Tariffs: How to Be PREPARED!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the hot topic in the economy right now is tariffs.
How are tariffs going to affect your business? How are
they going to affect your investing? And what can you
do about it? And of course at the wealth Ability Show,
it's all about what can you do about it? And
we have an expert on international finance, Josh Fair, with
us today.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Josh, Welcome to the wealth Ability Show.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
So, Josh, if you would give us a little of
your background, because it's a pretty wide background when it
comes to finance and economics.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah. So, I got a degree in risk management out
of Florida State in two and ended up going into
corporate risk management not far from you right there in Phoenix,
and I think I was like twenty four years old,
and I landed a billion dollar goal mining company, and

(00:53):
I just brought in resources within the firm to solve
their problems anything from movement of their gold to construction projects,
to trade credit to political risk in foreign countries. And then,
you know, you solve problems, and the CFOs of these
companies with then refer me into the NIXT Mining company.

(01:14):
And then suddenly, within a few years, I'm handling gobs
of publicly traded gold, silver, copper mining companies, including doing
work for those in Arizona. I worked with Phelps Dodgers
now Freeport Macmaran Asarco. I think between those two companies
they employ a few thousand employees in Arizona alone, and
so kind of fell in love with the metals space.

(01:36):
And then in eight during the financial crisis with real estate,
I decided to kind of go out on my own
and start what's now known as Scott Still Meant. So
if you kind of fast forward over the last you know,
sixteen plus years, my company now actually manufactures, so does
the melting fabrication, all the creative, the dye work. So

(01:59):
we're striking league tender gold and silver coins for roughly
twenty foreign governments and central banks. We produce stuff for
private banks that some of the other countries they actually like.
In Canada, you walk into bank branches you can buy
silver bars and some of them have the bank's name,
but my company produces it for them. We also supply
wholesalers all around the world, a few hundred of them

(02:21):
with with with gold and silver. We even do license products,
so we do things for some of the big names
from from I can't even sale the names because sometimes
they're under other companies brands. But think of like some
of the biggest the biggest movie houses, the biggest cartoons,
the biggest kids TV shows. We do a lot of
that that type of work. And so that that goes

(02:44):
from the investment level to the collectible gifts, all all
all all there. And then I also have a vaulting company,
and that that that was kind of partly what what
moved my company from Scotts, Arizona, uh to to Wyming.
I've got a vaulting company called the Wineman Reserve and

(03:04):
it's a it's essentially it's a fund. It's an opportunity
zone fund. Uh and we hold ninety plus percent of
our our balance sheet is in is in gold and
silver physically audited. But we're a high security vault facility.
So we're I'm calling you right now from it. We're
also a foreign trade zone, so I know we want
to we want to talk about what's in the news,

(03:25):
and that's that's tariffs. Uh. So, our our facility was
just designated at the federal level in December, and so
we're a few weeks away from what's called activation, and
so we're essentially going to be a tear free facility
for manufacturing and storage. So kind of kind of the
kind of the background of it. So I I'm bringing

(03:47):
in gold and silver, I'm working with a lot of
the banks in and out, we're supplying it. I don't
know everything, but because i'm I'm dialed into a lot
of different things, I have interesting perspectives on on the
world defining and what's going on.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
So so, uh, let's start with what you're doing there,
because uh, there's been some concern I know of people
they're actually bringing their gold and silver back to their
country because they're worried about tariffs when they they bring
it in. Are you saying that in a in a
you're in a tariffree zone. So even if there were

(04:22):
a tariff, say on uh Chinese gold, for example, that
you'd be able to bring it into the country terra free.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, So that's interesting. Other countries, it's there, they're they're
known as freeports, and so if you look around the world, Dubai, Zurich, Geneva,
Hong Kong, Singapore, they all have freeports, and so freeports
are known to hold precious metals. Artwork bespoke collectibles, really

(04:51):
expensive winding collections, Picasso paintings, all the above. The United
States really hasn't needed a freeport per se because we've
been a free trade economy for for decade, you know, decades,
and and but things are changing, and so in theory
you're able to, Uh, these have been around since the
Roman days. So as as governments change how they tax

