Gold's Next Move Will Shock You, Silver Price Reality & Europe's Energy Crisis

Andrew Sleigh (00:01)
Good afternoon, it's Andrew Sleigh here from Sprott Money and we are joined today with a guest, Kai Hoffman, who runs a SOAR financially YouTube channel and some other sorts, which he can give a more description on that I'm not familiar with. Here we have a little bit of a role reversal today. I'm doing a little bit of posing questions, which I'm not quite used to, so bear with me.

And I thought it would be great to have Kai back after it's been quite some time to get an update on what's going on in Europe because there's a lot of eyes paying attention to what's going on there. So Kai, welcome back to Sprott Money. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Kai Hoffmann (00:44)
Yeah, Andrew, really appreciate the invitation of coming back here. So thank you so much. Looking forward to the conversation here. I'm sure you'll do fine.

Andrew Sleigh (00:50)
Yeah.

Thanks. ⁓ So I wanted to sort of give you some ⁓ micro questions because I don't want to say how are things in Europe because that's just such a broad ⁓ question. So A, ⁓ what's going on with fuel ⁓ in Germany right now and anywhere else in Europe that you are privy to that you can comment on?

Kai Hoffmann (01:17)
Yeah, it's an interesting situation because everybody of course is complaining about higher prices and it's an absolute pain point for everybody. Right. The question is how is the government handling the situation and they seem to be a bit headless. course, policies are being introduced just yesterday. We agreed or the government agreed to cut tax by 17 cents, euro cents, but only starting in three weeks. Right. For whatever reason. Like maybe we have some implementation issues. I don't dare even think about why that is.

and only for two months time as well. I think it's debatable if that helps anybody really. It sounds like a lot, but the question is, are the gas companies or the fuel providers going to pass that on? Are they going to keep that? Because nobody's being forced to pass it on to the consumer that saving. It's ⁓ almost voluntary. So we'll have to see how that trickles down. Personally, we have to see what the fuel situation is overall so far, but not hearing anything about

running into dire straits in terms of rationing or anything like that. That has been fairly muted. I haven't heard much about that, nor have we been told to stay at home or drive less in that regard because we have other sources where we can get our fuel from, fortunately. It's more critical on the gas side, not just the gasoline side, but the natural gas and LNG side that we get from Qatar.

⁓ which is problematic. So we'll have to see what the winter brings because now our storage facilities are all empty after the winter. So we do have bit of time or we have time on our side. So fortunately, maybe silver lining in all of this timing is good because we are not going into the northern winter right now. We're going into northern summer. So ⁓ the gas reserves are depleted, but we have an opportunity now to refill. And let's assume that the situation in the Middle East ⁓

you know, gets resolved here in the near term, meaning maybe in the next two to four weeks. And then we'll have to see, of course, what that looks like on the supply chain side. Some of the facilities in Qatar have been bombed. Whether we can get enough LNG out of Qatar or whether we have to go somewhere else. Russian gas, as far as I know, the Nord Stream pipeline is still open, one of them. It's only Nord Stream 2, I think that was blown up. So we'll have to see. We might have to consider it again going into the winter, but I think it's a bit too early to speculate on that, quite honestly.

But on the driving side, fuel side, ⁓ we're not seeing big increases on the airline fares and airline prices yet, which is good because I've just done the budget for a site visit trip to North America and the prices are still very, very reasonable. So I don't see a shortage here in the near future. Keep in mind that all percent or the situation in Middle East ⁓ is a prolonged situation and now the US is blocking everything. Although I don't think Germany's ever bought any oil from Iran directly at least.

We will have to see what the ripple effects are of that blockade and whether that trickles down to the consumer in the end more than just maybe price increases, whether we're going to see like we've seen in the 70s, out of bonds that are empty because we're not allowed to drive on Sundays.

Andrew Sleigh (04:18)
What's the price of a liter of gas or diesel in Germany right now?

Kai Hoffmann (04:24)
It was 2.10 euros a liter. So that's Canadian, about three bucks Canadian, maybe a little more a liter. So it's 50 % higher roughly than in Canada. Diesel is a little more, I was just looking at it the other day. Now diesel is around the same. So it's 2 euros 10 cents. I was just trying to get to think as I drove past a gas station just yesterday. So it's right around that.

