Financial Firestorm: Tech Stocks, Gold & Global Economy

Andrew Brill 0:05
Thanks for tuning into your Wealthion market recap, I’m your host, Andrew brill. And before you say I know what you’re thinking, who’s this new guy. And that’s exactly who I am. I’m a new host here on Wealthion, I’m happy to be with you unhappy to try and gain the knowledge and the insights that you’re looking for. And also trying to make your money work as hard as you do at your vocation. So that’s what we’re doing. And this is the weekly market recap. And I’d like to welcome in Alan Hibbard. Alan is the co host on gold, silver, you’re a gold platform. He’s also a student of money trying to figure out the difference between or explain to you the difference between money and currency. And Alan is going to help me recap this week’s market. And Alan, thanks so much for joining me this week.

Alan Hibbard 0:50
Hey, thank you, Andrew, pleasure to be here.

Andrew Brill 0:53
Let’s start out with the weird news this week. We know that the Fed has kept interest rates fairly high. But the GDP comes in a good rate, the unemployment rates come in at a good rate. And it seems like there’s consumers spending money. And the economy looks good, much to the chagrin, I guess, of the Fed who was like who seems to want to lower rates. But at this point, the inflation is slowing. But everything looks good.

Alan Hibbard 1:22
Yeah exactly. So it’s interesting that all of these metrics we look at, like GDP and inflation, they’re massaged, to put it nicely, they’re sort of redefined. They’re adjusted, they’re tweaked over time. And that’s really just sort of a headline picture. It’s not necessarily the full story. So if if we want to understand what’s going on with the economy, we’ve got to go deeper than all these headline numbers. And what we see, in my opinion, is that a lot of different people are experiencing a lot of different things. Some people this is the best financial time they’ve ever experienced. Others, it’s the worst. And of course, there’s a host of things in between. So just looking at some of these numbers, just just one or two off the top doesn’t necessarily paint a fair picture of what’s going on the economy.

Andrew Brill 2:08
I equated almost to, you know, watching a football game, where there’s one team that’s leading in all the statistical categories, their yards gain time of possession, first downs, all this stuff, yet they’re losing the game. And that’s where we seem to be, we’ve got all the numbers going in the right place. But like you said, for those people who are suffering a little bit, that’s where they are.

Alan Hibbard 2:31
Yeah, exactly. I like your metaphor of football. And, sadly, my Buffalo Bills just just got knocked out this past week.

I was rooting for them. I picked them.

Yes. Well, thank you. Yeah, that’s the big news of the week for me personally, but But anyways, yeah, yeah. To your point. Yeah, there can certainly be a case in the economy where you get nine out of 10 numbers going the right way. But but that 10th Number, the score, if you will, is going the wrong way. So that could be what a lot of people are experiencing right now.

Andrew Brill 3:01
Now you have all these economic news that is positive. But yet, how do we go from there to what we see, with credit card debt, I obviously the, you know, the country’s debt is over 34 trillion, but credit card debt seems to be going up, and student loan defaults seem to be going up loans on car payments are are slower, we see, you know, people who are months behind on their car payments, but yet the government says, Oh, the economy is great. Is that good? Does that go back to your point where, you know, there’s people that are doing really well, or people not doing so? Well? Yeah,

Alan Hibbard 3:40
that’s exactly another perfect example. You know, kind of the number one thing people want to do is survive, you know, after that they can, you know, move on to luxuries and things like that. But number one is survival. I mean, you got to put food on the table, you got to make sure you have your heat on in your house, especially in the winter. And, you know, in order to reach those ends, people take the path of least resistance. And sometimes the easiest thing to do is rack up your credit card, rather than let’s say, start a second job or start a side hustle and try to monetize a hobby. Those are very difficult paths, easiest thing is to take advantage of all this cheap credit that the Fed has provided for over a decade, decade and a half. With really low interest rates, like yes, we’re at roughly 5.3% Fed funds rate. But like we were at zero for a decade, I mean, like everybody from people to businesses is just too much cheap credit, currency, not money, right, even though people think it’s money, and we’re starting to pay the price. A lot of people default, as you mentioned on student loans, mortgages, everything else. So yeah, I mean, it’s just a matter of time before you know the bill comes due.

