Bob Moriarty, the founder of 321 Gold and the author of “The Art of Peace,” and “Nobody Knows Anything,” in a wide-ranging conversation with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable, discusses issues from North Korea to Bitcoin.

Maurice Jackson: I recall when President Trump took office, you shared he will either be the best president or the worst president we’ve ever had. Now I don’t know where he fits into that narrative for you so far, but I have to say that President Trump is not afraid of breaking paradigms. There are series of geopolitical events occurring right now, that have the world’s attention, and I’d like to get your thoughts regarding those. Beginning with the G7 Summit, which just concluded last week. And it got a little testy, if you will, between the United States and the other members, in particular Canada. Give us your thoughts on why these events unfolded, and what do you see being the likely outcome?

Bob Moriarty: The interesting thing, Maurice, is if you remember back, I said that he would either be the best and/or the worst president in U.S. history. And it really appears to be that he’s trying to do both of them the same time. Now to the extent that some of the complaints are absolutely legitimate. Canada has duty on dairy products bearing between 270 and 298%. Trump is absolutely correct to say that’s wrong, and you should change it.

The United States has given its manufacturing away over the last 20 years. Clinton did it, Bush did it, Obama did it. And Donald Trump said no more. But at the same time, when you sit down at the negotiating table and when you pull a pin on a hand grenade, that’s not a real effective way of negotiation. So, he’s correct to say that Canada needs to change their tariffs, especially on dairy.

But his name calling, the whole Twitter thing. I mean, somebody needs to bust the guy’s twitter thumbs. It’s embarrassing to have someone who believes you conduct business of any kind on an iPhone.

Maurice Jackson: I personally feel the same way. I think is very unprofessional, and it lacks class. I’m certainly in the camp with that on. Fitting into this narrative as well, are we officially in a trade war? And if yes, is this just the beginning? And how’s it all going to play out?

Bob Moriarty: Here is where it’s interesting. I think that in every economics course that I’ve ever heard of and I’ve ever taken, everyone agrees trade wars are all negative. We absolutely are in a trade war, and that’s going to turn around and bite us on the ass. The world’s financial system is much too unstable for anybody to go in and yank the rug right out from underneath it. And Trump varies from one extreme to the other. And trying to figure him out, and not just having to go negotiate, but how to deal with him. It’s just especially difficult.

Now, the one thing that people need to realize is that the EU overall, the G6, is actually a bigger economy than the U.S. economy. So pretending that the U.S. could do anything it wants to because it’s the world’s biggest economy is fiction. And this whole thing with Iran is quite interesting, because if Germany and France and England had any sense they would go to Iran and say look. You made an agreement. You stuck to the agreement, and we’re going to trade with you.

It is astonishing to me that a country as big as France is going to let billions of dollars in orders for the Airbus walk away because they’re obeying their master in Washington. And that’s nuts. I expect countries, individuals, to operate in their own self-interest. It’s very easy to deal with people when you know that they’re deeply in their own self-interest. And the interest of France, and the interest of Germany, and the interest of Italy, and the interest of England are different than the interests of the United States.

These countries should go to the United States and say take a hike. You made an agreement, you broke the agreement, they stuck to the agreement, we’re going to trade with them. It’s the end of the empire for the United States, and the rest of the world really understands that even if they don’t speak it, the United States, of course, is totally clueless.

Maurice Jackson: The question is, will these allies of the United States have the resolve in fortitude to actually take that step and say “enough”?

Bob Moriarty: Well, the interesting thing is Trump is doing exactly what you would do if you wanted to force people into action. I mean, if he insults them long enough and hard enough and he breaks enough agreements with them, they’re going to say, hey, we have to operate in our own self-interest. They shouldn’t do it because it makes sense, but they’d been used to operating under the United States’ nuclear umbrella for so long that they’ve forgotten that sovereign countries have their own.

Maurice Jackson: Slightly shifting gears here, what are your thoughts on this week’s historic meeting between the U.S. and North Korea?

