Yes, in general that has to happen. And I think let me just ask you this. So like um yeah, the banks may wake up or whatever, right? But but I'm almost talking more at the sovereign level where like you're saying you you suspect that Bessant under the you know instructions of Trump is now saying you know what gold is a strategic asset in a way that we haven't been thinking about it that way for a while. We're starting to build up in our conference. Could you see almost like a presidential executive order or congressional order that says you know what we're just saying this is so strategic anymore. We're just not going to let it flow outside of our Yeah. I think it I I do and I think they're going to revalue gold. I do. In my heart, I do because you mentioned bringing back manufacturing. Well, how do you do that? How do you do that, Adam? You can't really in this environment. You can, but you can't because Triffin's dilemma says that, you know, the rest of the world can make that stuff way cheaper than we can. So, how do you compete? I guess you do it just for for your your your own country, but it's not a great business if in in a globalized world. Um, how do you do it? Um, I think we want to lose the world reserve status. I believe that in my soul. Vice President Vance has said it, wrote about it on on White House letterhead that it we're at a point where being the reserve currency isn't such a good thing anymore because of Triffin's dilemma. And you know, so how do you bring back manufacturing? We owe 28 trillion in three years. in m in maturing treasuries. We take in 15 trillion in um in tax revenue. That doesn't even count the the trades imbalance or the budget um deficit of three trillion a year. We're a third of the way there in three years. I think they're going to default on the dollar. I don't think they want to be the world reserve currency anymore in order to bring back manufacturing. What do I mean by that? Judy Shelton, what did she say? They're going to back on July 4th next year. She told me and you this. They're going to issue treasuries pegged to gold, right, next year? Well, how how if they why would they do that? They would do that to have zero borrowing costs on the back end of the treasury market. Zero redeemable in gold. If you go out to 50-year, like she said, would start, there'd be a little coupon on it, plus the gold redeemability. You go all the way down maybe to 10, no coupon, zero interest, redeemable in gold. Well, what does that do? That allows you to to have zero borrowing costs to bring back your manufacturing. How do you make your manufacturing competitive? You devalue the dollar. How do you do that? You revalue gold. And if James Rickards is right or Mike Maloney, he says 10,000. Rickard says 24,000. The Treasury would the president would tell the Treasury to revalue gold right now. The the Treasury tells the Federal Reserve with no congressional approval, do it. It's held in the gold revaluation account. They put it at 24,000 an ounce. Like Rickard says, this is him, not me. That gives the Treasury Department 6 trillion free and clear. Treasury issues gold certificates to the Fed. The Fed prints 6 trillion out of thin air. Devalues the dollar tremendously, tremendously. Uh gives it to the Treasury general account who can start to work down debt. The Fed does not have access to that gold. It's collateral, but they only have claim on the cash value of that gold. Now, you just massively devalue the dollar. That is what revaluing gold is. That's what Roosevelt did. That is what it is. So now you devalue the dollar and you have zero coupon on the back end of the bond market so you can bring back your manufacturing inexpensively and sell your goods inexpensively. Well, how do you run the government? Oh, I got a good idea. Let's call it the Genius Act. And we'll have every corporation and bank on the planet start issuing dollar US treasurybacked synthetically backed um stable coins, right? and and think two trillion a year. Yes. And so this is how you give demand to the front end of the market. The back end of the market's pegged to gold. And if I'm right and if Judy is right, you'll see gold higher than you can imagine. Now the only hiccup in that that is a soft default. Richard Russell said for years they can inflate or they can die. They mean the Fed. Well, this is a soft default on the dollar in order to reshore manufacturing in order to at some point grow our way out of this problem. with 60% of the country having no college education. We must have that stuff, especially the critical stuff. This would give us the ability to do it. Now, the only thing that I could see in the middle of that would be universal basic income for a few years because if you don't have assets, you're dead in the water. If you hold your money in dollars, you're dead. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, you just you just as answered my question there more or less, which is okay. That helps us as a as a sovereign country versus other sovereign countries because kind of like it helps them too though. It helps them too because who's been buying all the gold? Oh, that's right. The central banks of the world have been eating gold at a level no one has ever seen before. These people understand the game. They talk to each other. Just like nine years of net central banks selling, you start to see the Bundus banks say, "Give us back our gold." And then you saw the next year, 2018, uh, you know, Dutch, uh, Austrian, Hungary, Turkey, Poland, all these banks did the same thing and bought more gold than they did combined in the 60 years previously. 2019 they doubled that number and then the BIS says, "Oh, by the way, Basel 3 Accord gold is now tier one." Oh, really? So, you didn't know about that and you didn't start bringing all your gold home from the New York Fed and the Bank of England and start buying it. They know where we're going and I think they're all clued in by the BIS and the IMF and they all speak. If I was ahead of of a massive deal and you're my best friend, you don't think I'm going to wink wink nod. Adam, you might want to buy gold. That's just what a rumor I heard. They do that and that's why these moves are always very much in front of everybody else. But these moves are so big and so significant and gaining zero media attention that that in and of itself is wholly significant. So whatever is happening with the gold and silver market, it is goes far beyond tariffs. It goes far beyond arbitrage. And that's what we're led to believe. But I bet my life on it that it is many magnitudes higher. more along the lines of realizing that if we don't accumulate the commodities, the rest of the world is and has been has a huge jump start on us using our stupidity of suppression of the commodity markets to support the illusion of bond market strength of dollar and western system strength and of the military-industrial complex who need silver for weaponry. All of this stuff makes perfect sense and I think we got called on the carpet and fortunately someone in this administration I think convinced President Trump that was the case and it appears this is what they're doing. So gold and silver to me will will not only be a life raft, I think they will outperform people's expectation. But I don't sell it that way. To me it's wealth. Don't buy it to get wealthy. Buy it because it is wealth. and and and and and here we are 6,000 years after it was mentioned 4 or 500 times in the Bible and the biggest money in the world. Not only is buying it handover fist, they're removing it from the