Now, I’ve seen a thing or two in my time, from the muddy banks of the Mississippi to the wild, woolly, and mostly-full-of-lies silver rushes out West. The talk of riches—it’s like a siren’s song, ain’t it? It’ll make a man forget his grammar, his good sense, and sometimes his very trousers. The world is full of fellows who’d sell you a gold brick made of brass, and another sort who’ll show you a hole in the ground and swear it’s a direct-to-Heaven express line for your pocketbook.
And so it is, that a body must approach a matter of finance with a mind as clear as a bottle of good whiskey before the cork’s been pulled. And I’ve been looking at this Apollo Silver business, and it’s a curious thing, a right proper puzzle for a man who’s seen a few. It ain’t about the grand promises of a bonanza that’ll make you the next Rockefeller, a-building libraries and a-dressing in finery. No sir. That kind of talk is for the greenhorns and the giddy.
What’s to be said for Apollo is a different tune entirely. It’s a calm, measured sort of melody, like a riverboat gliding on a Sunday afternoon. You see, they’ve got this Calico project out in California, and another one, Cinco de Mayo, down in Mexico. And when they speak of it, they ain’t waving their arms about or using words too big for their boots. They’re talking about a mineral resource. And not just a vague promise, but numbers that have been “measured,” “indicated,” and “inferred.” That’s the part that sticks to a man’s ribs like a good meal.
And there’s history to back it up, too. The Calico district ain’t some new-fangled idea; it’s a place where they’ve been pulling silver from the earth for a long spell. Back in 1881, after a big discovery, Calico became a real humdinger of a town. It was a place that produced millions of dollars in silver over a dozen years, a wild and colorful place that drew in folks from all over the globe, a town with a name that came right from the “calico-colored” mountains themselves. A fella by the name of Walter Knott, who had a berry farm and a fondness for history, even went and restored the old place after it became a ghost town. So, the ground there, it’s got a reputation.
And in that reputable ground, they’ve got a proper accounting. The Calico project is said to hold a mighty 110 million ounces of silver in the “Measured and Indicated” category, which is a powerful lot of the shiny stuff. And on top of that, there’s another 51 million ounces of silver in the “Inferred” category. That’s a sum a body can get his head around.
Now, as for the Cinco de Mayo project down in Chihuahua, Mexico, well, that region is a whole other book of stories. Mexico’s got a history with silver that goes back centuries, and a fella who knows a thing or two about rocks will tell you that the very geology of the area is famous for these “carbonate replacement deposits,” the kind that have been responsible for a good 40% of all the silver ever pulled out of the ground in that country. And while their report on this project is of a historical nature, it still speaks to a substantial resource, with a historical estimate of 52.7 million ounces of silver in the “Inferred” category. It’s a testament to the region’s long-standing character.
Now, I’ve seen men go bust on a whim, throwing their money at some fly-by-night scheme with a map that had more flourishes than truth. But this here, this is a matter of geography and common sense. It’s in places where they’ve been digging silver for a hundred years, and where the land itself seems to say, “Why yes, there’s more where that came from.” And the folks in charge—they’ve got a long-standing acquaintance with the business of pulling wealth from the earth, not just from the pockets of others.
So, a man must ask himself, what’s the virtue in this? The virtue is in the lack of fancy. It’s a bet on what’s already there, not what might be. It’s the difference between a high-stakes poker game where you might lose your shirt, and a man walking into a store to buy a new one. It ain’t a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s a slow, deliberate trundle down the road of reason. And in a world where every huckster with a shovel has a story to tell, a story about a resource measured and counted is a mighty comfortable thing to rest your hat on.
(Please note: Apollo Silver is a sponsor of Proven And Probable, and we are biased.)
Explore the Union Project with Riverside Resources! ⛏️ The team is on-site in Sonora, Mexico, showcasing their gold exploration efforts and the potential of the old Union Mine. 🗺️ Check out the drilling process, core samples, and drone footage of the site. 👷♂️ 🔗 https://youtu.be/_O6AKIkW_1c
In my opinion, there are two general sources of price inflation – money printing and government intervention in the marketplace.
Money printing has two basic components: printing of paper currency, and credit expansion. Government intervention on the other hand contains more moving parts, some of which are hidden—in plain sight. We may not recognize them as causes of inflation, as they are not ‘marketed’ that way by our government. But indeed they are contributors to inflation. They are: 1) Government indebtedness, 2) Government auctioning of our rights and freedoms to big businesses, 3) Import tariffs, and 4) Price controls.
These combined forces create a whirlwind of inflation over time, but thankfully, there are investment choices we can make, to shield ourselves from the gathering storm.
There are famous pictures from places like Germany, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela of people carrying stacks and stacks of currency notes. Big bricks of paper money wrapped with rubber bands sometimes being burned in a fireplace to stay warm. Printing an ocean of currency notes is clearly an obvious source of inflation.
