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About The Guest
David Morgan is a widely recognized analyst in the precious metals industry and consults for hedge funds, high net worth investors, mining companies, depositories, and bullion dealers. He is the publisher of The Morgan Report, a world-class publication designed to build and secure wealth.
He is the author of “The Silver Manifesto” and a featured speaker at investment conferences worldwide. David Morgan has appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Yahoo Finance, MSNBC, and BNN in Canada. He has interviewed- The Wall Street Journal, Futures Magazine, Investing Rules Book, and numerous other publications.
Talking Points
- 0:00 — David’s story.
- 08:53 — What does honest money mean?
- 15:08 — What’s the fix for rampant inflation?
- 24:35 — Moving from silver standard to gold standard.
- 41:50 — Is the American Dream still alive?
- 46:23 — Correlation between gold and silver.
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What is the Success Story Podcast?
On this podcast, you’ll find interviews, Q&A, keynote presentations & conversations on sales, marketing, business, startups and entrepreneurship.
The podcast is hosted by entrepreneur, business executive, author, educator & speaker, Scott D. Clary.
Scott will discuss some of the lessons he’s learned over his own career, as well as have candid interviews with execs, celebrities, notable figures and politicians. All who have achieved success through both wins and losses, to learn more about their life, their ideas and insights.
He sits down with leaders and mentors and unpacks their story to help pass those lessons onto others through both experiences and tactical strategy for business professionals, entrepreneurs and everyone in between.
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Machine Generated Transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, silver, money, gold, meaning, buy, Scott, speak, years, pay, called, life, finance, HubSpot, market, talking, question, important, thinking, early
SPEAKERS
David Morgan, Scott D Clary
Scott D Clary 00:00
Welcome to success story, the most useful podcast in the world. I’m your host, Scott D. Clary. The success story podcast is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network. The HubSpot Podcast Network has other great podcasts you should go check out like being boss, hosted by Emily Thompson. Now with the holidays just around the corner, you’re probably thinking, what’s next for you in the new year? What other shows are you going to listen to to level yourself up? Well, on the success story podcast, I interview a lot of entrepreneurs and I usually dive deep into the creative aspects of building a business. So if you are a creative, a creative business owner, or you’re thinking about eventually becoming one, which at some point everybody kind of has to be because you have to be a little bit creative in how you build a business, how you market a business. Now you sell your product. All of that does require some creativity, but also for people that are hyper focused on the creative niche you may be interested in being boss hosted by Emily Thompson. Being boss is an exploration of not only what it means, but what it takes to be a boss. As a creative business owner. If you are into some of the following topics. You’re gonna love this show, project management and building systems for creatives, freelancers or side hustlers, opening a retail store rituals that inspire and evoke creativity and taking time off as a business owner to focus on yourself your creativity and upskilling you need to listen to being boss. They cover all these topics and more, you can listen to being boss on any of your favorite podcasting platforms or at hubspot.com/podcast network. today. My guest is David Morgan. David is a widely recognized analyst in the precious metals industry and consults for hedge funds, high net worth investors, mining companies, depositories and bullion dealers. He is the publisher of The Morgan Report, a world class publication designed to build and secure wealth. He is the author of the silver manifesto and a featured speaker at investment conferences worldwide. He has appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Yahoo, finance, MSNBC and BNN. He has also been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, futures magazine, the investing rulebook and numerous other publications. Today, we spoke about money, finance, everything that’s happened over the past two years, some of the topics we went into the greatest wealth transfer in history is starting to unfold. Are you going to be on the sidelines? Or are you going to take part in it? The greatest depression in history is looming. But what does that mean? Can gold make you rich, even in one of the worst depressions in history? We spoke about gold, silver, we spoke about crypto, we talked about Bitcoin, could money be worthless in six months? How close is the price of silver linked to gold? How American billionaires got even richer during the pandemic? Why raising taxes destroys the economy. And whether or not he’s even optimistic that the American Dream is still alive. It’s a very heavy episode, a lot of lessons to be learned that I’ve come over the past two years, but he’s been studying this industry for a lifetime. So an incredible interview just an incredible, just incredible man who has tried to understand and help people how to best navigate complex investments, markets, finances, and obviously, at this point in history coming out of a pandemic, that’s more critical than ever for all of us. So let’s jump right into this. This is David Morgan, widely recognized analyst and publisher of The Morgan Report.
