WARNING: National Security Danger in the U.S. Gold & Silver Market -

Welcome to this week’s Market Wrap Podcast, I’m Mike Gleason.
Coming up we’ll hear an interview between Chris Marcus of Arcadia Economics and Money Metals CEO Stefan Gleason. Don't miss this revealing interview as Stefan digs into some unanswered questions surrounding America’s gold reserves at Fort Knox — issues brought back into the news headlines by Donald Trump last week.
From the lack of independent audits to concerns over gold purity, potential market interventions, and hidden transactions, Stefan tackles some tantalizing topics surrounding America's gold. He also recounts a striking conversation with former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh who hinted at covert Fed involvement in the gold market.
So, don’t miss this eye-opening discussion with Money Metals CEO Stefan Gleason, coming up after this week’s market update. And as a reminder please download, like, rate and subscribe to this podcast wherever you consume this content.
U.S. Senators Jim Risch and Catherine Cortez Masto introduced the bipartisan “System Integrity through Licensed Vault Expansion and Resilience Act”, aka the <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/uploads/content/SILVER-Act-Bill-Text-Risch-Cortez-Masto.pdf">SILVER Act</a>, this week — the latest step in the precious metals industry's efforts to derisk, modernize, and strengthen America’s precious metals market infrastructure.
<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/4621?s=1&amp;r=1&tblci=GiCB9a4pBBlehdsJSAXBSvtzY7kC2AKY69BgUiVdqNpQmSDKuWUo-sCAu_nVmNN8MK67Pg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate Bill 4621</a> follows the recent successful introduction of companion legislation in the House amid growing concerns among lawmakers, regulators, and industry leaders over the national security risks created by geographic concentration of exchange-approved precious metals depositories in the vicinity of New York.
Under exchange practices dating back to the 1970s, depositories used for deliveries on regulated gold, silver, platinum, and palladium futures contracts have been confined to the Greater New York area, creating what supporters describe as a dangerous single-region dependency as to critical financial infrastructure, combined with anti-competitive behavior.
A broad coalition of precious metals industry participants — including Money Metals as well as other large depositories, mints, dealers, refiners, banks, mining companies, logistics providers, manufacturers, insurers, and investors are also involved in backing the SILVER Act.
The SILVER Act would direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to ensure broader depository location options and greater transparency in the selection processes.
The legislation has already drawn favorable attention from the CFTC. At a recent House Agriculture Committee oversight hearing, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig publicly praised congressional efforts to address structural concentration risks and pledged to work with lawmakers on the issue.
Advocates of the legislation emphasize that current depository selection practices are monopolistic, suppressing competition and increasing costs for investors and businesses. Existing exchange-approved depositories currently charge the maximum storage fees permitted by the exchange, while many qualified facilities elsewhere in the country could provide services at lower cost. Transportation costs are also elevated because market participants outside the Northeast must ship metals long distances to access public markets.
Industry experts also note that precious metals are not only monetary and investment assets, but also strategically important industrial materials essential to electronics, aerospace, medical technologies, energy infrastructure, and defense manufacturing. As a result, maintaining geographically diverse and secure sources of precious metals is increasingly viewed as a national security imperative.
The current system creates unnecessary vulnerabilities for the nation’s precious metals markets and supply chains – and it arbitrarily excludes major industry players simply because they are not financial muckety-mucks in New York.
In other news, there has been a lot of talk lately about whether the Federal Reserve should raise interest rates. But the reality is the market itself is hiking rates with or without central bank cooperation.
Treasury yields have crept relentlessly higher over the last several months, signaling significant stress in the bond market.
The 10-year Treasury yield was over 4.6 percent this week, and the 30-year was north of 5 percent. Meanwhile, rates on the lower end of the curve are also spiking, with the 2-year Treasury note above 4 percent.
Earlier in the week, bond yields hit multi-decade highs.
At an auction last week, the 30-year Treasury sold at a yield of 5.046 percent. While the 30-year has traded above 5 percent on the secondary market a handful of times, it was the first time since 2007 that it sold at auction with such a high yield.
The Fed, along with other central banks around the world, finds itself in a “debt trap.”
But an even more fundamental dynamic is tipping the Treasury market – basic supply and demand. There is a lot of debt out there, and <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/05/14/tax-revenues-drive-april-budget-surplus-even-as-spending-keeps-going-up-004918">the federal government is creating more</a> every day. Meanwhile, the world is growing wary of holding all that debt.
