Guest Host, Alex McFarland, is joined by Economist Christian Briggs, CEO of Hard Asset Management as they discuss President Trump's recent trade policies

Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

1. 0:00Darkness is not an affirmative force.
2. 0:03It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
3. 0:06This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
4. 0:11It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
5. 0:15Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
6. 0:18And the philosophies of this world.
7. 0:20God has called you and me to be his ambassador.
8. 0:24Even in this dark moment.
9. 0:26Let's not miss our moment.
10. 0:28and now, The Hamilton Corner.
11. 0:33Well, good evening America.
12. 0:34Alex McFarland here on the American Family Radio Network.
13. 0:37And we have got an incredible show.
14. 0:39I'm very honored to be sitting in tonight
15. 0:41for attorney journalist, pastor, Abe Hamilton III,
16. 0:45as I frequently do.
17. 0:47Great honor.
18. 0:48And we've had a lot of guests and done some shows
19. 0:51I'm pretty proud of.
20. 0:53Very pleased with the people and the content
21. 0:56that we have the privilege of sharing.
22. 0:58but tonight, I do not overstate the case at all,
23. 1:02but this may be one of the most significant shows you hear
24. 1:06in many a day.
25. 1:07You're going to hear some very consequential content
26. 1:12regarding your money, the economy, and all of our futures.
27. 1:16And to help us talk about things like crypto and tariffs
28. 1:20and the stock market and central bank digital currency, CBDC.
29. 1:25So many things you're hearing in the news.
30. 1:27Tonight, to weigh in on these topics and more,
31. 1:31Christian Briggs of hard asset management,
32. 1:34he is a leader in the financial sector.
33. 1:37He is a consultant for the White House
34. 1:40in this administration, renowned for his financial prowess,
35. 1:44but also his absolute dedication to integrity
36. 1:48and ethical business practices.
37. 1:51You talk about China, he knows China.
38. 1:53He's run business over there.
39. 1:56He, like myself, is very concerned about the national debt and whether or not our nation
40. 2:04defaults on the debt.
41. 2:06And just the way that we've been spending recklessly wasting money, here we are at such a profitable
42. 2:14prosperous nation and we should not be in the financial duress that we actually are in.
43. 2:21And so a voice of reason and a pathway toward responsible management of our assets nationally
44. 2:30and personally.
45. 2:31I'm very privileged to speak tonight with Christian Briggs of Heart Asset Management, Inc.
46. 2:37Mr. Briggs, thank you so much for making time to be with us today.
47. 2:41And thank you for what you do for our country.
48. 2:43Well, first of all, thanks for being so gracious to put me on your show.
49. 2:47A lot of people today don't want to hear what the truth is.
50. 2:51an old saying in some of the communist countries, it's better to tell them a warm lie to give
51. 2:57them the cold truth.
52. 2:58And you know, America not being anywhere near that, but we still sometimes want to fall
53. 3:04back on, well, I just don't want to know what the reality is, whether it's the debt, whether
54. 3:08it's the economy in general politics, corruption.
55. 3:12But I think that the more we know, the more value and the benefit to our overall standard
56. 3:18of living and as believers, we take that insight that's given to us, God given insight, and we
57. 3:25try to put that into real world terms.
58. 3:28What does that mean?
59. 3:29The action item.
60. 3:30So I'm just glad to be here.
61. 3:31It's a very big honor to be with so many believers.
62. 3:34Your show is huge, obviously.
63. 3:35So whatever I can do to give insight and inspiration on, here's what's coming.
64. 3:41Here's what you can do.
65. 3:42I'm happy to do it.
66. 3:45How do you think so many people nowadays that they get themselves into so much debt, credit
67. 3:52card debt, they live beyond their means?
68. 3:55What do you think so many people nowadays just don't know how to responsibly handle money?
69. 4:02Wow, that's a good question.
70. 4:05I don't get asked that much.
71. 4:06So let's talk about human behavior.
72. 4:08And what is the responsible handling of money?
73. 4:11Again, that's a good question because there's two parts.
74. 4:15They always said it's very hard to become a millionaire.
75. 4:17I don't think it's as hard as today,
76. 4:19certainly might have been 40, 50 years ago,
77. 4:21but even so, success is measured on a couple of different levels.
78. 4:24But the hardest thing I think,
79. 4:26and when you achieve that milestone of success
80. 4:29is keeping the money.
81. 4:30I think it's easier to make it,
82. 4:32but it's much harder to be able to garner
83. 4:34a disciplined mentality on either keeping it
84. 4:38by just savings account or keeping it and investing it.
85. 4:42It seems to slip through our fingers.
86. 4:44So let's talk about why could that be?
87. 4:46And it's not everybody, obviously.
88. 4:47There's a lot of good people that out there that know how to say,
89. 4:49but let's talk about your question.
90. 4:53When you grow up with nothing and you have something,
91. 4:56it tends to be one of those things
92. 4:58that you don't have such a grasp on,
93. 5:01the understanding of the value of what that is.
94. 5:04So you never had it.
95. 5:05So it's kind of one of those momentary things where,
96. 5:07oh, I have it now, but if I spend it on clothes or cars,
97. 5:11it's OK, I'll make the money and continuously make it
98. 5:13and have it.
99. 5:14grow up my wealth that way. And we got to realize that the money that is given to us,
100. 5:21we got to be good stewards of that custodians of that money because it's really not ours.
101. 5:25But in saying that, I think what you have is you have a general understanding that credit
102. 5:29for the last 40 years, up till the last two, three years was a declining cost. So think
103. 5:36about that. The cost of money for 40 years was declining. So that gave us the go to feeling
104. 5:43we can do anything it's going to continue. I once said this and I don't know if it was
105. 5:48well received and so a few members of Congress, I said you guys have been giving money away
106. 5:53from helicopters since literally the late 80s and we have basically been willing to accept
107. 6:00that money without understanding that this is recoverable money. In other words, it's
108. 6:05like when you borrow money at 2%. You still got to pay the debt. Now of course that's
109. 6:10very low interest rate. But at the end of the day, when we are achieving high standards or
110. 6:14high levels of credit and living to a standard, we have to pay that back. It's not free. Even
111. 6:20though some people think it's free and it's going to continue forever. I think the greatest
112. 6:25perpetuated scam on anybody, American people in the world was COVID money. This was money
113. 6:31that is like a non-recourse loan. It was a non-recourse loan. And I read the stories,
114. 6:37I'm sure you did too, Alex.