Andrew Sleigh (04:30)
Okay.

Okay.

So that's, you said we're on three bucks roughly a liter. So it's $12 ish on a gallon of gas. And so we're at about a buck 74 where I am a liter Canadian.

Kai Hoffmann (04:58)
That was

210 in Vancouver last week, so when I bought gas.

Andrew Sleigh (05:03)
Well, okay.

So certainly getting to be, you know, a significant cost over there. ⁓ Next, I wanted to ask you about, I've seen some reports about ⁓ jet fuel ⁓ widespread shortages in Europe. And I was under the impression from what I've seen that in the next, I don't know, let's call it one to two months, there might be actually, you know, widespread cancellation of, ⁓ of airplane flights in, ⁓

in Europe. from what you just said, doesn't sound like what I'm hearing, which I'm not saying is accurate. I'm just, that's what I'm hearing. ⁓ you're there, we're not. So what you're not seeing that kind of scenario right now in Europe is there's not going to be widespread suspension.

Kai Hoffmann (05:49)
It's not being pushed through media.

It's not being pushed through mainstream media. Yes, it's being mentioned, but it's not a big headline topic right now. What's more topic is right now that the flight attendants, the Lufthansa are striking, are on strike. Same with the pilots earlier this week. ⁓ So that has bigger media impact than potential jet fuel shortages here in Germany. Because we all think like, well, if you go on strike right now, you might be laid off in two weeks because you can't fly anyway. Right. ⁓

So we'll have to see. The jet fuel shortage is not a big topic just yet. That's why it's like maybe a ignorant to it. I'm just looking at some news here as well. It's only popping up here in the last few hours, perhaps. The jet fuel shortage thematic. We'll have to see how it goes. Because the Strait of Hormuz, like with a ceasefire, we'll see what comes out of it. There's some fuel left. I think we have three weeks to four weeks from what I've seen, if that really breaks all down.

and then we'll have to reconsider. But at this point, and I just mentioned prices, like I would have assumed if we're going or running into a shortage that flights, because I was looking at July flights would be much, much higher, ⁓ but they're not yet, yet. And that's, ⁓ I think something worth considering.

Andrew Sleigh (07:04)
The like Australia and the Pacific Rim and the UK have talked about how lack of jet fuel there is. And I think it was roughly a week ago, was a Neil McCoy Ward was talking about and he had on a map one tanker that was left going to the UK that had oil and jet fuel on it. And that was the only tanker on the planet in motion going to the UK. And there was no others.

That was the last one. And there was nothing else purchased from anywhere else, which I find ⁓ strange. it's like, in some areas, it's like a manufactured crisis where, you know, they're not, the governments aren't even trying to buy or procure anywhere else. ⁓ Maybe there's nothing else to procure. Don't know. But ⁓ UK has, you know, talking about in the weeks to come, massive rationing, massive fuel shortages, ⁓ almost like

well, there's only so much jet fuel left to fly to us in about a month. You may not be able to get back home, you know, that kind of stuff. And I, it's been grim sounding, but I don't know how much was, you know, actual data. ⁓ Australia, as you pointed out a second ago, you know, that's really a disaster ⁓ in the making. So I thought there was going to be ⁓

more announcements that planes weren't flying over to the Pacific by now. know, because you can go over, but you can't go back. ⁓

Kai Hoffmann (08:40)
Yeah, so

Southeast Asia will be way harder hit because they're getting way more gas and oil out of the Middle East than perhaps Europe is. The US is completely independent, right? So that's key. Like Southeast Asia will be hurting. We've already seen lineups at gas stations that don't have any fuel or even gas to fill up the gas canisters for cooking or propane and things like that. So they're already struggling in that regard. And that's where Australia came in. It's like, okay, guys, you need to reduce your travels.

Andrew Sleigh (08:49)
Okay.

Kai Hoffmann (09:09)
We need to save fuel here because we don't know how this is going to last. And they're very, very dependent on the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz. We have a few more other options in Europe. Norway is one of them. It doesn't mean it'll cover everything. I think we're further away from a crisis than Australia for sure. But I'm just looking at my other screen here and the IEA came out that Europe could see a jet fuel shortage by June, which is still a ways away. We're only here at early April, mid-April now.

