GoldSeek Radio - March 30, 2018 [BIX WEIR & ARCH CRAWFORD] weekly

Show Highlights

Part I of the discussion of Bix Weir of RoadtoRoot-A includes comments on silver and Bitcoin.
While gold remains the de facto king of currencies, Bix Weir outlines his highly bullish case for silver.
The duo agree, silver represents an ideal safe haven as a hedge against the Echo Bubble, which threatens to ignite the Great Recession II.
While research suggests the Comex gold / silver ratio is 100:1, our guest identifies a competing figure of 2,000:1, paper to bullion.
The supply situation is just as impressive; although the gold / silver ratio is near 80:1, the empirical ratio is 1:1, as stockpiles of gold exceed that of silver.
The theoretical value of silver is $1,000+, a 50+ fold relative discount to current prices.
In 2016 100 billion ounces of silver is currently traded on exchanges, although only 50 billion ounces exist, ergo the silver market may be nearing a key, bullish inflection point.
All silver ETFs and proxies are based on the fractional reserve system dynamics, magnifying the investment risks associated with rehypothecation, making the case for 1:1 gold / silver.
The resulting threat to the global financial system is many times larger in scale / scope than the combined impact of MF Global, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers debacles.
Both Bix Weir and the host plan to HODL silver until market manipulation comes to an inevitable halt.
The discussion includes Bitcoin / Altcoins and the crypto-sphere. Nearly 3 billion global inhabitants have zero access to banking resources, including services taken for granted.
Nothing is required for most of the disenfranchised to open a Bitcoin or Ethereum account.
Using a mobile phone and voila, even the indigent are a "walking bank."
Not even a phone is required to download a free Bitcoin wallet at a local library desktop.
Bix Weir is leery regarding the Bitcoin ramp to $20,000 and subsequent decline under $8,000 - he suspects powerful interests intended to dump Mt. Gox BTC inventory at high prices.
Due to the hype of numerous impending Bitcoin forks, Fork-apalooza.
Excitment regarding the new BTC futures contracts, caused liquidity to dry up as investors bought the rumors and then sold the fact.
Financial markets are discounting mechanisms that typically anticipate events up to six months in advance and adjust prices, a priori.
BTC statistics reveal that the months of Nov. / Dec. tend to be favorable for BTC, while January - March are less so; April - June tend to be recovery periods.
Those who disparage the value aspects of cryptocurrencies fail to recognize the value inherent in the Bitcoin PoW concept, where SHA256 hashing power is key to the integrity.
SHA256 vastly reduces the 51% attack risk inherent even in DPoS / PoS protocols. Bitcoin is based on a "trust-less" system that removes the middleman or third party.
Bitcoin removes the banking intermediary, eliminating wasteful fees while increasing efficiency, just as email is 100's of times less wasteful / costly than traditional snailmail.
The TCP/IP protocol remains the backbone of the internet, despite a myriad of solid competing alternatives, as the TCP/IP had first mover advantage and early adoption, similar to Bitcoin.
Satoshi Nakamoto and new developers defeated the Byzantine General problem, the consensus issue, by distributing the blockchain ledger among key, collaborative hash nodes.
Bitcoin detractors make the following points: coin mining is too costly, cannot be used to pay taxes and is an inadequate store of wealth.
The host counters: Arizona now accepts BTC for State tax payments, credit card company verification systems consume several fold the electricity of crypto mining.
At $7,000 per coin, BTC's price remains 600% higher than 12 months prior.
Traditional fiat money is doomed - the host coins a new crypto-battle cry: "Bitcoin is an unstoppable fiat money, computer virus."
Arch Crawford, head of Crawford Perspectives, outlines his technical perspective on US shares, gold, silver indexes.
Our guest continues to monitor the technical condition of the PMs sector, noting the positive inverse golden cross.
Given the sharp advance in the gold, silver, commodities, XAU and WTIC , Arch Crawford is anticipating a new bull market, music to the ears of PMs aficionados.
Regarding US equities indexes, volatility was too low for too long - he expects a return to the mean resulting in a capitulation moment.
His account remains short equities since January 15th without margin. After the 3 day Easter / Passover weekend, stocks could rebound from lows.
The new $60 billion trade tariffs imposed by the Administration on China, suggests increased tensions between the US and China / N.K.
Should relations continue to deteriorate, the potential for military conflict may add a new twist to the geopolitical / financial arenas.
On the domestic economic front, the discussion veers to the hawkish FOMC rate hike strategy.
The current Fed Funds Futures (FFF) at the St. Louis FRED website indicates low odds of another rate hike at the upcoming May meeting.
Odds are high for June rate increase to 150-200 basis points (80% odds); about even odds of a final 2018 increase at the December meeting.
The threat of higher rates has rattled some perspective home buyers, resulting in higher SFH default rates and potentially ending the echo housing bubble