115. 6:38How many people received hundreds of thousands of dollars,
116. 6:41millions of dollars and thought,
117. 6:43well, they came in like what, two tranches, three tranches.
118. 6:47So they thought, oh, it's gonna keep coming.
119. 6:49It's gonna keep fulfilling what I need financially.
120. 6:52And when the money stopped, well guess what happened?
121. 6:55A lot of them didn't get back into the same business world
122. 6:58and made the same account of money.
123. 6:59So they were living on credit cards.
124. 7:01The discipline that we must have
125. 7:03when we achieve any milestone of success,
126. 7:05whether it's a hundred thousand the bank
127. 7:07100 million is two things. One, appreciate where it came from, maintain the consistency of where
128. 7:12you're getting it and keep that business model going. If it's a one-time thing or a continuation
129. 7:17of your business, great. The second thing, which is very important, do you have two or three years
130. 7:23with the cash in the bank in case something detrimental happens to your livelihood? You got
131. 7:28to maintain that. And unfortunately, the Biden administration through their very, very poor fiscal
132. 7:34policies. I mean, their national foreign policy was terrible, you know, it was just bad, but
133. 7:39let's talk about the fiscal policy. So now you have this inflation that the bottom half of America,
134. 7:45they're basically starving to death. Their wages haven't even come close to keeping up ballots
135. 7:50with the costs they're living. So we're finding that credit card debt and then
136. 7:57the associated costs of borrowing that money on credit cards is horrific. It's up to what,
137. 8:03but 35, 40%, depending upon the bank,
138. 8:06the issues, the cards, there is no way
139. 8:09people are gonna be able to pay back those types of interest rates
140. 8:13in a manner that's consistent with maintaining their credit
141. 8:16because credit card debt hit an all time high.
142. 8:19And when you go against a savings accounts
143. 8:21and you go against your other debt like car loans,
144. 8:24boat loans, whole loans, HELOC, anything like that,
145. 8:28guess what happens?
146. 8:30They don't have the increasing capabilities of the wages to maintain those levels of debt.
147. 8:38So people for all tens of purposes to go back to your original question, it was too cheap
148. 8:44of money that was received too easily in credit.
149. 8:49Yeah.
150. 8:50Well, Christian, do you know what percentage of American households are insolvent?
151. 8:56Well, I'll kind of give you a number that would be the closest to answer your question.
152. 9:03Let's talk about Trump first and his first term.
153. 9:08When he walked into the White House in 17, 52% of America was not active in the labor force,
154. 9:14which means they just didn't pay taxes.
155. 9:15Now they lived usually on entitlement programs, other federal, state, local, fully, or some
156. 9:22kind of an indirect or direct subsidies to their income and their lifestyle.
157. 9:26They had no tax base.
158. 9:28When he left office, even with COVID, he brought that 52% down to 47%.
159. 9:35He lifted more minorities out of what I consider to be the lower income bracket to a
160. 9:41middle income and took people that weren't even in the bracket to a bracket, right?
161. 9:46They weren't even in the tax base and got them.
162. 9:49So he was one of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States to be able
163. 9:54to go to the money, whether it was the African American, the Latino.
164. 9:57It didn't matter.
165. 9:58This guy did a lift.
166. 10:00Let's talk about Joe Biden walking in.
167. 10:03So that 47% by the time Joe Biden left last year, guess what?
168. 10:08We were looking at a 62%.
169. 10:11You know why?
170. 10:12Because he gave away free money, dependency.
171. 10:15If I was to send a check to every American $10,000 every month, the incentive to work
172. 10:21would be, well, not zero, but pretty close to zero for the majority of the people.
173. 10:25Okay.
174. 10:26So now we're at a 62% when Joe Biden took office, the participation in the labor force, but
175. 10:36yet people had less than $1,000 and the bank was 70%.
176. 10:41But when he left office, 80% of America is living paycheck to paycheck with less than
177. 10:46$1,000 cash liquid.
178. 10:49That's how bad those policies were.
179. 10:51You'd almost have to think to yourself, was it willfully done?
180. 10:55And they set Trump up in case he was to win the election.
181. 10:58Did they set him up with an economy that looks to be as in the words of our Secretary
182. 11:02Treasury were facing the worst financial crisis in US history far greater than the O8 markets.
183. 11:09And that's a question that we may never specifically be able to answer with 100% certainty, but
184. 11:13it sure looks like that.
185. 11:15The duck is walking, the duck is quacking, it must be a duck.
186. 11:18So I'm going to leave it at that point.
187. 11:20to go back again, it's about 80% of America lives paycheck to paycheck or has less than
188. 11:25a thousand dollars give or take a few bucks liquid in the bank. That's the worst statistical
189. 11:30number in the history. And I say, we were better off during the Civil War.
190. 11:34Yeah, exactly. And you know, I think about this, and by the way, folks, if you're just
191. 11:40tuning in, Alex McFarland here on the American Family Radio Network, very honored to glean
192. 11:45from the wisdom of Christian Briggs. We've got so much to talk about. We've got just a
193. 11:51wonderful window of time to learn from this man. Christian, before we go too much farther,
194. 11:57and I've got so many financial and governmental questions I want to pose to you, but websites,
195. 12:02where may people find you online, follow what you're doing and your content?
196. 12:09Well, thanks for asking. So I have a podcast show called the Hard Asset Money Show, which
197. 12:15you can go on YouTube for the video version, Spotify and Apple for the audio version. And
198. 12:20then on X, you can follow us at BMC underscore, H A M VMC underscore ham. And our website is
199. 12:28BMC ham.com. Being one of the largest precious metals dealers in the United States, my team,
200. 12:34we've been in business for 40 years. It's given us the ability to follow the trends. And what
201. 12:40we're seeing right now is the government, let's just talk about the debt, if that's
202. 12:44Okay, with you, Alex.
203. 12:45Sure, sure.
