Silver 'Just Waking Up' - $300+ In Play For 2026: Andy Schectman

0:00Hello everybody and welcome into commodity culture where we break down commodities markets sound money principles and geopolitics all with the goal of making you a better investor in the commodities sector. My name is Jesse Day today is March 10th, 2026 and on this episode I'm thrilled to welcome Andy Scheckman to the program and expert in the gold and silver space in the president of miles Franklin precious metals. Andy remains fiercely bullish on silver despite the run up in prices and believes any dip is a potential buying opportunity as he believes that far from reaching its peak the metal has just woken up and could go to over $300 by the end of the year. Andy also breaks down the potential effects of the war in Iran on precious metals markets while goldback stablecoins could be a Trojan horse for central bank digital currencies. What these obscene levels of wartime spending could do to the US economy and so much more so strap yourselves in for my conversation with Andy Scheckman.

1:01Andy Scheckman great to have you back on commodity culture. I want to kick things off by getting your thoughts on how gold and silver have reacted so far to the war with Iran. We saw both metals along with related equities sell off somewhat nothing major as we sit here today gold now about five thousand two hundred silver at around eighty nine dollars announced assuming this continues to expand how do you anticipate this conflict in the Middle East affecting precious metals prices. I think that typically the market gets the first move wrong. We all expect everyone expects the price to take off my old friend God rest is so Jimson Claire used to say moep management of perception economics at every time we've gone to war since the the first Gulf war in the 90s they knock the price down to manage expectations. We're told that it's liquidity management that the gold and silver are liquid and so they're sold first but I don't believe that to be true. I think it's more managing the perception of what's happening but look I think if if the war

2:06expands it does become a massive catalyst for both gold and silver because it drives things that metals love most uncertainty loss of confidence inflation debt gold is real money and I think that if it were me I wouldn't be shaken by a pullback at all I'd see this as a market given you one more chance because the amount of deliveries that we've seen over the past 16 months tell you that the most well informed traders in the world who have been front running all of this understand where the puck is going just like Wayne Gretzky never skated to the puck he skated to where it's going and they're telling you through their deliveries nonstop which the media has missed completely and totally that this is just beginning that this is not the end of the bull market for gold and silver. Now is the mainstream missing it or they intentionally misleading people because I was having this conversation recently that the mainstream media has missed out on this whole bull run in precious

3:07metals when they did mention it it was often in snide remarks to say why you should be cautious about investing in gold and silver why it's highly speculative if we take the view of conspiracy theorists which at this point I think we all have to become conspiracy theorists considering everything that's going on in the world the Epstein files etc there is potentially a conspiracy of governments trying to stop people from understanding the gold and silver is money that's through price manipulation that's through the sort of volatility like we saw after silver ran up to well over a hundred dollars announced 26% drop in a single trading day there's some speculation that Komex circuit breakers were start supposed to trigger but didn't that's a whole other conversation but alongside with that you have the media not paying any attention to many major events that are going on in the precious metals sector do you think this is all by design yeah the the circuit breakers don't trigger twice on the downside it's a glitch and twice on the upside there's an overheating of a server on Thanksgiving evening right at 11 o'clock in night everyone's

4:11trading right on Thanksgiving and then it does it again just last week where you know they threw natural gas into the the mix so that the natural gas in the metals market glitched again and silver open back up four hours later four dollars down and then you know you go back and and see how they did that during Thanksgiving day or evening when they did the same thing prices were flying and then they knock it down they for 11 hours the market is closed saying all the servers overheated of the thousand commodities they traded just so happened that the metals market servers overheated forget about the triple redundancy these server farms have but yeah it was a glitch four glitches since Thanksgiving and we're supposed to believe that's random and okay there is a fine line between conspiracy and reality and you damn right Jesse they missed the biggest thing period yeah Reuters calling silver devils metal it's always in a negative light what they've missed is that the most well-informed and well-funded traders on the planet those here in New York for 16 straight

