Capitalism is Finished & a "Blackout Shock" is Coming | E.B. Tucker
Summary
Market Outlook: The S&P 500 has reached an all-time high, driven by expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut, despite concerning economic indicators like a significant drop in regional manufacturing activity.
Investment Philosophy: E.B. Tucker discusses the concept of the "price of hope," where speculative investments in futuristic ideas are valued highly before they materialize, contrasting with traditional, profitable businesses.
Gold and Silver: Tucker highlights the significant rise in gold and silver prices, suggesting that these metals could serve as a hedge against future economic instability and potential digital currency regimes.
Capitalism Critique: Tucker argues that traditional capitalism is outdated, replaced by a managed economy where speculative narratives often outweigh the value of established businesses.
Future Economic System: The discussion includes a potential shift towards a digitally controlled financial system, with Fedcoin and stablecoins playing a central role, leading to increased surveillance and control.
Investment Strategy: Tucker emphasizes the importance of balanced living and making informed investment decisions based on understanding market dynamics rather than chasing speculative gains.
Political and Economic Risks: The potential for a future excise tax on gold is discussed as a governmental response to non-compliance with digital currency systems, highlighting the importance of strategic asset allocation.
Transcript
[Music] Hey everyone, welcome back. I'm Jeremy Saffron. Wall Street is starting the week with a full-blown party. Now, the S&P 500 has surged past 6600 for the first time, hitting another all-time high. And the reason here, a rock solid conviction that the Federal Reserve is about to cut interest rates this Wednesday. Now, the CME Fed Watch tool, which is how traders bet on these things, is showing a 96% probability of a quarter point cut for the market. Well, this seems like a done deal, but then there's the optimism is running head first into some ugly numbers out of the real economy. A fresh report from the New York Fed shows regional manufacturing activity just fell off of a cliff. The headline index plunged minus 8.7, wildly missing expectations of a positive five. And the details are even worse. The new orders index crashed by 35 points and the shipments index fell 30 points. Both hitting their lowest levels since April of 2024. Now, it is a profound disconnect and our guest today has built his career on analyzing this type of data, arguing that they reveal a system that is not what it seems. Joining us now, of course, one of our friends, Eie Tucker, editor of the Tucker Letter. Good to see you, Eie. >> Thanks for having me. >> Uh, listen, we got a lot to get into today. I was just reading your your latest note on your Substack. I mean, you've said that this classic capitalism is folklore now, replacing kind of by a managed economy where markets grind higher, then have a sheer panic and then they resume the upward march. I mean, looking at the S&P 500, it's at 6600 today alongside that manufacturing report. Is this the perfect example of your thesis in action? I mean, is this just the the grind up phase before the next elevator shaft down? Well, the the nice thing about my job is I get to read lots of hostile feedback after I recommend a stock that goes up 300%. And usually the feedback is uh tells you all that you need to know. You know, pe people say something like uh has this ship sailed or something and you think what is this person even talking about? I mean, real business here that makes plenty of money that we bought 300% ago that what it's like people need this rocket fuel. And so it it caused me to come up with this thing called the price of hope. And what the price of hope is is this whole idea that the the the thought of something big like flying cars or you know uh space communication for your cell phone or any of these things. The price of this before it happens is massive nowadays. And then the price of something after it happens is pretty low. And so everybody talks about like this Warren Buffett approach to investing, but people have about maximum four days to to generate life-changing returns or else they're they're you know really upset. And I think it's like it's to me it's interesting because in my career like I've done fine and you know like in the newsletter, you know, we're we're just doing great and people just seem very hostile because they want like like seven digit ticker symbols that have like, you know, two cents and they have life-changing returns. And it's like I I don't understand. I mean, I don't I don't see how maybe it's they didn't go to finance school or something, but like if you grow faster than the index, I mean, you grow over time so so much that you can't spend the money. I mean, it's just crazy to me. So, we live in this world where people what they say and what they do are different. So, they say one thing and then what they do is they they they they hopelessly gamble. Um, let me just one more quick thing about the what's happening right now. The gold price is up like 40% this year or something. I haven't checked today, but it's over 40% year to date. And I just think a lot of people haven't played that. I mean, it's also it's up like maybe three times, you know, since kind of the 2020 era when I wrote a book about the subject. And and I just I wonder what's wrong with me because I I I sort of bought a little bit of metal all the time. I mean, I just sort of like like slowly bought metal for like 20 plus years and and I just listen to what people say and it's like they're they seem like angry or something that they need like like some sort of like like you know huge way to make some life-changing return. And I'm like, you know, I wrote a whole book about this. It's so easy. like the system is set up to keep expanding and have these occasional panics where people just like tumble off down an elevator shaft and then and then like like you better get up fast because the whole thing runs back to to I don't understand how you don't see this and then they say well that's easy for you to say you're rich I guess. I mean like you don't really know how rich I am. I mean what is even rich to begin with? Like it's like it's such a relative thing. I mean I mean uh I think it's a state of mind is what it is. is I mean I I have enough sort of stuff going on to do whatever I want and like whatever I want is unique to me. I mean it might not be enough money for someone else. I don't know. It might be too much for other people. I have no idea. But to me when I look at this capitalism is totally finished. I mean the Tucker kids who we talk about a lot in the newsletter. We tuck talk about them as like this class of you know creatures. The Tucker kids will not be allowed to operate a lemonade stand ever because the whole premise of buying ingredients and making sure you sell them for enough to make a profit is so antiquated that it's almost like teaching them how to operate a horse and buggy. I would never do that. I would never teach them to operate a horse and buggy because it's not a skill set that's useful in the modern age. And I will also not teach them about the basics of capitalism because it's something that we all for some unknown reason we talk about this and it has nothing to do with making money. What you have to do now to make money is you have to watch where the money goes. And what happens is the money just floods over here and then it rushes over here and then eventually over here becomes this like actual business that's not that exciting, you know, and it trades at like a low multiple or something. But the idea over here when it gets hot and everybody starts talking about it, I mean this is worth like a hundred times, you know, projected metrics, it's crazy, maybe more. I mean, it's worth any amount that you can dream up, it's worth that. You say like uh, you know, power beamed down from the the the galaxy, some other galaxy. Oh, that's worth what I mean like a million times some metric or something. That's the price of hope. And so I just think people they don't understand this. It's like it's like when you then you get into a bit like we have a business in the newsletter that generates like 25% you know IBIDA margins doing something that like even like a like a teenager couldn't screw up and nobody wants to buy that stock. And I'm like okay well just buy that stock. Well no it's not exciting enough. Okay well what is it that you want? I mean you say you want this old lemonade stand idea. Well I mean I'm happy to own that. I'm happy like my portfolio. I tell people in the newsletter what I'm up to. That's the whole thing. I mean, it's like, you know, I'm managing a portfolio for a trust, but it's like, this is how I think, right? I'm happy to own a stock that makes 25% Utah margins, but it's not a 300% a year stock. That's a stock with no revenue. You have a company with no revenue that can generate like multiund% returns. That's the price of hope. And people just seem like they're unwilling to do that. But let well we should probably get into you know I've got like a little >> Well, I don't know. You are you gonna let me get into this, buddy? You gonna No, I'm just kidding. Whatever you want. Tell tell me about the boolean behind you. I know it was heavy. >> I mean, look look look look I mean you can curl these things. I mean this is you know this is like serious amount of this is 2,000 ounces of silver. Now the silver price is 42 and a half. I mean it's probably going to go right up to 50 here momentarily. And what I can't figure out is what people like about silver. And I just sort of slowly bought some silver because I I number one, I thought silver was kind of cool. I mean, I I I went to some silver mines. I learned a lot about silver, you know. I I I learned about antibacterial properties of silver. What? I'm just sort of a little bit into that kind of stuff. And so I slowly bought some silver. I got a lot of silver. So now silver's like over 40 bucks. I got to go find all the silver. I can't find it all. So, and I've tried to find it all. And I look forward to selling it at some point. not right away, but I do think that it's going to go up over 50 and then it's people might start paying attention at that point. But silver is is lagging way behind and the silver people talk about it in this way that I don't understand. It's kind of like, you know, when someone's getting like really excited in a different language or something. I don't know what they like about it because we're in this market where you have things like vault higher in price and I'm like here to 50 bucks is like 20%. I mean, here to a 100 bucks, you know, it's like it's