204. 12:46Okay.
205. 12:47Since that's the three topics right now that are trending the most between search X and other
206. 12:53media platforms is the debt or the national debt, the long term liability debt.
207. 12:58It's almost one and the same.
208. 12:59We're going to talk about that.
209. 13:01But really, it's also about gold and it's also about digital currency with the Senator
210. 13:04Hagerty from Tennessee with his Genius Act, which is introducing digital assets, stable
211. 13:10coins.
212. 13:11Congressman French Hill in the house who introduced their version of the bill to transition from
213. 13:15paper currency to digital currency.
214. 13:18But the debt, it's not sustainable.
215. 13:21In fact, if you do the math on it, unless something drastic happens with the fiscal policies,
216. 13:27and I'm talking about trillions of dollars immediately in government spending, the sustained
217. 13:33method of spending, and it's a method, right?
218. 13:37It's like a business.
219. 13:38You have a clear path to understanding what your revenues are and what your expenditures are.
220. 13:42Expenditures, we are going to default before Trump takes office. We will literally be in bankrupt.
221. 13:47See, we're technically bankrupt. Bankruptcy is not- Before Trump leaves office, you mean?
222. 13:50Correct. When Trump leaves office, credit end of his first term. See, bankruptcy is defined
223. 13:55at a very clear understanding. It doesn't mean that you're not able to bring in revenues that
224. 13:59all businesses have ceased to exist. It means that your revenues or let's just call your assets
225. 14:04are far less, your debts exceed those assets by a multiple margin.
226. 14:10Well, fast forward here if we are.
227. 14:13If this is a private corporation,
228. 14:15I think the shareholders would have put us in voluntary,
229. 14:17or some type of reorganization or just liquidation bankruptcy.
230. 14:21Sure. Hey, we've got to take a brief break.
231. 14:24Alex McFarland's here.
232. 14:25You know, money, the way we handle money is a character issue,
233. 14:29really. It's a spiritual issue too.
234. 14:31I'm so honored that we have with the show tonight,
235. 14:33Christian Briggs of hard asset management. We're going to talk more because look, this
236. 14:38impacts all of us. The money, the economy, the nation, our future. Stay tuned the Hamilton
237. 14:45Corner on American Family Radio Network is back after this brief break. Don't go away.
238. 15:01What is DEI and why is it antithetical to truth? DEI teaches people to view themselves
239. 15:07and others primarily through the lens of race, gender, or social status. As Christians, our
240. 15:13Your call is not diversity for diversity's sake, but to proclaim Christ, calling people
241. 15:18into unity through the power of the gospel.
242. 15:21I'm Jenna Ellis and you can read my article, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a truthful
243. 15:26definition on thestand.net.
244. 15:34Shining light into the darkness, this is the Hamilton Corner, on American Family Radio.
245. 15:42Welcome back to the program, Alex McFarland here, by the way.
246. 15:45We've got a lot going on in our world, and my website is AlexMcFarlane.com, and we've
247. 15:50got Dinesh D'Souza.
248. 15:52He was a policy analyst under Ronald Reagan, and he's speaking for us May 4th in Myrtle Beach,
249. 15:59South Carolina.
250. 16:01And if we're doing a speaker series called Conversations That Matter, so if you go to my
251. 16:05website, AlexMcFarlane.com slash Conversations, we're bringing in Charlie Kirk later in the
252. 16:11summer.
253. 16:12But you know, it's all about God in country.
254. 16:14And really, all of us have an opportunity and frankly, a responsibility to be the citizens
255. 16:21that are the solution to the country.
256. 16:25It's ultimately the hand of God, but each one of us can play a role in telling the truth and
257. 16:31living right and helping our country stay on track.
258. 16:34So check out my website if you would, AlexMcFarlane.com slash conversations.
259. 16:40We'd love to have you there May 4th to hear Dinesh D'Souza.
260. 16:44One of the other voices that frankly I believe God has raised up and I was so blessed to learn
261. 16:50from this man, Christian Briggs.
262. 16:52He is playing a role in our government but he for many years has led hard asset management
263. 16:58and he's helping a lot of people myself included learn wisdom when it comes to finances.
264. 17:07I grew up in a very political family and my parents campaigned for Reagan and were very
265. 17:13much grassroots volunteers.
266. 17:15I remember in 1981, my mother and dad were just so upset that the national debt hit GASP
267. 17:24$1 trillion.
268. 17:25That was 1981.
269. 17:28And my parents, I was young, I didn't understand it, but they were just freaking out that the
270. 17:35national debt in 1981 was a trillion dollars. Now, fast forward to the present moment. I
271. 17:43know it's what in the high 30s. What is the national debt right now, Christian?
272. 17:48Well, you got two debts, okay? Okay. We have what they call the top line national debt,
273. 17:56top line being the debt that everybody's associated with the number 37 trillion dollars. But we
274. 18:01We have to be a little bit more understanding of the real debt.
275. 18:06It's the long-term liabilities, which are no longer able to be pushed further down and
276. 18:11you cannot negate these.
277. 18:13These are liabilities that you must pay.
278. 18:16So you have credit card debt, let's call that the national level.
279. 18:19You have mortgage debt, which is the long-term liability.
280. 18:22So the national debt at $36.7 trillion and accumulating $8 billion a day, like this is
281. 18:29a day.
282. 18:30And I'm sorry it sounded like you said $8 billion a day.
283. 18:35Sure, do the math.
284. 18:36Yeah, we're gonna end up increasing our national,
285. 18:39listen to this, this is the boy gets good.
286. 18:41Our revenues are $5 trillion this year,
287. 18:44top line revenues for the United States government.
288. 18:46Okay, as somebody who studied both physics
289. 18:49and economics for over 30 years,
290. 18:51both quantum and quantitative,
291. 18:53these are derivative models that we build
292. 18:55that are conclusive.
293. 18:57It's like kind of like saying two plus two equals four.
294. 18:59That's conclusive.
295. 19:00Now, you can change the variables,
296. 19:02but I can show you how to get to four again.
297. 19:04Go to three plus one, that's four.
298. 19:06How about four ones, that's four.
299. 19:08You can change the variables, but the outcome is always
300. 19:11the same when you're using mathematics.
