Two Steps Forward, One Step Back - Weekly Wrap Up

Man: You're listening to the "Weekly Wrap-Up" on Sprott Money News.

Craig: Welcome back to the Sprott Money News "Weekly Wrap-Up." It is Friday, May the 14th, 2021. I'm your host, Craig Hemke. Joining us in Eric's place this week is Chris Marcus. Many of you are familiar with Chris. He's an author, he's an analyst, and he is all over silver at this point and helping us to finally make some change. So it's going to be a pleasure to visit with Chris. Chris, hey, thanks for stopping by the "Weekly Wrap-Up" again.

Chris: Craig, it's always a pleasure to catch up with you. I think you and your audience know how much appreciation I have for everything that you and...I mean, when you say I'm filling in for Eric, I mean, I don't even know how to respond to that.

Craig: Yeah, how can you do it.

Chris: But everything that you guys have stood for in Sprott, especially going through my own journey, seeing how much you have to put up with to keep going on certain days, so thank you again for having me and looking forward to dig in.

Craig: It is a pleasure. And before we get started, just remember, this is Sprott Money that provides these podcasts, the precious metals projection videos, the "Ask the Expert" segments. Please, wherever you find Sprott Money on the internet, just give us a like, maybe subscribe to that channel where you find this information, but also remember to visit Sprott Money anytime you're in the market for silver, gold, or platinum. We got options for both the small and the first-time investor as well as those high net worth folks, savvy precious metals investors that need storage. We can do that too. You can purchase directly online through our fast secure checkout process, but if you want to talk to a human being and hear a friendly voice, just pick up the phone, 888-861-0775. We'll be happy to help you out. Now is the time to getting some physical metal. I'm visiting with Chris. We'll talk about premiums and how they're unlikely to contract anytime even this year. In fact, it's probably only going to get wider versus spot, and then now that spot is very likely to head higher. We'll talk about that. Now, we've had kind of a challenging week in the precious metals, but we're still looking to finish the week firm. And I'll remind you that in the last month since we first started getting higher inflation data on April the 13th, in the last month, silver had already rallied 10%.

In fact, prior to the sell-off, this week was up over a dollar in the previous five days. So in the typical pattern, you're never going to go straight up. You're going to go take two steps forward and one step back. And that's all that silver is doing. We are poised to break out. I want everybody to keep a close eye on the $28 level because, in all of the fun we've had in the last year, we've yet to finish the week above $28. That's going to be a key breakout level. If not today, sometime in the next couple of weeks, price is going to continue to move higher on falling real interest rates and a falling dollar. And like I said, premiums are only going to expand. We'll talk about that in a minute, but let me bring in Chris because Chris has worked so hard in the last several months diligently documenting all of the efforts that are being made to tamp down silver prices, not only at the bank level but seemingly okay with that at the official level too. Chris, I'll just turn it over to you, and you can kind of summarize what's going on behind-the-scenes is global movement not only to acquire physical metal but to bring an end to this fraudulent pricings game, you know, where they use derivatives and bullion banks flowing metal around the planet. What kind of updates can you give us?

Chris: Well, Craig, I think you nailed it pretty perfectly. Maybe if there's only one thing I could alter, I have not been working hard. This is the most fun I've ever had where, you know, you spend your life and career studying and doing certain things and trying to be a positive contribution to society. And then, you know, Craig, and for you as well, I'm excited where all the things you've done and I know it's not always easy, but, I mean...then these guys pull the biggest crime in the history of the silver market, but not very well because, I mean, geez, do they ever leave clues all over the place? We've talked about Jeff Currie's statements on February 2nd and February 4th, which did not mention the prospective changes on February 3rd. We've talked about how when that 61 million shares of SLV were allegedly added on February 2nd, Rob Keens...by the way, great interview you did with him on his channel the other day.

Craig: Oh, thanks.

Chris: Thanks for that. Rob Keens was actually in Austin that day. He came over right as I was falling out of my couch when I heard that number. I think you've...you know, I talk to almost anyone outside of Santa Claus that will talk about silver. In fact, I saw Vik Veer [SP] at a weekend event. He couldn't even take how much I talk about silver, which I'm going to put on my resume. And no one I can find...and this actually includes iShares, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, CFTC, CME who I've all asked, how does the price of silver fall 10%? Now I used to say I'm arguably the greatest day of silver demand in history. I mean, we can see the SLV or the Trust, if you look at Nick Laird's gold charts or us, going back to the history of the Trust, the one-day record was somewhere between 20 million and 25 million ounces. If it hadn't been the 34 million shares that were added on January 29th, when 61 million went in on February 2nd, that would have basically tripled the previous record. So when Jeff Currie of Goldman Sachs says the inflows weren't that big, let's keep in mind that they were record-setting. So there's that.