like barely more than a double. And like, you can't even find all the stuff. I mean, it's like I've got so many backyards to go dig around in. I I can't I don't know where all this stuff is. But it is fun to go out and find your stash because, you know, I've been buying this stuff for ages. I mean, I just bought it cuz I think it was cool. That's what Jeremy, that's what people don't understand. Most of the time, you know, you buy something because it's going to go up, it goes down. you buy something because you think it's super interesting and it it goes up, you know, and >> I just think that to me this I'm at a place in life where I'm like everybody, you know, I'm just watching what you say and what you what you do and then I'm making decisions based on what I see and it seems to me like really easy to to to make money. I >> Well, listen listen, you got you you got into quite a bit there and I'm not quite sure. I'm going to bring it back to this price of hope because I think it makes for a good book. I mean, you called 2025 a year of speculative excess coming, you know, kind of coining that term price of hope ratio for companies with no sales but tons of hope as you just mentioned. But specifically, let's get into, you know, how an investor navigates a market where narratives are being valued more than these highly established profitable business. I mean, get into some picks. Who are you looking at right now? Who are the boring ones? All right, let's let's let's do what you were saying about let how does the average person put this information? Because the average person says this guy needs a haircut and he looks like a good tennis player, but like I don't understand what he's talking about. All right. If you're if you're the average person, you're probably doing a job that you don't like for money that you're afraid to spend. That's the you got to get rock bottom honest with yourself about what you're trying to do with the market. And then you need to see the system for what it is. you're gonna have the chance to make money on these Hope stocks and then the world is changing right in front of your very eyes. I mean, one of the things I think people really struggle with is we're just we're just charging head first into this digitally controlled system. And it's a great idea to see that for what it is and make a little money along the way. You're trying to have a balanced approach to walking into surfom. I'm not sure that there's any way around it to be honest with you because I had a friend named Mark once that had his children born without a social security number and so they can't get a driver's license, they can't fly on a plane, they can't go to a hospital. I mean, it's like, you know, it doesn't really make much sense. So, I think you need to see the system evolving for what it is. Now, why is that important? You know, you might be freaked out when you hear that, but you should not be freaked out. I mean, people in the, you know, early part of the 20th century when they saw the radio, you know, they they were freaked out. And the reality is the world kept spinning after the radio, you know, had a there was messages broadcast into your living room. Now, if you were like a real lite, that would have properly freaked you out. But we're walking into this system where there's going to be increasing control. And right now, you have a chance to play these hope things that are going on. And you should do that while understanding that you're pretty doomed. Well, what does that mean? All right. Well, you look at this all this metal here. I mean, gold has done even better, right? I mean like like at some point I just switched to buying only gold because it takes you would need like a an armored warehouse to keep all the silver in. But these are things that are going to run and then at some point they're going to be untradable and the gold prices call it like 25 trillion right now. That's if you take all the gold in the world and you you put a price on it that might go higher. And what you're going to see later is the reason it's going higher is because people are starting to move into it to protect themselves. Protect themselves from what? Well, it's pretty obvious that you're going to have a Fedcoin. I wrote the term Fedcoin in like 200 I think 15 or something. It's way too early. Okay, that's the other problem with writing books and reports. It's a huge mistake because people, you know, it's non-fiction writing. You should really write fiction if you want to be a writer. It's much easier to hide behind that. But I put the term Fedcoin out because there'll be a closed loop blockchain. And what's going to happen is there'll be no counterfeiting. There'll be no tax evasion. And there'll be nowhere to hide if you run a foul of the monetary regime. And what's that going to do to gold? Well, I don't know. But I'll tell you what I think it's going to go to do to gold. It's going to drive the price really, really high. And gold's going to be one of these things. There's a lot of value and it's really hard to sell. And people say, "Well, what how is that even possible?" Let's do a hypothetical scenario here. What if we saw a gold price much higher, like 5,000, eventually 10,000? You might end up in a scenario where if you try to sell that gold, there's this massive excise tax, meaning the gold is sort of like outside of this blockchain system that we're in. Now, to be really clear, blockchain doesn't mean Bitcoin. Blockchain means that that the Fed or some new version of the Fed would would because you're going to like, you know, expose the Fed for what it is and have a new much worse Fed someday. And this would be like a closed loop blockchain. So what's interesting about Bitcoin is you have this like distributed ledger. So you would just have like one ledger, you know, with Fedcoin and it would be like centrally controlled Watson computer that would monitor every single serial number on every single Fedcoin as it moved around. it be infinitely controllable and then if you tried to sell the gold you would be bringing it back into the Fedcoin system which would expose you to whatever tax rate you want. I mean there might be like this okay you could sell the gold for this period at a fixed price bring it back into the system. Does this sound familiar? Do you remember when this happened in the 1930s? Is there some eerie similarities like a sort of like a modernday computerized FDR scenario? Okay. And so I think when people start seeing this, they start seeing, wow, I mean this is possible. Now here's what blows my mind. Is that then they say, "How can I profit from this?" And I'm thinking these capitalists, man, Lenon had it right. These capitalists will be like, "They're going to hang me. Is there a way I can make some money off the rope?" Do you get what I'm saying? It's like, it's like >> first step is you just need to see things for, you know, you just need to see the bigger picture. I mean, you don't have to go profiting from, you know, from every sort of thing that's going to happen. But I I I hope that's not too much of a narrative for you because because when people read my letter, I'm saying, why don't you just read the newsletter because it's really well written and it's written by me and it's a lot of fun to read and you might learn something. Can you read something because you might learn something? Can you can you can you read a story that can you just read a good story or do you do you need a secret code like a Cracker Jacks box every time you you eat something? Can you just eat something and enjoy yourself? I don't think >> people listen, let me bring it back to what you were saying because I I only got about 15 minutes left with you, Evie. But I do want to get to a couple of things. First, the Fed, what we haven't really got into, but let's go back to what you talked about. I mean, you've warned for years that a modern gold kind of confiscation wouldn't be a physical raid, but it would come as a form of a kind of prohibitive excise tax, selling it, say 90%. I mean, how how close how close are we that to to that reality? I mean what what would the political trigger for the government to be make such a a big move? >> I think I think it's not pre-ordained. I think that I think the issue would would happen as a reaction to people trying to avoid cooperating with Fedcoin. That's what would trigger it. So it's not like they say, you know, on on this date, you know, we're going to have this excise tax. I think if people begin hiding, trying to preserve and hide and operate outside of the Fedcoin regime, then that's when you would say, "Okay, we have a window of opportunity for you to get legal with your gold. And if you don't get legal with your gold, you're going to be subject to like a 90% excise tax." And also like like all these, you know, different ways that you could be punished because you're naughty school children, you know, with having your gold. We told you that's only for governments. it's only for you know foreign governments not you okay so so that's that's the type of messaging just see the messaging like I remember as a kid when we learned about algebra I was like what's the point of algebra and you know my father was really smart he was like you got to learn you got to learn how the equation works and then you're going to see that lots of parts of life are the same equation you'll be able to solve things in life I didn't really know what that meant you know but it turns out you know he was right so like you see that you kind of see this process like what's the equation of FDR. It's easy when you go back and look because everybody you know that was around then as an adult is dead now. Maybe there's some people that are old that were kids then. But see the equation and forget about the emotion and then you look at the modern scenario, the digital version of that and you say, "Wow, okay, I see how people hiding in gold would make it harder for Fedcoin to take effect and and be a control mechanism. It's going to control your whole life." Okay, so everybody in the US is obsessed with money and they're they're obsessed with money and they also they hoard money. If you notice people, they don't have enough money. Even people that have a lot of money, they don't quite have enough. Like the Morgan Stanley guy that I use is like you should not stop working because the Tucker letter is like a something I do because I love it. Right? So like that guy says you should be working more. Why should I be? Well, you you could have more money. Well, what would I do with more money? Eventually I do something I enjoy. It doesn't make any sense. People's thinking is broken. And so you have a society that's totally obsessed with profit. I'm not going to say it's greedy because I I I don't think greed is bad. I also don't think money is bad. It's