Why Robert Kiyosaki Believes the Financial System Is Changing

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: While Robert is away, here are the biggest discussions on money, oil, gold, Bitcoin and the economic shifts changing our world. It's the financial system that's to blame and we have the opportunity to fix it. And I think if Bitcoin didn't exist, I would be the hugest gold bug. I really would. But I think that one of the reasons that we're here is because of some of the flaws in gold's properties in a digital world, in a world where we're really just connected economies across the world, it's very difficult to transfer and settle gold. You have to verify that it's actually there. I mean, has anyone audited Fort Knox, for example, right? You can't just send it across the world in a matter of seconds and have it actually settle. But with Bitcoin, you can. That's why I think it's a great comparison to say Bitcoin is like digital gold because it takes the properties that ultimately led to papering over gold, led to the fiat system. You know, oh, you know, just trust us. We have it in our reserves, but we're going to paper over it and obscure it. And now all of a sudden we're in this world of fractional reserve banking where you have no money actually backing our currency. Nothing of actual value. We don't have a gold standard. I think that's where things went really wrong. And unfortunately, I mean, we could take a step back and gold is certainly better than U.S. Treasuries and its properties, but we live in a digital world. So I think we need something digital as a form of capital and as a hard asset going forward. [00:01:35] Speaker 2: Well, I was looking at a true Bitcoiner. I have it all. I don't know why people, I mean, I started my own gold mine, you know, and I took it public and it's called capitalism. And I've made fricking millions off of it. So why don't everybody do that? I don't understand. So I talked to Bitcoiners and Bitcoiners don't invite me to their conferences because I own gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum. And I'm going, you don't have to make one right, other one wrong. Each one has a different value system. I'd be buying silver up to yin-yang. I own lots of silver. I started silver mines. And silver is going to make the biggest jump ever. So I'd rather play that than make gold or silver or Bitcoin or Ethereum right or wrong. I just play the game. So that's why every time I talk to Schiff, he was trying to sell me some gold cufflinks once. I'm going, give me a break, Peter. Gold cufflinks may be gold, but they're not liquid. You know, at least a Grugerrand is liquid. I can take gold and spend it anywhere. But I don't know why people make something right or wrong. Want to own it all. That's my point of view. So that's why I invited you on this program. Because you speak for a generation that's a lot younger than mine. And the boomers are in serious trouble. Because when this stock market crashes, the S&P 500 crashes, the retirements are shot. And not only what I've been saying, which I get, I'm not very popular for it, because these financial planners, if they say that's 60-40, 60% stocks, 40% bonds. I go, and the Japanese and Chinese are dumping our bonds. Wake up. You know, so that's why I'm very happy you're part of this program. And for the younger generation, I just ask people to keep an open mind. Each has a strength and a weakness. [00:03:29] Speaker 1: Well, the core theme in what you're saying is hard assets. You need to save in something that they cannot print and inflate away from you. Because that's what our world is based on. Which is a system, ultimately. I mean, if everything's built on debt, why not take out debt? You can leverage that debt. And that's how people have generated a lot of wealth for themselves. But the problem is, what if people are stopping to trust the debt that underlies everything, right? I think that we're moving from a world that relied on this one trusted reserve asset tied to a sovereign nation, which by the way, is an IOU, paper promises. We're moving from that to a world that increasingly prefers neutral settlement. Again, because trust really has broken down. And the system is getting more political and more fragile. [00:04:19] Speaker 2: Every time you print money, the rich get richer. And the poor and middle class get… So anyway, what advice do you have for old guys like me? [00:04:30] Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I certainly think that everyone should embrace Bitcoin. That's why I wrote this book. The first half, you might be surprised that despite this title, the first half is not even about Bitcoin at all. The first half is about why you need to own assets, what inflation really is, how the Federal Reserve Bank works, how the banks print money, and why we aren't able to save easily anymore. And why people complain today, right? They're working so hard, but they need three jobs and a side hustle to afford the house that the parents could afford on just one income. I think for a long time, markets behaved like capital and liquidity were the main constraints. But I think the constraints now are becoming physical again. They are commodities. They're energy. They're industrial capacity. They're supply chains. And those are the things you can't print. You can't print energy. That's what makes Bitcoin so great because it's backed by energy. And you can't print time. The time that it takes to make all the