David Morgan 03:36
Alright, Scott, well, first thanks for inviting me, the origin. Ah, I’ve said it many times been a bears repeating I was 11 years old when the cleaners went from 9% silver coins to what I call the Johnson slugs. And I noticed that that intrigued me that it didn’t seem to bother to any of the adults around me. So kind of held that in the back of my mind, so to speak, went through the normal teenage years High School, all that frustration and my dad was very tough as far as you know, career choices, and I really wanted to get the financial markets he blew up and said, Now you don’t want to do that. So I decided I want to fly for a living. So I started flying on 16 went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo graduated with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, but the markets were my passion. And I was invested in the stock market at 16. And I just kept studying on my own, you know, market market history, money, finance, investing and all that stuff. So I was kind of my advocation all through, you know, from 16 years on. So I had an aircraft career for a while simultaneously was basically focusing on the banking system and honest money because it was pretty apparent to me that the system was rigged one in other words, once You went off the gold standard, you had problems. And I was following every newsletter writer at the time that I could find. So as a newsletter junkie, so I really was immersed in the, in the precious metals from a very early time, left the aircraft industry and started working for a certified financial planner. So how that oh operation worked, I was just pleased with it. Because it’s not as objective as I would like it to be that you are basically given certain companies to kind of push out to your clients for various reasons, I’ll leave that to the viewers imaginations, that I went and briefly worked on a selling coins, believe it or not, for a very brief time, again, the proprietor was in the larger market variety, pushing more of the semi numi coins, which I abhor, because it really rips the client off. So I left there very shortly after finding out what the main thrust of the business was trading for a living for a while, took care of two baby girls and started a website on research primarily on the silver market, oh, I left out part of the story, went back to school and got a degree in finance and economics. And during that I’d already been self taught quite a bit. And the finance teachers refer to me as a silver expert, which is the first time I’ve ever been referred to as a silver expert. And so I started basically a research site on the web very early on, back in the early days of the web, where all you got was a C prompt with a carrot, or C prompt. And then you had to find a BB C, it was called a BB some bulletin board. There weren’t any really websites even at that time. But I established one very early on again for research. And then I was asked, you know, what does, I use the Silver Guru as a as a placeholder for a Hotmail email account, basically. But you know, stuck. And some guy asked me what the Silver Guru does, and I told him to write a newsletter, which was I really didn’t, but I wanted to, and I started the business rolling. So that’s how I basically got in. And, again, it’s a passion, it’s more about honest money on a systems fair and financial freedom throughout the marketplace, especially a real free market where the participants determine what the true value of something is on a daily, minute, by minute basis, an hourly basis, weekly basis, monthly basis, take it how you wish, but without nude on this control mechanism that’s been employed for years and years and years. So long story, I hope it helps. But that’s kind of it, I got it on, oh, I
David Morgan 07:46
had an Air aircraft career, which is very exciting, and lots of stories, and we’ll go there. But I’m glad I got to experience what I did to get to where I needed to get to. And I will say one thing for the engineering nerd community. Without my strong engineering background, I don’t think my economic thinking would be as clear as it is. And I say that with a bit of pride. I don’t I’m not a proud man. But focusing on fact, is very, very important in any endeavor, and especially in the economic sphere, where there’s so much nonsense, it’s accepted as dogma, by the community when it’s completely proven to be false. So
Scott D Clary 08:28
what is let’s let’s describe a couple terms and then I want to also understand also the the stuff that you study and speak about an why you are in precious metals and and why you are in silver in particular, you can go down that road as well. I want to understand that but first describe what is honest money. What does that mean, let somebody who’s not involved in financial markets, they’re investing just as a casual side, you know, a hobby whatnot, what is honest money mean?
David Morgan 08:53
Well, it is it can be used as a as a metaphor, honest money, as the idea that there’s ownership value of money, and that it is intrinsic, and has value of itself. Now you can make the argument that you know, gold is just a rock that’s been refined, it’s shiny, but doesn’t really hold intrinsic value, I won’t go there. We have 5000 years of history that people when they’re free to decide for themselves, have always coveted gold, silver, really copper as well as monetary assets, or at least units of trade. And I don’t think anyone can argue that the physicality of around disk of a certain mass is a way that you can exchange or barter for other goods and services. So the markets really determined what honest money is. Dishonest money is something that’s either derivative of that which is a piece of paper certificate or a digital form that represents that but in actuality, isn’t it and then a full Fiat’s system is basically nothing more than the power of force, where a government can force a certain legal tender law that you must accept the following, basically intrinsically worthless unit of account for daily transaction, and usually for tax payments. So that’s kind of a brief look at all this money.
Scott D Clary 10:24
And if we even if we teed up, like, moving away from a gold standard is recent, that’s Nixon and 71. If I’m not mistaken, that was when we moved off the gold standard. So that people who are older, they recognize the difference. And they recognize there was a gold standard one point but younger individuals, it’s just always been pure Fiat. So what what has been the result of of moving off the gold standard? What have you what, you know, we speak about Fiat and legally imposed money system, it’s the only money system many people know. So what has been the result? What has been the implication of that? And how do we how do we actually, I’ll let you go off that first, and then I have a couple of follow up?
David Morgan 11:06
Well, the result is very predictable. If you look at monetary history, even at a cursory level, basically, when you have nothing, that’s the policeman on the currency. In other words, when you have a gold standard, or better yet a primary by metallic or tri metallic standard, you’re limited in the amount that you can produce the you know, how much more can you get per year out of the out of the ground, and in gold is roughly one and a half percent a year. So the money supply does expand, but in a true honest money system or a gold standard gold silver standard. What you have is the ability to expand the economy, but at let’s say a more modest rate. But it doesn’t mean because the rate is determined by the money supply. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t expand as rapidly as we have, somewhat arguably, that you wouldn’t be able to expand because it’d be more prudent on the loan side, there wouldn’t be a lot of you know, well, it’s just funny money anyway, here, take this a mountain, see if you can make that project happen or not. That’d be a little more, you know, substance to the loan situations. Having said all that, we are in a situation now where the ladder is taking hold, and we’re printing ourselves into oblivion. And that’s the point. The point is that every time you go on a full fiat system, you start to see the money’s worth less, and it’s not that noticeable. And a decade later, it’s worth less, and it’s somewhat noticeable in a decade after that, it’s worth a lot less than 1971. And then it turns to be worthless, or moving toward worthless. So you got from worth less to worth less to worthless. And that’s a history that cannot be denied. fiyat full Fiat systems have a 100% failure rate. Does that mean the US dollar is going to absolute zero on its app, it’s almost 100% guarantee you won’t. But it’ll get close enough to be enough fear in the marketplace, that there will be either a new monetary system enacted, which I believe will be the case. Or they’ll give up on the currency of there’ll be a currency replacement. There’s lots of options. So the dollar will never go to what the why my Republic or Zimbabwe did in my view, and all inflation’s and, and deflation. And that’s an important point to remember that, you know, let’s say you got a million dollars in the bank. And right now, today, as we’re doing the interview, Scott, you know, you can get so many automobiles, one big million dollar house or whatever. But as a thought experiment, let’s say over the next month, to accelerate our thinking, it drops in half every week. So a week goes by, it’s only buys a half a million in goods, the week after that only buys 250,000 in goods week after that it’s 125,000. And then week after that, you’re looking at, you know, 75,000 or 50,000 ish, in that range. And all of a sudden, you know, you realize that I’ve got to spend this stuff as fast as I can. So when it goes to zero, you’re in a deflationary mode. I mean, you’re gonna look for something that actually has value if this currency doesn’t, what does and in those instances several times in times past, it’s been the primary precious metals. The banks know all this. They’re not ignorant about it. They’re not ever going to say it in a public forum. And if they do mention it at all, which Alan Greenspan is done a few times when he was chairman of the Federal Reserve. It’s a very subtle mention, and it’s really not nearly as straightforward as what I’m talking about, but they will allude to the fact that paper currencies fail, that you can be paid your Social Security check. But what you can’t guarantee is what will purchase.