exchanges, which is the complete absence and removal of counterparty risk like treasuries were to Russia very risky. They can be taken. Well, you can't take your gold if it's off the exchange. And I think that's what they're seeing. Okay. And again just to boil this all down for all these reasons um but to your point of hey look the people who get crushed if this transition happens the way you think it will are those who don't own assets right or don't own these types of assets right so um this is why you're you're you say to the individual investor who's listening this is why you want to get some precious metals there's a whole bunch of reasons to get it because it's wealth and and just the devaluation general ongoing devaluation of fiat currency These are all good reasons to own it, but if what you're talking about happens, you need to have some of this or else you just get completely left behind and then have to subsist on UBI or whatever whatever crumbs get thrown your way by the government to make it through that transition and it would be your patriotic duty and I could see him saying that look we we messed up a good thing. vice. You don't see the vice president of the United States and White House letterhead citing Triffin's dilemma and saying it's not good for us anymore. And here the Treasury Secretary says that he wants to preside over a new monetary system, a new Bretton Woods, and he thinks it will happen in this administration and then see something as significant as a stable coin bill passed. That is a new monetary system is the beginning of it. These things are happening. They are. And as you told me that you did an interview with Rick yesterday, Rick Rule who's who's meant so much to my career and and I love Rick and and and I'll give him credit. One of his famous sayings is if you save in dollars, you're destined to go broke. And if you are not a contrarian, you're destined to be a victim. And I believe that to be the case right now. Look at just the first six months of this year. In the first seven months of this year, the dollar is down 11% and gold's up 38%. That's a net 50% swing in purchasing power in seven months. May not finish the year that way or maybe it finishes much higher, but the dollar is being eviscerated and gold will only go higher in that environment in dollar terms because the dollar is going to be sacrificed in order to maybe bring back manufacturing and give our future generations the life and opportunity they deserve. Okay. All right. We got to go into kind of rapid fire answers here, Andy, just because I do want to get to a few questions from the audience, and I don't want to keep you too long. All right, I promise. I have a hard time with that, but No, no, I just I want you to get out there and start being celebrated. Um Um So, let me just ask you this. Uh there is still other countries gold stored at the New York Fed, right? It all hasn't been repatriated, right? It all hasn't, but it a good portion of it has. I don't know between the New York Fed and the Bank of England between 30 and 40 countries have brought their gold back and you hear Germany saying we want the rest of our gold back and that you'll see that following suit. A lot of the countries have brought all their gold back, but not everyone is um I guess you could say adversarial or or quasi adversarial or maybe see things the same way um as some of these countries who have repatriated their gold. But I think you'll see over time if it will leave, they'll want it back. You look at the Bank of England saying to Venezuela, "No, you can't have your gold back." I think leaving your gold in the Bank of England or the New York Fed is is as stupid as a mud. Well, and that's what I was that's what I was getting to is do you see the potential at some point in time where the government US government just says, "Hey, you know what? Gold's so important, we're not letting it leave our shores anymore." Yes, I do. I think it could very well happen. Whoever has the gold make the rules. And sorry, we got your gold. You know, and who said that on Easter Sunday? President Trump. The golden art of negotiating. He who has the gold makes the rules. Now, that came out of left field. Really? Cuz I didn't know that we had all that go. Well, we supposedly do, but we haven't audited it yet. But yes, these little clues, these crumbs, put them together, and they they make a path that's very interesting. Okay. All right. Um, and I don't think I've asked you this before. If I have, we can skip over it. But let's talk about silver, the silver market for a moment. Um, it's much smaller than the gold market, particularly above ground silver, right? Um, you mentioned that, you know, you know, sovereigns are, you think, are now playing in this space. They're trying to do it quietly. They don't want to, you know, uh, seize up the market necessarily. But what about just a rogue billionaire? We've got plenty of billionaires now. You know, why why not a rogue billionaire or a rogue corporation that's got 50 billion in its treasury or whatever. You know, just step in and say, you know what, we're just going to corner the market. We're just going to I forgot the guy's name. What the hell is the guy's name? There's a billionaire who just did that and he's been all over Twitter talking about it. What is his name? David something. Ah, come on. Do any of the listeners remember who I'm talking about? There is a billionaire out there who just bought a whole massive warehouse full of silver. Shows pictures of it on Twitter. See if I can find his name on I haven't heard this yet. This is this is fascinating. Oh, come on. Um, if anybody in the live chat knows. Who's the billionaire that bought a whole bunch of silver lately? Let's see if we can Someone's going to know this. It's all over Twitter. I talked about it for a few weeks. It's working. What I just asked is happening. David Baitman. In early 2025, tech entrepreneur David Baitman reportedly purchased approximately 12.69 million ounces of physical silver equating to about 1.5% of the global silver reserves. And he's been talking David Baitman. Go to him on X and look it up. And he has he shows it all and he tells you why he's doing this. And he's a billionaire. So there is and and ask yourself who just took possession of 7 billion worth of silver? We don't know about it. So maybe, just maybe, and if you are one of those guys, the last thing that you're going to do is talk about it until you have it in your warehouse like David Baitman did. Now he's talking about it. So build your book, right? And so maybe that is happening right now. And that's a valid point. And a lot of people say, well, if China's so interested, why don't they just buy it all? Because you cut off your nose to spite your face because markets would seize up like that and everything would would just stop slowly. the the death by a thousand paper cuts. Use their stupidity against them, they say to us. It's the art of war and that's what they're doing. And David Baitman figured it out before others. And now he's talking about check it out. Exactly. And so I I get why the sovereigns or why the banks want to do the drip, you know, I mean accumulate hopefully under the radar over a long period of time, but it's these rogue players, I think, that could come out and just seize up the system. They don't they don't have those same concerns. a seized system helps them because I've got my billion and a half of sober now in a warehouse that's going to go to three billion if the system seizes up, right? Yeah. Well, 50% of the employees at Invidia