things that we actually need. You can make money out of thin air. And that's why I think hard assets are not just an inflation hedge. That's not the only story. They are really a geopolitical hedge and they're in necessity now. [00:05:42] Speaker 2: So Michael, as an oil man, how much oil is in Venezuela? [00:05:47] Speaker 3: Well, Robert, thanks for having me on the show today. And I think there's about 280 billion barrels to 300 billion barrels, which is probably the number one oil reserves in the world. I think out of the 14 fields that Venezuela has, about 11 of them still has over 50 to 60% of their remaining reserves. And so there's a lot of oil there to be produced as far as on that. It is a heavier crude. But the good thing about it is most of our refineries were set up originally to handle heavy crude. Because here in the United States, most of our oil is a very light crude. So they take that crude and they blend it with the heavy crude, which extends our reserves. So, you know, you can certainly see why Trump wanted to go after Venezuela, obviously going after the oil. And, you know, what better deal for Trump than try to control the most oil reserves in the world, right? [00:06:50] Speaker 2: So Michael, are you in line to take over to start drilling in Venezuela? [00:06:56] Speaker 3: Well, I have drilled in Argentina, you know, and I had a concession in Argentina, which we sold to Shell Oil back in the early 2000s. So I love doing business in South America. I have looked at some deals in Venezuela a long time ago. And so, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, there's a lot of opportunities there. So it just depends on, you know, what's going to happen with the government and what kind of assurities you're going to get, right? [00:07:24] Speaker 2: And how much truth do you think it is that Trump wants to cut the oil from China off, Venezuela to China? Is that possible or is that this rumor? [00:07:36] Speaker 3: Well, I think that's one of the main reasons why Trump wanted the oil in Venezuela. I mean, you know, he did something very similar with the, you know, with the canal and in Central America. And, uh, so he is trying to push, you know, China out of the, out of our continent. And, uh, and I think he has an ulterior motive about getting Cuba back as well. So, you know, I think he, uh, he, he's trying to control both sides of the, of the continent there. [00:08:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like I said, we shouldn't be laughing, but there's something entertaining about it. [00:08:19] Speaker 4: So let me ask you this. We have to take this in consideration. In 1920s, a key player was Exxon. ExxonMobil invested 767 millions of dollars in Venezuela. The money went into pipelines, refineries, and infrastructure. And then when Chavez took the power, he kicked off all the American companies and he steal all the oil. So this is a kind of payback. [00:08:50] Speaker ?: Yeah. [00:08:51] Speaker 2: And, and by the way, you know, it's, uh, what's war about is about oil. So it's always about the oil, right, Mike? [00:09:00] Speaker 3: That's correct. And in fact, you know, when Chavez took over, I think he kicked Conoco out and then Conoco sued, you know, the, the Venezuelan government and ended up with the Venezuelan government still owns Conoco over $8 billion. And, and that was one of the things they were talking about. So, you know, the Americans, you know, they've spent a lot of money. And when we here in the United States and in South America, especially in Venezuela. So I think we can ramp up production. They're pretty fast from what the president of Chevron was saying. They've been on the ground there. They're the only company that's been able to continue to operate there, but, uh, they're, they're saying that they can increase production by about 50% within the next couple of years. So, uh, there's some great opportunity in Venezuela and other parts of South America that, uh, I think this is just going to have a ripple effect. And Fernando can probably talk more about that than I can. But, uh, as far as for the oil business and in the U.S. and in South America. [00:10:06] Speaker 4: And also, also Mike, last week, this administration decided to invest in, in Peruvian Navy, one billion of dollars in the warships, modernizing the Navy base. So it's going to be amazing. It's not only, uh, Venezuela, it's also Peru, different countries where, uh, President Trump is recovering the Americas. Because we don't understand why Russia, Iran, Chinese people were inside Venezuela. This is South America. So, uh, President Trump make a strategic decision to get back to South America. It's part of the Americas leading that. [00:10:52] Speaker 2: And Iran is loaded with oil too, right, Mike? [00:10:55] Speaker 3: That's correct. I mean, I think they're the number three producers. So, and it's Trump. He's going to go after the one producer and the number three producer. [00:11:07] Speaker 2: Oil is the lifeblood of the economy. Without oil, there's no civilization. And I think, so we can laugh about all this stuff. But there seems to be a method to Trump's madness here. So Moses led people to the promised land, but there's no oil in it. [00:11:28] Speaker 5: Rich Dad just announced something that every American needs right now. The Rich Dad Wealth Kit. Three guides covering gold, silver, and wealth defense. Created by his sponsor, Priority Gold. And now he's giving it away free. Here's