There's the LBMA coming out a couple of weeks ago saying they were getting their doors blown off, and if this had continued a couple more days or weeks, they would have run out of metal. Okay, which is bizarre to say because then they mentioned they don't think this will ever happen again as long as no one talks about silver on the internet until the end of eternity, which I don't know if you're supposed to say that out loud when you're trying to keep something secret. And then, of course, last week, they mentioned, "Oops," we miscounted by basically the same amount of silver that allegedly went into the trust that nobody that I would go to a social event with because I don't hang out with people who are liars or dirtbags. And if I find out that I did, I'd get as far away as possible. So that's the quick recap, although, Craig, I really appreciate what you said before we started recording. I know I'm guilty of it too. Certainly, the things that happen, I think for anyone who believes in honesty and integrity or the transparency that the CFTC talks about...we forgot to mention them and they're tamping down and all that. All right. You know, I'm guilty of it too. And some days, maybe we're human, we need to vent, yet I've never felt more encouraged and optimistic of this coming to an end. So for everyone out there who's saying, "Oh, we've heard this before. You know, the manipulation will never end," I understand that. You can disagree with me. That's fair. I can handle that, but as we can perhaps get into the positives that are coming out of this and the way, not just you and I are responding but now the people, now that they see so clearly what's happening, if the banks have some way to stuff this one back in, go ahead and try it, but I would bet on our side.

Craig: The people have the power, my friend. That's kind of been my theme for the last several weeks. If it's going to happen, if we're going to make change, we're going to do it at the grassroots level, which is how it always happens, right? We're going to build the barricades. We're going to man them, and if we're going to have any impact, we're going to do it collectively through the acquisition of physical precious metal and take it out of the banker's hands, make them just keep stretching that rubber band of leverage farther and farther and farther because that's where the rubber meets the road. I keep throwing all these metaphors at you just to make sure you're paying attention. Chris, you're excited about this trend and how many people are involved globally. Can you just kind of shed a little bit of light on what your experience has been with that?

Chris: I'd love to, Craig. In fact, as you well know, I sent a letter to Commissioner Behnam expressing not just my concerns about when he talked about a market structure that tamped the silver price, which apparently was designed with Goldman Sachs, Citadel. You can go on their own website, please don't take my word for this, look at the Market Risk Advisory Committee and look at some of the all-star financial institutions that get caught in a lot of things that most normal people would go to jail for. So I remember thinking one night, if people, like, had any idea...I know I spent too much time on silver, I get it, but that's why I wanted to write something, A, because I do everything possible to be fair to the people I accuse things of. So this was written to Commissioner Behnam, all the questions. What does this mean? Craig, how do we know? Are there other times when the price has been tamped down? There's a whole bunch of questions that are unanswered. I don't know why the CFTC's constituents are asking me. Why is KITCO quoting my Twitter feed rather than the CFTC about these things? But like I said, the beauty of what has come out of this is that I wrote that letter to him, I read it on my show, and I know there were some people who were saying, "Oh, why did you bother? They're never going to answer. And that's fine because that was not the intention.

See, what many people don't realize is that when I did send this directly to Commissioner Behnam, it was also BCC'd to a variety of folks such as the CFTC's oversight committee, any of the media partners that I've met in the years I've been doing this. Especially who received that were the mining companies, many of whom have billions of dollars of claims and large legal staff, and now they have a nice little file that has links and evidence. Maybe you can give me your opinion on this. I was thinking about the other day, I think that may have been a checkmate to the CFTC because at least as far as I can see, unless there's some way... Craig, if you can figure out how Commissioner Behnam's comments did not indicate price-fixing on behalf of the agency... Hey, I've been waiting. I tried to give him the chance to explain that, but it sounds bad, so you can sit there and ignore your constituents if you're at the CFTC. You can say more and give more evidence, but the thing that I love is that I'm not trying to influence the market.