301. 19:13I always said this, people lie, but math doesn't.
302. 19:17So let's talk about math.
303. 19:18All right, let's go over here.
304. 19:19All right, now, if I have a $5 trillion in your income,
305. 19:23not bad, I meant a lot of money, as a country,
306. 19:26and of a $37 trillion debt, my debt servicing number
307. 19:30is $2.4 trillion this year.
308. 19:33We're gonna service the debt.
309. 19:35If the 10-year treasury stays elevated,
310. 19:38over 4% to 4.25%, right now it's at 4.3,
311. 19:42the $9 trillion of old debt that's coming due
312. 19:46this coming summer will go from 2% to 4.4,
313. 19:51even if you mean 4.5%, now all of a sudden,
314. 19:53You're talking $2.4 trillion going into this year,
315. 19:57and now into fiscal 26, which starts October 1st.
316. 20:01You're now looking at $7.4 trillion.
317. 20:04The $5 trillion we've got in revenues,
318. 20:06the 2.4 inches that we have to have.
319. 20:08See the $5 trillion in revenues that we have,
320. 20:12that's already spent.
321. 20:14Excluding the interest on the debt,
322. 20:16here's what you got.
323. 20:17You have an explosion in Social Security.
324. 20:19You have almost 20,000 people a day
325. 20:22going on Social Security.
326. 20:23not quite but close to it. In 23, we had 5.8 new recipients of Social Security benefits,
327. 20:30whether it's disability, retirement, it's going to make sure they're built. Well, that's about 1800
328. 20:35a month back then. Now it's about 1900 a month. And last year, we had about 4 million people go
329. 20:41on Social Security. We're pulling through almost 70 million people. So when you start to think about
330. 20:45the growth in entitlements, this year we're going to spend over $2 trillion on Social Security,
331. 20:50Medicare, Medicaid, hey, chalk up another almost $2 trillion on those. Hey, how about
332. 20:56that military spending? $1 trillion on that. You're done. What's left? That's $5 trillion.
333. 21:02You got no other money for all the other government agencies, which I got 450. I think
334. 21:07the last count was about 450. So no wonder Trump is slashing and burning everything he
335. 21:12the problem that we have is we're still adding eight billion dollars a day between debt and
336. 21:20interest on the debt.
337. 21:22That's a lot.
338. 21:23Wow.
339. 21:24That's a lot.
340. 21:25It is a lot.
341. 21:26And partisan politics aside, I mean, to your knowledge, have the Democrats in a reasonable,
342. 21:36realistic, responsible way, have they addressed this?
343. 21:39Do they care about it?
344. 21:41Or are they willfully, maliciously wanting the economy to crash just to look bad on Republicans,
345. 21:49conservatives, specifically Donald J. Trump?
346. 21:54Okay, that's a really good question.
347. 21:57You almost have to be, well, let me take a step back.
348. 22:01Years ago, I was talking to somebody and I said, one day we're going to be able to prove
349. 22:05there are truly walking brain donors, donors of the brain, but yet still able to biobically
350. 22:11work and live and breathe somehow.
351. 22:14Last administration proved to me
352. 22:16I don't think they just understood fiscal policy
353. 22:21and the first, first part of it.
354. 22:23And most of them on the back end toward the end
355. 22:26when they realized Trump's probably gonna win
356. 22:27started to literally be detrimental to the economy.
357. 22:31And let me kind of expand on that and what I just said.
358. 22:34I think in the beginning, the first two years,
359. 22:37obviously they were giving away money, COVID,
360. 22:39you have this, they thought,
361. 22:40This is going to be a robust economy.
362. 22:41We're going to be able to maintain the consistency of growth.
363. 22:44They lied about the employment numbers.
364. 22:46All the long-term, larger, I call it the larger portion
365. 22:50of all the jobs creation was actually inflated
366. 22:53and the ones that they did back down were government.
367. 22:55The rest of them were just part-time stuff
368. 22:57within the private sector.
369. 22:59So I think there was a move in the first two years
370. 23:02to try to build an economy that was sustainable
371. 23:05to push through the second half of the administration
372. 23:09last year of Biden and then be able to push them into a second term. Once they realized
373. 23:13that the economy was much worse off with the debt, the interest rates, the inflation,
374. 23:18which affected all of their various fiscal policies, they kind of just said the heck with
375. 23:22it. If we got the power of the pen, let's absolutely and immediately let's jump. Okay,
376. 23:30let's go. Let's go to just spending as much as we can. It doesn't matter. It's kind of
377. 23:36like a non-recourse loan.
378. 23:37There was no recourse to it.
379. 23:38So they just said the heck with it,
380. 23:39we're gonna spend away, if we win,
381. 23:41we'll figure it out later.
382. 23:43But if we don't win and we lose to Trump, well guess what?
383. 23:46We're handing this guy a financial bag of rocks.
384. 23:49So that's what they did.
385. 23:51In that last year, even like the last 90 days,
386. 23:53even before he took actually the oath of office,
387. 23:56they were spending billions a day spending money.
388. 23:59We didn't have an order to be able to move aggressively
389. 24:06to package up what now has become,
390. 24:08in the words of Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bissent,
391. 24:12one of the worst financial crisis we're facing
392. 24:14in wealth U.S. history.
393. 24:16So I think it was, it was made of denial,
394. 24:19deny it in the first two years.
395. 24:21We don't need to worry about it.
396. 24:23We're gonna build it up.
397. 24:24The second two years are like,
398. 24:25oh boy, what have we done?
399. 24:26There's no way to pay this back.
400. 24:28So let's just spend between the omnibus bill,
401. 24:31the inflation reduction act, and the infrastructure.
402. 24:35I mean, these people spent $7 trillion between dedicated money now and dedicated money that's
403. 24:40already got to be spent, that was already in the bills for another 10 years.
404. 24:44It was crazy money.
405. 24:45And I said to somebody in Congress, when this was all going down last year, I said, do you
406. 24:51think they even worry about the balance in the checkbook and the repercussions of the debt?
407. 24:57And the answer was no, they don't care.
408. 24:59Yeah.
409. 25:00Wow.
