How to Survive The Coming Financial Crash

Lance: Welcome to the Lance Wallnau Show. We are back again today, Manny the Desk here from the command capital in Dallas Texas, the center of America, the perfect vantage point with the capital behind me. But thankfully I’m not in Washington DC. Mercedes Sparks is to my left,the ever effervescent cryptocurrency queen. She’s the one that got me first learning about Bitcoin and Crypto and now I’m totally confused, but I’ve tell you what, the man who has helped me figure things out. I bet you know you guys I’m a fan of Steve Bannon, their Meister Zinger over there at the War Room. And so much so that we wanted to get a program following him on Saturday and I started watching this guy, Philip Patrick. 

He had the most interesting kind of candid conversations about the state of global affairs. And what I found about him and what was curious is although he’s the birch gold guy that I go to for insight, he’s not salesy, he’s actually more like a tutorial on the sober reality of what’s happening in the world’s economy. Which of course you have to do with Navarro, Peter Navarro and Cortez and Bannon because of their background. But nevertheless there’s education. There’s hope,there’s strategy, there’s insight and I find the truth always set you free. Even if it’s not your favorite news it’s educating you and you can learn how to how to respond to the unfolding field of events because you’re not by surprise. Mercedes Sparks, I see you nodding vigorously.

Mercedes: Yeah, because we get asked all the time. We talk about birch gold quite a bit. I know we’ve referred lots of people over there. We get asked all the time in the comments. Just in-depth questions about why gold and silver is a good investment strategy and a hedge against inflation. You threw crypto in but it’s like it is an arrow in an arsenal that you should be building and so I think it’s awesome that you have brought him on today and we can ask all these questions that you guys have been sending us. So I’m very excited.

Lance: And let me requalify this Philip that that as we’re bringing you on board welcome to the show Philip Patrick. Mercedes, I call it the cryptocurrency queen only because as the millennial on my team she introduced me. She educated me like she calls me old man every now and then and she brings me up to date on the world of crypto financing blockchain and the potential it has in terms of being a place where value could be stored outside of the collapsing ecosystem of economics. And for that, I’m thankful but she’s not necessarily an advocate.

Mercedes: Well, yeah but I’m just saying tried and true in the Bible is gold and silver.

Lance: Yes and you can’t, that’s where we have our degrees. Our degrees is in theology and the degree is on the thermos thermometer right now. It’s over 100 in Texas as Ray’s reminding me. Philip, share with us and assume that your top to people that are in the very beginning stages of understanding that the world of economic complexity. I do want to ask you before at some point in this interview just to alert you to it. I see this is a Game of Thrones battle between the interest of Wall Street, the irresponsible spending of politicians that are tanking an economy that could be vigorous. I see the China as the emerging threat and then I see what’s happened with Russia and the EU as destabilizing the Euro where from its own agenda, from the Davos agenda.

I mean, it’s a real Game of Thrones going on here but now, we’ve got this this world is fragmenting and its economic systems largely by Biden’s incompetence driving Russia into bed with China. They’re creating their own potential competing Mercantile system. It’s wild. This is like the Wild West. So, with that huge backdrop my audience that that’s where I want to go to. I want to go to the Game of Thrones. Can you help us understand what you see taking place now?

Phillip Patrick: Of course and it’s a lot and I think that was actually a very very good summary that you gave. So we found ourself in a very tough situation here in the United States. Certainly economically politically for sure. That’s a whole another rabbit hole. But economically we’ve ended up in a tough situation today and we have clear problems in front of us. We have bubbles in the stock market which are very clear to see and slowly we’re seeing the air now come out of them. We have inflation and we have currency devaluation. Economically speaking, these are the big issues of the day.