I'm just trying to get the truth out there because there's a lot of things that get missed and all I'm doing is giving the truth, and I'm not asking anybody to take anything I say as fact. That's why I've never been more encouraged where in the last week, especially since that letter went out and people were saying, "Hey, what if we contact this guy?" Or, "Why don't you contact this guy?" And, Craig, as long as it is peaceful, legal, within integrity, I applaud and personally thank every person who sent an email to the CFTC, who contacted their congressman, or anyone else that seemed relevant. And I've gotten messages. There's one fellow that was...Silver Shell Games I believe is his Twitter handle. His name is Chris. He started a campaign. Hey, here's how you can sign something that says you don't believe in what they're doing. There's other people. Hey, there was someone who created... actually, because someone asked me, "Hey, can you write something that people can copy and paste and send?" And I was like, "Yeah, I'm doing as much of that as I can, but if you can help and share it, you can tag my Twitter account on it and..." I mean, yeah, I like to think I'm getting some things right, but this has never happened before. You've been doing it longer than me. Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Craig: No. You know, and it used to be, for the longest time, you know, I was a part of a pretty small group of people that were waving the flag, trying to bring out the corruption, shine a light of truth on the criminality of it all and the fraud of it all. And, you know, you get a handful of people doing that, that's one thing. You get thousands of people doing that, it's something completely different. I'll give you one more. You talk about these mining companies, people write all the time. How come they're...? You know. Why are they putting up with this? You know, why don't they understand what's going on? Because a lot of them, they just don't understand what's going on. They're busy trying to get rock out of the ground and sell it and trying to make the company profitable and all that kind of stuff. Hey, do this. If you own shares of a mining company, you know, whether it's Endeavor Silver, maybe not so much First Majestic, or maybe it's a Hecla, it's Pan American, whatever, you get invited to their annual meeting. Now, this year it's probably virtual. So all you got to do is take them up on it, join the Zoom call and ask them. Go on there. I mean, I can't do it all when it was just a small group of us trying to do that. When we've got thousands of people doing it, we can. Like you said, that's what's so encouraging, Chris, is that the people have the power if they want to affect change against this corruption, and that's really all we're trying to do.

Chris: Yeah. And, Craig, actually, I can skip a few steps for people there if it's okay.

Craig: Go for it.

Chris: Because I hear that question all the time. How come these silver miners don't do anything? And then I had heard for years before I started doing a show that, well, they were worried about getting their financing pulled. Now, I've had almost all of the silver mining companies on my show. I have yet to...I've talked to all of them about the silver manipulation. I have yet to hear anyone say they're scared of getting their financing pulled. And in fact, that was why I sent that file to all of them. And so far, every response I got, there was one new company today, I'll leave them nameless for privacy, but they said, "Thank you for doing this. I didn't know that this was going on." There's another big company that before I sent the letter I was saying he's like, "Yeah, I get the feeling something is not right, but I'm not sure, and I don't know what I can do. My job is to get silver out of the ground at the cheapest price." And in fact, I posted an interview today with Taj Singh of...Craig, I know you and Eric know...what was Discovery Metals. Although, by the way, they upgraded now. It's Discovery Silver. How cool is that? And you can listen my conversation with him where he seemed like he was pretty darn thankful. He's like, "Wow, how can I support that?" I find that all of these companies, when you lay things out clearly...that's why I don't...please, nobody, don't do anything violent. Don't do anything out of the law. These guys are asking to be caught. And then when you catch them, they go silent so quickly.

And along the lines of just a few last things to mention, I've been talking with mining companies about this, figuring out a completely legal way so there's no, "Hey, well, these guys were doing this or that, you know." That's why some things take longer because the CFTC and agencies like that are full of lawyers, fine. We'll do everything properly. We'll do beyond properly just to make sure there's no conflict of interest. So the people are wondering, can miners withhold supply? That has been discussed. The people are wondering can the silver companies sell their metal straight to the users? That is being discussed. For people who are wondering, why are we using this COMEX spot price that you can't get metal at? And people say, "Can we have an index that's actually something real?" Someone wrote to me, [inaudible 00:16:23.788] is taking a lead on that. Craig, you said he contacted you. I know he's contacted a lot of the mining companies, a lot of the bullion dealers, and when people write into me asking about it, I forward them over to him so they can talk to him. That's the best part. We've been living in a world where if there was one thing that has allowed this to go on, and if I could convey anything to anyone who's listening today, I get it. I've been there. I've felt powerless. I've felt frustrated, but if there's any way you can let go of that, if there's ever been any time where you can see that there are people who care...if you want me to go first, fine, I'll do it. Craig, you've done it too, and there's others who have done it. Bill Murphy, Chris Powell. But for anyone, I implore you, even if it's just...you know what, sharing the content, that's a big help. You know, there's GoFundMes, George Gammon suing the fed.