410. 25:02And then, you know, I think about this,
411. 25:07by the way, I'm hearing an echo, I don't know why.
412. 25:09I don't know why I'm hearing an echo.
413. 25:11Maybe we can hear that or something.
414. 25:14But let me try to get this echo ameliorated.
415. 25:19Yeah, there we go.
416. 25:20Can you hear me now, Christian?
417. 25:22Oh yeah, perfect.
418. 25:23Yeah, good.
419. 25:25You know, well, only God knows the heart of another person.
420. 25:29I don't know if Schumer and Pelosi and Obama and Biden and Kamala, I don't know if they
421. 25:34were willfully maliciously trying to wreck the economy to make it look bad on Trump.
422. 25:40I think they probably were.
423. 25:42Let's just set that aside for a moment.
424. 25:46What is the hope?
425. 25:47Do you believe that in this administration in Washington, is there the ability and the
426. 25:55willingness to take the hard but necessary steps to short term and long term save the
427. 26:03American economy and in doing so save the nation.
428. 26:09Yeah, there is.
429. 26:11Yes, absolutely.
430. 26:12Trump has a heart for this country.
431. 26:13I mean, this guy's heart's big enough to probably drive a semi through.
432. 26:17I mean, this guy's got a bigger heart than I think I've ever personally experienced in
433. 26:21the way of which he sacrificed so much for really no gain of his own personal.
434. 26:26literally took a bullet for this country. That's what I'm saying. He took the ultimate.
435. 26:30You know, it's like they always said, he was willing to take what it would needed to be done
436. 26:35in order to garner a result that would be beneficial to the entire country. And people don't think like
437. 26:42that much anymore. But in saying that, I think what you got to remember is this, we have great
438. 26:47intentions. But when we're handed something that has a marginal chance of winning, you have to take
439. 26:53drastic steps doesn't mean you can't accomplish the mission. Okay. I mean, look, we've seen,
440. 26:57we've seen military operations where single sniper shooters or single military
441. 27:03special ops have done amazing things for different wars from World War II to President to all the
442. 27:08back to so far. We have great people, men and women that have sacrificed so much that they have
443. 27:14actually been able to accomplish a mission. But the question of the ask yourself, this is a fiscal
444. 27:18one. This isn't about finding a person or trying to find a target. If there is a target
445. 27:25and you want to kind of take that connotation over this, the target is how do we not default?
446. 27:31Now, a couple of different things that are showing that the default is more likely than not
447. 27:35or a pre-packaged bankruptcy or even a pre-packaged roll-up of the dead into some other systematic
448. 27:41agency like throwing it over to the Federal Reserve, gold is showing that we are in trouble.
449. 27:46Remember, gold goes up before a catastrophic event. If you go back to all the way 150 years,
450. 27:51it shows absolutely it's the only asset that shows movement before the bad news hits. It's the rumor
451. 28:01mill stock, I call it the rumor mill stock, the one you want to buy. The news is when you sell it.
452. 28:05But at the end of the day, what Trump's facing is twofold. Let's go into detail here.
453. 28:11He's facing an $8 trillion debt. When I say debt, that means he needs five trillion in revenues,
454. 28:17He needs to increase GDP, lower taxes, higher revenue on tax
455. 28:20based.
456. 28:21The problem is the taxes are going to start going down.
457. 28:23If we hit a recession, Jerome Powell, the chairman of the
458. 28:26Federal Reserve today, did say that the economy is definitely
459. 28:29slowing, but the inflation numbers are not coming down in
460. 28:33such a way that they could justify cutting interest rates.
461. 28:35So now we're going to stay at some elevated interest rates
462. 28:38with a declining economy.
463. 28:40That means lower tax revenue.
464. 28:42How much tax revenue is going to drop?
465. 28:44That's the question.
466. 28:45Because remember, those has already been able to find
467. 28:47about 200 billion a year in savings,
468. 28:49but that savings could be limited
469. 28:52depending upon the economy's strength
470. 28:54or the economy's weakness.
471. 28:55So if the savings is 200 billion,
472. 28:57but our tax revenue drops 500 billion
473. 28:59because of lower GDP and lower economic indicators
474. 29:02that are already showing this,
475. 29:03our net is still gonna be 300 billion
476. 29:05on the wrong side of the equation.
477. 29:07So he's got to do a fine line.
478. 29:09If you lower the dollars value,
479. 29:11you can increase inflation, which is bad,
480. 29:13which will lower the dollar than all of a sudden
481. 29:15manufacturing jobs becoming very attractive here
482. 29:17because it lowers the cost of doing business
483. 29:19by foreign currencies or foreign governments, foreign companies.
484. 29:22So that's a plus, but he's got to maintain a very fine line
485. 29:25between inflation, interest rates,
486. 29:28and still the revenues without increasing the debt too much,
487. 29:31but he's gonna have to spend,
488. 29:33in our term right now, this year, this term,
489. 29:36we're looking at about two to two point five trillion dollars
490. 29:40and expenditures that go with interest
491. 29:42and then just really meeting the needs
492. 29:43of the government's promises.
493. 29:45So it's a fine line that I would say
494. 29:48that only a handful of people in the world
495. 29:50would be able to be successful at it.
496. 29:52If there is one person that would be successful
497. 29:55at getting out of this quagmire,
498. 29:57is Donald J. Trung the business.
499. 30:00Amen.
500. 30:01Look at what he did in the late 80s, early 90s.
501. 30:03This guy had less than $2 million in the bank.
502. 30:06He had a real estate empire that was on the verge of collapse.
503. 30:08He had about a dozen banks that were like,
504. 30:10look, where's our money?
505. 30:11He goes, look, you can do one of two things here.
506. 30:14You can either foreclose and you can own these assets,
507. 30:16good luck selling them, or you can loan me
508. 30:18another billion dollars, and I'll get us out of this
509. 30:21with time, and guess what happened?
510. 30:23That was in the late 80s, early 90s, and guess what?
511. 30:26It worked.
512. 30:27So it's really about leveraging the value of your knowledge
513. 30:31with the banks, in this case, governments,
514. 30:34or private investment, to be able to weather the storm
515. 30:38enough to lower the rates, to be able to,
516. 30:40and the assistant man can put together
517. 30:42a debt repayment plan.