Scott D Clary 15:08
Well, that’s, that’s what’s that’s what’s screwing over younger generations now, because now everything’s going up in price. So if you look at the major cities, so I’m originally from Toronto, and I’m Canadian, I’m from Toronto, and you can’t buy a detached home for less than $2 million. And there’s other there’s other issues that are stopping that. But I mean, the average, I think, I think, to live in Toronto, you have to make about 200k To be considered middle class $20,000 a year to be considered middle class. And the salaries are not just the people are not just handing out $200,000 salaries, and that carries over into everything. So now you see now we’re starting to see the effects and made in major urban areas for sure. Maybe maybe less so in like smaller, and smaller cities where life seems more affordable, but it obviously it impacts everybody. So what’s so what’s the fix for this? Like, you know, we try and we print money, right? We print money to, you know, to help the economy when COVID happens to keep up with you know, foreign entities that are also printing money and to and to maintain that pace. So what’s the alternative to this?
David Morgan 16:12
Well, let me speak at that. And you can really ask the question, I just listened to Mr. Ackerman Rick Ackerman from that, I think he’s still in the Bay Area. I met him through a mutual friend a long time ago, the guy that I introduced me was a actual day trader, for
Scott D Clary 16:33
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David Morgan 18:19
Anyway, he just did this interview and talked about CV Myers in the bookcase behind me in the middle part of their play. I have almost every book ever written by Mr. Myers. He wrote he’s long deceased. Living in Spokane, by the way, at one time was Canadian, moved to Spokane and wrote several books. And he wrote probably the preeminent newsletter member I told you I was a newsletter junkie back in my 20th year of Myers, finance and energy. And from my perspective, it stood out there are a few writers that really stood out he was one of them. And what he’s talked about was and this is from Rick’s interview that was just very recent, but all debts are paid, which means that you loan the money and you lose because you made a bad loan. So your million dollar loan on that house that the mortgage holder could not pay. In that case you get the house back so that’s not a really good example. So you make a million dollar loan based on a signature saying it’s God I trust you I’ll pay you back. You can’t. So the person or entity that loan that million dollars just paid for it it’s gone. It evaporates into monetary Heaven is Jim dines used to say or on another loan of a million dollars someone takes Linda and Linda pays back the loan. But the money that’s involved is as we know from finance or accounting double entry bookkeeping one asset is a liability of somebody else, but the money exists. So when the money is produced or the currency is produced by the loan in a free market If you make a bad loan, you have to pay the price. So you lose, hey, I saved up $10,000, I’m going to loan it to the government, I’m going to buy this bond. And then the government says those bonds are invalid. Now, I’m not talking about the US, although it could be, but I’m not I’m going to use like, bonds of the Civil War, for example. You put up the cash, and all who, who paid? Well, the cash buyer of the Bond paid for the bond, and it was worthless. So that money is gone for that person, but that money did go to the person that issued the bond, and what did they do they bought munitions with it or whatever. So anyway, I’ve probably belaboring the point. But the idea is that there could be, as I said earlier, a lot of deflation when these housing prices come down, because the market usually meets the conditions at hand, which means that the average person Toronto’s making I’ll make up a number 80,000 a year, and 200,000 required to buy a house, well, the housing prices will probably come down or salaries go up. I don’t think the salaries will go up this time, as Rick pointed out, in his interview, back in the late 70s, and 80s. It’s called cost push inflation. I think that’s a term that’s what I remember. But wages kept increasing. And I remember when I started my aircraft job, my first check, I got, I was a little uptight, because it was greater than the contract, I’d signed it. And so I was, you know, 22, kind of kind of scared in a big corporation, I would ask one of the people that have been there a while I said, I don’t get it. This is actually, oh, don’t worry about that. That’s cola. What’s cool is that sometimes you trick that’s a cost of living adjustment, every so often. And there’ll be a cost of living adjustment, and your wages will go up based on the inflation rate. So I just happen to be in that sweet spot with a cola contract demanded that we got an increase, well, that’s not happening this time. So you’re not going to see the wages go, you might in a few cases here and there, but you’re not going to see it enacted like it was, when I was young, I really, really doubt that. So you’ve got static wages or lower wages, with an increasing cost of things that are needed, like food and energy. So you get a real squeeze in what’s called stagflation. Really, everything that you need cost more, and wages are static or going down. So it really puts the hurt on the middle class pretty much eliminates the middle class over time. I mean, look, I don’t know what you make, I’m interested, I’m interested in you, as a person, not as you know, want to be happy, healthy and wide, free yet, you know, your income level isn’t as important to me it is to you, that type of person you are and whether or not you’re being treated in a manner by society that’s Cognizant with the ability that you have, and it’s not. You already stated, and I want to put words in your mouth, Scott, and you can retract anything I’m saying, but, you know, we’re in an unjust system. That is skewed to a few at the expense of the many.