are now worth $50 million or more, something like that. You could see, you know, get a whole bunch of people to spend $20 million on silver and and in 10 minutes, the entire amount of silver in this country for retail is gone. That quick. That quick. and and it all comes so it's just the fact I would argue that the people suppressing silver in my mind has been used for to to make high-tech weapons. I've talked about that adnauseium and I give the statistics and whatnot. It's not about the price as much as it is price wakes people up. Price is the greatest tool of misdirection, right? If you just suppress the price, people just won't even look. They just keep on walking. Right? Especially when the movements are counterintuitive to what guys like you and I have been talking about. Yeah, you don't know what you're talking about. Doesn't do anything. It just gets goes nowhere. Right. Well, until it doesn't. And how does that happen? When countries around the world stand for delivery, which is now happening, which never did happen. So, you know what you and I talk about has been right. It's just the fact that the the commercial banks at the behest of the central banks or whoever the military-industrial complex where you have eight western banks controlling this massive short position. Well, why would they do it? That is the question. Why? It's not for profit. It's there's a bigger there's something far bigger behind it and I think it's being exposed right now and guys like David Baitman get it and uh it's an interesting read. He talks a lot about it lately. All right. I'll check him out. But I I do feel that if if if more David Baitman jump into this pool, you know, big deep pocketed billionaires corporate treasuries that just say, "Hey, let's do that." Like this could go real quick, faster than a lot of people. It would go real quick. And that's the thing. Most of these very wealthy people, they made their money in in in you know, traditional manners. uh and and if you are very wealthy and have a financial adviser, money manager, chances are, you know, they don't know a gold eagle if a fell on their foot. Now, that will change. But, you know, guys like David Baitman and some of the other guys that we see, you know, talking about this now all of a sudden wealthy people, very smart and influential are starting to get it. So, you're starting to see the people up at the top mention it. So, it's uh hedge fund guys, it's it's getting there. Okay. Um so let's see here. Uh two last questions before we get a few from the audience here. Um uh so we we have um lower rates coming right. Um and uh you know presumably that is because the economy is slowing enough that inflation at least in the near term becoming less of a worry and it's more hey we want to job market's starting to get weak consumers are starting to struggle right um so presumably uh in that type of environment maybe stocks won't do so well if they have to reflect a slowing economy and right now they're priced to fantasy right um with bonds I've had a number of folks on recently including Jim Murszo who I just released an interview with yesterday who was saying hey I think there's kind of a good era for bonds coming up here where um basically as the as as the Fed cuts rates that T- billill and chill trade starts getting starts going away right so what's going to happen to those trillions that are sitting in money market funds or T- billills right now and he says well some percentage of that is going to go out in duration right which is I'm going to I'm going move to the two-year, the 5year, the 10 year. I'm going to try to lock in three and a half, 4% for several years knowing that the short end's going to start coming down. And I I can see that, right? Um, but probably not all of it will. And there's a lot of people that are sitting in in T- billill and chill because they're getting paid to be in real safety. And so, okay, if if T bills are going to start paying me less to sit in safety, where else can I sit in safety that offers a good return? And while gold doesn't give you an income per se, it has been appreciating very nicely in recent years. And I think that's catching more and more people's attention. So my question to you, Andy, is do you expect some material percentage of those trillions that are currently in T- billill and chill to find their way into the precious metals because people want safety assets that are performing well? Anyone who would put their money in 10ear treasuries or higher, and I say this with respect to your guest, I think is out of their damn mind. Period. And and all you got to do is just go to shadowstats.com and see real inflation's 11%. The way it used to be calculated and and um I think that a lot of people are in short-term treasuries. I own some short-term treasuries, you know, like um 90day or less treasuries, four-week treasuries, whatever, because it has been attractive. You're right. And let's not forget that when the Fed lowered rates by 100 basis points not too long ago, what happened to the tenure? went up by 100 base points. That's the market's way of saying, "Ah, uh uh, we're not gonna let you lower rates on the federal funds rate, lower the front end of the curve, and and expect us not to understand that that's inflationary. So, if you don't think we expect more for longer duration, guess what we do? The Fed can't control the back end of the bond market unless they start to monetize it, which is the pathway to right hyperinflation and why Republic. So, I think they'd be out of their mind to not move it to gold. Let's just look at three numbers. 25 years. Last 25 years, gold has doubled the performance of the 10-year Treasury. How about last year? Gold was up 40%. The 10-year Treasury up four and a half. How about this year? Halfway through the year, that 10-year Treasury is up just over 2%. The dollar's down 10. Oh, you're negative 8%. Gold's up almost 40. That's a 50% swing. So, I think a lot of people are doing that. That's it's it's starting up at levels in central bank levels where they're selling treasuries and buying things like gold which not only has outperformed it but like we're seeing with the repatriation and the removal from the exchanges has no counterparty liability. So, I think it's a it's a growing dilemma that we have and this is why we have the passage of the stable coin bill because the the the natural organic demand for our treasuries is like really you're going to have to print that much money. We and you expect us to take 4% for 10 years. I don't think that's really in my best interest. So, you're you're beginning to see well we have a problem folks. No one wants our treasures. I got an idea. Let's create stable coins and have them one to one backed by it. Uh, that's a great idea. And then zero interest on the long end, so it's redeemable in gold. That to me makes more sense. But to your point, where else do you put your money? Because interest rates were suppressed for 30 years, all assets are still distorted. Farmland, real estate, stocks, bonds, it's all distorted. Because if interest rates and inflation were actually allowed to to to meet naturally, inflation's way up here. interest rates would have to be up here to compensate. So you're getting a negative real return, in other words, on treasuries because inflation that is misreported and under reportported by the BLS is is way below or way above the yield. So So you're saying the true real rate is is quite negative. It's negative. So yeah. So where do you put it? And and when that happens, if it were allowed to find