Turning Hard Times Into Good Times

Alasdair Macleod, Quinton Hennigh and Michael Oliver return as guests this week. Few people understand that the dollar became the world’s currency because of an agreement between the Nixon Administration and Saudi Arabia not long after Nixon detached gold from the dollar and the international monetary system in 1971. The agreement was for Saudi Arabia and OPEC to demand payment for all international oil sales in U.S. dollars, thus ensuring a constant and growing demand for dollars. Soon thereafter not only oil, but virtually everything that sold internationally, was denominated in dollars. The U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve were free to create endless amounts of dollars out of thin air that Americans could use for generations to buy the world’s goods. It enabled America to live beyond its means since 1971 to consume and finance the greatest military might the world had ever seen to bully its way into foreign lands. But with Russia now making a similar move by demanding that “unfriendly” countries pay for

Kevin Smith, Tavi Costa and Patrick Highsmith are this week’s guests. Crescat Capital became known to your host when one of the top exploration geologists in the world and a regular guest on this show, Dr. Quinton Hennigh, joined the company as its technical advisor. His job is to assist Crescat in selecting small exploration companies that are in the process of discovering world class mineral deposits. Even before Quinton joined them, Crescat had won a large number of awards as a top hedge fund firm over the past couple of decades. While most firms were suffering large losses over a 5-year period ending in 2010, Crescat averaged 27.2 % annual gains which included the worst stock market crash since 1929. The same independent thought process that enabled that success has now led the company to focus heavily on commodities and precious metals as they recognize that the biggest gains at this time can be made by investing in small cap companies that are able to discover world class gold and silver deposits. Hence

Alasdair Macleod, Michael Oliver & Patrick Highsmith are this week’s guests. Alasdair has recently pointed out that the Fed, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are now themselves becoming insolvent. As interest rates rise along with surging inflation, the massive debt they purchased to stimulate their economies is declining in value, resulting in negative net worth balance sheet positions. Insolvent central bank balance sheets began to emerge before Russia invaded the Ukraine. Now massive sanctions against Russia, keeping it from trading in dollars at a time when supply chain constraints are much, much greater than those created by COVID, threaten massive shortages of essential commodities on global markets, which in turn threaten prospects of dollar-denominated hyperinflation and still higher interest rates. President Biden talks of a New World Order with the U.S. leading it, but that may not be possible because creditor countries like China, not debtor nations like the U.S., end up as leaders whe

Bob Moriarty, Michael Hudson and Chen Lin are this week’s guests. As global income distribution has been redistributed from the poor and middle class to the top 1/10th of the 1% more dramatically than at any time since the 1920s, extremely rich powerful members of the World Economic Forum (WEF) have, according to Bob Moriarty, been engaging in never ending propaganda campaigns out of hysteria to deceive masses of people from believing their own eyes. Aiding the WEF in propaganda campaigns is a mainstream media that is equally out of touch with an increasingly impoverished citizenry that Hillary Clinton labeled the “deplorables.” Bob explains the reason for such mass hysteria from the practitioners of modern Bernaysian propaganda is that the WEF “Gang of Weasels” is starting to realize that the “deplorable masses” are not happy with the notion espoused by the WEF’s plans for 99% of the world’s population. That plan was stated by Klaus Schwab’s infamous declaration that “you will own nothing and you will be hap

Kevin Duffy, Dr. Quinton Hennigh and Michael Oliver are this week’s guests. During the 2008-09 financial crisis Kevin Duffy’s Bearing Asset Management fund registered triple-digit gains while most everyone else saw their 401 K accounts cut in half. By exercising healthy skepticism of mainstream propaganda and studying history, Kevin has demonstrated how by recognizing past patterns of human and institutional behavior and by sticking to the merits of long-term value, you may be able to avoid large scale losses suffered by most investors and actually profit from taking contrarian positions. Given the increasingly tumultuous markets during the first quarter of 2022, we will ask Kevin what strategies he is currently using to “turn hard times into good times.” Dr. Hennigh will join us to provide an update on what is rapidly becoming a very large-scale, bulk mineable silver-tin deposit with other valuable base metal credits. Shareholders are enjoying the ride but given massive upside exploration potential, these