⁓ So, but if the IEA says that there's at least a bit of credibility behind it, it's not just alarmist arm waving here. So we should take that serious. But as I said before, like it hasn't really made headline news, but that Reuters article only broke about an hour ago. So we'll see how that will make the rounds and whether the impact of the IEA has any like medial impact here as well.

Andrew Sleigh (10:01)
Have you seen and have any comments about the correlation of the fuel costs going up versus gold and silver?

Kai Hoffmann (10:09)
Well, it's the inflation fears, right? If you look at it. So it's not just fuel costs, it's more oil. So fuel is a bit separate because the taxes are so different where you look at it, but the oil cost, of course, because that triggers directly inflation fears, which triggers directly Fed rate hike fears, which really pressures the gold price. But also, we've seen a flood of liquidity.

in the gold space, meaning a lot of people have been selling their gold. A, we've seen a lot of hype, of course, around gold in earlier this year, here in 2026. So a lot of, let's call them tourists, short-term traders, backholders have sold their positions in a hurry, in a panic, I would say. Some central banks had to sell as a consequence of higher oil prices because their currencies got ⁓ in trouble. ⁓ And they had to sell gold to cover other costs like energy.

And we've seen a bit of a surgence in the US dollar. It's come down now again, as gold has come up again, the dollar has come down, but a lot of countries have sold gold to build up cash reserves so they can buy energy, meaning they can buy oil and gas in US dollar terms. Because you can still really, you can't send gold bars usually to the Middle East or wherever you get your oil from, although they might gladly accept it these days. But I don't think it's still an accepted form of currency when it comes to those trades.

Andrew Sleigh (11:17)
yeah, okay.

Kai Hoffmann (11:31)
you need to send dollars, not gold, which is another interesting topic because the petrodollar has been strengthened by all of this again.

Andrew Sleigh (11:38)
Yeah, I noticed that with ⁓ every time when oil was taking a hike from whatever it was, 60 bucks up to a hundred plus, that gold and silver were punished so much because that was strengthening the US dollar on the ride up. ⁓ so now it's like, okay, where do we go from here? How much more will this last? Lots of reports out there, lots of opinions. It could be much, much longer, many, many more months, if not a year.

⁓ No end in sight to maybe it's over in a few weeks. Who knows? ⁓ But would you say that as long ⁓ as the oil price is going up, that's going to generally always strengthen the US dollar, which would be hard on gold and silver pricing, keeping it downward? Would that be a fair statement? Or do you think that would only be temporary and then gold and silver at some point will take the fear trade and start taking on on its own?

Kai Hoffmann (12:34)
I think we're starting to see that already, unless the massive breakdown of the communication or the peace talks happens again in the Middle East. think we're already seeing that gold is behaving normal again for lack of a better term. Because I personally didn't expect that massive flush out in gold. Yes, I expected a correction because we ran really hot, not that rush, flood of liquidity wanting to get out of gold at the same time because central banks had to sell.

retail investors sold aggressively. I was a bit surprised by that. again, like in hindsight, hindsight is always 2020. It all made sense, of course, because where do you go in a crisis, you'd raise liquidity in an area that is liquid and that was gold at that time. And it had outrageous performance. We're still what is it 9 % up for the year or year to date, which is still you know, we're joking here. ⁓ But it's still not it's still great return for gold, even if the year were to end tomorrow, which it feels like it could because

Andrew Sleigh (13:20)
Yeah.

Kai Hoffmann (13:30)
based on all the things we've seen already this year happen. So I wasn't too surprised. I was just surprised by the violence of it, the correction. And gold has taken on normal characteristics again. The dollar is down to 98. The Dixie isn't down to 98. Gold is back up above the 55-day moving average. So we're trading around $4,800. Silver is way more volatile. So gold is up, I think it was up a percent and a half today. Silver was up again 5%. So we've seen that.

commonly last few days, either up or down, roughly the same ratio, which was interesting to witness. ⁓ gold is fulfilling its purpose. Like, why did Turkey sell gold? it could to secure the currency. So it keeps doing its job, gold. And it'll keep doing it in the future, especially when the normal headlines come back, meaning we're worried about the debt situation in the US. We're worried about the global debt situation. The de-laborization trend is back.