Author’s Note: Host governments and their central banks may not always be the only culprit when it comes to severe inflation. Throughout history, warring states have used economic warfare techniques against each other. One of those techniques is to undermine your opponent’s currency system by dumping counterfeit currency into their economy. The resulting hyperinflation creates social chaos – a ripe and vulnerable condition, for internal and external attacks.[i]
In addition to over issuance of paper currency, we should also add, expanding credit. This would mean making credit available to anybody with a pulse – mortgage loans, credit cards, business loans, margin loans, personal loans, lines of credit – the interest rate charged doesn’t matter all that much, but rather, it’s the total amount of the credit expansion that is most important.
As people make use of the credit, and spend it into the economy, prices of goods and services go up. And as the credit continues growing like a bubble, prices keep going up in tandem. Technically this process can continue until the money is virtually worthless.
On to government intervention – the first type of intervention is the government going deeply into debt. In simple terms this means the government spending more than earned in tax revenue. As the debt accumulates, so do the interest payments. The government then starts raising taxes and creating new taxes that didn’t exist before. This can be sales tax, food tax, property tax, gasoline tax, income tax, tobacco tax, excise tax, use tax, the list goes on and on.
They may also start requiring you to obtain a license and permit to do things that previously did not require a permit or license to do. And that new permit or license – let’s say to be able to cut somebody’s hair, handle food, or clip somebody’s toenails – those new permits and licenses require new fees to be paid in order to obtain the permit or license. And those fees will go up continuously when the government is deeply in debt. So an indebted government guarantees more future inflation.
The next form of government intervention is taking away the rights and freedoms from individuals and businesses, and selling them back in the form of licenses and permits granting monopoly-style privileges–but in this case they sell those freedoms back in a limited quantity to the highest bidders.
This could take the form of a liquor license that a business must buy to legally sell alcohol where the license may cost a few hundred thousand dollars to purchase. Our neighbor Fred might want to sell beer out of his garage to you and me, but that would be illegal without a license. He may need to spend a few hundred thousand dollars obtaining that license, and then secondly, he may need to spend a few hundred thousand more, to obtain commercial space to be able to get a serving permit, to serve the alcohol. So our neighbor Fred might need to spend $400,000 before he’s able to legally sell, you and me a beer.
The same thing goes with producing and selling milk, food products, or other goods and services that would require spending a few hundred thousand dollars (or more) just to start your business.
This also includes a wonderful man or woman who wants to sell hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, or offer a family recipe from a table, located on the side of the road. Most likely, they’ll receive a warning from law enforcement, to shut that activity down, and if they don’t, they’ll end up in jail.
Imagine how much prices would go down, and how much quality and variety of food options would go up—in the U.S. as an example—if all permitting, licensing, and regulation on food vendors just went away. Those that use the freshest ingredients and have the best recipes, would be rewarded by the market with a growing business. Those who do not sell a clean, fresh, and delicious product would not receive return business from customers.
But fast food franchises, with their expensive commercial space and big bank loans will spend any amount of money they need on government lobbying, to make sure the competition I mentioned never surfaces. That deprives consumers from having extra choices. Big business will spend the money necessary to pay off politicians, requiring new businesses to cough up hundreds of thousands of dollars in startup capital–knowing this will keep many new competitors out of the business. All in the name of protecting the consumer of course.
And so it goes with every industry – the largest companies pay the government to increase fees, licenses, permits, and compliance regulations on small and mid-sized businesses until they’ve all gone out of business. Once the smaller competitors are gone, the large monopoly operators are free to raise prices, and lower quality standards. The government ‘powers’ they’ve purchased, form a protective moat around their own business, protecting them from unwanted competition. All at the expense of the consumer.
Import tariffs and price controls are another form of government intervention that drive up inflation.
Import tariffs are simply a tax added to an imported product from another region. The tariff allows domestic producers to raise their prices on consumers, and it discourages these consumers from purchasing the now, more expensive foreign products. It adds to the moat of protection around domestic producers, with consumers footing the bill.
Price controls are in intervention where the government dictates the maximum or minimum price that a business or person is allowed to sell their product or service for. Throughout history it has been abused, and it always leads to higher prices and shortages of goods and services.
For example, let’s say to combat high inflation – government might announce that loaves of bread cannot be sold for more than $.50 cents each. But if the cost of wheat, salt, water, and baking time requires a cost of production of $1.50 per loaf – producers will simply stop baking bread.
The store shelves will empty, and hidden black markets will develop where the price of bread may skyrocket to $10.00 per loaf. The high price would be exacerbated due to the risk of criminal penalties for anyone caught buying or selling bread for over $.50 cents per loaf.