why he says it can't wait. Central banks around the world are buying gold at the fastest pace in history. The institutions that manage the world's money are quietly moving out of the dollars and in the gold. Inflation is still eating your purchasing power. The dollar share of global reserves just hit a two-decade low. And the government keeps spending money it doesn't have. Rich Dad has been warning about this for decades. Most people called him crazy. Nobody's calling him crazy now. His message has never changed. Cash is trash. Savers are losers. Convert paper into real assets before it's too late. Gold, silver. Things no government can print. Things no government can freeze overnight. Things that have outlasted every paper currency in history. Priority Gold didn't create this kit to sell something. Rich Dad asked him to create it because he believes what's coming will be the biggest wealth transfer in our lifetime. And he wants you to be on the right side. The Rich Dad Wealth Defense Kit includes everything you need to understand gold and silver. And how to move your IRA and 401k into real assets, tax and penalty free. Visit richdadlovesgold.com to claim your free kit. Again, that's richdadlovesgold.com or text GUIDE to 24999. The real question is this, when will you? Visit richdadlovesgold.com right now. Again, richdadlovesgold.com or text GUIDE to 24999. [00:13:26] Speaker 2: So here we are, 2026, we have this Hormuz incident hanging on there. Oil is driving the world again. Oil is fertilizer, everything. And our national debt is at an all-time high. And we're at war in one of the most critical areas of the world. [00:13:48] Speaker 6: When you were talking about oil earlier, it's in everything. And how do you get people to understand we're not just talking about gasoline. We're not just talking about diesel. We're talking about a whole range of products from plastics to aluminum, sulfuric acid. I mean, everything that you could think of is bound up with petroleum. And no one in this country really understands the gravity of the situation that we confront today, globally. The rest of the world is figuring it out. But we haven't figured it out. [00:14:18] Speaker 2: Yeah, the biggest thing, in my opinion, is fertilizer. You know, that grows food. And if that, you know, prices are high enough as it is, without loss of... [00:14:31] Speaker 6: Well, I was talking to some friends in India, and I concluded that we are in the process of reversing the green revolution right now. If this drags on, and I think it's going to drag on for a few more weeks, it's going to take us years to recover from the damage we've inflicted on ourselves. We're going to face famine in many parts of the world. [00:14:49] Speaker 2: I want to ask you a question because we're at... And I'm also an oil guy. So I use a lot of money to buy oil in America, in North Dakota and Texas. So here we are, 2026. Again, we're stuck in Hormuz. And again, the issue seems like oil. [00:15:10] Speaker 6: I would argue there's no reason for war between the United States and Iran at all. Just as a side note, and this will be of interest to you, given your background. When General George Marshall met for the first time with the British Imperial General Staff after Pearl Harbor, this would have been in January, February timeframe of 1942, they met to coordinate efforts, obviously, since we were now in the war. The British were always anxious to get us into their wars, and they'd gotten us into the second one. And he walked in, I think, with a dozen men. And the British walked in with 50 or 60. The British were carrying suitcases with charts and maps. They laid them out on the table globally. And they pointed to everything that they wanted to control when the war ended. That included all of the oil, all of the harbors and all of the countries that had oil. And then it also included coal mines. And of course, not surprisingly, iron. Everything that makes us a modern civilization that contributes to our prosperity. They had identified all of it. We walked in with nothing. Because we were there to "beat the Germans and the Japanese." That was it. That's been our problem for a long time. And when you look at Iran right now, we're so busy trying to make Israel great again at the expense of the American people, by fulfilling the wish list of Mr. Netanyahu and those who work with him. Then we've lost sight of what's really in the American national interest. And we've lost sight, once again, of the criticality of doing business and avoiding war. We used to think war was destructive. Wars freed inflation. I don't care where you go, what you do, and how long you fight. You breed inflation. It comes with a package. So people, I thought, had learned, let's not get into this sort of thing. You know, but we've done it. And I think right now, if you said, what's the purpose of the war? The answer would be, we're going to destroy Iran. Well, what happened to regime change? Well, that didn't work. Okay. Well, no regime change. And what about the air and missile campaign for three weeks? Well, they were supposed to collapse. That didn't work. So now what are you going to do? Well, we've got to destroy them. We've got to bring them to their knees. Really? And how does that help us? And oh, by the way, Iran is not alone. Iran has Russian friends and Chinese friends. And I would argue more friends than that. And every day they have more friends. And now our so-called partners in Europe are