The recent increase in U.S. bond yields is partly a function of the U.S.-Iran war oil shock. Many countries are selling dollar-denominated assets for cash to pay for oil and to support their own currencies.
However, softness in the Treasury market predates the conflict. It has been struggling for months because a lot of countries simply don’t want any more exposure to U.S. fiscal malfeasance. <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/03/19/national-debt-quietly-eclipses-39-trillion-004774">The national debt</a> has surged to over $39 trillion. Meanwhile, the federal government has shown zero interest in reining in spending. On top of that, it is blowing through an additional $1 billion per day to fight the war.
So, it’s not surprising that many countries are anxious to minimize their exposure to the dollar. We see this reflected in <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2025/03/11/de-dollarization-gold-and-a-shift-to-a-multipolar-world-003898">accelerating de-dollarization</a> and the fact that <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/01/08/gold-tops-treasuries-as-worlds-biggest-foreign-reserve-asset-004597">gold recently climbed above Treasuries</a> as the world’s biggest foreign reserve asset. When times get tough, you don’t want rapidly devaluing dollars backed by a spend-happy U.S. government. You want real money – gold – backed by nobody.
And finally, before we get to this week’s interview let’s review the metals market action here.
Gold is off a slight 0.4% to come in at $4,536 an ounce. Silver is actually up 20 cents or 0.3% to trade at $76.95. Platinum is down 2.4% and checks in at $1,994. And finally, palladium is off 4.1% to trade at $1,371 an ounce as of this Friday midday recording.
Well now, without further delay, let’s get right to this week’s interview.
<div class="pl-3">
Chris: Although Stefan, let's put you right under the hot seat. If the US and Trump goes in and they do– Let's say they actually did an appropriate audit of Fort Knox, what do you think they would find?
Well, hello there, my friends. Chris Marcus here with you for Arcade Economics on our now weekly show. And fortunately, since we have a little more time to plan and think, what could really provide some insight into a lot of the wild things that are happening in the gold and silver world these days, including, amongst other things, gee, Trump sure, I'll give him that, he's got a busy schedule because now he wants to crack open the Fort Knox vault to personally confirm that $700 billion worth of gold has not been stolen.
This came out on May 10, so that was just a week ago. And to comment on that and some other issues that if they actually did check in there, or perhaps had to sell some of the gold, people are not yet thinking about. Although fortunately, my dear guest and friend today, Stefan Gleason of Money Metals, gold and silver dealer, one of the largest and, certainly the ones I feel most comfortable with, joins me on the show, who's been researching into these matters and other gold and silver shenanigans. And Stefan, uh, great to see you again. How are you today?
Stefan: Yeah. Hey, great to be on again, Chris. Good to see you, too.
Yeah, so, uh, it's, uh, it's kind of funny. I mean, you know, the frivolous nature, of the way this topic has been addressed over the last couple years. I mean, on one hand, yeah, it raised the issue of, of the concern around Fort Knox and the lack of audits, but the idea that we're gonna turn it into some sort of fun field trip for President Trump or Elon Musk or whoever else is really doing a disservice, you know, in terms of what is needed to restore confidence and frankly, what a proper audit is.
You know, I, I run one of the largest depositories in North America, and I know how to do auditing. We know how to do auditing, and it's, it's … First of all, it's not a one-and-done affair, and it's a very serious and very long sort of process with many steps. And, uh, frankly, it would take years to properly do an audit of the US gold reserves.
And, you know, going and bringing in the cameras like they did in 1974 and doing a little publicity stunt is … You know, yeah, there, there's probably plenty of gold there, but that tells you nothing. You know, sh- a stack of gold bars or what appear to be gold bars, that's not what an audit's all about. Um, so we can get into that, but it's, it's really alarming how frivolously this topic is, is discussed.
Chris: Well, I mean, I, I think a lot of people have been wondering because we, you know, it seems like ages ago when Elon Musk was DOGE-ing around and… Although somehow he's popped back in. I didn't… Wasn't he in China at the recent meeting? Which I don't know how that works, but I mean, we heard-
Stefan: Yeah …
Chris: he was saying they should live stream it, which I think you and I would've bought a ticket to watch, yet we didn't hear much about that until, even in the gold and silver community, but yet here it is a week ago.