It has been pushed back that de-dollarization trend due to this crisis. As I just mentioned, this crisis strengthened the dollar and the petrodollar. So that de-dollarization trend has been slowed down, but that will all come back. All the reasons that have pushed gold to where it was have not really disappeared as far as I could tell. Maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong, Andrew, but I think the same reasons exist that existed before.

Andrew Sleigh (14:44)
Yeah, I agree.

So local to you, ⁓ Germany, how is the gold and silver market availability? Is it slow right now like it is here in North America? Is it still being bought? Is silver available? What premium is silver at right now ⁓ overspot? ⁓ Anything you can add to give us an idea of how it's in demand in Europe?

Kai Hoffmann (15:15)
I don't follow the physical market too closely, meaning the bullion market. I haven't heard much. What I've seen is that financings in the mining companies have slowed down dramatically. So the interest in gold and silver has slowed down just because people are waiting to purchase, waiting to see a trend, meaning or direction. ⁓ And I think that's the same for bullion. It sort of mirrors what you're saying. I haven't heard anything about availability issues that would have been top of my... You would have read about it. You would have heard about it. It's like I haven't been to a bullion store in weeks. So I can't really comment on...

what it looks like in the stores and the shops directly, but we would have heard about it and it just fits the bigger picture that there is a slowdown because people are waiting for direction. Like, where is this going? Is gold going to go lower if the crisis, you know, maybe we'll take a next step and I hope we don't by the way in the Middle East. what happens if escalation happens again, like if the peace talks and the ceasefire breakdown, will we see gold at 4,400? And I think that's what investors are wondering as well. ⁓

right now, they'd rather buy at $5,000 than at $4850, perhaps, because they want a clear signal of where this is going. Because still, a lot of people are buying gold and silver, physical, ⁓ for trading and investment purposes, which they shouldn't personally, on the physical side, they should buy for the long term. But it feels like the investor is waiting for maybe to make a bargain and maybe bottom fish a little bit when it comes to it. ⁓ So yeah, I think it mirrors the same sentiment that you're seeing as well.

Andrew Sleigh (16:39)
I've had that discussion a little bit with a few clients just very recently where I agree. think people are, are wondering where we are at the moment. Are we going to be heading lower or not? I, ⁓ I want to remind everybody that, know, like we go back six months to our viewers, like we'd be celebrating the prices of today. And here we are back to this price and we're like, ⁓ no. You know, and, ⁓

Kai Hoffmann (17:02)
You

Andrew Sleigh (17:08)
And people are wondering, well, is it going to go down much more or this or that or whatever? And so from a chart perspective, from what I've been following, looks like our downside risk, if it's able to get down there, is 15 to 20 bucks US spot is the downside risk. And the upside is 50 bucks roughly above from where we are. So I let people know that, you know,

this is a perfect time to nibble. You gather your, whether it be stocks or physical metals, ⁓ you buy when it's quiet and when ⁓ it's in, we're definitely in the bottom 25 % quadrant of the pricing of the metal right now, based on the last, well, for silver, specifically for the last, let's say ⁓ six months to a year. ⁓

So this is a good time to continue to invest in physical metals while they're available, while it's quiet. ⁓ One of the biggest things we had going on just two months ago was people trying to call in and get orders and they're in phone queues waiting for who knows how long. And they finally get somebody and they're like, ⁓ we finally got somebody. Thank goodness you answered the phone. ⁓ that's when the price was high. So it's like now it's quiet.

And it's like, you should be picking up the phone and buying walls quite, even though there could be a little bit more downside risk, but just average in on the way down is perfect strategy. But everyone's still waiting on the sidelines. you have any, any thoughts on short term? Like this has been a, this is a difficult question for me. I've been trying to dig in every nook and cranny of the internet with various analysts. Do you have, what are your thoughts short term?

on gold and silver and you can relate that to the paper trades because it's the same. ⁓ Mid and long term, do you have any thoughts or opinions on where things will be as we go through the next month or two, then six months and year end?