just that people are out of balance and and they do they do something compulsively. And so when you back up a little bit and you see that this is where things are headed. Your then your job becomes different. Your job becomes to live now, to keep playing the game, but to know that it's a game and to see where it's going and to not be afraid of that because there's no stopping where it's going. And the world definitely keeps going. And you can survive and you can survive and thrive through change. People just 1935 is not when the world stopped. It got infinitely more exciting. And it's going to get more exciting from here. You got to go along with it. You got to flow with it. But you can you can have more fun when you see what's going on. >> So you're describing kind of you know gold is is the ultimate way to operate outside of this future fedcoin as you call it or this digital regime. But in a world of you know 24/7 digital surveillance where every financial institution is a reporting agency basically I mean how does one actually use that physical gold to live without creating a massive trail? I mean the moment you convert it back to digital currency to buy a car or a house aren't you right back on their radar? I would never encourage anyone to run a foul of the United States, you know, authorities, just to be clear. Uh I think that when you see what is likely to happen, then you can make choices accordingly. For example, in the 1930s, there were ways to lawfully, you know, operate through that. I mean, I mean, there were there were certain uh classes of exemptions. Now, now if you just kind of like read the paper that it was essential that you turn your gold in, which is what unfortunately, you know, my >> great-grandmother did, and I had a hard time understanding that till my grandfather told me, yeah, well, they were running the newspaper like uh seven days a week that like the country was, you know, like teetering on the edge or whatever. So, it's very difficult for a lot of people to to process that. readers of the Tucker letter might fare better than the average. But anyway, you just went into the bank and turned all that stuff in and then later you discovered that like if some of those coins were like, you know, 18th century French collectibles or something like they might have had an exemption, whatever. I'm just saying you don't look at this as a scenario where you're going to become some sort of underground lawless bandit. I mean, I don't think that that's really a lifestyle that most people, considering their size and shape and cognitive abilities, I don't think you're going to make it as a lawless bandit. Maybe, but I don't think you will. I think it's much smarter to see change for what it is and to flow with it. That's just me. I'm not afraid of any sort of change because I'm not clinging on to the past. And part of that is because I feel like I accurately see things for what they are and don't live under a cloud of delusion. Most of my compatriots, I think, you know, do live under a cloud of delusion. And they survive off of fear and hope and panic and all these emotions. And that's why they're all anxious. That's why they have a hard time doing anything or gnawing their fingers and tapping their legs and they look panicked all the time and they just need a little more money and their life will be better. I don't think any of that stuff. I I don't think any of that stuff. I'm going to do things I enjoy just for the sake of enjoying them. And when it comes to money decisions, I'm trying to flow down the river of life, making decisions that are going along that flow. And readers of the Tucker Letter know this. So, I mean, I don't think bunkering yourself is necessarily that wise of an idea. I mean, it's sort of like the whole prepping thing. You're you're locked in a bunker eating eating five gallon pales of dehydrated food for 20 years. does not sound like a party. Um, so, so when you think about this stuff, I think it's important to consider the setup and what's likely to happen and then figure out how you want to deal with it. That's what I would do. >> Bring it back to the political endgame a little bit and talk to me about the Fed. Obviously, we have this upcoming meeting. We're going to hear about these rates this week, but go deeper into the mechan the mechanics of that system because the Federal Reserve has seven governors, right? Meaning a president needs four appointees to control policy. Are the intense pressure campaigns like you wrote about in your latest letter against governors like Lisa Cook part of a calculated strategy to create vacancies and consolidate control over the money supply? Is is this the new playbook? What are your thoughts? >> All right, just just remember when you started this Fed, it was sort of this different era and now banks really aren't the thing. Okay, if you think about it, what do you do with stable coins? the stable coins fall into this category that the Fed originally was was designed to monitor and it's no longer banks. I mean, like if you've been to the bank recently, it's like more frustrating than going down to the county and trying to like, you know, turn your your water on or something. I mean, it's it's it's very very difficult. And what you're seeing is that the banks are total dinosaurs and they're not really the most essential part of the new system. And so that's why I think the Fed which is effectively owned by the primary dealer banks is doomed. Now now meantime meantime what what the government is doing what the elected uh executive branch is doing is actually pretty sensible because you do have the right to appoint these people and if you're not happy with these people you should agitate. You know it's this happens all the time right in different parts of government. It's front page news now, but it really shouldn't be because the government realizes that that and Bernaki put this in print, by the way. It's called the virtuous circle. If you can make asset prices go higher, people are very happy. And when they're happy, they borrow and spend and they carry on and and they have lots of hope and they they make the whole system go. And what needs to happen is this this system needs to get bigger. It needs to get slowly bigger. That's why they talk about this 2%, you know, thing or whatever. It's got to get slowly slowly slowly bigger. Not fast bigger and definitely not smaller, but slowly bigger. And so you need to have this system expanding. And it can't expand if rates are too high on the front end. And that's what the the the current push is to normalize the yield curve to have the yield curve running from low at the front to high at the back in a normal quote unquote normal fashion. normal being a word that doesn't mean exactly what it used to to mean, but don't worry about that. And so that's what they're going for. And so when they do that, you know, we have three stocks that we think will benefit, which are already moving in advance, but the point is is that you're going to incentivize regular lending is what they want to do because they want this system to slowly expand. Now, >> who's the three stocks, CB? I got to ask, who's those three stocks? >> Yeah, it's just I unfair to the subscribers. I mean, you can read the Tucker letter for free, but you can understand how we're not going to really that the actionable stuff we're going to leave off that, but you should read for free if you're in a budget constrained situation, which is funny to me because most of these people that are budget constrained also want like secret code stock symbols to make 10,000% gains. I don't know which one is it people, you know? So, they they say we'll be responsible once we have the money later, but it doesn't work that way. You treat money properly, you get more money. you treat money irresponsibly, you lose you lose money. It's as simple as that. But let me just say this, try to see that the Fed in its current iteration someday will succumb to this like end the Fed type thing and they'll pile on to it and say, "Oh, it's this big crisis and we're going to have this new super supervisory group come in, Fed 2.0, give it a different name or something like that and that will incorporate stable coins, all these different things." What cracks me up is people want to make money on stable coins. I'm like, do you Everything is about making money. It's crazy to me. I'm like, how are you going to make money on a stable coin? I mean, it's like maybe you can do it. Don't I don't even want to get into that. But I just >> Wait, wait, wait. Go back go back to the stable coin for a second because I mean, you you you recently warned that the Fed's replacement could be worse and and it would involve stable coins, right? But with this new genius act now regulating private stable coins. Is the endgame a public private partnership where the Fed gets, you know, the control it craves through the Fedcoin, but it's actually sanctioned back issued stable coins through that are traceable. >> Totally. Absolutely. And if you think about it, people are embracing liquidity in the form of this this new type of money. I mean, I dare you to go down to the bank and try to wire money. I mean, it's like it's it it's it's so hard. I mean, I mean, obviously like with the private client stuff and everything, but still they ask you the dumbest questions like like they they make it out like you've done something really awful and you've really got to prove that you haven't or something. Then they're like, "Well, maybe someone's scamming you." Believe me, no one's scamming me. I'm trying to send money to this company or whatever that I own. Okay, so my point is is that people are click click click to send stable coins. They're happy with that. Like the modern era, people are like happy to move in and out of all these stable coins. And you can easily see how when it comes to managing the flow of liquidity that the Fed is becoming a dinosaur and that some new Fed would have the opportunity to incorporate all of these new types of money movements which people are really keen on these things. I mean just so you I'm sure you have friends that are like really happy about they feel very smart doing this and it and it's fine. I mean it's like it's another one of those things where it's like it is what it is. I mean what do you expect like systems systems nothing is permanent and systems come in and they they do something for a while and then maniacal people fight for control of them and you know they clobber each other trying to to benefit from these things and then there's problems then takeovers then new systems and this is called a life I mean it's the equivalent of like what happens in nature I mean it's such a normal thing and everybody in the US is like they they they they look at it like it's bolted down and static