And I'm impressed that it's starting to actually have beneficial impacts. So you know
he's got it. There was it three more or three and a half more
years. He's got a long way to go, and he's already making a
difference. In my view, that makes Argentina investible. Since it seems like
he doesn't have a bullet on his name. There's time to make money on
Argentina place now. So you are listening to Carrie Lutz's Financial Survival Network where
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now more than ever. Welcome you are listening to watching the Financial Survival Network.
I'm your host, Carrie Lutz with us now is Lobo Tigra Lobo old
friend. We've been seeing each other conferences and such for many years, and
hey, Loba, it's great to have you back on. We finally got
something to celebrate down south of the border in Argentina. I mean, I
thought you were gonna say silver breaking north of thirty well that too, I
mean, but that was a foregone conclusion. It was always never a question
of if, just a question of when. Hopefully, you know, it'll
hit fifty before we depart the planet. I have a feeling it's going to
hit fifty and keep going. You listen at Eric Sprat, he says three
hundred dollars silver. I find that hard to believe, but then again,
I never doubt anything that Eric Sprat says. Well, if you inflation adjust
the nineteen eighty peak, it is triple digits. It's kind of you don't
even want to say the numbers because it's embarrassing. It sounds like you're wearing
a tinfoil hat or something. But that's true. I few inflation adjust the
previous peak. You know, it's kind of amazing, amazing times. But
you know, let's go south of the border. I mean, go the
the amazing things going on in Argentina. Sorry, it's not Mexico. Mexico's
going the wrong direction. It really looks like not only a you know,
a populist, pandering politician, but an environmentalist is about to take over there.
And by the way, this has investment consequences. I mean, they're
talking about banning open pit mining, and people are saying, oh, well,
underground minds are safe. No, if you've got a government stupid enough
to ban open pit mining, it is clearly hostile to mining all mining.
Yeah, and so don't hit yourselves. Mexico's definitely going the wrong direction by
or beware. But we wanted to talk something good news, right, And
yes, the Argentina thing, I've never personally met Milay. I have to
say, you know, it raised my hackles when he hugged Trump, but
you know what, he raised hackles with Trump as well. He was clearly
not a huger. I'm not a sauchy feeling kind of guy. Yeah.
Yeah, but we'll just if nothing else. The idea is the man espouses
now from the office of president of country, Like, just how many people
have heard of Hayek and miss now who'd hadn't before and unless they watch that
that boxing Max. But that's a whole other conversation. Uh, it's just
that that bully pulpit alone is a good thing for the world to have this
voice. But he's not just walking the talk. He's walking it and slashing
government spending left and right. You know, there's there's a lot. He
can't do that he wants to do because he doesn't have a congressional majority.
He's just the executive. But the you know, sort of backhanded good news
here is that in Latin America, the executives have a lot of power,
so he has been able to unilaterally just slash spending left and right and close
things down as as everybody's probably known, the cauctin tyne peso. Ironically,
it's become the best performing currency reson because he's he's slashed infleshing from three hundred
percent to like single or low double digits. It's just it's it's amazing that
he even got a chance. But even more amazing is how he's actually doing
some of these things. And I'm this has besides ideological importance, but let
me go there first. I think this is tremendous. This is like the
it can become the shining city on the hill, an example to the world
if he actually fixes Argentina. They're not out of the woods yet. Like
he's slashing stuff left and right, he's still administering the harsh medicine. But
if that medicine actually heals the patient, like the rest of Latin America has
to sit up and take notice, and really the rest of the world.
You know, his Davos talk, it's that, you know, he actually
delivers on the values from that, I think that's fantastic. Any intellectually honest
person has to sit back and say, well, you know what, maybe
there's actually something too, you know, limited government and free enterprise and all
that stuff. I see, I jump in ahead. You know, it's
what we've always theorized, but never we're in a position to actually demonstrate.