First of all, what, why, why is he saying right now, I mean… I won't, I won't go Trump-bashing today, but I mean, the guy is certainly never short of a microphone to begin with, yet-
Stefan: Yeah …
Chris: you know, running the Iran war, a whole bunch of other stuff, and here he says, "We wanted to go and knock on the door of Fort Knox," clarifies fortunately that it's a very thick door, "to see whether or not we have any gold in there."
Stefan: Yeah.
Chris: Well, I guess it's- Why is he bringing this up now, Stefan?
Stefan: Well, maybe it's useful to come up with other issues to talk about. Uh, and it certainly gets a lot of attention whenever, whenever the Fort Knox issue comes up, because it's, it's just one of those issues that's captured the imagination of the American people over the years.
And, you know- A year ago when they talked about this during the DOGE thing, and, you know, we, we actually did, we published an article, actually it was an open letter to President [00:04:00] Donald J. Trump. It was from Jan Nieuwenhuijs who does, or Jan Nieuwenhuijs who does research for Money Metals, and he's basically chapter and verse gone through in this article at MoneyMetals.com and, and talked about all the problems with the auditors or with the audits that have occurred, if you wanna call them that.
And, you know, at the time, I guess about, about, uh, you know, a few days into that whole thing, the Treasury Secretary said, "Oh, you know, it's, it's audited. I see the audit every year." You know, it's… And, and it's so d- so dishonest because what… There is a process every year, um, and what that process consists of is it's an audit of the schedule of the seals of the vault compartments.
So it's basically a paperwork audit, and it doesn't necessarily even involve going and checking the seals, uh, on the vault compartments. It, it's basically an audit of the schedule of seals, and to call that an audit, uh, is kind of, kind of ludicrous. Um, but really, I mean, what an audit involves is not just opening everything out [00:05:00] and inventorying it, but testing it and, uh, and actually in, in the case of, you know, non-pure gold, it might include upgrading the gold to purity standards, which is another topic that we can talk about.
Um, but then once you seal a compartment, you have to, uh, never disrupt that compartment again. And one, one thing that the letter from Jan Nieuwenhuijs, um, says is it talks, it goes through the history from 1974 to 2008 of the processes that were done, and there's ver- very obvious gaps and, and issues around removing seals from compartments that had been sealed, you know, which may have been a proper process.
But then when you break that seal, whenever you break a seal of an audited container, it has to be re-audited And the US Mint apparently has-
Chris: Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of having the seal in the first place otherwise?
Stefan: You literally have no confidence- … once that seal is broken and then replaced with a new seal if there [00:06:00] wasn't a new audit.
But there were many in- inexplicable, uh, uh, episodes where seals were broken, bars were removed, bars were moved, uh, seals were reaffixed without proper re-auditing. And so, you know, that, that is fundamentally just dishonest au- It's not an audit. It, it basically spoils the entire audit. Um, and so, you know-
Chris: Other than that, it's completely safe as far as we can tell if you just ignore- Yes
all of that, right?
Stefan: Well, it's a normal event apparently for the US government. It's not a normal event in my vault. Whenever, uh, whenever a, a seal is broken, everything in that container, whether it be a massive safe or a small container, has to be re-audited, uh, and, and signed off by multiple parties. It's done under cameras.
It's a very controlled process. So that's proper auditing. The other thing is audits are not one and done. It's an ongoing process. You can't necessarily sit- fall back on something decades old, even if it was done properly at the time, and consider that to be a reliable audit. You know, certainly if the seal has not been broken, you have some [00:07:00] assurance, but, you know, the, the fact of the matter is many things have happened with seals being reaffixed.
So, I mean, the whole thing is out the window, as Jan Nieuwenhuijs' letter points out. Um, but really there's bigger issues beyond just whether all the bars are there. Uh, there's also the question of who owns them, you know? And that, and that's something there's never been an actual disclosure, or at least publicly, of any transactions that the US government has undertaken using the US gold reserves.
And so there's actually legislation right now introduced by Senator Lee in the US Senate and four congressmen in the House, uh, called the Gold Reserves Transparency Act, that would actually provide for a, not just a complete inventory and assaying of the US gold reserves, but actually an accounting of all of the transactions that have occurred using those reserves and, in addition to that, upgrading the quality of the gold to current-day good delivery standards.