Kai Hoffmann (19:25)
Well, long term is the easy one. I think we're going higher. That's a simple one there. As I mentioned before, I don't think any of the reasons why we've rallied to $5,600 in gold or $120 in silver has disappeared. Nothing's changed fundamentally. So the fundamentals are still in place. It's all just sentiment and the geopolitical macro input that has influenced perhaps inflation expectations, maybe Fed rate cut expectations that have sort of changed perhaps momentum. We've seen a rise in the dollar, which took away

some of the momentum of course as well. But long term, the trend is intact. We're in a bull market. think that's a given. Gold is trading over the 200 day moving average. It's now crossed over the 55 day moving average again, which is a bullish sign. even short term, I'm somewhat bullish. But keep in mind, it could be all upset with one truth social post and the breakdown of the ceasefire in the Middle East. That could change the whole thing. So whatever I'm saying here, I might be wrong even while we're recording it, because I can't watch the news right now.

Andrew Sleigh (20:21)
⁓ 100%. Yeah,

Kai Hoffmann (20:23)
Right. ⁓ So there's a big caveat. personally,

Andrew Sleigh (20:23)
there's no way to make predictions. I just wanted your thoughts.

Kai Hoffmann (20:27)
I'm bullish. ⁓ not struggling giving price targets because I'm not a chart technician or anything. So I don't look at the chart, but I'm pretty sure that we can see 55,000 again fairly soon, actually, if we stay above the 55 day moving average. And that's short term. The US dollar seems to be wanting to go lower. Inflation expectations seem to be OK because the oil price has slowed rising.

We're still around $100, $105 a barrel, but that was priced in, in my opinion, so that's baked into the cake. Core CPI is flat, meaning it's up within expectations. And keep in mind, core inflation or core CPI, for whatever reason, is without food and energy. So we're taking the main parts out of the equation from when we calculate it, but it's flat. that's something that the Fed bases its expectation or its data on, decisions on. Sorry.

Andrew Sleigh (21:17)
Nope.

Kai Hoffmann (21:18)
And

that's flat. that still makes a case for, ⁓ the economy's weakening. We're seeing a somewhat stable jobs market. I'm going to get crucified for just saying that, but it has been flat. The unemployment rate, yes, statistics are being probably ⁓ played with and don't ever trust a statistic that you haven't faked yourself, right? ⁓ But the point is, though, it looks stable. So the question is, what is the Fed going to do? Is it going to focus on inflation? Is it going to focus on the economy, meaning unemployment?

Andrew Sleigh (21:37)
Yeah.

Kai Hoffmann (21:47)
we'll have to see. So right now they don't have to do anything, but at least I think the rate hike expectations are at least, what do you call them, have slowed down, like have been reduced, those expectations, right? Because I was looking at FedWatch the other day and the rate hike expectations were 2.6 % for the next meeting. That's about to happen in two weeks. So I think we're in a fairly, oh, I hate using the term, but it feels pretty Goldilocks when I just look at it.

Andrew Sleigh (21:56)
Neutral? No. All right.

Kai Hoffmann (22:16)
overall Fed outlook, perhaps, right? Because it's not too hot, not too cold. It seems like the earnings are coming in as expected, or even beating earnings like the quarterlies are coming in. What I'm curious about and haven't seen yet, of course, the gold miners, they haven't reported yet. So I'm really curious to see what my niche sector is doing, and how it is doing because gold on average has been higher in Q1 than it has been in Q4 2025. So that should be, I'm expecting fireworks personally, because the average gold price in Q1 was $4,800.

Andrew Sleigh (22:33)
Mm-hmm.

Kai Hoffmann (22:44)
⁓ Sorry, 4873, I need to be exact here because it does make a difference, almost a $100 difference. so, yeah, no, I think everything is intact when it comes to it. Long answer there, Andrew, but short term, I'm bullish, long term, I'm uber bullish. But again, please keep in mind, caveat, one post could change it. One misled rocket changes the whole thing, right? And unfortunately, the market is so nervous, it is.