Now, how did we get here? I think this is a story of short-term political thinking of greed, right.We had an economy back in 2008 that had collapsed. We had Obama as president at the time and I think he didn’t want to deal with an economy that was crumbling. So, watch begun was he undertook and started the longest and most aggressive package of fiscal policy that has ever seen before in US history, right. So, what did it involve? It involved keeping interest rates low, right.And we did so for over a decade. It involved printing huge amounts of money in pumping it through the markets and it involved a lot of fiscal manipulation.

Now, what this did was it drove the markets up for over a decade. Then we had Biden step in. Now Biden took over a very hot economy. He took over Trump’s economy. But again continued to do the same things that Obama did. He printed money. He kept interest rates low. Huge amounts of COVID stimulus. What it did was created bubbles everywhere. You mentioned crypto that up until recently was at all-time highs. Stocks, housing. We were seeing bubbles in strange places, right. Rare whiskey in debts. Women’s handbags, luxury it created bubbles everywhere. But what it then did was created the inflationary issue.

Now we’ve put our Federal Reserve in a very tough situation. They need to try and combat inflation but in order to do so we’re going to see these bubbles start to collapse. So it’s a very tough economic situation that we’ve put ourselves in and we’ve removed in the process the tools that the government and the Fed have to combat them. So it’s a really tough situation we’re in.

Lance: So, you’ve summarized this perfectly. We’ve created our own perfect storm and I get the impression when I listen to, I remember listening to this one moment when Biden talked about with Putin what they were going to do. It was though he was celebrating the banking system and the global Mercantile system’s ability to cripple another government economic. I think it sent the wrong message to China and the world that the EU and American Western system will try to crush you economically if you push them the wrong way. And when Biden said, he doesn’t know what’s about to hit him, I know everything he does he falls off the bicycle on. I thought, oh my God that’s what I began to look at what are the assumptions he’s making that are wrong. Because he doesn’t know what’s about to hit Putin going to hit us as a result of trying to do this. So, real quickly how does Putin went to gold if I understand correct can explain to us what he did in his response to us trying to destroy his Ruble?

Phillip Patrick: Yes, so first of all the suggestion that Putin didn’t have any idea what was going to hit him is an absolute nonsense. Putin has been preparing for western sanctions since 2014 since the initial invasion of Crimea, as you say couple of ways he did. Number one, boosting gold holdings. Russia now have the 6 largest gold holdings in the world. They’re the 10th largest economy, right. They reduce national debt in Russia to almost zero. All in preparation for western sanctions. So, this idea from Biden that Putin had no idea what was coming is just a nonsense and that’s no surprise coming from this administration.

Now, this stuff is really important because what it all boils down to is global reserve currency.The US dollar is today the global reserve currency and that puts us in a very strong position, right. Because look, in very simple terms, what strengthens or weakens currency, it’s dependent on how many nations buy or sell that currency. So, when your global reserve, everyone’s holding trillions of dollars and therefore, strengthens that currency. We’re starting to see that come the threat. In fact, the dollar’s potency as Global Reserve has been diluting since the 1970s but it’s escalating dramatically, partially because of domestic policy, right. Biden, Obama, they printed huge amounts of money and what that has done is it’s led to inflation and devaluation of currency.

Now, we’re feeling that here at home, right. Everyone’s feeling inflation. Everything’s becoming more expensive. But we forget sometimes that dollars don’t just affect us. When every other nation on earth is holding them, a devaluation of the dollar affects them. So, what are we seeing shorter term? We’re seeing a transition away from the dollar. Last year, central government dollar holding sorry were at 25 year lows. Gold holdings on the back of that at 31 year highs. So,other countries are watching the dollar being printed into oblivion and saying hey this is a problem for what we’re holding.

Now you at the political side. See Russia is not the big concern for us. Economically speaking they’re not a threat. China are. Now when Russia invaded Ukraine we stepped in with sanctions.Now it punished the Russians although they pegged their currency to gold which stabilized the Rubles so they were prepared like we said. But what it did more concerningly was it alerted China. See China had aspirations for Taiwan. I think what we to Russia slowed those moves but immediately the Chinese realized. Listen, these guys have weaponized the US dollar. They can cripple an economy. Before we start making moves on Taiwan, let’s try and diversify. So, what did the Chinese do? They go straight to the Saudis and say, listen, let’s try and start to negotiate oil in Chinese Yuan.