And Chris, you, you… I think you know this, but most people have no idea that, uh, virtually all of the US gold [00:08:00] reserves is non-pure gold that would not be readily accepted on the global market. And so, you know, we actually had a conversation with the US Treasury very recently about this problem with a couple big refineries who would actually be potentially the refineries that would do the good delivery refining of the US gold reserves, and they are completely clueless to this problem and the practical problem that it presents Um, and, and the, the, you know, maybe that, like, decades ago it was perfectly fine to have 90% gold bars or 88% gold bars or 92% gold bars, but if you're trying to s- to mobilize the US gold reserves in some sort of financial emergency, and you go out with large amounts of gold that is not pure, it would not be accepted readily on the global market, and it, if it were accepted, it would be discounted dramatically.
And, and if you think about the idea that this might be done in a period of financial stress, to have a bank finance or somehow, you know, take on what could be literally [00:09:00] years' worth of refining before they get pure gold out of it in some emergency, I mean, that's, that's a significant problem. So, you know, we had a conversation with the US Treasury and the US Mint.
They're not aware of the pro- practical problem that presents. They fall back on some small sale. Yeah, yeah, I know. You're, you're … This is very shocking to you.
Chris: Stefan, may I, may I add in that I know- Yeah … they try- they're trying to build a refinery in Tennessee, actually, uh-
Stefan: Yeah …
Chris: although the majority of the refining capacity is in China.
So in the event of- Right … some sort of division or global war, which kind of seems like we're in the middle of right now, even if we did need to sell our gold, we'd still be dependent upon China's refining capacity to be able to do so.
Stefan: There are only two, uh, refineries in the US who are a, what are considered good delivery gold refineries.
They're foreign-owned, but they're here in the US. So there's only two options, and we, and, and, uh, and had them on the call. Uh, it was very interesting because they were calculating how [00:10:00] long it would take to refine the US gold reserves without disrupting the market, and the answer, you know, meaning with those two refineries uh, going without kicking out all their other clients or, or taking, not taking other work.
It would take 20 to 30 years for them to refine the US gold reserves to good delivery standard, because about 7,000 of the 8,000 tons is, is 90%-ish pure. And so, you know, in a pinch, in a, in an emergency, uh, I mean, it would, it would take years just straight full-on refining with no other work happening in those refineries to upgrade the gold.
So the scale of that problem is, is actually kind of alarming, and not that we want the US government to be selling the gold or doing something with it, if they haven't already. Um, we-
But in case they have to, they're probably gonna bungle it. Uh, yeah. And so, and to do- It can't even be done at all … like, to do something proactively now, and this is part of what they could do, they could go and do a multi-year plan, and this is something that Mike Lee's bill would require, would be a multi-year plan to upgrade the gold reserves to, um, good delivery standards.
And you know what's interesting is, you know, the, the attitude that we see from our government officials are, you know, "No big deal, we sold s- we're told we sold some gold in 1978. We did a small auction. Everything went fine. We shouldn't have a problem." And it's like, well, that was like, you know, 45 years ago, and good delivery standards are different, number one.
Number two, they only sold 300,000 ounces of gold, and they sold it at a 10% discount, and so that's not some big success. Mm. Uh, so there's actually a bit of a problem there, and, you know, ultimately, if the US gold reserves had to be put into play in some sort of market event, whether it be to defend the dollar or some other crazy thing, who knows, um, there's a problem there, and, you know, the US isn't ready for it.
But other countries are, and that's what's interesting. Other countries, on the other hand, such as France, very [00:12:00] recently, uh, they had some gold at the US, uh, at the, uh, Fed in New York, I think it was 119 tons, and it was… or 129 tons, and it was non-standard, non-pure gold. What did they do? They sold it and bought pure gold in France.
They didn't even bother to ship it over, because they don't want that gold. You know, they, they want pure gold, because that's the current global standard. So they have actually both removed or expatriated their gold from the US and at- simultaneously upgraded the quality of it to four nines pure, which is the same thing Germany did about 10 years ago.
Mm. And that's really any new gold that, say, Asian foreign central banks are buying, is almost certainly going, going to be the four nines pure gold that is the current standard. And so other countries seem to be recognizing that they want pure gold. The US government- Not yet. So we'll see. But that, that's a very interesting, uh, you know, reaction that we [00:13:00] got.
It was kind of a whistling past the graveyard attitude, frankly, and, and we were sort of laughing about it after the fact. But, you know, maybe it'll take some education, maybe they'll be receptive. We'll see…
Chris: Sounds like it's going well. And, and Stefan, just for context, um, can we ask for confirm that you're not just some YouTube bro who's, you know, out running his mouth?
