Fixing Government Waste | Mike Fuljenz

Transcript:

Rebecca Weber: Hello everyone. I’m Rebecca Weber, and today I am honored to have back with me an industry leader and America’s gold expert, Mike Gins. Mike is a respected community leader in his hometown of Beaumont, Texas and beyond, and is a frequent guest on local and national business and personal finance programs.

Mike Fuljenz has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger’s, L. A. Times, and other broadcasts, print, and online news media. Mike, welcome back to Better for America. It’s always great to have you with me.

Dr Mike Fuljenz: so glad to be here and so proud of all the good work people at AMAC with you and their leadership do.

Rebecca Weber: thank you for that, Mike. Mike, as a Texan, what are your expectations for Trump’s day one border policies and how might they reshape Texas really unique cultural and economic landscape? what’s the feel there in Texas?

Dr Mike Fuljenz: a couple weeks ago, I was at a, the Republican chair of, Southeast Texas home.

With, six couples with, governor Abbott for a dinner. And we had a chance to talk with Greg Abbott. Greg was our, attorney general before he became our governor. And I worked with him on consumer alerts in our field of precious metals, as I have with Ken Paxton, our current attorney general, Greg had talked to me about not joining the Trump administration.

If asked, he said, there’s more to do in Texas. Because of the border and getting ahold of the border. And he looked forward to working with president Trump because they’ve worked very well together and on securing the border. Greg’s barbed wire was just approved in court that the feds who were taking it down couldn’t remove it.

And, I think in Texas, the border situation will get better. Greg had talked about, Governor Abbott had talked about how the flow of, migrants has decreased. recently in Texas compared to other states because of all his efforts here. And, I think he and president Trump will work seamlessly together.

Rebecca Weber: I know that’s why a lot of people showed up and turned out and voted, for Donald Trump. they’re concerned about safety and crime and all of that, which we know the drug trafficking, the human trafficking, it is a number one issue for so many Americans. another issue very important to AMAC members is the economy.

And one thing I wanted to talk a little bit about is this debate. about retiring the penny. Now, some of our listeners may not be, familiar with this debate and it’s been going on for quite, quite a long time, decades, actually. But there are arguments about cost savings and efficiency at the forefront.

So you’ve got some expertise here. What do you think are the biggest hurdles in convincing Congress and the public to let go of the penny? Why should we let go of the penny, and how might it address those, hurdles really, and, bring meaningful change as it relates to cutting government waste?

Dr Mike Fuljenz: excellent question, and with the work by Vivaac and Elon with Doge, I think it’s a Joni Ernst, Senator Ernst came out and it was like number seven in her list of things that should be done. And she’s a little bit controversial in Republican circles, but she’s not wrong on that, going back, a dozen years, I spoke at world’s fair of money.

Conventions on this and wrote even in major magazines nationally on getting rid of it over a dozen years ago. It’s a bipartisan issue. President Obama’s has said it should be removed. a previous democratic, mint director, Philip deal said it should be removed. A Republican mint director, Ed Moy said it should be removed.

The, other people who have looked at it, professors from Wake Forest, from an economic standpoint, said it makes no sense. I know people are tied to it, but only 18 percent of transactions are with cash. These days, most of it is non cash. We pay 3 and 7 cents to make a penny. The government loses 2 and 7 cents each, and we make 5 to 6 billion a year.

We’re losing a hundred million a year producing pennies. And then you’ve got all the employees, about 40 to 50 percent of the men’s employees make pennies with benefits and everything that goes with it. I know Abraham Lincoln will still be on the 5 bill. We will have, people are not using for charities, collecting pennies and bring him to the church or Organization.

I don’t think it’ll hurt charities very much. And, you can go down the list of reasons to or not. One of the biggest reasons brought up is it will hurt the poor because of rounding what happened in Canada back in 2012 when they eliminated the penny. Is you round and you round up to the nearest nickel or 10 cents.

And, as the professor of wake forest came out and said, it doesn’t show an economic impact because the rounding is done equally. I think that the penny with a number of countries like Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Sweden, many countries have gone to eliminate it. And we’ve eliminated lower denomination coins.

In the past, the 2 cent piece, the half cent, the 3 cent piece, the 20 cent piece. This is not unusual. They will not be demonetized. You can bring them to the bank or another institution and turn in your pennies for nickels, dimes, quarters, or whatever you want. So we should do it. And it’s one of the things over a 10 year period.