Scott D Clary 23:24
I don’t think that’s inaccurate, I don’t think that’s an inaccurate thing to say. I think that if we just look at, like what people experience and the debts that they have, and the the like, you just you I like the way you put it. Is your is your compensation, in line with your Cognizant or your contribution to society? Is it in line in the same manner that it was 50 years ago? And it’s not, it’s just not like you just can’t make any argument for the fact now maybe we can save we can argue about opportunity. And you know, we can look at different ways to make money. But then, but I wouldn’t say that’s fair, because then that means you’re doing more, you’re leveraging certain vehicles that weren’t around, that’s fine. But that’s, that’s not the first job with just a high school education, being able to buy a detached single family home. That’s you just hustling and figuring out other ways to make money because you just want to push yourself to the next level and you can’t expect everyone to do that. It’s not reasonable to expect everyone to have to do that. People have different priorities. Not everybody wants to work 80 hour weeks, 100 hour weeks, just to buy a home and get that, you know, white picket fence life. I only
David Morgan 24:35
agree and just jump in a little bit more. I mean, if you remember I was 11 when we went off, you know, circulating silver. I mean, my dad when I was you know, two in our family, me and my sister. He worked my mother never did. He made about 5000 a year when I was like, three four or five year old kid on 5000 considered silver dollars, which About 4000 ounces a year I was able to buy a house in the Bay Area in Tiburon, actually, which is one of the most exclusive areas in the bay area right now, if you don’t know that I’m just throwing it out there, sort of like a Beverly Hills in Southern California. Yeah, so my house and timber on had, I think only one car at the time, we had two cars later as I grew up. But here’s the here’s the deal, I’m just making the comparison to where you sit right now, Scott, with probably roughly equal ability, drive, ambition, honesty, everything else as my father, and dare you set with a whole different system. Whereas my dad, again, was able to provide very well for our family, for his entire live for my entire, let’s say childhood to adulthood, and I left at 18 to go to college. That’s a dream that we will see again, for a very, very long time. I mean, it was probably my generation. So 20 years later, where I had a very good lifestyle was pretty equal to my father’s Except there’s one huge difference. My wife worked at a professional job. So I had a job that was required a college degree. And my wife had a job that required a high skill set as a dental hygenist. And we lived about the same lifestyle. However, I’ll repeat, it took two incomes to do that.
Scott D Clary 26:38
Yeah, and now, and now we’re at the point where it’s not just two incomes, because now two incomes. For most people, $80,000 is a great salary. That’s a good salary, you know, out of out of university, 80,000 bucks, that’s, that’s a decent salary. You have two of those now 160k. That means in Toronto, they use that use case study that you can’t buy a home yet, unless you get unless you get a handout, right. Anyway, it’s so another point you bring up but I thought was interesting. The greatest depression in history is looming. But you still say that gold can make you rich, those are two, that’s a that’s a two options. So walk me through what’s
David Morgan 27:18
going to make you rich I have at times that silver could preserve your wealth. So gold actually does better in the deflation and I’m not going to argue it if you want to argue it, do some research. The best book on gold’s ability to maintain purchasing power or value is written by Professor Royce gestion, called the Golden constant. And he shows in that book that gold does best in deflation. So I would say can in certain times it could get overvalued and make you quote unquote, rich, most of the time it’s done what’s actually done during this inflationary fiasco we’ve been in for the last two decades, gold started in 2008 to 52. It’s currently around 1800. It’s had a compounded annual growth rate of 10%. And the real inflation rate by shadow stats calm by friend John Williams is about 9%. So gold has preserved your wealth, if you put your $252 into gold in 2000. And now it’s worth 1800. And Fiat in US terms, you have maintained your wealth you have not gone down you have maintained or maybe increased slightly. So that’s gold’s function is performed quite well. And I may be guilty of this. I don’t mean to be but you know, looking back and being honest with myself trying to be, you know, I might have given off the idea of, you know, these explosive moves. And I have said Silver especially does spike high and Spike low. And gold did the same thing at the end of the inflationary scare. I mean, we really thought or at least over study, people like me, thought in 1979 to early 1980, the currency was going to fail. I admitted, that’s what I thought we saw, you know, inflation going to 13%. Officially, we saw prices being marked up almost daily. We know that inflation could cause a currency crisis. Looks like we were in one, actually, I would argue we were. And then they had a very strong Fed Chairman named Paul Volcker that came in and said, I’ll fix it. I’ll put interest rates around 20%. And for my over study, view and knowledge of monetary history, that’s mafia money. That’s the kind of money you get on a street loan when you’re down, down and out and you got to borrow money to pay your uncle because you’re going to break your legs if you don’t, he’ll accept a 20% interest rate, but the US government, we’re done. Well, I was completely wrong. We weren’t done, it was the beginning of the greatest bond market move in ever. And as you know, as bond prices, as interest rates go down, bond prices go up. So people that bought the 30 year back then enjoyed whatever the exact amount was 17 and a half percent interest. And the bonds just kept getting higher and higher and higher priced. But now we’re at the point where, whenever something doesn’t cost much, it really doesn’t have much value. So a zero interest bond isn’t really that valuable. If you think about it philosophically, I’m not thinking about it in numbers terms. I’m thinking about it from a philosophical or, let’s say, an Austrian perspective, where it’s doesn’t cost anything, how much how much value does it have? If it yields nothing? I mean, if you bought, you know, went to the grocery store, and bought the grocery bag and brought it home, it’s yielded nothing. How valuable is that grocery stores? Right?