and linear And it's just not and I think that's why they have so much trouble in the markets is because they they crave certainty and there is no certainty like it's just there's not any sort of certainty in the whole cosmos and the faster you understand that the faster you're going to have more fun and you're going to you're going to enjoy yourself more and you're probably going to be more successful. And I know it's scary but believe me it's not going to be scary. You're going to be scared to go back to the old way of thinking. That's what's going to happen. >> Well, it's interesting. I mean your thesis right is about protecting wealth from a predatory system. But is there a point where winning the war means more than just owning the right assets? Does it require a move towards you know a parallel economy using assets like gold or private crypto not as investments but as true peer-to-peer money completely outside the system? What are your thoughts? >> Probably. But the the issue is is that the the war right now is for your mind. And that's what people don't understand. And so the the number one trick that people need to work on now is seeing things for what they are because that's how you win. That's how you that's how you get on top of this and you make sure you're going to come out on top is it's your mind. It's your mind that you have to work on. That's and people just can't do it. They're like, "No, I need the ticker symbol in an election or something." It's irrelevant. Both those things are irrelevant. Like there's always another chance to grow. There's always another chance to make money. There's always another chance to come out on top. But not if you're stuck in bad thinking. I know it's hard for people. I really do. But you know, evucker.com will help you. But the thing is is that we'll help you help yourself because you're going to see that this is not that hard to figure out. Like all year we've been having great success in the market and telling people it's not that hard to figure out what's going on. It's just not that hard. I mean, you can really see this for what it is. It's a show. You're watching a show. >> So, you know, grab the popcorn. >> The best show. The best show, man. It's such a good show. Believe it. >> I meant ours. >> This is This is my favorite. >> Hey, before before I let you go, I mean, I I we you've also made that stark prediction about a blackout shock crisis, right? A time when our devices kind of go dark nationwide where would be used to justify these stricter controls. I mean if this all seems to point towards a system of what you call full control digital total eyes on 365 in this new world of you know regulated stable coins that you talk about increasing surveillance what happens to the concept of of analog wealth like the physical ounces of gold I mean does it become a relic or is this more essential than ever >> I think it might be something that you got to be prepared to own for quite some time and um some people might say it's not worth it I mean I mean I'm one that thinks to self, you know, would you have held gold from 1935 to 1974? Maybe. Maybe. I mean, obviously it would have been wise uh 30 30 years roughly. I mean, I I you could have also found other things to do. I mean, so I think that might be the choice that people need to make as well. But um I do think that you'll wake up one day and your phone will be black and you'll have to ask yourself, am I willing to give up um my personal sovereignty to turn it back on? And I think you need to be realistic that almost everyone will say yes. Okay. And you'll have dossafe websites that are government approved and the department of safe you know online activity and uh that if you see now it's like there's there's there's there's hackers everywhere. There's bank fraud. There's scammers. I mean I had someone I mailed someone a check and someone intercepted the check in their mailbox and printed more checks and wrote these checks and it's not that big of a deal. Like I mean you know you just have to go down to the bank and fill out all these forms. But the point is is that the guy at the bank was telling me it's just like there's like filing cabinets full of these things. It's constant. And so and that's good if you want to exert this control because you need to create instability and fear to have people give up their freedom. And people are just really really willing to give up their freedom fast in America. I mean like they talk about freedom but what happens is is that at every single turn it's pretty easy to shake it right out of their hands. >> And I I just I don't think there's a lot you can do about that. >> Well, let's bring it home, man. I mean you've you've again you know that there's that picture of that system based on control surveillance a managed narrative and we we talked about it but for an individual watching this show you know KCO news subscribe I mean what is the what's more important for their survival in the next >> living >> but is it growing growing their cal capital or defending their sovereignty >> balanced living you've got to live a lifestyle that you personally enjoy that's the trick you can't live a lifestyle that you think later you'll enjoy you can't live someone else's lifestyle U you can't do a job that you don't like for money you're afraid to spend. Balanced living. You have to manage money like it's a lot of money even when it's not. People are all the time shocked that you know 25 years ago when I was like working and construction all these weird things. It wasn't like oh I had to work so hard. What I'm saying is that I was st I was saving I I was like really focused on living a life that I wanted to live which was like a life where I was intellectually free and I needed to free myself from the need to work every day to do that and it took a long time to do that and it might take a short time it might take a long time but the one thing that I learned is you have to treat money with respect that you'll get more money so you you try to make decisions to create the life that you want and personally I didn't want to have a bunch of things that forced me to do things I didn't like. So, I I made choices accordingly. If you're watching this, the way this translates into your life is stop looking for these bizarre ways to win the lottery in the stock market. It's probably not going to happen. Plus, most lottery winners end up in horrible life situations, and you don't want to do that. It's not enviable to have that outcome. You already have a great life if you have time to watch this video. You can make money. You can enjoy yourself. You can you can do things that are fun. You can get on top of the markets. You can stay on top of the markets and it just gets better and better and better. But the trick is balanced living. You live your life. You invest your money. You spend time learning. You do things that you enjoy. And you watch this thing get bigger and bigger and bigger. My second book, Not for Sale, is the better book of the two that I've written. And people all the time, they they don't understand this, but but it it's all about your personal wiring. And you absolutely can work on your personal wiring. It takes almost no time to do it. And you'll be shocked that you waited so long to do it. And when you do it, you're going to see that you're going to do more things you like. You're going to be around people that you enjoy. You're not going to have time for people you don't enjoy. You're going to get rid of people that are negative that blame everyone for all their troubles that are looking for hope and all these secrets and then angry and resentful at people and they they they talk about themselves in a bad way. Get away from these people. what I'm saying. >> So, what's your longest what's what's your longest position this year? I mean, if you're looking at this kind of going into it, we don't know when this reset's happening. Obviously, we still want to take a profit from the S&P. >> I I bet I bet you my portfolio turns over about 25% of it per year. Like, meaning meaning I bet you the if you take the whole of my portfolio, it averages turns all the way over every four years. >> But miners, are you looking at those those classics anymore? You're kind of out of the minor. I only own I own I I I would say like you know 20 maybe just under 20%. Not that much miners. Like I mean it's not like I I I I'm shocked they haven't done better and so I'm not going to own more of them because they haven't performed. I mean the fact is is that gold has done better than some of the the bigger miners and and I mean they've done fine but what I'm saying is that if you asked these miners eight years ago what would $3,600 gold $3,700 gold do to your business? They would have said it would have gone totally bananas and it hasn't gone bananas. I mean to be up 100% is like sort of like a big foul. I mean like you know you could have gotten half that in gold in the same period of time. This is really crazy. I mean it's like so you you got to look at the chart. I mean it's like don't just listen to the person like look at the chart you know and uh >> but do you still streamers? Do you still like do you like the streamers that I mean I don't think they've performed. I mean I think people have a hard time with like what's my role. I mean, I liked royalty companies last decade. I bought a lot, like actually way too much of one royalty company, went on the board and I resigned from that board. And I think people have a really hard time with that because they don't know that. But it's like, you know, look at the facts. I mean, you know, look at the press releases. Like, no hard feelings, but I mean, like I was an investor in that business and I'm happy that I did that and we did fine, but like I'm pretty long gone from that business. Like I mean 2023 is a long time ago. And so, uh, if it had worked, if it had been on a track that I liked better, I would have stayed involved. But it wasn't. And that goes for a lot of companies. I mean, like there's you really got to look at these companies, you say, if gold's up this much and your business isn't up more. That's kind of a problem. And so, it's not personal. You just need to you need to like say, why would you why would you do that? I mean, it doesn't >> it doesn't make any sense. And we're we're here to make money. We're not here to fight ideological wars. We're here to We're here to make a profit >> and still stack silver just like behind you. He be you got what 2,000 2,000 ounces behind you. It's pretty heavy. >> I I personally I like to keep more than my body weight around at all times. Now, I'm not that heavy of a person, but I mean, you know, even still, uh I look forward to selling it. So, you know, we'll see what happens. >> Okay, $50. I mean, we're getting closer. Uh Lucy, we always run out of time, you and I, but hopefully we'll have you on soon. Eie Tucker, editor of the Tucker Letter, of course. It's a fascinating cautionary perspective as always. Thanks for your time. >> Thanks for having me. See you soon. >> All righty. We'll see you soon. So, there you have it. The disconnect between the euphoric market and a fragile system. What do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. And if you want more in-depth interviews like this one, make sure to hit like on this video and subscribe to the Kicko News channel. All right, you can find more on EB's work over at Substack. For all of us here at Kicko News, I'm Jeremy Saffron. See you next time. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]