I mean, really, you have to go back to like Hong Kong,
post world, medieval Iceland, Singapore, Iceland, but Iceland's lake. Nobody
takes Iceland seriously. Argentina you need to take seriously because every ten years or
less they have a currency collapse, and there was so much turmoil, and
it was just a classic case of a country being totally mismanaged. Not that
there's any shortage of that, Lobo, right, but you know you look
at that and Heeds just say, wow, these guys, Yeah, that's
absolutely God. So if he can turn this around, you know, you
talk about things like the shot heard around the world in seventeen seventy six,
this could literally be something like that the chainsaw herd around the world. You
know what an amazing thing that would be. So investment implications. I think
Argentina is becoming more investable, like I I have been out, like I've
sold all my Argentina plays years ago. The Kirchners were an absolute disaster,
and then I forgot the guy. You know, there was a brief interlude.
The previous president, not that, not the one before me, the
one he was tried to do some market reforms, but it was it was
half measures, and he wasn't able to really do anything. He didn't have
the guts Mila has, and he failed, and so the country veered farther
left got worse. So now, you know, honestly, I I it
sounds like I'm just trying to do clickbait headlines or something like that, but
I sincerely thought once he won that there was a very high chance that he
would get shot like his the medicals removed on this started out there would just
be intolerable. Yeah, surgically, well, I'm I'm impressed that he's doing
it. I'm impressed that he's still alive, and I'm impressed that it's starting
to actually have beneficial impacts. So you know, he's got he's got was
it three more three and a half more years, He's got a long way
to go, and he's already making a difference. In my view, that
makes Argentina investible. Since it seems like he doesn't have a bullet on his
name. There's time to make money on Argentina place now, So you know,
I'm looking actively in that direction. Just besides the cutting of the government,
he cut the regulations to like next to nothing. So we're going to
find out about the fertile soil for capitalism, for free markets first and and
my guess is it's good. He's going to replicate hog Kog. Now,
I don't know if the people are so beat down that they're going to be
able to take advantage of what probably is a once in a life opportunity that's
been given to them. I don't know about that. That's kind of what
concerns me because you kind of had a similar thing happen in Russia after the
fall of communism and in Germany. East Germany is still lagging so quandered opportunities.
Yeah, yeah, soquestion is they weren't communists, but they were certainly
socialists. Have they been so you know, so debased in terms of their
entrepreneurial outlook that they won't. Nobody knows for sure. We'll have to see,
but you know, I'm very encouraged that, like I say, there's
still more pain to go. The harsh medicine has not been all administered.
It's not all done yet. But he's done a lot, and he's hurt
a lot. He's a lot of former government employees out there marching in the
streets. But his popularity rating is still up. So I think there's hope.
I don't. I don't count it as a sure thing, but I'm
willing to hope now, which I wasn't before. Hey never estimate the animosity
of the population towards their petty apparachics, and that that they're happy to see
them out of having any power over them. Something about South America when the
when those tyrants get into power, they're worse probably than even the ones in
the United States. Out of the frying pan into the fire. It's a
sad story, yeah, really sad. But there is definitely hope now.
And inflation seems to capture the attention of a population more than any other injustice
that is wrought upon them because there when you have inflation, and it is
an injustice. It's really self taxation, all the things we talk about.
But you know, in the United States you see it happening as well.
Like you and I, we've lived through inflationary times before, so it's like
just something you get through. But to these other people with the entitlement mentality,
they've been raised with the younger folk, and now they see the value
of their dollar dissipating by the day. This is leading to a backlash in
the United States that I didn't believe was going to happen. I thought we
were just all frogs boiling and off till we were extinct. But evidently they
proved us wrong, didn't they. Well, you know, I've tried that,
and the frog won't actually stay in the water. At some point he
gets uncomfortable and he hops out, and so turned up you turned up the
heat too quickly. When have you ever seen the frog sleeping anyway? All
right, So, but taking the metaphor to the real world, you know,
you turn up the heat and at some point it's actually uncomfortable, and
so people are going to the store. What will be really interesting Carrie,
as you say, the younger generations, they just don't have any experience with
this. They've never really know. They weren't there in the seventies literally,
so they don't know how bad it can be. Let alone other countries where
they chopped zeros off their currency unit periodically. They just don't understand how bad
this can be. They're starting to get it, and you know, you
have sticker shock when you go into the supermarket. I was just reading today
that I don't know when this will be posted, but as you and I
are recording, there was news that Target and Aldi, which is already a
low cost food store, are cutting prices on certain items, on basic items
because people are racking up credit card debt to buy groceries. Grocery debt.