Scott D Clary 31:04
It’s it’s, it’s not the worst logic. It’s not the doors. No, but I think that I think, you know, realistically what I was trying to pull out of that I didn’t mean to say that you were
David Morgan 31:20
I want to be consistent.
Scott D Clary 31:24
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David Morgan 32:40
You know, I try not to over exaggerate the amount of what I consider to be acquired exposure to the metals. And that’s about 10%, maybe 20. And that’s where you have the point seemed to be the most upset with me, or the ones that never heard that statement, although I try to make it almost every interviewer.
Scott D Clary 33:02
But if if there is a recession, or even if you just want to set it and forget it, so to speak, gold will be a decent store of value for that. Now, let’s talk about so do you think do you think there’s going to be a recession in the next six months? 1212 months, five years? 10 years? Well, it’s a rather a depression, right?
David Morgan 33:23
Yes. Yeah, I think we’re in one already. I mean, remember what a depression is. First of all, the expression has to do with the the mood of the culture, or society they’re depressed or don’t feel good there. So what is it you can define it in several ways, but one is high unemployment. Another one is uncertainty of the future. Another one is, is supply. I’ll say breakdown but supply chain questions. Another one is lack of goods. In other words, economic activity deteriorate. So as a corny example, I’ve used many times if you go into a modern supermarket in North America, as I’ve been in Mexico, Mexico’s very well stocked too. But, you know, if you go to the pickle aisle when I was, you know, 12 year old kid, I mean, when my mom went grocery shopping, it was pretty modest in those days, you know, yeah, Del Monte enhanced pickles. That was it. Now there’s 40 brands, right? Or 25. They’ve got the, you know, critically, pickle that’s the same size as a hamburger bun with a twist alive. I mean, it’s ridiculous. So you’re going to see a lot of that go away, a lot of it. And you’re going to get down to basics. So that’s another factor or another data point that you can use to prove that we’re getting toward a depression. Hard to find jobs, as I said, high unemployment. People that give up people that will rather just You know, take the government dole and do nothing rather than look for jobs that get discouraged that give up, they say you know that they are depressed. So a lot of those factors are apparent throughout our culture, both not only in North America, but it’s pretty pervasive around the world. And the food supply is decreasing, the meat supply is decreasing, the job supply is decreasing. And you have an over abundance of things that no longer work in society, such as office space. So commercial real estate really hasn’t hit the hammer yet, meaning that the prices of most commercial real estate on the downside is far from over. And although and residential is going up in certain areas, primarily in the US, because I could speak with some authority in rural properties, not so much in the large cities, although I don’t have a lot of data there, I could look it up. So Scott, we are heading in a trend. And I think more important than what I want to say just came to mind, because I, you know, look at this pretty carefully. And one of the best books from my experience was the collapse of complex societies. And this is where I have a real real real problem with the WTF. And that is, they’ll take everything down and and build it back better. The one conclusion after studying decline of empires, the Mesopotamian, the Persian, the Mayan, the Roman, all of the great empires, Byzantine did not matter if it was war, agriculture, monetary weather didn’t matter. There were lots of reasons why they collapsed. The point is, once they started down, they did not come back. So you take the whole world down, you wipe out the middle class, you wipe out the purchasing power, and you’re going to build it back better. Good luck with that. Let me know how it goes.
Scott D Clary 37:07
There. So you’re, you’re not you’re not optimistic, you’re not optimistic that there’s any recourse you, you don’t see us moving in the right direction. And I know that like what are the what are the standard ways that people try and fix right, like if the if there’s a huge deficit, they’ll tax more, and they’ll try and get more money or trying to reinvest it. But I don’t think that we’ve seen much positive from from entities that do tax more. Or even if you look at the State of the United States right now, and again, I’m not I’m not a finance specialist. I’m not a tax agent. But I just look, I look at the states that are doing well versus the states that aren’t. So it doesn’t seem like taxing. But he just thought,
David Morgan 37:49
you know, you put me in the right place under the the statement I just made. And I won’t take it back. That’s what I truly think. However, you know, you said well, pretty bleak. And it is. But I’m also, you know, the other side of the coin, so to speak, is that we’ve got to hit bottom before we can build back. And the bill back won’t be from the ruling class, although that’s what they want. It’ll be the our own human ingenuity, our own communities that we build back up probably be dispersed. I mean, I wouldn’t rule out the idea that the United States of America turns into a less Federalist zone, run by the district or criminals in Washington district, and turns back to states rights. And some of the states may say the heck with your, you know, phony money, we don’t want it we’re going back to our own, you know, statehood, which is ours designed by the way. So there could be a breakup within the US. I’m not forecasting, I’m just throwing that as an idea. But the idea being that, I think it has a lot to do, and this is a bit Woo, Scott, with a resurgence of value, and the value being spiritual. And what I mean by that is, there’s been a push that we’ve been programmed by, especially in North America, but worldwide, everybody wants that white picket fence in the house as a metaphor for the good life. And you’ve been conditioned to believe what the good life is. And it primarily revolves around materialism. You know, how many cars do you have? And what kind of car is it? You know, I don’t need a watch. I need a watch and has this you know, this brand on it. And all the stuff that we’ve been programmed that you know, more stuff makes us happier. And that isn’t true. And I had to learn that myself. Like a lot of people that become successful, especially if it’s fairly early. You know, you get the stuff and then more stuff and all that’s not making me happy. I’ll get more stuff. So I digress to come back. Because we need to get into what’s valuable and what is valuable. Honesty, integrity, friends. Community Building relationships you word is your bond. You know real food, not phony package. fake meat, Bs, I’m sorry, I’m a carnivore, I apologize. My daughter’s a vegetarian. So people bear that in mind, I probably don’t have anything on the planet more than my daughters. So there you have it, we need to get bottom before we come back. Kidding bottom in some cases, isn’t that bad a thing? Yeah, it’s a rough ride, it hurts, it’s painful. But out of that, you get the, let’s say grit that’s required to come back and really value what you want. Because we’ve been told what we want, which is more stuff, and it doesn’t work. Now that stuff’s been taken away. And some people are crying about it, because they are addicted to stuff. Some people have bought into the lie really in a big way. And others of us realize that, you know, humanity is a lot more than the stuff that you have. It’s what you have inside. And we’re learning that lesson again, and again and again and falls on your generation. If you read the book, the fourth turning to be the hero generation, and say, I’m not going to look at what I don’t have, I’m going to look at what I do I have, I do have his youth, I have a lot of energy. I have great cognitive skills. And we’re gonna figure this thing out and your generation is the ones going to build it back. It’s not going to be the big elite. megalomaniacs that talk, like they own us, and they think they do. But no one really owns you in the ultimate scheme of things. So, God, this philosophical, but I wanted to get that out, because I do believe we go down. But I think we’re gonna come back better, but better.