equilibrium, stocks, bonds, real estate, um the the banks and the insurance companies who are low with treasuries, it'd all implode. This is what happens when you screw with mother nature the way that we did. We should have never suppressed interest rates the way that we did and created distortions in asset prices and misallocations and resource and capital. And you can see that just by your home price. What's your home worth at three? What's it worth at seven? What's it worth at 10? And they say, you know, we want more first-time home buyers to be able to buy homes. So, we want to lower the rates. The mortgage rates get better. But isn't that what got us in this problem to begin with? You lower rates, sure, you get a easier loan, go deeper into debt, better terms, but real estate will go higher because more people can buy it. So, the we're at a this is the quandry we're in. So, yeah, I I think what he said from an academic standpoint and old school is right, but I think a lot of the people who are in short-term treasuries like myself, because I have two I I I have gold every coming out of my ears and vaults all around the world and I own a gold company, right? I'm afraid to go into the equity market. People who are in short-term treasuries are afraid of risk right now. And I think there's every bit the amount of risk in 10-year treasuries right now as there is in the equity market for a different reason. But I would argue against his point that I don't think much if any of people who are in short-term treasuries will go any further than two years. And even that would make me itchy. Okay. But but just Yeah. Some will go into gold. Just sort of mathematically. Yeah. So some will go into gold. So let's be conservative. Let's say 5% I mean or a couple singledigit percent of what's currently in the trillions. Yeah. Tone chill makes its way into gold and silver. So those markets are so small relative to stocks and bonds and you know assets are priced at the margin. Even just those singledigit percentages coming into those markets should have a pretty tremendous upward price impact on gold if indeed that were to happen. Yeah. Because because the majority of gold's performance over the last couple years, without question, Adam, a thousand% has been central bank buying and they haven't stopped. In fact, the the polls suggest they're going to continue and they say they expect to buy more next year. So, you inject a fraction of the of the the big money and the retail side into this market. When Silicon Bank failed and Signature Bank failed, we added 14,000 clients in 45 days. And those banks were illegally bailed out by Janet Yellen illegally according to the DoddFrank Act. What happens if they would have been let to fail like like little old bank in Lindsay, Oklahoma that was bailed in that no one ever talks about? They are bailed in all those depositors lost that money. No one talks about it. But what happens if it would those 14,000 would have turned into 140,000? Well, everyone freak out as their money is being drained out of the banking system or David Rogers web the great taking. All it takes is one event for people to wake up and say, "My god, do you see what's happening?" And where do we go? Well, everything is distorted to all-time highs because of suppression of interest rates. But the one thing they didn't let go higher was gold and silver. Why? Because well, the silver I argue is military-industrial complex, but it's the same thing with gold. They represent the canary in the minehaft that this is all an illusion. So you have to step on it. And it was easy to do it by leasing central bank gold to the commercial banks who would forward sell it, short the market, drive the price down, put the excess um the the proceeds from those short sales into treasuries, drive down rates, make the spread between the half a percent lease rate and the treasury market and be told from the central banks, you have immunity. Don't worry. That is in essence what we learned when um there was a lawsuit in Louisiana that named American Bareric JP Morgan in this lawsuit and the the judge more or less the the attorney for Bareric said we move for dismissal. This is unfounded. The judge says no it's going to discovery. There's more here than meets the eye. And at the end, even though the results of the case were sealed, what we learned was that they admitted fine, we did it, but we were, you know, yes, we did it. Um, Bareric said we did it, but we were told by JP Morgan, who was told by the the, you know, the Treasury Department to do this and we will never forward sell again. They admitted all this stuff in federal court just like the interview between um uh Arcadia Economics and um what's his name? The former CFTC commissioner um the head of the former CFTC died after oh Bart Chilton. Bart Chelton. Yes, he admitted all this stuff happened. So these things are happening. Markets have been suppressed but I don't know. Oh, I just I think this stuff is all going to unwind. And if 1% of the public wakes up to this or 5% of that money that's holed up there, it would be so massive to the gold and silver industry, it's not even funny. Okay. Well, again, just to note for folks, unless things change, we're looking at a new era of rate cuts ahead of us and that's going to start to end the tea bill and chill and that money is going to have to go somewhere. So if Andy's right and some of it makes its way into precious metals again another big tail when the precious metals where would you put your money Adam if you were in T bills and millions of dollars or you know hundreds of millions where you going to put it into overvalued equities overvalued real estate a bond market? No. Where are you going to put it? Some of it has to go into commodities and some of it has to go into gold and silver. And maybe that's why you're seeing the billions coming into comx 100 plus billion that we know of. I don't know. Maybe that's why the central banks have been the biggest buyers in the world for the last 5 years because they see long before we do because they write the playbook what's coming. Okay. Um All right. Last question before I get to the Q&A. Um so you referenced the uh webinar that I did last night with uh Rick Rule and Frank Troder who are launching BattleBank. And Battle Bank essentially is a is a new bank. Frank Troder was the founder of EverBank which Rick Rule um was an investor in. And uh so they've got uh a lot of uh you know history and experience launching banks like this and this is a virtual bank. Um meaning you know there's there's aren't physical branches around the world but you can bank anywhere anytime through them through the internet magic of the internet. Um and they are essentially building this bank as a community bank really for the sound money audience. It's for people that think like you, Andy, um who want to deal with a bank that um has great customer service, uh believes in the value principles of sound money, is very precious metals friendly. In fact, the bank will let you um uh not only custody precious metals with them, but you could borrow against your precious metals. Um and uh and anyways, uh you know, this is something Rick has been mentioning for years. It took longer for this bank to launch than they had initially thought and that's largely because the approval process just got really slowed down in the previous administration, but things have picked back up and they are looking like they're finally going to be able to launch by the end of this year, early next year at the latest is what they're currently targeting. Um