finally waking up and discovering that they don't have to be vassal states anymore. They don't have to do everything we tell them. And they figured out there's nothing for us to win down in the Persian Gulf. What they want to do is get the Gulf operating again and do business. But we don't seem to want to do that. I think the Zionist billionaires who ensured that Donald Trump won his re-election the second time around are demanding war. Everybody right now is saying, well, you know, gas prices are up a little bit, but we have a lot of gas here so we don't have to worry. They don't understand oil is a fungible commodity. Just because you think you've got more of it than other people do doesn't mean it's going to get cheaper. I'm sure the boys in West Texas are happy and a few other places. But let's, let's be frank. The American consumer is screwed. It's going to be seven or $8 a gallon pretty soon. And if you live in Germany, you're already paying $11 a gallon. And the Irish, you know, look at Ireland. It's kind of the canary in the coal mine. It's a little island. The Irish there have no more diesel. They can't run the diesel. This is just a disaster on a scale we can't imagine. And then it's back to what you were saying. What about all the other products? We're talking about industries shutting down. Seems when we're in financial trouble, we go to war. [00:19:31] Speaker 2: How close to world war are we? We have China. It's already begun. We're there right now, right? Yep. [00:19:37] Speaker 7: It's begun. There's going to be a. I tell everybody, Google up Franklin Roosevelt seizes Japanese assets. Just Google it up. You'll get history today. On July 24th, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt sees all Japanese assets in America. You know why? Those dirty Japanese invaded French Indochina. You mean Laos, Cambodian, Vietnam? Are you calling it French Indochina? Well, we're in 26 other countries too. We're in Algeria, Morocco. And along again, you could Google it up. History today, mainstream magazine. Remember the great depressions going on. The great depression. The Dutch East Indies and the UK, United Kingdom. Dutch East Indies. What the hell are the Dutch doing in Indonesia? Oh, the same thing with the brush. Sun never sets on the British Empire. Stealing everything. The United States, the Dutch and the English cut off three quarters of Japanese trade. They stole their money and cut off 88% of their imported oil. They only import 98%. Okay. They had no oil. You cut off their trade and you stole their money. I can't understand why they bombed Pearl Harbor a couple of months later. [00:20:59] Speaker 2: Right. So, Gerald, let's get up present time. What's going to happen? That's what we want to know. Because right now, the biggest secret being held is people are dumping bonds to buy gold. Yep. Nobody's talking about that. Yep. And these financial planners are telling everybody, oh, buy bonds because they're safe. Well, Japan and China's dumping our bonds. Yep. And they're buying gold. [00:21:24] Speaker 7: What do you know about that? You're 100% correct. I say World War III has already begun. And I'm concerned about nuclear because there's that thing called the Samson option where Israel says if they lose, they go nuclear. And they have between 200 to 400 nuclear warheads. [00:21:44] Speaker 2: So, how does a person protect themselves? I say, like, as soon as I understood what you were saying, I said, okay, I spent a million dollars to buy oil in North Dakota. And when the price of oil went up, I get richer. That sounds mercenary. But it's better than being a victim. So, if you're sitting in North Dakota right now, and they're bombing, you know, out there in Iran, and China, you know, China is not our friend, definitely. And Russia is not our friend. Russia is the gas station of the world. What does an American do sitting in North Dakota? [00:22:25] Speaker 7: Again, what I suggest is what you're saying. You know, you buy the futures. And again, gold and silver to me are very, very good. And oil prices are just going to keep spiking if this war keeps going on. And again, they say one thing and another thing happens. And they're doing it, to me, by the facts, to keep oil prices down as low as they can. And the market's going up, but they're not going to work. [00:22:55] Speaker 2: So, if you're the trans guy, what do you see over the horizon? What's coming next? We already took out Maduro in Venezuela. We have a Marxist as city mayor of New York, Mondami. We have a Marxist governor of Arizona, and jobs are leaving the governor of California. They're leaving in droves to go to Florida. People are just running from Marxism all over the world. What do you see happening? Because that's how I see it. Because I'm a former U.S. Marine, went to military school. I don't see it as good. I see we're at war big time all over the world. [00:23:41] Speaker 7: How are we going to pay for it? Again, we're not. And that's what it's going to bring down. That's what I'm saying. The death of the dollar is coming. We became the United Kingdom by fighting these wars and keeping it going, rather investing in the country. And again, I got to tell you, everywhere I drive, potholes everywhere. The bridges are rotten. We have to rebuild our nation. That's the way you rebuild the economy. And to me, that's not what's happening. [00:24:12] Speaker 2: And the payment on our national debt is more than we spend on war. I mean, we're the