Andrew Brill 4:51
Well, that was gonna be my next point is that you know, everything looks rosy and seems great people have spent money. Not I should say people have spent and currency, as you put it, because they’ve actually borrowed the money from their credit cards, or they’ve taken out loans that they’re now having problems paying back. And when that bill comes due, is there, we say we’ve averted a recession. But it looks like with those economic indicators, a recession could be right around the corner when those bills actually come due, or defaults start to take place because those bills are due.

Alan Hibbard 5:27
That’s absolutely right. And don’t forget, the Biden administration, I think, just a couple years ago, sort of redefined what constitutes a recession. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that definition changes again. And even with the old definition, it was still a backward looking measure, like we don’t announce that we are in a recession, we announced that we were in a recession. Oh, but good news, we’re out of it. So it absolutely could be the case that we’re in one right now. And again, it’s really important to think about, you know, the economy at large, and how different that is, from your personal circumstances, individually, you could be in a recession, if you’ve lost your job, your personal GDP is down, that you’re in a recession, just yourself, and you got to think of it that way, in terms of you and your family, and you know, riding the ship, the economy is is a separate animal. And so, to the point about those football numbers, some numbers can go one direction, while the most important number goes the other. And, you know, each of us needs to think about ourselves and our family before we worry about this, you know, abstract thing called GDP, you know, it’s it’s not as big of a deal as your own personal income.

Andrew Brill 6:34
Yeah, we’re now looking at, you know, earning season where are like companies are reporting earnings. But are we getting to a point where, you know, and I use another sports metaphor, every team is looking at their analytics, they’re always looking to tweak the analytics to get that competitive, competitive advantage. Are we at a point in our economy? Or is the government at a point where their analytics are old? Do we have to look at things differently? I look at labor numbers, for example. And I say, okay, you know, what the labor numbers came in really, really nice. And it seems unemployment is low. But with recent layoffs or layoffs that are coming in that have been announced, there could have been packages that were given, and people actually have some extra money. And how does that factor into those numbers, and at some point, those packages run out, and that money runs out, and people are going to have to file for unemployment or party, maybe part of their deal is that they couldn’t file for unemployment, or, you know, they didn’t reenter the labor force, whereas they didn’t file for unemployment. But now they’re going to work for themselves. They’re going to be consultant, those numbers don’t come up in the unemployment numbers. So is it time to look at metrics a little differently?

Alan Hibbard 7:52
That’s a great question. And I would say, yes, you always have to be careful looking at these metrics. Because, you know, as a former data scientist, there’s there’s a mantra we have when you summarize data, you lose information. And so and so to your point, if yes, if you’re going to look at what is the unemployment rate, there’s no one right way to measure that you have to make some decisions, like if a person has been looking for work for one month versus six months versus eight months versus five years. At some point, you have to draw the line and say, either we are or we are not going to count them as unemployed. And there again, there is no right way to do that. So whenever you look at these numbers, whether the definitions are changing over time, or if they’re consistent over time, you have to take them with a grain of salt, because, again, the overall metric isn’t going to tell the story of the details. So yeah, again, I like to go back to what can I do individually? Yeah, there are all these numbers, you know, on billboards, there’s GDP, there’s unemployment, there’s headline, this and that, but like, what is the best thing for me and my family, and then my broader community? And then I can start thinking about, you know, if I were president, what policy would I do? If I were chairman of the Fed? What would I do with interest rates? I mean, that’s, that’s so far down the line, you got to take care of yourself first.

Andrew Brill 9:06
So you know, we see the the NASDAQ, the s&p, and, you know, the Dow all hitting record highs this week. And interest rates don’t appear to be coming down here, the Fed meets next week. And by all indications, they’re going to leave interest rates where they are, do we expect to start to see a little bit of a fall in some of these indexes? Or is that baked in the cake so to speak, and they’re figuring okay, you know, what, we’ll wait until June’s meeting, and they’ll start to lower rates then, and then we’ll really get excited. You’re gonna see numbers pop. Now that’ll, you know, lowering rates, obviously, businesses will start to borrow currency again, and they’ll, you know, things will start to flow a little bit better. But there’s a point where I, you know, to coin a phrase of an old Fed chairman, there’s irrational exuberance. is where they’re the anticipation of something happening creates this frenzy that, you know, we’re kind of living in now.