so anyways um folks if you are interested in learning more about that bank um because most people don't have a great relationship with their bank um in fact and most banks um are pocketing a lot of the arbitrage they're making between what they can um they can borrow with at low risk like even buying treasuries versus what they're going to pay you in your savings account or your checking account. Battle Bank is really constructed to try to treat the customer much better. they'll be paying much more competitive rates, um much more true rates on deposits. Um if you're interested in learning more about that, just go to um let me pull it up here. Go to thoughtfulmoney.com/battle and you can watch uh that uh that webinar and um you know, learn more about the banking opportunity. Just to let you know, there are ways to become depositor in the bank or ways to even potentially become an investor in the bank. Um if you go watch the video there atomoney.com/battle, you'll find out how to do both of those. But I give all this background, Andy, because I believe um we didn't talk about this directly yesterday, but you are one of the partners Fatal Bank has reached out to to partner with on the precious metal side of things, correct? Yeah. And I'm in the process of filling out an application to become an investor in the bank as well. Um there still are some spots left and I played golf with the head of um investing for the bank not too long ago. really like the guy and and he he answered all my questions. So, I'm doing that, too. But Rick has meant more to me than anyone in the industry for for 25 years. And Frank is one of the greatest guys I've met in the industry, too. They're amazing people. So, yeah, we used to do what they're doing and and because we're not a bank, I stopped doing it. It's a gray area. There are lending laws that are not blue sky. Every state has different lending laws and whatnot. So, we stopped doing the the lending against physical metal program. And so I had many meetings with them, told them how I did things and and and said, "I'd love to be part of it." So in essence, they will have the ability in any of our nine Brinks facilities to to if if your gold is right here, they'll move it from here over to their account inside the vault and they'll lend it to they'll give you a line of credit in essence against that gold if you want to borrow against it. That's right. And never has to leave the Brinks facility. So, because they're virtual, so um it is a neat way to unlock the equity of your metal. Gold bugs don't want to sell their gold. Never do. And so, if they want to take a loan out against it and they have it in in a storage facility, any of ours, they will have opened up an account in all the Brinks facilities we're in, and it's just a simple transfer. Once the loan is paid back, it goes right back into your account. So, it's a cool program offered by, you know, people who are legendary in the industry and and it's an honor to be working with them for sure. All right, great. Um, all right, folks. Well, again, look, if you're interested in learning more about the bank, especially knowing now that uh Andy is uh involved as well. Again, go to thoughtfulmoney.com/battle and watch that uh that video if you haven't already seen it. Um, all right, so we got a few minutes left here. Um, and we've got uh I'd like to start pulling some questions here from the audience. I did see that people asked some questions early on. Um, folks, if you did ask it again, just so it's it's popping up here at the um fresh part of the chat so I can find it easily. Um, but let's see here if I can find anything that uh folks are asking here. Bear with me one second here, Andy, while I'm doing this. Is there anything else that's on your radar that I haven't thought to ask you about yet that's worth that you would like folks to know about this week? Um, I think I don't know if I spoke with you about the developments with Embridge with the bricks. There's just it is worth mentioning that it was a big deal to me. I probably mentioned on one of our earlier podcasts that they connected this bridge technology with um 11 Asian countries and um five Middle Eastern countries, the countries as Ean is the acronym and these are the countries in in Southeast Asia and I talked a lot about that how that was a big deal to me that they were still progressing with um their agenda with Embridge. Well, Forbes came out with an article just the other day that really I think puts an exclamation point on this and basically what they said was u and by the way Lavough the Russian uh foreign minister came out and said we're opening up the bridge technology to the rest of the world. It's just not uh United States um the European Union or um the UK. Um and they said, "Yeah, so we we have opened this up right now to the Asian countries." Well, that you know, I talked about it and I suppose most people heard it and just went in one ear and out the other. So Forbes comes out with an article saying that um the United States is at this point third um in trading with uh distant third right now. We trade with China behind Canada and Mexico third like 6% the lowest amount of trade in over 20 years and that China's now largest trading partner by far um is the are these Asian countries and these Asian countries have twice the population of the United States between 7 and 800 million people and the fastest growing middle class in the world and they are now connected to the bridge technology that that sidestepped swift and um gives immediate settlement 7 seconds and I think this is a big deal. They are moving forward and now you have bricks pay along with bricks bridge. Bricks bridge is central bank to central bank. Bricks pay is businessto business. It's retail. Both are being run out through the belt road initiative. That's 80 75% of human population. So you put these two groups together with the bricks you're talking 85 to 90% of human population moving away from the dollar. the settlement in local currencies starts to hurt the settlement status of the dollar, the purchasing of gold and things like that which act as the framework, the skeletal system because the at the same time China came out and said we are now making the yuan immediately convertible into gold through the Shanghai metals exchange the new exchange that's finished in Hong Kong. You can have it delivered in and take possession without converting to dollars. The next exchange right now is in the process of being built in Saudi Arabia. So you're going to have things like China buying oil from Saudi Arabia using the central bank digital currency that digital yuan over the bridge technology which is not compliant with swift can't be sanctioned can't be messed with and then the Saudis can take that and immediately take gold in their own country. The Shanghai Mails Exchange is expanding their network throughout the belt road through multi-jurisdictional vaults all around. It's the ecosystem. It is the skeletal framework of what will be the new bricks settlement currency. Now, China's taking the lead on it to not aggravate President Trump. But these are things that need to be kept a breast of in the periphery because this to me sets the stage for why we might be doing the things that we're doing with gold because he and his adviserss I think see this is happening and it's a trend already firmly in motion. So other than that, no, I mean, I'm happy to take any questions if there are any. Okay. And and I I remember the presentation that you did at um uh Rick's uh symposium last month and and it