5:15months have stood for delivery at levels nobody has ever seen before nobody and it's not just the delivery a lot of it's leaving the exchange the this should have been front and center news for the February delivery which is a non it's it's it's not a primary delivery month and I'll get the numbers pretty close but roughly 25 million ounces were delivered which would have been one of the smaller delivery months over the last 16 where it's average between 30 and 70 million ounces delivered billions every month 25 million ounces delivered into the comics 38 million ounces leave comics 160 percent of what was delivered which would which would be able to explain what left 160 percent left of what deliveries would explain alone in other words who the hell is standing for delivery and then moving 39 million ounces out of the comics literally moving it out if a mint box of silver Eagles weighs 42 pounds it's 500 ounces who's moving 39 million

6:19is there a coincidence and talk about media framing things poorly does anyone in the mainstream even know that silver was classified a critical mineral for national security last month that they've decided through project vault which no one knows about to build a strategic stockpile and to put state sponsor price floors underneath this the price of critical minerals like silver and platinum to incentivize domestic mining none of this stuff is talked about only the negative stuff so you're right there is a very fine line between conspiracy and reality and they want everyone to believe that you and I and the people that you talk to are nuts but yet we've been proven right over and over and over and over again yet the mainstream won't acknowledge the the journalistic integrity that that we all grew up thinking was real is dead and is gone and you're far more a mainstream journalist and anything we'll find on Fox or CMBC or any other mainstreams because you have the courage not only to to say these things to your guests but the way you just said it is poignant and real and true

7:23and you're damn right this is this is being kept from us not only by misdirecting with price but misdirecting with rhetoric and and information hundred percent gold has historically been one of the most reliable stores of wealth but now there's a way to earn from it directly monetary metals operates the gold yield marketplace where holders of physical gold and silver can earn yield on their metal paid in ounces of gold not dollars through their platform clients can earn up to a four percent annual yield on gold paid in gold ounces that yield derives from leasing physical gold to qualified businesses in the precious metals supply chain like jewelers and refiners your gold stays in physical form and you retain title to your metal the additional yield is paid to you in gold preserving and growing your exposure to the price of gold as inflationary pressures debt concerns and macro uncertainty continue to make gold attractive as a hedge

8:24earning a yield on gold adds another strategic layer to your portfolio individuals and institutions around the world have already been earning returns through monetary metals leasing program for almost a decade so go to monetary-metals.com slash commodity to find out how to put your gold to work the link is in the show notes below and now back to the interview something you've discussed on this show is the amount of silver needed for military applications and of course not to mention all the other industrial uses for the metal we are in the sixth year of a supply deficit of silver according to the silver institute how much do you think this industrial and military need for silver could affect the demand side here and what will that do to prices yes silver is absolutely needed for defense systems for aerospace for communications for advanced electronics so the military side matters because it's not optional demand period they're not going to stop buying it because it went up 20 bucks they're going to secure what they need

9:29and and the same things through with industrial demand it's sticky it's critical it's not the kind of demand that just disappears overnight it's it's strategic as we were just told it is now a strategic metal necessary for not only national security which would be military demand but industrial demand as well AI energy infrastructure they're all drawing from the same little pool of supply so according to the the silver institute we're now in our sixth year of structural deficit then at some point doesn't price have to rise to to to meet reality and I would argue in in an asset like silver which is the one metal that the world really needs and is burning through as if it's abundant that repricing won't be orderly it'll be explosive because it's been held down for so long and now that the reality is that physical demand is far more important than paper promises and

10:31you're beginning to see that through the deliveries across the globe now you mentioned prices needing to rise you've been incredibly bullish on silver since I first started talking to you on this show you've called it a generational opportunity your words prove prophetic as we saw the tremendous run up to triple digit silver but at these prices because I've spoken to some people in fact I spoke to Jordan Rushi from mining stock monkey recently he said silver scares him right now because of how far and how fast it's moved in such a short time are you still seeing a large amount of upside ahead and if you had to venture a guess where do you think silver will be at the end of 2026 silver at these prices and not the end of the move at all to me in fact it's proof that the market's waking up you have what is his name just a second there is what's his name the Michael Wydmer Bank of America's head of metal research says silver could reach anywhere between 135 and 309 by the end of 2026 so when we talk about how high it go you got the head of