Alan Hibbard 10:08
Yep, I totally agree. And what’s interesting is that they’re sort of a standard way of investing that experts recommend to individuals, right, like, because of the nature of our monetary system, the dollar loses value every single day. And so if you just park your currency, into a bank account, you’re gonna lose your your value over time, everybody knows that due to inflation. So people almost have to have a second job as an investor. But that’s very difficult to do. And so we have registered investment advisors that basically prescribe the same type of investment to everybody that that 6040 7030 Split based on your age between stocks and bonds. But as a result of that, everybody in their brother is in the same stocks. So for the last couple of decades, everybody’s been buying the exact same stocks. And that’s sort of a reason why we have that irrational exuberance, everybody’s piling into the same investments, they’re piling into the same trades. So it’s only a matter of time before some people start to exit those trades, the big money, the smart money gets out first. And then, you know, what always happens is the retail investor is left holding the bag during those massive corrections. So you know, that that, I think, is the source of the irrational exuberance. And I think a lot of people don’t have the time because they’re busy working. They don’t have the time to really ask themselves like, Are there alternative investments? Could I buy fine art? Right, which sounds like I have to have millions of dollars to do it, but you don’t? Or could I buy cashflow real estate or precious metals or or some some alternative investments. So I think that’s kind of the source of it. And I try to find, I try to find a story or a vision that allows that to unfold in a way that people don’t get hurt. And I still haven’t quite found that way that I think it can happen, unfortunately,

Andrew Brill 12:05
how you talk about precious metals, I know that gold is something that you watch very closely being on gold, silver, and that has kind of stayed steady. And in talking to people about gold that, you know, if you’re looking to stem the tide of those peaks and valleys in the market, gold would be a great place to park your money.

Alan Hibbard 12:26
Yeah. So yeah, the gold is the money you can convert your currency into money. Yeah, exactly. So a long time ago, the average individual did not have to invest, they could just save and they would save in gold, right? Because gold was money and that was it. You didn’t have to be an investor and you could build wealth over your entire lifetime over multiple lifetimes, pass it on to your grandkids just by holding gold and it was a very simple way of doing it and that wasn’t just the United States that’s that’s all over the world. But then when we you know, abandoned the gold standard, like I said, people had to become investors as a part time job, and it’s hard to be good at that. Right? If you’re not taking it seriously, if you’re just doing what everyone else is doing. It’s kind of impossible to be better than average like at best you can be as average if you’re just doing what everyone else is doing. So anyways, I think gold historically could have been the only thing that people did but in in a globalized economy. With the with the internet and so many mega corporations, I think it makes sense to have a balanced portfolio of stocks, bonds and goals. I don’t think you’d really want to go 100% Although I personally at this point in time do not own any stocks. I got rid of them a couple of years ago and there’s there’s a whole set of reasons for that. But yeah, my portfolio is gold, silver and Bitcoin although I would never recommend to somebody to do this very extreme. Taking on a risky position but but that’s where I’m at for anyone wondering.

Andrew Brill 13:51
Bitcoin I’m I’m learning about Bitcoin and one day we’re gonna do a show an educational show on the ins and outs of Bitcoin and maybe you can help us with that. But I view Bitcoin kind of like Starbucks, I can’t go into a Starbucks, because I don’t know how to order a cup of coffee. I want to you know, can I get a regular coffee with milk and sugar? And you can’t do that at Starbucks, you need to know the language. And it’s the language of Bitcoin that I don’t know. And that’s why right now, I’m not dabbling in it, although I am learning about it. But I know there’s a lot of people in my same boat that don’t, they don’t know the lingo. So there’s, there’s, you know, there’s a stumbling block there when it comes to Bitcoin. But at some point, do you see Bitcoin becoming a currency?