And Washington likes to say a 10 year period, we would save a billion dollars. So you can start right there and there’s bipartisan support. I’m sure Elon and VVAC will find many other things. Thanks. But this is like a lay down. It needs congressional approval, but I think it’s one that can get congressional approval and we can go with.

Rebecca Weber: It’s a really interesting topic and one that I’d love to poll our members on. I’d love to hear people’s comments on the elimination of the penny. I think there are good arguments that make a lot of common sense. In the way of, it’s time to retire the penny, but, Dan Weber, our founder, he had a great idea.

He had a penny plan that was really aimed at reducing our national debt. our national debt is over 34 trillion dollars. Are you confident that DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon and Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Do you think that they will be effective at slashing government spending?

Because we understand that Congress is the one who has to act now. So what are your thoughts there? But if you think that they’re going to be successful, as many of our members do, what do you think their first priority should be?

Dr Mike Fuljenz: I think they’ll look at a list of things. we’ve been seeing things appear on various Mostly conservative of things we waste on studies or I saw a chart on what we give to nations around the world compared to every other nation.

And we’ve got to be careful in a billion dollars for some other nations. When we’ve got people in North Carolina that don’t have FEMA trailers right now. It’s we’ve got to take care of our own and then we can help with those around the world. We need to look at the people we have in America who are struggling.

And I think that’s one of the mandates Trump got. And why he got such a high percentage of minority voters who looked at and said, we’re here, we’re paying taxes. We’re volunteering in the community and you’re giving a lot of money to people who are not doing the same thing or who are not doing what we’re doing.

So I think they’re going to look at how they can help Americans who are here and who are citizens. And I think that’s an important component. I think they’ll go down the list and they’re both important. Credibly bright people and they’ll find the areas that we spend the most money on. Cause the penny thing is a billion dollars over 10 years.

There’s a lot more money to find in other areas. That’s just one that I think they can get a lot of support on, but the amount we give to up foreign countries in various forms of aids to reevaluate to NATO, to other areas, and then we’ve got to grow the economy. And I think cutting back on regulations, opening up, being able to sell natural gas, in our area, Texas, Louisiana, natural gas is a huge component of the economy and oil and getting the permits and getting the oil out of the ground and all the people who service that industry.

We have large clients who don’t pump the oil, but they provide the equipment to people who do it and their businesses have been hurt. I think the drill baby drill part will happen. They need to be considered to the environment when they do it, but it will lower gas prices, which will help with delivery of food prices and a lot of other things.

And I think it will make us, the most energy independent, nation and can help with the economy and grow our GDP. I, but the key is, not overspending and giving away money in the amounts we’ve done over the previous administration. Yeah,

Rebecca Weber: and I do think that it would be, wise for, Vivek and, Elon Musk to really engage with the American people on their initiatives, because if we can get buy in from the American people, and AMAC action will be following very closely, what the new administration is doing and really tracking their progress over the first 100 days.

And we’ll be publishing information on our website at amac. us. So we’ll be holding government accountable. We’ll be asking for all AMAC members to participate in our weekly polls and our calls to action so that we can get the majority of Americans. That are behind these smart policies to reduce this government overreach, this ridiculous red tape that’s really strangling, entrepreneurship at its heart and the free enterprise system.

We have got to make sure that the department of government efficiency delivers on its promise. And we know that is in place because of Donald J. Trump’s vision for the future of America. I just encourage people, all of you who are out there listening, that you do. Thank you. Frequently visit us back at amac.

us because it is about we the people mike. It’s about the american people and that’s how drumpson office and it’s a mandate as you said it is a mandate and the issue of Economy and people who are struggling is real There are people who I speak to I just heard this morning of a young couple who can’t afford to do a stay at home vacation because they just they don’t have the money to You put extra fuel in their car to take their kids, to, out for some fun.

this is real stuff. and people are struggling, especially American seniors. So we’re committed here at AMAC. Thank you, Mike. I, very passionate about, what the new administration is going to be doing. now many of our members, they’re trying to hedge against inflation, and you’ve recommended buying gold during price dips, especially with falling prices after the Republicans sweep.

How do you advise investors to really time their purchases effectively? there’s a lot of market volatility that people are worried about. Go ahead.

Dr Mike Fuljenz: I think they should just be adding periodically to their portfolio up to 25 percent of their investment portfolio. 5 to 25%, whatever they’re comfortable with.