(05:14):
goods and services and all these different things, there's always
been what I would call, you know, strategic zones for
certain economic activity, and so we're we're one of those.
I don't know of any other ones at this level.
So in terms of we're we're set up to hold
billions of dollars here from from security from you know,
it's like it's like air it's beyond airport security. So

(05:37):
you're you know, metal profiles coming in and out, X
ray machines, armed guards, audits.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
It's the entire building. Uh, even even the ceiling above
me is is concrete. So this is a it's going
to be right now around sixty thousand square feet. It's
going to up being closer to almost eighty thousand here
soon with an art gallery and a number of other
things that that's that's uh.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
That's so this is just a basically a place people
can hold it without having the tariff. But if they
then were to actually use it or put in the economy,
presumably there'd be a teriff at that point, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
So think of it like, obviously, if you need a
product for manufacturing, you need something right away, you're just
gonna have to pay the tax. But a lot of
times alcohol will go to what's called the bonded warehouse.
And so let's say you're importing tequila from Mexico, and
it may sit in a bonded warehouse, and then the
distributor is then slowly you know, they as they move

(06:33):
it out, as they sell it down, they're at least
cash flowing, you know, those that taxes over the a
bonded warehouse. Though time's out, so you have a limited
amount of time, whereas a foreign trade zone is forever.
So in theory, someone could bring in artwork or another
prob Let's say they put tariffs on gold or silver.
It could come here and store here forever, or it

(06:54):
can be manufactured in the facility of manufacturing operation here
as well, and then we could ship it back out.
The units and never pay attacks. A lot of people
are probably going to look at going, Hey, tariffs make
they may last a while, but they're usually not forever.
They're usually for a season, whether that's a few months,
a few years. So you could bring something over, a
bespoke collectible artwork and it's just is held here, and

(07:16):
then maybe when and if I shifted, let's say to
you down in Arizona, the tariff would be due. But
you're like, you know what, let's keep it there. I'd
like it. Maybe in a few years, let's say tariffs
go away, then I ship it to you. And interesting,
But to your point, jurisdiction matters. And I think what
we're seeing all around the world is people are moving
assets in the advance of change, and so what are

(07:37):
those changes. So you're seeing a lot of conflict within Europe,
different different agreements or ideas of how to settle world conflicts.
Europe is talking about creating an army of Europe, and
so a lot of assets are now fleeing London. We've
seen London was the Bank of England, that's where the
gold was pretty much settled after World War two, and

(08:00):
so a lot of people don't realize We've been off
the gold standard since Richard Nixon, just over fifty years,
and now suddenly record amount of gold has been flying
back to the United States. I mean, just insane amount
of gold. And my personal take is that it's the
United States. It's they're repatriating their gold. So, you know, Trump,
elon Musk, they've talked about auditing for it, Knox, is

(08:20):
it there, is it not? I don't know. But what
I do know is because I'm so intimately involved in
the gold industry, and I know all the transport companies,
and I know how much has been transported and how
hard it is for me to get gold moving, and
so I'm essentially having to compete for movement. And I
think that's where I was only on the X on

(08:42):
X and I think I signed up for the first
time just like six weeks ago, and it kind of
blew up. I was I don't know if I was
the first, but I might have been one of the
first to talk about why has so much gold come
into the United States. And at the time, it was
think it was the thought process was it was tariff's alone.
But we kind of look at a little further and
I say, there there's other things going on. So often

(09:04):
hard assets moved before worldwide conflict. So you know, if
you look at history, you know when Germany was moving
into France in World War two, Uh, they had to
get that gold out as in mid I moved and
it's kind of a wild story. Well it's hard to
move stuff like that. So, uh, is goal being repositioned
before before major conflicts? Is it being repositioned before? Maybe

(09:27):
maybe there's multiple claims on these bars, and so the
United States is saying, you know what, Uh, you know,
let's bring that Let's bring that material to to our
facility or into our jurisdiction now, and we own it
and no one else can claim it. Is the US
government going to utilize gold in some sort of you know,
new new bond issuance? Uh? Is it going to you know,

(09:49):
be part of the Sovereign Wealth Fund that Trump has announced.
There's a lot of reasons. We're not really sure. But
what I do know is the bricks countries have been
actively acquiring Go.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
If you would for a second, Okay, let's I'm going
to get to the bricks brix countries. I'm going to
have you explain bricks because not all of our listeners
will know what bricks is.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
But first let's kind of go back to terifs for
a little bit, if we could.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, so you said that tariffs are typically seasonal.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
What in your experience?