518. 30:44The only thing is the long-term liabilities
519. 30:46now we see $107 trillion.
520. 30:50You can't get out of that.
521. 30:51That is social security benefits,
522. 30:53I would say the majority of it is,
523. 30:55but then Medicare and Medicaid go along with that
524. 30:57because if you have social security,
525. 30:59you're gonna have Medicare.
526. 31:00If you have Medicare, you're gonna have Medicaid.
527. 31:02And so you've got that,
528. 31:03and then you got military spending,
529. 31:05which is gonna increase at least four or 5% per year,
530. 31:07because now we're taking on China and Russia,
531. 31:09which they've increased their budgets.
532. 31:11So we had to maintain some consistency
533. 31:13in increasing our budgets,
534. 31:14so we can have innovation,
535. 31:16both in software, hardware, and military applications,
536. 31:20and such as ships and satellites and missiles
537. 31:23and radar and drones and anti-drones and lasers.
538. 31:26So you're gonna have to stay innovative
539. 31:28in order to be able to be the powerhouse,
540. 31:31okay, one to be competitive in any application.
541. 31:34In this case, it's military.
542. 31:35So you're gonna have incremental increase.
543. 31:37The question is will tax cuts,
544. 31:39that's one. We'll lowering the interest rates free up credit so that increases overall GDP be enough
545. 31:45because so security is killing us. There's no question about it was a bad plan under Roosevelt.
546. 31:51It's been a bad plan ever since. So we're going to have to re-bamp the method of which we collect
547. 31:56those taxes and how we apply those taxes down the road. I think Trump's going to be like any other
548. 32:03president. He's going to come up with something new. I would say he'd do it's a personal type of
549. 32:07investment account and if we do that it's been mathematically shown that we can
550. 32:11get out of the Social Security liability business within 10 to 15 years and
551. 32:14especially if we lower taxes on some of these other areas.
552. 32:19Hold on for good measure.
553. 32:20Christian Briggs we're talking about the economy. Alex McFarlane here we've got
554. 32:24to take a break. Don't go away. When we come back we'll talk about tariffs. Stay
555. 32:28tuned. Gossip it isn't easy to kick. Who doesn't want the insider info? Who
556. 32:36who wouldn't want to be the bearer of this week's most exclusive whisper.
557. 32:40How then do we bless the name of the Lord when we were just cursing His child?
558. 32:44How do we bear His name while we so flippantly defame His very likeness?
559. 32:49So put on the full armor of God and let one of us who is without sin throw the first stone.
560. 32:54I'm Lauren Bragg and you can read Gossip and the Gospel on thestand.net.
561. 32:59The Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Minute Common Terrets are available at efr.net.
562. 33:10back to the Hamilton quarter on american family radio
563. 33:16welcome back to the program we're talking with christian briggs of listening carefully
564. 33:19folks on to give some of his uh... online
565. 33:22presence b m c ham dot com
566. 33:26uh... b m c h a m as in hard-asset management
567. 33:32b m c ham dot com
568. 33:34and then on
569. 33:35uh... x a k a twitter
570. 33:37at b m c underscore ham
571. 33:40BMC, underscore, H A M, ham on Twitter, and then hard asset money show on YouTube.
572. 33:48You can be sure I'm going to be listening to that.
573. 33:50I'm learning a lot.
574. 33:52By the way, Alex McFarland here, if you recognize my voice, it's probably because of
575. 33:56the live five-day week show on the American Family Radio Network exploring the word.
576. 34:01We've been on more than 15 years, some 3,000 shows, and we invite you to listen in and we're
577. 34:07on Facebook as well exploring the word.
578. 34:10last bit of commercial. We have Dinesh D'Souza on May 4th, Myrtle Beach. Now, you know, I'm
579. 34:17all over the nation. I'm in a pulpit somewhere, a conference, a camp, a church, somewhere every
580. 34:23weekend of the year. But we're doing a speaker series this summer in Myrtle Beach, the number
581. 34:28one resort city in America, 17.2 million people a year from all 50 states go there. And they've
582. 34:34We've got a music industry kind of like Branson, Missouri, and I've rented the Alabama Theatre,
583. 34:40the Greg Roles Theatre.
584. 34:42We're bringing in Charlie Kirk.
585. 34:43We're bringing in Lauren Green from Fox News.
586. 34:46We're bringing in Dinesh DeSouza.
587. 34:49Dinesh made the incredible movie, You've Got to Watch It.
588. 34:53And I've known Dinesh 18 years.
589. 34:55He is brilliant, an Ivy League.
590. 34:58He is truly a great Christian American, served in the Reagan White House.
591. 35:02He did a movie called Vindicating Trump that I would urge you to watch.
592. 35:07Maybe you're one of these, you're just not so sure about Donald Trump or not.
593. 35:11I've met Trump.
594. 35:12I've been in many phone call with faith leaders with President Trump on the phone.
595. 35:17I've spoken with him personally.
596. 35:19You need to see Dinesia's movie, Vindicating Trump.
597. 35:23But also, if you want to hear him in person, just he is brilliant.
598. 35:28May 4th.
599. 35:29So it's coming up in just a month and a half.
600. 35:31I'll have Dinesh at the Greg Roles Theater.
601. 35:34He's part of my summer speaker series, Conversations That Matter.
602. 35:38And you can learn more about that, AlexMcFarlane.com
603. 35:42slash Conversations.
604. 35:44And we would love for you to come out and get equipped.
605. 35:47Because as Christian Briggs is teaching us,
606. 35:51these are tough times, no time to panic.
607. 35:54But it is time to have a clear head, be informed,
608. 35:57have our house in order.
609. 35:59And I think the Lord that God has raised up Christian Briggs to help our government get
610. 36:06its house in order.
611. 36:09Christian, I want to talk about tariffs, but before we do, I want to give you a chance to
612. 36:13finish.
613. 36:14Before the break, you were talking about a plan going forward.