might be good one of these times to to let you go through your slides and all this, which I think would be good. Let me just I know you could talk about this for another hour, but let me just ask a real quick question and then we'll we'll get on to a few questions here. Um just channeling Brent Johnson for a moment. Um, you know, we're striking these new trade deals. Um, I I I can't imagine that if the US doesn't like what's going on there with, you know, these competing systems being put in place that it's not putting provisions in a lot of these trade deals with the big players, the Japans and India Ind Indas of the world. Hey, you know, as part of this deal with this new deal we're striking together, you're going to have commitments that you're not going to be participating in some of these, you know, competitive new new things that are going on. And you know if if we are able to successfully help negotiate a peace between Russia and Ukraine and relations between Russia and the US, Russia and the West start thawing and and the US starts trying to offer lots of carrots to Russia to to do some of the things it wants it to do. I got to imagine part of those discussions are going to be, hey, you know, you're you're not going to be fully in support of these things that are against our interests. Do you have a general? I think that I think that's it makes sense, but I mean, you know, look at how opinion flip-flops from Democrat to Republican, back to Dem. Trump isn't here forever. And I think that um I think that they may say that like look at Saudi Arabia and India are good examples. Saudi Arabia was admitted into bricks. They've got one leg in and one leg out to appease the West like you're saying um and and Trump. But yet when Embridge was designed, it was designed by Saud um China, Hong Kong, Thailand, United Arab Emirates. The fifth player fully integrated into Embridge. The fifth was Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia said, "Yeah, we'll still take dollars, but not just dollars, but hey, we love the West and but we're going to take other things, too." The exchange, the Shanghai Metals Exchange is being built in Saudi Arabia right now, which will allow them to trade over the the bridge and settle in gold. The West will have no idea. And the same thing is true. India says we're going to keep on doing our deals with Russia. Doesn't we're going to buy their oil. We don't care what the West is saying. My point is is that I think at some point the West is starting to lose its leverage. So yes, this is what we are probably going to be led to believe that these things are there, but to me they mean nothing. In the end, these countries will do what these countries will do. And if you look at the Asian countries having twice the population and a growing just those just those countries alone, the Asian countries which aren't even part of bricks, you're beginning to see influence is is starting to shift and move eastward as is wealth, as is real money. So I don't look at that as an impediment. I look at it as a smoke screen more than anything. Okay. Uh like I said, we could talk about that for an hour and maybe we will one day to do the topic more justice. Um, Terrence just asking kind of a a fundamental question here. How much gold and silver are mined every year? Uh, you know, the number of gold escapes me. I'll have to look. Uh, maybe a couple hundred million ounces a year. Silver is about 800 million ounces that comes to market. But of that 800 million ounces, if we can pull out uh recycling, which is a little bit, only about um 200 of the 800 million comes from companies that mine silver like First Majestic as an example. Uh because silver is found in nature, like your skin is epidermis, silver is found in in a level called epiothermal, right near the surface. Big deposits were found forever ago. So 70 to 80% of all the the silver that is brought to market comes from companies mining completely different yes tin or copper or gold or oh here here's some silver. So yeah it's depleting in nature and um for 5,000 years it was 16 to1 in the ground 16 silver one gold. Keith Newmier has been for three years saying it's it was 8 to1. Now it's 7 to1 it's disappearing 7 ounces of silver for every 1 ounce of gold. So about 800 million ounces of silver and I think about 22 250 in gold I think. Don't quote me on gold but silver I'm right on. Okay. Um and then just cap another question on top of that. Mo most of the gold that gets mined stays around, right? Um either in coin bar form or in jewelry where most of the silver that gets mined gets commercially used and no small amount of that gets kind of used up uh in a way where it's hard to recover. Correct. Right. I mean, if you have a $12 worth of silver in an iPhone, does it make sense to rip it apart when you're paying more than that per hour for the person to do it? So, no, it doesn't. And you know, silver is most of the silver that has been used for the last 80 years is in landfills and things that have a tiny tiny bit of silver in the motherboard or within the electrical components. Whereas, yeah, to your point, most of the gold minted since gen Genesis or mined since Genesis is still here. And even gold that you pull out of the bottom of the ocean in a ship from 300 years ago can look brand new. But silver because of its industrial applications, whether in in military applications, like 13 to 14 kilos in every cruise missile down to a tiny bit of silver in the first black and white TV you ever watched, they either exploded or in landfills. And it's this is why it's gone from 16:1 to 8:1 to 7:1 meaning its geological footprint is decreasing right and and even though it's it's geological footprint is still 7:1 10 to1 whatever you want to debate it to be the that's below ground above ground there's actually a lot less silver than there is gold right because of the commercial usage correct yeah I think that they think there's a couple two or three billion ounces of silver above ground and That's it. Um, you get different numbers from different people, but not a lot. And and a lot of it's held in bar form and a lot and you'll get to a point I think maybe sooner than maybe this is what all these deliveries are about with silver where the industrials, Elon Musk, I need silver for my batteries and my cars or Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, and the investors, the hedge funds or the the David uh whatever his name is that I mentioned, the billionaire, they'll start the battle. Get it, get it, get it. I want to David Baitman. I want to make money. I need it to make my stuff. And there's going to be a battle between the the institutional or the the commercial the the manufacturers who need it and the investors. I think that's coming. Maybe it's here right now. Rocket J says, "Haven't gold and silver already made their run?" No, not even close. Not even not even close. I mean, yes, they've done very well, but not even close. And um if it weren't for the central bank uh and by proxy commercial bank suppression of gold and silver it would be massively higher. And um it's funny you know people on one hand say that its performance really isn't that great in comparison to things like you know risk on trade and Nvidia and Apple where you know you're getting three and fourdigit increase. um gold is slow and steady and in an environment where the value of the currency is inherently meant to die like all fiat currencies it will it it's going to continue to go and as Rick Rule pointed out and I've been saying it citing examples he said it just Rick