How BRICS & the Election Could Change the Course of Gold | Ask Andrew Sleigh

Sprott Money Inc. (00:05)
Welcome to Ask Andrew with Sprott Money. My name is Kellen Ainey and today I'm talking with my colleague Andrew Sleigh. He has over 34 years in the financial industry and he made a shift to bullion in 2017, dedicating himself to helping people safeguard their assets by investing in precious metals. Today, Andrew will be answering questions asked directly from our audience. Alright Andrew, let's get started. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (00:27)
Great to be back. Thank you very much, Kellan. What do you got for me today?

Sprott Money Inc. (00:31)
So it looks like our first question that our audience wanted to get into was, what's your stance on the precious metal ETFs?

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (00:40)
So a couple things, if people are looking just to do the metal trade and rise it up and sell off some profit, that's one aspect for traders. For people that are looking for protection and certainly from the markets, then holding bullion is actually the way to go because when this system gets bad,

the exit on the paper contracts, which are ETFs, is back to the dollar. And then you're going back to the bank, and then you're going to be buying physical from there. And that could be an extremely difficult task at that time. Maybe it's not available or it's gone up in value, any number of things. So if you're looking for the ultimate protection, physical is the way to go, ETFs are not.

Sprott Money Inc. (01:34)
Well, I completely understand. It's the old saying, right? If you don't hold it, you don't own it. So moving on, how do you think Trump being the president of the US will affect the commodities market as well as the precious metals market? And we have seen the impact even just over the last few days, but give me your thoughts on what you could see going forward or even just in the near future.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (01:56)
That's a great question. The Trump effect has been maybe bigger than many people have sort of realized. So the metals have gone down more than I expected. I thought they'd start to rebound by now. So.

It's hard to say where it's going to go. I'm still doing a lot of watching and trying to process how that's going to look. Now on the medium to long term, it makes no difference who got in. They're all going to promise 0 % interest rates and the dollar will be extinguished. So as they print more money, which is going to go into hyperdrive here soon, that's going to force gold and silver up regardless.

So it's just, and as far as a stock market crash and all that, very hard to predict. It could be delayed by a little bit of time because of Trump and the euphoria that goes along with him into the stock market, because he is market positive more than the other party was. So it's really, I think the next month we're going to see an awful lot of things occur that, you know, will be changing.

details on a weekly basis as to what's coming.

Sprott Money Inc. (03:12)
So I guess that kind of segues into the next question that the audience wanted answered here. So do you more so see a positive or negative impact on the precious metals market directly?

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (03:26)
from the election. Well, short term negative, long term, it's going to be positive regardless because all the things are still intact. The debt is still there. Sorry, I got a tickle.

Sprott Money Inc. (03:27)
From the election alone, yes, Trump's victory, let's call it.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (03:49)
All the debt is still intact regardless of who got in presidency. So the debt is severe. They're going to go into more money printing. And it didn't matter who got in power. It's just a matter of is there going to be law and order restored in the US, more so than under the other administration. short to medium term,

This is a temporary, I don't know if it's weeks or a month of some downturn in the metals. And I view it as nothing but a buying opportunity. So if people are looking at nibbling and adding more or jumping in, it's a good time to do it. It may go down a little bit further, but nobody can time it exactly. So midterm, let's say a couple of months out, the forces of all this debt is going to come to bear.

and will drive metals up. So I see on it from a chart perspective, I see this as kind of like a consolidation and a pullback, which will verify, I think, more of a bull market for metals, particularly silver. And so if this pullback goes a little bit longer and consolidates, then that's the platform for silver to move onward from here, which is much elevated than the last time it had a floor.

So I view that as a very positive thing. I hope that addresses the question.

Sprott Money Inc. (05:22)
Which very well answers the question and it's funny because even my next question here it's more so getting into the deficit of the silver shortage. So if there's such a big silver shortage how are precious metals still able to get silver so easily from each of the international mints?

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (05:42)
The shortage hasn't come to a point of having a direct effect.