That deal that the Saudis made with Nixon to only trade oil in dollars has been sacrosanct and in place since the 70s. It’s under threat. By weaponizing the dollar against Russia, we’ve alerted our economic enemies as to the ability that we have. They are now diversifying and in my mind all that does is it escalates the eventual loss of global reserve currency. When that happens, it’s a significant event. The pound sterling where I’m from originally Great Britain, they held reserve currency status up until 1945. When we lost it ultimately to the US, the Pound Sterling’s lost over 95% of its value. It’s significant. I think we’re now playing into the hands of our economic enemies and that’s a big concern for me.

Lance: Wow. So I was surprised and I’m almost embarrassed to reveal my ignorance on this. But I was surprised to read some wealth reports from folks that that have analyzed everything you’re saying they would agree with. And they’re saying it isn’t the worst thing in the world. I always felt that losing the reserve currency status is the ultimate danger to us, but they’re saying that, no with all these nations in debt to GDP ratios because of COVID. All these countries are up then. That all the countries are in a problem right now. That we don’t want to be stretched out over the entire globe with our dollar pegged to all of this, that actually it’s time for us to get our own fiscal house in order. And if China wants to pick up some of the slack let them play with it, because it’s a ball of fire right now.

They think that bringing the money and bringing this home actually helps to put the pressure and accountability on the mechanisms in our own government spending etcetera. That will cause an adjustment here, painful as it is for the next decade it’s easy than being stretched out over the globe. Does that make sense to you because that’s what I’m reading?

Phillip Patrick: The answer is yes and no. Look, I think position as Global Reserve Currency is Sacrosanct and if we lose it, we will suffer as a nation on the back of it. There is no question. The part of that that I do agree with though is the hardship part, right? We have to and its really bad news but we’ve got to go through hardship. Actually facing a recession is the best option that we have. So just to sort of nail that down a little bit. We talked about a bubble, right. Over the last 13 years we have a Federal Reserve. We have different executive branches keeping interest rates low and pumping money through the markets. Like I said what that did was created bubbles everywhere in the economy. Now that was all going fantastically. Well until last year. Right? Last year inflation hits the United States.

Now initially the Federal Reserve try sweep it under the carpet, right. It’s transitory. Look the other way. Don’t worry about it. Until it was transitory for 9 months in a row. Then the Fed realized listen this isn’t going anywhere. And it was also had become at that point the number one political issue. So heading into this year the Fed need to curb inflation. How do they do it? They’ve got exactly one tool to do it. And that is to raise interest rates, right. So that’s why this year we’re heading in of the year and we’re raising rates. They test the waters first of all with a quarter point raise. Okay? Then they raise half a percent. On the back of that we start to see the market unwind. The S&P dropped 20%. Then we had another three quarter point raise.

Now what Powell told the American people I thought was very telling. He said listen inflation is the number one priority. We have to expect pain in combating inflation. Well, what did he mean by pain? I think what he meant was recession, right. Because Powell understands we’re going to do probably another two half a point raises between now and the end of the year. These raises in rates are enough to decimate the housing market in the stock market. But it’s necessary. We’ve been deferring this recession for too long. But here’s my big concern. Do we have the tools to combat inflation really? I think not. And the reason I say that is because the Fed can’t raise rates enough. I’ll explain.

Last time inflation was this high was in the 80s, 1981. Paul Volker was the Federal Reserve Chairman at the time. Inflation was at today’s level and in order to combat it, he put interest rates to 15%, right. And it was tough. What it led to was a stagflationary climate, right. With interest rates of 15%, the markets were getting decimated and inflation was still raging in the background. That’s stagflation. It means stunted economic growth with rising inflation and it’s a tough climate. But it was necessary, and what it led to following that tough time was 20 years of economic boom here in the United States.