Andrew Sleigh (23:05)
Oh yeah, you can have an announcement tomorrow. Yeah.

If anything, yeah, that's right.

If anything, predictions only make the metals will make us liars all the time. So it's just a thought process of what's going on in your head and what you think of. And I like to think, you know, what I'm thinking of, what you're thinking of and whatnot. Something else came to me while you were answering is where's the status of your digital currency ⁓ in Europe? So the CBDC.

Kai Hoffmann (23:18)
brutal.

Andrew Sleigh (23:40)
whatever, because I just have some news that just came to me this week that I'm going to share in the moment when you finish.

Kai Hoffmann (23:47)
actually, good point. think we were last ones to talk about it. I haven't heard about it since. So actually, I'm not qualified to answer that properly. I don't know. No, I don't think it gets announced on a broad media basis these days anyway, but I know something was supposed to happen last October, but I haven't seen if the digital euro has been introduced in any shape or form, which, is a great prompt because I'll do some homework on that and I'll get back to you, honestly.

Andrew Sleigh (23:54)
So there's been nothing announced and nothing new announced?

That would be fantastic if you would. heard this week, and it's today's Tuesday as we're doing this, April 14th, I should have said that earlier, but I'm a rookie at this, is Ireland has now talked about digital ID being implemented, whatever the data is, not sure. What I was fed some information on Monday morning was in Canada,

the digital currency that's... So basically, Bill C-15 in ⁓ Canada was passed March 26th. And inside of that, if there are viewers, Google Bill C-15, sorry, Bill C-15, pardon me, and then write stablecoin after it, it'll bring up the clause within that section. And it's talking about... ⁓

how the first company has now announced stable coins. So the government initially said, you know, a year or two ago, we're not going to be doing CBDCs. There's no interest. And I thought, you know, the U S has already announced they're going to do stable coins. And this is part of the bait and switch. So now we're in stable coins here in Canada. Surprise. So anyway, that's March 26. It's now been Royal Ascent and Deloitte and Stable Corp have announced

the first stable coin company in Canada called QCAD. ⁓

Now to tie in with this and where I'm going with this is going to be apparent in a second. The Bank Act of Canada, if our viewers Google Bank Act of Canada 21-1, it states no domestic or foreign banks will be allowed to operate in Canada by June 30th, 2026. That's the Bank Act. And they're allowed to delay it up to a year, you know, at a time. While they did that last year.

And they amended it January or February of last year to be delayed till this year.

And so far this year, there's no amendment. And we're in

So where I'm going with this is the connection. This stable coin announcement talks about within this bill, says under exclusions, banks and foreign banks will generally be excluded. And that ties in with what I've been saying for a long time where banks, there won't be a need for banks because the digital currencies will be run by Bank of Canada or whatever country you're in. so

here it is in black and white that ⁓ banks will generally be excluded from the stablecoins. So there's no need for those anymore. And they haven't amended the Bank Act for Canada yet for 21-1, that there'll be no banks by June 30th of this year. I hope they do amend it because it'd be nice to have banks for another year. We can continue life as normal. But ⁓ those are two things that to me are pretty big warning signs.

Kai Hoffmann (27:31)
You

Andrew Sleigh (27:37)
president or premier, whatever she is, announced they will be on digital currency by the end of this year.

So I think my suspicions and my hairs are on the back of my neck that they could be pulling this off by the end of this year in whatever way. so something that ⁓ for people that want to defend against this kind of stuff that's going to occur at some point, physical metal is going to be absolutely paramount to have money, your money outside the system.

There's no exchange necessary for that. ⁓ So dig around in Europe, see what's going on with your CBCs. The last thing I heard from Christine Lagarde was in December, and that was ⁓ she saying, I quote, I've been given the green light to implement digital currency as soon as possible, end quote.

Kai Hoffmann (28:38)
Interesting.

Andrew Sleigh (28:39)
And as soon as possible could be one to three years, who knows. But that October deadline we had before that we talked about last year was in hindsight now was for the banks to get all ready for it by October. And I think when she made that announcement in December, the banks had all been prepared. And now maybe there's not too much standing in the way that when they're ready to move forward, they can.