Alan Hibbard 14:34
That’s a great question. And people ask me that all the time. And I would say it’s such a nuanced answer. I don’t know how deep we want to go here. But generally speaking, eu sort of, sort of a sort of it will become a currency. So here’s the thing is, Bitcoin is money, in my opinion, the same way that gold is money, and the difference between money and currency is that money is slow, it’s heavy, it’s expensive to move around. And and when you use it using it means holding it. But currency is lightweight, it’s fast, it’s easy to move around. And when you use it, that means spending it. You can think of it as like the difference between a car and a house, like a house is designed to stay in one place, a car is designed to move. And then you can get all sorts of hybrids like a mobile home, but you wouldn’t criticize a house because it isn’t fast enough. Right? But that criticism is often levied against gold and Bitcoin. Well, it’s not fast enough. It’s not supposed to be fancy supposed to stay in one place. That’s what it means to use it. That’s what it means to use money. It sits there. When you’re done using money, that’s when you spend it. So, but currency it’s designed to be used right? It’s fast. It’s you know, it’s a token. So anyways, so in terms of Bitcoin, maybe it could be used as a currency, but I think those will be promises to receive Bitcoin or promises to pay Bitcoin just like when we use gold certificates, like like paint like a $20 bill paper note that was redeemable in gold. The in that case, the gold isn’t the currency. It’s the paper note that’s the currency because it’s designed to be lightweight. A similar dynamic I think will happen with Bitcoin eventually, where you’ll transact Bitcoin, which is really a promise to pay Bitcoin on the Lightning Network or some other second layer solution, whereas the actual Bitcoin itself will be money, it won’t move very often. I hope that answers your question.

Andrew Brill 16:31
Yeah, it Yes. And there’s a lot more to get into that. But let’s switch gears a little bit and talk about the European Central Bank. Obviously, another interest rate question, the European Central Bank this week, as we do our market recap left rates at their highest levels in history. Now, we know that or from all accounts, Europe is kind of dipping into a recession right now. How will that affect, I guess, world economy right now the US economy, you know, when you compared to everybody else, China is trying to deal with deflation, and they’re pumping money into their economy. Europe is in a recession, so to speak. And they’re trying to figure out how to bring stuff down. How does the European Central Bank leaving interest rates where they are? How does that affect everything else?

Alan Hibbard 17:21
Yeah, it’s a good question. Because we are in a world now where everything is hyper connected, like super, super connected. And Mike Maloney in his recent book, he has a really great chart where he showed that how there used to be recessions that were sporadic in time, if you looked at a bunch of different countries, there will only be one or two having a recession at any given point in time. And then with 2008, global financial crisis, I think about two thirds of major countries, something like that had a recession at the same time. And then when we talk about COVID, it’s basically every country on the planet with the exception of Sweden had a recession for the exact same quarters. And so now we’re in such a hyper connected world where, where interest rates in Europe affect the entire world, they do not just affect Europe. So really there, if there ever is any type of recession, depression, that’s in one region, there’s pretty much no chance that it stays contained to that region. So I expect a bunch of bankers and officials to say, right, whenever the next recession happens, oh, it’s contained. Right? Just like subprime was contained in 2008. But not, you know, they’ll say it’s contained, just like COVID was contained right to what it wasn’t. So whatever the next thing they’ll say, the next thing is contained to wherever it happens, whether it’s in Germany, Japan, United States, wherever they’ll say it’s contained, it will not be contained, it will spread. But I just don’t know when that’s going to be.

Andrew Brill 18:49
Yeah and, you know, we’ll stay on the topic of interest rates. I was just reading that housing there, you know, housing and housing applications and stuff like mortgage applications, stuff like that are on the rise. So I think, here in the United States, we’ve kind of come to grips with, okay, you know, what, seven permits 7% mortgage isn’t so bad. I know, when I bought my first house mortgage was seven, three quarters. So 7% actually looks pretty good to me, not where my mortgage is right now. But where it was when I bought my first place to live. But our people now sort of getting numb to the fact that okay, this is what it’s going to cost me.

Alan Hibbard 19:29
Yeah, it could be it’s a great question. It sort of goes back to what we talked about at the top of the show, which was that there’s all different sorts of people in the economy, and just looking at the headline, that headline number isn’t going to be representative of everybody. And I can say on a personal level, my fiance and I just bought a house less than a year ago, and we’re paying I think about 7% on the mortgage. And, you know, but but on a historical level, that’s roughly average. I mean, I don’t have the exact numbers, but I know in the late 80s mortgages were 20% You know, the Fed funds rate peeked at, I think 22% or something like that. So I mean, you know, maybe people are getting used to it. Maybe people are tired of waiting. We were tired of waiting. Just as a way of kind of stepping out of all this saying, like, wow, how do just a small committee of people have such tremendous control over our financial destiny, we’re just like, wow, we can’t just wait for them to lower rates to a rate that we like, and we can’t just we’re not going to wait 10 years for the next interest rate cycle. We said, You know what, let’s just buy a house now, we’ll be happier. And our happiness is worth more than, you know, saving 100 bucks a month, or whatever the math would work out to. So I can’t speak for everyone else. But that’s what we’re doing.