Okay, it's one thing to use a credit card at a supermarket because you
want to get airline miles or whatever. It's another thing to rack up debt
just to feed your family. Like this is. This can't end well.
And you know you've got Team Biden out there saying, oh, We've got
the greatest economy in the world. You know what's wrong with people? Why
don't they Why doesn't Joe get any credit for this, but just go to
the store. And it's not anecdotal when large chains like that are responding to
Really, what is it a measure of desperation or an act of desperation to
be charging up your cards to the hill to buy groceries. That's that's good.
It's very unsustainable, and it's happening right now while we have the greatest
economy in the world. So how could that. I think inflation is just
one of those things that it it. You know, many other things are
theoretical or philosophical, or maybe even religious, but this reaches right into your
wallet or purse and it steals from and it pisses people off. So maybe
good call. Maybe we'll have a learning opportunity here. I remember, you
know, back in the seventies there was a McDonald's commercial and this little kid
goes, daddy, what's inflation? And I cannot find this, by the
way, anywhere on the internet. It's been scrubbed. And he goes,
son, that's when the price of everything goes up and your father's pay stays
the same. It's like the best the definition of inflation ever from a McDonald's
commercial. No less right, Yeah, well, we had a cartoon I
posted on my Twitter feed I think last week or maybe two weeks ago now
of just like that. You know, it's like nineteen thirties cartoon. And
this this monopoly board type guy with you know, top hat, lots of
wheelbarrow full of money goes in the story and he comes out with a barrels
on straps because the guy inside the store is literally jacking up the prices like
he has jacks it used to lift an old car, and he's jacking up
the prices. But oh yes, so this will be an interesting learning experience
and the backlash. But what strikes me is really interesting, Carrie. And
I'm a gold bug and I you know, I like fart assets old in
my hand. But the younger generations have already had a lesson about fiat currencies
from the crypto crowd. Now you add inflation to that, it goes from
theoretical like fiat can be printed, you know, governments can print it to
an experiential thing and to a point where it actually creates discomfort in your life.
This could be a watershed moment that actually changes is not just economic behavior,
but voting behavior for younger generations. You know, maybe. And I'm
not a Republican. I'm a libertarian, so I'm not trying to take sides
between the GOP and the Dems. But I can imagine people, young people
who have thought, oh, the Dems are the nice guys, and suddenly
having this understanding that they're being stolen from and say, you know, that's
not nice. Like maybe there's something too this free enterprise approach and you know,
letting people keep the money they earn stuff. You know, maybe we'll
have a little bit of a of an awakening there. I'm an optimist.
I'm not predicting this. I'm just saying maybe there's some hope there too.
Maybe Hey, I hope you're right, of course, and we all do.
But you know, hey, time time will tell for sure. So
gold and silver, how high can they go here? Well, you know
that I don't like to make price predictions, but we aren't. And I'm
pretty sure maybe two interviews ago we talked about this looking forward to twenty twenty
four, and I said gold could easily go up ten twenty percent without any
fireworks or anything strange happening, which from about two thousand would imply twenty four
hundred. Well, here we are a couple months in, we're already at
twenty four hundred, and none of the things that I thought would push gold
higher, recession money, helicopters, that sort of thing, none of this
has really happened yet. So there's a couple of things you could say,
well, one night was wrong, okay, two. But if that outbook
is still right, if your audience agrees with me that the United States is
not going to escape the consequences of these rapid rating increases and the money printing
and all, you know, all this stuff, then that upside is still
ahead of us. So it's if we're looking at ten or twenty percent higher,
but from twenty four instead of two thousand, you know, do the
math, we're closer to three than two. And it's pretty exciting. No,
I don't even want to put the number out there because that people are
saying, oh, no, but you said it's going to three thousand,
it's not, or whatever. All I'm saying is that an Austrian or fundamental
view of the economic scenario is very bullish for gold. The new buying from
central banks and other deep pocketed institutions. I think it's not the sort of
thing that just goes away. You know, the central banks of the global
South don't just suddenly decide that, hey, we're best friends with the Fed.