11:37Bank of America their metals analyst saying this you have Michael Hartnet their chief analyst who came out not too long ago and said that you should sell half your bonds and put 25% of your assets into precious metals you have the the chief investment officer for Morgan Stanley who said the 6040 platform that Wall Street is used is dead same thing Hartnet said he said it used to be 60 stock 40 bonds sell half your bonds he said as well and put 20% into metal so I don't know when when when silver wakes up I can't see it stopping at what people think is reasonable and there are people who think silver has gone too far too fast I think it's finally gone far enough for people to notice and not nearly enough to reflect reality when you see the amount of metal that is standing for delivery every single month for 16 straight months unabated it tells you the reality that prices the greatest tool of misdirection and the length that they had to go to to stop it from

12:39rising two glitches don't worry it's okay it's just a glitch forget about all the other commodities it's just focused on the one of the thousand commodities that comics trades it's just gold and silver just keep keep on going and the same thing is true with on the downside oh the circuit breakers that would stop it from falling broke twice it's just a glitch four glitches since Thanksgiving but it's just no big deal we're working on it and then you see the deliveries and then you see the head analyst at Bank of America and the head of their metals research saying go to 309 bucks by the end of this year I don't know you tell me where will it go silver and gold have never been allowed to find real price discovery because of the west and their desire to hold it down gold for something called gibson's paradox the inverse relationship between real interest rates and the price of gold and silver because the military industrial complex needs it end of story so do I think it's too late no I think it's just beginning now aside from the absolutely tragic cost of

13:40human lives war is expensive to wage and estimates from the center for strategic and international studies place the cost of this war with Iran at close to 900 million dollars per day if the conflict continues for longer than the Trump administration is predicting and it seems to already be playing out that way and if God forbid it drags on for years what does that mean for government debt and deficits and the US economy sadly war is always bullish for gold at the same time it's another it's another leg in in the great monetization of the American decline and it is it's it's more debt it's more pressure on the bond market more pressure on the dollar and loss of confidence in the United States it's bipolar I mean it's excuse me it's polarizing rather and it's not good anyway you look at it for anything except probably the price of gold it is not good for this country it is not good for the dollar is not good for the reserve status is not good for

14:43anything and yeah absolutely war will put will will be very inflationary will need more money printing more more selling a bonds more strain on the dollar probably pretty good for metals and that's about it well later on the interview I'm going to ask you a bit more about your unfiltered views on the war with Iran so stick around for that guys but first I want to ask what trends you're currently watching when it comes to gold's role as money in today's bifurcated world we've seen some big events transpire we've talked about a lot of them on this show basil three the growing bricks alliance and their desire to trade outside the dollar talk of gold back bonds in the US central bank buying and much more could you help separate the signal from the noise for us and let us know what you're watching right now I've felt for quite some time that gold was quietly being remanitized Jesse by the central banks and not so much through their rhetoric but through action they're treating it as a strategic reserve it's role to me has been rising

15:46because more than anything trust in in the dollar in in the reserve mix which is dollars and treasuries is is and has been eroding and you know there was a report not too long ago that said gold has surpassed the euro to become the world's second largest reserve asset to me that reflects what gold is it's it's more than anything it's a neutral reserve asset with no counter party risk no sanction risk gold is is its role is returning maybe as money not because of politicians declared it so it's returning because trust is fragmenting reserves have been weaponized I don't know to me it's that central banks are choosing the one asset that that sits outside the liability structure of another government in other words you can't you can't sanction it you

16:46can't freeze it you can't inflate it away and I think that's really what what's going on more than anything tether has become a major player in the physical gold market in a move I don't think many saw coming and it's now one of the largest non-governmental holders of bullion having a mass around a 140 ton stockpile of gold and they are continuing to buy their gold back stablecoin XAUT now has a market cap exceeding 2.8 billion how much of a factor do you see tether in the current setup for gold and do you think we could see wider adoption of gold back stablecoins and other gold backed cryptos up ahead well you have the genius act that goes into effect in January and USA tether is a big part of that and their gold accumulation I've talked a lot about this I'm going to frame it a different way here but I've talked a lot about the fact that I think they're part of this is the wink wink nod nod this is the part that is it's all conjecture by me where I