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Uh So, there's some question is Trump just threatening terrift?
Is actually put some tariffs on right? They're actually in
play right now, is it? And it's one of those
things you can't it can't be an empty threat. You
have to be willing to actually impose the tariffs. What
do you think is you know, when Trump says the
most beautiful world we're in the English language, is it

(10:47):
is tariff?

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Why? Why is he so enamored with TIFFs?

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Great questions? So, and when I see say seasonality, we
just kind of have to look at the United States
and often times obviously you're political, like who's in leadership right,
who's in administration? So it can obviously change by based
on styles. We've really hadn't had tariffs at this discussion
level before. We've kind of maybe we hit you know,

(11:15):
people you know, and it's usually been the Chinese, they're
dumping steel for cheegs. We've kind of protected certain industries
and a lot of people don't realize is how much
tariff is against US goods. So Trump is wanting to
even the playing field. But he's also talking about things
like wanting to lower income tax or you know, I
think today he said, hey, what do you guys sound

(11:35):
Does it sound good if you make less than one
hundred and fifty no taxes? So the question is is
where are you going to get those tax revenues in?
And you know, the United States did not have income
tax in the first half of it, if its exists existed,
so it made a lot of its income off off
of tariffs. And so it might just be a different
way that the United States is growing its revenue. And

(11:59):
you know, we look at I would say part of
the reason. I also moved to Wyoming into this facility,
and I started this process four years ago, and I
didn't think tariffs would be coming this quickly. But if
you look at you know, if you if anyone's ever
read the Fourth Turning the book, right, it talked about
these eighties.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Oh, we actually had the author on our show here.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
Oh I didn't know that, but that's that's pretty neat.
So you know, you look at these I would say,
these economic resets, right, we're hearing things about great resets,
and there's different ideas as to what that may look like.
But I think we can all agree that the finance
industry is broken. Right at the US dollar, there's the
ring currency aving's broken. So we're gonna have to go
through some sort of transition. So during the during the

(12:41):
Great Depression, they put on the Smooth Holly Act, which
was a tear freight at twenty five to fifty percent,
and critics would say that at the time, while they
it was well intentioned that hey, we're going to do
this to reshore manufacturing, and it may it also may
have delayed the economic recovery, there's other people that would

(13:01):
say was it done on purpose? So oftentimes, you know,
you hear about you know, the Federal Reserve is kind
of wanting to dampen down like economic activity to move
interest rates up and down. They may want to damp
in certain things to allow the opportunity to do quantitative
easy and quantitative tightening. So tariffs in theory could short

(13:24):
could be a short term kind of a pain point.
And I think Trump Elon, they've all talked about this,
that that we could go through a tough transition maybe
for something better. So are we going to see a
smooth holly type thing and that lasted for a few years,
So where where we go more to a universal tariff?
So this is my personal take is he's doing the

(13:46):
saber rattling. There's a lot of negotiation, and I'd say,
if you're a friendly you might be a low tariff
rate something is it two percent, is it ten percent?
I don't know. If you're just a medium company, you're
maybe your mid tier. And let's say you're not friendly
United States, you're China, you might be sixty or eighty percent.
So I kind of view it as it Perhaps this

(14:07):
is my take that where we're going to land maybe
a year from now, that we're going to see kind
of a tiered system based on how well you play
with Trump.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Okay, so let's talk about what tariffs are and what
they aren't, because I think people get really confused about
the nature of tariffs, and I want to start with
tariffs as an inflation okay, because while when price is raised,
that's not necessary inflation.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
Tariffs are attacks. Okay, Let's be clear.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Tariffs are attacks, and the question is who are the
attacks on and they are really on a number of people. Right,
they're certainly on the seller, right, who's who's bringing the
goods into the country, But they're also on the consumer.
So it actually as it has attacks on multiple parties here.
But it's my question for you is do you think