Here’s why we can’t do it today. US national debt in the 80s was a trillion dollars today it’s over $30 trillion, right. So, if interest rates go to 15%, suddenly the federal government going to owe more on the debt annually than we have in tax revenue coming in. So, it going to be tough to kill inflation. I think the best scenario is we slow it and we sacrifice the markets and that’s stagflation. The reason I say its best case is the only other alternative as I see it is that the Federal Reserve backtrack. They drop rates again. They start pumping money through the market. If that happens, inflation could go through the roof here in the United States. So, we need to go through some hardship. We need to deal with it now. Otherwise, we’re just going to create much bigger problem down the line.

Lance: Mercedes.

Mercedes: Well, I had a follow-up question to that because when we talk about the dollar losing its reserve currency status, what is the situation and the scenario as you see it right now that would trigger a reassessment of the dollar?

Phillip Patrick: Look, I think the moves here will be glacial. I don’t see China coming in early next year or end of 2023 and snatching it. So I think that the US dollar will sustain Global Reserve currency status for a while for years to come. So for me, it’s more the trends and the trajectory as opposed to hey this is an imminent issue. As Lance mentioned a moment ago the only thing helping us right now and helping the right now is a lot of other currencies are getting hit as well, right. So it’s keeping the dollar propped up by proxy. So for me, this is more a move 5years down the line, 10 years down the line. We start to lose, but it’s the trends that are happening now.

By weaponizing the US dollar, like we said, we’ve put China on alert. They’re making moves today to diversify. Biden will likely be gone in 2 years, right. I can’t see him doing anything in twenty twenty-four. But it’s the decisions that he makes today and the poor decisions they’re going to long outlast his administration and that’s what has me very concerned.

Lance: So, I want you to land this subject on what do you recommend we do and what is your advice for the individuals listening to me. Because we’ll have like 750,000 downloads this month and I want everyone to hear this. However, I do want to ask this one thing. My big concern with Biden and the Democrats in general is the FDR nostalgia that they tend to govern by overreach and utilizing the hyper extended authority of government. I saw it with COVID. Do you think there’s a possibility and does he have the ability to engage with price controls? Do you think he can mess things up further by trying to do something that plays well politically but cripples the energy sector further or is that just a needless anxiety?

Phillip Patrick: I mean not a needless anxiety. The guys crippled the energy sector here in the US already. Look his solution to lowering gas prices. There were two. The initial solution was to tax gas companies which is just absolutely absurd, right. By raising producer prices you’re going to lower prices. It was nonsensical. It didn’t make it too far. The most recent one is a gas tax holiday for three months. Saving people I think eighteen point four cents a gallon. Listen, if Biden really wanted to lower gas prices in the United States, he’d stop us being dependent on other nations for it. He’d open up key pipelines, right. He’d start but that’s not the direction these guys are going. They’re trying to kill the oil and gas market. They’re pushing through this green new deal. We’re not ready for it as a nation and now we’re starting to see the consequences. Europe at the same, right. Europe was so dependent on Russia for gas. Now, look at the situation we’re in.

So, look, overreaching on behalf of the administration, it’s no surprise that the Biden administration would do so. Price controls at the moment, they’re looking at sort of just getting rid of taxes but again, it’s missing the issue because what it’s doing is it’s just adding to the deficit. My big issue with the Biden administration is this. When you have a hammer, every single problem looks like a nail. These guys are not afraid to spend money and it’s all they want to do but the problem is they don’t really understand the consequences of it. Remember when Biden was trying to push through three and a half trillion dollars of stimulus. He’d lied to the American people. He said to them it’s going to lower inflation and it’s going to cost zero dollars.