is just a master of the English language and he's very simplistic too he says you know people think things are getting expensive but price anything you can think of from food to real estate and in gold and it's cheap so it's not that gold is made its run. It's that the dollar is continuing to lose its value. And as that continues to happen, the run that people perceive as gold going higher will only be accentuated in the face of a falling dollar. And the dollar will fall. Steven Mirren, who just got into the into the uh the vacated spot. He's the head of the the author of the Marilago Accord. He wants a devalued dollar. Goes back to my thesis. They're going to devalue the hell out of the dollar in order to do these things and they're going to inflate. The dollar's down 10% this year. So, is gold up 10% or 50%. Is it is it up because gold is up or is it up because the dollar keeps on falling magnif? Yeah. Yes. Um, okay. Last question and we'll just take the 30 second answer on this one because I'm sure there could be a very much longer one. But if we went to war with China, uh, kinetic war with China, what do you think would happen to precious metals prices? Who cares? We go to kinetic war with China, who gives a crap what happens to your gold? You just want to live through it. I I mean, god forbid we ever are stupid enough to go to war with a country like China. And all bets are off at that point. At that point, who cares? I mean, I say that seriously. I mean you get to a country who has the kind of technology that we do that they do it wouldn't be pleasant for all of us. But you know in general you would think that um all assets would probably run into trouble in the in the face of two nuclear superpowers battling it out. I think you know markets are going to freeze up and what good does gold and silver do you when they're lobbing or you got drones flying over dropping bombs on major cities. I mean, the whole thing is just beyond even comprehension. So, I get it. Fair point. Um, let's just hope that that's something we don't ever have to deal with because I can't even let my mind go there. Yeah. Well, and and even think, let's say we have it. Let's say we lose the war and our Chinese overlords take over America. Well, we know they like precious metals, so you're probably better off having some than not. Uh, even in that horrible future. Um, uh, that's more gallows humor, but yes, hopefully that But it's true. every single war, who takes the spoils? The victor, right? You know, what happened to Saddam Hussein's gold? What happened to uh Gaddafi's gold? Where did it go? All All gone. Yeah. Just saying. All right. Um you know, Andy, you're you're making me think that that I'd like to have a conversation with you on one of these monthly catchups. um with I I I I do take the time periodically to remind this audience that even though this is a wealth-b buildinging channel and we talk about money a lot that money is a secondary form of wealth not a primary form of wealth it's a means it's not the end in itself right the end is to have a rich life right which is about relationships and health and purpose and experiences right and in and precious metals is again the goal is not to die on a, you know, mattress made of gold. Um, that the goal is to have precious metals to protect your wealth so that you can really invest and enjoy the primary forms of wealth. So, I'd love to get a sense from you when we have more time on what you think true wealth is like like like what your plan is is yes, I'm I'm investing in all this stuff, but again, I'm investing it so I can do X in my life, right? Totally. I'd love that. That'd be great. And that is the true meaning of it. And um I have a client who's maybe the wealthiest person that I've ever spoken to and and unfortunately not in very good health right now. And and we've had conversations that get pretty deep and echo exactly what you just said. Um you're right. One other thing to keep in mind when I was listening another reason to own metal uh briefly quickly when I was listening to the guy who developed bricks pay he was being interviewed and he said yeah they they were opening up to all these countries just not the west and the lady says well you know there's terrorists out there how do we know this won't go into terrorist activity he says well we have our our think of the stable coins that are coming out now think of the same technology that our software has AML KYC and KYT um capabilities and I I left my company in Minnesota because we're the only licensed state in America that regulates the precious metals industry. So I take all these classes every year annually. Uh that's what differentiates us from everyone else. We're licensed bonded and background check. That's why I didn't move my company in Minnesota. But I know all this lingo. KYC know your client. AML anti-moneyaundering. KYT know your transaction. Never heard that before in all the years I've taken these classes. Well, this new software is embedded with it. So when you talk about privacy, this kills two birds with one stone. Not only does it fund the treasury market, but it's like a central bank digital currency in a stable coin clothing because the Fed will control the on-ramp and the off-ramp and if they know who you are, where you got your money, and what you're buying. Isn't that the same thing as a central bank digital currency just issued by a private corporation? Yes, it is. So just food for thought. uh privacy and outside the matrix and being able to pass on money to your family and that kind of stuff. But yeah, I'd love to have that conversation, Adam. That'd be cool. Okay. All right. Well, I'll earmark that for one of these future ones. Folks, if you'd like to see that, just let us know in the uh the comments here at the live chat. Um all right. Well, look, Andy, um probably most important question for you. So, for folks that have been watching this and saying, "Wow, um maybe I I don't have exposure yet to the precious metals, but would like to get some or I've been dabbling, but I want to get serious about it." Um, if they want to get in touch with you, and as a reminder for everybody, you and your firm, Miles Franklin, are the official endorsed precious metal solution for the thoughtful money audience. Um, where should folks go? Yeah. So, you know, I do things a little bit differently and largely because of relationships that I have, but even guys like the Sprat Brokers where Rick used to run, they'll run business through Miles Franklin and they can they disclose it to their clients so it's not selling away. But I've I didn't want to be a traditional online company for a lot of reasons and and for guys like that as well, so their efforts weren't undercut. Any case, um, you send us an an email at [email protected]. You can go to our website, but we only allow purchasing a very small amount, but ask for our price list. Let us know that you came from from uh, you know, this this video that you watched us at that you're a listener of Adam and in the subject and um, we will send you a price list that we update a couple times per week. You can ask any question that you heard on this or any questions you have related to metals. If you want to be contacted, let us know. Put your phone number down. Um the price list, if you find prices better, let us know. More often than not, we'll beat it. Um we'll let you know if we can't, but nine and a half times out of 10, that price list will be as good as anywhere in the country. And if you find something better or more intriguing, let us know. We can probably