I mean, that, that's your vault, which actually-
Stefan: Yep, as we point out here, is larger than Fort Knox.
Chris: In the early 2000s and We got the whole video there. Um- Yep … so I mean, w- y- you also, I believe you said you r- have been in contact with the Treasury explaining to them the issues, which they, I mean, they
Good thing you called. Otherwise the nation might have a problem. So I mean, you're someone who's actually one of the few people on the planet that might actually be qualified to comment on what would be the proper audit procedures, and you mentioned Jan's reports. Yeah. I mean, I remember- Yeah … there were, like, all sorts of conflict of interest.
It's, like, exactly what I can say I, as a, a gold and silver customer and investor, would feel comfortable with. Am I capturing the essence of this properly?
Stefan: Yeah. I mean, there, there's, there's a, a sort of a standard for auditing, and frankly, just about every private … Well, I don't, I can't speak for other private depositories except that I know it's not uncommon to have rigorous audit standards, and there's sort of a, a way to do things, and it involves dual controls.
It involves controlled environments. It involves testing. Uh, it involves seals. It involves independent parties and experts coming in and verifying. Uh, so all of these things are sort of, you know, SOP for a responsible depository. But the US government, you know, that they, they have their own standards.
They hold themselves to a lower standard, you know, pretty much across the board. Um, you know, that's … As far as, um, Money Metals Depository goes, it, it, you know, our vault is twice the size of the vaults at Fort Knox. It's about 8,300 square feet of class [00:15:00] three vault space. Um, the Fort Knox vaults are only about 4,000 square feet.
But of course, we have a lot of silver. I'm not suggesting we have more gold in our, in our vaults, but we have a lot of silver, which is very bulky, as you, as you obviously know. It's, uh, you know, 100 times, over 100 times more bulky than gold for the same value, so and a lot of space is needed. Um, but, you know, we know a little bit about auditing, and, uh, you know, we're happy to provide that input.
Uh, we're working with, like I said, members of Congress on their bill, and we're willing to consult, uh, with the US government as they, as they tackle these issues. I mean, all these things are really coming up and becoming more pressing and important. Y- you see how gold is being, uh, hoarded by central banks at record rates.
Um, you know, the price is obviously a big part of it, but the de-dollarization trend, you know, these are becoming much more prominent assets again. And, uh, I think, you know, a lot more thinking needs to happen on our end of things, uh, here in the United States. But, uh, you know, unfortunately, that's not something we can normally count on from the US government.
Chris: Yeah, typically not. Although Stefan, let's put you right under the hot seat. If the US and Trump goes in and they do … Let's say they actually did an appropriate audit of Fort Knox, what do you think they would find?
Stefan: Well, uh, you know, we ha- we cannot count on the audits they've done, of course. So I really don't know.
I, I, I would not be surprised if there has been metal that's been mobilized in the market. Whether it's physically moved is maybe another question. Um, and so that's really, I think the biggest part of what needs to happen is a full accounting of what, of what's been done, like what transactions have under- been undertaken.
So I was … I, I had a conversation with Kevin Warsh a few years ago. He's now the Fed chairman. And I asked him in a, at a… We had a conversation in private, a private reception, and then I asked him a public question during the, the big dinner, the gold dinner in New York. And I asked him the question, "You know, Mr.
Warsh, [00:17:00] is the US government involved in the gold market? And if so, what are the purpose of the, of those transactions?" And he… It was funny because his answer was, "Well, you know, it's not as much as you would think, uh, but it's really important to defend the dollar, and we have to, you know, make sure that through the Exchange Stabilization Fund that the dollar is sacrosanct," blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, wait a minute. Did he just say it's not as much as we think? It's not that big of a deal? That's a yes. Yeah. So, so, you know, I took that as a yes, and I think that's the big question, you know. Because, I mean, every other central bank, or virtually every, has gotten involved in gold transactions, leasings, leases, swaps, and so forth.
You know, the US government s- seems to be willing to admit that it's involved in many markets. You know, it's, it's owns public companies, obviously the bond market, it intervenes. They're, you know, they, they, they're willing to intervene in every market, but not the gold market? But what's interesting, of course, is there's never been a public admission of that, at least not since, I think, some actions by the Exchange Stabilization Fund in the early '70s.