Maybe that's why she made that other announcement. Don't know. ⁓

Kai Hoffmann (29:12)
I got some more info there for you. I just looked it up real quick. Might as well share it without having too much background info here, but I've got a bit of a roadmap here and key dates. So early 2026, we're still going through the technical preparation phase and the EU will vote on the digital euro and regulation for it in June 2026. That's what it's targeted to do. Then mid-26 finalization of payment service provider selection to assist in the distribution. And then mid-2027,

start of a 12 month pilot program involving real world transactions. So that's the state right now. And then 2029 target for the first potential issuance of the digital euro. So we're still a few years away, but ⁓ it's moving into implementation phase here now, once it's been voted on. I guess in June, we should be chatting again to see where we stand, whether the ECB, like whether they've passed it. And now that Hungary is gone, meaning that Viktor Orbán is gone, the voice of reason has disappeared. So I'm pretty sure we'll push this through.

Andrew Sleigh (30:12)
Yeah, I think those dates are far off just to keep ⁓ the temperature low. ⁓ I'm too suspicious that this is going to be pushed and fast-tracked. I don't think we're looking at two years from now. I think they put that out there just to calm the waters ⁓ a little bit, but we'll see. There's no way to absolutely ⁓ predict this stuff. You have to look what's in front of you and then just act accordingly with what the data is because that's in print.

Everything else is opinion after that, right? ⁓ any last thoughts of what's going on around Europe before I let you go? And then certainly ⁓ we'll let viewers know where you are. So you'll have to remind us about all your dealings.

Kai Hoffmann (30:59)
Absolutely.

I think Europe and Germany in particular is digging a deeper and deeper hole that we're going to bury ourselves in. We're about to flood our last coal mines as well. We're cutting ourselves off from any alternatives that we have left, meaning like energy independence is a no-go. That ⁓ word has been struck from the dictionary. That doesn't make any sense for us anymore. So we'd like to be more energy dependent on other nations, happy to send money to France for their nuclear programs. ⁓ We can have our own, might as well finance France.

They're just sitting there rubbing their hands. They're just laughing at us. It's absolutely ridiculous. So I'm very, very frustrated with what we're seeing here energy policy-wise. It's not getting any better. How the government is reacting to the current fuel crisis is laughable as a joke. It's not, I can't take it serious. Personally, but I have to admit, like I don't have any other solutions besides that the market do their thing. And the problem in Germany is that we have too many or too high taxes on fuel anyway.

So we'll have to see where that all goes. But in closing, as you said, I'm bullish gold, I'm bullish silver, I'm very bullish copper as well, all mid to long term. Keep in mind, caveat, a simple post or a single missile could change the whole conversation here and could change the outlook at least, or push the outlook back perhaps. I don't think it changes much because as I said, like the trend has been our friend even pre-war, pre-Iran.

So I think that the directory is the same. probably just the curve might've, you know, shallowed a bit, but it'll pick up once this is settled and we have something concrete on the peace front, right? Those are my closing words where you can find me at JR mining guy over next. I try to put out every morning, bit of a gold commentary, just to comment where we're headed on a daily basis. Keep in mind I sit in Germany. So I usually post at 6 a.m. or between 6 and 7 a.m. depends on when the coffee is ready, but ⁓ on the gold and silver price.

But by market open, oftentimes the picture looks very different. So please keep that in mind and don't crucify me because come 8 a.m. Eastern time, usually the market looks very different ⁓ than in the morning over here in Europe. but yeah, follow me over on XR Mining Guide. Join us, join our conference Deutsche Gold Messe in Frankfurt twice a year, May 15th and 16th. Free to sign up at GermanGoldshow.com for investors. Amazing keynotes ⁓ that come out 40 companies and I'll be there, of course, as well. So, be great.

Andrew Sleigh (32:59)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.

So you're saying J

are mining on X?

Kai Hoffmann (33:25)
JR Mining Guy over on X.

Andrew Sleigh (33:27)
Oh, JR Mining Guy on X. Okay, perfect. One other thing I want to add in with you, your comments that I didn't want to interrupt was the money printing that's been going on, right? This is, you know, the wars, all the nonsense that the governments are doing is creating more and more more debt. And all these systems all in the same way, where this will be why gold and silver have no choice but to eventually start to react.

and move upward as the dollars become ⁓ less and less worth anything. So, it's a...