17:49really do believe that there's no quincense at bohines who was trumps cryptos are to august is now the president or the CEO of USA tether there is no quincense that they continue to accumulate gold think of this in the respect to what Judy Shelton is saying because rising gold devalues the dollar and if indeed they work this out where because of the clarity act you cannot transfer the interest that is backing the stablecoins which are 90 day or less short term treasuries synthetic demand tether keeps it they buy gold it devalues the dollar pushes gold higher that's what they want but look I think on a bigger signal I'm in a bigger picture I think what you're getting at because I do believe that and people go back and watch my videos I've talked a lot about tether but what it is to me is you're you're taking something that us you know old school gold bugs talk about and this this asset you're making it portable and divisible and transferable in a digital environment and that matters because there's a there's a growing class of young investors who want gold exposure

18:54maybe they're beginning to without the friction of shipping and storage and all that stuff and so you know I think that this is the kind of the bridge if you will between old money and new rails so yeah I think goldback stablecoins and someday tokenize gold products will see wider adoption especially in a world where where trust is being destroyed and and you know younger investors want mobility and are more comfortable owning value on chain rather than a safe deposit box so yeah I don't know merging gold with the qualities of of blockchain or crypto to me that broadens demand tremendously it brings on a new class of buyers into the market but I would also say that the closer the world gets to real stress war monetary stress you know let's not forget the difference between a claim on gold digitally even if it's all done right and gold itself so there

19:57is one thing to say that you know physical gold in your own possession maybe is the best way to own it but there certainly is something to be said for this expansion into asset backed crypto so I wonder if you see any potential danger when it comes to the gold backed stablecoins because you were mentioning there that we're entering an era where physical is obviously far different than a paper promise and we're also seeing signs of acceleration towards CBDCs by certain governments of course the EU announcing their digital euro rollout we'll have to see how that goes but clearly this is something that has a lot of people concerned so do you see any potential bridge there between a gold backed stablecoin and a CBDC that maybe people should be wary of well yeah when you add into it the digital ID needed for voter registration that they're trying to you know really push you have the mix of digital money with with a digital idea is that is in my opinion

21:01the entryway into the gateway as they would call it into the digital surveillance state you know the difference between a CBDC and a stablecoin is at a CBDC the the CB is central bank right so people well I don't want the central bank you know but if it's private well that's different but if you look at the rails the plumbing of the of the stablecoin bill the genius act everything comes in and out of the US treasury and so when you talk about in essence the on ramps and the off ramps will be monitored by by the government in essence you could argue especially when combined with the digital ID that we have been told is for election integrity and you know I did an interview with Catherine Austin Fitz and it was very interesting she came out and said and kind of a lot of a lot of interesting comments about this that Trump was brought in for this reason specifically

22:05to convince those on the right that they needed a digital ID look how bad it can get with election interference is kind of the theory and yes that there are those that may be rightfully so corn to Catherine that this indeed might even be every bit as bad or worse than a CBDC because everyone's guard is let down because these are our independent companies that are issuing the the stablecoins but let's not forget that it all goes into and out of the US treasury so is it the stablecoin or is it a central bank digital currency in stablecoin clothing I think that's what Catherine would say and it's certainly an interesting thought experiment well I want to close our conversation as I often do by taking a step back from the financial side of things and getting your current views on the state of the US of society in America of the political sphere because Trump's war on Iran appears to be incredibly unpopular and with WTI crude prices

23:06having broken triple digits I believe now we're in the 80s we could start to see consumers feel the reverberating effects at gasoline prices the prices of food and electricity and just inflation going up in general assuming this war continues assuming the oil prices stay high and with everything that's happening in America with the political spirit feels like Trump is representing the opposite of everything he said he was running on which is to be the president of peace and here we are attacking a foreign country how do you see all of this potentially evolving moving forward yeah it sucks you know it's interesting that the CPI I mean the CPI doesn't take into account food energy and housing food and energy being through the primary inflated perhaps assets or commodities as this carries on but look I mean I think the easy answer is that it seems that America's already stretched then most people are carrying too much debt and that's

24:09just to maintain the status quo so when you see things like oil spiking would just make sense that it would ripple through the entire economy in things like transportation and food like to your point both of which you know are vital that ripples all the way down into manufacturing the cost of utilities everything is all about energy and it all rises together so you layer all that on top I guess a minority strained middle class rising debt declining trust in institutions I don't know man it doesn't take much more for people to feel like you know that the system doesn't work for them anymore I think it's it's it's a scary it's a scary thing and you're right it could change very quickly because this was supposed to be a you know four four-day deal it seems to me like they're a long ways off on that on that estimate so the longer it goes yeah I think I think the biggest