Alasdair Macleod, Eric Coffin and Chen Lin are this week’s guests. Alasdair’s February 24, 2022 article, upon which the topic of this show is based, occurred before the Russian invasion into the Ukraine. Since then it appears that the NATO countries have been more unified than anticipated and the Ukrainian army and citizens are putting a very courageous fight against the invaders that may be countering attempts by Putin to drive a wedge between America and the non-Anglo-Saxon EU. But can this unity last when the economic repercussions of sanctions and broken supply chains start to cause serious hardship for Europeans? Alasdair also suggested that the U.S. was trying to suck Russia into an untenable occupation that Putin wouldn’t fall for. We will ask Alasdair how that might hurt Putin’s cause. How does $108 oil come into play as central banks continue to print massive amounts of money in an effort to offset economic damage caused by sanctions and supply chain disruptions? With the equity markets currently get

David Stockman and Michael Oliver return. As Dr. Yuri Maltsev noted last week, societies that believe citizens have no sovereign rights but rather are slaves of the state tend to engage in propaganda to keep their subjects obedient and in line with the wishes of the ruling lords. David will share research covered in his recent article titled “We are Not Useful Idiots!” that reveals a much more complex story of the Ukraine than the Washington narrative is providing. Washington claims to be much more concerned about the borders of the Ukraine than those of the southern U.S. border. How does that work? We will ask David to give a grade to the religious practitioners of Keynesian economics and based on that, where he thinks our major markets are headed. Michael who has continued to provide excellent guidance regarding the precious metals markets will share his latest momentum and structural model results for gold and silver and several other key markets and help us understand how various market sectors are drivin

Dr. Yuri Maltsev visits for the first time. Quinton Hennigh and John Rubino return. Ron Paul once said in a GOP presidential debate that “if we are free, we will be prosperous.” Yuri understands that as well as anyone having worked as an economist on behalf President Gorbachev’s perestroika reform package. In 1989 Yuri defected from the Soviet Union not only because he knew the Soviet economic system was doomed but for a much greater reason - freedom & liberty. Yuri witnessed firsthand how power-hungry politicians use propaganda to deceive people in order to grab power and deprive people of their natural human rights. He is not fooled by similar deceiving propaganda being used now in the U.S. and Western countries in general. As the natural rights and freedoms we, as Americans, have taken for granted are rapidly being stripped away, what will that mean not only for our personal wealth, but more importantly to our rights, to live free and develop our personal talents and religious beliefs as our Founding F

Frank Holmes, Dr. Quinton Hennigh and Michael Oliver are this week’s guests. Frank Holmes has long been known for his gold and natural resource funds, all of which are expected to be useful hedges against inflation. Not only have central bankers triggered massive inflation into the global economy but government policies have also contributed greatly to inflation. As always during inflationary episodes there are winners and losers from rising prices. Frank has identified a new industry that appears to be a likely winner that being the shipping industry. In an effort to ward off notions of climate disaster, laws passed have caused shipping prices to explode leading to massive profits in that industry. So Frank has launched a third ETF under the U.S. Global umbrella, namely the U.S. Global Sea to Sky Cargo ETF. Frank will explain his bullish views on shipping and given his long term involvement in gold markets he will share his views on that market as well. Quinton will join us to provide an update on Novo Resou

Alasdair Macleod, Quinton Hennigh and Chen Lin are this week’s guests. The Keynesian religion has been taught to every college graduate in America and Europe in recent decades. But that religion is based on falsehoods such as: “You can consume more than you produce and get rich by so doing.” Or, “capital has no time value.” Since getting rich without working is widely appealing to the human race, the very opportunistic President Nixon removed gold from money and declared “We are all Keynesians now.” By so doing, he paved the way for an American debt-funded spending orgy that only now is leading to an exponential rise in consumer prices and interest rate increases that will inevitably follow suit no matter what the Fed does. Austrian economists counter Keynesian religion but Kool-Aid drinking policy makers do not. Hence policies will continue to double down on the same policies that are taking us to the precipice of financial ruin. Alasdair will explain why, given ongoing Keynesian policies, inflation and in