Scott D Clary 41:50
That was actually I was gonna say, it’s, it’s funny that you that you went down this path, and I was thinking about asking this question, but I’ll ask you, do you think the American Dream is still alive?
David Morgan 42:03
I don’t know how to answer that. So I’ll just move around in a bit. I think the American green gene, as I just outlined, I think we’re a lot of young people, your generation are questioning Well, you know, if I get the white picket fence in the house, and I think it’s good to have a house, I mean, I really do think that is part of the American dream. And I don’t think that’s left. And I think a lot of people, as you mentioned early on in this conversation, that hey, look, I’m young, ambitious, I’m doing everything right. I can’t afford a house. And, you know, so I think that parts still exist. But I also think there’s a lot of question marks, I mean, that most of my daughters are millennials. And what I’ve observed and read and seem to fit is that a lot of them are more interested in experience rather than ownership. Like, for example, let’s just say this is corny, but it makes the point. In my neighborhood, we could have one lawn mower for like, 10 houses, right? So we just share, we pool our money, and you know, you’re gonna save money, and we pass it around on the weekend or whatever. No one thinks like that. In my era, it’s always you have to have your own, you know, lawnmower, you wouldn’t think it community terms or experience. So the millennials, much rather, in many cases, have the experience of whitewater rafting, rather than owning a raft, okay. Or walking through the Grand Canyon, rather than half the condo that I’m making this kind of stupid, but you get the point that the experience is more valuable to them than having another possession. And I think that’s very important. And of course, it’s an individual choice. But I think that shifts, so I’m trying to answer the question. Does the American dream still exist? Yes, but it’s changing to today’s conditions. And people are revaluing what’s valuable. I rather have this $2,000 vacation, where I experience jumping out of an airplane river rafting down the Grand Canyon, walking through the Zion Park and having food prepared by the greatest chef in Arizona than the having that thing that they just bought that I’m not going to pay any attention to six months from now,
Scott D Clary 44:30
I appreciate it. And it was not it was not meant to be an easy question. And we’re just going down that path. So I thought I thought I’d drop it anyway. I want to I want to pull you know, we didn’t even go into what you’re known for Silver Guru silver. We didn’t speak about silver at all. So I want to get some insight out of you on that. Because that really is. That’s that’s your core theme. That’s like everything. That’s your persona. So we can talk about that a little bit. And then and then I’ll do some like rapid fire just career questions to pull out some stuff from from your career. So let’s let’s just talk about silver briefly. So we’re talking about precious metals. We’re talking about you know, maybe looking to gold as some portion of your portfolio just as a safe bet when economies are not so certain no one talks about silver I don’t know anything about silver at all. So what what is what is the play for silver? What Why would be silver versus gold? What is the correlation between silver and gold, if any, I just want to take a second and thank the sponsor of today’s episode HubSpot. Now, this time of year is all about change whether your team’s your systems or your q4 to q1 shifts. A CRM platform is a critical tool, keeping your business connected throughout all of that change, and HubSpot. It’s constantly working to make its platform more connected than ever before. To help you with that change with brand new features. get into details about what makes your customers tick with custom behavioral events, track site behavior and understand your customers buying habits all within the HubSpot platform. This is built in intent data right into HubSpot. And if you’re looking to find more ways to keep your data clean, and have a centralized system, the all new operations hub enterprise gives you the ability to curate datasets for all users, meaning even faster and more consistent reporting. Learn more about how HubSpot CRM platform can connect your business@hubspot.com.