So I would be… I think that's the bigger question, is not so much is the gold there, is it all there? And there's certainly a question of that, but I think the q- the, the more interesting question is, is it encumbered, and who owns it?
Chris: Yeah. Well, Stefan, we gotta get you to the Fed press conference. Um, see, see what you can find out.
Stefan: Uh, somebody should ask him that question again, actually, um, the question of, you know, the gold, the gold transactions of the US government, because he is certainly somebody who would know, and he has tacitly admitted on more than one occasion, not just when I asked him, but he's written an article that seemed to acknowledge that the US government's involved in, in gold, you know, transactions, whether it be leases or swaps.
If you go to gata.org, I'm sure they've written about that.
Chris: And this is also at the same time where y- we've heard Bessent confirm that they've been taking action to direct the oil price lower, so-
Stefan: Mm-hmm …
Chris: I agree with you. It'd be, uh, fascinating if we ever got [00:19:00] an understanding what was going on there.
Stefan, I know you have a call coming up, so we'll keep this short, but- Um, two quick questions. Obviously, you are one of the largest, uh, gold and silver dealers in the US, so anything you can talk about the order flow? I know it's died down a little bit over the past couple months. And secondly, I see you have a tab here with Michael Oliver, who I'll be talking with- Yeah next week, so hit that subscribe button and notification bell at home. See that's the podcast-
Stefan: Right, yeah, he was a great guest. He was a great
Chris: guest. He, he's out calling for $300 to $500 silver, which- Yeah … I'm looking forward to hearing more about. My thought would be it might take a more severe shortage and a financial crisis to get there, although could make a good case we're on track for both.
So anything about retail- Yeah … and, uh, Michael Oliver and supply chain or-
Stefan: Yeah, I find his, his… He's got some interesting thoughts, and he looks at things in a different way with the momentum and technicals that, you know, not, not everybody pays attention to the momentum indicator. So I mean, he, he did call, uh, since last summer the huge rally that we saw that took us to 120.
He thought it would continue maybe more quickly than it has. He talked about a squiggle in the middle, which maybe, you know, arguably is what's happening now. Um, so I'm, I'm very intrigued by it, what, what he has to say. I would not discount it. Um, but it, you know, I think, I think it probably takes the Fed throwing in the towel and, you know, go- getting, getting dovish again probably.
Maybe that or a, a reaction to a stock market problem that we d- never seem to have. Uh, but, you know, that's If you go into the topic of retail demand, it has slowed down, uh, quite a bit since the January/February period of time, which was really intense. Um, and I think that there's a little bit of complacency, uh, especially with the sideways move after that huge, you know, very exciting, you know, price rally.
Uh, but also just the stock market, you know, y- you can look at the lack of fear, the lack of concern, the complacency in the market, at least among US investors. Um, I think that that carries over into the demand for gold and silver. Um, so I think, you know, we had a lot of excitement around price a few months ago.
More recently, I think it's just wait and see and there's, you know, we've, we're seeing transaction volume come down a fair bit, but not, you know, not to the levels that it was, say, a year ago. It's still higher than that. Um, what's interesting, uh, w- we seem to have a lot of sort of traditional Americans selling silver and a lot of Asian Americans buying gold.
So that, that's interesting. We've been seeing more Asian Americans come in and buy gold and some- sometimes in large amounts. So I don't know if, you know, that you're starting to see a bleeding over of that sort of cultural affinity or maybe a greater recognition of the role that gold and silver, especially gold, plays as savings, as, a- and, and, you know, obviously in Asia, there's bigger problems happening right now.
The oil impact is having more, more of a, a problem, creating more of a, a ripple effect there in the economy. And so I don't know if that's stimulating, uh, you know, the, the, the demand among Asians who are maybe paying attention to that more closely, but I've noticed that. So, uh, that said, I think, you know, we're just in this wait and see period around what's gonna happen with prices and, you know, we've had some very, very big months as a company and as an indus- industry, but it's definitely a little softer right now, and there's a lot of people selling silver still.
Uh, uh, you know, we're still selling more silver than we're buying, but it's, it's a lot of selling back to us, uh, as compared to, say, a year or two ago.
Chris: Well, I'm not surprised by that, especially with the elevated silver price, where if somebody- Right … did want to sell silver, I mean, you could make a good… Uh, uh, real quick, are the premiums, I know the sales prices for silver had been quite a bit under spot.