(15:00):
the tariffs will cause a supply and demand issue or
will they just cause a price issue? And the reason
I wanted to distinguish that is because people think inflation
is well, goods go up in price.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
Well, no, you wouldn't say that.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
If your state raises the sales tax from eight percent
to ten percent, nobody's gonna say the state caused inflation.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
They added a tax.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
And so or when France puts a twenty two percent
value add attax, and I want to come back to that,
but they put a twenty two percent value add a tax,
and it's a tax on imports, but not on exports. Right,
there's no value attacks on exports. Nobody sees that as inflationary.
It's rather just an at tax increase, right, It's.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Just an additional tax.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
So then's my question to you, do you see tariffs
as actually causing and if we define inflation as it's
you know, supply versus demand right, too much money chasing
too for your goods? Do you think that would actually
cause a supply side or certainly will reduce demand, but
which would actually reduce price, would reduce the cost, not

(16:12):
increase the price. But do you think it would cause
a supply side issue?

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah? So great, great, you know, I think let's look
at the egg market real quick. So we had the
bird flu scare. Whether that was contrived or not by
the last administration, who knows, but millions of chickens were killed, right,
and so suddenly it was a deflation in egg producing chickens,
and so prices went up, and a lot of people

(16:38):
are like, so is that inflation? Temp sort of, But
it's just a temporary thing. Once more chickens are born
and they hit maturity and they start laying eggs, right,
and we're already seeing the price drop hard just in
the last few days. So the reality is that's kind
of a short term imbalance. So you know, people forget
inflation is a policy, and it's the policy of our government, right,

(17:00):
so they just keep essentially printing the money supply. So
did COVID cause inflation? And the answer is no. In
eerie economics, go it was the government's respond and they
printed what in the first year forty percent of the
money supply alone. So everyone got so excited in the beginning.

(17:21):
They're like, my house went up, well, it did, but
everything else went up as well. So no one really
got ahead unless you're black rock and owned lots of houses. Right.
So this is kind of a situation where I would say, yeah,
in the short term, you know, every industry has what
I would say a life cycle. So Trump in his
first term played around with some tariffs on China. He

(17:43):
gave some warning. Obviously we didn't know, we didn't know
how if he would be re elected or or you know,
four years later, but you know, he kind of gave
some warning about deleveraging from China. He started doing there
there in Arizona. They're the two huge multi billion dollar
ship plants, right the Taiwanese, and they just expanded that.
They just announced that a few weeks ago even more

(18:04):
is going to be built. So the reality is that's
a multi year to bring that that online. So you're
I think you're gonna see if you tear if let's
say corn or something that could be grown in the
United States. So the question is is most of the
corn that we produce is used for energy and not food,

(18:25):
so you know, we may see a short term like
just rebalancing of what's actually produced in the United States
versus imported, and we just kind of moved things around.
So it is a tax on the consumer totally, but
it's also it's a penalty on the foreign the foreign guys,
and so it gives opportunity for US business. So I mean,
even one of my favorite kombucha drinks is from Australia. Well,

(18:47):
if Australia gets hit with ten percent or twenty five percent, right,
it will provide an opportunity for someone that wants to
make kombucha in the United States. So in theory, we're
gonna go through it. Actually, I see it as there's
deflationary aspects that are happening right now in our in
the marketplace, and I would say it's the federal government right.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Well, so so let me go to this deflationary because
I don't know, if you read Stephanie Calton's book what
I call the Magic Money Theory, where you can print
all the money you want, you don't you don't even need,
you know, you don't even need need taxes you don't
need money because you can print it, and especially when
you're the reserve currency of the world really, which the

(19:30):
US dollar is. But what people what, what I never
hear the people who are who are proponents of that
theory say, is that the other side of what she said,
she goes, well, the way if it does start in place,
then what you have to do is you have to
tax the inflational way. So taxes are a drag on