David Morgan 46:23
Well, there’s an 85% correlation, which means that they’re highly correlated. So when gold goes up, silver goes up, gold goes down, silver goes down. And you could say the reverse. Nothing’s 100% correlated. So that’s a very high correlation. So the argument, well, silver only does good during these times gold is this time. Today, it’s rather irrelevant, because currently, there’s that high correlation. So if there’s a depression and gold goes up, silver most likely will also or there’s a hyperinflation, silver will go up gold most likely will as well. Silver, as you know, I was studied, as I said early on, and pretty much a gold bug and pretty gold centric. And then when the hunt brothers situation took place, it really raised my curiosity, why silver, why not gold, and they did have gold, dead gold stocks, nets and gold, but they really were interested in silver market. And so I started looking at it and realized the importance of honest money and silver plays a role in that. So you know, one of my earliest things that I wrote for the public was the 10 Rules of Silver Investing. And of course, looking at the rather Dumi side, but realistic of empires in the collapse of such. The first rule of my Silver Rule 10 Rules of Silver Investing was one No one wants to be a prophet of doom. But in the unlikely event of a total financial collapse, silver will be the money of last resort, not gold. Because gold will be too high unit value for everyday purchases, whereas silver could be used in daily transactions. So that’s the paraphrased. Rule number one. So silver really has been money more often, under more transactions and gold ever has it? Do you want to verify that go buy a bag of Canadian silver coins? You know, 70%. So I know, Canada changed the percentage of silver in coins over the years, the US didn’t. But regardless, there are, you know, silver coins still available for investment purposes or monetary value purposes in Canada, in the US and in other nations, because at one time, we’re basically on the silver standard more so than a gold standard, believe it or not. So I think that sums it up, I could go on and on. I mean, you could find my other lectures. Silver’s got two components. One is industrial, one is monetary. They’re both increasing rapidly these last couple of years, I think that trend will continue. And I think that silver is the better speculation. But I think gold is required as kind of an anchor sort of like buying the Dow Jones and you might buy the NASDAQ index but if you’re especially if you’re older dude have a higher percentage in the Dow than you would in the NASDAQ because of the volatility but I think having a both is better than having just one or the other. Amazing, okay,
Scott D Clary 49:26
that’s, that’s useful. And that sort of, you actually just very succinctly made it very clear exactly why people would even look to silver because I don’t think that’s something that is actually talked about quite often. So I appreciate that. Okay, so I want to ask some rapid fire before we pivot, what I wanted to get out of you was I wanted to just understand, what what where, Where’s David Morgan going next? What’s next in your career with your brand with the work you’re doing? What excites you? And then secondly, where do people find you reach out to you social and website
David Morgan 49:59
Oh, cites me is the fact that I’ve been able to help a few people, maybe more than I know, I don’t want to be egotistical. But I have woken up people, you know, I do the industrial circuit. And there have been people that came up and thanked me. And that’s always very rewarding. So and that’s an intangible, they didn’t pay me any silver or fiyat. They just came up and human humans said, hey, I want to thank you that see that has real value to me, at heart to heart connection, looking in the eye and saying, Hey, thanks, you helped my life. That’s, that’s very meaningful. I’m gonna continue on as long as I’m breathing until this thing gets to what I consider the end, which means, you know, the WPF fails miserably, and we the people have more control of our lives. So I’m looking at that. Not too far away. I think it’s imminent. I would say, I’ll retract it. I think it’s within a couple three years. So I plan, okay, my goal really personal is at the top of them near as metals do better and better on a paper price basis. I probably will try to sell the website and the business kind of do a Doug Casey, I’ll still do interviews once a month or something right, occasionally. But you know, I’m older. I’m looking out a few years and like, yeah, I want to retire. And I want to just, you know, cash it in, read more, walk more, talk less. Relax a little bit. So that’s a long way to go. That was a follow up question. It was?
Scott D Clary 51:31
No, just where do you see your social and your website? Yeah,
David Morgan 51:34
yeah, the best place is the main website, which is Val Morgan report.com. Get our free newsletter. If you’re interested in the paid service, the premium service, go to the subscribe button, if you’re interested in books, pull down the book tab. And check consultations off there. Scott, I just was doing too much. And consultations, as much as I enjoy talking to people just got to be more of a distraction for me. You know, I get into goof writing. And then I have to give up that zone that I’m in and take a call or man call. So now I’ve eliminated that. And like when I’m in the zone, I can just keep writing. Amazing. Okay.
Scott D Clary 52:16
So a couple a couple of questions to close out. What What was the biggest challenge you’ve had in your career? How did you overcome this challenge?
David Morgan 52:23
My career was having to speak truth to power in my aircraft carrier, I basically ended my own career speaking truth to a very top level group of engineers and test pilots and even high ranking military people. And they all knew I speaking the truth. And I was kind of made the scapegoat. And I had to make a decision within a matter of seconds. Do I speak truth to power and lose my job? Or do I hold it in and become subservient? Yes, man for the rest of my career. Very tough decisions, still could get emotional thinking about it. So that was number one. What was the other question?
Scott D Clary 53:08
No. So how did you so how did you overcome that? Like, how did you how did you think thrive
David Morgan 53:11
and make that instant decision, I decided I rather be true to myself than true to some ideology. So I’d rather walk you man, metaphorically speaking with my own integrity intact, knowing that my career job, everything that I put all this effort into, and had, you know, climb the ladder, so to speak, could and most likely would be thrown out the window. And it was, and wasn’t easy. But you know, looking back, it pushed me to where I am now where I could do what I’ve always been passionate about, which is the markets. And I had, you know, that kind of clean slate like we talked about early in this conversation where you are, perhaps or a lot of your generation is like, you know, there aren’t a lot of prospects, what can I do on my own? That entrepreneurial spirit, you know, I’m going to digress here for a minute, and then we’re going maybe too long on time, but, you know, early on the American dream wasn’t, go get educated and get a good job working for somebody. It was what do you want to do? And what do you want to do to contribute to society? What business do you want to start want to start a business they want to work, but that’s fine. That’s your choice. I fully support that. But you got to teach these younger people are in my opinion, strong one. You know, you can be anything. You know, now let computer four foot eight you’re not going to be an NBA star. I get that but you get the idea. This too much limitation and you’re in a cog in the wheel. We need to turn that upside down. Like you are a smart individual that can make something happen when you want to make it happen world you know There’s a lot of people that do that. It’s sometimes it’s real simple stuff. It’s like making a really good out breakfast. I mean, there’s a gal I think her name was Mandy and I ran into her very scared of going business at rocks. But I met her when she’s making those things out of her garage, right. And I love that kind of spirit that people follow their passion, and start at a low level and become successful. And even more important, people that have a passion, start at a low level, I think doesn’t succeed. And they give up, they don’t give up. They pull themselves off, dust themselves off and do another one, maybe that one doesn’t succeed. It’s not about being a millionaire. That’s so important. Now, although you know, it’s nice. It’s what you learn on the journey to becoming a millionaire. That’s Bill’s valuable. Good, very good.