Lyn Alden, Michael Oliver & Quinton Hennigh return. America is supposed to be the leader of the capitalist world. But Lyn’s January 2022 Newsletter titled “The Capital Sponge” provides some hints as to why American capitalism has moved far away from true capitalism to a model more akin to fascism. Due to the growing political influence of America’s military industrial complex, the American economy has evolved more into a fascist economic model that no longer allows capital to freely flow to its most efficient use but flows instead into the hands of large corporations that form the military industrial complex and away from the middle class. Lyn will talk about the flows of capital into U.S. financial markets and how you might adjust your investments to profit from an inevitable flow out of the U.S. Michael will present his thoughts about various markets about to break through their technical floors and others that are threatening to burst through their technical ceilings. Quinton will update us on the res

John Rubino, Patrick Highsmith and Chen Lin return. The big Keynesian fantasy that a country can forever become wealthy by consuming more than it produces has seemed believable to Americans because we have owned the world’s fiat reserve currency. That meant for the past number of decades that the Federal Reserve could create fiat money out of thin air to enable Americans to buy foreign goods rather than Americans earning income through export sales to pay for their consumption. But alas, the Federal Reserve and America cannot defy the law of mathematics because money isn’t actually created out of thin air at all. Fiat money is manufactured with debt. So, as decade after decade, America continued to consume more than it produced, its debt relative to income has risen to the point where the U.S. is now insolvent. Because of excessive unearned money creation by the Fed, America is now facing double-digit levels of inflation akin to 1980. But unlike 1980, when a 20% Fed Funds interest rate was required to break t

Kevin Duffy, Patrick Highsmith & Michel Oliver return as this week’s guests. Over the last 16 months, Kevin Duffy’s conservative “Coffee Can Portfolio” has gained 54.14% compared to a gain of 43.80% for the S&P 500. He did that despite 20.22% in reserves, 7.71% in portfolio insurance, 18.15% in gold stocks. Unlike the S&P 500, the Coffee Can Portfolio appears to be in a position to profit from, or at least, reduce losses in a major equity bear market. Kevin will join us to share his investment philosophy, provide his views on the economy and let us know how he has positioned his portfolio to weather a growing inflationary threat and, at the same time, protect his portfolio from a major equity bear market. Given that stocks are the most overvalued they have ever been in American history, the threat of a major decline in equities should be taken seriously, especially as interest rates rise in concert with higher rates of inflation. Patrick Highsmith will introduce the story of Timberline Resources,

Doug Casey, Chen Lin and Dr. Quinton Hennigh return. Not only rhetoric but policies of the Biden Administration look more akin to those of fascist and/or communist dictatorships than a free market capitalist system. While America never had a perfectly free market capitalist system, thanks to both Republican and Democrat parties, it is now hard to discern economic policies much different from fascist and communist governments as our choice to engage in commerce is increasingly regulated by big government. Nor do Americans seem to care much about civil liberties as evidenced by the demolition of our First Amendment rights through Big Tech censorship aimed at giving in to the Democrat party dictatorial power. As the middle class dwindles and the top 1% own nearly all of America’s wealth, the middle class is rapidly moving toward abject poverty as stimulus checks from “Uncle Joe” are quickly losing value thanks to QE programs, one after another. Yet Americans who vote on either side of the isle tend to make their

2021 has been a disappointing year for profit-seeking precious metal investors, but for the few who look to accumulate gold and silver as the ultimate insurance against runaway inflation, it has been an unexpected bonus. After reviewing the current year to gain a perspective for 2022, Alasdair will analyze the cause for the decline in the value of true market-driven money, namely gold and silver, measured in fake fiat money. Then he will provide a summary of his outlook for the dollar, the euro, and their financial systems as well as the outlook for gold and silver driven by those factors. Hint: The key issue is the interest rate outlook and how it will impact financial markets. Alasdair believes markets are wholly unprepared for the consequences of the massive expansions of currency and credit over the last two years. Also geopolitical factors will come into play as Putin and Xi have assessed President Biden to be fundamentally weak and have colluded to drive the American financial system to its knees. He w