Like every year right now, like last year there was a 200 million ounce shortage. And so when there's a shortage the last few years, they've been pulling it from the strategic silver supply that's been stored away for a few decades. And that's nearly done. Like I don't know if there's another year or year and a half worth of extra silver in a warehouse that's been supplementing. I also heard somewhere an article that

JP Morgan, believe it was, that was supplementing some of the shortages out of their own supplies to sort of mask the shenanigans of the suppression of silver. So there is some of that stuff going on. When we get a real shortage, I think it's going to be a sneak up on us dramatically. China, and I'm not sure if India is in Russia, but they're buying the silver Dory bars directly from the mines all over the world.

and those go unreported. So I get this sneaky feeling that they're buying the backdraft of silver on the back end. And as the front end supply starts to go through, all of a sudden, there's nothing coming in the back door to keep on resupplying the mints. And I think that's a, if they're doing that, it's a brilliant tactic in my humble opinion. From

a real shortage from the Main Street point of view, like you and I calling up a shop and saying, hey, I'd to buy some silver. That right now is not a problem, which is why we've been encouraging people for months and years to buy while it's easily available. As soon as bad happens, dramatic, black swan, whatever you want to call it.

All we need is for another half a percent of the population to wake up and want to buy. And now all of sudden we have nothing for the customers. And what I think is possibly going to play out is during the 08 financial crisis, when the markets went down 50 percent and silver went down and gold went down some portion of that, the big money moved in and bought all of the silver and gold available in North America.

for 16 weeks. There was nothing available anywhere. So if you're trying to time it to the very bottom end and we have this market crash, you're risking you can't actually buying the metal. And that's what happened in 08 in the US. And I'm assuming it is true in Canada because the statement was North America, there was nothing to buy for 16 weeks. US meant stop taking orders. So.

know, everyone, it's available for you and I today and maybe tomorrow or next week it's not and we're not going to get much notice.

Sprott Money Inc. (08:49)
So, and with the deficit in hand, I'm sure you can imagine, well, give us your thoughts on how that would impact the price specifically of silver at this time, where it's going to be used as kind of a, well, a hedge against inflation and a hedge against economic uncertainty.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (09:05)
Well, against economic uncertainty, easy. It stores value and currency doesn't as its basics. For the commercial industries, all want to have the metal be cheaper to use in their products. Any industry wants to do that. They want to have all their costs as low as possible. But silver is going to cost what it costs when it starts to be no longer manipulatable.

There's a gentleman, Ed Steer in Canada, that talked about that the real trading price of silver should be between 250 and 280 bucks per ounce.

Sprott Money Inc. (09:45)
And hypothetically, let's say it gets to that point, how do you think that that would impact the pricing of say, something like electric vehicles, which uses a lot of silver due to its conductability?

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (09:56)
We'll see not that much of a difference because when you're talking about like, let's say for example, that new Samsung battery that they've invented and you know, it uses considerably more silver than the other version of the battery. And I think it's like a kilo or something like that versus, you know, six or seven ounces. So that's a significant, you know, uptick in silver for those batteries.

And if you're talking about, you know, $50 an ounce Canadian right now in silver, and there's three or four ounces in a car, you know, you're talking about, let's call it 200 bucks cost in the car that's selling for 60 grand, you know, EV car or whatever they are. If you go to a kilo and now silver is, let's just use an easier number. Let's say it's 30 ounces of silver and now

Sprott Money Inc. (10:42)
Okay.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (10:53)
silver per ounce is $300 an ounce. So now it's 30 times 300, which is what? Nine grand?

Sprott Money Inc. (11:03)
I so, roughly,

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (11:04)
30 times yeah nine grand. So so you've got a car that's you know, 60,000 that's now 69 grand Yeah, that might probably start to be an impact at that stage, but

Sprott Money Inc. (11:15)
Okay.

So moving on, you think it's possible that history might repeat itself as it did in 1933 when Roosevelt confiscated the gold from citizens? Could we reach a point where the government would start confiscating gold or silver from people again to address the shortage?

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (11:38)
Well, I think there'd be lawsuits up the Azu in the US. know, the public are much more aware and educated now than they were back in 1932. The percentage of people that had metal back then was way higher than it is now. So, you know, I'm not sure the exact estimate of that, but it was like 30 % of the population, give or take, that had precious metals. So they were stealing the gold.