Now, that's just that buying doesn't go away. You know. The
people that are the deep pockets that are hedging with gold now not just because
they see the inflationary writing on the wall. I think the two hot wars
that we have, either of which could literally turn into wars rate are the
kind of thing that makee people, you know, not just want to hedge
their portfolios, but maybe hedge it with something physical that works when the Internet
doesn't. Right, So, you know, I just don't see that going
away. I don't see that buying drying up and blowing away in the dawn
breeze. It could, it'll go, it'll come. You know, nothing
goes up forever in a straight line. But the reasons for that buying,
I just don't see it going away. And then on top of that,
we still have the money helicopters in the economic yeah push you know, gold
always does well in a recession, and silver is happily tracking gold again.
So yeah, I don't want to sound like Kramer was one of those big
red bye bye by buttons, and there'll be correction before it goes up again.
Sure, you know it's it's gone up pretty fast already. Some correction
and consolidation would actually be pretty normal here. But by the end of this
year, I think we're looking at a much higher gold dollar exchange rate.
I do see gold as money, so I see it as a FOR'X question,
not a commodities price. And I do think silver will track gold.
It's at least the data right now is telling us that silver has stopped tracking
copper more than gold recently and is back tracking gold more tightly again. And
that makes me very optimistic for both this year. And copper has been doing
bad either we had you no, no, don't know, five dollars copper,
Sure, no, no copper. And then again, to be perfectly
frank, I completely missed this run up to record prices in copper. I've
been concerned about the recession that has kept me from allocating money in that space.
I didn't make money on this one. Sorry, but you know what,
I'm done fine with with with gold and silver. Can't kiss all the
girls. I'm okay with that. And if I had said yeah, by
all the all the medals, and then we got that recession sooner than expected,
they would be negative. So I don't ret the call. Given the
same information, I would make the same call again in the you know,
the I guess the so wide or the takeaway from that is, if you
think I'm right about undeniable recession in the United States this year as those long
and variable lags finally kick in, then you really want to think about how
much copper or any industrial mineral you are exposed to in your investment portfolio.
Hey, and we got election instability. Who knows what the US is going
to look like after the election. Hey, we got crazy civil unrest all
over the place. All these things mitigate or militate for a higher gold and
silver price. Yeah, you know what a what a world where it's not
just libertarian tinfoil hat types like us. But it's Ray Dalio saying there's a
forty percent chance of civil war in the United States. Like, wow,
it's it's not what he said, it's who said it. Yeah, that
is really a sign of the times. Yep, Hey, agreed, Well,
interesting things. Talk about Libo tell us where we find you, how
do we subscribe? Well, thank you very much. It's independent Speculator dot
com. I'm traveling, so I don't have the better over my head.
Wake sales pitches really easy. Sign up for my free letter. See if
you like the way I think and I work. If you do, I
can't promise you'll agree with everything I say, but I can that I will
not spam you with a flood of daily advertisements. I hate that crap.
Same here, all right. If you've got a question for Lobo myself,
shoot me an email kl at Carrie LUTs dot com and hey, you'll find
a link to his site in the show notes to this interview on Financial Survival
Network dot com. While you're there, sign up for your free newsletter.
Lobo been a pleasure, and I'm sure we'll have more to talk about next
time. Interesting times, I'm sure we will. Thanks for listening to Carrie
Letz's Financial Survival Network, your solution to today's trying times. For the latest,
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