614. 36:18And I also, with just this one segment left, I want you to give us some homework assignment
615. 36:24about getting our house in order, having our house in order, if, as you say, gold goes
616. 36:32up just before an economic crisis, they're probably countless people listening right now,
617. 36:41and they think, you know, millions, billions, thousands, look, I'm dealing with hundreds of
618. 36:48dollars, not millions of dollars.
619. 36:51What advice do you have for us in getting our house in order and may God also grant that
620. 36:57our government gets its financial house in order, but moving forward, what advice do you
621. 37:03have for us?
622. 37:04Two things.
623. 37:06The number one thing that people need to do is they have to look at their debt to income
624. 37:11ratio.
625. 37:12You always want to have no more than 50% of your net income servicing your debt.
626. 37:18That was also your monthly expenses.
627. 37:20If you're making a hundred thousand a year and you have about an eight plus thousand a month after taxes
628. 37:25Let's say you have six your cumulative cost of living should really not exceed three to four thousand per month
629. 37:32You always want to have about fifteen to twenty percent of your net income into savings now one thing to make a note is that gold
630. 37:38Again, we would know we do deal in it
631. 37:40We don't want to try to make it sound like it's the only investment
632. 37:43But actually since two thousand it just was made known today that it outperformed the scp
633. 37:49five hundred during that period from two thousand to current. So we like to think that
634. 37:54people should diversify. You got equities, you have bonds, real estate, a lot of people
635. 37:58have it in their homes, so that's good. And then you have gold because obviously it's going
636. 38:02up what 60% in the past two years where the equity markets haven't even come close to that.
637. 38:07So we know that it does move aggressively prior to something and that something is always
638. 38:15bad news. So as we try to transition from a lot of the, I call it the helicopter money
639. 38:21and the low interest rates that we've been so fortunate to have for over 40 years, to
640. 38:25higher rates, less liquidity, higher cost of borrowing, higher cost of living with inflation.
641. 38:31Gold is obviously helping to create a wealth where systematically some of the other assets
642. 38:37that are called soft assets are now starting to decline. So you've always got to have a
643. 38:40the diversified, you know, 20% of your investment capital long-term should be in precious metals.
644. 38:47So that's good advice, good advice. How can people, you say, you know, debt servicing,
645. 38:56no more than 50% of our monthly income should go to that. Now, a mortgage, a car loan,
646. 39:05What about groceries, the light bill, the phone bill, do you consider that debt or just monthly overhead?
647. 39:14For a house. That's monthly overhead. That's good. I think what we call our fixed debt, which is usually
648. 39:21just mortgage car payment insurance, little things like that, should really not exceed 50 to 60 percent
649. 39:26of your net income. The rest of it is going to be in celery items like groceries, and that'll fluctuate.
650. 39:32You have other utilities with a fluctuate, and you have travel, or you have some kind of a leisure.
651. 39:38There's always going to be variables, and sometimes you come back a little bit, but the one thing to
652. 39:41remember is don't ever use a credit card in finance application. Now, you can, when I say finance,
653. 39:47it means you want to sell it off over a year. Don't do that. If you can't pay cash for the vacation
654. 39:52within a reasonable short time, usually 90 days from the time you take that vacation,
655. 39:56that's okay to have a couple of three months to pay it off. But if it takes a whole year, that's
656. 40:01bad business because your interest on that debt can inflate and magnify the cost of that
657. 40:06much more than what people realize. So again, I'm not here to say that you can't do that. I'm just
658. 40:11saying to be prudent about it, to be very frugal about the way in which you spend that money and
659. 40:16try to maintain the consistency of savings, is that you should really think about more short-term
660. 40:23liability debt payoff. And when it comes to vacations, never take a year or two. I mean, I know
661. 40:29know people that, oh, I spent $20,000 on vacation.
662. 40:31Took me a year to pay it off, and I'm about to do it again.
663. 40:34And I go, no, I didn't take you $20,000.
664. 40:36It took you longer, more than that, longer than that.
665. 40:38And they're like, what do you mean?
666. 40:39I said, well, go to look at the interest you paid on that.
667. 40:41Another $10,000, I think, was what my buddy told me.
668. 40:44And he's like, oh, boy.
669. 40:45So these are the things that you got to kind of think about.
670. 40:48Where could that extra $10,000 grant an interest go?
671. 40:50Well, if you're married, I mean, that could be college money.
672. 40:52That could be extra cash in the bank.
673. 40:53It could be a little bit of gold, a little bit of money
674. 40:56towards your debt on your mortgage.
675. 40:57Things like.
676. 40:58Absolutely. And I think that once you realize that we are stewards of this money, it's not really ours.
677. 41:05So the more we give to rational, and I say this, rational thinking, okay, just rational thinking of fiscal policy and how our own households, the more we're going to get.
678. 41:17Plus, it gives the family a lot of secure feelings that we're doing, what's needed to be done to ensure that when the bad times, hard times, or anytime comes,
679. 41:26You've got that liquidity, you've got that growth, and you've got the asset you need it
680. 41:30in time calls for it in case something happens.
681. 41:33Now, lose a job or unseen costs.
682. 41:37You always want to have some cash on hand.
683. 41:40So let's talk about tariffs.
684. 41:41You know, Christian, down in the South, I used to hear the grownups talk about found money.
685. 41:48Maybe a revenue stream that was untapped, and they would say, okay, that's found money.
686. 41:53tariffs found money for our nation?
687. 41:57Well, they sure can be.
688. 41:59Absolutely.
689. 42:01Tariffs are a method to negotiate at the table to create a absolute level playing field.
690. 42:10That doesn't mean that we have to use them to undermine our customers, or in this
691. 42:16case, our business partners, in a sense, other countries like China, India, Mexico, Canada.
692. 42:22we do have trade relations that must be maintained.
693. 42:26But we're gonna have a $1.3 trillion trade deficit,
694. 42:31the majority of which, not all of it,
695. 42:33but a big chunk of it's gonna be with China.
696. 42:35They're not our partners in many ways,
697. 42:37but they are a way of which that we need to make things
698. 42:40that lower the cost of everyday things here.
699. 42:42So it maintains a lower average inflationary environment.
700. 42:46So when we talk about China,
701. 42:49Their method is to destroy the US's financial system
702. 42:53by destroying the dollar.