(19:53):
the economy. They are an absolute drive. If you look
at the taxes on your personal on your personal income,
it's a drag on your income. And I mean it's
a really big drag. I mean if you I of
course run these numbers all the time. And the drag
is if people actually knew how big of a drag
it was, they would rebel against the income tax.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
They would completely rebel.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Because it's such a big, big drag on their wealth
and their wealth creation. But so tariffs are attacks. I mean,
I think that's very clear. They are attacks, and so
would not not put a drag on the economy. Right,
this is what we're seeing in this we we've seen
in the stock market. We're seeing uh, we're you know,

(20:37):
we're seeing prices come down. Isn't that because the terriffs
present a drag which actually should reduce inflation.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yes. And then and then the fact that I mean,
if you had a guess, in the next couple of years,
the federal government, the size, the amount of employees it has,
it's going to be dramatically smaller. Right, they are just
gutting it. And you know, frankly, if you look at it,
why is Elon involved? And so Elon understands what's going

(21:10):
to be coming with AI, right, and so the United
States could have only it could wipe out perhaps perhaps
ninety percent of the jobs over the next few years.
I think that, you know, if you go back and
listen to Elon before he got into to politics over
the last year, he talked about this, and he talked
about universal basic income.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Well, Bill Gates has talked about this too.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
And actually they even talk about it universal basic needs.
You might not even have income, you might just have
these things. So we don't know what this is going
to look like. But the reality is some of this
can be deflation or you're seeing like this week, the
airline companies are saying, hey, there's way less people flying. Well,
guess what all those federal things, there's already less going on, right.

(21:52):
I would also say the tariff uncertainty. If you're a
business in the United States and you maybe are sourcing
some out out you know, some from and you're you're like,
I don't know if I need to fire my staff
hire more people like it, and so because it's so uncertain,
it is causing I would call this like a short
term like month liquidity is dropping. In theory, it's not, well, that's.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
A deflationary impact.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
But then but then I think you're gonna see he's
gonna you know, Trump is pro business, right, he's pro
real estate. He's so we might go through a tougher
time in the first part of his term here, and
then he's gonna just say, maybe we try to get
the really tough times over with, and then he's gonna
try to build it back. And that's when thirty talking
about liquidity, they're an irs refund. I mean, who doesn't

(22:39):
want a refund? But let's be frank, what is.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
That That's what makes taxes fun funds right in them
and the and the word refund.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Right, So that is just that's giving back money to
go spend it right. So, whether we call it cash
for Clunkers, the Old Car program, or we called it,
you know, it is a stimulus. During COVID, you know,
suddenly everyone goes out and buys a TV screen at
Best Buy or wherever. You know, it's creating, it's creating
jobs and movement of things.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
So what do you think about from a timing standpoint?
So Trump would like the tax bill. Now, the tax
bill is definitely a stimulus. I mean you put full
expensing on equipment, full expensing on research development.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
You know, you don't tax tips. That would be a
big one.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Actually from a pure stimulus cash you know, that's basically
helicopter money. But you do things like that, then that's
a big stimulus. And if you look back to the
night to nineteen eighty one, okay, when Ronald Reagan came
into a very similar situation that Trump came into with
effectively stagflation, where your economy was just kind of kind

(23:45):
of moseying along, but you know, you had high inflation,
and then so Vulkar puts on high interest rates.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
At the FED.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
But at the same time, what most people don't remember
is that is that Reagan ineteen eighty one tax Act
was a huge stimulus bill. It was a huge stimulus bill.
It reduced it impacted this depreciation, same thing expensing. He
allowed it and it stimulated the economy. So basically he

(24:14):
had breaks on and the gas on, and it breaks
and gas breaks and gas. How important do you think
think it is from a timing standpoint that that gas
doesn't that the Trump and Congress doesn't wait too long.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
For the gas.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Because that's one of the criticisms smooth Holly, right, is
that you are already down and now what you did
was to press a down and you didn't give a stimulus,
whereas Reagan. I think what Reagan did brilliantly was he
gave a stimulus at the same time he was putting
the brakes on.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yeah, and I'm going to go with there will be
some stimulation. They're already floating it. Hey, what is there
one think about an extra five thousand dollars refund? You've
been over taxed. I mean, so this is this is
this is going to be a rough sled, right. So
I think it's well intentioned, but we you know the