They never confiscated or made silver illegal. It was only gold. And they never went door to door, nothing like that. And there are still only about 10 % of the population in US even turned it in. And to the best of my knowledge, nobody, know, gold was illegal in the States to buy for like coinage and bullion, even though you could buy jewelry that was made of gold.

for 40 odd years and nobody to my knowledge was ever charged under that law. Which I find ironic because it also points to fact that I don't think they ever wanted to go to court because it won't stand up in court because the Constitution of the United States states gold and silver are money everything else is counterfeit. So I think it would have been thrown out and then the jig would be up. In Canada

Confiscating any of that doesn't solve too much. think again, you'll have lawsuits I think you'll see comp you'll see the nationalization of gold mines in Canada to back the currency in the future way before you see anything else and even if they make it illegal Well, you know handguns are illegal to own in Canada for a criminal, but they still have them. So, you know You know, can make gold and silver illegal you want to people are not going to turn it in You know, like some people will but most people will say

Sprott Money Inc. (13:19)
That's a very good point.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (13:27)
Forget that, that's a completely unlawful order and I need to preserve my wealth and I'll go buy stuff directly with other people. You can't stop barter.

Sprott Money Inc. (13:37)
No, exactly. It's something that's inevitable, right? So, how feasible is it for BRICS nations to establish a gold-backed currency to reduce reliance on the US dollar and international trade? And what challenges would they face in terms of geopolitical factors, market stability, and establishing global credibility for the new currency?

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (13:59)
I think it's just matter of time. I think those are all good points and all of that will be established over time. Now, the big question is the timeline for that is really hard to predict, but it is a process. know, nothing is overnight when you lose the American dollar will lose the currency of trade in the world. And it's just a matter of, you know, does it take another few months or another few years? And

Sprott Money Inc. (14:26)
Well, it's even in my opinion that's been a bit of a slow burn, right? We saw it happen with the US petrodollar. So it's something that's been consistent over, well, at least the past five years.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (14:37)
Yeah, you know, that's all part of the process. The petrodollar was a huge nail in the coffin of the US dollar. The treasuries around the world, that when the US issues treasury debt to help pay for government and whatnot, nobody's buying the debt anymore. Nobody wants US treasuries. So the Fed is actually creating the money and buying the government is basically buying its own debt now. that it's just, you know, it's

It's like the snake eating its tail. It eventually is going to end, right?

Sprott Money Inc. (15:09)
of yeah, eventually it's gonna catch itself.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (15:12)
So the credibility of the Bricks Nations, there's lots of, you see setbacks or supposed setbacks and you see positives. Part of that could be all part of the show. The Bricks Nations don't want to be seen as very offensive to the West, meaning in an aggressive way, because they don't want the, in my personal opinion, I don't think they want

the people of the West to unite and go, hey, know, like China's gonna destroy us. We need to go teach them a lesson or whatever. I think they need to just, they're playing their hands very quietly and taking the long show. the, it's like, I think their opinion is why interrupt their enemy when they're busy destroying themselves. And the US is busy destroying itself. The entire West is busy.

destroying ourselves because we're issuing and printing money galore in debt. And that's all they need to they just have to wait and we'll do it to ourselves.

Sprott Money Inc. (16:18)
Yeah, it sounds like they just need to wait for us to devalue our currencies until, well, until theirs just surpasses. They don't even really need to much do legwork. Yeah.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (16:25)
until there's a collapse. Yeah, I mean, they don't have to do a darn thing. Meanwhile, China, example, is using Yuan, I presume, to buy gold at record levels. And they're printing their dollar into nothing. And then at some point, I assume they may convert over to the BRICS gold back, Enbridge platform, whatever they want to call it.

And amazingly enough, it's like if you're a country that's devaluing its currency and you're able to buy gold with Yuan, which Yuan will eventually be zero. I think that's an amazing tactic because you're eventually going to pay nothing for your gold because your currency goes to zero. Like I do that all day long. Like any country, everybody should be doing that, as a matter of fact, because Canadian residents or U.S. residents, everybody should be converting their currencies to metal, gold, silver.

Sprott Money Inc. (17:11)
Yeah, it's...

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (17:24)
while their currencies still have value to buy the gold and silver. then, know, like, and then eventually when they, when you, if your a hundred dollars goes to zero next year, Kellan, and you bought four ounces of, or three out, two ounces of silver with it, and next year the currency is worth nothing, you paid nothing for that silver.