Kevin Smith, Tavi Costa and Quinton Hennigh return. This episode of Turning Hard Times Into Good Times will focus on the macroeconomic views of Kevin Smith and Tavi Costa of Crescat Capital and the views of Dr. Quinton Hennigh regarding some of your host’s favorite gold and silver exploration stocks, including sponsors to this show. As Daniel DiMartino Booth noted, you can be 100% certain that in the new year the Fed will make a policy error because whatever it does, it will wreck havoc on the markets. The Fed cannot raise rates because if it does, something like 20% of American companies, that are essentially being kept alive by way of low interest rates, will fail. So the Fed cannot raise rates. At the same time the Fed cannot not raise rates because the seeds of a massive inflation have been set in motion through outrageously permissive monetary and fiscal monetary policies. But which of those two policy mistakes is the Fed likely to commit, or might they end up committing both as they try to thread the ne

James Turk, Michael Oliver & Quinton Hennigh return. America’s Founding Fathers defined the dollar in terms of a set amount of gold and silver because they understood fiat money would enable politicians and private citizens to counterfeit money as a means of robbing honest, hardworking citizens and thereby deprive them of their natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Fast forward to 2021, in a world of massive money manipulation by the Federal Reserve Bank, Americans are confined to their homes, mandated to be vaccinated, forced to wear masks, told when and with whom they can assemble, and told what they are allowed to say. Not only is our wealth being stolen through monetary inflation, which would be impossible had we kept gold and silver as money, but we are also losing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. James Turk who has understood the connection between dishonest fiat money and the road to hellish government tyranny has written about this subject in his newly published

Charles Hugh Smith and Quinton Hennigh return. Heated debates frequently erupt over whether inflation or deflation is the most important risk factor investors need to be mindful of. First, definitions of those terms are necessary to answer that question correctly. Once definitions are established, what factors like government accounting gimmicks and propaganda need to be understood to realize the magnitude of inflation and why it is as unstoppable as a runaway freight train. Charles will talk about some of the arguments used by the establishment that understate the cost of staying alive which is destroying the living standards of the middle class. Massive wealth is being redistributed to the top 1% of Americans and is reminiscent of feudal times in Europe. In the first segment of the show, Quinton will provide an update on Irving Resources as that company resumes drilling its exciting gold project in Japan. He will continue into the second segment to provide an update on the emerging world-class, silver-tin

John Rubino, Michael Oliver and Patrick Highsmith return. Almost alone among the world’s serious nations, Germany has scenes like this within living memory: During the 1923 Weimar Republic’s hyperinflation, newly-destitute Germans burned their life savings to keep warm or carted wheelbarrows of cash to stores to buy bread and milk. This wipe-out of an entire generation’s wealth led directly to Hitler and WWII, arguably the two dumbest mistakes made by any country ever. Note how in the recent past, before the Deutsche Bundesbank was replaced by the European Central Bank, short-term German interest rates were always set above the inflation rate in order to keep prices under control. Those days are over. Since the Great Recession, German interest rates have been consistently below the rate of inflation, apparently to encourage even faster price increases. So the question becomes: how much more of this can Germany take before it breaks from the Eurozone and starts trying to save itself? Or, will it simply go alon

Adam Taggart and Dr. Quinton Hennigh return. Adam’s fascinating background as an investment professional, combined with a passion to help people become financially literate so they can thrive, has led him to create a very interesting and informative video series on his Wealthion YouTube channel. Drawing from his own experiences, as well as many talented guests on Wealthion, Adam is proclaiming the need for investors to change their thinking from growth stories to fundamentally-sound value investments that produce income. This is especially important given the fact that monetary policy has removed the ability of middle-class people to earn reasonable returns with low risk on their savings. But speculative growth stocks are more overvalued now than at any time in history and signs abound that the global economy is in a slowdown mode. Soon there may be a rush to value-orientated, income-producing stocks, so better buy them now while they still provide good yields. Quinton will join me to update us on Lion One Me