biggest debtor nation going. What recommendation do you have for the average guy sitting in North Dakota? What do you do? [00:24:25] Speaker 7: Again, why you say guns gold in the getaway plan? But again, what you're doing is you're telling the people exactly the right way with oil. And again, we don't give financial advice, but gold and silver to us are the ways to go. This thing is just going to keep getting worse. [00:24:49] Speaker 8: This capitalism was an economic system where dollars were backed by gold, and the government had very little involvement in the economy. It worked by market forces. The heyday of capitalism was back in the 19th century, before World War I. But after World War I, Europe went off the gold standard temporarily. That created a global credit bubble that blew up in 1930. The Great Depression then led to World War II. World War II, 60 million people died. But at the end of World War II, we ended up with the Bretton Woods system, with the dollar as a global reserve currency. And the dollar was pegged to gold. And that lasted from 1945 up until 1971. And then at that time, Nixon broke the link between dollars and gold. And we started evolving into a different kind of economic system. Capitalism became corrupted. And rather than the economic system, capitalism, which was driven by saving and investment, our economic system evolved into something entirely different. I call it creditism. Because creditism is driven not by saving and investment, but by credit creation and consumption. More credit creation and more consumption. It requires more and more credit to be created year after year to keep this U.S. and global bubble growing. And any time the bubble starts to contract even a little, the policymakers do everything in their power to reflate it. You're creating even more money and taking on even more government debt. So just since 2008, the government's debt has increased from $9 trillion to $38 trillion, $39 trillion just in 17 years. And that's been driving the economy ever since then. So capitalism became corrupted and turned into a different kind of economic system that's entirely dependent on ever greater amounts of credit being created. Even before the war began, the central banks around the world were becoming increasingly desperate to move out of dollars and into gold. And that was one of the main reasons that gold appreciated so rapidly over the last couple of years. Had always seen the United States as more or less a reliable trading partner. They certainly want to sell their goods in the United States. But when they do, they get paid in dollars. So they've accumulated trillions of dollars. But now, with President Trump wants to reverse globalization. He wants to put up trade. He has put up trade tariffs. And he's started invading countries around the world. This is causing all the other countries of the world who own very large amounts of dollars to be extremely uncomfortable with their dollar holdings. So they're attempting as quickly as they possibly can to move from their dollar holdings into gold holdings. And this is very likely to continue. We've seen a big correction in gold prices over the last two or three weeks. But I would imagine over the long run, as I said at the beginning, the dollar has lost 93% of its value since the dollar crisis was published in 2003. I suppose it'll lose another 93% of its value over the next 25 years as well, if not sooner. [00:28:24] Speaker 2: And if confidence goes out of the dollar in Asia, what do you see is going to happen? I mean, they're going to start dumping the dollar. If they dump the dollar, what I've heard, I'm not an economist like you, if they start saying we don't want your dollar anymore, doesn't that cause inflation back in America? [00:28:46] Speaker 8: If they were to stop taking dollars, that would mean that they would have to stop selling things to the United States because when they sell things to the United States, they get paid in dollars. So they still want to sell things to the United States because their economies still depend on export-led growth. So they have to keep selling things to the United States and therefore they will continue to keep receiving dollars. But once they get the dollars, they're going to try to sell them and get some other hard asset like gold or really any other hard asset. But the thing is, just because the people's Bank of China, if they sell their dollars, the dollars don't just disappear, someone else owns the dollars. So once these dollars have gone out into the global economy, they're there. But the more dollars the Fed creates and the less confidence other countries have in the U.S., the more likely the dollar is to lose value against gold in particular and silver and other assets. [00:29:58] Speaker 2: What do you see happening in the rest of the world? Because everybody's on oil. Everybody uses oil. [00:30:03] Speaker 8: Now in Thailand, there are long lines at the gas stations, just like there were in the U.S. in the 1970s. People are lining up for oil because there's just not enough oil here. And as the price of oil goes higher, that means everyone will have less money to buy other things. So there'll be less consumption of all other things. And this is going to put a lot of downward pressure on the economy, most likely lead to a global recession. If this war carries on very much longer, and perhaps already. [00:30:37] Speaker 1: This podcast is a presentation of Rich Dad Media Network.