Capitalism is Finished & a "Blackout Shock" is Coming | E.B. Tucker
Summary
Transcript
[Music] Hey everyone, welcome back. I'm Jeremy Saffron. Wall Street is starting the week with a full-blown party. Now, the S&P 500 has surged past 6600 for the first time, hitting another all-time high. And the reason here, a rock solid conviction that the Federal Reserve is about to cut interest rates this Wednesday. Now, the CME Fed Watch tool, which is how traders bet on these things, is showing a 96% probability of a quarter point cut for the market. Well, this seems like a done deal, but then there's the optimism is running head first into some ugly numbers out of the real economy. A fresh report from the New York Fed shows regional manufacturing activity just fell off of a cliff. The headline index plunged minus 8.7, wildly missing expectations of a positive five. And the details are even worse. The new orders index crashed by 35 points and the shipments index fell 30 points. Both hitting their lowest levels since April of 2024. Now, it is a profound disconnect and our guest today has built his career on analyzing this type of data, arguing that they reveal a system that is not what it seems. Joining us now, of course, one of our friends, Eie Tucker, editor of the Tucker Letter. Good to see you, Eie. >> Thanks for having me. >> Uh, listen, we got a lot to get into today. I was just reading your your latest note on your Substack. I mean, you've said that this classic capitalism is folklore now, replacing kind of by a managed economy where markets grind higher, then have a sheer panic and then they resume the upward march. I mean, looking at the S&P 500, it's at 6600 today alongside that manufacturing report. Is this the perfect example of your thesis in action? I mean, is this just the the grind up phase before the next elevator shaft down? Well, the the nice thing about my job is I get to read lots of hostile feedback after I recommend a stock that goes up 300%. And usually the feedback is uh tells you all that you need to know. You know, pe people say something like uh has this ship sailed or something and you think what is this person even talking about? I mean, real business here that makes plenty of money that we bought 300% ago that what it's like people need this rocket fuel. And so it it caused me to come up with this thing called the price of hope. And what the price of hope is is this whole idea that the the the thought of something big like flying cars or you know uh space communication for your cell phone or any of these things. The price of this before it happens is massive nowadays. And then the price of something after it happens is pretty low. And so everybody talks about like this Warren Buffett approach to investing, but people have about maximum four days to to generate life-changing returns or else they're they're you know really upset. And I think it's like it's to me it's interesting because in my career like I've done fine and you know like in the newsletter, you know, we're we're just doing great and people just seem very hostile because they want like like seven digit ticker symbols that have like, you know, two cents and they have life-changing returns. And it's like I I don't understand. I mean, I don't I don't see how maybe it's they didn't go to finance school or something, but like if you grow faster than the index, I mean, you grow over time so so much that you can't spend the money. I mean, it's just crazy to me. So, we live in this world where people what they say and what they do are different. So, they say one thing and then what they do is they they they they hopelessly gamble. Um, let me just one more quick thing about the what's happening right now. The gold price is up like 40% this year or something. I haven't checked today, but it's over 40% year to date. And I just think a lot of people haven't played that. I mean, it's also it's up like maybe three times, you know, since kind of the 2020 era when I wrote a book about the subject. And and I just I wonder what's wrong with me because I I I sort of bought a little bit of metal all the time. I mean, I just sort of like like slowly bought metal for like 20 plus years and and I just listen to what people say and it's like they're they seem like angry or something that they need like like some sort of like like you know huge way to make some life-changing return. And I'm like, you know, I wrote a whole book about this. It's so easy. like the system is set up to keep expanding and have these occasional panics where people just like tumble off down an elevator shaft and then and then like like you better get up fast because the whole thing runs back to to I don't understand how you don't see this and then they say well that's easy for you to say you're rich I guess. I mean like you don't really know how rich I am. I mean what is even rich to begin with? Like it's like it's such a relative thing. I mean I mean uh I think it's a state of mind is what it is. is I mean I I have enough sort of stuff going on to do whatever I want and like whatever I want is unique to me. I mean it might not be enough money for someone else. I don't know. It might be too much for other people. I have no idea. But to me when I look at this capitalism is totally finished. I mean the Tucker kids who we talk about a lot in the newsletter. We tuck talk about them as like this class of you know creatures. The Tucker kids will not be allowed to operate a lemonade stand ever because the whole premise of buying ingredients and making sure you sell them for enough to make a profit is so antiquated that it's almost like teaching them how to operate a horse and buggy. I would never do that. I would never teach them to operate a horse and buggy because it's not a skill set that's useful in the modern age. And I will also not teach them about the basics of capitalism because it's something that we all for some unknown reason we talk about this and it has nothing to do with making money. What you have to do now to make money is you have to watch where the money goes. And what happens is the money just floods over here and then it rushes over here and then eventually over here becomes this like actual business that's not that exciting, you know, and it trades at like a low multiple or something. But the idea over here when it gets hot and everybody starts talking about it, I mean this is worth like a hundred times, you know, projected metrics, it's crazy, maybe more. I mean, it's worth any amount that you can dream up, it's worth that. You say like uh, you know, power beamed down from the the the galaxy, some other galaxy. Oh, that's worth what I mean like a million times some metric or something. That's the price of hope. And so I just think people they don't understand this. It's like it's like when you then you get into a bit like we have a business in the newsletter that generates like 25% you know IBIDA margins doing something that like even like a like a teenager couldn't screw up and nobody wants to buy that stock. And I'm like okay well just buy that stock. Well no it's not exciting enough. Okay well what is it that you want? I mean you say you want this old lemonade stand idea. Well I mean I'm happy to own that. I'm happy like my portfolio. I tell people in the newsletter what I'm up to. That's the whole thing. I mean, it's like, you know, I'm managing a portfolio for a trust, but it's like, this is how I think, right? I'm happy to own a stock that makes 25% Utah margins, but it's not a 300% a year stock. That's a stock with no revenue. You have a company with no revenue that can generate like multiund% returns. That's the price of hope. And people just seem like they're unwilling to do that. But let well we should probably get into you know I've got like a little >> Well, I don't know. You are you gonna let me get into this, buddy? You gonna No, I'm just kidding. Whatever you want. Tell tell me about the boolean behind you. I know it was heavy. >> I mean, look look look look I mean you can curl these things. I mean this is you know this is like serious amount of this is 2,000 ounces of silver. Now the silver price is 42 and a half. I mean it's probably going to go right up to 50 here momentarily. And what I can't figure out is what people like about silver. And I just sort of slowly bought some silver because I I number one, I thought silver was kind of cool. I mean, I I I went to some silver mines. I learned a lot about silver, you know. I I I learned about antibacterial properties of silver. What? I'm just sort of a little bit into that kind of stuff. And so I slowly bought some silver. I got a lot of silver. So now silver's like over 40 bucks. I got to go find all the silver. I can't find it all. So, and I've tried to find it all. And I look forward to selling it at some point. not right away, but I do think that it's going to go up over 50 and then it's people might start paying attention at that point. But silver is is lagging way behind and the silver people talk about it in this way that I don't understand. It's kind of like, you know, when someone's getting like really excited in a different language or something. I don't know what they like about it because we're in this market where you have things like vault higher in price and I'm like here to 50 bucks is like 20%. I mean, here to a 100 bucks, you know, it's like it's like barely more than a double. And like, you can't even find all the stuff. I mean, it's like I've got so many backyards to go dig around in. I I can't I don't know where all this stuff is. But it is fun to go out and find your stash because, you know, I've been buying this stuff for ages. I mean, I just bought it cuz I think it was cool. That's what Jeremy, that's what people don't understand. Most of the time, you know, you buy something because it's going to go up, it goes down. you buy something because you think it's super interesting and it it goes up, you know, and >> I just think that to me this I'm at a place in life where I'm like everybody, you know, I'm just watching what you say and what you what you do and then I'm