Well, thank the Lord for Joe Manchin, right. Joe Manchin a Democratic senator said that does ring true. If you want me to vote for this bill, let’s have the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, let’s have them score it. If they tell me it’s going to lower inflation, it’s not going to cost anything, then I’ll vote for it. Guess what? Cost trillions of dollars.

Lance: Right.

Phillip Patrick: And what Biden doesn’t seem to understand is pumping massive amounts of money through the economy. It’s leading to inflation, right. But what are they doing? Oh it’s not it’s not us. It’s Putin right. It’s Putin. We ignore the fact that inflation was going up before Putin in Fact, the San Francisco Federal Reserve said 3% of the current 8.6% inflation, right. So about 30% of the current rate of inflation was on the back of his COVID spending alone, right. This is where I’m really concerned with this in administration. They’re going to bankrupt us. And like I said, the problem that we have is the amount of debt that he’s amassing is literally unsolvable. We can’t pay through taxes. It’s becoming too expensive. So my concern is not price controls that sort of stuff. My control is he puts us in a situation from a debt standpoint, from a spending standpoint that we will not be able to get out of.

Lance: Well, and you said I remember Obama making a classic statement about the progressive solution to an economic problem. He said, listen, we’re we’ve found ourself in a hole and we’re going to have to dig our way out of it. I remember thinking when you’re in a hole digging doesn’t help and that’s exactly what they did. Biden picked up he continued digging. And they’re going to try to dig their way out of it. They can’t. At some point physics sets in. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to make an executive decision here. And Phillip and Mercedes I think what I’m going to do is, I’m going to hold this program and make it into two parts because the first part has just been so intriguing to me. I don’t want to rush through this. Becauseunderstanding what’s happening.

Information is gold. Information is currency. My people perish for lack of knowledge the Bible says. And so, understanding the context of the Great Game of Thrones economically and also what’s happening in the last days in the Battle of Currencies, because economic warfare is part of spiritual warfare. So I want you to understand all this. The interesting thing about Birch this company is that they actually have like brinks bank locations where you could be buying gold or silver or other precious metals from them. And as I understand that they actually have storage facilities where you can keep it. Because a lot of people are worried that if I had it in my house was to keep somebody from digging a gun to my head and making me open my saving give them all my wealth.

You don’t think that things can get that crazy. Well, if you’re apocalyptic like me you’re thinking all kinds of scenarios. But you put it in one of their banks and actually have the gold and silver.They actually have wedges out like I saw one the other day. A friend of mine has a credit card which is like a thin wafer of gold. And you know how like in the Bible if you ever see like, the widow’s might actually would be a broken off piece of a coin. It’s like a metal piece and break off a piece and a little mite is a broken off piece. Well, now they’ve got silver because it’s silver and gold. Silver in already these premade cards and forms you could break off a little bit of gold or break off a little piece of silver.

Anyway, you got to get a hold of this, the report on what commodities and what store of value with silver and gold is all about. Go to “Lancewallnau.com/birch”. “Lancewallnau.com/birch”and see why it is that information is worth the currency of gold. Because if you have wisdom, you’ll know what to do. Many people are making that investment right now and they’re all happy they’re doing it because there’s ways you can invest in the gold the silver and the commodities that gives you peace of mind and a buffer. As you see the dollar going squirrelly up down.You’ve got something that is constantly rising with the tide of the times.

So, get the report “Lancewallnau.com/birch” and we’re going to come back again tomorrow with part two. Where I drill down with Phillip Patrick on greater specificity regarding where we’re at,what he sees coming, what’s going to be happening with the dollar devaluation and what we can anticipate is practical strategies you and me from the person that doesn’t have anything to the person that’s got like an IRA. He’ll talk about what you can do. You don’t want to miss that. So, take action now. Get the report. Read it. “Lancewell.com/birch” and don’t miss part 2 tomorrow. See you there.

Closing: Did you enjoy this latest episode? Please remember to share it with your friends.Because the more knowledge you have, the better equipped you are to navigate the world. See you tomorrow.