I have one created to take legal action against the CFTC. Some people, they like making calls. Call iShares, ask them how the price of silver falls 10% on record demand. Call the CFTC, ask where's the transparency. CFTC's number (202) 418-5000. Look at the contacts on their page. They give numbers for all these Goldman Sachs subcommittee members that Rostin Behnam is asking to help make the market future structure that tamps down the price. When you have a record wave of buying that the LBMA can't even account, and despite that, by February 2nd, the price was lower than January 28th before it started. So I get everyone's frustration. It's justified. And I know that's my biggest challenge as well as to...you know. Yeah. There's some days you wake up and it's ticking you off, but there are people designing solutions, designing alternatives. If anybody wants to know how to get involved, you can email me through arcadiaeconomics.com. But as much as possible, and I will do my best to maintain that as well, I have tough days too, but what helps me feel better is seeing the way that the people who really care and have the courage to stand up, you're making a difference. I've never seen this happen before, and personally, we're dealing with sociopaths. They can't fight memes. When sociopaths are trying to keep a Ponzi scheme hidden and people realize what they're doing...people, you have a lot more power than you realize. And I applaud and encourage everyone who's taken peaceful action and stood up in whatever way feels appropriate to them, and I sincerely do thank you for that.

Craig: And Chris, the most peaceful action anyone can take, even if you don't want to do all the other things we've been talking about, diversify out of dollars, okay? That's what the central banks are doing, that's what like Druckenmiller...he was big news this week, Sam Zell, another one, a lot of smart people diversifying out of dollars. And when you buy physical precious metal, that's exactly what you're doing. You're exchanging your Canadian dollars, your U.S. dollars, your Euro, whatever for physical metal. So your downside is you're diversifying out of dollars. But what real action you can take and then understanding this is coming on a website, sprottmoney.com that sells physical metal. But if you want to have an impact, buy some physical metal. I tell you, price is headed higher on lower real interest rates and a cheaper dollar as we go through the remainder of this year. So price isn't going to go down. Premiums are only going to expand. A lot of people say, "Oh, I'm not going to pay $5 for a premium." That's going to expand.

If I might share one little bit of inside baseball with everybody, there are no American Eagles currently being produced, American Silver Eagles. Do you know why? Because they're being redesigned. And when the redesign finally comes out and is available in July, they're all going to get gobbled up by collectors and wholesalers and people that want to buy the little books with all the new coins in it and the brilliant uncirculated coins, and the demand is going to be through the roof. There will not be a supply of Silver Eagles readily available probably till next year. I was told this by a head of a massive online bullion dealer. So if there are no Eagles and people are going to buy up all of the Britannias, and already the Royal Mint can't supply enough. And they're not going to buy all their Maples up. Then they're going to start turning to Buffaloes and other rounds and things like that. And premiums are only going to get wider, which is also going to draw our price higher. So I just want to leave everybody with that, with the notion that, man, you don't want to wait if you think that price is going to go down or premiums are going to contract, it's not. And Chris, I'll just leave it with you. That's the base way that people can have an impact. It was everybody buying physical metal that last week of January that caused all these issues. And I would imagine you probably agree with me. If you really want to get involved at the grassroots level, you can just simply buy yourself a tube of silver.

Chris: Absolutely, Craig, and perhaps the last thing I'll add to that, I've been reading this incredible book by Paul Sarnoff from 1980 and he talks...it's funny because he says 97% to 99% of all contracts have been settled, you know, and rolled over. But in October of 1979, it became startlingly clear that several of the largest longs intended to invoke the letter of their legal rights and demand delivery. I get it. I understand it's an exercise in patience, but it goes until it doesn't go. And we know Ponzi schemes go quickly. The paper silver market is a Ponzi scheme. The dollar is a Ponzi scheme. I can't give you the exact date yet, but I can tell you that I will be continuing to do what I can, and I really do want to thank everyone. I've gotten so many emails and just...don't worry if you get a response or not. Throw 1,000 darts there, one pit, and that happens to be the guy you catch them on the right day. So, Craig, I thank you again for all that you've done. I thank Sprott. I remember when I was back on the trading floor reading Sprott while I was surrounded by Keynesians and it helped me keep my sanity. And so, it's quite an honor again to be with you today, and I just thank you for all that you guys are doing and especially to the people out there who are letting go of that powerless feeling and taking peaceful, moral, legal, ethical action.

Craig: Yeah. So let's go do it. Again, thank you everybody for listening. Again, visit sprottmoney.com for all your physical precious metal needs. And again, if we ask, we got to get the message out as far, as wide as possible. If you're listening to us on YouTube or iTunes or Spotify or whatever, please give us a like, a subscribe, a share, whatever you can. It will really help us out. Chris Marcus, Arcadia Economics, leading the charge, tip of the spear. Chris, thank you so much for your time today.

Chris: Thank you, Craig. Appreciate it.

Craig: And from all of us at Sprott Money News and sprottmoney.com, thank you for listening. Have a great weekend.