Andrew Brill 20:42
It’s that opportunity cost, right? It’s like, okay, you know, what, I’m gonna, I’m gonna spend my money put a little bit more on the mortgage, but that’s gonna make me happy. I won’t hang on to that money. I’m going to look at my happiness.

Alan Hibbard 20:54
Exactly, exactly. And so we were waiting for several years. And of course, being a finance guy, I watched the cycles, I thought, No, this is the the peak of the real estate bubble, we can’t buy a house now. And finally, we just said, you know, despite the irony, let’s, let’s just go for it. And you only live once. And the opportunity cost to your point is sometimes way higher than the mortgage cost. It’s just,

Andrew Brill 21:17
Oh, congratulations on the new home. And I wish you all the best there. Let’s get into a little bit of individual stocks. And I know, you know, there’s a lot of talk about The Magnificent Seven. Well, Tesla took a huge hit this week. And, you know, there, it wasn’t so much their earnings as much as their forward looking guidance, that kind of rocked that boat a little bit. But now we see Intel coming in at less than expected and also taking a little bit, a little bit of a hit. And I know AI is I guess a $27 billion industry, they projected, I saw a numbers this week to be a $450 billion industry. But right now, these Magnificent Seven stocks, Intel, not one of them. But these these high tech or tech stocks that are you know, had been being written to, you know, incredible levels are taking a little bit of a hit you see in the market where there could be a little bit of a trend here.

Alan Hibbard 22:19
Yeah it could be a trend, certainly, what’s interesting, what’s interesting with the whole AI movement is that it’s a massively disruptive technology or even set of technologies really. And whenever that happens, obviously, there’s tremendous value that’s created. And there’s also a tremendous disruption in terms of employment. And one thing to remember is that not every company can win. So when in any in any kind of industry or field, not every company can win, there’s going to be a lot of winners and losers or more losers. So despite this massive investment in AI 27 billion and growing rapidly, not not every company is going to win, not every one is going to place a winning bet, and I have no idea which ones are going to win because I’m not an AI expert. I don’t analyze that industry. But but it could be a trend to your point. And it’ll be it’ll be interesting to see who wins, who creates value, who plays offensively and who plays defensively that’s kind of something I’m looking for. Some companies play not to lose, which ironically, going back to sports, a lot of times, you know, that prevent defense prevents your team from winning even ironically, so that that could be one of the business moves we’re seeing here. You know, personally, I’m a big fan of Tesla, I think, you know, it’s any of the forward guidances that happen at any point in time, are just just snapshots that are subject to change so rapidly. Like, I think that the pace of innovation at Tesla is probably higher than any other company, that’s just a gas. Again, I’m not a specific analyst of any of those companies. So I think that I would put the least amount of stock no pun intended, but the least amount of stock in those in those announcements of Tesla compared to any other company, because I would think that a Tesla they would have, they would have a tendency to change more rapidly than they would for any other company. That’s just my opinion,

Andrew Brill 24:16
a lot of stuff that I’ve read about Tesla, you know, it dropped to 182 and change. The guidance is still look, you know, we’re just going to lower from 350 where we thought it would go to 320. Now, that’s still a huge, huge jump. What do people see? And I know that you’re not a stock analyst, but and but you’re high on Tesla, what do people see that say, okay, you know what, this is still a great buy at 182 and negative forward guidance for the near future. But, you know, by the end of the year, this thing could be 300 bucks, and that’s something I want to get into it. What do people see that say, okay, yeah, this is a good buy

