Commodities
The Hidden Hand Buying Gold & Silver: Why Governments Are Using Banks to Accumulate Josh Phair
Date: 2025-12-31 14:01:25
Josh Phair, CEO of Scottsdale Mint, joins Jeremy Szafron on Kitco News to warn that the world has entered a “Metals War” where nations are scrambling to secure resources for future conflicts. Phair argues that a “Hidden Hand”—governments employing banks to conduct mercantile banking—is quietly accumulating gold and silver, fundamentally decoupling the physical market from the Fed’s interest rate policies.
He details why US banks flipped from net short to net long after Thanksgiving, the “desperate” arbitrage that saw jets flying silver across the Atlantic, and the reality of China’s new export licensing system. Phair also breaks down his “Axis vs. Allies” thesis for resource control and updates the “Phair-Sinclair Ratio,” predicting a path to $35,000 gold as the West faces a critical shortage of strategic minerals.
Recorded December 30 2025.
Follow Jeremy Szafron on X: @JeremySzafron (https://twitter.com/JeremySzafron)
Follow Kitco News on X: @KitcoNewsNOW (https://twitter.com/kitconewsnow)
Follow Josh Phair on X: @JoshPhilipPhair (https://twitter.com/JoshPhilipPhair)
00:00 – The Fed is Broken & Silver Explodes
01:16 – The “Metals War” Has Begun
02:34 – The “Hidden Hand”: Governments Buying Secretly
04:01 – US Banks Flip Net Long (Insider Intel)
07:17 – Axis vs. Allies: The Battle for Critical Resources
14:32 – China Locks Exports: The Supply Chain Break
20:02 – Strategic Metals: The New Oil of 2026
22:45 – The US-China Decoupling Reality
24:23 – Fact Check: Are Wholesale Lines Freezing?
29:05 – Physical Shortages & Retail Panic
33:24 – AI Slop & Fake Market Signals
37:02 – $35,000 Gold Forecast (Phair-Sinclair Ratio)
#Silver #Gold #MetalsWar #JoshPhair #KitcoNews #Geopolitics #Investing #Economy #JeremySzafron
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