make it work. What makes us different is we've never had a complaint in 35 years. And we're licensed, bonded, and background checked almost annually. Almost every country in America won't do business in Minnesota because they would have to be subservient the way we are to the commissioner of commerce. It holds us to a higher standard. So info at milesfranklin.com. If you don't get it, check your spam. One out of 10 will get flagged coming from a corporate server like ours and it goes into your spam. But that is the best way to reach us. [email protected]. Let us know that you came from here in the subject line. Uh no obligation to get the price list. No one will contact you if you don't want to be or any questions you have or if they're directed to me, let us know and we'll get right back to you and make it a good experience. I promise your listeners won't be the first customer complaint we've had in going on 30. All right. Well, one of the nice things is since we started this relationship, I think officially back in March, uh the feedback from folks that have have done business with you between now and then has been very high, which is wonderful reason why I did this, right? And folks, you know, I've I've waxed long in the past about all the reasons for why we made Miles Franklin the the endorsed partner uh for Thoughtful Money, so I won't get into all that here again, but it has to do with both a high degree of integrity of Andy specifically, but with the team that he's built there. Um, but you know, also the pricing as well, highly competitive pricing. Um, but also to the high degree of customer service. And one of the reasons why I really like how Andy has, you know, this sort of oldfashioned version of contact him by email is he really gives a white glove service especially to the thoughtful money audience. So as he said, let them know you're coming from thoughtful money. Um, and you know, Andy himself will will walk you through, you know, the thinking on what you should do or one of his top lieutenants will, but they really take you by the hand and educate you uh before there's ever any offer there. It's just, hey, you know, tell us what you're looking to do. tell us about yourself. Here's what we recommend. You tell us what makes sense and we'll do our best to to fulfill that for you. So, okay. So, folks, send that email to [email protected]. Um, if you enjoy these monthly check-ins with Andy and would like to see them continue and Andy, I've already seen a number of folks in the live chat say, "Wow, this was another great discussion with Andy." Um, please let them know that by hitting the like button and then clicking the subscribe button below as well as that little bell icon right next to it. Um, I guess I'll just make a quick um if in addition to um your precious metals, you want to get some help from a professional financial adviser about your overall wealth management and maybe even answer the question, okay, how much of my total portfolio makes sense to put in into precious metals? Well, then consider scheduling a free consultation with one of the financial adviserss that thoughtful money endorses. These are the firms you see with me on this channel week in and week out. To do that, just fill out the short form there at thoughtfulmoney.com. Um, Andy, it is always such a pleasure and honor to have you on here every month. Um, I really enjoy these conversations and I'm glad we're we're continuing to do this. I'm actually really to have that conversation with you about just what's this all for? Like why are we building wealth like this? H how do we, but you specifically plan to take the wealth you protect and and live life to its fullest for you. So, we'll earmark that hopefully for next time. Um, I will give you the last word here, my friend. Anything else you want to say in parting to folks? Um, no. I mean, I I think I've monopolized everyone's time enough. Just that the honor is mine. Um, I guess I would just simply say I don't know where else to put my money where I can feel safe about it anymore. And um there is something to be said for removal of counterparty risk for buying something that has outlived everything the world's thrown at it since biblical times. And and you know, it's old school for sure. What do they call it? the OG. But at the same time, you got the most wellfunded and well-informed traders in the world. Starting with the central banks 5 years ago, now progressing to the biggest money in this country who sees gold and silver for something, I would say, worth far more than the paper that is used to buy it. And I think much of the world is looking at commodities as worth far more than the paper used to buy it. I'll just simply say what Rick says again. um you save in dollars, you're going to go broke. You're not a contrarian, you're going to be a victim. And uh and what Doug Casey says, um that uh what does Doug Casey say about that? I'm having a senior moment. What the hell does Doug Casey say? He says that Oh, that um Let's just forget that. Sorry, Doug. I was gonna say he has I know it's gonna pop in your head the second you hop off here. Yeah, it's in every one of my and every one of my presentations that I do. Um I can't believe that I just had that senior moment. I guess I don't remember what it's but it's in every it's at the end of every one of my podcast or presentations I do like at at Rick's conference and uh I'm going to think about it the minute I No worries. Like I said, it's going to come into your mind the second you hop off. When it does, send it to me. I'll put it in the comment below so folks can see it. But speaking of which, my friend, you're you're much too young to have a true senior moment here. Um, well, my head is filled with so much useful I mean, useless information. Uh, I bet I can tell you if you give me seven seconds, I bet I can tell you what he says cuz I just if I don't have it, I'm don't want to make everyone wait for what Doug Casey say. I'm sure folks are waiting with bait breaths. Don't Here it is. I think Let me just put my glasses on because again, I can't see. But the last slide is, of course, my presentation is loading. Okay, here it goes. The last one is gold and silver are the only assets that are not simultaneously someone else's liability. Thank you, Doug, and I'm sorry for screwing that up, but it's true. That's the removal of counterparty risk. They're the only assets that at the same time are no one else's liability. All right. Well, very well said, my friend. Look, Um, happy 55th birthday. You are not even quite a year older than me. Uh, but you look about 15 years younger than me. So, congratulations. Tan. That's just the Florida tan. That's what's good for you. Tan actually makes you look younger. But, uh, I appreciate it, brother Adam. I really do. And, uh, more than words to say thank you for having me. Um, the honor is mine. And I'll look forward to picking up where we left off and talk about what it's all really about. What does it all mean? Um, next time I'd love to do that. All right. Well, look, uh, log off of here. Go start getting celebrated for your birthday. Again, those are the things that matter most. Um, wish you a great 55th. Um, folks are giving you all sorts of great birthday wishes here as well in the live chat. Hope you're getting a chance to see those. I don't see it. I don't I just see a return here. But, but thank you, honestly. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. All right. Well, Andy, look, have a great one. We'll see you next time. Everybody else, thanks so much for watching.