Alan Hibbard 24:58
Well, so you’ve got The direct question of like, why is this a good buy? And then there’s the indirect question of why do people love Tesla, which is sort of sort of different. So I should say that I don’t own any Tesla’s stock I never have. But I look forward to the day that I feel comfortable buying it. Like I said earlier, I don’t have any stocks. And there are separate reasons for that. But to be honest, I don’t know if Tesla is a good buy at the current price. I really don’t. And so what do other people see? I think a lot of other people see that if they had to pick a horse in the stock market race, they want to pick the Tesla horse. That’s what I think, again, it’s not every Tesla investor, but it does feel culty whereas the other of the Magnificent Seven, it’s it doesn’t feel like a cult, none of those companies are cultish. But Tesla very much does feel like a call. And you kind of have to like you have to love Elon Musk, I think if you want to buy Tesla, whereas the other CEOs, you know, you could take them or leave them. I mean, a lot of people probably couldn’t even name the CEOs of the other mega at this point. Yes. Yeah. So So yeah, Tesla is very much like an Elon cult. And I think a lot of people buy Tesla, even if they’re bullish on Elon, other companies, right, which are unrelated. But you know, because of Elon, they’re, they’re related. So I guess you’d have to interview interview all the all the Tesla stock owners. But yeah, that’s just my take on it.

Andrew Brill 26:19
I want to switch gears and talk about the media industry and the changing landscape a little bit. I mean, Netflix made a deal this week, with the WWE to carry raw, live, and kind of changed. Not only did their stock price pop, incredibly, but it seems like terrestrial TV is almost the thing of the past. I mean, we’re recording this on, I know, I’m recording this on a laptop, I believe you’re on a laptop as well, this show is going to stream on YouTube, which is obviously a streaming thing. We’re not on terrestrial TV. How much does something like this? You see Amazon get into sports? Apple TV is now into sports. The media industry is changing very, very quickly.

Alan Hibbard 27:10
Yeah, absolutely, it is. And I didn’t hear that announcement about Netflix. So that’s interesting. WWE, I kind of forgot about the WWE

Andrew Brill 27:20
I was a fan as a kid when it was called the WWF. And then the World Wildlife Fund did away with that. And it is an entertainment industry. So we do have to deal with that. But it was more about the subscribers that Netflix got than that actual deal. But it’s live sports entertainment, that that’s the market they’re going after, and they’ve gotten the subscribers to back it up.

Alan Hibbard 27:42
That’s interesting. And you know, I just, I couldn’t help but think as you were talking about the terrestrial TV. And going back to football, I can’t believe how many times we’ve talked about football on this on this show here. But just trying to watch NFL games throughout the season, you got to have six different subscriptions or something like that. Whereas when I was a kid watching football, you just turn on, you know, channel two, four, or seven, or you know, the basic cable, and those days are long gone. So in terms of, you know, Netflix and WWE, I have no idea if that’s going to be a winning bet or not, they may have just gotten subscribers in the short term, and then they’ll have a problem in the long term, I have no idea or maybe it’s a sign of great momentum and growth. And they’re going to be a market leader for a long time. I don’t know, to be honest. But to your point, there is that creative disruption of the of the whole media industry, YouTube is big, podcasting is big, you know, just about anybody can reach a wide audience on just about any platform. So that’s really exciting for value creation, which is really the economy. And that means that people can not only consume more things that they want, but they can create things themselves if they want to, you know, start their own business or improve their own personal economy.

Andrew Brill 28:58
Yeah I’ve always dreamed and you know, watching football games, you have to subscribe to that, that extra thing, that extra monthly expense. And, you know, we a lot of us cut the cord to try and get rid of that monthly expense. And here we are dipping back in to the point where our monthly bundle for the things that we like to watch is going to be more expensive than the cable TV that we had at one point. So you know, I am a YouTube TV subscriber. And, you know, there are certain things I can’t get, I can’t watch my Nick’s on, you know, on the channel that they’re on, I have to subscribe to another thing. So there’s a point where this I don’t want to say it’s going to come crashing down. But consumers are going to obviously look at their pocketbook and say, Look, I have too many monthly expenses in the TV space. And I’m going to have to pare down a little bit.

Alan Hibbard 29:49
Yeah exactly why my fiance and I, you know, we don’t have all six or seven subscriptions that were needed to watch the NFL games. We share them with friends and family members. We only have one or to ourselves, because we just can’t justify spending another 40 a month on this 70 a month on that. It’s just too much. And I know that we’re not the only ones doing that, you know, that’s that’s the norm, you know, all over the country. So, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s very interesting to see how the industry is going to address that. If they try to nickel and dime, or if they try to open things up and start giving things away for free, which is a different strategy. We’ll see. We’ll see.