Sprott Money Inc. (17:42)
Exactly, and I can turn it into a currency that's worth something, right? That's it. I could use it for barter itself.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (17:46)
Or you're going to use it as money because that's what it really is. Right. Like why why go back in the system when you could just go down and go to the farmers market and actually use it to pay for food. So that's that's what they're doing. The BRICS nations are buying gold and silver in preparation of backing whatever it is that they want to call it. The BRICS nations currency with gold and they're playing this game out and the West is completely capitulating.

Sprott Money Inc. (17:56)
No, exactly, exactly. Now what...

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (18:14)
by sending the gold to the East.

Sprott Money Inc. (18:17)
So you'd mentioned a US dollar collapse and I want to pick your brain a little bit more on what factors could lead to that US dollar crisis and how would that affect the global economy, global trade, the US economy and well, alternative currencies around the world.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (18:40)
Well, there's a few questions in that that are big. So let's bite off one, the US currency. Its current value in the US borders is around two cents. No different than the Canadian dollar within our own country is two cents of purchasing power. So that's why things are more expensive. The US is going to go through another round. You're going to see inflation increase over the next couple of months, I guess.

And that's a sign of the money printing that they're doing. And that's going to continue to get worse. So with regards to.

the collapse of the US dollar. That's just like they're about to go into quantitative easing 10.0. And so that's just, I think they're doing it now, but they don't talk about it. I think you see the Fed talking about easing. You hear some of these guys saying easing, but they're not saying quantitative easing. So they're.

Sprott Money Inc. (19:46)
Well, every time you look, they're slashing more and more basis points as well, right? So it's the writings on the wall too, right?

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (19:50)
Yeah, well that's easing. That's quantitative easing. But they don't want to use the word quantitative because they're losing face. So they're now just calling it we're going to ease rates.

Sprott Money Inc. (20:00)
Yeah, well, hey, it's a good marketing tactic, right?

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (20:03)
So the economy in the US is in really, really bad shape and the numbers are all skewed. So nothing that's coming out of the government is anywhere near accurate. And we're seeing the collapse of United States as a slow motion train wreck. And the Canadian economy is in the same position. It's a slow motion train wreck. Meanwhile, the governments are just saying everything is fine.

you know, our own government thinks that our GDP is good because they're expanding government like crazy at the fastest pace in history. And they think that's the economy. It's not the government does not produce and create wealth. The private sector creates wealth of which they tax. So if you expand government, that's more expense to the private sector. And I don't even know if they understand that or not. But anyway, let's dive into that other part of question, because I

There's so many parts of that. So you have the US dollar collapse. And then what was the last part of that question?

Sprott Money Inc. (21:06)
The US dollar collapse and how would that impact global trade, the US economy and the role of alternative currencies?

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (21:14)
So as the US dollar fades away, that's going to be another currency coming into play, which let's say it's going to be the BRICS, nations gold back currency somewhere down the road. So that's that's inevitable. No currency is the currency of trade forever. All of them have a limited lifespan. They always have. It's 80, 85 years, give or take. On global trade.

There's going to be a massive adjustment in the West. know, the US will, you know, we were a very strong, I'll say North America is a very strong consumer economy and we've been exporting dollars to pay for goods around the world. So we give useless paper to a country and we get toasters and fridges and stereos and computers and everything else in return. And

As our currencies continue to collapse, these countries that manufacture stuff will no longer accept our currencies, either be the US dollar or Canadian dollar or any other Western currency. So there's going to be a huge adjustment in the living standard in the West. The East wants to just continue on creating a value solid monetary system of which to do trade without

being able to punish anybody with. I think they're just going to continue on doing their thing and somewhere down the road, Western countries will be begging to join that system.

Sprott Money Inc. (22:48)
Well, speaking of Eastern countries, it looks like Russia decided to add silver to its state reserves. What impact could this shift in strategy have on the global silver market and other nations' reserve strategies?