25:12thing is the trust in our leaders the trust in our institutions will get worse as to will the cost of living as especially if if we see you know something substantive in the straighter hormones and attacking the oil refineries and um in in that area it will reverberate through everything so yeah um it's an interesting question but I would say it wouldn't take much more of of this much longer for people to really get upset and feel like you know they've had it with with this agenda and I know I said it was the final question but I just want to follow up here because we are entering the midterms where if this continues we are certainly going to see a Democrat majority perhaps people will be so upset even notable right-wing influencer Nick Fuente is saying that if if anybody from the current administration's up for presidential election in 2028 he's voting Democrat the problem is that that side of the aisle isn't going to fix anything either they're

26:14going to go full-blown socialism and they're going to push things in that direction and I don't think anything is going to materially improve this two-party system doesn't seem to be working anymore would you agree with that? A thousand percent and uh you know let's not forget where we would have been had had the previous administration or or Harris won you're right and I mean I I I shuttered it to think what it would be like um yeah I guess we're left with with choices that you know maybe aren't as good as as as they once were but I think you get a guy like Marco Rubio running or um Ron DeSantis on the I think Marco Rubio has greater appeal even for maybe someone who's centrist on the left side um this this is a guy who seems to I think get it and he is his family

27:16where immigrants um he's someone who's a little bit more down the middle in my mind but you're right I I think the whole concept of of being down the middle of being centrist it just seems like it's one end or the other um I hate the divisiveness I really do um uh I guess we'll have well we'll have to see how it all plays out but you're right the midterms are very a very very important um for this administration um I just hope that we don't swing all the way back to the left side there has to be something instead of going far right far left there has to be something in the middle and um that's really what this this country needs because we're so divisive we're not Americans anymore we're left we're right we're blue we're red we're black we're white we're rich we're poor we're vaccinated we're not vaccinated it's enough already I think we forgot who we were and you know when I was a kid we were all Americans and you you weren't identified by who you voted for for the last election from the last election and you could have conversations without it

28:19turning viscerally angry or heated um I don't know I guess it's events like this it may be you called the fourth turning that they kind of kind of reset things and how close are we to that type of reset I don't know but yeah it'll be interesting to see how it plays out let's hope it's quick and let's hope that um the Iranian people are able to take over their own country and get away from any type of radicalization and uh make the world a safer better place I don't know is that uh is that hyperbole is that is that pie in this guy don't know but it's scary to think what this country would look like if we go full-blown socialist um we're already broken and solvent um got help us if that's the path we go down you'll see this country fought the standard of living in this country fall precipitously and these are things that are very difficult to get back once they start to cascade down that on that slippery slope some great thoughts today Andy why don't you tell us about miles Franklin precious metals and miles Franklin media uh miles Franklin media

29:22Michelle McCoria and I have been running that for about a year now and we're we're about 120,000 subscribers somehow out of nowhere and very very proud of what what we've built and our building and and have great people on you've been on our show have been on my show a little by little miles Franklin precious metals we are now um celebrating our 36 year in business ever had a customer complete material one ever in 36 years you can go to miles franklin.com and check us out if you're in North American would like our priceless which will be very difficult to beat uh that's info at miles franklin.com please let us know that you saw us on this show ask for the priceless or any questions you have we update the priceless twice a week if you find prices that are better let us know chances are we'll be able to match it or better it that's kind of our model and uh I always love coming on with you Jesse there are very few people who get it the way you do it's why I had you on my show after you know after being on your show a few times because you get it and you have the courage to sit to ask it to say it and I have much respect for you and

30:26always always love coming on your show so thank you very much and certainly look forward to picking up where we left off hopefully not too far down the road. Absolutely I'm going to put links in the description to miles franklin media as well as miles franklin precious metals as well as the email where you can reach out for that priceless and he always an honor having you on and absolutely we'll make sure to catch up again soon. They well just take it easy bud. Thank you for joining us today on commodity culture earn up to a 4% annual yield on your physical gold paid in gold ounces through monetary metals go to monetary dash metals.com slash commodity to find out how to put your gold to work for you link is in the show notes below.