703. 42:54They've been doing that by sucking 800 billion,
704. 42:57900 billion a year away from 700 billion,
705. 43:00in some cases of a trade deficit.
706. 43:04So for example, Alex, you and I decide
707. 43:06you don't, we're gonna do business together.
708. 43:08I'm gonna buy from you a thousand dollars,
709. 43:10you're gonna buy from me a thousand dollars,
710. 43:12both of which are products that neither one of us have,
711. 43:14so it's a good relationship.
712. 43:16Now, all of a sudden I say,
713. 43:17you're not buying as much from me as I'm buying from you
714. 43:21and you're manipulating your currency or you're doing this,
715. 43:24you're doing that, you're doing things in which
716. 43:25that would give you an unfair advantage
717. 43:28when China entered the World Trade Organization,
718. 43:31you're not allowed to do that.
719. 43:32Well, China, the day they did it,
720. 43:34they started mini-playing their currency,
721. 43:36they brought it down so their widgets,
722. 43:38whatever the manufacturing items are,
723. 43:39became less expensive than American manufacturing.
724. 43:41And two, which was really bad,
725. 43:44they started dumping products on our shores
726. 43:47for below cost called predatory selling.
727. 43:49Well known.
728. 43:50See, Trump's a master at understanding
729. 43:53the variables of the deal.
730. 43:55And he loves to negotiate and waste to the last minute,
731. 43:58like any good businessman would,
732. 44:00to negotiate the final, final details of a deal.
733. 44:03And that's what you want.
734. 44:03You want to be able to get everyone at the table
735. 44:05and their exhaust, they're tired.
736. 44:07So the tariffs, by definition, are very good ways of which
737. 44:13to bring everyone to the table and say,
738. 44:14Hey, you're buying a billion from me, but I'm buying two billion from you.
739. 44:19We're not doing that anymore.
740. 44:21You're going to buy two billion from me.
741. 44:23I'll buy two billion from you.
742. 44:24I've needed items.
743. 44:25They're needed things back and forth.
744. 44:26So they're critical to infrastructure and economy.
745. 44:29So they are, they're good things, but we're going to level the playing field.
746. 44:33And the tariffs are going to do that.
747. 44:34Now, is it going to happen next week?
748. 44:37No, the tariffs could kick in today in the biggest way and the results will not be
749. 44:41seen for at least six to 12 months.
750. 44:43But remember, Trump as a man and the businessman has had the ability to maintain the consistency
751. 44:52of what he's done in a private sector when he built all these huge towers and hotels.
752. 44:56Look at Trump, Tower on Fifth Avenue.
753. 44:58It's amazing.
754. 44:59Wasn't built in a week though.
755. 45:00It would take time.
756. 45:01Very successful.
757. 45:02So he knows the art of the deal.
758. 45:04So what he's going to do is he's going to continue to negotiate to the last second, the last drop
759. 45:09of the lemon to ensure the viability of the deal goes in our favor at least at the playing
760. 45:15field and then made America our quality is second to none. Made in America is the good
761. 45:20housekeeping seal of approval. We will win not based on price. We will win on quality. And
762. 45:27that's what's coming. So when the tariffs kick in, so does made America and so does those
763. 45:31manufacturing jobs.
764. 45:34So though, like in Canada, I've seen Christian on the news, okay, the shelves are empty of
765. 45:42American products.
766. 45:43What about the retaliation?
767. 45:44And of course, the left is saying, oh my goodness, this is destroying diplomatic relations
768. 45:50with countries.
769. 45:53What about, let me ask you this one.
770. 45:56Do you feel like there are leaders and citizens that have the maturity and the power of the
771. 46:04patience to wait for the benefits of the tariffs to manifest themselves?
772. 46:10No question. Let's talk about Canada. Who's Canada? Canada are great people. I grew up in
773. 46:15Minnesota. I love Canadians. They're like neighbors. They were my cousins actually in a sense. We
774. 46:20used to go through all the time. The great people of Canada is very simple. They're great people.
775. 46:26Their leadership under Tredu was lacking the character and integrity in the
776. 46:33capitalistic markets and he was leaning towards socialism at its finest
777. 46:37which is not a person with the kind of character and integrity that gives the
778. 46:42people the value of the position he held. He should be lowering the regulatory
779. 46:47environment, lowering the tax base and he should have been making more effort for
780. 46:52small businesses to thrive instead of dive straight down into this quagmire of overburdened some
781. 47:00environment of government red tape. So when Canada tries to flex their muscle, the Canada's economy is
782. 47:07a quarter of California's less population. Now, that doesn't mean that they're all bad up there.
783. 47:12The conservative party is a fabulous party, but the liberal party is terrible. These people just
784. 47:17have no clue what they're doing because they think that the revenues of small businesses forever,
785. 47:22even if they put 80% tax rates.
786. 47:24And when you do the tax rates that are currently
787. 47:26are 50%, 60% on top of the regulatory environment,
788. 47:30the cost burden and the tax is probably equal 70%, 80%
789. 47:34of somebody's annual profit.
790. 47:36Certainly, it's close to it if not right at the money,
791. 47:39based on what we look at.
792. 47:40And so Canada, it tries to flex their muscle,
793. 47:43go flex your muscle.
794. 47:44Here's the problem.
795. 47:45What muscle do you have against a $30 trillion economy
796. 47:49when you've been stealing 40 billion a year in trade deficit.
797. 47:52You've been allowing cheap steel and aluminum to become into your country from China through
798. 47:58predatory selling back into America and you're doing it and you're allowing it at artificial
799. 48:03low rates to hurt our manufacturing industry.
800. 48:06Trump's like no more, no more of that kind of stuff.
801. 48:09So Canada better get with the program quickly because if they don't, what's going to happen
802. 48:14is their economy is going to go to zero, not in a little sense, but certainly it's going
803. 48:18to be heard, because who makes Canada who they are? We do. We make China, we make Canada
804. 48:24we make it.
805. 48:25I'm so sorry, we're almost out of time. Christian Briggs, Hard Asset Management, Alex McFarland,
806. 48:31thanks for listening. Blessings, prosperity for you all. Stay true to God and our country.
807. 48:40The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American
808. 48:44Family Association or American Family Radio.