Kai Hoffmann (34:03)
Maybe, know,

maybe, Andrew, just one last thing. I'm not sure if we're tied for time, but I was at a presentation by the finance agent to a yesterday. He was the head of risk controlling and the finance agent to is the it's actually private entity that's owned by the government. not sure how that works legally, by the way, but it works because they're the ones issuing our bonds. Right. And they were talking about it. I wasn't fully aware because I never really looked quite honestly. But we are only paying 33 billion dollars a year in in debt repayment.

Andrew Sleigh (34:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, okay.

Okay.

Kai Hoffmann (34:30)
in Germany. I personally think that's a very small number. Our outstanding debt is about 2,100 billion. What is that? That's two trillion. Is it roughly two trillion dollars? He was using those thousands numbers, but it was 2,100. It spiked up for the longest time until like 2018. Our budget was balanced in Germany. was actually like, for some reason, I've never really seen that chart. So it really stuck out to me. only really kicking off in 2020, we left that.

Andrew Sleigh (34:40)
to trading. Yeah.

Kai Hoffmann (34:59)
Like, of course, with COVID, we had to you know, spend money like drunken sailors, and now we've lifted the debt break, we're spending even more. But I was amazed because back in 2020, we almost paid zero interest on our debt as well. The debt or the interest payments were nearly nil. It was like $3 billion euros at the end because we had a low interest environment and Germany was able to borrow at zero cost.

So keep that in mind, like Germany is still very, very strong financially. When I look at it, looking at perhaps the US when it comes to it, our debt to GDP is like 70 % at best. Right? So that's just keeping, I only saw the numbers last night and they're top of mind. I thought, oh, that's actually quite impressive. Our debt repayments are 33 billion. That sounds very manageable. Right? And it's only, got one more photo. If we have time to share it. Like I took a photo of it yesterday, I believe.

Andrew Sleigh (35:36)
⁓ OK. Well, you're yeah.

That's far, far better than where we are.

Yeah, please.

Kai Hoffmann (35:55)
And it was where does our debt repayment or the sorry, the 33 billion rank in terms of like expenditures, right? It's still ranked fourth, the fourth biggest item. But at 197 billion, we have the government for the Department for Work and Social stuff. So it's unemployment insurance and all that stuff. That's the biggest item by far at 197 billion. So our debt and debt related payments are only 33 billion. So there's still a massive gap.

It's not like in the US where military spending is first or debt repayments is first now. then military spending is second, although military spending is probably caught up now. ⁓ So yeah, just wanted to highlight that because I thought it was really interesting because we keep painting Germany as such a like a negative influence, but financially, I think we're still very, very strong.

Andrew Sleigh (36:29)
Yeah, that's right,

Yeah, that's...

Yeah, guys, the government might be falling on its own sword, but your economy ⁓ might be going in the wrong direction, you still have, but you've got a healthier balance sheet than probably most of the rest of the world.

Kai Hoffmann (36:54)
I think the trajectory is down, but...

Yeah, and I just wanted to highlight that because I keep forgetting that. I keep like I keep poo-pooing on Germany myself, like energy policies and all of that. But at least we have a balance sheet to turn it around. If somebody wakes up with some common sense and wants to turn things around, then ⁓ at least he has a balance sheet to do so, in my opinion.

Andrew Sleigh (37:19)
Yeah. Well, awesome. Well, Kai, listen, great to have you back. ⁓ I always love hearing what's going on in Europe and speak with you about this. So thank you so much for joining us. And we're talking in a couple of weeks, I guess, I'm going to come on your SOAR financials ⁓ station. So I look forward to that in a couple of weeks. anyway, all the best to our viewers. ⁓

Kai Hoffmann (37:37)
Looking forward to it.

Andrew Sleigh (37:43)
If you need to reach out to us and have questions, call us at 1-888-861-0775. If you want to speak to me, it's extension 230 or somebody else will be available to help you. So thank you very much for tuning in today.