making decisions based on what I see and it seems to me like really easy to to to make money. I >> Well, listen listen, you got you you got into quite a bit there and I'm not quite sure. I'm going to bring it back to this price of hope because I think it makes for a good book. I mean, you called 2025 a year of speculative excess coming, you know, kind of coining that term price of hope ratio for companies with no sales but tons of hope as you just mentioned. But specifically, let's get into, you know, how an investor navigates a market where narratives are being valued more than these highly established profitable business. I mean, get into some picks. Who are you looking at right now? Who are the boring ones? All right, let's let's let's do what you were saying about let how does the average person put this information? Because the average person says this guy needs a haircut and he looks like a good tennis player, but like I don't understand what he's talking about. All right. If you're if you're the average person, you're probably doing a job that you don't like for money that you're afraid to spend. That's the you got to get rock bottom honest with yourself about what you're trying to do with the market. And then you need to see the system for what it is. you're gonna have the chance to make money on these Hope stocks and then the world is changing right in front of your very eyes. I mean, one of the things I think people really struggle with is we're just we're just charging head first into this digitally controlled system. And it's a great idea to see that for what it is and make a little money along the way. You're trying to have a balanced approach to walking into surfom. I'm not sure that there's any way around it to be honest with you because I had a friend named Mark once that had his children born without a social security number and so they can't get a driver's license, they can't fly on a plane, they can't go to a hospital. I mean, it's like, you know, it doesn't really make much sense. So, I think you need to see the system evolving for what it is. Now, why is that important? You know, you might be freaked out when you hear that, but you should not be freaked out. I mean, people in the, you know, early part of the 20th century when they saw the radio, you know, they they were freaked out. And the reality is the world kept spinning after the radio, you know, had a there was messages broadcast into your living room. Now, if you were like a real lite, that would have properly freaked you out. But we're walking into this system where there's going to be increasing control. And right now, you have a chance to play these hope things that are going on. And you should do that while understanding that you're pretty doomed. Well, what does that mean? All right. Well, you look at this all this metal here. I mean, gold has done even better, right? I mean like like at some point I just switched to buying only gold because it takes you would need like a an armored warehouse to keep all the silver in. But these are things that are going to run and then at some point they're going to be untradable and the gold prices call it like 25 trillion right now. That's if you take all the gold in the world and you you put a price on it that might go higher. And what you're going to see later is the reason it's going higher is because people are starting to move into it to protect themselves. Protect themselves from what? Well, it's pretty obvious that you're going to have a Fedcoin. I wrote the term Fedcoin in like 200 I think 15 or something. It's way too early. Okay, that's the other problem with writing books and reports. It's a huge mistake because people, you know, it's non-fiction writing. You should really write fiction if you want to be a writer. It's much easier to hide behind that. But I put the term Fedcoin out because there'll be a closed loop blockchain. And what's going to happen is there'll be no counterfeiting. There'll be no tax evasion. And there'll be nowhere to hide if you run a foul of the monetary regime. And what's that going to do to gold? Well, I don't know. But I'll tell you what I think it's going to go to do to gold. It's going to drive the price really, really high. And gold's going to be one of these things. There's a lot of value and it's really hard to sell. And people say, "Well, what how is that even possible?" Let's do a hypothetical scenario here. What if we saw a gold price much higher, like 5,000, eventually 10,000? You might end up in a scenario where if you try to sell that gold, there's this massive excise tax, meaning the gold is sort of like outside of this blockchain system that we're in. Now, to be really clear, blockchain doesn't mean Bitcoin. Blockchain means that that the Fed or some new version of the Fed would would because you're going to like, you know, expose the Fed for what it is and have a new much worse Fed someday. And this would be like a closed loop blockchain. So what's interesting about Bitcoin is you have this like distributed ledger. So you would just have like one ledger, you know, with Fedcoin and it would be like centrally controlled Watson computer that would monitor every single serial number on every single Fedcoin as it moved around. it be infinitely controllable and then if you tried to sell the gold you would be bringing it back into the Fedcoin system which would expose you to whatever tax rate you want. I mean there might be like this okay you could sell the gold for this period at a fixed price bring it back into the system. Does this sound familiar? Do you remember when this happened in the 1930s? Is there some eerie similarities like a sort of like a modernday computerized FDR scenario? Okay. And so I think when people start seeing this, they start seeing, wow, I mean this is possible. Now here's what blows my mind. Is that then they say, "How can I profit from this?" And I'm thinking these capitalists, man, Lenon had it right. These capitalists will be like, "They're going to hang me. Is there a way I can make some money off the rope?" Do you get what I'm saying? It's like, it's like >> first step is you just need to see things for, you know, you just need to see the bigger picture. I mean, you don't have to go profiting from, you know, from every sort of thing that's going to happen. But I I I hope that's not too much of a narrative for you because because when people read my letter, I'm saying, why don't you just read the newsletter because it's really well written and it's written by me and it's a lot of fun to read and you might learn something. Can you read something because you might learn something? Can you can you can you read a story that can you just read a good story or do you do you need a secret code like a Cracker Jacks box every time you you eat something? Can you just eat something and enjoy yourself? I don't think >> people listen, let me bring it back to what you were saying because I I only got about 15 minutes left with you, Evie. But I do want to get to a couple of things. First, the Fed, what we haven't really got into, but let's go back to what you talked about. I mean, you've warned for years that a modern gold kind of confiscation wouldn't be a physical raid, but it would come as a form of a kind of prohibitive excise tax, selling it, say 90%. I mean, how how close how close are we that to to that reality? I mean what what would the political trigger for the government to be make such a a big move? >> I think I think it's not pre-ordained. I think that I think the issue would would happen as a reaction to people trying to avoid cooperating with Fedcoin. That's what would trigger it. So it's not like they say, you know, on on this date, you know, we're going to have this excise tax. I think if people begin hiding, trying to preserve and hide and operate outside of the Fedcoin regime, then that's when you would say, "Okay, we have a window of opportunity for you to get legal with your gold. And if you don't get legal with your gold, you're going to be subject to like a 90% excise tax." And also like like all these, you know, different ways that you could be punished because you're naughty school children, you know, with having your gold. We told you that's only for governments. it's only for you know foreign governments not you okay so so that's that's the type of messaging just see the messaging like I remember as a kid when we learned about algebra I was like what's the point of algebra and you know my father was really smart he was like you got to learn you got to learn how the equation works and then you're going to see that lots of parts of life are the same equation you'll be able to solve things in life I didn't really know what that meant you know but it turns out you know he was right so like you see that you kind of see this process like what's the equation of FDR. It's easy when you go back and look because everybody you know that was around then as an adult is dead now. Maybe there's some people that are old that were kids then. But see the equation and forget about the emotion and then you look at the modern scenario, the digital version of that and you say, "Wow, okay, I see how people hiding in gold would make it harder for Fedcoin to take effect and and be a control mechanism. It's going to control your whole life." Okay, so everybody in the US is obsessed with money and they're they're obsessed with money and they also they hoard money. If you notice people, they don't have enough money. Even people that have a lot of money, they don't quite have enough. Like the Morgan Stanley guy that I use is like you should not stop working because the Tucker letter is like a something I do because I love it. Right? So like that guy says you should be working more. Why should I be? Well, you you could have more money. Well, what would I do with more money? Eventually I do something I enjoy. It doesn't make any sense. People's thinking is broken. And so you have a society that's totally obsessed with profit. I'm not going to say it's greedy because I I I don't think greed is bad. I also don't think money is bad. It's just that people are out of balance and and they do they do something compulsively. And so when you back up a little bit and you see that this is where things are headed. Your then your job becomes different. Your job becomes to live now, to keep playing the game, but to know that it's a game and to see where it's going and to not be afraid of that because there's no stopping where it's going. And the world definitely keeps going. And you can survive and you can survive and thrive through change. People just 1935 is not when the world stopped. It got infinitely more exciting. And it's going to get more exciting from here. You got to go along with it. You got to flow with it. But you can you can have more fun when you see what's