Andrew Brill 30:30
All right. Before we get into next week’s market, I want to ask you about gold again, where do you think gold is going from here? i There’s, there’s both ends of the spectrum. You know, we have some people that say, Well, you know, gold is going to go to 3000. Then you have some people and we’ve had them on the Wealthion network. They say, gold is going to 1200. We’re I know you watch it closely. Where do you think gold is going from here?

Alan Hibbard 30:57
Yeah, yeah, it’s million dollar question. Some cases a billion dollar question. And he was asking, but, yeah, I mean, I think gold’s going up, people might think I’m biased, because I’m on gold, silver, and I own gold. But I think just about everything’s going up, it’s a question of what thing goes up more. And you got to remember that when something goes up in price, that’s not necessarily because it also went up in value, it could just be that the dollar is going down. In fact, that’s usually what it is, like, when you go to the grocery store, and the prices of everything goes up. It’s not like milk all of a sudden got more valuable. It’s just the dollar got weaker. And so I think gold is going up largely because the dollar is getting weaker, and it will continue. Same with the stock market. I mean, yes, of course, there’s innovation and so forth. But a part of that price appreciation is the dollar going down. So in terms of picking a price for gold, it’s really hard. It’s really hard thinking George Bush, George Bush has a quote that I love. He said prediction is hard, especially when it’s about the future.

Andrew Brill 32:00
Sounds like a Yogi Berra type quote, It is it is yeah,

Alan Hibbard 32:04
I love that one. So yeah, um, so I don’t know, picking a price. You know, I just I just sort of answered this question on on our gold silver channel. And I was talking with Mike Maloney. And he asked where I think gold is going, and I clarified between where do I think it’s going? Or where do I want it to go? Which, which are two different things because I want gold to only do 10% a year. That’s it, that’s all I want. Because it probably means that things in the world are stable, stable enough. If gold doubles, you know, you talked about like Tesla doubling or any anything could double. But if gold doubles, that means there’s like a catastrophe. There’s an insane depression, there’s war, there’s world war three, there’s something I don’t want any of that to happen. Unfortunately, all those things are outside my control. Like I can’t control what the ECB does with interest rates, or what the Fed does with interest rates, or what Japan does if they’re trying to fight deflation. I mean, I can’t control all those things, I can only try to protect myself for the decisions I expect others to make. And so, you know, my portfolio gold, silver, Bitcoin is really a hedge against the central planners of the world, doing something crazy destructive, which I think is just inevitable. I mean, you look at their behavior. It’s that’s the direction that we’re moving. And while I hope that they could avert those catastrophes, and I hope gold goes sideways, or only does 10% I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think gold is going to go up a lot. I expect a correction in the stock market at some point. I have no idea when. But that’s sort of what I’m preparing myself for. Right.

Andrew Brill 33:41
So since this is the the weekly recap, we won’t look too far into the future. But there’s a bunch of companies coming out with earnings next week, as we said, it’s earning season. Not gonna hold you to it. But where are you? What are you expecting in the market next week?

Alan Hibbard 33:55
Oh, I expect there’ll be some winners and some losers.

Andrew Brill 34:00
Going out on a limb. That’s risky

Alan Hibbard 34:02
I know. Don’t don’t hold me to it. You know, again, it is a weekly recap. And I don’t want to get too too in the clouds here. Although that is the way I naturally think I I don’t want as an as an investor. I don’t want to have to know what’s going on every week. I don’t want to have to, I want it to be an option. I want to be something that I could pay attention to. It could be interesting. So I don’t I’m not a day trader. I’m not a week trader. I’m not even a month trader. I’m like a swing trader or a long term investor. So next week, I really have no idea. I have no idea. And I would kind of I would hope that anyone whose portfolio hinges upon what happens next week. I would hope that they are doing more research than just watching YouTube videos. I would hope I would help.

Andrew Brill 34:51
Absolutely Well, Alan, thank you so much for joining me I really appreciate it on this weekly recap on Wealthion I think that you’re are absolutely right. We shouldn’t be investing week to week. This is a long term thing. You want your money to work for you is just as hard as you work in your job. That’s how hard if not harder, your money should actually work for you, because your money’s got to make you money. And that’s what we’re here to do. That’s what we’re here to help you with. So Alan, again, thank you for joining me. And thank you guys for watching here on Wealthion’s channel.