(25:10):
opportunity of mishaps is is extremely high. And I would
say you look at like the equity markets. The S
and P has never I mean, the valuations of companies
do not make any sense anymore. So uh and and
I'll and I'll share with you we're already seeing it
that Chinese are pulling their money out of our markets,
so that they are they represent a big chunk of
the Nasdaq in particular. So you look at a lot

(25:31):
of these equity markets, I think you're gonna see a
lot of problems. Uh and and unfortunately that's going to
impact consumers. So a lot of retirement accounts, right, everything's
based on where your stuff is at. And we haven't
seen a lot of volatility and equities over the last
number years. It's just been a nine. It's been a
pretty nice ride. I know there's been some bumps around,

(25:53):
but nothing makes sense. So I would say the opportunity
of causing crisis here or there with everything that's going on,
and you know, God forbid, there's a world conflict. You know,
we mentioned the bricks in a competing world economy. We're
leaving globalism, right, and we're kind of going into this,
you know, a new there's a it's a new form

(26:13):
of trade. It's gonna be a new, new alliances are
going to be formed, and then through that, you know,
I would say, I think there's gonna I don't think
it's gonna be easy. And while it might be really
well intentioned, I think it could also be very tragic
for some if you're not in the right you know,
if you're not positioned well, those that have too much
leverage to debt, right, I mean we saw this with

(26:35):
with real estate. Real estate can be amazing, right and
I and but now we're seeing the guys that have
office space. It doesn't matter what your interest rate is
or isn't. You can't even rent it out anymore. And
so you end it back to the bank for you know,
thirty bucks a foot. But it's you know, these buildings
are almost worthless less at the moment unless you can

(26:57):
hold until the market returns, which could be years now.
So yeah, this is this is going to be a
very interesting, exciting time. Like it feels like years are
happening in weeks in terms of like what's what's going on.
So for those like you, it.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
Is moving at the speed of AI. I put it.
I'd put it that way. It's moving at the speed
of AI. So we thought, we thought, uh, technology was
was moving fast. We had no idea how fast Trump
could move when he was when he had.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Four years to prepare for it.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Let's let's uh, if you would, because I promised we'd
explain what bricks is.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Explain now, I know bricks was actually made up name.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
By bye by a bank, but but explain what bricks
is and why this is important when it comes to
tariffs and what you call the reordering of international trade.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
Sure, so bricks is Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, right,
but there's actually I think there might be another thirty
ish countries that are what I would call kind of
like they're on the wait list. And so you know,
if you think about it, the United States was a
free trade society, right where things went in and out,

(28:13):
and there were times the United States did great, but
you also look at like since since the seventies, right,
the quality of life for Americans has gone down. Like
so if we if you just look at what you're
purchasing power versus wages, So a lot of that wealth
transformation left for other places such as such as China.
So we're now entering a world where where globalism is

(28:34):
over and that basically I would say what did that
was when when the when Russia Ukraine conflict hit, you know,
a couple of years ago. A lot of people don't
realize that the assets of Russia were seized all over
the world. So if you were in the Swift banking system,
so if you go to your bank and you send
money via ach or bank wire, right, that's all within
the network. Well anything attached to that network was seized.

(28:56):
I mean they went as far as taking boats and
yachts and planes and of anyone right all around the world.
And I think the other countries, the other bricks nations
looked at this and said, wait a minute, So if
someone doesn't like what we do or don't do, you
mean someone can just take all our and seize all
our money and sees our assets. So that whether that
was right or wrong, here's it's a wake up call.