going on. >> So you're describing kind of you know gold is is the ultimate way to operate outside of this future fedcoin as you call it or this digital regime. But in a world of you know 24/7 digital surveillance where every financial institution is a reporting agency basically I mean how does one actually use that physical gold to live without creating a massive trail? I mean the moment you convert it back to digital currency to buy a car or a house aren't you right back on their radar? I would never encourage anyone to run a foul of the United States, you know, authorities, just to be clear. Uh I think that when you see what is likely to happen, then you can make choices accordingly. For example, in the 1930s, there were ways to lawfully, you know, operate through that. I mean, I mean, there were there were certain uh classes of exemptions. Now, now if you just kind of like read the paper that it was essential that you turn your gold in, which is what unfortunately, you know, my >> great-grandmother did, and I had a hard time understanding that till my grandfather told me, yeah, well, they were running the newspaper like uh seven days a week that like the country was, you know, like teetering on the edge or whatever. So, it's very difficult for a lot of people to to process that. readers of the Tucker letter might fare better than the average. But anyway, you just went into the bank and turned all that stuff in and then later you discovered that like if some of those coins were like, you know, 18th century French collectibles or something like they might have had an exemption, whatever. I'm just saying you don't look at this as a scenario where you're going to become some sort of underground lawless bandit. I mean, I don't think that that's really a lifestyle that most people, considering their size and shape and cognitive abilities, I don't think you're going to make it as a lawless bandit. Maybe, but I don't think you will. I think it's much smarter to see change for what it is and to flow with it. That's just me. I'm not afraid of any sort of change because I'm not clinging on to the past. And part of that is because I feel like I accurately see things for what they are and don't live under a cloud of delusion. Most of my compatriots, I think, you know, do live under a cloud of delusion. And they survive off of fear and hope and panic and all these emotions. And that's why they're all anxious. That's why they have a hard time doing anything or gnawing their fingers and tapping their legs and they look panicked all the time and they just need a little more money and their life will be better. I don't think any of that stuff. I I don't think any of that stuff. I'm going to do things I enjoy just for the sake of enjoying them. And when it comes to money decisions, I'm trying to flow down the river of life, making decisions that are going along that flow. And readers of the Tucker Letter know this. So, I mean, I don't think bunkering yourself is necessarily that wise of an idea. I mean, it's sort of like the whole prepping thing. You're you're locked in a bunker eating eating five gallon pales of dehydrated food for 20 years. does not sound like a party. Um, so, so when you think about this stuff, I think it's important to consider the setup and what's likely to happen and then figure out how you want to deal with it. That's what I would do. >> Bring it back to the political endgame a little bit and talk to me about the Fed. Obviously, we have this upcoming meeting. We're going to hear about these rates this week, but go deeper into the mechan the mechanics of that system because the Federal Reserve has seven governors, right? Meaning a president needs four appointees to control policy. Are the intense pressure campaigns like you wrote about in your latest letter against governors like Lisa Cook part of a calculated strategy to create vacancies and consolidate control over the money supply? Is is this the new playbook? What are your thoughts? >> All right, just just remember when you started this Fed, it was sort of this different era and now banks really aren't the thing. Okay, if you think about it, what do you do with stable coins? the stable coins fall into this category that the Fed originally was was designed to monitor and it's no longer banks. I mean, like if you've been to the bank recently, it's like more frustrating than going down to the county and trying to like, you know, turn your your water on or something. I mean, it's it's it's very very difficult. And what you're seeing is that the banks are total dinosaurs and they're not really the most essential part of the new system. And so that's why I think the Fed which is effectively owned by the primary dealer banks is doomed. Now now meantime meantime what what the government is doing what the elected uh executive branch is doing is actually pretty sensible because you do have the right to appoint these people and if you're not happy with these people you should agitate. You know it's this happens all the time right in different parts of government. It's front page news now, but it really shouldn't be because the government realizes that that and Bernaki put this in print, by the way. It's called the virtuous circle. If you can make asset prices go higher, people are very happy. And when they're happy, they borrow and spend and they carry on and and they have lots of hope and they they make the whole system go. And what needs to happen is this this system needs to get bigger. It needs to get slowly bigger. That's why they talk about this 2%, you know, thing or whatever. It's got to get slowly slowly slowly bigger. Not fast bigger and definitely not smaller, but slowly bigger. And so you need to have this system expanding. And it can't expand if rates are too high on the front end. And that's what the the the current push is to normalize the yield curve to have the yield curve running from low at the front to high at the back in a normal quote unquote normal fashion. normal being a word that doesn't mean exactly what it used to to mean, but don't worry about that. And so that's what they're going for. And so when they do that, you know, we have three stocks that we think will benefit, which are already moving in advance, but the point is is that you're going to incentivize regular lending is what they want to do because they want this system to slowly expand. Now, >> who's the three stocks, CB? I got to ask, who's those three stocks? >> Yeah, it's just I unfair to the subscribers. I mean, you can read the Tucker letter for free, but you can understand how we're not going to really that the actionable stuff we're going to leave off that, but you should read for free if you're in a budget constrained situation, which is funny to me because most of these people that are budget constrained also want like secret code stock symbols to make 10,000% gains. I don't know which one is it people, you know? So, they they say we'll be responsible once we have the money later, but it doesn't work that way. You treat money properly, you get more money. you treat money irresponsibly, you lose you lose money. It's as simple as that. But let me just say this, try to see that the Fed in its current iteration someday will succumb to this like end the Fed type thing and they'll pile on to it and say, "Oh, it's this big crisis and we're going to have this new super supervisory group come in, Fed 2.0, give it a different name or something like that and that will incorporate stable coins, all these different things." What cracks me up is people want to make money on stable coins. I'm like, do you Everything is about making money. It's crazy to me. I'm like, how are you going to make money on a stable coin? I mean, it's like maybe you can do it. Don't I don't even want to get into that. But I just >> Wait, wait, wait. Go back go back to the stable coin for a second because I mean, you you you recently warned that the Fed's replacement could be worse and and it would involve stable coins, right? But with this new genius act now regulating private stable coins. Is the endgame a public private partnership where the Fed gets, you know, the control it craves through the Fedcoin, but it's actually sanctioned back issued stable coins through that are traceable. >> Totally. Absolutely. And if you think about it, people are embracing liquidity in the form of this this new type of money. I mean, I dare you to go down to the bank and try to wire money. I mean, it's like it's it it's it's so hard. I mean, I mean, obviously like with the private client stuff and everything, but still they ask you the dumbest questions like like they they make it out like you've done something really awful and you've really got to prove that you haven't or something. Then they're like, "Well, maybe someone's scamming you." Believe me, no one's scamming me. I'm trying to send money to this company or whatever that I own. Okay, so my point is is that people are click click click to send stable coins. They're happy with that. Like the modern era, people are like happy to move in and out of all these stable coins. And you can easily see how when it comes to managing the flow of liquidity that the Fed is becoming a dinosaur and that some new Fed would have the opportunity to incorporate all of these new types of money movements which people are really keen on these things. I mean just so you I'm sure you have friends that are like really happy about they feel very smart doing this and it and it's fine. I mean it's like it's another one of those things where it's like it is what it is. I mean what do you expect like systems systems nothing is permanent and systems come in and they they do something for a while and then maniacal people fight for control of them and you know they clobber each other trying to to benefit from these things and then there's problems then takeovers then new systems and this is called a life I mean it's the equivalent of like what happens in nature I mean it's such a normal thing and everybody in the US is like they they they they look at it like it's bolted down and static and linear And it's just not and I think that's why they have so much trouble in the markets is because they they crave certainty and there is no certainty like it's just there's not any sort of certainty in the whole cosmos and the faster you understand that the faster you're going to have more fun and you're going to you're going to enjoy yourself more and you're probably going to be more successful. And I know it's scary but believe me it's not going to be scary. You're going to be scared to go back to the old way of thinking. That's what's going to happen. >> Well, it's interesting. I mean your thesis right is about protecting wealth from a predatory system. But is there a point where winning the war means more than just owning