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (23:05)
So all of these nations that are buying silver, the West is trying to cover up and short and do the manipulation of keeping the price down as long as possible. As more and more countries are buying silver, this is a limited supply. There's only 800 million ounces roughly mined a year. That's it. And so as more and more countries are adding

whatever Russia said, 35 million ounces, I think it was. They were planning on adding or it was 35 million dollars. I don't remember. But every time you have a player that comes in and wants to buy a large amount of silver, that just takes more and more off the table. you can't the West is not going to be able to keep all this behind the curtain forever. At some point, this is going to break and

So I guess I'd say it this way. When it does break, silver is going to skyrocket and gold will as well because of it's the canary in the coal mine for the for the currencies devaluing. Silver will skyrocket and people that are either are either in a position of silver or they're not. That's where it will come down to. And when they're not, they won't be able to get in. It's too late. So.

Sprott Money Inc. (24:23)
Yeah.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (24:24)
You know, it's like getting down to the boat when it sails for your cruise. You're either on the boat or not.

Sprott Money Inc. (24:28)
Yeah, you've either missed the ship or you're in with the party, right? So with consumers and U.S. purchasing power being reduced by 20 % over the last four years under Biden, do you see consumers valuing to invest in precious metals while struggling to pay for their basic needs?

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (24:50)
Well, if people are struggling to pay for their basic needs right now, I mean, they're in a very tough position. So they have to figure a way how they can reduce their cost of living. Start looking after whatever debts they may have. And if it's, you know, once a month, maybe they have to revert to junk silver to purchase because that's just a lower dollar value. And junk silver in Canada is the old silver dollars, 50 cents.

dimes and quarters that are 1967 and earlier and in the States it's 1964 and earlier for the same denominations. They may have to sort of try and pick up one of those here and there. If you can afford to eat out once or twice a week or something like that then I would be, you know, brown bag your lunch, cook your meals at home, find a way that you know one or two times a month in Canada you can spend 50 bucks on an ounce of

and and in the States it's whatever it is thirty thirty eight dollars thirty five bucks whatever and buy that stuff you're gonna have you're gonna be forced into it sooner or later your currency will buy less and less so the walls are closing in and they're only going to continue so people really that are jammed up

Need to make some really outside the box thinking on how to reduce their cost You know getting roommates renting out part of a house, whatever the scenario is which You know people are welcome to call me if they want to talk about that because i've done lots of that stuff in the past And see if there's a way to free up some dollars To buy something that will hold some value that will save people down the road in venezuela one tube of silver

of 25 coins feeds a family of four for two years. That's it. One, two.

Sprott Money Inc. (26:44)
Yeah, so your stance would be no matter what, just try and cut the cost elsewhere and make an investment even as little by little, do what you can.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (26:55)
Yeah, you know, every scenario will be a little bit different, of course. And if there's absolutely nothing anyone can do, then it's like, well, you're to have to move home with parents or family of some sort, do some kind of consolidation to regroup and get yourself in a better financial situation.

Sprott Money Inc. (27:13)
Well, that looks like it's all the questions I have here, Andrew. I very much thank you for your time, your knowledge. Do you have a phone number or direct line that clients can reach out to you and, well, just pick your brain any further.

Andrew Sleigh @ Sprott Money (27:28)
Sure. So thank you very much for having me and asking the questions, Kellan. So you can call the toll free number at Sprott Money, 1-888-861-0775. My extension is $230. You're welcome to send me emails at deathofthedollaratsprottmoney.com and happy to answer any questions or assist anybody that wants to pick my brain.

I guess for last comments, know, the Trump effect has got everyone scratching their heads for exactly how things will unfold, you know, the next few weeks. I was prepared if Camilla got in, there was going to be utter disaster and gold and silver would explode immediately. So with Trump coming in,

which is I think positive with regards to the markets will be stronger and that's an illusion. He's still going to print money, but we're going to have this short term pullback on metals because there's kind of a euphoric scenario going on with Trump getting in. And that may burn off over the next couple of weeks. And then all of sudden you're going to see silver and gold start to move dramatically higher and then and get back what it lost and then move on from there.

So it's very difficult to time this. So people should be nibbling or averaging in, but you can't time it to the bottom and you'll most people are trying to generally pay more. So pay very strict attention. if you're thinking about buying metals, give us a call here. It's brought money in and will give me information on what you should be looking at. And thank you for having me again.

Sprott Money Inc. (29:07)
Thank so much, Andrew. No worries, anytime, anytime.