(29:17):
And so they have been they do these meetings and
Trump you know, it started right before Christmas, he posted
on x and he says a warning shot to the bricks,
do not create a competing new currency to the US
dollar and don't back it. And that's key. A lot
of people have didn't really realize.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Right because they wanted back up with commodities. Right, that's that's.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Their proposals to back up with commodities gold or some
other commodity like grain.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
That's right, that's right. So you know we're it feels
a bit like, you know, could we have a resurgence
of access and allies? Right, we've been in we're in
a world conflict today, but you know, the World War one,
World War two, some people change sides and so it's
been more of a trade war and it's been a
proxy war. So a lot of people don't really realize that.

(30:06):
You know, who is funding the Ukraine Russia conflict, Right,
there's distinct people, but they're not putting boots on the ground. Right,
So the moments of Starmer in the UK is talking
about we might have to send British troops to Ukraine. Well,
the moment you do that, you're now igniting the possibility
of a bomb dropping on London. Right that that that
it's it's it's not zero percent. Now you're not only

(30:28):
funding something, but now you're actively involved in it. So
it feels like to me, you know, we've had we've
had really the trade war, right, we're having all kinds
of stuff going on. I mean remember the umbrella balloon
thing that was flying across the spy thing over the
United States. Member ships were crashing into each other in
the sea. That was GPS taking over ships and people

(30:51):
are playing this is a kind of war game ish
but next level, right, And so we're seeing, you know,
the pressuring of Taiwan. What's gonna happen with the Taiwan? Well, like,
do we want to send American you know, children to
fight for Taiwan? I mean, what does that mean? Do
we want a nuclear world? This? No one wins. So

(31:12):
I think what's happening is just is is. It's a
realignment of partnerships. It's a relignment of food resources. And
this is what Canada is all about, and Greenland is
all about. There's strategic locations. They have strategic natural resources
such as rare minerals, gold and silver, et cetera. And
you know, China's locked up a lot of Africa over
the last few decades. In the United States was kind

(31:33):
of a sleep on it. So you know, there's no
doubt in Ukraine is massive for wheat and fertilizer and
all types of other minerals. So why does Russia want it.
So you're seeing this is like this is just new
to where you know globalism. You traded with everybody, but
the last couple of years you're saying, hey, if you're
on the sanctioned list, you're on the no go I

(31:54):
can't send it to you, so you can't buy certain
goods and services. So you've got to have redundancy. So
this is where I would say, you know, Trump is
trying to get the United States to be more insulated, right,
and when you have places like Canada and Mexico who
haven't been acting like great neighbors, right. I mean Mexico's
a narco run state, right, They're they're the child sex trafficking,

(32:16):
the drugs it you know, so obviously we'd rather have
them as a partner. So is this is the tariff thing,
kind of a punch in the gut, get your get
your act together right, so we can be more friendly
and really the same thing. And this is the problem
I think with Canada. They've been more aligned with Davas, right,
even the new the new prime ministers from the Bank
of England, right, he's not even really a Canadian, so uh,

(32:39):
you know, I'm not I don't know how much of
a fan I am of just making a fifty first state,
but even just the theory of like, hey, let's we
need to partner up for this whatever new world we
are going into, whether it's whether it's kinetic or even
just at a trade level, let's be let's be partners.
And So I think Trump Trump is punching, but that's
his that's.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
His mstah, that's it is.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
So you mentioned a couple of times here that people
there are people going to get hurt, and they're gonna
get hurt bad if they're not prepared. So what are
some things that you think a business owner an investor
can do, uh to prepare for this and so that
they can weather this and and and even actually be

(33:22):
successful with it.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
Man, that that's kind of broad. That's broad because everyone's
got a different situation.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Well, give us three things.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
I'm a big fan of low debt to no debt
is possible, right because you're no one's your master. When
you have a master, they tell you what you can
and can't do, or the rates change when the term
comes up. So I would say de leveraging away from
those that that that could potentially hurt hurt things, pay
attention to where are you sourcing things? Right If you're

(33:54):
doing things in China, you should be moving so fast away.
And in my company, I I'm having companies all around
the world that the last two months they have been
flying here and they're saying, hey, I make this here
and this there. We need you to make as much
of it as possible. So if you're not doing that,
you're already I'd say, get get going, get going right now.