This year, gold started at 2, 062. Now it’s 2715. As we talk up 35 today, it did dip under 26. Like you were saying, president Trump being elected and now it’s gone up. Silver started the year at 2385 and it’s up over 32. And Bank of America says, buy gold city says, buy gold Goldman Sachs says, buy gold and it’s going to go to 3000 or higher silver.

The London bullion market, analysts met dozens of analysts and thought silver is going to be up 40%. I think metals are going to keep rising. And gold’s up 830 percent since the year 2000. That’s just, it’s something over time that holds its value against the dollar. And it’s up even more in weaker currency terms.

So I think it’s something you just keep adding to your portfolio in modest amounts, but so you have that portion. You can do it in your IRAs. We have lots of customers who put it in their IRAs too.

Rebecca Weber: What key factors are really driving this bullish outlook?

Dr Mike Fuljenz: I think part of the factors are the concerns of the wars in Israel with Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel and Iran.

And with the, Russia and Ukraine, but I think Trump will, I’m optimistic that Trump will make that better in what ways and what timeline, who knows, but I think we’re already seeing some sense that between what Netanyahu has been doing in Israel and in what Trump’s, has been talking about and how things have been looked at.

We may get past that, but the bottom line is there’s a lot of countries around the world that China’s buying gold. Other countries are buying gold because they’re concerned about their currency, so they want to back it up. So there’s a lot of central bank demand. That’s the number one thing central banks are looking and saying, we need to bolster our reserves with gold.

So the central bank buying. For their reserves and, uncertainty around the world has been driving gold prices.

Rebecca Weber: I’ve read recently an article that they found gold in China. I think it was 12 miles deep. Can you shed some light on that and what that might mean for the gold industry? I saw an article on

Dr Mike Fuljenz: that and I saw another article on gold somewhere else, that they found, but it takes a while to bring a mine, to where it can be, the gold can come up.

It takes a while. And, Hey, good. We need more gold. There are more gold buyers with it going up. It’s like you, you want more gold. if it’s in China, China loves gold and Asians love gold. And they’re some of the biggest buyers nationwide. So we’ll see. And there’s a lot of nations wanting to bolster their currency by buying gold around the world.

Record central bank buying the last couple of years.

Rebecca Weber: Very good. for all of you out there listening, if you love gold and you want to buy gold, be sure to go to amac. us. Check out the unique relationship that we have with First Fidelity Reserve. They’ve been supporting AMAC members for over 10 years.

and it’s important. I think we want to leave people with this note. This is not an infomercial, but you. I often do to talk about AMAC member benefits because we do a lot of work vetting the people we work with. And Mike, you’ve said it before. People need to be very careful about who they’re getting their precious metals from.

What should people look out for before they make a purchase and work with somebody? What are some ways that they can be protected against scammers?

Dr Mike Fuljenz: year round, I say there’s no Santa Claus in numismatics. If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. You’re not going to buy gold or silver below spot.

The dealer’s got to make some money on it. you want to look to make sure they’re a member of leading organizations. like the American numismatic Association, the professional numismatist guild, you want to make how long they’ve been in business. have they won any awards? You want to see that their key people are respected in the industry.

And, if they’re not, then, or you should ask them what recognition you have that you have. So much peer respect, it isn’t worth losing that by having a misstep or so. that’s what I look at doing. I worked with the Attorney General of Texas, like I said earlier, Ken Paxton, to write the consumer alert for Texans, and I worked with FTC a couple decades ago on their consumer alert.

So you want to find someone who is recognized in the industry. I see a lot of commercials on TV, and none of the people I see in those commercials have ever won one award in the industry or on one board in the industry of leading organizations. Now, some organizations, all you need is a heartbeat and a check and that’s it.

And you want to know there’s peer respect. And so do they have materials that have won awards when they tell you good things about gold? like Missouri, the show me state, show me where others respect what you’re writing is the question to ask.

Rebecca Weber: Excellent. Really good advice. Mike Fuljenz, you are so respected.

Really a true expert. We always appreciate your insights and feedback. Mike, thanks for being with me and I look forward to having you back with me in the coming months.

Dr Mike Fuljenz: Always. And I’m going to send you the article on, the penny so you can give your members all the pros and cons in that article and some funny things like, Penny Marshall really was named after pennies.

Rebecca Weber: There you go. I sure do. I sure do. We’ll get that up on amac. us. Be sure to check us out. Make sure you join or renew with amac at amac. us. We’ve got some great specials going on. To all of you out there, I wish you a joyous holiday, a very merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, be safe, and thank you for being with me.

Until next time, I’m Rebecca Weber. Have a wonderful day.