Has that recovered at all?
Stefan: Uh, the premiums are still, are coming down. I, I mean, we're selling certain types of silver well, you know, at spot or below spot, especially the 90%. Uh, 90% silver we're selling for, uh, at spot or a dollar below spot, depending on, on which type. Um, so, you know, the premiums on Silver Eagles are still high.
Those are, those are coming down. But it's a good time to buy, you know, 10-ounce silver bars, 100-ounce silver bars, one-ounce rounds, and junk silver. Those are a great deal right now. Um, that's still the case, and that's a reflective, that's reflective of a, of a lot of secondary market coming back, people selling.
Um, and so we've seen a lot of selling back over the last six months, and that's still the case. Um, so I think for people wanting to position in pr- in silver in particular, uh, premiums are, are nice and low. And the gold premiums are always, always relatively low, frankly. The, the gold doesn't have that, you know, flex up on premiums in the same way silver does when things get tight, um, 'cause gold is just a bigger market.
So yeah, we're, uh, we're excited to see all the new people coming in the last six months, huge amount of new people. It's just slowed down a little bit lately. Uh, but I think, you know, the next shoe to drop, you know, any… Who knows what it'll be? But it'll, it'll, it'll rise again. I mean, it's, this is definitely a growing market
Chris: Yeah, and I personally think things have been distorted by it's kinda confusing to really understand what's, uh, going on in the war, and I think Wall Street's been pricing a lot of things, yet I'm personally expecting somewhat of a snapback rally at some point.
But we will see how that goes. Yeah. And Stefan, prior- perhaps just in wrapping up, you can let people know about Money Metals, where I love right- pops up right away. And of all the bullion dealers, um, I think you guys really do provide a lot of helpful things. Here's the Precious Metals Buying Guide that people can get with their email address up here, like you mentioned.
Yeah. Some silver at spot. Um, if people buying or selling, I know you take good care of people either way. Anything you could just say about Money Metals?
Stefan: Yeah, so we're, we're trying to be the leader in not just the, you know, dealer aspect, the depository. We also are, uh, really the, you know, one of the only places to l- to borrow against your gold and silver.
We provide that service. But more than anything, we're trying to expand the market by educating people about n- you know, not just the products, but also the reasons why and the things that are happening in the market that impact gold and silver. So MoneyMetals.com is a fantastic news website as well, and we, we have several pieces of original content every day.
And so that's really part of our mission, is to educate people about gold and silver, expand the market. And we're also fighting on the public policy side to expand, you know, or I should say, uh, remove taxes on gold and silver, or to encourage states to hold gold as a reserve asset, and basically to promote the gold and s- the gold and silver policy that's, that's good for both the industry, but also the country.
And so we're trying to be a leader there, and I, I would say we've achieved that. We're very active on the public policy fr- front as well. And so I think we're very well-aligned with our customers and the interests of basically the, the US precious metals investor in general.
Chris: Yeah, I think you guys do a great job.
I've actually been talking to the great JP Cortez, uh- Yep … who helps with the Sound Money Index, and we'll have him on in a couple of weeks. But, uh, again, I appreciate- Great … all that, Stefan, and certainly- Thanks … uh, I, I really like the way you guys also go about things, and happy to recommend Money Metals.
You get great pricing. You know, you're getting what you pay for. And, um, also, uh … Ooh, we got gold and silver purchase plans, so- Yep. I love that plan … anyway, Stefan, thank you so much for the update. Uh- Thanks, Chris … great to see you as always, and, um- Sure … we'll catch up and do this again soon, my friend.
Stefan: Thank you.
</div>
Some interesting things happening here behind the scenes in the precious metals markets and I hope you enjoyed that interview. We will certainly continue to bring you the latest market news and the important aspects of the gold and silver industry, so stay tuned.
Well, that will do it for this week. Be sure to check back next Friday for our next Weekly Market Wrap Podcast. And remember to tune in as well to the Money Metals Midweek Memo. And to check out any of our audio programs just visit <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/podcasts">MoneyMetals.com/podcasts</a> or find them on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. And as a big help to us we would ask you to please like, subscribe, download and rate our podcasts. Doing so helps us extend the reach of this material.
Until next time, this has been Mike Gleason with <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/">Money Metals Exchange</a>, thanks for listening and have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend everybody.

Read The Original Article