An interesting example is Jacob Maged of Jersey City, owner of a dry-cleaning shop. In 1934, Jacob was sentenced to jail and paid a $100.00 fine (which in those days was approximately 3 oz. of gold – worth about $10,000.00 dollars today), for the crime of cleaning and pressing a suit for “too low” a price. The government mandated a $.40 price, but he only charged the customer $.35, and was fined and sent to jail. The price control was part of U.S. President FDR’s “National Recovery Act” which mandated a series of wage and price controls across the country.[ii]
The way markets should work, is that government should not intervene in the market to protect the biggest companies.
If shortages develop organically for any product or service – a free market would allow the price of a good or service to rise, and, new producers should be allowed to enter the market freely, without government barriers. This would allow new supply into the market when it’s needed, bringing down prices for consumers.
Additionally, if banks and financial institutions were not allowed to lend money they do not have on hand – known as fractional reserve banking – lines of credit would be substantially reduced, further bringing down prices for consumers.
If our currency was backed by a tangible good which cannot be printed (such as precious metals), that would provide another form of price stability for consumers.
But sadly these types of changes would never occur without a bloody revolution. Continuously high rates of inflation, and government decreed privileges for big businesses are simply too profitable to give up. We’ll just have to plan for more inflation.
However, there are investments individuals can consider today, that perform best under conditions of increasing inflation. They’re generally described as ‘tangible’ investments. They include asset classes such as: precious metals, oil & gas, agriculture, and certain forms of real estate (such as farmland).
The last period of rapid inflation in the U.S. was the decade of the 1970s. During that decade many tangible investments rose in price over tenfold (such as gold), while investments in sectors vulnerable to high rates of inflation such as general equities – languished.
There are two main causes of price inflation: money printing and government intervention in the marketplace.
Money printing as a source of inflation is a fairly straight forward concept. Government intervention on the other hand is never marketed as inflation-creating – but it generates inflation while hiding behind various gimmicks. These gimmicks include government indebtedness, wholesale auctioning of rights and freedoms to big businesses, import tariffs, and price controls.
These combined forces create a whirlwind of inflation over time. However, tangible asset classes perform best during periods of high inflation. Thankfully, investors have the choice to shield themselves from the gathering storm.
The program for the next seminar on 23rd August 2025 is linked here.
This is a friendly reminder that seats for Friday dinner with Albert Lu are limited. Only the first eighty people who register will be invited. Of course, the price of the ticket will increase as the event date approaches.
If you are already registered, I will email you in two weeks to ask if you will be attending the Friday dinner with Albert Lu.
You may use coupon code PPC2025 for a 10% discount.
While I quite liked our usual room for the seminar, we had audio problems there. So, the new location will be a couple of blocks away. Please make a note of the seminar room location from the webpage.
The playlists of all the past Capitalism & Morality seminars are linked here.
Today, we take a deep dive into Platinum, exploring its market fundamentals, the potential for a new bull market, and whether now is the time to buy! We’re thrilled to be joined by the legendary Bob Moriarty, founder of 321Gold.com and 321Energy.com, who shares his unique contrarian insights.
Bob, welcome back to the show! With current market fundamentals hinting at a strong potential for a new bull cycle in Platinum Group Metals, specifically Platinum, it’s great to have you.
In this must-watch interview, we cover:
Youtube
Bob Moriarty’s Fascinating History with Precious Metals: Discover what ignited Bob’s interest in gold and silver back in 1969, and his observations on the Vietnam War’s impact on US currency.
Register Here
The Power of the “Contrarian” Mindset: Learn how Bob’s contrarian philosophy has shaped his investment approach, especially in resource markets. We’ll discuss his experiences with extreme crowd behavior in gold and silver (1979-80 vs. 1999-2001) and why understanding it is crucial for investors. Plus, hear the cautionary tale of the 100-ounce silver bars bought high/sold low!
Bob shares insights into the recent shift in investor interest in Platinum ETFs, from liquidation to accumulation, and its significance for future prices. Platinum’s Market Position: Given his contrarian philosophy, Bob offers his take on where platinum stands in its market cycle – is it oversold, undervalued, or fairly priced?
MP3 – Audio Only
Current Market Dynamics & Future Outlook: Macro-Financial Conditions: How do issues with bond markets (Japanese and US) and the “Carry-Trade” intersect with Bob’s bullish view on platinum? Investment Vehicles Beyond Physical: For those looking for exposure to platinum, Bob shares his most compelling resource stocks or investment vehicles in the current environment. Educating New Investors: Why is education crucial for young investors entering the PGM space, and what advice does Bob offer?
Rumble
Audience Q&A: Bob answers a critical question from Phil Acton of East Bay Motorsports regarding refined platinum holdings, mining locations, annual output vs. consumption, safe jurisdictions, expected mine life, and where future commercially feasible deposits might be found. Special Offer! This weekend only, get 1 oz Platinum Maples for $109 over spot and 1 ozPlatinum Valcambi’s for $79 over spot! Inventory is low, so act fast! Call us at 855.505.1900 to secure yours.
Key Takeaway: Bob shares his single most important message for investors considering platinum right now.