(34:16):
And it's just I think it's just getting things in order.
And I think people already starting to do that. Right
They're taking a little less vacations right now. There's just
a lot of uncertainty and it doesn't feel good. So
obviously I'm a.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Hard defensive positions.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
Defensive position I'm a hard asset guy. And as she so,
I mean, obviously I'm.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
In the golds ride around three thousand right now.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
So it is. But if the world, the central banks
all around the world are buying it. This has not
been a consumer driven rise. So it's gone it's gone up.
But I can tell you the retail market has been
pretty quiet for about sixteen seventeen months. It's just starting
to pick up in the last like two weeks. But
it's all been driven by central banks. So central banks
have much of nothing on their balance sheet. They just

(34:59):
print fiat for the for the country they represent, but
then they have gold holding. So I would say historically
gold holdings has been anywhere between maybe forty percent all
the way down to single digits, and so they're now
we've been kind of in that low end where the
average has been very very low gold to fiat. So
they're what they're doing now is bringing up gold. So

(35:19):
they're putting they're raising it. So we mentioned China. Poland
actually was the largest buyer of gold in twenty twenty four,
and I would say that's kind of interesting. They've been
buying a lot of the gold at the US FED.
I would say this in the event of think of
gold as it's the most pristine form of capital. It's
now called with BASO three coming, which is a new

(35:39):
banking accord that starts this summer, if you have physical
gold on your balance sheets, it's a zero risk asset,
which is this So this is huge. So it means
if you own an ETF of gold, you don't get
full credit of that. So the physical gold ownership is big.
So I would say following the footsteps of the giants.
So if they're what they're doing there de risking and

(36:01):
they're adding tier one assets. You've got right now, the
state of Wyoming, the state of Utah right now they're
adding gold to their own balance sheets. Right, So this
is an it's an interesting time in the world.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Well, and Utah has actually a few years ago made
gold legal tender.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
They did, you can pay your.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
Taxes in gold, which uh, which in the US at
the federal level you cannot. You have to pay in dollars,
which is what gives the dollar actually its core value
is the requirement to pay taxes.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Uh. Final words, First of all, how can we find you? Uh?

Speaker 1 (36:37):
And in what could we learn, you know, to learn
more from what you do and and your study of
hard assets and that and the world markets.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
Yeah, so you can follow me personally. I'm pretty new
on on X It's Josh Philip Fair. You'll you'll find
me find me on X. And then my my my
two companies I've talked about Scottsdiale, mint dot com is
is that's the that's the we produce manufacturer and we
ship out golden silver products. Gifts all investment stuff. And

(37:07):
then my other company, which is the vaulting company, is
the Wyoming Reserve dot com. So we do third party
vaulting for institutions, high net worth people. But we're also
a rag D offering with special tax evanges and we
do work with our r A firms. We're in the
we're registered through finra sec so it's being sold to
the broker dealer community. Has some awesome tax evanages liquidity.

(37:30):
It's not a solicitation here, but I'm just filling in
on what we're doing here. But yeah, there's there's those
are those are kind of the things that I'm involved
with right now.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
I appreciate that. So Josh fair Scott stillmant dot com.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
And remember, you know, we people think, well, why are
we talking about you know, tariffs and gold and and
uh and and and.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
The impact of place.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
These are real things and they impact our business on
a daily on a daily level and on a real level.
And if we understand what's going on, the whole idea
is how do we prepare for it? In this case,
what I'm hearing you just say, Josh, is this is
a time to be defensive. Right back in the you
know twenty teams, right, we were being aggressive. We had

(38:16):
zero interest rates. Basically, we wanted to be aggressive. Now
we're seeing and that was good because that hedges inflation.
But if you're in a more deflationary period, that of
course actually goes the other direction. So a little bit
of defense can go along ways. Any any good professional

(38:37):
sports team knows that. And so a little defense, you know,
paired with the right kind of offense, uh, will always
get you to way more tax, way more money.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
Excuse me, way more money and way less tax. We'll
see all next time with the Multibility Show.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
This podcast is a presentation of rich Dad Media Network.

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