Scott D Clary 55:52
Very good. I appreciate that. If you could pick one person in your life that was the most influential or taught you something, who was that person? And what did they teach you?
David Morgan 56:04
Well, that’s a tough one, I would say here is a Ron Brown with him, he ran for president of United States twice on the Libertarian ticket. What he taught me is that being a gentleman is not a weakness. That being calm and not raising your voice is actually a strength. Being a very good listener is more important than being a great talker. And giving the ability for the person to make up their own mind by presenting the argument in a way that’s not argumentative, so that the people can determine for themselves that their logic is invalid, and come to a conclusion with a gentle Congress conversational tone that enlightens people, I would say Harry Brown, in my opinion was an enlightened being, he would discount that, but having the honor of spending some of his latter years, personally with them, I would say that’s probably the most influential human being that I have had the honor of knowing. And, you know, on an egotistical or non egotistical manner, I would like to consider the fact that I’ve considered the idea that I could be as valuable to someone in my lifetime as he was to me.
Scott D Clary 57:31
Where would you rather what would be a source could be a book or a podcast, anything that has impacted you that you’d recommend people go read or less?
David Morgan 57:42
Boy, that’s really tough.
Scott D Clary 57:45
Anything, anything that anything that is on that shelf behind you,
David Morgan 57:50
so many that I listened to, I mean, I look at philosophy, I look at monetary issues, of course, I look at the mainstream news, I look at the left quite a bit because of wondering how they think or reacting or what’s a fallacy. A lot of them are big hearted people that have a very emotional tie to doing the right thing. They just don’t understand them I study view, how the economy really works, or how a sound economy works. So what would I recommend? Scott, I just don’t know, I’m going to set a general way, I think the most important thing that I’ve learned and would recommend, as the old adage from the Oracle of Delphi to thine own self be true. And so I would pursue something that has more to do with not yourself in a selfish way, but in a knowledge way, where you can examine your true self. And I know that’s overused in a new age movement. I’m not a new ager. But the idea of what is the most valuable part of your life. And I’ll sum it up this way, even I can’t give a strong you should watch this YouTube or you should read this book. But the idea of to thine own self be true is the meaning of life. We all want to know that. I think that’s a question everybody ponders. And I was given the answer some time ago in a men’s group that I attend or attended at the time. And I really liked the answer. And the more I thought about it, the more it resonated with me. And the answer is what’s the meaning of life? And the answer is, it’s the meaning you give it. So if you’re spending your time on a video game, or watching TV, or doing some, it’s something that may seem fine or whatever, and it’s an individual thing, believe me, everybody’s path is different. But what meaning you give it if your meaning in life is to change The system from a elite banking cabal to the people having the power of money, which is basically summation of my my purpose, the reason I get up every day, the reason I feel so alive and passionate, but that’s me, that’s me. There are people that are just as passionate about making surfboards have contributed greatly to the surfing industry. So I’m not trying to make any one better than the other. But the meaning of life is the meaning you give it whatever you do, if it’s tiddlywinks championship, that you’re passionate about it, I applaud you. I don’t like the idea that we’re in a dress rehearsal, that I’m going to do it next week, next month, next year. As soon as I get this degree, I’ll get the good job wasn’t the good job, we’ll have to get another degree to do it. All of that stuff that stands in your way, the best way to do it to start Do it, do it wrong, learn from your mistakes and keep moving on. And when you get knocked down, dust off, get up and do it again. I think perseverance is one of the keys to a strong, motivated and industrious life. Its balance, too much money and not enough debt. So you want to balance and I’m just talking money, but it’s your total self, your being the right foods, the right amount of exercise, don’t overdo anything. So let me be succinct. Moderation and all things. Be true to yourself. The meaning of life is what you put into it, you usually do get out what you give. Giving is more important than receiving the best things in life truly are free. And the value of friendship and family cannot be overvalued. They are priceless.
Scott D Clary 1:01:43
Well, that was the best answer to what book have you read lately? I think I forgotten. And that was that was very good. So you, you kind of you kind of just got all the other questions that I was going to ask you. And you nailed them all at once. But I’ll I’ll go through them quickly as well. I’ll go through them. So if you could tell your 20 year old self one thing? What would that thing never give up? Never give up. Okay. And then last question. What does success mean to you
David Morgan 1:02:15
being content yourself? I think it’s having that inner peace, that you don’t need to worry what anyone else thinks whether you’re successful or not. Because the your innermost self, you know, you’ve done it, you’re there. And that doesn’t mean you can rest. But it just means you can be at ease. And that that’s a that vibration, if you want to call it that. It can be pervasive. I mean, the idea and this isn’t proven by empirical evidence, I never was around her. But it’s been said that someone have the ability or I don’t even know the right adjective to use the Mother Teresa, you know, short little thing that she was could walk into a room and everyone could feel her presence. That’s vibration, that spiritual maturity. That’s the, I wouldn’t say pinnacle of humanity. But it certainly does resonate with almost anyone that has any idea of who she was and what she did, what she accomplished and her selflessness that she possessed, put her at a level that very few have experienced. And I would say that would be an idea to consider.
Scott D Clary 1:03:38
Amazing, David, thank you very much. That’s all I got. That was That was incredible. I really, really appreciate the time that was really good.