the right assets? Does it require a move towards you know a parallel economy using assets like gold or private crypto not as investments but as true peer-to-peer money completely outside the system? What are your thoughts? >> Probably. But the the issue is is that the the war right now is for your mind. And that's what people don't understand. And so the the number one trick that people need to work on now is seeing things for what they are because that's how you win. That's how you that's how you get on top of this and you make sure you're going to come out on top is it's your mind. It's your mind that you have to work on. That's and people just can't do it. They're like, "No, I need the ticker symbol in an election or something." It's irrelevant. Both those things are irrelevant. Like there's always another chance to grow. There's always another chance to make money. There's always another chance to come out on top. But not if you're stuck in bad thinking. I know it's hard for people. I really do. But you know, evucker.com will help you. But the thing is is that we'll help you help yourself because you're going to see that this is not that hard to figure out. Like all year we've been having great success in the market and telling people it's not that hard to figure out what's going on. It's just not that hard. I mean, you can really see this for what it is. It's a show. You're watching a show. >> So, you know, grab the popcorn. >> The best show. The best show, man. It's such a good show. Believe it. >> I meant ours. >> This is This is my favorite. >> Hey, before before I let you go, I mean, I I we you've also made that stark prediction about a blackout shock crisis, right? A time when our devices kind of go dark nationwide where would be used to justify these stricter controls. I mean if this all seems to point towards a system of what you call full control digital total eyes on 365 in this new world of you know regulated stable coins that you talk about increasing surveillance what happens to the concept of of analog wealth like the physical ounces of gold I mean does it become a relic or is this more essential than ever >> I think it might be something that you got to be prepared to own for quite some time and um some people might say it's not worth it I mean I mean I'm one that thinks to self, you know, would you have held gold from 1935 to 1974? Maybe. Maybe. I mean, obviously it would have been wise uh 30 30 years roughly. I mean, I I you could have also found other things to do. I mean, so I think that might be the choice that people need to make as well. But um I do think that you'll wake up one day and your phone will be black and you'll have to ask yourself, am I willing to give up um my personal sovereignty to turn it back on? And I think you need to be realistic that almost everyone will say yes. Okay. And you'll have dossafe websites that are government approved and the department of safe you know online activity and uh that if you see now it's like there's there's there's there's hackers everywhere. There's bank fraud. There's scammers. I mean I had someone I mailed someone a check and someone intercepted the check in their mailbox and printed more checks and wrote these checks and it's not that big of a deal. Like I mean you know you just have to go down to the bank and fill out all these forms. But the point is is that the guy at the bank was telling me it's just like there's like filing cabinets full of these things. It's constant. And so and that's good if you want to exert this control because you need to create instability and fear to have people give up their freedom. And people are just really really willing to give up their freedom fast in America. I mean like they talk about freedom but what happens is is that at every single turn it's pretty easy to shake it right out of their hands. >> And I I just I don't think there's a lot you can do about that. >> Well, let's bring it home, man. I mean you've you've again you know that there's that picture of that system based on control surveillance a managed narrative and we we talked about it but for an individual watching this show you know KCO news subscribe I mean what is the what's more important for their survival in the next >> living >> but is it growing growing their cal capital or defending their sovereignty >> balanced living you've got to live a lifestyle that you personally enjoy that's the trick you can't live a lifestyle that you think later you'll enjoy you can't live someone else's lifestyle U you can't do a job that you don't like for money you're afraid to spend. Balanced living. You have to manage money like it's a lot of money even when it's not. People are all the time shocked that you know 25 years ago when I was like working and construction all these weird things. It wasn't like oh I had to work so hard. What I'm saying is that I was st I was saving I I was like really focused on living a life that I wanted to live which was like a life where I was intellectually free and I needed to free myself from the need to work every day to do that and it took a long time to do that and it might take a short time it might take a long time but the one thing that I learned is you have to treat money with respect that you'll get more money so you you try to make decisions to create the life that you want and personally I didn't want to have a bunch of things that forced me to do things I didn't like. So, I I made choices accordingly. If you're watching this, the way this translates into your life is stop looking for these bizarre ways to win the lottery in the stock market. It's probably not going to happen. Plus, most lottery winners end up in horrible life situations, and you don't want to do that. It's not enviable to have that outcome. You already have a great life if you have time to watch this video. You can make money. You can enjoy yourself. You can you can do things that are fun. You can get on top of the markets. You can stay on top of the markets and it just gets better and better and better. But the trick is balanced living. You live your life. You invest your money. You spend time learning. You do things that you enjoy. And you watch this thing get bigger and bigger and bigger. My second book, Not for Sale, is the better book of the two that I've written. And people all the time, they they don't understand this, but but it it's all about your personal wiring. And you absolutely can work on your personal wiring. It takes almost no time to do it. And you'll be shocked that you waited so long to do it. And when you do it, you're going to see that you're going to do more things you like. You're going to be around people that you enjoy. You're not going to have time for people you don't enjoy. You're going to get rid of people that are negative that blame everyone for all their troubles that are looking for hope and all these secrets and then angry and resentful at people and they they they talk about themselves in a bad way. Get away from these people. what I'm saying. >> So, what's your longest what's what's your longest position this year? I mean, if you're looking at this kind of going into it, we don't know when this reset's happening. Obviously, we still want to take a profit from the S&P. >> I I bet I bet you my portfolio turns over about 25% of it per year. Like, meaning meaning I bet you the if you take the whole of my portfolio, it averages turns all the way over every four years. >> But miners, are you looking at those those classics anymore? You're kind of out of the minor. I only own I own I I I would say like you know 20 maybe just under 20%. Not that much miners. Like I mean it's not like I I I I'm shocked they haven't done better and so I'm not going to own more of them because they haven't performed. I mean the fact is is that gold has done better than some of the the bigger miners and and I mean they've done fine but what I'm saying is that if you asked these miners eight years ago what would $3,600 gold $3,700 gold do to your business? They would have said it would have gone totally bananas and it hasn't gone bananas. I mean to be up 100% is like sort of like a big foul. I mean like you know you could have gotten half that in gold in the same period of time. This is really crazy. I mean it's like so you you got to look at the chart. I mean it's like don't just listen to the person like look at the chart you know and uh >> but do you still streamers? Do you still like do you like the streamers that I mean I don't think they've performed. I mean I think people have a hard time with like what's my role. I mean, I liked royalty companies last decade. I bought a lot, like actually way too much of one royalty company, went on the board and I resigned from that board. And I think people have a really hard time with that because they don't know that. But it's like, you know, look at the facts. I mean, you know, look at the press releases. Like, no hard feelings, but I mean, like I was an investor in that business and I'm happy that I did that and we did fine, but like I'm pretty long gone from that business. Like I mean 2023 is a long time ago. And so, uh, if it had worked, if it had been on a track that I liked better, I would have stayed involved. But it wasn't. And that goes for a lot of companies. I mean, like there's you really got to look at these companies, you say, if gold's up this much and your business isn't up more. That's kind of a problem. And so, it's not personal. You just need to you need to like say, why would you why would you do that? I mean, it doesn't >> it doesn't make any sense. And we're we're here to make money. We're not here to fight ideological wars. We're here to We're here to make a profit >> and still stack silver just like behind you. He be you got what 2,000 2,000 ounces behind you. It's pretty heavy. >> I I personally I like to keep more than my body weight around at all times. Now, I'm not that heavy of a person, but I mean, you know, even still, uh I look forward to selling it. So, you know, we'll see what happens. >> Okay, $50. I mean, we're getting closer. Uh Lucy, we always run out of time, you and I, but hopefully we'll have you on soon. Eie Tucker, editor of the Tucker Letter, of course. It's a fascinating cautionary perspective as always. Thanks for your time. >> Thanks for having me. See you soon. >> All righty. We'll see you soon. So, there you have it. The disconnect between the euphoric market and a fragile system. What do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. And if you want more in-depth interviews like this one, make sure to hit like on this video and subscribe to the Kicko News channel. All right, you can find more on EB's work over at Substack. For all of us here at Kicko News, I'm Jeremy Saffron. See you next time. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]