Mm.

And during the '60s, Lyndon Johnson made a lot of promises.

The space shot going to the moon was one.

Number two was the Great Society, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and then inflation.

And those things, you know, made the, us print more dollars than we had gold to back it in Fort Knox.

So President Nixon in 1971 was forced to break the tie between gold and the dollar when he took us off the gold standard, and it's been fiat money or money that's unbacked by anything ever since, except for the full faith and credit of the US government.

Now, what, what gold really has as its most important and alluring attribute is that its value is internationally recognized, and it has no counterparty risk.

But, uh, do you ever see that case being made?

Should I throw that book away, sir?

No, no, Mark, I'm getting there.

What, what really happened was the US started this conflict, so I think there was a bit more confidence in it than there might have been otherwise had it been the, you know, the other way around.

What happened was higher inflation created higher Treasury yields.

Bonds were sold and yields rose, and gold doesn't offer a yield.

So the, the flight to safety was really more into the dollar and into, and into, uh, Treasury short term, which pressured gold to lows.

Now, we've hit a bottom at $39.50 for gold and $55.50 for silver, and we were channeling, trying to rebound a little bit when the yen intervention occurred about two weeks ago with the US and Japan in a f- in the first coordinated effort to intervene in the yen in three decades, pushing the yen up and the dollar down.

What are your thoughts on these levels we're seeing right now for the year in the energy complex?

Should I throw that book away, sir?

No, no, Mark.

I'm getting there.

What really happened was the U.S. started this conflict, so I think there was a bit more confidence in it than there might have been otherwise had it been the other way around.

What happened was... higher inflation created higher treasury yields.

Bonds were sold and yields rose.

And gold doesn't offer a yield.

What are your thoughts on these levels we're seeing right now for the year in the energy complex?

But What do you attribute those to? Like, what do you attribute those huge runs to? Because sometimes it takes off and then sometimes it does nothing.

Well, fundamentally, gold tracks our debt higher.

That's the most basic correlation over the longer term.

In 2005, we had $7 trillion in debt.

In 2015, we had $17 trillion.

And now 2025, last year, we were up to $38 trillion.

So we've doubled our debt twice in the last 20 years.

But I'm just curious, like what your thoughts are in the silver market as a whole? Is it worth investing in? Or is it just kind of more speculative? Or what are your thoughts?

I'd like to just kind of get your overview of what you're seeing, how you're feeling about what's going on economically and where precious metals might fit into these conversations.

Great.

Well, your path is pretty typical.

People tend to invest in precious metals when they're scared.

And it can be an emotional reaction to what's happening.

And, you know, the great financial crisis scared everyone, right? The wheels were about to come off the bus.

And then we went through a period of complacency where the global economies gained traction, things settled down.

Does that give you enough to go on? Did I give you an entry point there, Dana?

exciting and i've been approached on so many different aspects of gold and we uh i've been a consistent believer in gold and consistent over the years of gold and uh extremely well recently so let's start uh you know why gold went on you know such a boom

Well, we had a confluence of events last year that led to the biggest rally we've seen in the market in 30 years, actually 40 years, since the 70s.

President Trump's tariffs have a lot to do with it because he disrupted the global order through the tariffs and the uncertainty that they created.

And last April, he tariffed India – I'm sorry, he tariffed China 145 percent when he reduced tariffs on everyone else, and the Chinese went on a gold-buying spree that drove the price up $500 to almost $4,000 an ounce.

And then he did the same thing to India in August.

Tariffing them 50% for buying Russian oil supported the war against the Ukraine and Indians went on a silver buying spree.

And then we got into a fear of missing out rally where the market just got turbocharged.

But in the long term, because of the changes that occur, I really find that gold's a better investment than ever.

exciting and i've been approached on so many different aspects of gold and we uh i've been a consistent believer in gold and consistent over the years of gold and uh extremely well recently so let's start uh you know why gold went on you know such a boom

well we we had a Confluence of events last year that led to the biggest rally we've seen in the market in 30 years since actually 40 years since the 70s.

President Trump's tariffs have a lot to do with it because he disrupted the global order through the tariffs and the uncertainty that they created.

And last April he tariffed India, I'm sorry, he tariffed China 145% when he reduced tariffs on everyone else and the Chinese went on a gold buying spree that drove the price up $500 to almost $4,000 an ounce.

And then he did the same thing to India in August tariffing them 50% for buying Russian oil supported the war against the Ukraine.

And Indians went on a silver buying spree.

And then we got into a fear of missing out rally where the market just got turbocharged.

But in the long term, because of the changes that occur, I really find that gold is a better investment than ever.