Bob Moriarty: I’m glad that they had the meeting, but to the degree that we know, mainstream media lies about everything. I think that it will be weeks or months before we really understand the ramifications of it. I absolutely would like to see the nuclear weapons in North Korea disposed of. I’d actually like to see North Korea and South Korea reunite. There’s no reason for them to be separate countries. But that’s up to North Korea and South Korea.

I will say, it certainly appears that North Korea has gotten the best side of the bargain so far. And one of the things that I’ll remind you, under the Clinton administration, the United States made an agreement with North Korea in which North Korea would stop work on nuclear weapons, and the United States would supply them with a nuclear power station and give them access to the world economy. And under the Bush administration, the United States actually violated that agreement. So, I don’t know. When you make an agreement with Donald Trump, I don’t think it’s very valid. It’s valid until he changes his mind.

Maurice Jackson: For those that are opposed to Donald Trump right now, and see this as a bad move. What is the actual bad move? What is the narrative that they’re trying to get out?

Bob Moriarty: Oh, they hate Trump. But that’s the deep state that wants to stay in a state of perpetual war, and wants to dominate the rest of the world. And that’s very dangerous.

Maurice Jackson: All right. Bob, before we close here, I have to ask you about “Bitcon,” as most people know it as Bitcoin, which has some interesting developments this week. Give us your thoughts.

Bob Moriarty: The interesting thing is that bitcon’s one of those things like stocks and bonds and mainstream media. Ignore everything you’re told. Back in December, we had what was probably the most clear cut top in a fraud-ridden investment that I’ve ever seen. And I went out and made multiple interviews and said this is a top, this is going to crash, and it’s going to go down at least 90%.

There are two aspects people believe. One is that it’s rare. And as of today, there was 1902 variations of cryptocurrencies. Now, if you’ve got 1902 variations, I don’t give a damn how good any one of them is, that simply isn’t going to work. You couldn’t have 1902 kinds of food stores. You couldn’t have 1902 kinds of theater. You couldn’t have 1902 kind of pet stores. There’s a limit to competition.

And, of course, the other theory is that if you want to buy dope or if you want to hide money from the government, here is a great way to do it. Every phone call, every email, the government monitors everything we do. If anybody thinks they’re going to get away with that, it isn’t going to happen. So, the only two reasons for owning it are total nonsense, and when you look at it and say, well if those are nonsense, why is it going to up?

The answer is FOMO—Fear Of Missing Out. But we had a top in January; it’ll take two or three years for it to hit bottom. Most people are going to be talking all the way down, saying it’s going to turn around, going to turn around, going to turn around. As of today, it is down 68%. It has crashed. And I got a real big kick because I go to chat boards sometimes to see what people are talking about. And everybody agrees: Moriarty is an old fart who doesn’t understand cryptocurrencies. And the really funny thing is I’m of three guys in the world who actually called the top. I’d say I understand it very well.

Maurice Jackson: I would agree with you. You certainly have made the calls. So, if Bitcoin isn’t an alternative for you in your portfolio, what is?

Bob Moriarty: Safety. I think that trying to invest today, well, traditional investing methods is simply not going to work. The very best that you can do it is to speculate, so what you have to do is say, what can I invest in that’s safe?

And I believe that when the banks crash—and it’s when the banks crash, not if the banks crash—when the banks crash, you’re going to want to have something that has real value and historic value that you can hold in your hands. Everybody’s going to get hurt, and the only question is how much you get hurt. But I think that if you’re sitting on gold or silver or platinum or rhodium, you’ll be doing okay.

Now to give you an idea, rhodium has tripled in the last year. If gold tripled, or silver tripled, or platinum tripled, everybody would be talking about it. Right underneath the radar, rhodium’s tripled. And that will give you an idea of the potential. When it turns, and it will turn, it’s going to be some exciting times. The resource shares are not as cheap as I’ve ever seen them. I’ve seen them cheaper in 2009 and 2001, but they’re pretty darn cheap. And I think from a relative point of view, the gold shares are going to go up a lot more than gold does.

Maurice Jackson: Well, Bob, thank you for your insights here.

 

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